#:// FILE : LOADING . . . META .

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

the constant tension between 'trying not to make up a guy i haven't actually seen around yet,' 'i have seen this rhetoric, usually godawful discourse, with a hundred other pieces of media exactly like this and i want to get ahead of the game with this one,' 'it's not great for your brain to try to anticipate and account for every possible bad or invalidating take someone might have,' and 'it is genuinely fascinating to me to dig into and discuss the dynamics of This Kind of Bullshit and i don't want to have to wait on someone to be a dickhead before i can talk about it.'

[tellmeallaboutit]

knock knock (Raphael x F!Player)

Chapter 1, In Which You Install The Mod

FOREWORD: inspired by this post

SUMMARY: Careful which mods you install for BG3. Did you read the terms and conditions carefully?

TAGS: meta romance, psychological horror, smut, the character is the player, Raphael is after you, you wanted him, you invited him to our world, he accepted your invitation

RATING: explicit

AO3

***

You hesitated for a moment before downloading this “Devil Wears Nada” mod. It felt slightly inappropriate, absurd as it may sound. There was something disrespectful about making Raphael deliver his final monologue in the nude.

Well, you would have to live with offending a bunch of pixels because you do want these screenshots. You put the salt and vinegar Pringles out of the way and wiped your fingers on a napkin before committing this digital sin.

Clickity-click-click. You dragged-and-dropped the mod where you wanted it to be and launched Steam. Now to load the saved game where you made the deal with the devil and gave him the crown of Karsus… pretty much any saved game really. 

Raphael had been spared in each one of your playthroughs.

A sigh escaped you when the devil still appeared fully clothed in the game; had something gone wrong? You double-checked, only to realize that you'd forgotten to activate the mod - odd, since you clearly remembered doing so. Leaving the game, you dragged the mod back into place.

On your phone, in the Devil's Den discord chat, you informed everyone of Raphael's stubborn refusal to undress.

MAKE HIM! came the immediate reply, followed by STRIP THE OLD MAN, accompanied by raunchy gifs. Couldn't help but grin at that.

Back in the game, you loaded an earlier save file and sank into your chair to watch Raphael emerge from the flames, clothed once again. “You son of a…”, you muttered to yourself. It was getting late anyway; this would be your last attempt before calling it a day. Tomorrow is Tuesday and thus another work day. 

“It won’t be long before you come knocking at my door”, Raphael said, looking straight at you from the wide screen. This wall-breaking sequence was brilliantly executed—you had to admit it—very eerie.

Raphael let out a deep, hearty laugh, head thrown back, pearly teeth glistening in orange-red lighting. You didn’t see this animation before. They must have added it with the latest patch, so you moved in closer. 

Handsome as sin, this devil - if he asked for your soul, you’d hand it over on a silver platter.

Suddenly, he fell silent for several seconds, staring directly at you from across the digital divide. You reached for the mouse to check if there was a glitch in the cutscene when Raphael's voice sliced through the silence.

“You are quite eager to see me naked, aren’t you? Naughty little mouse,” Raphael taunted.

What the fuck?

WHAT THE FUCK!?

You recoiled in shock and slammed your laptop shut. A shriek must have escaped your lips, but you were too stunned to notice. It took a moment for your heart to settle and for you to remember what date it was today.

A quick glance over the watch on your wrist confirmed: it was the first of April. April first, two thousand and twenty-four. 

It was an April Fool's joke from the modders.

Oh, fuck. Having recovered from the initial shock, you cautiously opened your notebook, only to be greeted by the familiar "ta-ta" outro. Oh, fuck. This is some kind of really fucked-up prank. How did they get this voice line?

AI, probably. Not probably. Definitely. There was no way they could have involved Andrew Wincott.

You scanned the game screen for any other surprises, but found none. Picking up your phone, you opened Discord and began recording a long voice message - your fingers too clammy to type.

The replies came soon after.

Haha, this is so fucked up, did they really do this? Hm. I have to try it myself. RECORD IT, RECORD IT PLEASE!

You stared at the loading screen but couldn't bring yourself to replay it. Instead, you searched “Raphael naked mod April joke” and clicked on the first Reddit thread that popped up. You didn't even bother to open it; a quick glance at the preview comment – “crazy I almost had a heart attack” – was more than enough.

Enough for today.

You quickly brushed your teeth in the bathroom and changed into short pajamas before glancing at the laptop on the other side of the room, its camera eye peering at you from across the room. You closed the shutter.

“Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you”, you read somewhere.

You tucked yourself into bed, phone in hand, blanket between your legs. Was it time for a quick stroll through selected Raphael / Tav bookmarks?

No. Well, maybe. The threesome with Haarlep, just a quick re-read to help you fall asleep quicker. You were creeped out, but not that creeped out. You’ve heard of such meta jokes before. Black & White did it, Metal Gear Solid did it, too. 

But still… they really should tag this sort of stuff.

Your nightly reading was progressing nicely; things were getting interesting - “the ridges of his devil cock stroking your sensitive walls” interesting. Your hand slid into your underwear, working your finger past your hair down to your clit. This scene was very well written, you could almost feel it, picture yourself spread open between Haarlep and Raphael. 

The smut got better and better right until your phone vibrated in your hand, and you dropped it on the blanket.

Unknown caller ID.

Don't answer it, came the panicked, irrational thought as it grabbed you in a chokehold. 

You stared at the screen - the call went on and on - and pushed it aside. Swiped to the right in one quick motion and heard an automated female voice:

"This call is from Europol. We would like to inform you that your identity card number has been misused. For further information please press 1."

You hung up immediately, recognizing this as one of those scam calls that had been making rounds recently. Your mum had received one too. 

Nothing to lose sleep over.

You put the phone down and turned your back to it, trying to calm down. Screw the fanfic, you were not in the mood anymore. Well, you were, but…

Another time. 

It took some time before you could relax, your gaze fixed on the blank wall in front of you, re-playing that cutscene all over again in your head, occasionally wandering to the large window looking out over the courtyard (what a pitch black night). 

Eventually, you did. 

As you drifted off to sleep, a voice whispered in your dream:

“You are quite eager to see me naked, aren’t you? Naughty little mouse”.

The silky soft voice was so lovely; it made you feel less alone. A small smile crossed your lips as you slept.

Yes, Raphael. Very eager indeed. 

Tomorrow. You’ll try again tomorrow.

NEXT: Chapter 2, In Which You Meet A Tall Dark Stranger

[pupsmailbox]

TECHNOLOGY ID PACK

NAMES ⌇　admin. ajax. alexa. am. atari. audio. auto. bailey. binary. blank. blu. blue. bluesse. browser. browsette. bug. byte. cache. calware. chip. circe. click. clicker. clickie. clicky. cloud. coda. code. codette. codie. cody. computette. crypt. cursor. cy. cyber. cybernet. cybernetica. cyberweb. cypher. cypherre. data. dell. digi. digitalia. digitelle. digitesse. disc. dot. electronica. electronique. emoticon. emoticonnie. fax. file. gig. gizmo. glitch. glitche. glitchesse. glitchette. graphique. hacker. hal. halware. hijack. index. informationne. intelligette. internette. interweb. java. javascript. juno. key. link. linuxe. lotus. lovebytes. mac. mal. malakai. malware. malwaria. memorette. memorie. meta. mic. micah. mickey. morphe. mouse. mousette. myspace. nano. neo. net. netette. nett. netty. paige. pascal. payton. peyton. pixel. programatha. programette. programme. pulse. reboot. rom. router. ruby. sam. sammy. screene. screenette. sean. shock. solitaire. spy. static. stutter. talia. tap. tecca. tech. techette. tessa. tetris. trojan. troubleshoot. ts. user. vir. virus. virusse. volt. vyrus. webbe. wheatley. whirr. widget. will. wirehead. wiresse. zap. zett. zetta. zip.

PRONOUNS ⌇　:-)/:-D. ^^/^^. ai/ai. alt/alt. anti/antivirus. arc/archive. audio/audio. bat/battery. beep/beep. beep/boop. bit/bit. bit/byte. blue/blue. board/board. bright/bright. brow/browser. browser/browser. brr/brr. bu/bug. bug/bug. buzz/buzz. byt/byte. byte/byte. c/cpu. charge/charger. cir/circuit. cli/click. click/clack. click/click. click/scroll. co/code. code/code. color/color. com/com. com/computer. comp/computer. compute/computer. computer/computer. cor/corrupt. corrupt/corrupt. CPU/CPU. crash/crash. cre/creeper. crtl/crtl. cy/cyber. cyb/cyber. cyber/cyber. da/data. data/data. delete/delete. di/disk. dig/digital. digi/digi. digi/digital. digital/digital. dra/drag. e/exe. electronic/electronic. enter/enter. er/error. err/error. error/error. exe/exe. fi/file. file/file. gi/gif. gli/glitch. glit/glitch. glitch/glitch. graphic/graphic. hac/hacker. hack/hack. hard/hardware. head/phone. hij/hijacker. ho/home. info/info. information/information. int/internet. intelligent/intelligence. intelligent/intelligent. inter/net. internet/internet. it/it. jpg/jpg. key/board. key/cap. key/key. key/keyboard. key/keylogger. lag/lag. lap/laptop. ligh/light. linux/linux. load/load. log/login. main/mainframe. mal/malware. me/media. memory/memorie. mon/monitor. mou/mouse. nano/nano. net/net. net/network. o_o/>_>. org/org. over/overwrite. page/page. pix/pix. pix/pixel. pixel/pixel. plu/plug. png/png. pop/popup. port/port. pow/power. pro/program. program/program. ram/ram. ran/ransom. reboot/reboot. reload/reload. res/restore. ret/retro. route/router. sca/scan. scr/scroll. scre/screen. scre/screencap. scree/screen. screen/screen. scri/script. script/script. sentient/sentience. shift/shift. site/site. skip/skip. soft/software. spa/spam. space/space. spy/spyware. stop/stop. te/tech. tech/nology. tech/tech. technology/technology. tou/touchpad. txt/txt. typ/type. upload/upload. user/user. vi/viru. vi/virus. vir/virtual. web/page. web/web. whir/whir. wi/wire. win/dow. win/window. wire/wire. wire/wired. zip/zip . ⌨ . ☣ . ⚙ . ⚠ . 🎞 . 🎨 . 🎭 . 🎮 . 🎵 . 👀 . 👁 . 💔 . 💡 . 💢 . 💣 . 💳 . 💵 . 💻 . 💽 . 💾 . 💿 . 📀 . 📱 . 🔇 . 🔈 . 🔉 . 🔊 . 🔋 . 🔌 . 🔎 . 🖥 . 🖱 . 🗡 . 🗯 . 🛠 . 🧿 .

[autisticbokutoenthusiast]

incoming sandray fight analysis 3 days late, but ray and his attachment issues will never leave my mind

i think i missed a big part of the subtext of this scene initially that seeing some other meta analysis helped me see. ray and sand supposedly don’t speak after sands birthday (it seems like ray tried multiple times to reach out but was ignored), and when sand finally does ask to talk to him again it’s not what ray thinks. ray thought they would talk about eachother, who they are to eachother, what they want, etc. or at the very least go back to their old friendly ways, but instead sand is bringing up mew, bringing up ray being in love with mew, how close ray and mew are, and the duty ray has to mew as his friend (this is already a loaded concept for ray seeing as he finds the need to pay mew back for saving him, and i don’t think that will ever go away even with time).

after receiving the thatcar.mp3 file ray confronts boston, because boston can be cruel to ray to his face all he wants but he won't let boston be a bad friend to mew, except boston says ray would be just as bad as him if he tells mew the truth, but according to sand he'd be fulfilling his duty as ray's friend by revealing the truth, so he is conflicted and confused about his own feelings .

then at mew's birthday party he spends the night as an outsider to his own friend group. when he reveals the audio clip to mew he's probably expecting mew to be thankful, like sand said he would be, or hate him, like boston said, but from what we see mew doesn't have much of a reaction at all. ray couldn't predict how his friend would react to the information, and now he can't understand the reaction, but he still thinks he did the right thing and doesn't understand why no one else around him can see that. he is still confused, and he is still emotionally isolated.

he fully self implodes. he has spent this whole episode as an emotional outsider, and other people have been using his emotions and impulsive emotional responses for their benefit before he himself has the oppurtunity to try to understand how he is feeling. he is filled with rage and self loathing and world shattering loneliness (feeling alone in a crowd, especially the one that is supposed to offer you love and support, is enough to make anyone lose their mind) and he lashes out at everyone and all of things they do that he doesn't understand and that he finds shitty. he even does the thing that has conflicting morality because he feels that regardless of whether it makes him a good friend or a villain he at least owes it to mew for saving him, and mew not only rejects this act, but the person who has offered him the most care and kindness punches him in the face.

ray and his self fulfilling prophecy man, he is a burden, he is bad luck, nobody loves him, and so he is taking everyone down so their weight will make his own fall be that much more painful. and then he storms off.

now to this part of the fight in particular because i also can't stop thinking about it

"stop thinking about mew and focus on me for once"

i interperet this as sand saying "stop focusing on all the love you haven't/can't receive and focus on what i'm willing to give you in the present". except ray wanted to focus on sand, and sand only spoke to him about mew, the unrequited love ray has, and the emotional debt ray owes. sand turned away from him and then pushed him away.

"can't you really see that i care about you?"

now i'm not good at reading faces so i don't know what this facial expression means but it isn't happy/relieved. even if ray had the ability to accept sand cares about him, in this moment he feels entirely alone. in fact, this only makes him more confused, he wanted sand who pushed him to mew who has also rejected him once again. he definitely thought sand cared about him before this, but i think ray believes no one could possibly care about him right now (i also think that he is tired of wanting someone to care for him, of hoping someday someone will love him, and so he pushes everyone away so at least he can have some certainty)

"why would you poke your nose in my buisness?"

why would you come into my life just to push me away? why would you involve me in someone else's problems only for me to fuck it up the way i fuck everything up? why would you reopen the wound that is my attachment to mew? why would you keep following me if all i'll ever be is a burden? why would you say you care about me when i am unable to feel cared for? why did you have to ruin the good thing we had going before you turned away from me that night?

"what are we to eachother?"

i think ray asked this question partly out of anger and partly out of being desperate for a genuine answer. but sand says they are nothing to eachother. ray probably thought sand thought this of him, but was hoping for a different answer, now he has his certainty (also its the self fulfilling prophecy again, ray physically pushes sand away while demanding sand to define their emotional connection)

now lets look at when they start getting physical

[side note, ray starts to turn to get in the car when sand says "you can risk your own life all you want" in case you weren't destroyed by that fact yet]

ray has spent the whole night feeling alone and then ruining his relationships with others, he doesn't believe anyone can or should care for him, so he makes it true (how many times can you say self fulfilling prophecy in a ray analysis post anyway?!?!?) sand is trying to stop ray from himself but the urge to destroy has been ignited and it can't be turned off, so he has to stop sand in return.

i have been kept up at night thinking about how desperate ray sounds while trying to breathe, how desperate he is for space, to be free to destroy himself, for it to be over. he call sand a whore, which everyone and their mother knows isn't true, and at first i thought it was because he needed a reason for sand to despise him but i think it's just as likely ray was just lashing out and wanted something to hurt sand with. after he pushes sand to the ground, he doesn't look proud by what he's done, but he can't stop himself now. and so he drives off alone

i've seen many different thoughts as to where he was going. but whether he was just going home, or drove off knowing it wouldn't end well, he needed to put a stop to this.

ray enthusiasts how we feeling 🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃

i don't even remember what the point of this anaylisis was anymore at somepoint i lost the plot... anway excited (also tormented by impending sandray scenes) to see what next week brings

[kaija-rayne-author]

So, it should be pretty obvious by now that I'm firmly against fans boycotting Bioware and Dreadwolf due to the layoffs. I'll put it in business terms. I've worked for Fortune 500 companies, and I speak from that perspective.

The people who made it are hoping, and have said, that they hope people will love Dreadwolf as much as they do. Even when they were laid off.

It would punish the creatives who made the game far more than it would punish Bioware. They likely can't even talk about it due to NDAs unless/until it's released. Can you imagine not being able to talk about a thing you loved and poured years of your life, creativity, and passion into? I can. It would be heartbreaking.

I don't want to be responsible for harming people who love dragon age enough to make it for us. If I boycott, that's exactly what I'd be partially responsible for. I'm usually very pro-boycott, but in this case, I'm not.

So here's the question... we unequivocally live in a late stage capitalist nightmare world. Do you know how many other companies have laid off employees this year?

This type of behavior has been pro forma for corporate for at least 20 years, probably longer.

So, why would people boycott Dreadwolf and Bioware when they're by far not even the most egregious example of mass layoffs?

In 2022-2023, we've had these mass layoffs.

Meat giant Tyson Foods is laying off about 15% of senior leadership roles and 10% of corporate roles, according to an internal memo shared with CNN.

Y'all gonna boycott meat? I didn't think so.

3M announced significant layoffs as part of another major restructuring plan. The brand behind Post-It Notes and Scotch Tape said in a statement it would lay off 6,000 staff around the world.

Gonna boycott tape? Ear plugs? Sticky notes?

Lyft (LYFT)’s move in November to cut 13% of its workforce, citing fears of a looming recession.

Buzzfeed announced a 15% reduction in its workforce, or about 180 employees.

David's Bridal is eliminating 9,236 positions across the United States but did not specify how many stores would be affected.

Walmart is laying off more than 3,000 workers.

And I know many people can't afford to boycott Walmart.

Meta announced an additional 10,000 layoffs across several months on top of mass layoffs in 2022.

You still use Facebook? I personally loathe it and only keep an account for marketing reasons. I can barely even make it work anymore.

Three rounds of layoffs hit Disney (DIS), announced through a March 27 internal memo to employees. Around 7,000 people will be affected by the move over the next several months.

Amazon (AMZN) said in March it would cut 9,000 jobs, bringing the total number of Amazon (AMZN) staffers eliminated this year to around 27,000.

Indeed.com announced cuts of approximately 2,200 employees, representing almost 15% of its total workforce, the company said in March.

Satellite radio giant SiriusXM laid off 475 people, or about 8% of its workforce, as part of a broad restructuring.

Zoom (ZM) said it will lay off about 1,300 employees, or approximately 15% of its staff, in a memo to employees in Feburary.

Dell (DELL) laid off roughly 5% of its workforce, the company said in a regulatory filing in February. Dell had about 133,000 employees, the company told CNN. At that level, the 5% cut represents more than 6,500 employees.

Gonna refuse to use your computer?

Microsoft said in January it would be laying off 10,000 employees, according to a securities filing.

This was only up to around March of this year. There's loads more.

Point being it's ridiculous to boycott a company and hurt the people who made a thing they love just because they got laid off.

This is what corporations do. There is 0 loyalty to the employee at a corporation. It's all about the bottom line.

Maybe all y'all haven't worked in corporate, maybe people are hopping on the 'I'll boycott too' bandwagon. IDEK.

I honestly don't care if I change anyone's mind about it all, but it’s silly. Just outright ridiculous to expect a corporation to do anything but what corporations do.

It's not right. It's awful. I hate that Bioware basically backstabbed the creatives who made them what they are. But it's not new or even remotely rare. Bioware has laid off roughly 125 employees in the past handful of months.

Every company I named laid off far, far more. And if you think I'll believe you're going to boycott Microsoft, you must have a bridge you want to sell me, too.

Here's the source, if you want it.

[lavender-teardroplettes]

You should do Miguel and Si hcs (Weathering Feelings VN)

Since idk how many people have played it I’ll suggest doing so before reading this post since it’ll contain spoilers!

Hcs under the cut!:

This one’s a little more interesting than most to me due to the nature of the game and Miguel looking at the PLAYER and less so the stand-in he has for you in game, gets a little meta in the best ways in my opinion. UwU

Si would find the general idea for the game really cute assuming the download page is a little different from the irl itch page and doesn't include any spoilers. It would be neat if the moment he downloads it the page is gone since it's meant for him and no one else. (though this is an open mc headcanon even if it wasn't Si, I just think it's a neat idea). While he knows games aren't the same as getting real therapy, sometimes it's nice to harmlessly vent to a game just to get it out.

I think he'd play a "normal" route where he wouldn't notice anything off about the game just yet, not hitting the right flags right away and putting the game down for a day or two before booting it up again to try and get a new route with one of the other Doctors before going back to try and do a better route with Dr. Nubloso....only to get him again even after picking different answers. Weird...but he thinks "maybe I have to hit a flag first and clear his route first." He does better the second time around, but now things are getting...weird, and he notices that the game sprite seems to be looking directly at him.

Once he gets to the part where things get really weird and Dr. Nubloso starts talking about going into the game files before the route ends, Si gets really spooked and closes the game again. He's surprised and a little shocked at the change of pace in the story, but he also can't help but be a little curious about what would happen if he did delete the file. It's also around 2-3 am at that point of time, so he also thinks that maybe he fell asleep or misread something in his sleepy state. He sleeps on it, opens the game again, and plays through one more time to make sure, once again giving different answers, and once more getting the Cloudy Day therapist.

Once he confirms the weird ending and the request of deleting the file, Si looks around in the game files before finding it. His curiosity gets the better of him after a little debate with himself, and he does. Now....When he boots up the game again he is NOT expecting to see Miguel at all, and he certainly wasn't expecting to be talked to directly. He almost yelps and turns off the game again, but something pulls his attention to the new development and tells him to stop and hear him out. Maybe he's overacting and this is just really good...specific writing? So he plays on, almost exhausting each available line of dialogue Miguel has for him, even replaying them a few times before Miguel acknowledges what he's doing and gives him the whole 'oh, you're testing me and my loyalty' speech. And...he has to admit, he does feel a little bad for the character by that time....that is until he hits the nsfw route and gets WAY MORE flustered than he should've been. And yes....he played both routes. ovo

By the end of it, he gets the ending where Miguel resolves to break out of the game for him, and he's left confused when all that loads after is a glitched screen. He does some more digging in the files and finds some "easter eggs" from Miguel, getting flustered at two of the special pictures hidden in the files. Curiouser, Si- seemingly out of a whim- decided to read the game's script...and his stomach drops when he notices little notes hidden in the game's files from Miguel- even down to the nsfw scenes. Before he can really react or fully process that this could be real, there's a knocking at his door..... Miguel came to find him just like he said he would. :)

That's all I really have for now since it's been a hot minute since I thought about how this would work given what we have with the current demo, but as you can see it's a really fun premise to play with!

[bluescreen-menchii]

Some interesting things I found in the code of Secrets of Legendaria (for the 3 fans of the actual game and not the TCG that still exist here)

I got a bit curious and started going through the game’s files, partially to see what went wrong and partially because I can’t stop thinking about how much wasted potential this game was (and a lot of Lionel Snill’s other games, for that matter)

Here’s a list of the most interesting stuff I found:

Moji doesn’t have an actual death animation for some reason, even though his death was kind of a defining moment in the plot as a massive change in tone. Either this was an oversight by the devs (unsurprising) or it was a really weird design choice.

Remember that disturbing, random secret you can find where you can buy the key to the smithy’s house only to find him dead? There’s actually some unused dialogue where he upgrades Lazarus’ sword. I have no idea why this could have been removed, since the sword upgrade as it is makes no sense as there’s no dialogue to explain it. This is also apparently where you were meant to get some of the correct answers for the Sphinx bossfight.

On a related note, that upgraded sword is referred to in the files as “Endervale Blade.” Could this be related to the Entervale bug where entering it as Chandrelle’s name freezes the game on a purple mist screen?

On yet another related note, there’s an unused map also titled Endervale, which also freezes the game on the purple mist when loaded.

The talking slime that refuses to fight you as you approach the dragon’s mountain actually does have code for a battle, but it’s not anything more interesting than the other slime fights earlier on.

Remember that theory that Jay from Vicious Galaxy is also the janitor in the temple in SoL because they look the same and he happens to have some silly meta dialogue about it? The janitor is referred to in the files as Jay, meaning that they might actually be the same character. Now, seeing as Lazarus and Moji Jr. also star in VG, it may very well be the case that SoL and VG take place in the same timeline. In this essay I will-

The Missingno enemy is not a bug, but a completely intentional easter egg. The weird game crash with it and the doppelgänger charm item was not intended, however.

Lazarus has a separate inventory, but we can’t access it normally within the game. The only time we get to interact with it is when Chandrelle gives him the locket half. It’s empty, save for the sword, though, so not much else to say about it.

The locket, on the other hand, is interesting. It has a description written in binary, but when translated it’s just nonsense letters. There is no second half of the locket.

The guard for the Sphinx’s boss room is named Jack, and he has an unused battle sprite for some reason. It’s really silly, actually; they just rip his door out and put it on the battlefield.

This one’s really weird: Chandrelle and Rebecha still have leftover code from when they were in Combat Arena X (I still can’t get over how SoL is technically a CA:X spinoff, it haunts me every day). This makes sense, they were probably just copy pasted over—but for some reason, in the buggy, unfinished, fog-hidden Kraken bossfight, Chandrelle’s fighting game functions get activated. This might be why you stop being able to use her moves in the middle of that fight.

Unfortunately, you can’t remove the fog from the Kraken bossfight, because it’s basically just a cutscene with buttons you can press that have no effect on the gameplay, as far as I can tell.

I would have loved to solve the mystery of the tiny hooded character who steers Chandrelle and Lazarus out of the fog, but they don’t actually appear in the files at all for some reason? If I had to guess, it’s probably Captain Barnay, recovered and wrapped in a cloak. He’s short because he’s hunched over and hurt, I would guess.

Finally, the matter of the ending, and perhaps the most annoying discovery of all: There’s an unused good ending in the game’s files, but no way to ever trigger it because it requires the old man to be in the temple before Vallamir. This can never happen in game, meaning there’s no way to actually seal Vallamir away at the end.

Now, that’s all that I, an amateur when it comes to this sort of thing, could find. If I missed anything or got something wrong, please be sure to let me know!

[sa6566]

What is the best way to optimize my website for search engines?

Optimizing Your Website for Search Engines:

Keyword Research and Planning

Identify relevant keywords and phrases for your content

Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to find keywords

Plan content around target keywords

On-Page Optimization

Title Tags: Write unique, descriptive titles for each page

Meta Descriptions: Write compelling, keyword-rich summaries for each page

Header Tags: Organize content with H1, H2, H3, etc. headers

Content Optimization: Use keywords naturally, aim for 1-2% density

URL Structure: Use clean, descriptive URLs with target keywords

Technical Optimization

Page Speed: Ensure fast loading times (under 3 seconds)

Mobile-Friendliness: Ensure responsive design for mobile devices

SSL Encryption: Install an SSL certificate for secure browsing

XML Sitemap: Create and submit a sitemap to Google Search Console

Robots.txt: Optimize crawling and indexing with a robots.txt file

Content Creation and Marketing

High-Quality Content: Create informative, engaging, and valuable content

Content Marketing: Share content on social media, blogs, and guest posts

Internal Linking: Link to relevant pages on your website

Image Optimization: Use descriptive alt tags and file names

Link Building and Local SEO

Backlinks: Earn high-quality backlinks from authoritative sources

Local SEO: Claim and optimize Google My Business listing

NAP Consistency: Ensure consistent name, address, and phone number across web

Analytics and Tracking

Google Analytics: Install and track website analytics

Google Search Console: Monitor search engine rankings and traffic

Track Keyword Rankings: Monitor target keyword rankings

[idiosys1]

10 SEO Tips For Classified Websites

If you’re owning or are about to build a classified website, you need to prioritize SEO. Irrespective of the size and strength of your company, SEO is a must to get a sufficient number of leads to your website. With the help of the best SEO strategies, your page is going to be indexed in the right way. This is the reason why many classified website companies hire SEO expert to make their sites highly scalable. Here, we are going to share our insights on the role of SEO to improve the scalability of classified websites. So, scroll down to know all about SEO and classified sites in detail.

1. Use Creative Content: Every company has its specific missions, visions and goals. And so, these things need to be highlighted with quality content. But, content is not only important for your business promotion but also for SEO. To apply the best SEO strategies, you need to use creative content that tells your audience precisely who you are, what you do and how you do it. It will create a bigger impact on your potential customers and keep them on your site for longer. Also, you need to use relevant keywords to optimize the content for search engine result pages.

2. Make Images Optimized: Studies show how images can create a positive impact on website visitors and attract a huge number of them. But, did you know that you can also use your images to generate new leads to your website way before they know you exist? Well, you can do the same by optimizing your website images in various ways. You need to compress the images first to reduce loading time and then upload them with relevant names. ALT tags are also important for image optimization, which you need to ensure. Mobile responsive images are a must.

3. Create Header Tags: Your classified website needs to have header tags to become SEO-friendly. Header tags or HTML tags play crucial roles in making your website look organized and meaningful. And so, you need to ensure these tags in the best possible way. Generally, you’ll find 5–6 header tags such as H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, and H6. H1, the headline or title tag, is the most essential one of all. Most website articles or blogs have H1-H4 tags and if needed H5 and H6 are also included. You can also incorporate keywords with these tags to get the best results.

4. Meta Descriptions and Titles: Next, you need to include meta descriptions and titles while developing your website. Meta Descriptions are descriptive one or two-liners about your website pages that the readers will be able to see as your webpage link appears in the search engine pages. Titles are the main headings of web pages, which needs to be attractive and simple. Content and keyword play really significant roles when it comes to optimizing these meta descriptions and titles of the web pages. These are the things that you can’t miss.

5. Ensure URL Keywords: If you’re looking for an SEO expert in Kolkata, you can ask the expert about the role of URL keywords. In SEO, URL keywords play the most vital role in optimizing websites in SERPs (search engine result pages). For example, if you have an e-commerce apparel website and someone searches Google for “women’s salwar kameez”, your website will be shown by Google at the top. But, to achieve this position, you need to include the keyword ‘women’s salwar kameez’ in your website URL and apply other SEO strategies correctly.

6. Build Sitemaps: To make any website SEO-friendly, sitemaps are essential. Your classified website also needs to include the same. Sitemap refers to a file that has all your web pages listed down. You also need to add information about the last update made and how frequently you would be changing your page info. Then, search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing and others will use your sitemap to know about your website and its services. While creating your sitemaps, you need to ensure that you give accurate information about all your website pages.

7. Create Backlinks: If you’re wondering what backlinks are all about, let us explain. These are the links that lead to your website from other websites. To create backlinks, you need to work on your website content really well. Then only, other sites will find your content useful and would want to use your website’s link on their pages. If you’re planning to hire any SEO company in Kolkata, the SEO experts will be able to explain to you the role of backlinks in more detail.

8. Create Search-Engine URLs: Search engines need to index and understand your company URL easily. And so, search-engine URL is something you need to focus on. The key to creating a superior-quality URL is to keep it descriptive and yet short. If you are able to do it, search engines will be able to understand your web content better and thereby, enhance the visibility of your website in the result pages. You can discuss with your SEO expert how to create search-engine URLs.

9. Organize Your Website Data: If you want your classified website to be SEO-friendly, you need to organize your site data first. Microdata, schema.org and other structured data are available that you can use for this purpose. The main role of structured data is to make it easier for search engines to understand your company profile through the content. But, while using structured data, it’s essential to find one that aligns with your business niche.

10. Ensure Google Analytics: To get huge website traffic, Google Analytics can help you a lot. It’s a free tool that lets you see the number of visitors on your website and the way they are finding your site interesting. You can track the performance of your classified site through this analysis and improve it further. This performance tracking service has helped a huge number of websites to find their potential customers and keep them engaged in the right way.

The above 10 tips to improve the SEO-friendliness of your classified website are quite helpful. If you want to try them in the correct way, you need to hire SEO expert. These strategies are ever evolving and only an expert can help you make the most of them. If you’re already on the lookout for top SEO company in Kolkata that provides exceptional services for classified websites at an affordable cost, you can feel free to reach us at Idiosys Technologies. To know more about our services and packages, contact us right away!

Check out the blog post: https://shorturl.at/aAD35

[randomfoggytiger]

Mulder and Scully, Past Lives, and the White Buffalo Calf

An extract from the next part of my Scully Family meta series.

Albert Hosteen at first compares Mulder's recovery in The Blessing Way to the Navajo tale of the Gila Monster: "When the F.B.I. man Mulder was cured by the holy people, we were reminded of the story of the Gila monster, who symbolizes the healing powers of the medicine man. In this myth, the Gila monster restores a man by taking all his parts and putting them back together. His blood is gathered by ants, his eyes and ears by sun, his mind by Talking God and Pollen Boy. Then lightning and thunder bring the man back to life."

However, Hosteen soon receives word from another (unnamed) tribe that links the birth of their legendary white buffalo calf to the day of Mulder's recovery: "Like the Navajo, these people have their own stories and myths. One of these stories tells of the white buffalo woman who came down from the heavens and taught the Indians how to lead virtuous lives and how to pray to the creator. She told the people she would return one day, then she turned into a white buffalo and ascended into the clouds, never to be seen again. But on this day, when the holy people had given the F.B.I. man a miracle, a white buffalo was born and every Native American knew, whether he believed the story or not, that this was a powerful omen and that great changes were coming." 

Canonically, this sets up exciting possibilities that aren't followed through (or, at least, not very well); but if one takes a step back, the Mulder and Calf comparison doesn't work at all:

Melissa's sacrifice is drawn directly to Scully throughout the entire episode, with Scully repeating that fact in doomed tones over and over and over.

The White Buffalo Woman is a feminine mythology, tying more neatly to the mother buffalo/Melissa's "sacrifice" and the calf/Scully's "rebirth" (as foretold in the legend.)

Not only does Melissa act as the "maternal" guide to Scully's inner voice, she is also her protector, supporter, and keeper-- in this life and the next (Beyond the Sea, The Blessing Way, A Christmas Carol, etc.)

If parallels between Mulder's "rebirth" and Melissa's "sacrifice" can be drawn, so can Scully's escape from her assassins and "rebirth" back into normal civilization alongside Melissa's death. It would also line up narratively with Albert's monologue about the buffalos: “The white buffalo calf had survived; but after a day it would no longer drink its mother’s milk. On the third day, the mother buffalo laid down in her stall and would not get up. They said the men could do nothing for her. That night, she died." Scully, too, was separated from her sister for a period of three days; and Melissa, too, died on the third.

Furthermore, there is no connection between Mulder's set of circumstances and Melissa's, narratively or mythologically.

However, we all know The X-Files is loaded with errors because of a lack of a show bible and a broken, incohesive narrative; that means, unfortunately, there is one possibility for the comparison to work-- and that is by taking The Field Where I Died's canon seriously.

TFWID posits that Mulder, Melissa Rydell, and Scully are connected soulmates, recycled together as an unholy trio in each life (kind of like the vampires in 3) and doomed to suffer tragic fates until they get it right. (On the surface, this might further prove the hypothesis that "the X-Files was always a dark show with an unhappy ending" except that Chris Carter himself said that wasn't the case-- though he might have changed his mind recently.) Massive plot holes of the episode aside, TFWID also posits each soul is reborn into a new body regardless of the sex of that body, meaning Mulder was alternately a Confederate man and a Jewish woman in previous lives.

And the Jewish woman reincarnation is the stickler... because that was the last past life Mulder had (to my knowledge) before his current one. Meaning, Mulder soul could very well be the White Buffalo Woman at some point in his past, reborn in this life, again, to bring about the justice and better ending he'd failed to accomplish in the preceding ones. It would do away with the feminine-only bent to the mythology, at the very least; and it would tie into Chris Carter's overall vision for the show-- fate vs. freewill, with fate winning out again and again in Mulder and Scully's lives.

However, that would negate the more interesting and accurate interpretation of the White Buffalo Woman mythology: that Scully, not Mulder, was the woman fated to save the world.

That interpretation would also make sense because Scully often experienced visitations from the dead or dying in the series, including Albert Hosteen's apparition in Amor Fati... which was right after the revelation that shook her to the core: finding the key to everything in Africa. And if that be the case, then the files and the Conspiracy and being a part of Mulder's quest was Scully's fated journey; and that Mulder had made repeated mistakes that destroyed his life in each of the past ones. That Scully was here, now, to "keep him honest, make him a whole person" and safeguard him from danger (and himself) while saving the world.

Furthermore, this interpretation of canon (which I argue is the only factual one) would also negate the late-in-the-game comparison between William and buffalos in Season 9 since:

The White Buffalo Woman was prophesied to be reborn with agency-- to be a leader herself, not a vessel for the next "Messiah"

It would mean Scully's son was a natural product of her and Mulder's dedication to each other, a bonus to saving the world and setting her partner's life to rights

Conclusion

While Hosteen's narrative states that Mulder is the White Calf and Melissa's life was sacrificed for his, it does not fit narratively with the White Buffalo Woman legend nor the ensuing events of the episode and rest of the series.

Thank you for reading~

Enjoy!

[disaster-biraven]

The Lazarus Problem Chapter 2

Jasonette Ch1 Ch2(you are here) Ch3 Ch4 ~ Masterlist

Ao3 Dedicated to @girl-in-thechair

Ever since the world had witnessed the final battle between Hawkmoth and the Parisian heroes, Wonderwomen had been adamant that they needed to find and recruit Ladybug and Chat Noir. She had even made a presentation on what the miraculous was and why having them on the side of the Justice League was a need and not a want. So Batman had been tasked with finding them, and although he is the best detective, there had been no lead. Their magic did an amazing job of concealing any leads, and he was certain Ladybug had left Paris. Hippolyta, a former Ladybug holder had said it was likely the heroes moved on to the next big unbalance, but mentioned there was a chance they had retired the miraculouses.

Now there was an unknown Meta in Gotham, and the only thing that is known about her is her ability to turn invisible. After everyone had finished up at the docks, an irate Red Hood had debriefed the family on the unknown girl. Batman decided to delegate the task of finding her to Red Hood and Red Robin, as he thought he found a lead on who Chat Noir was. This led to a sleep-deprived Tim staring blankly at a file, while Jason used Barbara’s surveillance system to see if he could figure out any leads on the Meta’s location or identity. Tim closed the file and turned to Jason.

“Hey, did you check the list of people who recently moved here? There’s a chance she’s from somewhere else.” He sipped out of his coffee cup which came from seemingly nowhere. Jason didn’t question it, and the idea had more merit than staring at video footage.

“Ok, I’ll start at three weeks and go up from there,” Tim replaced his empty mug with another one. “Tim, what the hell.”

“If you tell Alfred, I’ll mention why you hung up all that artwork in your room.” Jason thought about all those bullet holes he hadn’t gotten around to fixing yet. “Deal. Asshole.”

The list of people finally loaded, and he started to rule out suspects based on height and other factors. While skimming the names and pictures, he felt the blood drain from his face. Tim noticed and shook his shoulder. His partner in crime from his time on the streets was staring back at him. Marinette, who for the last decade he thought was dead, had moved back to Gotham. A search revealed that soon after he had been taken in by Bruce, she had been adopted by a couple in France.

“Do you know her? She was a street kid from Gotham.” Tim still looked a little concerned but didn’t hold back from questioning Jason.

“Tim, not every street kid knew each other. But yeah, we were close. I thought she was dead, I never thought to look her up though.” Did she think he died too? Technically he did. Maybe she looked him up and found his obituary.

“She lived in France, maybe she could help in the Ladybug and Chat Noir case. Everyone but her and some guy got akumatized in her class.” Tim started looking closer at how she was related to past akumas while Jason was spiraling on how to reconnect with her. ~~

Marinette works at a fabric store part-time, and Jason wants nothing more than to run into her. But he has to case to solve and needs to focus. Tim has the decency to not mention her again, keeping the conversation from the others. But Jason knows Tim thinks he should go see her.

On top of continuous surveillance around the city, and going through a list of suspects, there isn’t much more to do than keep an eye peeled during patrol. The lack of any leads drives Jason insane, but it still seemed to go better than Batman’s investigation. The trail had gone cold on the possibility of finding Chat Noir’s identity, the magic was stronger than ever. Dick claims he once walked in on Bruce banging his head against the desk and slowly backed out of there.

Jason caught a break in the form of a brief sighting near the Wayne Tower and changed his patrol to overlap with that area. Tim wasn’t able to join him as he was still on bed rest from a surprise attack from Damian over the last slice of pie.

“Congratulations, Demon Spawn you just volunteered yourself as my patrol partner, seeing as you took out my first one.” Jason ignored his protests and finished suiting up. ~~

Shit shit shit. The Meta dodged his fist and kicked him in the face. Fuck.

“What is your motive here in Gotham, Villain?”

Robin’s question caused her to pause. She hesitantly put up her weapon? Flute?

“I am here in Gotham to help restore the balance, but if I say how you may not believe me.”

“Try me.” Jason really hoped her way of restoring the balance wasn’t to blow something up.

“I know both of you have been in the Lazarus pits. And I can help.”

Robin’s face twisted as he lunged toward, almost stabbing the Fox Meta.

“Were you sent by my mother? Who are you? Stop moving away from my sword!”

“Okay, Robin that’s enough. Let’s hear her out before we try and impale her.”

She seemed to appreciate that. ~~

Jason relayed what the Meta he now knew as Lyca told him to Tim. They were all hesitant to believe her, as she could have ulterior motives. She agreed to meet them in a few days with Batman so he could get a feel for the mysterious girl. Jason didn’t want to get his hopes up on the possibility of actually having a cure for the pit madness. If he were to reconnect with Marinette, it would be better if he wasn’t affected. She didn’t deserve to have to deal with his anger, especially since he looked into what she had to deal with in Paris. After dealing with an emotional terrorist she shouldn’t have to deal with an unbalanced vigilante. He’d have to get the nerve to go see her anyway, which looked unlikely. He hated feeling like a coward.

[topseoprocess]

How Website Technical Analysis is Beneficial for SEO

Conducting a technical analysis of your website is crucial for improving your SEO strategy and overall digital presence. This guide will explain how a comprehensive technical analysis can benefit your SEO efforts.

Introduction

Technical analysis involves evaluating various backend aspects of your website to ensure optimal performance and search engine rankings. By addressing technical issues, you can enhance user experience and improve your site's visibility. This guide will cover the key elements of a technical analysis for SEO.

1. Improving Site Speed

Site speed is a critical factor for both user experience and SEO. Faster loading times lead to lower bounce rates and higher search engine rankings. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to identify and fix speed-related issues.

2. Ensuring Mobile-Friendliness

With the increasing use of mobile devices, it's essential to have a mobile-friendly website. Technical analysis helps ensure that your site is responsive and provides a seamless experience across all devices. Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to ensure your site’s mobile compatibility.

3. Fixing Broken Links

Broken links can negatively impact user experience and SEO. Use tools like Screaming Frog to identify and fix broken links, ensuring that users and search engines can navigate your site efficiently.

4. Optimizing Site Structure

A well-structured site helps search engines crawl and index your pages more effectively. Technical analysis involves evaluating your site’s URL structure, internal linking, and navigation to ensure they are optimized for SEO. A clear and logical structure enhances user experience and search engine visibility.

5. Enhancing Security

Website security is crucial for protecting user data and maintaining search engine rankings. Ensure your site uses HTTPS encryption and conduct regular security audits to identify and fix vulnerabilities.

6. Improving Crawlability and Indexability

Ensure search engines can crawl and index your content effectively. Check your robots.txt file, XML sitemaps, and meta tags to ensure they are correctly configured. This ensures that search engines can access all important pages on your site.

7. Monitoring Technical SEO Metrics

Regular monitoring of technical SEO metrics such as site speed, crawl errors, and mobile usability is essential. Tools like Google Search Console provide valuable insights into your site’s technical performance and help you identify areas for improvement.

8. Using Structured Data

Implementing structured data (schema markup) helps search engines understand your content better and can enhance your site’s visibility in search results. Technical analysis includes evaluating and implementing structured data to improve your SEO.

9. Conducting Regular Audits

Technical analysis is not a one-time task but requires regular audits to ensure your site remains optimized. Keeping up with the latest SEO best practices and search engine algorithm updates is crucial for maintaining and improving your site’s performance.

For example, leveraging professional SEO company services can ensure continuous technical optimization of your site.

Conclusion

Performing a technical analysis for SEO is essential for ensuring your website’s optimal performance and search engine visibility. By improving site speed, ensuring mobile-friendliness, fixing broken links, optimizing site structure, enhancing security, and monitoring technical SEO metrics, you can enhance user experience and search engine rankings. For expert assistance in technical analysis and SEO, explore our Digital Marketing Services and SEO company.

[babbybones]

Oekaki updatez...

Monster Kidz Oekaki is still up and i'd like to keep it that way, but i need to give it some more attention and keep people updated on what's going on/what my plans are for it. so let me jot some thoughts down...

data scraping for machine learning: this has been a concern for a lot of artists as of late, so I've added a robots.txt file and an ai.txt file (as per the opt-out standard proposed by Spawning.ai) to the site in an effort to keep out as many web crawlers for AI as possible. the site will still be indexed by search engines and the Internet Archive. as an additional measure, later tonight I'll try adding "noai", "noimageai", and "noml" HTML meta tags to the site (this would probably be quick and easy to do but i'm soooo sleepy 🛌)

enabling uploads: right now, most users can only post art by drawing in one of the oekaki applets in the browser. i've already given this some thought for a while now, but it seems like artist-oriented spaces online have been dwindling lately, so i'd like to give upload privileges to anyone who's already made a drawing on the oekaki and make a google form for those who haven't (just to confirm who you are/that you won't use the feature maliciously). i would probably set some ground rules like "don't spam uploads"

rules: i'd like to make the rules a little less anal. like, ok, it's no skin off my ass if some kid draws freddy fazbear even though i hope scott cawthon's whole empire explodes. i should also add rules pertaining to uploads, which means i'm probably going to have to address AI generated content. on one hand i hate how, say, deviantart's front page is loaded with bland, tacky, "trending on artstation"-ass AI generated shit (among other issues i have with the medium) but on the other hand i have no interest in trying to interrogate someone about whether they're a Real Artist or scream at someone with the rage of 1,000 scorned concept artists for referencing an AI generated image someone else posted, or something. so i'm not sure how to tackle this tastefully

"Branding": i'm wondering if i should present this as less of a UTDR Oekaki and more of a General Purpose Oekaki with a monster theming. functionally, there wouldn't be much of a difference, but maybe the oekaki could have its own mascot

fun stuff: is having a poll sort of "obsolete" now because of tumblr polls, or should I keep it...? i'd also like to come up with ideas for Things To Do like weekly/monthly art prompts, or maybe games/events like a splatfest/artfight type thing. if you have any ideas of your own, let me know

boring stuff: i need to figure out how to set up automated backups, so i guess i'll do that sometime soon... i should also update the oekaki software sometime (this is scary because i've made a lot of custom edits to everything)

Money: well this costs money to host so I might put a ko-fi link for donations somewhere... at some point... maybe.......

[theliberat0r]

So you're related to the late Destro?

Do you have any DNA test papers to prove it?

Or are you more of a Spiritual Successor?

Oh I am related. His Meta Ability was that he can convert his frustration into raw power, so if we’re going by Meta Ability genetics that should be confirmation enough.

I do have the papers, but it’s all lost under loads and loads of paperwork and black market files, so I’ll get back to you when I can.

[pesterquestrewritten]

SUPER sorry to be bugging u if i am, but itch. io isnt liking the fact im trying to put an image in a comment :(.

i get an error when trying to load the picking a movie options in John's route, and any other saves from johns route have me pushed back to the first textbox :(

this is what it displays that, i can paste the whole log if you need!

i already answered u in dms but the short of this is "renpy doesnt love cross-version saves".

"Perhaps the script changed in an incompatible way?" is the reason it crashed, it just doesnt Know how to slot the save file in.

GENERALLY SPEAKING, for pqr, we don't do any fancy meta-tracking, we want to be transparent about that kinda thing. with like maybe very few exceptions everything we track is listed on the achievements page as an achievement, so that u dont have like. anxiety abt "messing up" the game in whatever way

this is mostly because i dont love playing games like that!!! i like Knowing. the choices in pqr very rarely "fool" you into getting the bad end, and, hell, you NEED two "bad" ends to even progress past jade's route. it's designed for u to scour it top to bottom, there's even easter eggs hidden in the code.

yeah! idk. i grew up browsing spriters resource and thinking datamining was so fucking cool. i like it when a story feels like a sprawled-out sandbox.

man i talk a lot dont i

[randomthefox]

Undertale is super meta as well. The story literally revolves around save files. There's also a moment where Flowey makes the game close.

lol that's an understatement. The fact that Undertale is a video game is literally a part of the games narrative. It is impossible to untangle that from the narrative of the game. The medium is the message.

The ability to save the game is a canonical in universe power granted by Determination. Flowey will force close the executable of the game and force you to reopen it from your desktop (the console versions really fail to capture this). And during the boss fight he'll create emulator save states and surprise load them during the fight to trip you up. And that's just the most blatant example.

You also have Asgore starting his fight by breaking an option in the combat menu. And in the Sans fight his attacks will start to invade the UI and cause you to take damage while choosing your input.

You literally cannot have the story of Undertale without it being a video game. The thematic message of the game is ABOUT the fact that it is a video game, and about the medium of video games as a whole. The ending confronts you with the fact that these characters aren't real and it's all part of a video game, but then validates you by saying that the feelings you had ABOUT the characters ARE real, and that they do matter because they matter to you.