#How to Do Dead Bugs for Beginners

[freeonlineworkouts]

Dead Bug | How to Do Dead Bugs for Beginners?

[nfumbewalk]

Graveyards: All About Them

First, here are things to do in a graveyard. This includes what to bring and what you can do plus some etiquette.

First, have decency and respect.

If you plan on gathering anything, bear the correct offerings. Such as: A small (1/2 oz) of hard liquor, payment (9 to 27 pennies), Jasmine incense joss stick, bouquet of flowers, Florida water (preferably homemade) OR Kananga water, also homemade - both of these are sacred to the muertos, but to draw them to you, Kananga water works best; good sized piece of Quartz, double terminated to use for housing a muerto temporarily (yes, you can put a muerto in a crystal but they must be transferred to a vessel and pacted within 2 days - no more than this.)

For protection in a graveyard, especially if you are very sensitive/psychic: Wear a white bandana on your head before even going in. And don't wear black when you go there. Why? As a daily wearer of black clothing, I noticed a big change when I wore all white to the graveyard. It's actually more powerful. White radiates healing power and seems to quiet the muertos, but it also gives them a sense of relaxation and peace when you are around them. They are easier to communicate with. I noticed that black seems to tangle up communication. I don't know why. I guess that white flows better. But I hate it because I instantly get white filthy. LOL!

Some ppl say that there are no dead souls at the graveyard, that they don't hang out there. That's wrong. Some of the muertos do hang out by their grave, watching over it. Many of them can be like sentinels. Rodolfo says he used to protect his grave but as soon as I found him and started visiting, he wanted to just be with me. I got that distinct feeling, so I picked him up one day. I didn't realize how successful I was!

Graveyard Work: That includes gathering dirt, Siphoning the Earth with a Baston de Muerto, curses and hexes, and other full blown rituals -these can be done - but homage must be paid to the Earth in the graveyard. The best way of doing this is a buried offering of your own blood on a piece of small parchment which is placed in a very small glass corked bottle. This buried offering gives you a real relationship with the land that holds these muertos. It is very deep respect. And no, there is NO gatekeeper in graveyards, That's a widely professed misconception. I have never once been approached or sensed any "gatekeeper" of any kind. All that there is - in a graveyard - is known as the "heart" of the graveyard. This is the central zone. It is sensed by feeling where you notice an electrical charge the strongest and a smell of the freshest air that you have ever experienced. I like to do my work there unless I'm at Rodolfo's grave.

What exactly to expect with graveyard work? Is it dangerous? Don't get your expectations up too high. Graveyard work is great and very powerful, but you are not exactly going to see flashing lights and muertos dancing. It is often very low key. But the results of graveyard work can be fantastic! It is only dangerous if you go into the graveyard with no knowledge of what this work entails. This is NOT for beginners! If you know nothing, you may get a spirit attachment and that can be hard to remove. Try the precautions I mentioned above.

Don't leave empty handed. Gather an item from the Earth of the graveyard besides dirt. I'm not talking about robbing graves. I'm talking about something like a white Quartz that is often on top of graves, or any other rock that has been sitting on a grave. This is another powerful totem that you can use in your practice to represent and draw Death Energy to you, It does NOT need cleansing. Cleansing would ruin it.

Kindness for the Earth and muertos - Please pick up any garbage that you see in the graveyard. People are litter bugs and I hate seeing trash hanging around a beautiful place that I venerate.

What NOT To Do In The Graveyard

Don't take this resting place lightly.

Don't yell or scream.

Do not run around in a graveyard unless there are trails. (We have them here in Oregon). Running is very loud to the muertos. Would you like your grave stomped on?

Don't litter.

Do NOT desecrate a grave, tip over, break, or steal a tombstone. It is not funny.

Do not have intercourse in a graveyard, It is very disrespectful. Not kinky.

Do not invoke/evoke Demons in a graveyard unless you know what you are doing. This can open you up widely for a demon/spirit attachment. I said lowercase "demon." That is my difference between known Demons and demons that are low level "lesser demons" and are not in a hierarchy. They can be extremely dangerous. These demons are NOT worshipped. Never give them blood. Once you have a lesser demon's name, it loses power and it's a lot easier to banish. I've done this four times successfully. It's very heavy and quite difficult but my method works.

Do NOT "ghost hunt" in a graveyard (or anywhere else!). It is extremely disrespectful and the muertos will leave. If there is any EMF involved, the muertos will not come back for a very long time or it will anger them so much that they will retaliate. They do NOT like EMF. That's why they love Shungite and Orgonite so much - gets rid of EMF. This is MY theory that I've studied and put to work. Rodolfo LOVES the Orgonite pyramid I put on his altar. To a muerto, EMF is like a huge bass speaker vibrating in their ears very loudly. Annoying? Yeah, I think so.

Do not talk shit about the muertos in a graveyard. This is obvious, right?

Refrain from drug and alcohol use in a graveyard. Picnics are acceptable though.

Well, I think I hit a lot of angles here. I hope this helps or is interesting. I'm not trying to be harsh with "rules." It is mostly common sense or just rules of thumb to keep in mind for a nice, safe, and meaningful visit to the graveyard for work or general visitation,

M.M.

[haveyouseenthisskeleton]

Skeleton's child does this prank to his dad: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PT3ayBSy9Cc For the main 10

Undertale Sans - Right before his kid can cut the thread, Sans switches places with them using his teleportation skill. The kid is so confused when the cream explodes in their head instead of their dad. Yeah, sorry kiddo, he did that before. Better luck next time. He's still taking a picture of his shocked child before going away, smirking. Don't prank the prank master.

Undertale Papyrus - He kinda understood what you were going to do but way too late after he got stuck. He simply sighs loudly as you cut the thread and he slams the cream in his face. He swears that's the last time he leaves you alone a whole weekend with Uncle Sans. It's the same thing every time. When will he learn his lesson?

Underswap Sans - He gasps loudly as he slams himself with the tray. He for sure didn't see that coming. His sockets are full of whipped cream and he can't see anymore. He tries to grab his child to get his revenge, but the kid runs away long ago, watching him struggling to grab the void from a safe corner. There will be a vengeance, be patient.

Underswap Papyrus - He genuinely wanted to help only to get violently betrayed. Honey can't believe what just happened. He's completely speechless, in shock, his face covered with whipped cream as his child is screaming with laughter. Ah, ah. Very funny. He takes advantage of his kid not paying attention to slam the tray in their hair. Who's laughing now? At least he won't have a problem getting rid of the cream from his hair.

Underfell Sans - All the kid can hear is a muffled "you little sh-" before Red starts running in circles to get them, entirely blinded by the whipped cream. He's so mad. He got caught like a beginner. Do you think you can do this without consequences? Wait to sleep in a bed covered with whipped cream.

Underfell Papyrus - He grabs his child by the hood before they have a chance to run away. Edge is MAD. Not only his ego didn't like that, but the kitchen he just cleaned was now ruined. You. Will. Take. A. Mop. And. Clean. This instant. He's supervising the cleaning, arms crossed, half of the face covered with whipped cream which makes it harder not to laugh, really.

Horrortale Sans - Purring stops. Oak is now dead silent, the tray still on his face, completely frozen. His brain has a little trouble understanding what just happened honestly. He's just really confused. He's going to stay like that for a solid twenty minutes before Willow actually notices him and comes to rescue him. Willow then proceeds to lecture the child for making his father bug out.

Horrortale Papyrus - Instinctively, he screams very loudly when the tray suddenly slams in his face. It actually scares the chickens who were eating right in front of the house and they all comes inside in panic, screaming and flying everywhere. Not only there's whipped cream everywhere, but feathers and chicken poop (and chickens...) as well. And you know who's going to clean up the mess? He gives you a bucket and a mop. Next time, you'll think twice before pranking him like this.

Swapfell Sans - He notices your face and gets ready to dodge. When you cut the thread, he ducks down and throws the tray toward your face instead. The water bottles hit you in the stomach and you fall face-first into the whipped cream. Nox smirks at you and pats your head out of pity. Nice try, but no thank you. He doesn't even stain his handmade suit. That's how good he is.

Swapfell Papyrus - As you struggle with the scissors, Rus says he's going to help you. He then puts everything back into his kid' hands, then cuts the strings, smirking as the child screams with realization before slamming themself with the whipped scream. Yeah, sorry kiddo. He knows that one. Rus still can't believe you fell for that honestly. That's a hell of a memory. He's sad he couldn't record this moment.

Fellswap Gold Sans - He gives you a warning stare as you start to fill the tray with whipped cream and reminds you he has a very good aim. You still ignore him, and as the tray slams in his face, you start to run. Two heavy bottles of water hit you behind the head, knocking you out in three seconds. He then uses the string to tie your hand behind your back and your legs. Congratulations, you're in time out.

Fellswap Gold Papyrus - He was really happy his kid needed him for something and then got slammed with betrayal in the face. Coffee is not moving, in shock. He gives you puppy eyes all day long after that to make you feel guilty. You monster.

[neidrakos]

So if you survived my DNI criteria, welcome to my Tumblr! My name is Luna, but you can also call me Nei, Katzen, Arti or Monk, any of those 5 are completely valid! Extra points if you use all of them! I'm a beginner RW artist, I use the "#Nei's rw art" to tag my own art!!

Twitter refugee, you can't find me there anymore but you can find me in bluesky as @neidrakos.slugcat.me, in tiktok as neidrakos and in twitch, also as neidrakos

I'm looking for Rain World artist to follow, if you're an artist let me know in the comments here!

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So that would be my presentation, now, these are my rain world characters, feel free to ask me anything about them or "ask them" anything, I love talking about them!

Katzen or "The Pacifist": my scavsona, she's both an oc with her own lore and a representation of my past self. She's a scavenger adopted by slugcats who lives in gourmand's tribe. A very curious and sweet creature who's always getting in trouble because of her friendly personality, always trying to befriend absolutely anything that moves. (she/her)

Drachin or "The guardian": She's Katzen's sister, an acuatic slugcat capable of producing venom. She's also bioluminescent. Her title "guardian" comes from the fact that she's always taking care of Katzen, making sure no one hurts her. If you mess around with Katzen you mess around with her, and trust me, you don't want that, she might seem like a very calm and friendly creature, but if you dare hurt her young sister that's probably the last thing you'll ever do in that cycle. (She/Her)

Both of these characters together are called "The Discordants"

Centi or "The Mycologist": Centi is gourmand's tribe botanist and healer, it has a lot of knowledge in mushrooms and knows how to use them for medicine. It struggles a lot with showing and understanding emotions so it can come off as rude or cold, but the truth is that it deeply cares about everyone around it and it tries to help them as much as it can. (they/it)

Luna or "The Astrologist": My main slugsona, she belongs to the same alternate universe as the others, she's a purposed organism abandoned by her creator for being a "failed experiment", she had to learn to survive on her own while taking care of her siblings, which are also "failed" purposed organisms. She ended up finding her place between the others in gourmand's tribe. She is shy and can be perceived as rude with those who she doesn't know, but she is very sweet and calm when you get to know her (She/They) (Designed by rolandsmelons on Bsky and twitter, first drawing by him, the other one by me)

And last but not least

NEI, Narrow Entropy Insight or Entropy: She's my iterator Sona, once again she belongs to the same universe as the others. She's a GEN 1 iterator, one of the first 3 to ever be built in this universe. She is a special iterator, since she was one of the first iterators ever built she had an oversight in her system, a bug. While the ancients were around this wasn't a big deal since there was maintenance but when they all ascended this bug made her go offline. Everyone thought she was dead but she woke up a week later, everything was fine except for one thing, she lost her taboos and she was now free from them. With her taboos gone she decided to spend her time learning about the biodiversity on the planet, a hobby that turned out to be very beneficial for every other iterator, helping them with the big problem in her own way. She is a very calm and friendly iterator, she's considered (as well as Moon) the big sister of the group (she belongs to the same local group as Moon). She is also very friendly with other species and loves the company of little creatures, this has made her very popular amongst slugcats and scavengers who usually bring her gifts. She is the adoptive mother of Luna and the one who gave her that name (she gave her that name because of the symbol on her forehead and as a tribute to her best friend, Moon). Luna does not live with her but visits her regularly. Katzen and Drachin also have a strong bond with her. (She/They)

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[gatorboys22]

|•☆•☆•☆{Luck of the cards}☆•☆•☆•|

{☆} in which the boys play cards, featuring my Bug OC Keres and regular bug.

It was a normal night, everyone was bored so Keres decided to get her playing cards out. Shuffling and placing a entry fee of a few dollars. Or other valuables since not everyone had money on them.

Keres did have to teach Timmy and Bug how to play but they got the hang of it. But what caused the older woman's mood to shift was when Timmy kept winning. Causing her, Marco and Bug to get suspicious of him.

"It seems Timmy has lady luck on his side!" Bodie commented to shift attention off Timmy. Marco simply rolled his eyes and backed out giving Timmy a look.

"I don't trust him." Mumbling Marco then looked at Keres. Who was locking eyes with Timmy, causing the young gator to gulp.

"Timmy, Ima tell you now...if your somehow cheating I'm making a purse out of your skin." Keres hissed at the young gator. Who somehow had been winning at cards, even though he's a 'beginner'.

Tension in the room thickened as Timmy shrugged her off. Bodie looked between the two and chuckled nervously.

"Now come on Keres, he wouldn't do that. Plus he said its his first time playin'." Trying to lighten the mood once more. But this time Bug chimed in.

"You know...I would say beginners luck but he's won literally five times in a row." Grumbling Bug glared at the curly haired gator. Timmy shrugged as he turned his attention to Keres who was quiet.

Then he threw his cards down showing off a winning hand. Everyone groaned throwing theirs down as well. Marco shook his head at them all for not opting out sooner.

"Why would I cheat? Not my fault y'all are bad." Giggling, Timmy reached his arms out taking the spoils. When a card fell from his vest, everyone froze.

Bug turned to Keres who looked crazy, grabbing her big knife and lunging across the table. Chaos erupted as Bodie grabbed her and Bug shoved Timmy out the room. Marco sighed as he got up and started to sort everyone's things Timmy tried to take.

"IM GONNA SKIN-" Yelling from Keres wascut off by Bodie shovingher other couch. A stern glare made her huff and cross her arms.

"The knife." Commanding, Bodie smiled gently as Keres handed it over. Sighing he rubbed his face, "That boy really knows how to pick fights, huh?"

Marco snorted hearing Bodies comment, then walking outside he heard Timmy getting ripped into. Bug was scolding him for tricking everyone, especially Keres who out of everyone would fight him.

"Oh com'on it ain't that bad." Timmy tried to reason. But Bug kept eye contact with him, causing the young gator to sigh. "Okay fine. I'll apologize.... Hopefully she don't kill me-"

The Whispering at the end made Bug and Marco laugh a bit. The croc peaked inside and once determined that Keres was calm gestured the two to follow. Where they saw the older lady on the couch glaring at the floor and Bodie cleaning up the table.

"I wanna apologize. Sorry for cheatin' Keres. Kinda of a habit to keep cards on me." Mumbling Timmy looked at Keres, who huffed and got up. Cracking a grin she leaned down looking at Timmy in the eyes.

"Oh I'm definitely takin' you with me when I'm gambling. Your lucky no ones caught you yet, because then you'd be dead." Cackling Keres then wrapped a arm around Timmy. Walking back to the table she sat him down and threw a pouch on the table.

"Holy shit that-"

"Yep, a fuck ton of gold. Now, let's see who can get it ya fuck." Challenging, Keres looked at Bodie, "Shuffle, I'm going against him."

The older gator nodded and started shuffling, Marco sighed and sat on the couch. Bug went and stood by Bodie watching the gator shuffle. Allthree of them wonder if it'll go well, but time will only tell.

[jaybug-jabbers]

Just some notes I am making for myself!!

Isopod Shopping List:

✔️ Glass aquarium/vivarium (ensure lid has fine mesh to keep out pests; a lid that's partially glass will make it easier to maintain humidity)

✔️ Humidity gauge/thermometer (50-60%, 70-85 degrees F)

✔️ Bark 'hides' and (safe) decorative pieces; cork bark is common

✔️ Squirt bottle for misting

✔️ Substrate (common ones: topsoil, coco fiber, coco chips, sand, charcoal, small pieces of bark/wood, sphagnum moss; the moss helps retain moisture and thus is handy but don't use too much; ensure the soil used has no fertilizer beads or other 'extras' in it):

✔️ Topsoil/Potting Soil

✔️ Worm castings

✔️ Fir Bark Chips

✔️ Charcoal

✔️ Sphagnum Moss

✔️ Dead leaves (primary food source; some people boil or bake them to sterilize but others don't; a variety of leaf types will work; some commonly used ones include maple, oak, birch, elm, cottonwood, etc; thinner leaves and older, more 'rotten' leaves are tastiest to them, but be sure to inspect for mold or hitchhikers; provide plenty of leaves in a layer over the whole tank)

Additional dead organic matter can include seed pods such as magnolia pods, lichen, or other goodies

✔️ Nutrient-rich foods (secondary food source; a variety of things can be used including fish flakes, dried bloodworms, dried shrimp, small pieces of produce scraps, specialized products such as Repashy Morning Wood and Repashy Bug Burger, etc) to be provided in very small amounts that can be eaten quickly and any excess removed before it molds; experiment to see how long it takes for them to consume it and what they prefer to eat

✔️ Cuttlebone (broken up) may be provided if desired for extra calcium

Springtails may be added to help control mold and pests

Isopod Care Notes:

Some keepers have a 'damp' side and a 'drier' side to allow the isopods to regulate their own preferences; sphagnum moss works good for the damp side, and situate a vent by the dry side if possible

Heat should not be needed unless your room is especially cool

Most keepers prefer deep substrate for the isopods to burrow, but some prefer shallower substrate so they can keep track of their stock better (they use a compacted substrate layer and place a looser, shallower burrowing layer on top)

Substrate does not need to be changed often but every few months is a good idea to refresh its nutrients and remove excess frass & ammonia buildup

Exact environmental preferences will depend on the species of isopod; while their needs are often very similar it's important to always double-check about your exact species

Isopods will reproduce readily (females carry the eggs in their bodies and will give 'birth' to live isopods) and the little babbies (mancae) start off very teeny so be careful when you're cleaning

Invert keepers have bred a TON of varieties of isopods, at differing 'difficulty' and price levels; make sure you are purchasing isopods that have been bred in captivity and not poached from the wild; and obviously never release pets into the wild

Some Beginner Isopods & Pretty Color Morphs:

Armadillidium nasatum (Nosy Pillbug): Peach, Orange, White Out/Pearl

Armadillidium vulgare (Roly-Poly): Orange Vigor, St. Lucia, Magic Potion

Porcellio scaber (Rough Woodlouse): Dalmation, Orange Koi, Lava

Porcellio laevis (Swift Woodlouse): Dairy Cow

Cubaris murina (Little Sea Isopod): Anemone, Glacier

Questions for Sellers:

Opinions on enclosures, especially with regards to maintaining proper moisture and airflow

Opinions on where to safely collect leaf litter (esp this time of year), boiling to sterilize (potential nutrition loss)

Species

Where do you get your isopods?

[enemyoflactose]

I finished rewatching season 1 of Yu-Gi-Oh. My redemption arc is 1/5 complete. (I have to watch the dub because I don't wanna support Crunchyroll and I don't know where else to watch the sub)

My main thoughts are about voice acting since of all the arcs, Duelist Kingdom and Domino City side stories make me the least angry.

So to start off, a comparison between Dub and Sub acting and which voice I like more as of now.

Yami: His sub voice in season 1 is honestly so cute. He just sounds like he's having a constant blast.

His dub voice on the other hand, sounds so hot 🥵. And Dub Yami is what's keeping me from doing drugs.

Overall, I like both a lot. I do however think Dan just makes the character.

Little Yugi: similar thing as Yami, only his dub voice doesn't sound hot. Just cute. I love both voices and honestly can't pick between them.

Joey Wheeler: I like his dub voice more. That's where the personality is. His sub voice just sounds generic.

Tristan: For the first few episodes of the dub, Tristan has this really stupid voice that I just don't like, so for that alone I like his sub voice more.

But then from the Rex duel and onward it's Greg Abby, and then I like both his sub and dub voice.

Téa: I think I prefer her sub voice. Just a little less grating. (I still love you Téa)

Ryou: He sounds like Gachapoid in the sub 🥺. I love Gachapoid!

His british accent tho 😩

Yami Bakura: Gachapoid doesn't suit him unfortunately. I like his dub voice more.

Pegasus: stunning. Both of them. The performance is impeccable. But Dub Pegasus never said "Jesus Christ".

Seto Kaiba: a hard one. In the sub he screams so much, but in the dub he doesn't sound like he's one insult away from killing himself... I can't decide.

Mokuba: they both sound the same.

Mai: I think I prefer dub. Just sounds deeper idk.

Weevil: I love him and his voices.

Rex: I prefer his sub voice. Just less grating and he doesn't sound like he has bronchitis.

Everyone else: meh. Could go either way.

Now to talk about the characters, and if I relearned anything:

Téa's friendship speeches are so sweet and cheesey I can't believe people don't like them. She is always there for her friends and clearly cares so much. I will never forgive Téa bashers for what they did to her during the great Yaoi Revolution.

Joey isn't as stupid as I remember him being, just a beginner at Duel Monsters. Nothing wrong with that. He's trying. His utter determination to get that money for his sister's operation is seriously so heart warming. I love whenever he says "Time roulette go!"

Tristan threw a dead body at Satan. And grabbed Ryou's leg while climbing the tower because he was getting impatient.

Yugi being uncertain of Yami until the Bakura duel is crazy. Like he wasn't even having memory issues. Bro huh? He's also so supportive! Like baby boy was the one to suggest he and Yami fight PaniK for Mai. He told Yami not to attack Kaiba and send him falling to his death. He gave Joey Time Wizard! Yugi is a bro.

Yami is such a good friend. Helping Joey out with duels, got Mai her star chips back, freed both Mokuba and Kaiba's souls because Mokuba asked, tried getting pink shirt his star chips back, and never believing that Joey couldn't duel by himself.

Ryou was, certainly there. Honestly his impact doesn't really matter. He just explains Duel Monsters to Tristan and Téa whenever Yugi is dueling. His first appearance isn't even that impressive because instead of killing himself to save everyone like in the manga, Yami switches the places of Ryou and Yami Bakura. So even if he tries to help, someone else always helps way more.

Yami Bakura is so hot. I'd suck his dick if he asked. I also just love how his deck can not only do tarot readings, but is also really annoying to go up against. Like boy had 3 morphing jars, an electric lizard, a man eater bug, and change of heart. Those cards were fucking devastating back in the day. He also would have won that duel if he used Just Desserts one turn later, but oh well. Why did he lick the millennium eye tho? I get the tarot reading, but why did he lick the eye?

Mokuba. Oh sweet Mokuba. He just wants to help his brother, but he suffers so much.

Kaiba is awesome. He hacks into Industrial Illusions and causes a satellite to crash into an office. Killing people. He helps Yami win a duel. He rips a Blue Eyes. He annihilates with Crush Card Virus. My man uses Saggi the Dark Clown. His devotion to rescuing Mokuba is amazing and is really what has me start caring for him when I first watched the series 5 years ago. His comebacks and sheer distaste for the Yugi gang are fun and amazing to watch.

Pegasus, the star of season 1. He's in my top 5 favorite characters list. I absolutely love eccentric villains, especially when they love cartoons and are actually threatening. Pegasus is a beast. If we ignore his millennium eye for now, he's a fantastic and fun duelist! His deck is interesting and entertaining to watch, neither of his duels were boring, and the man is so funny. "Do I spin it like a top, or roll it like a ball!" I love him. He's also (so far) the only villain I feel genuine empathy towards. Y'all, I'm a sap. If a villain's reason is being evil because they lost their Significant other than I'm sorry I'm crying. My poor guy.

Grandpa: he trained Joey and Yugi, he gave Yugi his deck, he appeared in dream sequences to help Yugi beat his opponents, and he gave Yugi the puzzle. If this man didn't exist, Yu-Gi-Oh wouldn't happen.

Duke Devlin: I forgot how much I hated him when I first watched his dumbass Dungeon Dice Monster 4 episode showdown. He's so fucking mean.

Rebecca: not much to say other than I like her.

The duels:

Seto vs Yami (first duel of the series): a fantastic way to start off the series. Kaiba finds out Yugi's grandpa has the Blue Eyes White Dragon card he's been searching for, he steals it, rips it, and Yugi challenges him to a duel.

Yami takes control and is surprised by Kaiba's duel arena having the ability to make life-like holograms of the monsters on the cards.

The duel begins and for the entire thing, it's honestly pretty equal. Yami summons a monster, Kaiba destroys it. Kaiba summons a monster, Yami destroys it.

It's a back and forth kind of deal until Kaiba pulls out his own Blue Eyes White Dragon card, shocking Yami. He surprises Yami again by summoning another Blue Eyes, but then gets hit with swords of revealing light.

Kaiba summons Judge Man, and it gets Destroyed by the Dark Magician.

During this, Yugi is having his doubts about winning because of Kaiba's Blue Eyes and can't seem to draw cards. Especially when Kaiba summons his third Blue Eyes White Dragon and destroys the Dark Magician.

This leads into Yami and Yugi having an inter monologue with Grandpa about Exodia. How Exodia is split into pieces. Pieces like a puzzle.

Yami gains the courage to draw and he gets all five pieces of Exodia! Instantly winning the duel!

Kaiba is then given a mind crush and starts to question all his life choices.

Rex vs Weevil (half a duel): in this not really a duel, we are introduced to two characters. Since they have names they are obviously important to the plot.

The duel starts with Rex summoning King Rex and instantly getting vortexed. Then Weevil summons his Basic Insect and equips it with Insect Lazer Cannon. This lets him wipe out all of Rex's Life Points.

Weevil is then named Regional Champion, and Rex is the runner up.

Yugi vs Pegasus (second real duel): this is where we are introduced to Pegasus as a villain.

He makes Yugi duel him on a 15 min time lock.

During this duel, Pegasus is cheating. Not just with his millennium eye, but he's sending subliminal messages to Yami. It's not mentioned in the dub, but it still happens.

Yami finds out that duel monsters was created in ancient Egypt and Pegasus starts talking up a storm so he can waste time.

Pegasus wins the duel due to the time limit and steals Grandpa's soul.

Weevil vs Yami (the third duel): This duel was initiated because Weevil decided to be a little dick and threw Exodia off the ship to Duelist Kingdom.

Yami bets his deck and star chip, Weevil bets both his star chips.

The duel begins, and we find out about field power bonuses. Insects get lower from the forest, warriors get theirs from the meadow, dragons and winged beasts get theirs from the mountains, zombies get them from the wastelands, and fiends get theirs during night time.

Unfortunately, Yami doesn't get many bonuses.

During the duel, Weevil summons a full board of monsters. He gets mirror forced.

Then he plays his Petite Moth and Cocoon of Evolution combo. He gets Burning Landed.

He then summons his Great Moth. He gets Makiyued and Summoned Skulled.

This is a simple explanation of what happened, but Yami wasn't met without struggle.

A lot of his monsters that he summoned got destroyed. They usually only lasted one turn.

Anyways, Yami won and has three star chips. Joey steals Weevil's dueling glove.

Joey vs Mai (Duel 4): this is Joey's first duel! Hooray!

He doesn't understand that his land monsters can't attack flying monsters, and gets demolished.

Mai adds several equip spells and uses Elegant Egotist to multiply her Harpie lady card.

Joey finds out Mai is cheating with perfume.

Joey then summons Baby Dragon and the Time Wizard and uses them to win the duel.

He got a star chip and his first rival!

Mako vs Yami (duel 5): Yami duels Mako Tsunami.

Mako's monsters are in the water and can't be attacked.

Yami attacks the moon and then uses his Burning Land card.

Yami wins

Mokuba vs Yami (half duel): Mokuba is trying to keep Yami from dueling Pegasus because he wants to save his brother's company.

He loses the duel.

Yami vs Ghost Kaiba (duel 6): Kaiba jumped off a cliff and died. Now his ghost is dueling Yami.

He's psychology tormenting everyone except Tristan. Mokuba quickly became distraught.

Ghost Kaiba summons his Blue Eyes one at a time, and they all get destroyed.

The first one is destroyed by the real Kaiba because OH MY! He ain't dead! That's just some fat ass pretending to be Kaiba! (Or he's Kaiba's dark half)

The second Blue Eyes gets destroyed because Yami summoned Mystical Elf and Raised the Attack points of the Blue eyes he stole from the graveyard.

Yami wins the duel!

Mokuba got rekidnapped tho.

Joey vs Rex (duel 7): Rex is dueling Joey because he wants to duel Mai, but Mai will only duel him if he beats Joey.

Joey again gets his ass beat and is saved by Time Wizard.

His spoils are some chips and the Red Eyes Black Dragon!!!!

Yami Bakura vs Yami (duel 8): in this duel we are introduced to two new characters. Ryou Bakura and Yami Bakura.

Before the duel, the gang and Ryou are talking about their favorite cards (important). Then Ryou challenges Yugi to a duel, Yami Bakura appears, takes them to the Shadow Realm, puts the squads souls in their favorite cards, then tries to steal the puzzle.

Yami challenges Yami Bakura to a duel and when he summons the Cyber Commander, he finds out that all of his have had their souls placed inside their favorite cards.

Tristan dies to the white magical hat or some shit and Joey Flame Swordsman gets summoned. Then Tristan Cyber Commander gets resurrected, then Yugi Dark Magician gets summoned, then Téa Magician of Faith gets places face down. (She's a flip monster)

Throughout this whole ass duel Yami and the gang are getting their ass handed to them.

Yami gets Morphing Jared like 3 times, had Man Eater Bug eat Joey, had Just Desserts taking life points from him, and Yami Bakura was looking at him like

(𓁹‿ 𓁹)

The whole time.

Anyway, Yami Bakura plays the Change of Heart card and we get to see Ryou in a dress.

We get to see Ryou in another dress because he betrays Yami Bakura and takes control of his Lady of Faith and tells Yugi to attack him.

Yami then thinks about how Yami Bakura took the souls of his friends out of their bodies and put them in the cards and then wonders if he can do the same. He can he does.

We then see Yami Bakura in a dress but he doesn't slay as hard as Ryou.

Yami Bakura is defeated but he took a page out of William Afton's book because he comes back instantly.

Yami vs PaniK (duel 9): This duel starts immediately after Mai gets defeated by PaniK.

Yugi calls this fucking giant of a man a bully, PaniK tries to kill him with fire, and the duel starts.

PaniK is hiding in the dark and Yami calls him a pussy multiple times.

PaniK sure is a duelist. He loses his temper easily and doesn't think about the opponent's strategy. This Leads his Reaper of The Cards to get caught in a Magic Circle (I can't remember the name) and destroyed by his monster.

PaniK gets Swords of Revealing Lighted and his Castle of Dark Illusions has its floatation ring knocked off. His monsters get destroyed and he loses.

Mai got her star chips back :D

Joey vs Kaiba (duel 10? Does this one even count?): the entire duel is Joey getting annihilated. He loses. Badly.

And Kaiba gets insulted.

Joey vs Bonz (duel 11): This duel happened because Joey got kidnapped.

We also get introduced to Bonz, Sid, Zygor, and Bandit Keith.

Bandit Keith used to be the intercontinental champion, and he hates Pegasus.

Bonz is just a little guy who doesn't really like Bandit Keith, but he wants to duel with his zombie cards. Keith is helping him out. So they just gotta work together.

Sid and Zygor are Bonz's friends. They're just kinda there.

During this duel, they are in a cave and Joey is getting scared because Bonz is ugly (no he's not 😤) and zombies are spooky.

Joey is managing pretty alright for the first half because Keith keeps making Bonz play not zombies and they keep getting destroyed.

However, Keith wanted this. Because he put a Call of the Haunted in Bonz's deck. This means that Bonz can bring his monsters back from the graveyard as zombies, they're indestructible, get stronger each time they come back, and they keep destroying Joey's monsters.

Bonz then summons his Pumpking and makes his zombies stronger, but it gets destroyed by the Red Eyes Black Dragon.

Then Red Eyes gets destroyed by ways I don't remember.

Now all Joey has left is his Battle Warrior and Sword and Shield.

He summons Battle Warrior , uses Sword and Shield, wins the duel!

The Yugi gang are now trapped in a cave and Bonz and his friends get their shit rocked by Bandit Keith.

Joey and Yami vs the Paradox brothers (duel 12): Ryou leads the gang here.

We meet the Paradox brothers. A pair of eccentric twins who can't shut up and keep rhyming.

The duel is a tag duel. Meaning they take turns, if one opponent loses all of their life points that team loses, and they can help each other out.

The duel is in a maze. Each card can move up a space for as many levels as it is.

Beaver Warrior gets destroyed instantly by the Wall Shadow, which gets destroyed by KUNAI WITH CHAIN.

Some other shit happen, Yami and Joey gotta face some tank and a worm and spider.

Don't know what happened to the tank, the spider got stabbed with Mystic Box, and the worm had something something Magical Hats.

Gate Guardian is a thing and Yami says it's in the class of Exodia even tho it's not an instant win. (Shout out Gate Guardian for getting support 😔✊)

Yami and Joey won the duel with Black Skull Dragon and make it out of the maze with some coins.

Yami vs Kaiba ( Duel 13): this duel starts after Pegasus told Kaiba that dueling him was a privilege, not a right.

Yami and Kaiba duel with the new Duel Disk system. They're using the advanced rules, that's why it's one monster at a time.

With the duel system, you can recall your monsters and replace them with a different one.

Yami falls for the Crush Card Virus trap and can now only use weak monsters.

He makes his Kuriboh wall, and Kaiba summons his Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon to try and get past it. He doesn't.

Yami then uses his stupid fucking arrow card that I can never remember the name of because it's so stupid and dumb to fuse his Mammoth Graveyard to the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon.

The dragon starts to decay, Kaiba has a panic attack and threatens to kill himself, Yami says "Bet", Yugi stops him, Kaiba wins.

Téa vs Mai ( duel 14): Téa wants to get Yugi his star chips back and challenges Mai to a duel.

During this duel Téa summons a bunch of wimpy cards like Petite Angel and most of them get destroyed by Mai's Harpie Lady.

Mai has a bunch of equip spells on her Harpie and Téa Wabokued her once.

Shining Friendship gets summoned, gets an equip spell, and Téa activates De-spell to remove Mai's equips.

Mai surrenders and Téa gives Yugi some chips.

Pegasus vs Kaiba (duel 15): in this duel Kaiba is trying to get his brother back.

Kaiba tries to get Pegasus to use his new Duel Disk system, but it doesn't go well.

The duel begins and Kaiba destroys some of Pegasus's monsters, but then Pegasus steals a Blue eyes and turns it into an Ugly Ass Toon.

Kaiba starts losing.

We learn that toon monsters are hard to destroy because they hide in a book.

Also Kaiba falls for his own Crush Card Virus trap and loses.

Mai vs Yami (duel 16): I'm pretty sure Yami was originally being sexist, but I watched the dub so Yugi is the one actually doing most of the dueling here. He doesn't want Mai getting hurt.

Yugi and Yami keep falling for the stupid Mirror Wall thing and their monsters keep getting wrecked.

Then we see Harpies Pet Dragon.

Yugi Mind Controls it and puts it on a catapult to destroy the Mirror Wall (shit looked epic).

Harpies Pet Dragon comes back and we get three Harpie Ladies.

Yugi let's Yami help and they do the Black Luster Soldier ritual and win.

Joey vs Bandit Keith (duel 17): I love this duel.

Joey gets his entry card stolen and Mai gives him hers, so wholesome.

During the duel Joey is fucking shit up. He's doing so good.

Then Keith starts cheating. But Joey prevails.

He uses trap hole, kunai with chain, time wizard, baby dragon, red eyes black metal dragon, and time machine!

Bandit Keith is using Machines and everyone is wondering why. Like bro, machines are a good monster type with a lotta cards.

Anyway Keith is pulling cards out of his wrist band, tries to use Shield and Sword to wipe out Joey, it doesn't work, Keith loses.

Then Keith tries to say that Joey didn't use his own tournament entry card, but Joey shuts that down

Then Keith gets accused of cheating and is sent falling to not at all death.

Yami vs Joey (duel 18): we have to sit through a long ass montage.

Joey throws some cards away, Yami wonders why.

Yami falls for a few traps, then Joey falls for some traps, this whole time Ryou is explaining the birth of the universe to Téa while Tristan kinda stares off into space.

Joey uses his last Time Wizard of the season to bring out his Thousand Dragon, but Yami planned this.

Yami's Dark Magician has become the Dark Sage and he uses Makiyu to stop Joey's attack and wipe out Joey's life points.

Yami wins and I cried the first time I saw this duel.

Pegasus vs Yami (duel 19): the final duel of the arc.

Pegasus tells Yami that if he wins he gets whatever he wants, but if Pegasus wins he gets his soul and the puzzle.

Yami says he wants Mokuba, Kaiba, and Grandpa's souls to be released and Pegasus says "Damn I thought you hated Kaiba", but Yami just doing that for Mokuba.

The duel starts, and Yami is immediately having trouble. He can't destroy the rooms and the Gorgon's Eye is keeping him from defending.

Pegasus also turned Summoned Skull into a toon and it's being creepy.

Yami keeps getting his mind read and Yugi comes in like "what if we switch places?" And Yami says they should.

This gives Pegasus some trouble. It gives him so much trouble that the toon world gets destroyed and he takes the duel to the Shadow Realm.

Yugi dies.

The Yugi gang feel this and send him some good vibes.

This means Pegasus still can't read Yami's mind.

Pegasus does some shit with Relinquish and Yami tries his Kuriboh stunt and his Magician of Black Chaos is there.

Yami wins and gets the souls back.

Pegasus does like 10 minutes later.

Other shit that happened that was interesting/Important:

During the Pegasus and Yami duel, Tristan and Yami Bakura go off on an adventure to find Mokuba's body. This leads to the ring getting thrown in the forest.

The ring goes back to Ryou because love or something.

In the sub Mai offered Rex anything he wanted during their first encounter. This was changed in the dub.

We still don't know how Ryou snuck in the ship to Duelist Kingdom.

Shadi doesn't even try to find Yami Bakura. He just goes to one person (Yugi) and gives up.

I'll never forgive 4kids for editing out Yami Bakura sexily licking the Millennium Eye.

If Joey had a Magic Jammer he would have won his duel with Yami.

Domino City side stories:

Rebecca's cool. I like her.

Rebecca vs Yami (duel 20): this duel happened because Grandpa got accused of stealing Rebecca's Blue Eyes White Dragon card.

Rebecca's strategy is also pretty good for the time. Her deck is centered around milling cards to power up her Shadow Goul, and she uses cards like Witch of the Black Forest and Sangan to do this.

During the duel Grandpa is having flashbacks because he had a duel go exactly like this. We find out Rebecca is the granddaughter of Grandpa's friend, Arthur.

Yugi drew Soul Release, but didn't use it because... I don't know. We find out that's how the duel between Arthur and Grandpa ended.

Arthur appears, says some shit, and we never see Rebecca again.

That dumbass game thing:

I wasn't paying attention to this because there weren't any actual duels and I didn't like this part.

Duke Devlin:

This bitch really gonna say Yugi cheats in his duels and steal all the girls. Bro.

Duke vs Joey (duel 21): Joey almost wins, But Duke does an ass pull and wins at 50 life points.

Duke vs Yami (Dungeon Dice Monsters): Duke doesn't explain shit because Yami is King Of Games and should know how to play a game he's never heard of.

Duke makes fun of Yami for not knowing how to play the game he never explained, gets angry when Yami figures stuff out, and is just an ass this whole game.

I wasn't really paying attention, until shit actually started to happen because there was just a whole lotta nothing.

Eventually both players have monsters on the field, some are doing magic, others are just standing there.

Orgoth the Relentless is certainly a thing. He gets beat by the Dark Magician.

Yami wins.

Other thoughts on the Domino City stories:

I laughed when Joey told Duke "I like ya game, just not you."

More characters gotta duel like Rebecca.

The existence of Adina is weird. If Kaiba made her, ಠ⁠_⁠ಠ. If the Big Five Made her, then fine I get it. Mokuba is like a damsel in distress. I just don't like it.

I hope you enjoy this long ass wall of text. My redemption is going steady. I have noticed no change other than being slightly more unhinged.

Imma do this every time I finish a season.

[morningstar-warriors]

Game Eleven

Thoughts and Development

I started recording the sessions, we all play online so I figured, why not! It'd be easy to show folks what they missed if they couldn't make it, or look back on mechanical moments that felt flawed. Plus it's very easy to now find direct quotes from players which is cool!

Aside from this another large development is a new player, Button. He is playing a cat called Ashwind, and plans on making occasional appearances here and there. Button is helping me develop a new kind of Stoneteller, he's into playing Warlocks in D&D so he got me to thinking on how we could make a cat warlock that would make sense in the Warriors world. Right now we're going with a necromancer vibe for his cat, and I'm excited to update the Stoneteller post with our more fleshed out concept.

Present issues that I plan on tackling --

Ability Scores

These guys are kinda... Just there. I honestly don't know what to do with them, they feel irrelevant to how the game works at this time. I may go about adding them to dice rolls for skill checks, or scrapping them all together. In the original game, ability scores were actually meant to represent how much chips you had, but Bug and I didn't like this, it didn't feel very customizable when it came to knacks.

Skills and Dice

So there are 5 points you can have in each skill. I've been playing this in a way where, you add that to your dice roll. Which the standard role in my game is, a 2d6. So if you have 4 points in a skill, it's 2d6+4. Another test player group recommended to me that this could instead be a die pool, so it physically feels like you have more. Visual progression. Aside from dice, I realize game wise, I need to have a better grasp of the skills. Sometimes I feel like some things are... Missing from them? I still can't quite place it though. Like there are some things my dnd brain wishes there were rolls for, but I feel like if I keep refreshing my understanding of the skills that part of me would melt away. I don't think it's necessary to have a million skills, and its important in a cat game to feel like... A cat. An animal. So I think these skills are very important as is for now.

The Knack Problem

There are so so so many knacks. I'm not even sure if knacks are the route I'd like to go anymore. Or at the very least they need a lot of restructuring. I was suggested knacks that cost more chips should be higher level. Since at level 1, you dont have many chips to spare. I think thats wise. Alternatively I could give knacks the "At higher level" treatment, and state that certain actions you could take through the knack cost more/are more effective with the use of more chips. For now I don't know, I can also see the concept of knacks disappearing and becoming something else. I like the physicality of the chips though.

Misc Chips... BOOOOO

So these are dead to me. Way too confusing HAHA! I'm thinking so far everything starts off as a point buy. So you just get 5 chips, put them anywhere its up to you. but no holding onto empty chips, I feel like that just confuses people. My second test player group didnt get it at all and my first one is struggling with it as well. Third group I chose to ignore the idea aaaand that went way smoother lol.

Damage and Health

So I'm debating switching from a number based HP to concepts like Apocalypse or Monster of the Week, where you just have points of "Hurt" rather than a number that slowly dwindles. This would lead to a large restructure of many things I think, so I'm kinda nervous to tackle this right now, but considering my issues around ability scores and knacks, I think this is a necessary path to take. I'll start researching these games further and probably start making the changes once I feel satisfied with the remaining parts of V. 1 that need finishing. Which is Leveling, and the Leader Code.

Beginner and Child Friendliness

So a few times in here I mentioned some math. Adding the ability scores, dice pooling. These things were fun suggestions, but my test player groups also mentioned that the less math, the more player friendly. I know as a kid the idea of a game like D&D sounded fun, but making a character was a dreadfully boring behemoth. I know not all children are opposed to complex ideas and some adding and subtraction, but I do know that most people play role-playing games for the role-play. That's something I want to prioritize in my development. I will say I'm proud of how easy it seems for my test groups to make characters, and learn how to play. I'm glad my writing and guidance is competent.

[panfishonthefly]

Red Butt House Fly

The Red Butt House Fly is a floating pattern that can imitate a wide range of terrestrial insects. The pattern is a spinoff of a trout fly I tied to imitate the common green bottle fly. The original pattern for trout fishing lacked the crystal flash tail and was tied smaller on a size 14 hook. It was a good late-season searching pattern when trout were accustomed to feeding on various terrestrial insects. The fly also served as a good imitation of the deer fly, a biting pest found in damp, wooded, or wetland environments such as marshes, ponds, and streams in many locations. On some waters I can add a hundred bodies of this scourge of an insect to the water in a day's fishing as I continually swat at them as they try to bite me! I'm sure some of those dead flies end up in a fish's stomach.

The Panfish Version

The panfish version was tied on a larger size 12 hook (smaller and larger versions will also work) and included the addition of a short crystal flash tail for a little extra bling and movement when fished on still waters. Panfish show a distinct preference for the larger, dressed-up version. These insects often have distinctly colored red or burgundy eyes, so I added them. The red foam eyes on the fly may be overkill, so feel free to omit them. Color and contrast can make a difference in certain conditions. I can't say it makes this fly any more productive, but I go the extra yard by tying it with red thread and adding the red foam eyes. If you believe hot spots trigger a fish to take a fly, experiment with any color you like, or go with black thread and omit the eyes to create a strong silhouette.

The Fly That Saved The Day

This fly once saved what would have been a fruitless day on the water on one of my trout-guiding trips a few years back. It was a very chilly fall morning, and the fishing was off. A few fish were rising to the odd midge, but I like to keep things simple on guide trips, and size 24 flies on 7x tippet seemed like a bit much for the beginner angler I was working with. However, the nymphs and streamers I fish on these waters were not producing as usual.

The occasional rise of a fish had my client itching to catch a fish. So I had him reel in and took the rod from him to re-rig with a fine leader and small midge pattern. As I was doing this, I noticed bits of what appeared to be hay or straw floating downstream. Whenever some straw passed downstream, the fish began to feed on the surface in earnest, and then it would subside until more straw floated by. I studied the water's surface to identify what the fish were feeding on. When another batch of straw floated by, I observed a dark speck on the water. Following the speck downstream, I watched a nice trout rise confidently and eat it.

I caught the next speck floating downstream and was surprised to find a dead common house fly in my hand. I reached for my sling bag to grab my terrestrial box, only to remember that I had removed it and replaced it with another midge box a few weeks earlier after the first killing frost.

I dug through several fly boxes for an appropriate imitation but came up empty. While putting away my last box, I noticed a mangled green fly stuck in the drying patch on my sling bag among the dozens of other flies residing there. I plucked it from the drying patch and figured, "What the hell, it's worth a try."

The fly was the Red Butt House Fly. I don't recall how or when this fly found its way onto my trout bag, but there it was. I quickly opened my Leatherman tool and used the scissors to snip away the crystal flash tail. The fly was larger than the bugs the fish were feeding on, but it was our only option.

I cut back that long 7x leader to a shorter one that probably terminated at around 5x. I then tied on the fly and returned the rod to my client. A fish rose to the fly on his first cast, but he set too soon and missed the fish. After a brief coaching session, he was at it again, and a few casts later, another fish rose to the fly. He set the hook perfectly this time and landed a nice rainbow trout. We fished that fly all morning, getting interest from almost every fish it passed. Many rejected the pattern due to its larger size, but there were enough less discriminating fish to save the day. The fishing abruptly stopped when a big trout grabbed the fly and was lost during the fight, taking the fly with him.

What took place that day is still a mystery. Just upstream of where we were fishing was a horse farm. The evidence of the bits of straw in the water indicated that there was some stall cleaning going on, and maybe the wind was carrying some of the debris to the water, and along with the straw were the flies either killed or stunned by the cold. There did not appear to be enough straw to indicate that somebody was deliberately dumping it in the river, so I could not say what was happening upstream.

Notes On Tying the Red Butt House Fly

I have a general rule that every fly pattern allows for substitutions of materials. Maybe you don't have a particular material on hand, or you have an idea to improve the pattern for your fishing needs. Always feel free to do so. Working in a fly shop, I encounter many tiers unwilling to swap out material just because a fly pattern calls for obscure or hard-to-find material. In the case of this pattern, for example, maybe an orange or yellow butt house fly is more to your liking. I added the crystal flash tail to add movement and contrast to the pattern, so if you have a color that you feel is more productive on your waters, go for it. The same goes for foam. If you don't have iridescent green-backed foam, use black, as the fish don't see the top of the fly. That material was chosen more for the fisherman than the fish.

The original trout version had an underbody of peacock herl, a delicate material. When I tie flies for panfish, I try to make them as robust as possible so they can withstand dozens of fish before wearing out. That is why I opted for a more durable synthetic herl or other synthetic body material. A list of some alternatives can be found in the pattern recipe below.

Since the pattern serves double duty as a general terrestrial insect imitation, you can change the foam color to whatever suits your needs. Tie the pattern in natural hues or bright attractor colors; I have found them all effective.

The Antron wing is a visual reference for the angler to keep track of the fly on the water's surface. While I use a cream-colored wing, feel free to make substitutions here. A hi-viz wing of yellow or orange can make the fly more visible in low-light conditions, and a wing of solid black gives the fly a good silhouette in high-glare situations.

The point here is to feel free to experiment and have fun behind the vise!

Pattern Recipe:

Hook: Standard Dry Fly size 12 ( feel free to tie the fly larger or smaller)

Thread: Red 6/0 Semperfli Classic Waxed

Tail: Red Crystal Flash trimmed to the width of the hook gap (omit on trout version)

Body: Peacock Green Loco Foam

Underbody: Semperfli Synthetic peacock herl, Semperfli Micro Fritz or Semperfli Straggle legs

Wing: Cream or other colored Antron trimmed to a length that reaches half of the tail

Eyes: Red Chicone's Fettuccine Foam

Hackle: Appropriately sized Grizzly dry fly hackle trimmed flush with the bottom

[pinechild]

I was watching Hazbin Hotel and I saw Alastor's design and I thought I've never seen a yandere story about a deer monster... So could you do that, please?

I’ve never watched Hazbin Hotel, but I do like what you’re thinking, anon. I’m rusty when it comes to writing full blown fics so go easy on me chat 🫡

Antlered, Stalking

◇ Gn! Reader

◇ Summary: You get lost in the woods after a heavy downpour washes away all of your markers to get back to your car, leaving you open for a yandere deer beast to ensnare you in his grasp. He thinks he’ll keep you - his newest mate.

◇ Warnings: horror themes, yandere themes, stalking (obvi), non consensual licking + touching, mentions of dead animals, entrapment, slightly suggestive, mention of gore, slight body horror, mention of bugs (?)

Torrential rainfall would be perfect for you, especially in this time of year, under different circumstances. But now, as your hair sticks to your face, cold and damp — your heart clamored in your ears; It was anything but.

The makeshift chalk markers you made for yourself on multiple trees on your hike instantly washed away once the storm rolled in. Leaving you, regrettably, lost.

In retrospect, you knew this wasn’t a good idea from the start, but human as you are, your own arrogance was your hubris—believing that since it’s never happened to you before, it’ll most likely not happen to you now. You know these woods like the back of your hand basically, so what if there’s a little rain?

Now you wish you could choke your past self out for being so imperious. You imagine choking your past self like in old timey cartoons, comedically bulging eyes and all. It makes you huff out some air through your nose thinking about it.

Cell service was pretty much abysmal out here—you knew that, even the most beginner of hikers (those with half a brain, anyway) knew the forest in this area was just so thick that it would be mere impossible for any radio waves to pass through. So, the next best thing is—

You fiddle inside your pockets, methodically searching for something like a well oiled machine before you hunch over and let the rain pelt against your back and bead off of your jacket. The sensation of harsh rain hitting your spine wasn’t pleasant, but you’d rather not let a single drop soak the inside your bag as you continue to search for the item you’re looking for.

The only sounds that filter in are rustles of the various doodads and the opening and closing of various zippers - the rain was nothing more than static while you continue your search. That is, until one of your fingertips bumps into something cool and metallic.

Fishing it out from the different kits and crinkled up cliff bar wrappers, you rest the little weighty tool in the palm of your hand: your compass. And ultimately, your salvation.

A smile tugs at your lips looking at it. Hope slowly overshadowing your initial irritation.

With a slight tremble of your fingers (mostly due to the cold) you lift up the compass, breath bating as the needles slightly jerk from its magnetic pull. ‘Where to next little guy?’ You think.

However, the needles instantly spin precariously at a nauseating pace, just going round and round and round until your eyes grow dizzy just looking at it.

What the fuck? Is this thing broken? How?? Didn’t this work before?

Irritation creeps back in your system as you let out an exasperated groan, clutching at the compass until your knuckles were white. Almost damn near breaking the thing. Feeling a little defeated, you make shelter under a nearby tree and let your back rest on its trunk while you angrily mumble curses to yourself.

This shit is ass. Major ass.

You thread your fingers through your hair as you think, starting between your legs as your muddied sneakers bounce anxiously. Whats another method to get out of here you think? Surely you shouldn’t stay put and wait out the rain right? It’s far too cold to stay out like this for too long and there’s no telling how long the rain will last — not to mention staying put will leave you susceptible to any predators roaming about.

Speaking of predators…

You lift your head to get a good look around you, scanning as much of the forest as you can see from the sheets of rain. Everything’s…still. Eerily so. You could’ve sworn you’ve heard some birds and squirrels skitter a few paces back — did they just hide from the rain probably?

But even so, that doesn’t mean the bears will. And the silence does nothing to ease the growing anxiety thats tangling its roots around your stomach. You need to get out of here before becoming brown bear food.

—

Mud squelches and plops under your shoes, caking it even more as the cold starts to nip at your fingertips. The only thing right now your mind can focus on is just getting out of here, even if it’s just aimless wandering in trying to retrace your steps. Your eyes scan for any wildlife as you move through the dense forest floor, trying to avoid slick rocks or uneven earth that could cause you to roll your ankle.

However, the more you try to retrace your steps….the more you feel an uneasiness prickle at the nape of your neck; hairs and goosepimples uncomfortably standing on end.

There’s something off.

Whatever it is, you don’t know. But something inside you— that little man screaming in your head— is telling you something’s wrong here.

The silence is too stagnant. Stifling even, devoid of life and left hollow like a cored out corpse. It’s unnatural, and the thought of it makes your lips twist in a grimace.

You reach for the compass you shoved in your jacket, pulling it out to see the needles are still spinning ad nausem. It kind of confirms your suspicions that whatever’s happening here is not normal.

And you don’t know if it makes you feel better or sick to your stomach.

Any thoughts however were ultimately snuffed by a shrill sound. Echoing throughout the forest, even through the thickest of bramble—an eerie, grating sound rattles your ear drums; one that mimics decrepit metal doors opening on rusted hinges. It’s a familiar sound, but haunting all the same. Just where have you heard this before?

It’s a chilling sound like it belongs in a horror movie— matter of fact you think you did hear this in a horror movie. That scraping sound violating at your ears like nails on a chalkboard, something all too familiar.

But just what is it? It’s not likely that it’s an instrument being played, especially in this weather. Only someone as big of an idiot as you would be out here playing an instrument to fuck with you— so that’s highly unlikely. Not to mention wet strings or reeds would ever make that high pitched of a sound.

Humming, you tap on the compass. Closing your eyes as you think.

Oh! An elk’s bugle.

It’s odd though, you don’t remember any elk living in this forest before…but—maybe you were just lucky to have never heard its cry during mating season, who knows? An elks bugle shouldn’t shake you up this much as it did. But it does. It unsettles you to down to tiniest atom.

Even with your flight of fight senses gradually rearing its ugly head, You continue your trek. Trudging your legs along as your lungs shake with each exhale. The overall unnerving shift of this forest sticks in the back of your mind, ultimately making you pick up the pace and kick up some mud onto your jeans.

You try to ignore the elk’s bugling getting louder and louder with each wet squelch against waterlogged ground. The sound unsettles you still, it’s creaking makes you feel like it’s scraping against your bones—against your brain.

Maybe, in the best case scenario, it was just your paranoia getting to you, playing tricks on you to think you’re in more danger than you already are—at least that’s what your anxiety riddled brain likes to think, even if your body is saying something else.

But the more you stew on it, the weirder it gets: You know you remember there’s no elk in this forest—you remember the first time you hiked here and the guide saying something about watching out for bears and the occasional wolf—but never about elk. Not that they were dangerous to humans anyways but still—they were never mentioned among the list of what you would see on the trails, that you remember.

And not hearing multiple elk during mating season is strange in itself, how come there was only one? Not to mention you’ve never even seen any on your hikes—ever. And to see there’s no other wildlife besides the elk? The compass spinning in all directions? The uncanny, daunting atmosphere?

It’s weird. It’s weird and it’s not just your imagination.

Something is deeply, deeply wrong here.

Bone scrapes against wood, and on instinct, you run into a full sprint. It’s not even a thought, you just do.

Ignoring how much your clothes are getting dirtied, your throat clamps shut as adrenaline surges your veins heart— thundering in your ears obstreperously and rattling at your eardrums, skin breaking into a cold sweat.

Logically, one would think that it was just the elk rubbing its antlers on a tree as part of its mating habits and that it’s generally nothing to worry about—but you knew it wasn’t the truth. The sound of anything other than the rain and your bones creaking under your skin wasn’t natural. It didn’t belong here.

And what’s even worse is the thrashing of underbrush quickly catching up behind you. Your vision almost becomes dizzy with how much adrenaline is pumping into your system along with the panic etching itself into the very marrow of your bones.

The haunting, metallic bugle of the elk dwarfs your heartbeat, looming over you with the staunch smell of decay lingering to your senses. Acidic and sour bile pools in your mouth, stinging at your tongue and almost making you wretch. Whatever this is, you do not feel safe being around it.

With heaving breaths and lungs burning like embers, you pick up the pace as much as your legs take you. The world warps in your eyes as panic fully switches on your need for survival. Another scraping bugle hovering just above you; it’s smell promising death.

You gotta move! You gotta get out of here! Shake this…thing off somehow! But how? Maybe past the river-bend? Or—

Your chest harshly lands on the sodden ground, effectively knocking the wind out of you with a pathetic wheeze as mud splashes onto your face and chest. Every part of your body squeals at you to get up, from the creaking of your bones to how your muscles strain to move from the slick ground—The mud in your mouth tastes awful, caking all over your tongue with an unpleasant grit as your struggle continues.

Not being able to find purchase on the soft, soaked soil, your body thrashes and twists, slipping time and time again with desperation and the need to survive more evident than the last.

C’mon!! C’mon!! Get up!! Get the fuck up!! Fucking move, dammnit!!

Hot tears flood your vision, mixing along with the rain and mud splattered across your face. Frustration hot like an iron in your chest the more you fail to dig your nails into solid earth.

Unnaturally large hands wrap around your waist and that creaky, hollowed bugle rings right beside your ear. It feels like your whole world stops as you choke on a breath, daring to crane your neck to look over your shoulder to see what you’re in the clutches of.

Body trembling , you cough and wheeze your way to breathe again; The sight alone makes eyes go wide at the first glimpse on what towers above you.

What you see, is no ordinary elk of course, but an unnatural monstrosity made of exposed bone and wet fur—One with antlers strong and pointed, reaching towards the heavens and branching out to the point where the other almost touches like tangled and twisted tree roots. Its head an elk skull, underneath the empty sockets lie human eyes, peering at you. You even dare say, undressing you. The eyes are bloodshot: feral and crazed the more you stare into the black void it calls an iris.

The upper body is like that of a human, save for the talon like nails that continue to anchor your body down to the ground. And in morbid curiosity—as your eyes move down—you see the dirt caked fleshy skin transition into fur, one traditionally like an elk followed by hind legs and chipped cloven hooves worn with age. Nature’s twisted amalgamation of animal and human; a bastard of deviancy.

It bugles again, softly this time, crooning. Almost as if asking if you like what you see. You don’t really know how you can tell, but you think it’s due to a supernatural power this beast has.

And what it implies makes you want to fucking throw up.

The urge to scream and thrash away from its grip dies before it even begins like a snuffed out flame, feeling just how much of an iron grip it has on your waist. Even if you were to scream, it’s too late, you think.

A soft chuff escapes its bony nostrils as the creature leans closer, hinging its maw open to reveal a sleek, black tongue. Licking you. Your muscles writhe beneath your skin like bugs trying to burrow in the sinew.

Its voice is a rumble of thunder, rippling throughout your fragile bones as it speaks.

“Mine.”

It’s a worn and booming; one that hasn’t been used in ages—at least that’s what you assume. One that can rattle windows in a single word.

Plumes of its—his—breath appear in a thick smoke against the biting chill of the rain, tongue retracting back once its had his fill of licking all the salt and sweat from your cheeks, teeth clicking as the jaw hinges shut. You shudder at how easily his bite could crush your bones, feeling like a bird caught in a fist.

Lifting your frozen body, he tucks you to his side, cradling your body in his hand as if he was holding a parcel. Gearing his deer like legs to sprint— another plume of breath as another chuff leaves him.

In this moment, you can’t think. Everything’s happening so fast, your mind can’t even keep up, mentally grasping at straws at the how’s, when’s and why’s of it all. But try as you might each piece of information you gather comes all at once, overwhelming your mind with too many things to organize and parse through.

It’s like your mind is on a chairoplane—holding you by your temples as you spin at a nauseating speed — letting your limbs dangle uselessly in the air just as yours are in his grip currently.

When the wind and rain whips at your face, weaving through the forest at a breakneck, inhuman speed, it dawns on you there was no chance of getting out of here to begin with.

The world, or rather, the reality you thought you knew, utterly shatters. Monsters are real—and you’re being kept by one, dangling in its grasp as it figures out what to do with you next.

And that, settles on your stomach like a stone.

Tears never seem to come from your glassy eyes, but you could feel them chewing at your optic nerve—a burning and sizzling tingle, something akin to a sparkler you used to play with as a kid on muggy summer nights. How you really wished you could go back to those days…

Even on its last legs, your thoughts still try to find a way out, no matter if it was by bloodied fingernails or chewed off arms. You still want to live. Be free again and suck in the damp, frigid forest air like it was your last day on earth.

But how? How can you?

All possibilities of it ever happening point to the impossible. That 0.01% chance that seemingly taunts you through your eyelids.

This creature is strong with the ability to move at an inhuman speed; It’s hunting sense is possibly top notch the way he captured you so quickly— it’s not even out of the question that he probably stalked you too. Right under your nose without you so much as batting an eye.

Thinking about it, the probability of you getting out at all is obsolete, scathed or unscathed. It’s more likely that the sparklers you played with on humid July’s will never happen again.

You’ll never be able to play with them or drive your car—or even complain to your friends about work when your boss is always talking to you in that condescending tone. Never will tell your mom you love her after a fight. Or eat your dad’s special barbecue chili. Or beg your brother to fix your shitty car’s breaks for free because you know for certain that the mechanic is robbing you blind.

You’ll never be able to do that again, never able to do anything again, not while you’re in this beasts hands. The realization of that makes the cavity in your chest clatter in a silent, violent scream. Your teeth clenching near the point of cracking.

If your lips could move, you were sure your throat would be raw by now, vocal cords utterly fried and hoarse like worn fiddle strings. God you feel sick…

Too wrapped in your own despair, you forget to notice your surroundings, how creature stops in a gentle lull as it enters a damp and dark cave with what sounds like content clicks. Raising your head at the noise, you see the mouth of a cave—a warm, amber flame casting golden ambient light along the jagged edges of the rocks. Creating a deceptive illusion of comfort beckoning you in to warm your cold, weary bones.

Getting closer, a string of dead rabbits formed into an almost perfect circle near the foot of the entrance, just mere feet away from the kindling fire with marble like eyes blankly staring at the forming stalactites.

What is this? A gift? An offering of some sort? Well, it’s not like you care either way, you could honestly care less about it.

The creature sets you down, whispering a soft hum in some sort of satisfaction, another set of clicks resounding at the back of its throat. Probably content in its successful attempt at catching you. His eyes, resembling the same darkness that creep at the edges of the cave, follow the way the flames mold to the planes and soft curves your face, drinking in every pore and detail of you. Assessing you and softly bulging in approval.

You try not to focus on him or the stench of the rabbit corpses assaulting your nose— same with the wet fur. All you can do now, is try to keep your sanity by staring into the fire. Pretend that the warmth of its orange limbs can ease the frayed ends of your nerves.

Next to you, there’s shuffling, fur chafing on stone as he inches closer, jaw chittering while his tongue slides a wet stripe along your neck. It's oddly warm without the rain nulling your sense of touch, but it does nothing to help from the familiar taste of bile from swelling in your throat. You want to claw out of your own skin.

“Mate. Mine.” His large hands resting onto your stomach, fingers creeping under the layers of clothing to get a mere touch of your naked flesh that you now you wish you could peel off. Feeling him touch you like this feels like maggots wiggling and eating at your insides like your ribs hold decay.

The urge to purge yourself from this feeling is palpable, wanting to pluck them out one by one and get rid of this nastiness tainting your body before you scrub your skin raw till it bleeds. Till the filth finally washes away with your blood.

A gargled sense of a moan creaks out of this throat. His grip tightening around your waist once more.

“Love. Breed.”

Your stomach drops to your ass, knowing your fate was already sealed with just those two words.

On its own, your body shakes as he purrs, bone snout nuzzling into your hair. The nauseating reality of you never being found again or even being able to see the outside world weighs on you, like rock crushing your ribs.

All the things you’ve took for granted are now ghosts of the past. Forever haunting you of what life could continue to be if not for your overconfidence and arrogance. Biting into the apple of human hubris.

Now, the garden your banishment leads is fruitful of tar black tongues and dead rabbits looking at the ceiling.

All because you didn’t being those godforsaken markers.

[projectmarsnalooo]

Progress of making 3d

The lesson of making 3D

The progress i am making it was harder than i expected when it has so many buttons, options as it does have tutorial for beginner but it does have little example of how we do this or control the object in Maya so it was difficult for me as I didn't understand what to do as I tried to follow step by step but I didn't work at all which it was bugging and difficult to control the shapes.

I did have some work after this but I lost it as I do remember the work in Autodesk Maya. I have made but lost it as it didn't save at all which the work it was a landscape with a massive dead tree in the middle as it was the inspired from the movie I love at all called Pan's Labyrinth which that it have the dead massive tree in the movie cover disc.

This is the Inspo which I am trying to get the idea in the work I have in Autodesk Maya as that it should be in the middle of the landscape in Loy poly style that it kinda like a entry for a different dimension.

[kashiffitlife]

DEAD BUG EXERCISES FOR KILLER ABS 5 TIP’S

1. Introduction

1.1 What are Dead Bug Exercises?

In this section, we introduce readers to the concept of Dead Bug Exercises, providing a clear definition and understanding. We highlight the relevance of these exercises in achieving killer abs.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

1.1 What are Dead Bug Exercises?

1.2 Importance of Killer Abs

2. Dead Bug Exercise Benefits

2.1 Core Strength Development

2.2 Improved Posture

2.3 Injury Prevention

3. Getting Started: Preparing for Dead Bug Exercises

3.1 Proper Warm-up Techniques

3.2 Common Mistakes to Avoid

4. Killer Abs Journey: Step-by-Step Guide

4.1 Setting Up for Dead Bug Exercises

4.2 Correct Body Alignment

4.3 Breathing Techniques

5. Variations for All Fitness Levels

5.1 Beginner Modifications

5.2 Intermediate Challenges

5.3 Advanced Intensity Boosters

FAQ’s

8.1 Can Anyone Do Bug Exercises?

8.2 Are Bug Exercises Safe for Beginners?

8.3 How Soon Will Results Be Visible?

What are dead exercises? 

1.2 Importance of Killer Abs

Here, we emphasize why killer abs are desirable and briefly explain how Dead Bug Exercises contribute to achieving this fitness goal.

2. Dead Bug Exercise Benefits

2.1 Core Strength Development

Exploring the specific benefits of Dead Bug Exercises, with a focus on how they contribute to the development of core strength – a crucial aspect for killer abs.

2.2 Improved Posture

Highlighting how Dead Bug Exercises positively impact posture, further emphasizing their significance in overall fitness.

2.3 Injury Prevention

Discussing the role of Dead Bug Exercises in preventing injuries and promoting a safe and effective fitness routine.

3. Getting Started: Preparing for Dead Bug Exercises

3.1 Proper Warm-up Techniques

Guiding readers on the importance of warming up before engaging in Dead Bug Exercises to enhance effectiveness and reduce the risk of injury.

3.2 Common Mistakes to Avoid

Identifying common mistakes that individuals might make when performing Dead Bug Exercises and offering tips to ensure proper form and execution.

4. Killer Abs Journey: Step-by-Step Guide

4.1 Setting Up for Dead Bug Exercises

Providing a step-by-step guide on how to set up for Dead BExercises, ensuring that readers understand the initial stages of the workout.

4.2 Correct Body Alignment

Emphasizing the significance of maintaining correct body alignment during Bug Exercises for optimal results.

4.3 Breathing Techniques

Explaining the role of proper breathing techniques in enhancing the effectiveness of Dead Exercises.

5. Variations for All Fitness Levels

5.1 Beginner Modifications

Offering modifications for beginners to gradually incorporate Dead Exercises into their fitness routine.

5.2 Intermediate Challenges

Introducing intermediate-level variations, challenging readers to progress in their fitness journey.

5.3 Advanced Intensity Boosters

Showcasing advanced Bug Exercise variations for individuals seeking a more intense workout for killer abs.

This breakdown ensures a comprehensive coverage of the Dead Bug Exercises, from their introduction to their benefits, proper execution, and variations suitable for all fitness levels. Each section aims to provide valuable insights and guidance for readers interested in achieving killer abs through this exercise routine.

FAQ’s

8.1 Can Anyone Do Bug Exercises?

Answer: Yes, Bug Exercises are suitable for individuals of various fitness levels. Beginners can start with modified versions, gradually progressing as they build strength.

8.2 Are Bug Exercises Safe for Beginners?

Answer: When performed with proper form and technique, Dead Exercises are generally safe for beginners. It’s crucial to start with beginner modifications and focus on correct body alignment.

8.3 How Soon Will Results Be Visible?

Answer: Visible results vary among individuals. Consistency and proper execution play key roles. Some may notice changes in a few weeks, while others may take longer. Patience is essential for sustained progress.

What are dead exercises? 

 Dead bug exercises are a type of core stabilization exercise that involve lying on your back and extending and retracting opposing limbs while keeping your spine neutral and your core engaged1.

[espionscribe]

The 8 Best At-Home Workout Routines

If you are someone who hates workouts and even yawns whenever the idea of a workout pops up in your mind, now is high time you should immediately need to consider your health. Workout has countless benefits and if executed correctly it can also save you money by disbursing off those extra bucks in the gym.

So, whether you are a gym person or not, or regardless of how short you are with time, you need to clear a space out in your living room and get started with shedding some extra kilos from your body and making your life better than usual.

Below we have shared the top 8 exercises to try at home which will not only help you to maintain your body shape but also your inner peace effortlessly. The below top 8 exercises to try at home can be scaled to anyone be it beginner, intermediate, or pro you are. So, with high spirits, energy & positivity let's begin this amazingly productive article.

1) Bridge

It helps you to strengthen your back and stretches your muscles from the chest, neck, and spine. This exercise also helps you to shed off the extra muscles from your back while making your back stronger.

2) Knee Pushups

This pose will help you with maintaining the balance of your upper body. This is the most common exercise to do when you can't do full pushups initially. The knee pushups will help you in building strength

3) Chair Squat

Squats are a very effective pair of exercises to strengthen your core and legs. It also makes your body movements easier. All you need to do is keep a chair behind you when you are doing chair squats.

4) Planks

Doing planks brings you too many benefits to be counted. It helps you to maintain posture, build core strength, improve flexibility, and even mental health. Planks also help you to improve body alignment and keep you safe from ailments.

5) Side-lying hip abduction

If you are a woman then this exercise is a boon to your body. Side-lying hip abduction helps in the prevention and treatment of knee pain. It also improves agility and helps you burn that extra side waist and hip fat.

6) Dead bug

This exercise plays an important role in opposite arms & legs limb movement. It also improves lumbopelvic stability and along with that, it is very effective in improving breathing patterns in your body.

7) Superman

The name might sound funny but the exercise is very effective when you are looking for improving the stability of your spine, and boost athletic performance. This also reduces back pain & improves posture.

8) Get-up squat

Every exercise we have mentioned above is either strengthening you or improving your body in varieties of ways. Get-up squat is also one of them when is intended to strengthen your skeleton, spine, and lower body muscles. As you'll grow older you might feel less elasticity in your muscles, ligaments & tendons but doing regular get-up squats will help you slow down this process.

Wrapping up

There is no denying that exercise cures many ailments and even prevents many from getting contracted. Workout doesn't only help you maintain your body weight and stay fit but it also makes your skin shine and look younger. So, why you are refraining your body from imbibing this many health benefits, try the workout from today itself and see what magic this brings in your body & life eventually.

[hitechlatte]

if you're still making the visual novel thing, do you have any advice on starting one? I really want to make one, but don't know how

Sorry for the delay in my response on this! Wanted to take some time to collect my thoughts and it took longer than expected!

So yep still working on on my game, but I have some bugs that I haven't been able to fix, so no updates yet. Hopefully I'll get some free time to work on those soon! And for the advice, I'm happy to share! Click read more to see my thoughts:

Tip 1 - Paper Prototype/Design

So especially if you've never made a game before, I'd recommend sketching out your game before making anything. This could be with actual paper or just in like a google doc or slideshow. This way you can detail out how you want the game to flow, so you don't spend a billion hours trying to make something just to find out it looks bad or won't work. (TOTES didn't learn this the hard way) For a visual novel specifically, I would recommend maybe just writing out the story in a google doc, like write out the story with possible "stage notes" referencing what may happen on screen so you can more easily determine what art assets you would need! Here is an example of the sketches I made before I started working on my coffee shop demo:

Tip 2 - Start SMALL

Start SUPER small, especially if its your first game. Like come up with your idea and then CUT IT IN HALF maybe even a third or by ten! Like keep cutting away until you have a super basic idea you can test out and then after getting the hang of it, then I'd recommend doing something longer.

For example, if you wanted to do a visual novel where you bump into a love interest at a library and you see them every time you study for a month, chop it down to just one day and test out a flow to see how the idea would work.

For example in the game I'm currently working on, I'm just starting with a single customer on a single day and testing out all the features with him before I start moving to random NPCS or multiple days.

Tip 3 - Plot out your branches in a visual way

If your visual novel has branching options, make sure you have some way to check the flow of the story so you don't run into dead ends without an ending and to make sure you can check for plot holes.

For example if one branch the player decides to be mean, it wouldn't make sense for the character they are talking to to suddenly go down a branch where they say something super nice.

If the program you're using to make the visual novel in has a flow to view that's the best way to do it, but if not, then I'd recommend drafting it out in something like Miro (which is free btw, just requires an email sign up), or some other program where you can draft out flows. I mean if it's super simple branching even google images could work.

Tip 4 - The program doesn't really matter

Especially starting out, it doesn't really matter which game engine you use. The only thing that really matters is finding something you can learn quick so you can start getting your hands dirty.

If you don't have any engines in mind and would like some recommendations for free software, I feel any of the following would work:

Godot

Good for beginners, especially w/o programming experience from what I've heard

Heard it has some limitations if you want to do anything more complex

I haven't used godot yet, but I've heard nothing but great things! (I'm hoping to try it out soon, so I'll let you know once I get around to it!)

Unity

Require you to code, but it's usually pretty simple to get started as far as code goes.

The tutorials people have online are pretty awesome, and usually pretty good to follow along, and if you want to branch into more complex stuff, you'll have already learned the Unity basics.

I started learning game dev in Unity and have been using it for years so I always recommend it, but that's just what I've gotten used to.

Ren.Py

I don't know a ton about this program, but its what the Grunkle Stan Dating Sim was made in, and that game was super awesome.

And also this is made for visual novels so it should have a lot of useful tools and features.

Yarn Spinner

So this isn't an engine, but it's something you can add to Unity or Godot to help you with adding in the dialogue.

I haven't had a chance to use this, but I've been meaning to mess around with it. I've heard nothing, but fantastic things.

Tip 5 - 80/20 Rule

I always use the 80/20 rule when making games, to help prevent stress and burnout. 80% percent of the stuff I add to my games, I know how to do, while 20% is the new stuff to learn.

Now since this is your first game, you might be like Yo! I don't know 80 percent!

But to that I say HUMBUG! You know more than you'd guess! If you've ever written stories before, then bam, the story writing is part of your 80%. Just make sure to stick to a simple story that you know you'd be able to write!

Do you doodle? Bam some of your 80% is art! Stick to making art assets, only as complex as you've drawn before!

Obviously this is more a guideline, so the TLDR just make sure to focus on learning one or two main things and then keep everything else easy, so you don't burn out!

Tip 6 - Free Shit is AWESOME

Don't know art or can't make music? Use assets from online! There are tons of free assets people post stuff online that you can use.

This way you can focus on this harder stuff and get some of the easy stuff out of the way.

Some free resources I use are as follows:

Game Assets: https://itch.io/game-assets/free

Audio Files: https://freesound.org/

Music: https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/2

If using Unity, they also have an asset store. Also I think steam and humble bundle have free stuff you might be able to use too.

There tons more sites out there too, these are just the one's I've used in the past.

I will mention too, I'd recommend not paying for anything in the beginning. Because you may buy all these programs and then never use any of them again, and there is tons of awesome free stuff to use while starting out. That way you can figure out what areas of game dev you like more and buy programs as needed.

Tip 6 - Chaos is inevitable

Everything will eventually blow up in your face.

You'll spend two hours screaming at the same bug to just realize you forgot to hit save.

You'll delete files by mistake and lose hours of work.

You'll spend two weeks plotting out a story idea to realize it doesn't make any sense.

You'll spend a month working on a game idea to realize you hate the concept and it's not as fun as you thought.

You'll show your game to someone else and they won't get it because you didn't make the controls easy enough to use or understand.

You'll KEEP finding spelling errors in your dialogue after vigorously spell checking everything.

You'll get frustrated and want to swear off making games/visual novels and just abandon project after project.

BUT

THAT'S

OKAY

Art isn't easy in any form and game dev is just art with math so it's the perfect storm.

So don't be too hard on yourself when you inevitably fail.

And know too, all your failures will make you smarter and you'll get better so when things click, you'll make something you're super proud of.

I have a graveyard of games that will NEVER see the light of day. Games I fell in love with that I'll never finish.

And that's okay.

Just like with exes, no matter how bad or messy things get, we can be grateful (most of the time), because we learned something about ourselves and we can grow from it.

So TLDR, don't be too hard on yourself and enjoy the journey! Make games that make you happy and just take developing at whatever pace works for you.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk and I wish you the best with whatever you make!

(Also if you need someone to play test I'd love to check stuff out <3)

[mcgnagallsarmy]

Top 10 Spuffy fics I’ve read (July 2022)

The Beginner's Guide to Dating A Ghost by sweetprincipale [NC-17]

Buffy hears the news that Spike is back from the dead— sort of. His ghostly form is haunting Wolfram and Hart, popping in and out of the netherworld. Definitely not the kind of dating drama a Slayer needs, right? Wrong. Buffy thought she lost her right-hand man once and she’ll do anything to avoid making that mistake twice. She’s already dated a vampire or two, how hard could some ghostly dating be? Post-series, aligns to the beginning of Angel Season 5, without much of a gap after Buffy’s final episode.

Best Served Cold by Girlytek [NC-17]

Willow takes D’Hoffryn up on his offer at the end of Something Blue. Now Buffy has a new roommate. And a really big waterbed.

Blip by Holly [R]

She lives a life where everything is chosen for her. But not this.

From Here to Eternity by honeygirl51885 [NC-17]

They had lived alone for so long, neither could remember what it was to feel a connection with another person. Maybe they could discover it again with each other.

On The Steps by MillennialCryBaby [NC-17]

They had to stop meeting like this.

Origins by Niamh [NC-17]

Post Season 5, veers from Canon, but uses elements that were seemingly left discarded by the writers.

Something Blue's Clues by cawthraven [PG-13]

Willow is just fed up with the way Buffy and Spike act around each other. What are they, five?

Spacecation by MaggieLaFey [NC-17]

It’s just before s9 and Buffy is feeling as directionless as ever. So when she finally has a day off from her sad job, of course she asks her maybe-ex-probably-friend vampire to take her on a tour of the universe on his spaceship. Going star-sightseeing should be just what she needs to relax, right? Surely nothing big is gonna happen if she takes a day off. And if Spike’s space bugs keep insisting she and him belong together, well. They’re giant bugs, what the hell do they know?

Stuck Inside by MaggieLaFey [NC-17]

Sometime after s10, Buffy and Spike are happily together when they find themselves killing a demon who wanted to thrash a sex store… but only after he magically locks them in it for several hours. What will they possibly do to pass the time? (Spoilers: it’s sex. Kinky, kinky sex.)

When Buffy Knew by violettathepiratequeen [PG]

When Buffy told Spike "I love you," it had been a long time coming. But it wasn't the first time she'd realized it. A series of milestones in Season 7 that we really never got to see the conclusion of, but which seemed to solidify their relationship.

[jaybug-jabbers]

There's a big reptile expo in a few weeks right in my town. I am excited to go and check out all the inverts there. I can get a few more Magic Potions to replace the ones that died, since 3-4 isopods might be difficult to establish a colony with. (Esp. since I don't know their sexes) I'm also preparing a few more bins in case my isopods breed and some need to be transferred over, or in case I buy one new species/color morph at the expo.

Just one, though. It's important to start small while I am still learning, after all. If I do it, it will probably be A. vulgare 'Punta Cana' or 'St Lucia' or maybe something like A. nasatum or A. maculatum (the Chocolate morph is so pretty). They're supposed to all be good beginner species with similar requirements.

Mostly I will just be looking around and learning about the hobby at the expo. It would be especially good to see how many people are into the hobby locally. I know a lot of people travel to expos but I hope to find local folks too. And, well, hopefully they're friendly and welcoming. Not gonna lie, I have a suspicion that most invert keepers are older men, and I'm a 30-something woman, so I dunno how it's gonna go, but we'll see!

The top bin in the picture is one I bought online to see if I would like it. I also bought a bin and modified it myself (the bottom one). The top bin certainly has very clean-looking vents which I really like (I believe the seller 3D prints the plastic portion of the vents). Altho the mesh is a bit large. I purchased a finer metal mesh to do myself. It's a little bit of a pain to work with I admit, because it dulled my scissors so fast, and then my scissors didn't cut very cleanly-- and the mesh itself can be quite sharp, of course. Tbh will need to buy a new pair of scissors if I want to make more. Still, I do like the mesh, it's very fine but still seems to allow airflow. This house has potted plants with some fungus gnats so I have concerns about keeping those buggers away.

Oh, the top bin also doesn't have a sturdy latching lid, so that's not quite as nice in that regard, either.

I'll see what I prefer. I also might try an acrylic tarantula enclosure like one of these. I really like being able to actually observe the isopods. (Although the acrylic ones all seem to just have a bunch of tiny airholes, none with mesh vents.) I know a lot of folks have got shelves full of bins and bins, and that works fine for them but I'm not looking to have a huge collection. Just a few species I like. I used to breed Zebra finches and I must say I think I would really enjoy breeding isopods too, but again, just as a small thing. Would occasionally sell to local petshops or keepers once I have a good colony going. That's about it. Anyway, as I was saying, I like being able to observe the little guys, and you can't really do that with shelves full of Sterilite bins.

Also took a photo of my springtails (before misting and adding more food). I found them at a Petsmart, shockingly, not something I would expect from there, but it was labelled Smug Bug! So I guess Smug Bug sells to Petsmart. The containers were pretty much bone-dry, so I told the people there they needed to keep the poor guys moist. (I wonder if they'll actually do it. ugh. Petsmart does not have a great track record with small animals.) They seem very happy with the nutritional yeast I give them. Waiting to breed them a bit before adding to my isopod enclosure.

Currently working on a new substrate mix with a potting soil base instead of a topsoil base, to put in the new bins. I will make sure everything is prepared before buying anything at the expo. I already have lots of dead leaves and some rotting wood. Ooh, still need to rinse and crush my collection of eggshells. I should do that tomorrow.

Been taking lots of notes on my isopod research. My google doc of notes is 30 pages long so far. :D