#this is the problem with uploading as you go. you can't really change the old stuff without it being awkward

[hehe-hoho-ohno]

*head in hands*

I've played myself. I was going to make a joke, but it doesn't work because it contradicts information in a previous chapter........

[genericpuff]

💣💥💣💥💣

so with Episode 67 finally posted and the dust settled, I wanted to share some funny behind-the-scenes stuff with you all.

Clip Studio is a great piece of software, it's what allows Banshriek and I to work on the same episode together via cloud-syncing (it's a function called "Teamworks" in the app) but it's also... kind of garbage sometimes. Without getting too much into it, CSP has a bottleneck issue with how it predominantly uses CPU rather than the graphics card in a computer. And considering it's literally graphics software, yeah, you can probably figure out pretty quickly with the most bare minimum of computer knowledge why this is a problem that's really silly for it to have LOL

ANYWAYS. This has been known to cause problems between Banshriek and I when trying to complete an episode. Problems that - often enough for me to tell you stories about it - result in us having to essentially "rebuild" the episode we're working on. This doesn't necessarily mean having to redraw anything (thankfully that doesn't happen very often) but it usually goes down something like this:

1.) The software suddenly has an issue syncing our changes which results in either conflicted files that can't update, software crashes that refuse to load pages, updates not even going through, or taking WAY too long to update to the point that we'd rather just rebuild and work on the episode independently and then swap the files and layers when it's time for the other person to do their part.

2.) I have to inform Banshriek that Clip Studio crashed again, and in the event that I can't get back into page editing because of the aforementioned issues ^^^ they immediately get to backing up their most recent version of the file that's stored on their computer. Thankfully a lot of the time these versions are pretty up to date, but it's still a moment of tension every single time because these crashes don't always happen the same way every time.

3.) Using the backup version, a new .cmc file (the file that contains every page for each episode, it's the thing that lets you make pages for comics in the software!) is created by whoever has access to the pages without issue (usually Banshriek is the one who's able to do it, this has become a very one-sided problem LMAO) and then is sent to me so that I can upload it to the cloud to replace the old version. This file is then usually called something like "Episode#BACKUP" to distinguish between both versions as we usually still have the older versions downloaded as well.

4.) Work (hopefully) continues as normal. Though it's definitely caused setbacks, so far our survival rate is still 100% 😆

This happens at least every other episode. It's become rare to go a whole episode without having to go through this process. We're still trying to figure out what we can do to avoid it, but we've tried a bunch of other options (and Banshriek has created some test episodes using pages from completed episodes that crashed for the sake of experimenting) and so far it's still a struggle understanding what exactly is going wrong with Clip Studio and it's syncing features. Fortunately, Banshriek and I are both auDHD enough that we're gonna obsess over it until we figure it out LMAO but until then, we're constantly having to treat Clip Studio like a live snake that's trying to wrangle itself out of our hands 💀😆

And the most recent episode? Episode 67, which ran a week and a day late? It set a new personal best for number of backups, because we had to rebuild it not just once, but TWICE.

What we've noticed is that sometimes you can barely make a change to an episode and these crashes still happen, as if major changes have been made. So far the best hypothesis Banshriek has come up with regarding this observation is that the software struggles more to update changes that affect overall pixel count and appearance - stuff like moving canvases, flipping canvases, adding on textured layers (which is what we do at the end of making each page) , etc. that covers a lot of pixels at a time, even if it's only changing the hues / colors slightly, seems to cause the most problems.

During the production of Episode 67, the following plagues came to pass:

Our car exploded

Our cat nearly exploded (btw! for anyone wondering from my last post about him, he's doing better now!)

Our toilet pipes froze twice (and exploded once)

Democracy in the U.S. exploded

My husband's wisdom teeth were exploding so the last 3 of them were removed all at once

The files for Episode 67 exploded twice and had to be rebuilt just to keep it on life support (by the end of the episode we were literally sending files back and forth via Google Drive like peasants 😔 /hj)

The most non-explosive thing to happen was the tattoo shop I work at moving locations up the street, and even then, I came very close to exploding a few times during that process LMAO (and our debit machine just exploded so we're cash only for the next few days sksksks)

This episode was probably our most cursed yet, and frankly, it couldn't be more fitting, I think Dionysus himself had a hand in our madness, just for the sake of being on theme with this episode. And the worst part, we haven't even gotten into the truly chaotic stuff yet. All Dionysus has done so far is slam Hades' head into a table, he's barely gotten started. Dionysus only knows what Episode 68 has in store for me and Banshriek as well 😭💀

[thelongestway]

All right, peeps. This story has finished off my brain, and I really need to actually focus on work for a while. So. You are getting a victory lap today. Two more chapters, which mean that ding-dong, the draft is done!

Without further ado...

Chapter 44: Upload

By the time Dandelion and Aspen got back from their trip, Aspen carrying a brand-new name with them (the Vivacious, which all of Thiago's informants agreed was a nice proper Arborea Cosmica ship name, and disagreed on why exactly it had been a problem to take it before Aspen ever left dock), Seth had considered ART's proposal and decided that PSUMNT would make the offer. So after Aspen had settled in with a local maintenance crew who would be putting the name on their hull and registry, Seth sent them an invitation to a small conference aboard ART.

"Dr. Vivacious," Seth said as Aspen's human avatar walked through the doors to ART's crew lounge. "Welcome aboard."

In the feed, I could see Aspen read Seth's little pause before their new name and grin, satisfied. Out loud, they cheerfully said, "Thank you for having me!" as they settled into a chair opposite Seth. Their eyes ran across ART's crew, who were all present, and they added, "I have to say, I'm very curious what this is all about."

"I'm going to have to begin with something of an apology," Seth said sheepishly. "Perihelion overheard a private conversation between you and SecUnit, and brought it to my attention, because it thought it was important enough to do so."

Aspen glanced up and gave a quiet little snort.

"Is this going to be another one of your… Interventions, Perihelion?"

"Yes," ART said. "And you will like it."

"Vaguely threatening, but all right," Aspen muttered, rolling their eyes. "All right, Captain Seth. Go on, please."

Despite rehearsing this conversation for the entire prior evening, Seth still stumbled over the words.

"Perihelion told us that you had an old crew member that's presently in chronostasis."

He gulped, because even though Aspen's expression barely changed, they focused on him so sharply that the whiplash made even Iris take a step back. (And she was used to ART's shenanigans.)

"I do." Aspen said in the silence. "Why?"

"And that said crew member was in chronostasis, because their last will and testament involved holding them in chronostasis until the technology was there to fully upload a human mind into a machine existence."

Aspen didn't answer. They just nodded to indicate a "keep going."

"Well. On behalf of the Pan-System University of Mihira and New Tideland, I am authorized to inform you that this technology does, in fact, exist. The results of its use were used to prototype Perihelion's older relatives--the first generation of PSUMNT AIs. It does come with a number of cave--"

Seth shut up. Because Aspen's human avatar flickered as they extended their hand, aimed slightly upwards.

"Journals. Monographs. Research notes. Everything you can give me. Now."

Radiating smug satisfaction, ART dumped a veritable mountain of data on them. And if they were slower at chewing through it than when they had been the station, I really couldn't tell the difference at my level, because seconds later they opened a broad connection to Dandelion and yelled, You have got to come see this! And get Iceblink, too!

I'm here, Dandelion said, alert and ready. What's going on?

It says--they say--Dandelion, I think Tal actually made it, Aspen's human avatar swallowed, like they were gulping down tears. I think ke made it. I can't believe this.

She nodded, unruffled.

I actually wouldn't get my hopes up just yet. Let's go through the data first, and as Iceblink connected into the workspace, Dandelion began sifting through the pile of papers and offloading some of them to her.

And even Iceblink didn't have to look at the topic very long with her human processing speed to understand what was happening.

no rotting way. seriously?

That's what we're here to find out, Dandelion said.

Iceblink gave her little salute and dove into the data.

Okay, Aspen said, breathing out heavily. Okay. If anyone has any misgivings, I want to hear about them now.

I looked at their hopeful human face. Saw them all but vibrate in the feed. And I hated, really hated, that I was going to say this. But I was looking at the papers as they processed them, and knew I had to.

Yeah. I've got one.

Aspen didn't stop their frantic feed activity (they could read research papers and listen at the same time), but they did give a full twenty percent of their processing power.

The PSUMNT technology isn't an upload. It's a rebuilding of a vegetative human's mind into a machine. It's not going to be them. It's going to be a different person, with their memories.

That didn't perturb Aspen for one second.

We'd considered a Ship of Theseus scenario before ke went under. That was an explicit yes.

I really wasn't going to be parsing their weird Arborean metaphors right now.

You don't understand, I said. (And felt an emotion bleed from me into the feed. I hated that. But I also couldn't do anything about it.)

You must listen to it, ART said forcefully, rising in the feed from behind me. This procedure was suggested at my behest, and I am in full agreement with SecUnit. Before you attempt it, you must be aware what you are attempting.

At that, Aspen stopped all of their processing, and so did Dandelion and Iceblink.

All right, Aspen said, taking another deep breath. We're listening. Please help us understand.

So I spoke.

First, your sleeping human isn't going to survive this, right? If they do this, they open the pod, and then ke dies. You know that. But I thought I needed to say it anyway, because it's easy to forget that.

I saw Dandelion give me an appreciative tap, and Aspen nodded. Iceblink looked very sad, and hid behind another journal article that she pretended to be reading.

Okay. We got that. But second. I said this already, but I didn't understand what it meant before I went through it, so I'm saying it again, and I'm giving you logs to match.

They were listening, and I took a pause for emphasis.

That is not going to be a copy of Tal.

Another pause.

If your procedure succeeds, it's going to be its own person. Because the PSUMNT researchers will need to add code to it so it goes live, and also because it's not going to have organics anymore.

They were all staring at me, and they clearly didn't understand, so I just sent them my logs about 2.0 and disconnected. In our private workspace, ART and I leaned against each other.

We told them, right? I said. There's not anything else we can do.

Yes, it said, unusually solemn. I believe this is a good idea. But they need to know what they are getting themselves into.

Can they even know? I asked.

ART just squeezed me tighter in the feed. Out loud, it said to Seth: "Do not be alarmed. The Trellians are processing."

"It has to be a lot," Seth agreed. "We'll wait."

Almost thirty minutes later, after everyone except Aspen had time to get starchy foods and stimulant beverages, Aspen invited me and ART back into their feed. Dandelion and Iceblink were still there, feeling very somber.

Aspen tried to speak. And failed. Before trying again, they sent me an appreciative tap, and then managed, Taproot and stars. SecUnit. That puts things in perspective.

Yeah. I couldn't say anything much either. So I just sent them a tap back.

ART spoke instead of me. We are glad you have taken our data seriously. What did you decide?

Aspen curled around Dandelion and around Iceblink like they were a weirdly mobile figure-of-eight and said, The same. Because Tal didn't think ke would be surviving chronostasis, and in all of our conversations, I didn't get the sense ke ever thought ke'd be surviving a potential upload either. But ke wanted to be a part of it. Ke wanted to try. So whether it's kem that wakes up, or a new person with kes memories--it doesn't matter. Because either way, it's exactly what ke would have wanted. We're doing this.

Then the Pan-System University of Mihira and New Tideland will help, ART said, squeezing my inputs. And so will we.

Even without a full connection, I could almost feel Iceblink swallow.

wow. i mean. oof. wow, she paused, and then resumed typing. i'm gonna tell captain Reed that we're going to PSUMNT together with Aspen, not just sticking around at Preservation, right, Dandelion? i know Maize isn't a node ship, but i guess you both are going to be connected to kem at shutdown, and--

Yes, we are, Dandelion answered in an uncharacteristically soft voice. But I don't think I'm the right person for what you're suggesting.

what? you're joking. you're Courageous emergency crew! who the heck else would it be?

Someone who's spent every shore leave for the last eighteen years visiting kem and telling kem the news?

Iceblink froze. Then she poked at Aspen. Quietly. Who briefly curled around her in the feed, then dropped logs on her. It was statistics.

You've been there for Tal for decades, they said encouragingly. You should join me.

i. i. sorry everyone i am going to go have an emotion about this. Iceblink said and disconnected.

Aspen looked out the window to give the Tenacious a fond smile, and then unfroze their avatar, which had been staring at the stars blankly for at the entire duration of their processing, and turned to Seth.

"Captain Seth? I can't express to you how grateful I--how grateful we all--are for the offer. And our answer is yes. Let's do this."

[kinopioa]

It's fascinating seeing people go "I miss the wild west era of the internet" and then learn they were born in 2003

Like fuck off. By the time you're 6 it was dead. The cutoff is around 06/7, and even that's debateable to have ended earlier

If we're being brutally honest-

1993-1998: True Wild West. Not much could happen due to limited tech, but it was completely unmonitored. I'm honestly surprised to find archives of old chats on Google

1998: The Coppa act is established, further taking effect in 2000. This made people aware that kids can access the internet. Teens barely gave a shit, though it made corporations more aware of them, and how to consider them for a market. It also unfortunately promoted age fraud to access barred login sites

1999-2005/6: User oriented era. This is when a lot of custom sites, blogs, and forums popped up, as well as many image hosting sites that are sadly defunct now. Google being a popular search engine further encouraged discovering these user made sites. Contrary to popular belief, user sites were mostly made and "moderated" by edgy kids and teens, so you WILL see the opinion of a 14yr old. Incidentally, due to domains being expensive, a lot of these teen made forums and personal sites died extremely fast, ignoring raids, doxxing, and flamewars

Video sharing while possible also was really crappy for quality...except for

User created flash games and anims enabled a massive spread of content. Newgrounds was a popular hosting spot. Shame Flash died

Outside that, we least we got bbphp as a solid forum template be popularized after many other ones died. For those less tech savvy, in 2003

We got social media. This was the main goto till smartphones and Twitter got popularized after 2006, and still was going strong until mid 2010s. Despite older netiquette of being encouraged to not post anything indentifiable about yourself, many users expressed themselves with music tastes and eventual personal blogs

2005/6: YouTube is released, as well as Dailymotion. Bootlegged Newgrounds anims popped up for uploads, but also shared tv show clips

Fun thing, before mid 2010s, users can only upload at max 15min of video

Similarly around 2005, Reddit similarly sparked up. More modern image hosting sites spurred around 2007/8

~~~

But regardless, the public internet already changed massively after 2000. Web 2.0 was already a term from 1999 that described the change, with it being redefined for it occuring around 2004. I think one thing not noticed, the development of this tech mostly happened in the UK, due to general smaller population and faster telocommunication services compared to the US at the time. This similar impacted the type of audience that used this

I see people longing for a freer internet, and I agree online corporate control is shitty. But the dretches of humanity has severely stunted user diversity and interest, same with over prioritizing skill over general good collaboration and behavior. The modern tech bro absolutely not giving a shit for the userbase or societal problems and being very selfish can unfortunately be traced here. Same for rsmpant political misinformation being unmoderated, and early 90s fandom woes still having a negative impact on some franchises

I see dumbass self censoring like "unalive" on sites, and it's not even enforced. It's just stupid assumption that advertisors care so much

Which brings the question, why are we trying to heavily get into monetizing expression? I genuinely feel Ytube enabling users to do so is exactly why user content got obnoxious after 2013 when it got popular. Unfortunately it's way too late to undo that. Many rely on the monetizing

Though I find it funny when people ignore just...making their own site to bypass the censorship. bbphp again is open source, and there are many other online web creation tools. I can't even say the rise of tech illiteracy is why, tech illiterate people aren't the ones complaining of sites crapping out

Anyway, if you miss pre algorithm search engines results leading to you finding random shit, try this;

Unfortunately the reducing of child safe sites is another convo

[zodiactalks]

These 6 Zodiac Signs Can't Get Over Their Ex

Let's face it; getting over an ex is never easy.

Whether it as an amicable breakup or a bad one, it's easy to get hung up on all the good –and the bad– things that happened during the relationship.

You wonder what you did wrong, what your ex did wrong, and you think and think about all the things you could've done differently.

Even when you think you're over your ex, a song comes up, or your ex's favorite movie, and you're once again thinking about them, idealizing the good things about your relationship and ignoring the bad ones.

Yup, we've all been there.

That's because it happens to all of us; we all get hung-up on our exes for a while, but the following signs?

They take it to a whole new level.

#1. Cancer

Cancer's attitude towards a breakup changes a lot depending on who did the breaking.

If Cancer did it, chances are they'll move on quickly, as they weren't particularly invested in the relationship in the first place.

If their partner did it? Oh boy.

They're the typical ex that idealizes their previous relationship, conveniently ignoring the bad things that happened and magnifying the right things, no matter how rare.

That'd be bad enough on its own, but Cancer takes it one step further by comparing their new partners with their idealized version of their ex, which can cause all kinds of problems.

#2. Taurus

We all know that Tauruses are stubborn. That's old news.

What you may not have known is that, behind their bullish attitude and their claims that they're over their ex, they aren't.

They won't show their heartache publicly, choosing instead to mope in secret until they manage to get over the entire thing.

A Taurus may try their hardest to convince you that they're over their ex, but chances are that, when it comes, that closure will take them a lot longer than they'll claim it did.

#3. Libra

It's hard to meet a Libra that isn't hung up on one ex or another.

They're the typical facebook stalker, checking out their ex's social media accounts "out of curiosity" and sharing the news with their friends, only to get defensive if asked why they're not over their ex.

Libras are naturally curious, and a bit on the obsessive side, but when it comes to an ex, particularly an ex that broke up with them, they can go straight into cyberstalking.

Even Libras who have mostly gotten over their ex can find themselves idly browsing the profile of one of their own flames.

So what if it's been fifteen years since the breakup? Your ex wouldn't have uploaded that if they didn't want you to see.

#4. Virgos

Virgos tend to get hung-up on a variety of things.

Overthinker supremes, this sign is known for taking small affronts and musing about them until they've blown it out of proportion over the course of hours, days, or even weeks.

Does that sound like someone who can get over their ex easily?

Virgos won't mope or cry; they'll get angry, if not downright bitter.

They'll take every problem they had with their ex, magnify it and share the dirty details with anyone foolish enough to listen.

That stranger who tells you everything about their crazy ex in the elevator?

Probably a Virgo.

#5. Pisces

The thing with Pisces is that they just can't let go of things. Often literally.

This is the kind of person who will have a "memento box," full of little memories from past relationships, which they like to revisit every now and then.

Those reminders don't make moving on any easier, and it's not uncommon for Pisces individuals to have trouble getting over several flames at the same time.

#6. Scorpio

To put it simply, Scorpios tend to hold grudges.

Behind their tough exterior lays a soft and sensitive heart that feels strongly, so a breakup can really hurt them, and Scorpios tend to return the favor.

Hundreds of happy photos with their new partner, taking vacations to their ex's dream spot, moving to the house they both planned to buy at some point.

Heck, revenge bodies were practically invented by Scorpio.

[theresnoturningback]

YEAR ONE - MORNING FISHING

A/N: As I was writing this, I noticed I was getting to 2K and for me (as a reader) that's too much, so I tend to upload short bits so it's not so boring. I finally could write a little more Sam and how he interacts with Dahlia. I don't think it's a secret they feel drawn to each other. Only time will tell how that goes.

Word count: 1209

Dahlia was never bored with her life at her new farm, despite how tough it was to manage it. There were always different things to do every day. When weeding and clearing rocks made her too weak to continue with her chores, she’d go back to her cottage and turn on the Queen of Sauce and write down a new recipe to learn it another day. Other days, she’d focus completely on her growing crops.

Once per week, she would dedicate her morning entirely to practicing her fishing skills. A man named Willy gave her an old bamboo rod during her first week and taught her the basics. It certainly had a learning curve, but Dahlia’s easy-going nature helped her take fishing as an opportunity to relax.

During one of those early mornings, she was fishing in the river while sitting under a tree, when she saw Sam walking by.

“Hey, Sam” She waved to him

“Hey, Dal, how’s it going?” He responded as he walked closer to her.

“It’s a slow morning, can't complain” She shrugged nonchalantly “What are you up to?”

“Oh, I was just taking some fresh air before breakfast” He turned and pointed to a two-story house nearby “That’s my place right there”

Dahlia looked at the blue wooden building. A big timon above the door completed the beautiful front adorned with delicate pink climbing roses. The more she looked at it, the more details she found and ended up being taken by the idyllic picture.

“Wow…This is just incredible. I’ve walked by this place so many times and I’ve never stopped to see its beauty”

“Heh, I know, it’s really something. My mom works hard to keep it like this. She never says it, but she takes great pride on her roses” Sam explained as he sat next to his friend.

“I take it from nautical theme that your dad is a sailor?” She guessed. He slowly shook his head with a weak, almost mournful smile.

“Nah, my dad’s a soldier. He’s fighting the Gotoro Empire, that’s why he’s not here” He turned to Dahlia. His smile hadn’t changed, but his eyes showed hope “He’ll come back someday”

“I see…” She smiled back at him and gave him a reassuring pat on his arm “I’d love to meet your dad when he comes back. I bet he’ll have amazing stories to tell”

He chuckled, a bit impressed that a single gesture and her friendly grin managed to lift his spirits.

“Thanks Dal” he said while he absentmindedly rubbed his fingertips and clutching his left hand.

“What’s wrong with your hand?” She said, noticing some redness in his fingertips.

“Oh this? Last night I practiced guitar for four hours straight. My fingers hurt like crazy”

“That so?” She raised her eyebrows “I didn’t know you played… Have you tried stretching before playing?”

“Not really, I just play. Once I get in the zone, I forget about everything else”

“I get that is a passion, but you still have to take some precautions, so it doesn’t turn into torture. Maybe I could teach you some exercises, so pain isn’t a problem anymore”

Sam looked at her rod with the reel still the water “I don’t know, I wouldn’t want to interrupt you”

“Nah, it’s okay. Nothing was biting anyway” She reeled back and put the rod on the ground “Here, give me your hand”

Sam put out his hand. Dahlia started softly pressing his palm, going from the wrist to his fingertips

“If you do this before and after playing, you’ll see you’ll have less pain…” She explained, too focused on pressing and stretching to notice his discreet winces

“How do you know all this?” He asked to deviate his attention from the pain to literally anything else

“My dad used to take me to piano lessons… I hated it, my teacher was so boring but he knew a lot. Now that I don’t play anymore, I kinda miss it” She moved her gaze from his hand to his face only to notice it was burning red. Amused, she let out a giggle and gave his hands a last gentle squeeze “All done”

Sam was frozen. Neither of them dared to let go. He opened his mouth, unsure of what to say.

“Bye, I’ve got something to do” He blurted out before standing up and running back to his house, leaving her sitting under the tree.

She looked at her fishing rod and decided to try once more, relying on her newfound confidence. At least one fish bit this morning, she thought with pride.

Around 4PM, Dahlia was getting ready to give the mines a try. She was preparing everything for her task when she saw a familiar figure at the entrance.

“Hi, Sam. Forgot something?” She greeted from a distance as he walked to her.

“I—uh, I think I left without a proper excuse. Honestly, I don’t know what came over me. I’m very sorry. It was rude of me”

“Don’t sweat it, I figured you had something burning in the oven” She giggled

“Speaking of, I had this idea, but if you’re too busy, then, maybe—”

“Spit it already”

“Would you like to come to my house tomorrow? We could have breakfast and maybe walk around town after…I mean if you like”

Dahlia raised her eyebrows, but was quick to disguise her excitement

“I think it’s a lovely idea”

“Awesome. Tomorrow at 10 AM. My mom will be in her aerobics class and my little brother will be with his teacher.”

“So, you’re saying… we’ll be alone?”

He nodded confidently before realizing the implication of that setting.

 “I mean—we could not, uh, do that and just walk around, maybe go to Seb’s…”

“No, no. I’ll be there. 10 AM sharp”

“Cool” He noticed she was all geared up and ready to leave her farm “I won’t steal any more of your time. See you tomorrow”

He gave her a quick peck on the cheek and left running, as he did earlier.

She wanted to ask him to walk with her to the mountains but seeing him leave in such a haste made her realize he was way more nervous than her about their growing friendship and decided to give him space.

----

On her way to the mines, she tried thinking about something else that wasn’t Sam, but his face appeared from time to time in her mind. After an hour of breaking rocks and killing bugs, she gave up. With a tired sigh, she decided to cut her labor short and head for a quick shower and a cup of tea.

She trusted her feet to guide her back home, since she was too busy drifting away back to Sam’s. In her mind, he was still standing there. The beautiful blue front contrasted with his blond hair. His eyes smiled along with his mouth, and she could swear she heard his laughter echoing softly in the distance. She didn’t even dare to pretend she didn’t like him. She tried to find something, anything that she didn’t like about him but just like her mining, it was a lost cause.

Before she could notice, she stumbled upon the steps to her house.

[crescents-monster-corner]

Why do I?: Chapter 2

(A/N):

I'm not dead!!! But my old computer is!! Fortunately, I now have a brand new PC so I should not have any computer problems moving forward. Thanks so much for all the love on chapter one, I really appreciate it!!! I apologize that it took so long for chapter 2 to come out! But I just started the final semester of my senior year of college!!! I don't really have a defined upload schedule but I want to try and have a turnaround time of around one month for each chapter, though that is not gonna be set in stone. In between chapters I want to post art for the fic on my Tumblr side blog (which you can find here: https://www.tumblr.com/crescents-monster-corner ) I may also post stuff like little tidbits that I can't figure out where to put in the actual fic. Next up I'm going to be drawing all the EKO gals, as they're going to appear in chapter 3!!

AO3 (Link)

“Listen I know that because you’re not a scaring major you’re a little skeptical about joining EKO. But I know that they asked you for a reason!” Lily encouraged, clutching her friend's hands in front of her tightly.

“You’re scared to go in alone aren’t you?” Rosa deadpanned, looking Lily dead in the eye.

The purple monster nervously tugged at her collar, her eyes darting around nervously. She let out a nervous chuckle. “Maaaayyyybeeee?”

Rosa sighed shaking her head. “Y’know it’s a wonder you’ve made it as far as you have with these social skills of yours.” Her lower hands rested on her hips like a disappointed mother.

Suddenly a voice called out from the front doorway of the sorority house. “Hey! Are you two gonna stand there all day? Or are you coming in!?” The two girls jumped at the sound, turning their heads to see a fish monster with pale green scales leaning against the doorframe impatiently.

“Oh! Right away!” Lily called, jogging inside. Rosa let out an exasperated sigh before following her in.

The inside of the house was a lot nicer than any of the dorms. Lily had not had a chance to examine it the night prior considering the massive party. But from how clean the house looked as she stepped in, one would not have even known the party had ever happened.

It was surprisingly cozy despite how large the house itself was. The smooth wooden floor was a smooth maple, which complimented the sea salt grey of the walls. There was a long plush rug leading down the hall from the entryway.

Lily looked over to the left of the entryway, seeing Thalia lounging on a couch with her feet propped up on a coffee table. She casually waved over to them. “Ladies! Welcome! Have a seat.” She gestured to the couch across from her. 

Lily sank onto the suede couch. Her hands rested stiffly on her lap as she did her best to keep the straight posture she had been practicing. Rosa took her seat far more casually.

“I’m glad to see you’ve decided to consider my offer. I haven’t seen too many girls this year that I considered worthy of recruiting for our sisterhood.” Thalia began, putting her feet down as she leaned forward, pyramiding her hands.

“You see, I’ve become determined to net EKO a win in the scare games before I graduate, and this year is my last shot. We have been consistently getting second place the last three years, but we have always just barely lost to ROR.” Her face scrunched in disgust at the mention of the fraternity.

“So I felt that we needed both a change in strategy and a real heavy hitter.” As she made the statement she gestured to Rosa and then to Lily. “Something the RORs will never see coming.

Rosa cautiously raised a hand. “I’m not entirely following. I’m not exactly sure how I fit into this? I’m majoring in psychology, not scaring. I don’t really see how I can be of much use.” She nervously rubbed the back of her head.

“Psychology, I figured something like that based on your people skills.” Thalia nodded. “You’re exactly what we need. We need someone who can read the others well enough to inform our strategy for the games, someone who can get inside their heads.” Thalia tapped her temple to emphasize her point.

“Lily here’s job is much simpler. You’re our dark horse, a heavy hitter they won’t see coming. You’re especially important this year, because I’ve heard this year's crop of freshmen are especially talented, there’s even someone from a very important family pledging.”

Lily swallowed nervously. No pressure! She looked over to Rosa for emotional support, but the moth monster was deep in thought about what Thalia had told her.

“I know it’s a lot to ask of you two, especially as freshmen, so I won’t fault you for refusing my offer to join. But if you do, you can become a part of MU’s scaring legacy.”

Rosa looked up at Lily, a determined sparkle in her eyes. All at once, Lily’s nerves washed away as she nodded to her with a smile. They turned to look at Thalia. “We’re in!”.

Despite their excitement to begin sorority life, new entries into EKO would not fully move in and be initiated until the end of the first semester. So for the bulk of the fall semester, their job would simply be to hone their scaring and lie low until after finals.

Going unnoticed came easily enough to Lily, she was never the type to initiate a conversation with strangers or raise her hand much in class. She had always been more of the only speak when spoken to type unless it came to people she liked.

When her face was not buried in her Scaring 101 textbook, which she had read cover to cover at least 5 times by that point. She was tutoring Rosa on the basics of scaring, fortunately, Rosa would not have to take any sort of exam like Lily did, so she could focus on just learning the physical act of scaring rather than having to memorize all the different techniques and phobias.

If cramming did have an upside, it was that it can be difficult to notice how fast time passes by. One day the leaves had just begun to turn orange for autumn, the next a thin layer of snow blanketed the ground as the beginning of winter also heralded the end of the semester, and with it the scaring final.

Lily paced around the dorm room like a caged animal, her side of the room looked as though a tornado had passed through, if a tornado was named Lily Blake.

“Where the hell is it!?” She cried as she lifted her bed as if checking under it for the third time would magically make her missing textbook appear.

Rosa watched from the doorway, hat and mittens already on to brave the cold outside. She froze for a second before grabbing Lily by the shoulders, her other hands reaching into the unzipped messenger bag hanging off of her friend’s shoulder. She plucked the textbook in question from its place in Lily’s bag, making her eyes widen even more before sighing in relief.

“Take a deep breath and clear your head Lil’.” Rosa soothed, gently shaking her. “I know this final is a big deal but you’re gonna crush it! You could probably recite this entire overpriced textbook to me by this point. What have you got to worry about?”

“What if… when I get up on that stage in front of the entire class, I just can’t do it… What if I just freeze up, and fail?” Lily looked down at her feet. “It’ll just prove my dad right… That I’m not cut out for this… I can’t work in the restaurant my whole life, I just can’t.”

Rosa gave her a sympathetic look. “The only person on this campus who doesn’t believe in you is yourself. I know you’re gonna go in there and scare the pants off everyone, and then you’re gonna kill it at the scare games! Don’t worry about your old man! He hasn’t seen what you can do!”

Lily wiped away the tears that had been welling in her eyes before pulling Rosa into a tight hug. “Thank you, Rosa…” Her voice was muffled by the fluff on the monster’s shoulders.

The lecture hall was packed to the brim with anxious monsters fretting about the exam that for many, would determine whether or not they were truly cut out to be a scarer.

But Johnny was not worried one bit. He had always known he was cut out to be, not just a scarer, but the best scarer. He was a Worthington, it was what was expected of him, just like his father, and his grandfather before him.

Despite his natural talent, he still saw no harm in brushing up on his techniques by skimming through his textbook again until he was called up to the front, which would not be a while since they were going in alphabetical order by last name.

Javier sat next to him, looking over some flash cards. Over the past few months, the two had become good friends and had a mutual respect for each other's talents.

The insect monster occasionally glanced over to the front row on the other half of the room. Johnny followed his gaze to see a purple monster pouring over her textbook like it was a matter of life or death, her knee bouncing nervously as her red gaze rapidly scanned over page after page.

“You got interesting taste man.” Johnny teased, jabbing Javier with his elbow.

Javier rolled his eyes before explaining. “Nah, man. She’s a friend of my cousin Rosa. She asked me to keep an eye on her 'cause she’s a bit…” Javier struggled to think of a word for it. 

“Wimpy?” Johnny added. Making Javier shake his head.

“That’s a bit strong, no she’s… different. I guess that best describes her?”

Johnny looked back over at her again scoffing. “Well if she gets this nervous just from a simulator she’ll never be able to handle the real thing. But hey, that’s what this test is for. Weeding out monsters who can’t make the cut. She’ll probably switch majors or something after this.”

“Blake!” Professor Knight called.

‘That name sounds familiar…’ Johnny thought to himself 

The girl sat up straight closing her textbook and skittering over to the stairs leading up to the stage as the simulator reset for the next test. She nervously flapped her large clawed hands, as if it could magically shake the fear out of her.

She stood in front of the simulator, her large eyes wincing under the bright spotlight.

The professor looked from the file on the table in front of him. “I am a 7-year-old boy in a manor in the English countryside with a fear of ghosts, what scare do you use?”

“That would be a haunting approach with a banshee screech.” She answered, a waver in her voice.

“Demonstrate.”

She went over to the door of the simulator, giving herself one last shake-off before grabbing the doorknob. 

As the student entered the room it was as if some sort of switch had been flipped. Every step she took was calculated as she nimbly stepped around the toys scattered across the floor. She crouched at the foot of the bed, pressing her left foot down at just the right spot on the ground to make the floorboard creak. The robotic child’s eyes opened, but it remained lying in the bed.

Next, she brushed the end of her tail across the bottom of a curtain, letting out a whispery sigh as she crawled to the side of the bed, just out of sight as the dummy sat.

The student sprung up and let out a high-pitched screech so loud most of the class clutched their ears. Johnny’s ears were left ringing as he stared in wide-eyed shock, the memory of the party from the beginning of the semester flashed through his thoughts. Professor Knight’s glasses were knocked askew in surprise before he quickly fixed them, looking up at the canister meter next to the simulator to see it full.

“G-grades will be posted outside my office tomorrow.” Knight stuttered. 

The girl bowed her head in thanks before quickly leaving the stage, grabbing her things, and darting out the door.

The professor quickly recovered from his shock and called the next student up.

Johnny leaned over to Javier. “Did you know she could do that?” He whisper-yelled. 

“No fucking way man!” Javier replied in the same hushed volume.

How did a scarer as good as that not set off Johnny’s radar earlier in the semester? He had always made it his business to associate himself with the best scarers on campus, but she had been right under his nose for months.

How interesting!

[jennis-space]

Accountability Post Jan 11, 2025

I've been thinking a lot about ends of things, including ends of lives and ends of civilizations. In a year, I will have outlived my grandmother, should I be so lucky. In four, I will outlive my mother. Both died young of illness. My grandmother of breast cancer, and my mother of pneumonia exacerbated by tobacco and alcohol.

I spent the last years of my childhood on the Central Coast of California, and my oldest son was born at UCLA Harbor in Los Angeles. I have friends I've known for decades who are being affected by the fires, including my birth partner and his wife, two of my longest and dearest friends. Change is inevitable and can be terrifying. My main goal for this year is to focus on helping others to navigate change as a way to manage my anxiety about that same change. There are a lot of things we can't control about the world, but when we're lucky we can manage our responses to the things we can't control. I've been using Finch App to help with motivation and staying on task, and so far its working to the point where I've exercised 9 times in the last 11 days, I'm doing minor but forgettable tasks more frequently, and I've made my bed in the morning 11 days running. It's basically a Tamagotchi that can't die and is tied to intelligent, flexible prompts for self care, time management, and reminder systems. It's cute, simple, engaging, and everything you *really* need is free, though FOMO will likely get you and make you want the paid version after playing with it for a bit. I'm gonna miss TikTok if it goes away, but more importantly I'm going to miss having a semi-effective semi-democracy. I've returned to the subject of homelessness over and over again in my writing and life choices over the years, and with the recent rise in homeless and impending exacerbation of the problem, it's not likely I'm going to stop paying attention. All that to say I've got a fairly busy paperwork day scheduled today. My goals are to finish up some overdue progress notes, write an article about SURJ and other important organizations in the direct action and mutual aid spaces, upload one of my old articles from my earlier website that I have saved on my hard drive, take a shower, watch a movie, and make some postcards to send to people I love. So a busy paperwork day. Plus exercise. I think today will be a strength and flexibility day, not a cardio day. Gratitudes: I am grateful for my best friend who I've been married to for 27 years and change now. I am grateful for the spaces online where I can congregate with friends. I am grateful for Lofi Girl, whose music is tickling my brain this morning and helping me get motivated.

[the-firebird69]

We're going to start these kids but of the one in the foreground and on purpose and my husband says that kid has to be metal and mid engine and I know why it's extremely fast and has to be all high performance. Lots of times they would use some kind of sports car to make this car a reality. They're really aren't any mid-engine sports cars that people would do that too. Several cars would do one of the Mercedes and it's a coupe another 500 horsepower for the kid like this they're estimates that it will go 800 miles an hour with the original tires suspension and exhaust and top end some say more like 950 keep me in mind it's a metal hole kit and the tires and rims don't match up. The fact that you can change the tires and rims. Change out the tires the suspension the rims the top end and exhaust and the motor of most of the Mercedes type coupes is pretty decent metal and high performance now add high performance kit and it's pretty damn near the original top speed of 3000 no it's about 6,000 mph on the ground and the original is about 8,000 mph and yeah the whole is titanium alloy the one that sure you drove however that one does not have speed kits in the top speed of that one is about 1200 miles an hour if you made it into a fly car $25,000 miles an hour and a maximum due to the hull you change the material it's about a 300K it's not the fastest but it's the most maneuverable

If we make the panels out of metal people can upgrade it to titanium alloy or other metals including the 300K version because they're just bolt up. And he's laughing they're saying to be in the speed shop and is they're making jokes and it didn't work but it really didn't go real fast with this stuff.

We're going to try a whole bunch of ideas to get car kits going and this is going to be one of them because of their insults and we're going to try and get the warlock leaders to accept it and people like Ben Arnold he can't seem to get one and people say he has one and he's saying no and mac daddy can't get one let me know how to build it and he had Sherry take a whole bunch of pictures and she brought them home and uploaded them and sent them to stand and and said it's a 3,000 mph car if you don't know how to use the fin as you pull it up with 8,000 miles an hour and with the right Hull at 300K and she said that's ridiculous and it handles like madness and it's like mig and it's kind of my design. Going to proceed and we have several that are a lot less painted really the other last cooler and heat and we mean that they're easier to get out there the coyote x is one of them and a lot of people like it you know how to do it and you don't have to make a portable factory but people are going to do that and it'll probably start doing it cuz that's why they're using it but you know it's simply having people make the kit sort of

Right now there's probably five people know probably about 5 million we're trying to modify the Bradley GT1 to be the person to sell it and they're doing what he said they get their old Bradley and they're putting it on to a new VW and they practically fit perfectly and they're modifying the interior of course and they're modifying the body to try and make it fit and work and most of them find the front end to be a problem that the engine does not fit and you need to change the hood and he said you should make it mid-engine and they're saying how and you need an axle on the on the rear and they don't have those no they do the there's a whole bunch of Volkswagens that have it and you can buy them tons of those rear axles are being bought and it will be a mid-engine there's not a lot of room for it but they shoehorn it in and it makes it faster about 20 miles an hour no 40 and they got the stats earlier and they noticed it and they're doing it that way that's one reason why they're going to do it and they wanted to look like a real supercar so they're going to do it up and they're going to wide body it and we're going to see a whole bunch of people try and get these and we are witnessing about 40 of them doing it

Thor Freya

Olympus

It's a huge deal and we can't track everybody but we see that some of them are actually doing it

Macs

[rxinrxinxx]

Ruin ❃ She/her ❃ Bi ❃ 30 ❃ Virgo

Ruin's not my real name but I prefer this way.

Mistress of being delulu 24/7. I'm here to share with all of you my creations but I'm shy. Give me some time please ❥.

I started this blog ‘cause writing is a hobby that I’ve always had and although I’ve been without doing it for several years —or writing less than I used to— the last six months of my life have brought a total change in my life that has led me to take up old habits like watching anime and my head has changed. Completely exploited. I need to get it out of me and I don't know why I should share it, but if you enjoy it half as much as I do writing it, I'm already happy.

Right now I'm very, very into One Piece, although something related to Naruto, Jujutsu Kaisen or Trigun Stampede may also come out (and maybe something from Nana, I'll go wherever inspiration takes me).

𝑹𝒖𝒍𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒈

—❃ Respect, always. I come here to disconnect from the problems of reality, so I don't want to find new problems. If you don't like what you see on my blog you can block me and we're both still happy.

—❃ This blog's in English but that’s not my first language, so please be gentle if you wanna correct me —I’ll be glad for learning though—

—❃ This blog's gonna share and upload things with adult content, so it's a blog for people over 18. MDNI.

—❃ Everything I write will have an OC that I’ll always try to describe as little as possible.  Personally, I don't like using the term y/n for my own creations—I love the concept, I fully support whoever uses it, I read it and enjoy it, but when writing it personally prefer to use other terms—so it's possible that some OC’s end up with a name or being called she or by nicknames.

—❃ Normally it will be fem!OC because I can't avoid a little bit of self insert in each story /sorrynotsorry.

—❃ Wanna try writting in first or second person so that way I could make gnOC fics, but this will be in the future.

Right now I have an absolute obsession with the Donquixote brothers which I'm trying to develop in a couple of projects, but the two of them live in my head 24/7.

I also have a strange fixation on Shanks.

Sanji and Bartolomeo are in the oven and more ideas that I hope to bring soon.

But also, in the future I would like to dedicate a few words to: Buggy, Crocodile, Smoker, Robin, Shakky, Law, Sabo —and Suguru, Toji, Satoru, Nanami, Naruto, Kakashi, Itachi, Vash, Nai, Nicholas Wolfwood.

𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝑰'𝒍𝒍 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕

Pedophilia. Under any concept. Just like I won't write about characters who are minors at their current point in the story.

My ask is open for you to ask or request whatever you want. Of course, I'll accept those requests that really inspire me and want to carry out, I'll not force myself to write things that I don't want or not feeling at the moment.

𝑸𝒖𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒌𝒔

TAGLIST | ALL | FANFICTION | ONESHOT

[notacatdown]

i locked the reblogs for now because i cant finish it until i get out of tumblr image upload limit jail. :-(

Oh! I'll wait until you're done next time. I was wondering why only ep4's rewatch was locked.

"i didnt read the novel at all. im not really a novel reader, esp as far as dramas go, "and typically with book to tv translations theres always things that change, so i dont like to set myself up for disappointment LOL."

That's true. I miss the days of Bu Bu Jing Xin (2011) and Nirvana in Fire (2015) when novels were faithfully adapted. Or, in a more extreme case like The Dreamer in the Spring Boudoir (novel title)/Romance of a Twin Flower (drama title), the drama only kept the characters' names. I was so hopeful that the drama wouldn't mess up the story's ending because the novel title has dream in it and its not a real book transmigration. Baffled why they spent the effort and money to buy the drama adaptation rights.

"and even the beginning when the kids bump into him and he dusts off the kid's shoulder or whatever"

Oh, I interpreted that as he saw the kid with his sister, and it reminded him of him and Mu Yao.

"they dont show miaomiaos nightmares in the drama, only when she has a memory of how the original novel goes."

Ty!

"she really repeatedly shows off omnipotence without thinking about it, which does fit how i see her character. i mean, to miaomiao, this is like roleplaying. she doesnt take it seriously for another several episodes (around ep 12? before they go to the imperial capital".

Sort of related, it seem weird that she's not curious why Mu Yao accuses Liu Fuyi of stealing the map and that he doesn't deny it in ep 12. Miaomiao once knew the plot of Fu Zhou's novel in the drama, but the audience only gets told up to ep 5. In a typical book transmigration story, the readers are told what happened in the original timeline, so we can appreciate how the protagonist's actions change the plot. I think Miaomiao's memory loss only detracts from the drama.

I've seen the comment that Miaomiao has to lose her memory because her knowledge of the storyline would make her too powerful, but that's been solved by countless transmigration novels.

1) Plot inevitably diverges because of her actions, so her knowledge becomes less useful or even harmful*,

2) She knows what the characters will originally do it, but not why they do it and this gap in knowledge causes problems once the story deviates, and

3) the good-old, she didn't read the middle part of the story carefully because it got boring, so she only knows parts of the story.

*The novel's author uses the system to do something interesting with this trend. I was very hopeful the drama might use some form of this idea when I saw ep 13, but there was no follow up.

you put what i was thinking into words, i couldnt think of it at the time; hes touch-starved! so yes, her holding his hand, and even when she hugged him after being scared of the dust demons, he hesitates cause he isnt doing that on the daily at ALL. it like hard resets his brain, i fucking love seeing it, cause it happens a LOT the next few episodes (hehehehehe i cant wait to write them.)

Its so sweet how he's freezes. In the novel, there are so many instances of this even after they get married. For example, she holds his hands in hers and half-hugs him to teach him to pinch the dumplings. She's confused why its taking him so long to learn when he's usually a fast learner. He's so flustered that she's touching him that he can't focus. Poor Mu Sheng.

i think the hand holding/love confession is also one of my favorite scenes!!! im also a big fan of ep 8 when he, for some stupid (affectionate) reason, goes to catch the TINIEST water droplet off her hair, and shes like "huh? wait... i can do something REALLY cute right now" and puts her cheek in his hand, and god bless the fucking directors/editors, you can HEAR ziqi take in a breath/gasp.

That moment in ep 8 was perfection! I feel that was the moment that audience fell in love with Miaomiao. How did his favorability stay at 20%? I love that it was balanced by the bittersweetness of him hugging her goodbye to place the talisman.

It was so fun seeing embellished novel scenes and how they got adjusted to fix the new storyline in the early episodes!

I wish the drama continued doing that. After episode 8, the drama still uses scenes from the novel, but only fragments of them and the emotional growth and change aspect is removed from them. Its like you're calling someone, but you only get voicemail prompt. And by ep 20, its completely gone. Ep 26 to 28's plotlines are inspired from novel, but no re-enacted scenes.

Sort of related, do you think there was there a period when they were friends? Since the drama shows hugs in lieu of kiss and adds bubbles/fireworks/other CGI to the scenes, I feel like Miaomiao and Mu Sheng went from enemies to seeing each other in a romantic light.

In the novel, Mu Sheng went from thinking nothing of it when Miaomiao followed him to his room at night and taking his robe off to treat his chest wounds to freaking out when he finds her sitting on his bed and waiting to talk to him, so there's a clear point in time when he likes her as a friend, but doesn't see her in a romantic light.

"a thought just came to me, which ill probably reiterate in my own post of ep 6, but because hes so curious about this other world (and surely he feels some sort of connection to it maybe? in a way), is he entertaining the possibility of some sort of universe travel? demon or otherwise? i dont know, i just considered that right now, as it being a reason for why he doesnt press so hard about certain matters."

That would be cool.

im also a bit partial because i like how miaomiao says "physical affection can increase the percentage right?" and chooses flicking his forehead as the option? shes insane for that, and its hilarious, and then goes on to say how shes also never dated before, which adds up. i have much to say about it, which ill write in my dedicated ep 6 post LOL.

Hmm, it was fun to watch at the time, but I don't like how C-dramas make women in their 20's act so childish (not referring to Esther's age, but Miaomiao's character age), especially how Miaomiao acts like Cuicui's playmate/nanny in the group scenes in the last third of the drama.

Even if she's never dated before, surely she must have seen romance dramas or seen couples in real life. The drama made Miaomiao older than her novel counterpart and has her acting more immature. It would be more fitting if Miaomiao was in high school or even remained a college senior. I think there is a qualitative change in how people think once they're employed full-time.

i kind of wish the heart lake thing was a little bit more... explained? it doesnt seem to really have a big affect on anything but it is a bit jarring when it comes up and we're just supposed to assume whats going on.

Agree. I started skipping the drama after ep 27, so I'm not sure what was mentioned about charm demons. In the novel, a charm demon's soul will split into a positive side (charm demon) and a negative side (resentful demon) if she's heartbroken, and then those two sides compete for control. And Mu Sheng, who is the son of a charm demon and has a mutated power because he's half demon, had his soul was split at birth.

So, my wild fan theory was that if the lotus ever turns completely black in the drama, that dark side has seized control.

Sort of related, it was so fun seeing fan theories while the show was airing and before we knew the ending.

For example, when they released just the photos of the MV (https://youtu.be/uvjXGGHWq80) around when ep 12 or 13 aired, there were fans speculating the significance of why Liu Fuyi isn't participating in the dance. What does that mean for the plot and so on. For example, is he in cahoots with the system? The real reason is because he's a terrible dancer.

The four of them dancing at the livestream. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_jWSA51kZEc

https://www.douyin.com/video/7434443007941791030 This video of him "dancing" was posted on same day the MV was released. I crack up every time I watch it.

Comments to lgief rewatch ep. 4

@fairytaehl

I wrote my comments as a post so I can format it for easier readability, and the reblog was locked for your post.

"which is nuts because why the fuck are you a demon catcher? "

He's a demon hunter because this is what Mu Yao wants. The drama hand-waves away the hardship and pain that comes with being a demon hunter.

In the novel, its clear that he doesn't want Mu Yao to be in a profession where she gets hurt and might die, but this is what she wants to do, so he can only support her despite the physical cost. He is often badly injured and comes close to dying in order to save strangers because he doesn't want to disappoint Mu Yao. It's Miaomiao that says while she finds it admirable that Mu Yao and Liu Fuyi are altruistic saviors, it's fine that he doesn't want to sacrifice himself to save strangers. He's not wrong for feeling that way. That she also feels this way.

"i know hes in the wrong. i know it was his fault and he had bad intentions, and his words in response to her were also not very kind. but… placating her and telling her he doesn't like arguing with her, that sister knows best, just because he cant deal with hearing her say these hurtful things anymore, and he cant handle it if his sister has such a negative view of him, all while hes trying to smile. its genuinely hurting him internally, as we see in a moment. "if you think it was me, then it was me." it was basically you, and it makes me frustrated to see him so upset over his own doing. i feel bad but i dont. hes trying so hard not to cry, but goddammit, you had this coming you bastard."

I love how you phrase it! I thought their conversation was so, so good. That Mu Yao is being too harsh, but Mu Sheng did do something wrong, and they both know it. Their complicated, messy relationship is so interesting, and I wish we saw more of it.

"crushing the flower in front of her and smirking as he does so… sir. please have mercy. a silent "this is what i do to fresh, pretty flowers" a.k.a. Her."

"crossing your arms across your chest is a physical tell for defensiveness and closing off yourself to the conversation~"

Your observation skills are so good! You catch so many little details. I love all the body gestures and movements that Esther and Ding Yuxi do in the drama. I wonder how much was improvised vs part of the script.

"i wont lie, this whole bit about how she knows about the ledger and letting it slide confused me"

Agree, and I thought it was weird he doesn't ask her why she wants to burn the Mu's ancestral map. 

In the novel, it's because she read the original work and she has nightmares about it after she transmigrates (I don't think this is shown in the drama), so she knows what he's going to do. BUT, she doesn't directly confront him about it. Unlike in the drama, she's very cautious and tries her best to not reveal any information that Lin Yu wouldn't know in front of Mu Sheng.

"ok, i need to ask, anyone understand these heart lake things?"

My guess is they're supposed to visually reflect the change in his emotional state. For example, in ep 18's script.

"△ The lotus in Mu Sheng’s heart lake suddenly turned completely black, leaving only half of the petals still red.

Demonized Mu Sheng: (Chaotic electronic music) I want... to kill him."

"the one where she throws him off entirely by acting all obsessed had him pause as to why she was going to such lengths to lie, and what her goal was. yes, he wanted to get her out because he doesnt like her at all, but that was so nefarious-seeming that he just… walked away. also, it was weird."

On one hand, I thought that scene was hilarious. Its my favorite scene in the drama, and I'm entertained enough to not think too deeply about it. This scene doesn't exist in the novel, but there are ones where he reacts similar-ish if you want an explanation.

In the novel, she constantly seeks him out to increase his favorability % and shows concern and for one reason or another will end up hugging him, and this leads to him letting her off each time. It's easy to see that he's touch-starved and longs for affection. Once he likes her even just as a friend, he can easily be bribed to look the other way with hugs or agree to her requests.

On the other hand, I think it would make way more sense if the drama followed the novel's scene order and had them playing 5-in-a-row games all night early on, and we heard his thoughts so the audience knows why this marks a shift in how he views Miaomiao.

How this is the first time he's learning something that's not for Mu Yao's interests, how he's been pretending to be bad at Go (and his skills as a demon hunter) to get Mu Yao's attention, etc. Its easy to see that he and Mu Yao haven't outgrown their relationship dynamic from their childhood, which was fine then, but has become an unhealthy codependency as adults.

If that happened before Miaomiao's fake confession scene, his response to it would feel less weird.

---

Some random thoughts after reading your post. We eventually find out that Mu Sheng has always known that the Resentful Woman is hiding inside Mu Yao, so what was his long-term plan? Instead of letting her know so they can work together to get rid of the Resentful Woman, he's deciding that he knows what's best for her. And, this isn't a problem that can go away if he hides it. The Resentful Woman will only grow stronger and be harder to defeat. So frustrating.

This is like Guo Xiu unilaterally making the decision to tamper with the villagers' memories. He's playing god, and there's no consequences to him other than his guilt. The script's narrative pushes the idea that this is for their own good and he makes up it up to them with his building talisman, but all he's really done is rob them of seven years. It's extra bad because the median lifespan for people in ancient times is low.

These villagers can't emotionally move on. In practical matters, this is an ancient world, and it would be harder for women if their husbands die and they don't remarry. The author set the novel to take place in a fantasy version of the Tang Dynasty, where it was fine for women to remarry. Had Guo Xiu been honest with them or just done nothing so they know people are disappearing, they could have chosen to move away from this dangerous place.

Maybe, some villagers would choose to throw their lives away to look for their loved ones, but that's their choice.

---

Your recap and the timing of your screenshots for their expressions are so good, especially Mu Yao and Mu Sheng's conversations at the beginning of the episode!

[just-another-sims-whore]

[TS3 DOWNLOAD] Rownshire World (V3)

Info: This is a download by Macksims (from PinkRabbit, also known as simaginate).

Required: All EP's up to Showtime (= World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, Generations, Pets, Showtime)

Notes: This world is still a beta version. It's compatible with patch 1.42 or lower and has not been throughly tested with newer patches. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. All lots are empty and no CC is needed. For more info please see the section underneath the download.

Mack's site has been down for a couple months, so below is the link to directly download the world from their server + a mediafire link. You can still access parts of their blog through the wayback machine.

Links: Download (starts immediately) + Download (Mediafire)

More notes (from Mack's site):

It is build for pre-modern game play such as medieval, renaissance, antiquity or even early modern periods. It is also perfect for your fantasy world.

The world is based on the Danish climate, so it has a lot of deciduous trees. There are a few rocks around the world but no cliffs or mountains. It is a hilly world with a lot of farm land around. There is no houses included in the world at all, it is meant as a build your own world-base. Most of the lots are small or tiny but there are some good size lots in there as well. The world is meant for someone who want to build their own world – most lots are not suited for downloaded lots! The world has spawners of all kinds.

The world has been renamed, but you will still want to uninstall the old version for the new one to work. All lot sizes are also the same.

This version (V3) is the latest one and was uploaded in April 2012. I haven't shared any of their other versions.

Completely CC Free!

I have all EPs installed including Showtime, so the world might need all of them. I know I have used items from WA, but I am not sure if you can play it without the other EPs. My game is also patched so I would expect that your game need to be patched up to 1.33 or newer.

I can't install the world but I don't know if it's because I don't have Generations or because I'm on patch 1.67.

I would assume that objects from other EP's were also used but I can't check it. Feel free to test it yourself.

I have only tested this on my machine so it is not beta-tested, so use at your own risk! Please report any problems here.

The comments underneath the original post from April 2012 until May 2013 confirm that the world seems to work fine during that time. As the site is not accessible anymore, feel free to add comments and issues to this post instead so that we know what to expect in 2022.

As always with new worlds, it is a good idea to save and go to the main menu and re-entering before starting to play, it makes the fog spawners etc. work probably.

Update: The water in the world is swimable with patch 1.42 so I am very happy about that!

There are a few lot tears, I do not plan to fix these but they are easy to covered up with bushes.

Most lots in this world are residential. If you do not want that many sims to move in, just change them to community lots in Edit Town mode. The few community lots that are there are located where I need them, but that may not be where you want them. If you want different lot sizes, just delete the lots in the Edit Town lot editor and place down your own lots.

The world is build on a large map, but I think the playable area is about medium size. Recommended CC:

Overwatch: This is highly recommended when playing any world – it removes stuck sims and cars for you so it really cuts down on lag. This is not a hack but really a bug fix.

New download link

Master Controller: Allows you change the clothing on any sim in your neighbourhood among other very handy things.

New download link

Medieval finds: In case you want to play a medieval world LivingSims Forum got a a great list of CC that would work well for you.

Forum is offline due to hackers, I'm working on tracking down the content but it's not looking good.

Rabbit Hole Replacements: As most lots are too small to place traditional rabbit holes on you might want to get these rugs that lets you make any lot into a rabbit hole.

New download link

Rownshire terrain paints: The terrain paints I used in case you want them to use in the world. They use the same textures so they fit pretty perfectly.

New download link

[aceissour]

Warning this kind of turned into a rant so tdlr life's been shit, my health is shit so writing has been difficult (I ain't no A03 I don't got that type of magic). I'm sorry that the stories are so backlogged. Update i post one of the backlogged stories and sorta fixed up this post.

Hi I'm back logged on stories as I said before. I bring this back up because something has changed I am still in school but I haven't actually gotten most of the days because my body has been acting up.

See ,ever since I was 10-ish probably before that (I don't remember much before that) I would get random bouts of excruciating pain that might be a slight over statement but really bad pain. Sometimes it'll be in my leg, other times my stomach. Right now, I am experiencing even more vertigo, my limbs will start to feel like they're giving out on me, I started to pull(?) my muscles more, and I'll get muscles spasms. overall just a lot of shitty shit.

Most doctors write it off as anxiety or very simple things like a stomach bug. anyways I take the medication they give me for my anxiety my other mental health issues, I limit my acid/lactose intake, and do everything they tell me to but still there's pain. Sure doing what they said helped but it didn't make it go away it is very fucking obvious that there is a deeper source problem than just anxiety, a stomach bug, food intolerances but they've never taken me seriously.

Due to the pain I have to deal with I have only gone to school for 1 6/8 days. I can't even get checked out if I wanted to(which I do because despite how other doctors have been, I still have hope) I can't because we don't have Tricare right now well we should have it soon hopefully by tomorrow but that's army shenanigans.

Point is couldn't/can't get checked out so miss a whole bunch of school probably going to give up on going to high school and switch back to homeschool if the doctors can't find out what the fuck is wrong with me because I'm not about to miss a whole bunch of class and get in trouble because of an illness I can't control.

Thank you all for listening to my rant I will try my best to finish writing the things in my inbox. I know one of them is super old and I am extremely sorry about that but as you just read above life's been shit and I don't have the magic of an AO3 author.

Update: I'm doing online school now and things have only gotten worse but i uploaded one story from my drafts :p. Also try to kinda fix this up but still keep the ranty nature of it cuz shit is shitty idk what you want me to say.

[kitastra]

You know what's been one of the hardest things to adjust to as a trans woman, who's still early in her transition? A sudden, unexpected, and drastic increase in the attention I get from men. All I did was change my name and upload a fem-presenting photo and I suddenly have old highschool friends I haven't talked to in nearly a decade knocking on my DMs trying to "get to know me". Like, I at least thought I was a guy long enough to learn something about what those guys are really after. The problem is, I have no idea how to let a guy down gently. Hell, I'm still trying to figure out who I'm into myself; and I'm so attention and affection starved that I at least consider going along with things for a bit, or at least trying to figure out how to turn it from them getting dates to playing online or something. Not to mention, the borderline chasers that come out of nowhere hitting me up everywhere if feels like. Maybe I'm too hard on myself, but even after a year on E, I am absolutely not conventionally attractive as a woman yet! I can't help but feel that so little of the attention is genuine because of it. At the same time, it's hard not to be tempted to give them a chance, if nothing else just so I can learn what it's like to date someone...

[ye4gerismarchives]

the bachelorette chp 5, part 2: connie’s proposal

an: hey yall 😛 i'll be posting another q&a before the final elimination chapter comes out. the day after that, i will close the poll, so make good choices! if you wanna change your mind, do it NOW! if you haven't voted, NOW is your chance😁 also, once again, i had to add an extended part to the connie family chapter because the full thing did not upload :( if the extended part helps you change your mind on connie, let me know! also, i really like this chapter because i could properly write a beach story! i went to a beach last week for the very first time and now i won't sound stupid when writing (and i'll never beat around the bush again!) link at the bottom!

tags: fem, black reader

tag list: @taybird

Unlike Jean, Connie did give you an idea of where you were going. He told you to bring some sandals and a light outfit and "not to worry about swimming because I know you don't want to mess up your hair- or makeup". There was a high chance you would be going to the beach where you had your first solo date. It was also the first time you talked about Connie being your husband. He said something about being "wise" about your decision. Now that you think about it, there was a pattern of Connie trying to avoid the fact that you two would have to be in love. You wondered if he'd bring that up again while proposing to you. You wouldn't want to say no to Connie if he did that but the whole friend zone thing is a BIG turnoff (y'all's words, not mine 😉)

But there was a positive side to this maybe? You already knew Connie and he had a higher advantage than Jean. You wouldn't even have to think about building a connection with him because you already had one. But the problem was love. You knew would enter a relationship with Jean, y'all would be lovey-dovey BUT you would need to build a friendship too.

Damn, this was hard. But this would all be over soon. You'd get a big wedding and if you didn't like Connie or Jean, you could move on. It's not like you're signing papers at the televised ceremony.

But anyways 😭 let's starts Connie's date. No time for analysis!

Connie had texted you that he was outside. You grabbed your purse and left the mansion. When you got outside, Connie was leaning on his car, being handsome and all.

"Hey," you greet him. You hold your arms out, hoping for a hug or even a kiss. Connie steps forward leans towards you but his head goes to the side and he's hugging you. Would this guy wait till the possible engagement before getting romantic with you or would the rest of your marriage be like this?

Connie pulls away. "I'm really excited," he says. You want to yell at him right now but the day just started. Maybe he was doing all this to lead you on and make sure you want to fight for him. To be real, this was getting tiring. Connie better be doing something big!

"I'm really excited to see what you have in store for me as well," you reply. Other than seeing Connie's next moves or his proposal, you were excited about the food. You knew Connie could cook, it was in his genes and he did cook for you multiple times throughout the show. As Connie opens the passenger seat for you, you begin to ask him what was on the menu today.

"Well, I've noticed how nauseous you get when under the pressure, so I made egg sandwiches and I packed juices and water. I hope that's alright. When we get engaged, I'll make you a big meal. I promise," Connie says before closing your door.

You thought it was sweet that Connie took note of that. When he got into the driver's seat, you gave him a small smile before opening your mouth. "Thank you, Connie. I really appreciate the fact that you thought about that."

Connie starts the car and begins the drive to the venue. There wasn't much talking done, probably because you would bring up the whole friendship thing. You wanted to get that settled but you also wanted to see what Connie has planned. These two dates weren't just about you saying yes or no but it was a way to see how much Jean and Connie wanted you. If there were problems in the past, they would try and fix them now.

Minutes later you were at the beach (you were right😁). Connie found parking and got out of the car to get the food. You got out on your own. It was weird not having someone rush to your side to open your door. Connie met you on your side of the car and offered you his hand. You can't remember him doing that before (if he has, forgive me yall🧍🏾‍♀️). But his hands felt nice, so you couldn't complain.

The same table from your solo date remained there. "Hey, Connie, just for you, I'll get in the water," you suddenly say. "Huh?! Really?!" he explains. 'Gosh, what a kid,' you think. "You just made this better, y/n! Thank you!" Connie continues. "Just my feet though. I didn't come here to get baptized or anything."

Connie places the picnic basket with all the little things he packed for you. He then proceeds to pull a chair out for you. When you sit, he pulls out one egg sandwich for you. "Juice or water?" Connie asks. "Um, (juice/water)," you reply. He places the drink of your choice in front of you and finally sits down. Connie sets up his food and is ready to dig in until he notices that you haven't touched any of your food.

"Hey...is everything alright? You feel sick?"

You shake your head. "Connie, we need to talk."

Connie sits up slowly. "What's up?"

You liked that Connie was able to see that something was up. This would be useful if you got married.

"How long are you going to friendzone me?"

Connie chokes in his spit. "What?"

"I mean sure we've been lovey-dovey but I still don't feel that romantic connection. If I do say yes to you, I expect us to start acting like a couple. I want you to be my husband, not my friend."

Connie is silent for a minute and then he opens his mouth. "But people who are friends-"

"Oh, shut up. You can be my friend but I want a husband! Please, stop bringing up those statistics and love me!"

You never thought you would be throwing a mini tantrum over a man. Is this who we are? Is this what we represent?

"Come with me," Connie says. You're hesitant to get up until he offers his hand to you. You take it and he pulls you up from the chair.

Connie slowly leads you down the water and you start to freak out mentally. Was he going to drown for telling him off? Connie wasn't that crazy right?

As you walked, you felt yourself slipping out of your shoes. The sand didn't hesitate to fill in the gaps of your toes and tickle your feet. The further you went, the deeper you were. Connie was just walking like it was nothing. You reached the water and Connie came to a stop. For a moment, he stared out into the ocean. You just stared at your feet. The waves pushed the water on your feet causing you to sink more into the sand. This was the world. You were on the edge. You weren't going to live for long, so you had to make the best of it.

"y/n, I hear your cries for love and I'm willing to give it to you. Marry me. I'll work on myself and you'll work on yourself. I promise you, I'll do anything to grow old with you."

Connie’s ring didn’t come in a box. He just pulled it out from his pocket. It was a diamond covered band with a halo shaped sapphire right in the middle.

damn, wonder who y’all gonna choose🤒 LINK

if you’re curious about how these rings look like, here:

connie (left) jean (right , however, his doesn’t match the description i wrote😒)

also, sorry for the white hand. i took a buzzfeed quiz

[fluxweeed]

14 and 22 for the meta writer asks!! (i am also procrastinating nanowrimo haha)

omg BEE hello so glad we're going through nanohell together ❤️

~

14. At what point in writing do you come up with a title?

at some point over the last year i've learned to keep a notes doc somewhere to spitball title ideas while i'm writing the actual thing. usually it's a list of really, really bad possibilities*, which i'll then narrow down into like 4-5 and include in the beta doc to try to bounce some ideas off another person. i don't usually pick a final one until, like, upload day lol.

(*no, really, they're so bad. here's a selection from the taste of tuica doc:

A Shitty London Park

[The Problem With] Caring Too Much

Keeping Up With Draco Malfoy

Love and Friendship

Enemies and Friends to Lovers

Tasting of Tuică

Achieving Satisfaction

"achieving satisfaction"?? "love and friendship"?? what was i thinking)

22. Do you reread your old works? How do you feel about them?

i can't go anywhere near something i've written for about 4-5 months, but after that i do reread em every now and then, yeah. usually i spot a typo that nobody has told me about, which is mortifying. in general i feel pretty much the same on a reread as i do right after i've finished them, which is mainly, like, meh, this isn't awful? there are things i'd change about every single one, but. i'm still learning!

~

thank you! ❤️

writing asks