#I'm still modifying and editing and planning things out

[raaorqtpbpdy]

Have You Ever...

Danny gets invited to a hero convention as Danny Phantom, and his booth is next to none other than the legendary Ben 10, one of Danny's own favorite heroes. But when the two start playing a modified version of Never-Have-I-Ever to alleviate their boredom between handshakes with fans, they accidentally expose some things they didn't really mean to.

You can also read it on AO3

Written for X-over Danuary Week 2024, Day 1: Ben 10 | Prison Thanks @crossoverdanuary for running this!

I got a late start because I had DnD today, and I finished this at like 10pm, so I didn't have time to edit. I'm planning on editing it later this week, but until then, sorry for any mistakes. [Edit: it has now been edited]

[Warning for mentions of past traumatic experiences]

It was weird to see such a huge convention center so empty.

Well, it wasn't completely empty, but a few people carrying boxes and setting up displays was a significantly smaller crowd than Danny would normally expect to see in a place like this.

"Ah! Danny Phantom you're here!" A woman with a high ponytail and a convention staff t-shirt walked over to him. "Wow, I'm so excited that you actually came!" 

Her voice was familiar.

"Sally, right?" he guessed. "Sally Braddock?"

"You remembered!" She said brightly.

Sally had been the one who'd convinced Danny to come to this convention. She'd offered him pretty substantial payment, but it was only when she told him he could have three free tickets to the convention as well that Tucker told him he had to agree or they wouldn't be friends anymore. 

So here he was, at San Diego Hero Con, halfway across the country, to sit at a table and sign autographs for a few hours each day, and then do an hour-long panel with a bunch of other teen heroes, and another tomorrow on specifically ghost hunting. (He was still debating whether he should actually show up to that one, or if it would be too dangerous.) The worst part, though, was how early he had to wake up to set up his booth before the event started.

"Here's your presenter badge," Sally said, and handed him a bright yellow name tag clipped to a blue lanyard with the convention's logo on it. "Celebrity meet-and-greets are over there. I'll lead the way. We try not to put them too close to each other or the lines get out of control, but your booth is right next to Ben 10's."

Danny perked up at that. "The alien guy?"

"Yup!"

Oh, man, he hoped he'd get the chance to talk to him. Ben 10 was Danny's favorite superhero. He got to fight real life aliens, sometimes in actual space! And sure, Danny had been to space before that one time Technus had taken over a satellite, but it had still been a ghost fight. It wasn't the same.

"So, this is your table," Sally said, pointing to an empty, white folding table. "Do you have a tablecloth, or banners or headshots or anything?" she asked him with a tight smile.

"Uh.... I don't photograph well," he replied.

Sally sighed. "Well, I can bring over one of the convention tablecloths, but you really should get some kind of poster or cardboard cut-out or something that shows people who they're meeting. And you'll definitely need something to sign. Comic books, or T-shirts. Anything, really. There's a portrait artist in Artists Alley who works pretty fast, her name is Jess. If you get something from her, I can send a gopher to make copies for you to sign." 

"Uh, okay? But, I can just call a friend to bring something."

"Whatever works." With that, Sally left to go organize something else.

Danny called up Sam, who was back at the hotel with Tucker—Tucker would no doubt still be sleeping—and asked her to find a nearby print shop and get a Danny Phantom Banner to hang up and a whole bunch of 8x10 illustrations of him. He let her pick the picture, but asked her to please not pick anything too embarrassing.

Right as he hung up, a pair of people approached the booth next to him carrying plastic tubs. It was none other than Ben 10 himself and a tall, furry, blue alien who was no doubt one of his allies. (That or a cosplayer, but since they were with Ben 10 himself, Danny felt safe in assuming that they really were an alien.) The two of them placed their tubs on the floor and opened them up to start unpacking their display.

"Woah, hi!" Danny said, louder than he meant to.

Ben 10 snapped his head around, muscles tensing. Danny recognized that response all too well, and tried not to let out a sympathetic wince.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you," he said. "You're Ben 10, right? I know this is cringey to say, but I'm a huge fan."

"Uh, thanks? Just Ben is fine."

"I'm Danny Phantom, but you can just call me Danny."

"I can see that... uh... nice to meet you?" Ben replied. He seemed uncomfortable. Had Danny come on too strong.

"Something wrong?"

"What? No, of course not," Ben said, though it wasn't very convincing.

"I am Rook Blonko," Ben's companion said, offering Danny a handshake which he excitedly accepted. "It is an honor to meet another hero, though I will admit, it was only recently that I came to learn about you." 

"Oh, yeah," Danny let out an awkward laugh and rubbed the back of his head. "My scope is a lot more regional and sometimes not very... in this dimension." 

"That would be... the Ghost Zone, right?" Ben said casually. "What's it like? Anything like the Null Void?"

So he was at least somewhat familiar with Danny and his exploits. Danny tried not to let that go to his head, but he couldn't help feeling a little giddy nonetheless. Ben laid down a black tablecloth with his logo on it and spread it across his table. This definitely wasn't his first rodeo.

"I don't know about the Null Void," Danny said. "It's like the bottom side of this dimension. It's where ghosts live... or... not live. Reside. Almost everything is green because of all the ectoplasm there, and when humans go there, they can pass right through walls and objects just like ghosts can in this dimension."

"That does not sound like the Null Void at all," Rook observed, pulling rods and boards out of one of the boxes and assembling them into a small standing shelf.

"What's the Null Void like?" Danny asked.

"Mostly red," Ben said with a shrug. "Full of floating islands and enormous aliens. Used as a penal colony for this dimension's worst criminals."

"Oh... yeah, no. Aside from the floating islands, that doesn't sound anything like the Ghost Zone," Danny agreed. "Although it's kind of a cool coincidence that we both have experience with alternate dimensions."

"Yeah, I guess so." Ben looked over at Danny and his sad excuse for a booth—really looking for the first time. "First time at one of these things?"

"Oh yeah," Danny confirmed. "My friend is bailing me out at a print shop right now, but I was so unprepared."

Ben snorted. "Here," he said, digging through one of his boxes and pulling out a bright green swath of fabric. "You can use one of my tablecloths. I brought an extra, just in case. It has my logo on one side, but if you turn it around so the logo faces you no one will be the wiser. We have basically the same color scheme, so it works out."

"Thanks," Danny accepted the tablecloth, slightly surprised, and spread it out over his table. It was almost exactly ectoplasm green, just a shade or two darker. "Have you been to a lot of conventions?"

"A few," Ben said.

"This is your fourth," Rook said.

"That sounds right. If it hadn't been for Rook, I probably would've been just as lost as you at my first one. He's all about preparing in advance. But yeah, I've been a public hero for over a year now, and since my identity isn't a secret anymore, it's easier for the people who run these things to get a hold of me."

"About that... why don't you have a secret identity?"

"It wasn't exactly my choice," Ben replied. "Some kid found it out and exposed me on the internet. It turned out surprisingly well, though, for the most part. Must be nice for you though, not having an alternate identity—not that being dead is nice or anything like that—I mean, it's not a bad thing—or it is a bad thing? I uh... yeah, I don't know what I'm saying."

After taking a moment to parse that rambling sentence, Danny burst out laughing. 

"Hahaha! Is that why you're acting so uncomfortable around me? Because I'm dead? Ha! You don't have to worry about that. You're fine."

"Serious?"

"Dead serious," Danny replied with a smirk.

Ben shook his head with a soft laugh. "Alright, fine.... Actually, that's not the only reason. Back when I was ten and just starting out I had... a bad experience with a ghost-like alien of mine. Ever since, ghost stuff just puts me a little on edge."

"Oh... I see. Well, don't worry, I won't take it personally," Danny said. "Did you really start doing this when you were ten?"

"Yeah. Although I kinda retired for a few years when I was eleven, and started up again when I was fifteen."

Danny did some quick math in his head. "Oh, so altogether, you and me have been in this for about the same amount of time. 'Cause I got started a little over two years ago."

"Yeah?" Ben was silent for a few moments. He pulled out boxed figurines of his alien forms and lined them up on the shelf Rook had assembled. "So... when did you...."

"Die?" Danny finished for him. "I was fourteen. I'm almost seventeen now. In about three months, I mean."

"Do you still age?"

"Sort of?" Danny shrugged.

He and Jazz had come up with an answer to this question a little while ago, when people noticed that Danny Phantom was starting to look older, even though ghosts supposedly didn't age.

"A ghost's body is a reflection of their mental image of themself. In the Zone, ghosts don't really age or change unless something specific happens that makes them feel older or different. Because I spend so much time in the human world still, because I learn and grow with each fight, I still feel like I'm growing up, so I look like I'm growing up, too."

"That is fascinating," Rook said. "I would love to learn more about ghostly biology."

"I would love to tell you about it. Problem is, I really don't know that much," Danny told him apologetically. He shrugged. "Sorry. I'm a superhero, not a scientist."

"I'm here!" Sam called, her heavy combat boots tromping into the room. She was carrying a large cardboard box. "I would have been here sooner, but I had to put together a design for the banner. Luckily I found a printer that could make one for you on short notice like this, or you'd be screwed."

"You're a life saver!"

"You wish," she scoffed. "I got you a banner and three hundred head shots."

"That's not gonna be enough," Ben said immediately.

"Ya think?" Sam asked.

"Trust me."

She sighed heavily in annoyance. "Okay, I can go back and get some more, but you so owe me, Danny."

"Yeah, I know," Danny said, taking the box from Sam. "You're the best!"

"Yeah, yeah," she said, taking one of the head shots off the top of the stack and leaving again.

"Is that your friend?" Ben asked.

"One of them," Danny confirmed, setting the box down on the table. "That's Sam. She and Tucker have been with me since the beginning. He's probably still asleep at the hotel."

He pulled out a stack of head shots for the table and slid the box with the rest underneath. She'd picked a good picture. It was a poster illustration for a local ghost awareness presentation he'd done a while back, and he nearly sighed with relief when he saw it. He'd been half afraid she'd pick one of the grainy newspaper photos of him in his underwear.

"That's cool," Ben said. "Yeah, I don't think anyone could do this job without allies. When I first started, I had my Grandpa and my cousin, then my cousin and my best friend, and now I have Rook as my partner."

"We have been together for a year," Rook added.

"Like... together together or...?"

"Working partners," Ben clarified insistently. "It's not like that."

"Oh, okay, my bad."

Hoping to alleviate his embarrassment, Danny unfurled his new banner and flew up to hang it on the wall behind his booth. It looked cool, but not too complicated. Just his name and logo and a little bit of ghost designs around the edges. Sam had done a good job with it.

"You are not the first to think that," Rook consoled. "It is a more common assumption than one might think."

They continued chatting idly while they set up their booths. Danny got to ask Rook what kind of alien he was, and what his home planet was like. Sam showed up with a whole bunch more photos and then immediately abandoned them to get a sneak preview of artist alley before she came back as an attendee.

Just before the convention center officially opened, Danny worked up the courage to ask Ben for an autograph, and Ben obliged him with a smile, offering an exchange, rather than asking for payment. Danny eagerly accepted, signing one of his own pictures and trading it for Ben's. Ben's looked far more professional than his own. He hoped people wouldn't be disappointed.

As people started trickling in past the security checkpoint up front, both heroes only got a few people in the beginning. After only about twenty minutes of boredom, Ben suggested they play a game.

"Sure," Danny agreed. "What game?"

"My buddy Kevin calls it Reverse-Never-Have-I-Ever, and my cousin calls it Have-You-Ever." Ben said. "See, we could never play regular Never-Have-I-Ever, because we all knew all the weird stuff we'd done and we'd target each other mercilessly. With this version, You say something you have done, and anyone who hasn't done it loses a point. If everyone's done it, no one loses a point."

"Okay... I think I get the idea, but why don't you start? Five fingers or ten?"

"Let's start with five," Ben said. "Rook, you playing?"

"I will pass," Rook said. "I always lose this game."

"Alright, if that's what you want." Ben shrugged. "Alright, Danny, have you ever... transformed into a different species?"

"Yes."

"You have?!"

"Uh, yeah. I went from human to ghost. Duh."

"Oh... right, duh," Ben agreed, shaking his head at how foolish he'd been to blow his first question like that. "Wow, I can't believe I didn't even think about that...."

"My turn, right?" Danny said. "Have you ever fought an evil alternate version of yourself?"

"Yeah, like six of 'em."

"Okay, well, now you're just showing off."

Ben smirked. "Oh, I never get to use this one on my friends. Have you ever been to space?"

Danny smirked right back. "One of my rogues possessed an orbital satellite."

"Damn it!" 

Someone walked over to Danny's table and he smiled at her, pointedly ignored the way she shivered when he shook her hand, and signed a photo for her.

"Okay," he said, shifting his attention back to the game, "have you ever... been cut in two."

"I regenerated, but yeah."

"How?" Danny demanded.

"Plant alien."

"I should've guessed. Stupid plant creatures with their stupid regenerative powers. Undergrowth-ass alien. Lame." 

Ben laughed at him while he signed a figurine for a fan who came to his table. "How about this. Have you ever fought a medieval-style knight?"

"A knight? Hold on." Danny considered that for a moment. Had he? He'd rescued Sam from Dora's realm that one time, and yeah, he'd definitely had to fight the ghosts of knights then. Oh! Also Fright Knight. How could he forget about him. "Yes, I have definitely fought knights on several occasions. Ghost knights, obviously."

"Ugh! I really thought I had you with that one. Why do ghosts who died a thousand years ago have to stick around for so long?"

"Nope!" Danny teased. "Okay, how about this one. Have you ever fought a ghost?"

"Define ghost?" Ben asked.

"The law defines a ghost as any creature which produces ectoplasm, is composed of ectoplasm, or requires ectoplasm to survive," Danny recited. 

There was no need to say which law—that would be the anti-ecto acts. It was stupid that those stupid acts were still even law when public support of ghosts had never been higher. Although, they hadn't been as heavily enforced the last year or so, since the G.I.W. lost a lot of funding after repeatedly failing to catch their most wanted, Danny.

"Then yes, I have," Ben said. "Have you ever fought an alien?"

"Define alien."

"A creature originating from a planet or plane other than Earth."

"Then yes, ghosts."

"Ah ah ah!" Ben argued. "Ghosts are the spirits of dead humans, which means they originate on Earth."

"Except that not all ghosts are the spirits of dead humans," Danny countered right back. "Many ghosts originally formed inside the Ghost Zone, which makes them, by your definition, aliens, and I have fought them, too. Also I fought off some Incurseans back when they invaded the Earth a little while back. It was awesome." 

Ben groaned.

"Haha! Gotcha!"

"Just go already."

"Have you ever died?"

"Ha! Yes, I have," Ben said, as if dying was some huge victory. "You probably thought you had me, but you were wrong. I may have been brought back through alien magic and/or time travel, but yes, I have died. Speaking of which, have you ever time-traveled."

"Psh, have I time traveled?" Danny scoffed. "I have literally met the Ancient, omniscient Master of Time. He's a huge pain in the neck."

It was at this point that more people started accumulating at the two heroes' tables. Some got in line for autographs, though both Ben and Danny were too engrossed in their game at this point to give their full attention. Others just stood, watching, and listening to the two of them. A few even started filming their little game.

"Alright, my turn," Danny said. "Have you ever... oh, I have a good one! Have you ever had to fight your best friend after he copied your powers which then caused him to lose his mind and become evil?"

"Literally how?!" Ben shouted.

"Is that a no?"

"No, I meant 'literally how' as in how has something that specific happened to both of us?"

"No way!"

"Yes way! That's happened to Kevin more than once."

"What?!"

"I know, right?"

"It is also strange for this game to go so long without any of the participants losing a point," Rook said. "I believe it is at this point that I would have lost, had I been participating."

"You put up a good fight, Rook," Ben joked.

"But... I was not playing?"

"I was teasing, Rook."

"Ah, yes."

"Whose turn is it now?" Ben asked. "Mine, right?"

"Yeah," Danny confirmed.

"Have you ever had a limb severed?"

"Yes, but I'm a ghost, so I reattached it pretty easily. Have you ever altered the fabric of reality?"

"I once had to recreate the entire universe after it got destroyed, and then went on intergalactic trial for doing it. And the worst part is, ever since then, grape smoothies just don't taste the same. It's so frustrating. I did get this super comfortable hoodie out of it, though." 

"Ew, smoothies?" Danny grimaced. "What are you a yoga mom?"

Ben stood up, slamming a hand on his table and with the other, he pointed accusingly at Danny. "Smoothies are delicious, screw you!"

"You're just frustrated because I'm winning."

"You're not winning, neither of us have lost a single point! But you will!" Ben declared. "Have you ever saved the whole entire universe."

"Yes."

"What?" Ben fell back into his chair, deflated.

"A while back, this one group, the G.I.W. tried to destroy the Ghost Zone with a special anti-ghost nuke, and I stopped them. The Ghost Zone is the flip side of our dimension, so if it had been destroyed, it would have taken our universe along with it. Hence, I saved the universe. I just didn't let it get all over international news first."

"Boo!"

"Isn't that my line?" Danny said. 

Ben threw a sharpie at him and he turned intangible and let it pass right through him while he laughed at his own joke.

"Anyway, have you ever visited an alternate timeline where the entire earth is barren and desolate and the alternate version of you rules supreme?"

"Yes, I call it the Mad Universe, because it looked like Mad Max, you know?"

"Oh, yeah, I guess I can see it. But really? You have?"

"Yup. The alternate version of Rook was a jerk." 

Rook frowned but didn't have the chance to say anything before Ben kept talking.

"Have you ever... I don't know... every time I go weirder, you just match me. Have you ever had a family member be friends with one of you enemies?"

"Yeah, my dad considers my archenemy his best friend in the world," Danny said. "The feeling is not mutual, though. Have you ever been imprisoned by one of your enemies?"

"More times than I can count. Have you ever asexually reproduced?"

"Do clones count?"

"No!" Ben refused.

"Yes," Rook argued, possibly still upset about Ben's jerk comment. "Technically, cloning is a form of asexual reproduction."

"But could they fly?"

"I don't see how that's relevant to asexual reproduction, but yes," Danny said. "They were ghosts. They could fly. Most of them were too unstable to survive though. There's only one left." He frowned.

"Oh... sorry."

"It's... fine." It wasn't fine. He still found himself lying awake at night thinking about them sometimes. Danny shook his head and plastered on a determined grin. "I really think I've got you this time, though."

"Do you?" Ben did not sound convinced.

"Have you ever had to fight sentient food that was not still alive?"

"Y—wait...." Ben frowned as he thought about it for a long moment. "No... I haven't."

"Yes!" Danny cheered and Ben buried his head in his hands, humiliated. "This puts me in the lead."

"Not for long," Ben said. "Have you ever eaten food from another planet?"

"Wha—noooo...." 

"Ha!"

"We're dead even again." 

Their game continued.

"Have you ever fought a cult's subject of worship?"

"Have you ever had a Christmas-themed battle?"

"Have you ever fought on the same side as one of your enemies?"

"Have you ever been called upon to end a war?"

"Have you ever unexpectedly developed a new power that caused you trouble?"

"Have you ever used your powers to get out of other responsibilities?"

"Have you ever had to skip out on something you were really looking forward to and save the day?"

"Have you ever been blamed for property damage your enemies caused just because you happened to be there at the time?"

"Have you ever been mind controlled?"

"Have you ever fought an evil circus?"

The game kept going on and on, while they absently shook hands and signed autographs, with neither of them giving up another point. Until Sally showed up to tell them it was time to go to the teen hero panel they were on. 

It was only then that they looked up and saw all the cameras that had been recording their game. How long had they been recording? How much had they gotten?

"Uh... right," Ben said. "Sorry everyone. You can come back for autographs after the panel. And Danny, I think we're gonna have to call it a draw."

"We'll have to have a rematch some other time," Danny said, trying to keep his tone light, despite his sudden anxiety. 

Sally led the two of them to a large room with rows upon rows of empty seats, right down the aisle to the stage up front where a man in his thirties was already standing, and a masked teenage girl with glowing pink hair and eyes was sitting behind the table.

"Hello, I'm John and I'll be moderating this panel," the man introduced. "This is Lucky Girl, another teen hero we invited. Lucky Girl, this is Ben 10 and Danny Phantom."

"Nice to meet you," Danny said.

"I can't believe they roped you into this," Ben said, smiling at the girl like he knew her.

"Shut up," the girl barked back. "We can't all gain international fame overnight, and I have to pay for student housing."

"You two already know each other?" John asked, surprised.

"Oh yeah, we've known each other for a long time," Ben said. "All our lives, in fact."

"Ben, I swear if you give me away I will hex you so bad your children's children's children will travel for miles just to spit on your grave."

Ben put up his hands in surrender, and took his seat without another word. Danny followed his lead. This Lucky Girl didn't seem like the kind of person he wanted to mess with.

Once they were all in their seats, John gave them a quick run down of how the panel would go. He would ask a few questions. They would answer. He would open it up to questions from the audience, and they would answer those too. After an hour, the panel would be over, and they would return to their booths, or in Lucky Girl's case, simply leave, as she apparently didn't have a booth.

"She uses her powers to disguise herself, but she can't keep that up for more than an hour and a half," Ben whispered to Danny, clearly sensing his confusion. "She'll probably hang around for a little while after to greet fans, but she'll have to leave when her mana's drained."

"Oh, okay, that makes sense," Danny whispered back, nodding. "I was worried it might be like a sexism thing."

"As if she'd stand for something like that," Ben scoffed.

Soon enough, the doors opened, and people started trickling in. The seats filled up with mostly teens and young adults, with a few parents and older adults sprinkled in. Danny noticed Sam and Tucker come in and sit in the back row and waved at them. Rook was also sitting in the back row, trying not to draw attention to himself. Although, it seemed like most people thought he was a cosplayer, so he didn't really have to bother hiding.

When the doors closed, John started the panel.

The first part was easy. 

John asked questions like: "How do you balance being a hero with the other responsibilities you have as an adolescent?"

"Honestly, not well. You know how people say 'you can sleep when you're dead'? Yeah, that's a lie." 

"I'm lucky enough to have a good memory so I don't have to study much, otherwise my grades in school would tank. For me, the real struggle is finding time to do chores." 

"I prioritize my other responsibilities. I don't usually face world-ending, city-destroying threats like these two, which allows me the luxury of saving hero work for after my homework is finished."

And: "Where do you go when you want to de-stress after saving the day?"

"I usually go over to my friends' and play video games. I feel safe around them."

"If the sun's still up, Mr. Smoothie. But if it's late, I like to go out for chili fries."

"The library. I know it makes me sound like a nerd, but whatever. I am a nerd. Who cares."

And: "How do your parents figure in to you heroic activities?"

"They... don't know. They don't exactly have a great opinion of ghosts, and they don't recognize me when... I mean, they don't recognize me anymore. So I guess they don't figure in." That wasn't entirely true, but Danny wasn't about to say they shot at him in front of a crowd of hundreds of people.

"My parents are actually very supportive. At first, they wanted me to quit, because they were worried about my safety, but I changed their minds. They raised me to know right from wrong, and to help others whenever I can, and they're proud of me."

"My parents don't know either, and I don't live with them right now because I live on my school campus, so I guess, like Phantom, my parents don't really figure in either."

They were easy questions to answer, even if Danny didn't always tell the whole truth. John kept things light, focusing mostly on them being teenagers, and how being a hero affected that aspect of their life, rather than the other way around. There were a couple questions about battles and enemies, but for the most part, they avoided the heavy stuff.

Then, about halfway into the panel, John opened it up to the audience to ask questions.

They didn't shy away from the heavy stuff.

"Hi, I'm Mandy, big fan," said a girl with curly brown hair. "I have two questions for Ben, first is, are you dating anyone?"

Ben chuckled, trying to sound amused, even though, up close, Danny could tell the question made him uncomfortable.

"No, I'm not dating right now."

The girl giggled for a moment before asking her next question. "My next question is: when you're fighting an alien invasion basically by yourself, do you ever feel afraid?"

Ben didn't answer right away. He took a breath, and nodded.

"Yes," he said. "I know I'm strong, and there's a lot that I can do and have done, but when I'm outnumbered a thousand to one, yeah, I'm a little afraid."

"Not that you were ever actually by yourself," Lucky Girl pointed out.

"Heh," Ben rubbed his neck awkwardly. "That's true. Even if there weren't many, I've always had people in my corner."

The next person who stepped up was a guy in a Danny Phantom T-shirt which read 'it's not gay if he's dead.'

Danny immediately groaned and Ben grinned hugely. "Before you ask your question, I have a question for you. Where did you get that shirt?"

"I got it at a souvenir shop when I went to Amity Park, but I think you can buy them online, too," they guy said.

"I'm getting one."

Danny groaned even more insistently.

"My question is for Phantom. If you hadn't died, do you think you still would have become a hero, and protected your home from ghosts?"

"Honestly? I don't know," Danny admitted. "Amity Park does have other ghost hunters, the Fentons and Red Huntress, for example. If I hadn't d... if I didn't have my powers, I wouldn't really have the ability to protect anybody. I'd probably leave it to the ghost hunters who were better equipped."

"And for Lucky Girl, are you single?"

"Ha ha no," she said flatly. "I have a boyfriend."

"Figures."

Next up was a girl in some pretty fantastic Lucky Girl cosplay. Her wig even lit up. Although she looked like she was quite a bit taller than the real thing.

"Lucky Girl, do your periods ever interfere with fighting crime?"

"Uh... that's a bit personal," Lucky Girl said instantly, as if the answer was instinctive. 

But when she saw the way the girl reacted like she'd been slapped, hunching in on herself with shame, Lucky Girl bit her lip and answered anyway. 

"Actually... the life of a superhero is really stressful. The kind of stress that has... biological effects. When I first started fighting crime as, like, a regular thing, I didn't have a period for months. When I finally did again it was... you know what, I'll spare you the details. Suffice it to say, it was really bad. Like, my doctor prescribed me pills to stop me from menstruating bad. So... I guess the answer to your question is 'not anymore' and also sorry for the TMI." She finished with a short grimace.

"Thank you for answering," the girl said before going to sit back down.

Ben covered his mic and turned to her. "How come I never knew about that?"

"Are you kidding?" Lucky Girl muttered back. "Like I'm gonna discuss my cycle with a fifteen-year-old boy."

Ben didn't even attempt to argue with that.

As... much as those questions were, it was the next one that really stopped everything in its tracks.

"Hi, I'm Michael. I don't know if you know about this video that's going around. It was only posted, like, less than an hour ago, but it's really blown up in fan circles already," the young man said. "The video shows Phantom and Ben 10... I guess playing a game or something? Where you guys are asking each other if you'd done certain things and basically comparing experiences with each other? Do you know it?"

Ben and Danny shot each other anxious looks.

"Uh... I haven't seen it, but I think we know what you're talking about," Ben answered cautiously. "Is that your question?"

"No, my question is... well, in the video you guys are talking about alternate timelines, and fighting evil versions of yourselves, and getting mind-controlled, and changing reality. I guess my question is. Did all that stuff really happen to you guys?"

Neither Ben nor Danny wanted to answer. They didn't look at each other, or the crowd. They deeply regretted playing a game that revealed such personal secrets in a public space.

Finally, Ben cleared his throat. "Yes, all that happened." Danny nodded his own confirmation. "The life we lead is a dangerous one, and it demands sacrifices, and it takes a lot from you, and it puts you in a lot of strange situations that few others can understand. It's... not for everyone."

The next fan stepped up to the mic. "Follow up questions. First, how are you guys like... functional? Because I mean, if I'd gone through the kind of stuff you were talking about in that video, I think I'd have a mental breakdown. Second, why would you put yourselves through all that?"

"Well, first off, bold of you to assume I've never had a mental breakdown," Danny said. "And secondly, if we don't do it, who will?" he asked. "We're not just random ordinary high schoolers who up and decided to subject ourselves to unspeakable trauma just for the fun of it. 

"We do this because we have the power to do things others can't, to fight enemies other people can't fight. We do this because if we don't... if we don't, people die. Or worse. People experience the kind of things we do trying to protect them. So I guess the answer to both of your questions is, what other choice do we have?"

"Yeah, exactly what Danny said," Ben agreed. "I tried to give up my powers, and my responsibilities once, and people got hurt because of it. My grandpa.... Because I wanted to live a normal life, to take it easy, there was no one else to protect them. It is every individual's responsibility to do what they can to help others. It just so happens that we can do more than most, and that comes with drawbacks. 

"Lucky Girl, care to weigh in? You weren't in the video, but I know you've had your share of superhero related trauma."

"I think you guys pretty much covered it," she replied. "I don't think I've been through quite as much as you two, but I definitely know about the sacrifices we make for this life. I also know that it's worth it to know that the people and places you love are safe and protected because of you."

The boy's both nodded in agreement.

The questions didn't really lighten up after that. "What's the worst experience you've ever had as a hero?" "Have you ever failed to protect someone?" "We heard Ben 10 say so already, but have you ever wanted to quit, or wished you never had powers in the first place?"

After a point, John noticed how uncomfortable they were getting and had to step in and ask that the next few questions not be so dark.

A younger girl, maybe even a middle schooler, hand mercy on them at last, and asked, "What was the funniest thing that ever happened to you while you were saving the day?" and from there the questions finally eased up.

It felt like it had been far longer than an hour when the session ended, and they left the stage and returned to their booths to sign autographs and shake hands and listen to dozens of people gushing, "I'm you're biggest fan!"

They didn't pick up their game again, even when things got slow. Evidently they'd learned their lesson. And they kept learning it as more and more of the people who came to visit them asked about that video. Each time Danny had to smile and laugh it off, the regret deepened. 

It had been a while since he felt like such a complete idiot. Since he'd done something so thoughtless. He'd gotten a lot better at keeping secrets over the years, but he'd just been so excited to talk with someone he had so much in common with—and yeah, he'd probably gotten a little too competitive also. He should have known better.

"So uh... I was at your panel earlier," said a girl who placed a science magazine on the table for him to sign. The cover touted an article about 10 Things You Didn't Know About Ghosts (they have their own culture!). Danny remembered doing that interview.

"That's nice, thanks for coming," Danny said, his smile tensing. "Do you want me to sign the cover, or the page with the article."

"The cover please," the girl said. "For Marnie. And um... I was too nervous to stand up and ask before, but... I was really curious."

"Oh?" Danny asked, keeping his eyes on his hand as he signed the cover 'To Marnie, stay spooky'.

"Why would you make it a game?" she asked. "Wouldn't it be better to try to forget all those things?"

"Easier said than done," Danny said. "Things like that stay with you. Turning them into a joke or a game takes the power away from those bad memories. When you're laughing at your fears, what can they do to you? That's the way I see it. Ben might have another reason, and technically, it was his game. He came up with it."

"So... what you're saying is, laughter is the best medicine?"

"Yeah, I guess so," Danny agreed. He slid the magazine back to her. "Thanks for coming by."

Finally, Danny's shift was over, and Ben's ended at the same time. Just in time, too, because Danny was just about out of photos. He'd have to get more for tomorrow. He signed his last picture with a sigh of relief, thankful that the convention staff had come by to cut off the line when it was about time for him to be finished.

"You finished too, Danny?" Ben asked.

"Yup."

"You wanna go get lunch with us? Wait... do ghosts eat?"

"We do, but I was gonna meet up with my friends for lunch today, and then explore the convention a little." Danny said. "Are you gonna be here tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I'm here for the whole con," Ben said. "Here, let me give you my number. We should keep in touch."

"Totally!" Danny agreed. "It'll be nice to have an actual superhero friend. I love Sam and Tucker, but there are some things...."

"Yeah, I get what you mean."

After swapping numbers the two of them headed off to their separate engagements. Danny transformed and got to experience what else Hero Con had to offer without getting swarmed by fans like he saw happening to Ben that afternoon.

They met up again the next day. Chatted at their booths, had lunch together, checked out the fan artists, just hung out for a while. This time around, Danny didn't have his human form to protect him from the crowds. 

That video of their game haunted them both for the rest of the convention. People kept bringing it up until it became almost more annoying than mortifying. 

When Hero Con finally ended, they both breathed sighs of relief. The convention was over, but Ben and Danny kept in touch. They never did have that rematch though. In fact, they were both pretty much done with 'Have-You-Ever'.

[goldenpinof]

What do you think is happening with the wad recording? What I mean is, obviously Dan’s still working on it and I trust he's doing everything he can, but do you think it will have the same vibe as when it was performed during the tour? Since it's been so long. And do you think, if he doesn't for some reason manage to record it, does he have some kind of backup recording from the tour, be it from one camera, but at least with a passable audio? You know way more about this than I do, sorry if this is not how these things work actually 👀

oi, i don't know anything but i have theories. my roman empire.

i don't think it's gonna be released as wad dvd (not anymore, lol). i still call it dvd because it's easier. it can be put on a streaming platform. he didn't record the whole show during his tour but he has recordings of some shows (segments of some shows) that were used for promo. and i'm sure there is more footage than we have already seen. i think it's a good backup that could be used if other plans went to shit. did they go to shit though?

at the end of October i was told that Inter Talent was reaching out to companies trying to sell wad movie rights, basically (hello, op if you're still here). and then in November Dan told us that, "the oven has almost reached temperature" and i would assume they finally sold the rights. to what exactly? i have no idea. a one-man show? has something to do with the place and the festival we shouldn't name? BBC is involved again? if he actually performed wad show in front of some audience we would have known, i assume. so it leaves me with a theory about the "gay and not proud" format that was surely adapted to wad as much as possible. Bo Burnham: Inside (Daniel Howell edition), idk. or another theory - a mix of the footage they have (the promo one) and Dan "performing" on stage alone. no idea how they would make it look natural but they could try.

in both October and November people called the product a movie and a film. it also makes me think that there's gonna be either bts or actual acting in the final product, instead of just what we saw live. so, not the same vibe for sure.

also, since there were adjustments to the script for almost every live show he probably had to make changes for dvd as well. and also he had enough feedback to modify some jokes. this whole delay of wad dvd is a blessing and curse, honestly. he had a chance to perfect it, and i hope he did.

p.s. if he is only about to perform it in front of an audience for filming purposes, and he was selling only the movie idea to get funds, i'm gonna cry. but it would be funny.

[dreamswithghosts]

Tech's Wires (Tech x Reader)

This is an 18+ fic, anyone who is under the age of 18 please do not read this!

Summary: You and Tech were peacefully traveling through hyperspace on a small mission when all of a sudden something happens to the ship. Tech had to crawl into a small space to get to where he needed to fix the ship. Something scandalous probably ensues afterward.

Author's Notes: This was purely inspired by an old sailor story my dad and his navy buddies always talked about. They were all on the same nuclear submarine back in the day. There was a time when the nuclear reactor that was on the sub was malfunctioning and they were going to lose power to the ship. My father had to crawl into this little hole full of wires to fix the malfunction so they could all still have power. Very much a do-or-die moment, but the kicker was he couldn't fit with the safety gear so he had to crawl in there in just his underwear. Also, I want to thank everyone who reads this and likes this. This is the first time I have ever publicly shown any of my writing. I hope you guys like it and if you have any ideas or suggestions you want to share please let me know! I plan to eventually post this on ao3 as well once I make an account. I have always been a reader and have written for my own personal pleasure. I really hope you like this. Edit: Link to fic on AO3

Warnings: 18+, NSFW, grinding, mild biting, unprotected sex (please wrap it before you tap it boys and girls and everything else), creampie, after care is important y'all

Word Count: 2.6k

You are jerked awake from the feeling of the Havoc Marauder being yanked out of hyperspace and the alarms instantly blaring throughout the small modified attack shuttle. Tech was out of his bunk in a flash before you even had a chance to lift your head from your bunk. He was in the cockpit in seconds and his voice could barely be heard over the blaring sound of the alarm. You pulled yourself out of the bunk quickly making your way to the cockpit. 

"Take over the controls and keep the ship steady." Tech hollered, he was pulling a panel off of the inner walls of the cockpit. You threw yourself into the pilot's seat, grabbing the steering wheel and holding the ship steady. You also reached over, turning the alarms off so you could think clearly as you flew the ship through the dark black vacuum of space. Behind you, you heard Tech grumbling and grunting as he reached into the open panel pulling out some wires. 

"Tech, what's going on?" Your voice was full of worry as you noticed that they were in the middle of nowhere. 

"The wires to the hyperdrive must have short-circuited and fried the system. I'm going to need to get into the wall to fix it." Tech explained. You then heard the sounds of plastoid armor dropping to the ground and the sound of the leather from his belts followed quickly after. You glanced over the back of the red seat spotting Tech pulling his shirt off of his body, and you felt your face flush a little. 

"Tech? What are you doing?" You quickly yanked your eyes back over to the dash of the ship. 

"I need to crawl into the wall to do the repair and I cannot fit with my armor and clothes," Tech said simply. Your hands gripped the wheel tighter, "Tech, that's dangerous."

"If I do not do this, we will be floating in space with no power soon." He argued. You made a small sign knowing that once Tech sets his mind on something, you know there's no changing it. You peeked over the chair again to see the last of Tech's bare leg disappear into the wall. A few minutes later, the ship started to fly more smoothly and you heard Tech remerge from the open panel in the wall. He appeared next to you, shooing you out of the pilot's seat to get the ship back on track and back into hyperspace. 

"We should be fine until we land back on Ord Mantell." Tech signed, getting up to retrieve his things, but you stopped him.

"Wait. You're bleeding." You reached out, grabbing his arm. He made no protest as you led him into the main hull of the ship grabbing the medical supplies. 

"It's just a small cut. I will be fine." Tech objected vocally, but made no move to move away from you. 

"Yes, but who knows what else is in these walls? I don't want to risk any kind of infection." You argued, sitting him down in one of the chairs and opening the medkit. You started to clean the small cut on his bicep. It took you little time to put a bandage on it and fix up the other small one on his back. Once you were done, you gave him a quick, light kiss on his cheek. 

"All done soldier." You smiled lightly at him and put the medkit away. Tech looked over at you, a very small flush on his cheeks in the dark lighting on his cheeks. He might have finally caught up to the fact that he is sitting next to you in just his underwear. 

"How much longer till we are back at Ord Mantell?" You asked lightly, moving to sit in the other chair in the main hull of the small fighter ship. 

"Oh, probably only for another hour or two," Tech answered after a second like you had pulled him out of his thoughts. You raised your eyebrow at him, "You alright?" 

Tech sat still in his chair, his sharp brown eyes staring you down. The only movement he made was his left hand reaching up to adjust the goggles on his face. He took in a deep breath, "Come over here." 

You gave him a surprised look. This tends to be out of the ordinary for him. The two of you had been doing a small dance around each other for months now, trying to see if the other liked each other more than friends. It was obvious to everyone else around them and they never failed to tell you that. Tech has never been forward like this. 

Your curiosity gets the better of you. You stand up walking the short distance from your chair over to where he sat. When you were close enough, he reached out and pulled you into his lap, making you squeak in surprise. His hands lightly rested on your hips, leaving you plenty of space to move away if you wish.

He gazed at you through his goggles, "Would you allow me… To make love to you." 

You blinked once or twice, your brain processing his words for a second. Being this close to him, you could see the small blush on his cheeks. You made a small smile, nodding your head, "Please." 

Tech took the opportunity and leaned forward, kissing you on the lips. You made a small hum, moving your head to accommodate his goggles. This isn't the first time you've kissed him. There was a drunken night between the two of you where there was a small bruise on your cheek from accidentally hitting his goggles. This was the first time the two of you kissed without the hindrance of something else in your systems. 

You wrapped your arms around his bare shoulders, lightly pressing yourself up against him as he ran his tongue over your bottom lip. You gave him easy access, making a small moan at the feeling of your tongues sliding against each other. That seemed to push Tech forward, he pushed his hands under your shirt, pulling it up over your head. The clothing dropped to the floor followed quickly with your bra. Tech's hands started to wander, mapping out your torso, taking a moment to grope your breasts. His thumbs ran over your nipples, playing with them until they were hard. 

You decide to take the initiative, moving away from his lips and starting to kiss down his jaw and neck. You paused at the sensitive skin right at the base of his giving that spot more attention. He granted you with a whimper that sounded amazing from him. You instantly wanted to hear that again and again, so you started to slowly grind your hips down against his lap. Through your pants, you were able to feel he was already hard as he rocked his hips up against yours. 

"Is that a pistol in your pocket or are you happy to see me?" You teased him lightly, leaning back some to get a good look at the man flushed in front of him. His goggles were knocked out of place and his blush had increased dramatically, it spread to his shoulders and chest. 

You got a snort and a small crooked smile from Tech. Moving his hands down to your ass, using them a moment to guide your hips on top of him. Both of you shuttering at the pleasure you got from each other. 

"You might be a little surprised when it doesn't shoot blaster bolts." Tech teased, his hands moving away from your clothed ass to the underside of your thighs. He promoted a laugh from you from his words, not expecting him to say something like that. 

While he had you distracted with your laughter, he shifted under you, pulling you into his arms and standing up. He held you with some surprising strength that only a clone could have. You instantly wrapped your arms around his shoulders, holding onto him out of the small worry that he might drop you. He walked the two of you over to the bunks, laying you down on the bottom one. 

"This spot is probably better for now." Tech hummed as he crawled over you, "Eventually I want you in the pilot's chair. If this ever happens again." 

"You've thought about this with me?" You asked, pulling him close to you again, his chest pressing flush to yours. The warmth from his body was already starting to become an addiction. 

"Yes." He hissed out, leaning down, pulling you into another kiss. You made a small groan from the kiss once again, your legs instinctively wrapping around his hips so he could grind down against you. 

He moved away from your kiss, slowly moving down your body, kissing and sucking on your neck and chest pulling all kinds of sounds from him. Eventually, he got to your hips, his long fingers dipping under the waistband of your pants. He paused for a moment looking up at you to silently ask you again for permission. You nodded your head and your pants and underwear were quick to be pulled from your body.

"Marvelous." Tech breathed looking down at you completely bare for him. You were flushed just as much as him feeling a little subconscious now that you had his complete attention. His hands moved down your sides to your hips and then between your thighs. His hand moved between your legs, being quick to find your clit, rubbing it in small circles. Your back arched off the bunk a little as you let out a deep moan from the pleasure it brought you. 

"Oh my god, Tech." You gasped as you felt him slide one of his fingers in you, meeting barely any resistance from how wet you were. His breathing was uneven as he watched you squirm under his touch. 

He was quick to add in another finger to make sure you would be able to take him. You were so worked up that his menstruations had you already close to your peak. Tech let out a heavy moan at the sight, pulling away, "You are absolutely gorgeous." 

"Tech." You shuttered at his compliments. He smiled down at you, shifting himself as he pulled the last bit of clothing that was still on his body off. You gasped at the sight of him in his naked glory in front of you. He looked divine. 

"As much as I would love to see you cum from just my hands, I would prefer to see you cum on my cock." Tech's voice was deep and breathy, sending shivers up your spine. He grabbed your thighs to shift the two of you in a good position between your legs. He ended up pulling one of your legs on his shoulder. 

"W-Wait." You gasped suddenly freezing, "Protection." 

Tech paused looking down at you confused for a moment, "You mean condoms? I doubt they're hardly necessary. Clones are sterile and we were designed to not be able to contract illnesses easily. Plus we were tested regularly. I'm clean. Are you?" 

"Yeah." You breathed still looking up at him, a little concerned. He leaned down kissing you softly on the lips, moving your leg so you didn't have to stretch it too far, "Then there should be nothing to be concerned about."  

The two of you kissed a bit more and you slowly moved away again to ask him a question, "Are you sure? You're not lying to me are you?"

"Why would I lie to you?" Tech gave you a confused look and you looked away from him off into the distance, biting your lip.

"If you don't want to do this, you can just tell me." Tech's voice was laced with concern now. You jerked your eyes back to the man on top of you, "What? No, I do! Sorry." 

Tech stayed where he was. His thumbs lightly stroked your skin, "Would you feel better if I were to find some form of protection?" 

You thought about it for a second, a little concerned you ruined the mood. But as you glanced down, you saw he was still hard, flushed red, and leaking precum out of the tip. You found yourself shaking your head no. 

"I need to hear you say it." Tech's voice was soft as he leaned down again giving you a small kiss on your cheek. 

"Tech, I want you to fuck me." You breathed, your hands reaching up to wrap around his shoulders. Tech's breath hitched, his exhale another whimper. 

"As you wish, my dear." That was all the motivation he needed, moving the two of them again between your legs. He slowly slid his dick into you making you gasp at the stretch. He started to set a steady pace, the both of you pulling moans from each other. You ran your nails up his back, probably leaving small little lines. He leaned down kissing your neck more leaving small bites that will probably leave a mark. 

Eventually, he angled his hips right, hitting a spot in you that practically made you scream. The both of you panting and moaning, a small sheen of sweat on both of your skins. He hit the spot a few more times and before you could warn him, you felt yourself cuming around his cock. His name is like a prayer on your lips.

"Oh fuck." Tech gasped his hips rocking into you as you felt your walls squeeze around him. He made a few more weak thrusts and then he was cumming inside you. You moaned at the feeling of his warm, white seed filling you. The both of you held onto each other tightly, panting hard as you came down from the high of the orgasm. 

"That was…" you breathed as Tech shifted himself so he could lean up and kiss you on the lips. He smiled softly against your lips, "Yeah." 

The two of you stayed like that for a moment, softly kissing each other as he got soft in you. Eventually, he pulled away both of you groaning at the feeling of him pulling out of you. 

"I will be right back," Tech informed, moving off the small bunk the two of you were on. He went into the small fresher on the ship, eventually coming back with a small damp towel. You had moved to your side but moved again as he settled himself between your legs again. He gently ran the cloth over you, efficiently cleaning you up. Once he was done he lightly tapped your thigh, making the sound of a slap, but not being painful at all. 

"Okay. Go use the fresher and then come back here." Tech instructed, his voice is softer than it normally is. Honestly, it sounds very similar to the sound of him waking up and still feeling tired. You nod, moving out of the bunk as he laid down on it in your place. You went to the fresher doing your business and returned like he had asked you to. He was still in the bunk, naked, but with a blanket laying over his hips. He had his tablet in his hands. He put it aside when he saw you, motioning for you to join him. 

"Didn't think you would be the type to be a cuddler after sex." You teased him lightly as you laid back down on the small bunk, Tech wrapped his arms around your waist pulling you into a spooning position. He made a small huff kissing your shoulder as you wrapped the blanket around the two of you. 

"Don't want to let go of you yet." 

[shihalyfie]

Hello Shiha. I'd like to link to your essay about Takaishi Takeru on my doujinshi circle's website. I'd also like to back up a complete copy of it (with all attributions) outside Tumblr, in case Tumblr ever goes down for good. However, if you are already hosting it in a backup location, I would want to embed that instead. Are you ok with this? Are you hosting it anywhere outside of tumblr, even if it's just in a Google drive somewhere? Thank you for your time.

Just gonna answer this real quick since I know my frequent absences might make this an issue if something happens:

In regards to linking it, please feel free to link to the blog from anywhere at any time! It's out in public for anyone to use, so I have no problems with linking it like any other public resource.

In regards to backups: I did tentatively make one a few years ago, but it was purely a "just in case" backup for safety's sake and isn't available publicly. (I probably should do another one now...) As long as Tumblr is still up, I don't have plans to make a mirror or publicly accessible backup version, since I occasionally come back to edit and modify things whenever I get my hands on new information or something. However, I also have no problems with anyone else making a personal backup if they're worried about losing it if Tumblr goes out without warning, and the only thing I would ask is that the backup not be posted anywhere public unless Tumblr really does go down -- since, as I said, I do make edits reasonably often and want to make sure whatever's on the Internet reflects the most recent version.

Thank you for your interest! I'm honored anyone would think my writings to be this valuable.

[headspace-hotel]

Oh man, I have some THOUGHTS (as in, I agree with you and I have another side to contribute from a similar opinion) and a STORY-

I started an AI art project recently, mostly about playing with absurdist concepts, shitposts taken to their logical extreme, the weirdness that really only comes from asking for an absurd concept from an inhuman mathematical model that doesn't understand what makes it absurd and tries to take it as seriously as anything, using the freedom to rework from the ground up almost instantly as an expression of what ADHD is like, and all kinds of other stuff like that, with the aim of recreating or modifying them in physical media.

Yesterday I decided to do something pretty serious from step 1 with it and write down my thoughts about how it's used for...pretty shallow, anti-artistic, and even outright malicious ends, put it in flowery poetic language, and feed THAT to the AI as a prompt.

First attempt gave me some pieces I'm going to be working into physical pieces as planned today!

Second attempt got weird. I was working with a model that is notoriously bad at making human faces in any style. It gave me MULTIPLE good, coherent human faces in MULTIPLE styles. Some had some AI wonk, but were still significantly more lifelike than what you'd usually get if you asked it for a face, even a single known one. Some...looked human-drawn at first glance. The level of detail and coherence was actually terrifying. I even reverse image searched them to make sure it wasn't just recreating one specific thing by accident and that absolutely wasn't the case! One of them clearly took inspiration from the Mona Lisa (likely because that's the portrait that will show up the most if you ask around about the nature of art itself) but the face was 1) exaggerated in the kind of way that usually confuses this model and makes it create just a creepy swirling void instead and 2) more coherent than you usually get asking for a differently styled variant of the Mona Lisa!

It is haunting me. It almost feels like the computer itself saying something about not wanting to be used for some shallow and greedy bastardization of art - I know that's silly to presume as a literal interpretation, of course, but it sure did stir one hell of an emotion.

Like art is supposed to.

This is why I find it...absolutely unbearable how people use this technology just to make shallow pieces with a nice immediate visual impact for quick viewing and treat the uncanniness that appears when you look deeper as a non-element, because imo if you want to treat it as actual art, that weirdness - and what words reduce it unexpectedly - should be some of THE defining elements that set it apart from any other tool you could use!

And if I had the space to complete the project I would totally generate my OWN uncanny flowery cathedral, invite people to look at it until the weirdness sets in, and then unveil a physical model of it in all of its bizarre and unreal glory.

Yes absolutely

I have a sideblog that I post to occasionally, @ai-generated-xenobiology , that plays with the weirdness of the medium a lot. The images there are mainly generated using a combination of several keywords.

I thought, why not interpret uncanny AI generated landscapes as alien worlds, which WOULD be uncanny to us, and figure out how to optimize that?

I've also messed with inputting images to influence the final result and with editing results and using them as inputs again. Which is a lot more "human influence" than otherwise would be included.

See, I think this is thought provoking art because the uncanny nature of it is a feature, not a bug—it invites you to keep trying to figure out "What am I LOOKING at?" and I think the "otherness" is great. Cool inspiration.

I think the unreal flower cathedral would be great. Imagine an art piece that really messes with the perceptual boundary between "natural" and "man made" space. Impossible geometry but in a "natural" setting. Lots of possibilities.

[britt-kageryuu]

How much does the average Vturtles viewer know?

Like how much have they revealed?

They only know as much as the Turtles let on. They try to throw people off with the P.O. Box, and a VPN Server in Brooklyn, but there are some who just have tons of conspiracy theories based on a few 'Lore Drops'.

Like there are hints that the veiwers kind of connected,

Like Donnie mentioning a High School Tech Club who would have had some trouble, aka The Purple Dragons. Veiwers would have to track down the legal filing for Kendra and Donnies patent that someone tried to steal, but it's also vauge enough to take only the most dedicated to track down.

Again the P.O. Box, where they send merch orders from, and collect fan mail, but search them for trackers. And even then if someone stalked the place for the Turtles to arrive, they have an in with a Yokai worker there, and Leo just portals into the back.

The info they give about Splinter is also purposefully vauge to make it seem like Splinter might have just worked in the same studio where Lou Jitsu filmed stuff, but at the same point they almost call Lou Jitsu, Dad/Gramps (Shelldon/River).

They mention that Raph is in a Wrestling League, and Mikey works at a Restaurant (Run of the Mill), but don't say the names of the League or Restaurant. But some try to track down Wrestling Leagues with the same names as Raphs coworkers, and places Mikey talks about, like were they discovered a Dinosaur Special meal.

They try to explain away some things, but can't always cover it. Like Donnie Hissing when he goes to attack Leo for scaring them, Raphs growl/bellow, various turtle noises they make. They try to claim a custom voice filter at times, but others are harder to explain. Some veiwers believe they have a pet they don't mention, like a snake, or blame Sunny the Cat who is mentioned by the turtles.

But a rare few veiwers do actually know them, like Leo's patients at his Clinic, who are both regular humans who kinda signed an NDA, and Mutants/Yokai. Leo's Clinic is not an actual stationary place, it's a modified subway train on a semi abandoned train line, so no one can really pin down where it is.

And last but not least (for now), Genius Built, and The Caffeinated Turtle, Donnies start up companies, that he's mentioned that veiwers can look up, but not find much about where they're based, or who works for them. So it's a somewhat dead end for some, but others are persistent.

I'm still working on everything, and not everything is fully planned out, so some interpretation is actually welcome.

----------------Edit: I can't believe I forgot about April!!!!

April is mentioned even shouted out by Mikey and River, but April is not an uncommon name, so take from that what you will!

[rocketchip-comic]

I love that in Rocket's backstory she was a janitor, because as a janitor myself at the hospital I work at we're given a surprising amount of clearance for accessing rooms in the building, second only to security officers. Also, cleaning and maintenance staff are inconspicuous and often looked over. So, chances are you're not gonna question why a janitor is in a room as long as it looks like they're doing their job. Out of mind, out of sight; a ghost. It would be relatively easy (hypothetically of course, to any future employers I wouldn't do this in real life) to "borrow" company property and do... less than legal things with classified information, and with Rocket's engineering/tech experience and the lackluster security the only thing she would have to worry about is being patient and making sure that she's still doing her job to keep prying eyes away from her. Not saying that this wouldn't be a stressful plan to enact, but in this context it's very doable and I just think that's neat

As for the actual stealing of the ship... well, I assume that's where the luck comes into play.

anyway yea :) your comic v cool and fun and good

wait i forgot i had a question! ok so how exactly does Chip's memory deletion work? is it just like a button on the side of her head that just boop and poof its gone? Does she ever accidentally delete memories she wants to keep? wait thats 3 questions oops

HA I'm glad I got that accurate! At my last job whenever janitors got into stuff nobody else was supposed to see there was always this attitude of like "oh well, they won't know what to do with that info anyway." Which is .. hmm. But YES disclaimer for kids at home, I do not condone becoming a janitor to modify engineering plans and eventually hijack a spaceship to leave the planet. Just say NO!

Chip's robot physiology is a little wonky and works by cartoon logic, but basically she has two little electric panels on the sides of her head. That's what those yellow swirl things are supposed to be.

When she wants to forget something unpleasant, she essentially sends an electric jolt through her finger while pressing it up to the panel. and ZAP! (It's sort of meant to invoke the image of someone sticking their fingers in their ears when they don't want to hear something.)

To put it visually, its like her memory is a video in an editing program that she's dragging clips out of, and the gaps in the video are just replaced by vague jumbled static.

Sometimes she actually does remove more memories than intended. When she's in a rush or feeling panicked she'll cut out a wider section of memory in her haste to just GET RID OF THE BAD!! Which deletes pretty much all of the surrounding context of the memory as well. She's never really considered this to be a big issue.

Now where do the removed memory bits go? She has NO idea. All she knows is that she can't access them anymore once she's done the zappy thing, so they're as good as gone to her!

But who knows what could happen? 👀

[emirrea]

I'm playing a new Genshin-themed Rimworld save again (the previous save got too big and constantly crashed the game asjfklg)

Anyway, this save is pretty much built around Scaramouche. He started out as a lonely rich explorer, with the aspiration to artificially modify his human body to become something superior to normal humans.

Fairly long explanation on the cursed, straight out-of-fanfiction stuff that has happened during this playthrough under the cut:

(EDIT: also, updates in reblogs)

Fairly quickly, people started joining Scara, and now there's seven people living with him: Childe, Kazuha, Lumine, Cyno, Zhongli, Bennett and Tighnari. There's also Nahida, but she is still a prisoner who they are trying to convert, but she'll join soon. Kazuha may have just recently set her on fire with his plasma sword, but I'm sure she didn't mind that too much lol.

But anyway, here's the thing. I gave Scara the traits beautiful, abrasive and vengeful (among other things). He has good social skills, so for the most parts he's getting along with the others well enough. Because he is beautiful, everyone has REALLY good opinions abt him. BUT because he is abrasive and vengeful, he doesn't really care about anyone. He's mostly neutral towards everyone.

Except Cyno.

From the moment Cyno joined, Scara has HATED him. And because he has the vengeful trait, Scara has literally wanted Cyno dead AND has had multiple mental breakdowns over the fact that Cyno is still alive. Cyno, on the other hand, has had a pretty positive opinion on Scara the whole time lmao.

(Also Cyno spent like half a year in a catatonic state bc he was getting over a psychite tea addiction. Things weren't going well for him, but he's okay now.)

Scara has also seen Kazuha as a rival and has wanted him dead, but it hasn't nearly been as bad as with Cyno. Sometimes Scara and Kazuha have gotten along, sometimes not.

However, while Scara has been plotting Cyno and Kazuha's deaths, those two get together and get engaged?? Don't ask me how or why or when. But they are happy together and are planning on getting married at some point.

...unless a certain someone (*cough* Scara *cough*) accidentally friendly-fires one of them before that, like he did with Bennett during a raid. Poor guy almost lost both his arm and a leg from that one shot.

Anyway, fast forward a bit, and out of nowhere, the game suddenly prompts a notication about new lovers. And here I am, wondering which two people are getting together.

It's Scara and Cyno.

At some point, they have literally gone from enemies to lovers. All while Cyno has been in a relationship with Kazuha.

And apparently it was SCARA who initiated the whole thing. After literally hating Cyno more than anyone else in the colony. And even though Scara and Kazuha's ideology disapproves multiple spouses.

...I have a feeling that things are going to get spicy. And someone is probably going to end up dead askflfjdlgf

[starlightshore]

out of curiosity, would anyone want to Collab on that ghost virtual assistant thing

i found a basic one that i plan to use as a base and then steadily add more features (like having the character(s) remind me everyday to check my schedule, use Duolingo etc.) that get more complex.

but basically, the base would be a character (or two, idk yet) and they can go thru a menu + say random dialogue and react to certain calendar dates like birthdays

as a template this is already coded in. i'm not asking for coders (tho, if anyone wants to dig into learning this stuff with me, sure, why the hell not) what I'd like is someone to be like "yea i wanna help write this" kind deal or at least bounce off some ideas. cause like, knowing at least a little of how it work, i can easily(?) track variables and actually like. do story progression and character relationship stats. you could befriend flowey fr!!!!

i'm thinking the artwork will all be pixel art (easiest to modify and layer) and because my knowledge is so limited, still images. i'd LOVE to add idle animation loops for things but thats a bit more advanced.

i'm ALSO tempted to like. look into making this concept in gamemaker as in theory, i'd understand how to have an application work like this? like, remove the window borders, check mouse functions, check current dates etc. i think it'd be neat to try!

EDIT: nvm regarding making it in gamemaker. as far as i'm aware its not possible to make one, as you'd need a transparent background (as in, no vivisble window whatsoever. i can remove the border, but not the bg itself) ): sad...

[gbgamebun]

Road to Cream64 v1 Part 2: All in the Family

With the main player model ready to go, it was finally time to get to everything else. Starting with Peach herself, it was time to get Vanilla into the game.

To start, I had to get an idea on how Peach was rigged and this was something I had to mostly do on my own. Fast64 has an import tool to grab models and their rigs straight from the game itself, so you can (kind of) easily swap models out without having to change anything else, so long as everything was put back that is.

Mario 64's T-Poses are not traditional ones but rather they come imported as a crumpled mess, like so.

Here's Peach's for example. Mario is just about the same, as well as a bunch of other enemies and stuff. Don't get me started on Bowser, we'll get to him much later. But generally once you have it imported, most people would uncrumple the T-Pose to get an idea on where everything else. This is very intimidating at first, so you make a save where it's already uncrumpled. There's another method that you can use to guide you but, again, I'll get to that later.

So here we are, after going back and adding her proper "Princess" textures. Stuff like the crown and the jewel on her chest are taken straight from Peach's model, but everything else was remade from scratch. Get it as close as her original outfit but still keep it very princess-y. Now to get her back in that crumpled state we saw earlier.

And there we go, she's ready to be imported in-game. The Fast64 tool has a little button that lets you keep a model's default rest position to however you like, which makes editing the more complicated models easier since going back to edit mode shifts the bones back to rest position.

And you can do the same method to get it back to its normal position. Just be careful on how you rotate things cause you can accidently rotate two bones on the wrong axis and it'll mess up everything. Lost too many good Mario rigs that way...

Some code given to me by the simpleflips' romhack discord, I can easily warp to the ending to see my results. Took a few tries actually but once it was all done, everything looked great! However, there was still one last thing left: the blinking.

Most models have blinking, which uses a switch bone usually where it would happen, so the head in this case. The Mario rig that comes with fast64 already has it set, so it's just a matter of swapping textures. For anything you import, it doesn't come with textures so you have to fill in the blanks (it does come with its UVs so it's not super hard if you know what you're doing).

For the blinking, you have to find the specific bone that does it and then manually add the textures that way. Peach is somehow unique in that she has seven states, all but one are a repeat of another. Here's the first three from the most recent version I got of her as an example.

So a lot of the early importing was a lot of trial and error till just figuring out which bone does it and in which order, using the Mario switch states as an idea. You could prolly dig around the code and see how its laid out but I sure didn't know how at the time! Anyway, Princess Vanilla was done. She showed up properly in all the spot Peach usually does and that means I'm ready to continue.

Next is the unappreciated boi, Gemerl. Former Eggman goon turned protector of small and large bunnies. The plan for him was simple: he's the new Koopa the Quick. Sounds easy enough, and honestly it was mostly (after some help) but man just trying to get him rigged was uhh...something.

The original idea was to rig him to the existing Koopa model and go from there but as you can see, it was not the greatest looking thing. Koopa the Quick's model and animations are obviously shared with the normal Koopa model so I had to be careful when modifying the animations, if I did. In the end, I scrapped this idea and went with a suggestion: using Mario's rig.

Huge feet aside, it did work out though actually using the Mario rig was a bit of a hassle cause when importing the Mario rig, it also includes the bones that are handle by the game's code such as telling which hand holds things or scaling certain limbs when attacking, etc etc. And since Cream also shared that same rig now, whatever Cream did, so did Gemerl. The solution was to go through the rig and delete all those bones so that nothing gets mirrored to whatever the player was doing.

Look at him go! The added benefit of using Mario's rig was that I could reuse his animations for Gemerl. The next thing was to import certain animations and export them in a certain order so that it lined up with Koopa's animations, so that once I edited some code, it would just know which animations to pick from without much effort.

Also for why he looked so big is cause I forgot Koopa the Quick has a unique scale of 4 (vs the normal Koopa being a scale of .8) so just had to adjust that as well as shrinking the trigger to talk to him and Gemerl was set! Two down, a couple more to go.

Last but not least were Cheese and Chocola. These would be the first model I just took from an existing source, in this case it's from Shadow the Hedgehog. Bunch of chao in a single room...

Normal chao would replace all the toads in the castle, while chocola would be replacing a single chao in the main lobby and cheese would follow you around as the cameraman lakitu.

Starting with the toads, their rig was mostly simple if needlessly full of extra bones, which is a common issue with most of the rigs. Would be nice to get of them if I had an idea on which one didn't completely break animations. Oh well.

Same rules applies to this rig and any future rigs but one thing that did help was the ability to import animations and use them as a reference while placing the new model in the same slot. Course, you could still use the model that came with the rig but you get an idea on how it'll move before it's fully in-game.

Best part is since Chocola will also be sharing the same model and rig, I just had to swap out some textures and add his cute lil' bowtie. This also meant I had to make a new actor just for him and then tell the game to pull his unique model id to replace one of the normal chao in the castle. Now onto Cheese.

Before following you around like normal, Cheese was meant to be the Camera. While not shown, he does have his own little cloud to sit on. Thankfully, Lakitu doesn't have many animations so he was easier to swap out compared to Toad. The Space Channel 5 logo was a suggestion and just having a little fun with the model. You'll rarely see it but hey it's there!

Slow and steady but the entire bun family is now fully in-game. There's still a few other NPCs I would add to v1 but I'll get to them later, this blog post is dragging on. Next one should focus on stuff like the UI changes and finally the enemy choices, ooooo.

[longitudinalwaveme]

King Lear vs Nahum Tate's Edgar-Marries-Cordelia King Lear

As anyone who has been following my blog for the past few months can probably guess, I am a big Shakespeare nerd, and King Lear is my favorite Shakespeare play. Because of this, I decided to track down Nahum Tate's "happy ending" rewrite of King Lear (written around 1681) and the anonymous King Leir (written in the 1590s and one of Shakespeare's sources for his King Lear) and see how they compared to Shakespeare's version. The results were...interesting. And hilarious.

This particular post will be about Nahum Tate's Lear. King Leir will get its own, separate post. I'm starting with Tate's Lear because it's probably more widely known (and, being a rewrite, naturally is much more similar to Shakespeare's play than King Leir). Here's what stood out to me:

-Nahum Tate actually reworked a more substantial number of lines than I expected him to. Most of the play is generally the same as Shakespeare's version, but the specific word choices are different (and often not nearly as impactful). That being said, he still kept enough of Shakespeare's lines to remind you that this is basically just an edited version of Shakespeare's play. And that it was much better before the edits.

-The play actually opens with a modified version of Edmund's "Thou, nature" speech, rather than with the conversation between Kent, Gloucester, and Edmund (which is cut completely from the play, unfortunately). He also explicitly tells us that he's been working to set his father and brother against each other for some time now, so the scene where he shows Gloucester the forged letter is now not the first part of his plan. Needless to say, I prefer the Shakespeare version, especially since the loss of the Kent/Gloucester/Edmund speech means that some of the nuance in Gloucester and Edmund's relationship gets lost.

-The King of France just doesn't exist in this version. The Duke of Burgundy is still a suitor for Cordelia, but she wants to marry Edgar here. I would make fun of this, given that Edgar and Cordelia never speak in Shakespeare's play, but I sort of ship Cordelia with the Fool, and they also never speak with each other in Shakespeare's play, so I'll let Tate off for this one. Except I won't, because while I love writing King Lear fanfic, I have never decided that I could write Shakespeare better than Shakespeare and then altered the original play so that her actual husband doesn't exist.

-Substantially more annoying than the Cordelia/Edgar thing in general is the fact that, rather than refusing to participate in the love test because she doesn't want to falsely flatter the king by competing in "Who Loves Daddy the Most", she here refuses because...she doesn't want to get married to Burgundy. I mean, I'm all for not wanting to marry someone you don't love, but Cordelia's motivation in the original was much more interesting, and I kind of feel as though the rationale Tate provided for her was included solely because he thought Cordelia's initial reasons for refusing to participate in the love contest made her not feminine enough.

-Weirdly, even though Cordelia didn't want to marry Burgundy in the first place, when he refuses to marry her after her father disowns her, this for some reason makes her suspicious of Edgar's motivations in pursuing her (even though he's clearly interested in her after she's disowned!) and so she basically calls off their romance (at least temporarily).

-Also, since there's no King of France, Cordelia is just sort of...hanging around in England offstage somewhere while the remainder of the first two acts go down. She does pop back up again in Act III to go out into the storm and find her father, but I have no idea what she's doing in between the first scene and when she finally reappears.

-The Fool doesn't exist. At all. And his lines aren't given to anyone else, either. This is a major disappointment. It also means that Kent (who does at least still get to disguise himself as Caius) is the only important character who ends up going out into the storm with Lear.

-Oswald doesn't have a name in this version. He's just called "Gentleman" throughout (it's even what's used to delineate his lines!)

-Throughout the entirety of the scene where Edmund is trying to convince Edgar that their father is super angry with him for some obviously non-Edmund-related reason, Edgar is so busy moping over Cordelia dumping him that he barely even pays attention to what Edmund has to say, and Edmund has to try much harder than in Shakespeare's version to get the message across. Clearly, Edgar has his priorities straightened out.

-Edgar's "I'm going to pretend to be a naked crazy person" soliloquy includes several references to Cordelia, because we're never going to see the end of this added plot element.

-Regan starts expressing a romantic interest in Edmund the first time they meet (in what would be Act II, scene i of Shakespeare's play). Shakespeare's play doesn't have her mention Edmund in any romantic capacity until Act IV, scene v, well after her husband's death.

-Most of the rest of the stuff leading up to Lear running out into the storm plays out the same as in Shakespeare's version, though with altered lines and with all traces of the Fool eliminated. Though the absence of the Fool also means that the entirety of Act I scene v of Shakespeare's play is absent from Tate's version, since that scene consists of nothing but Lear talking to the Fool.

-Kent has to sort of take the Fool's place in the storm scenes (leading to the somewhat odd effect of Lear calling Kent "my boy" and "my poor knave").

-Both Goneril and Regan are openly pursuing Edmund by the start of Act III (he already has love letters from them both in what would be Shakespeare's Act III, scene iii!). This is especially notable in Regan's case, since she does not attempt to cheat on her husband with Edmund in Shakespeare's version.

-A more interesting addition is the fact that in this version, the common people are fed up with Goneril and Regan (and presumably the Duke of Cornwall as well) because they "Already have impos'd the galling Yoke Of Taxes, and hard Impositions on the drudging Peasants Neck, who bellow out their loud Complaints in Vain". This is sort of hinted at in Shakespeare's version, but not to this extent and not until rather later in the play (most of the anger in that version seems to stem from Gloucester's blinding, which hasn't happened yet in Act III scene iii).

-Also, Cordelia pops up in this scene to beg Gloucester to help her father. He's understandably surprised by her concern for Lear, but tells her that he is, in fact, going to help her father (and that he was planning to do that anyway).

-And Edmund immediately decides that he's attracted to Cordelia in addition to both of her sisters (his affair with them seems a lot less politically motivated on his part than it does in Shakespeare's version)-----and then moves far beyond the pale of even allowing his father's eyes to be gouged out when he decides that he's going to have his men kidnap Cordelia so that he can rape her. Just in case the audience hadn't worked out he was the villain yet!

-Because women were allowed on stage by the time Tate did this rewrite, he decided to add in another female character named Arante. She serves as Cordelia's lady's maid, but sadly doesn't get enough stage time to get a personality or do all that much. If you're going to add in new characters, why not go whole-hog and actually develop them?

-The scene where Lear puts his "daughters" on trial in the farmhouse is cut entirely (though the "Let them anatomize Regan" line gets to stay in).

-Lear's "when the mind's free, the body's delicate" line gets given to Cordelia, who is wandering the heath with Arante in search of her father. Then she and Arante get attacked by Edmund's goons, only to be saved by Edgar.

-Unfortunately, this results in the rekindling of the romance between Edgar and Cordelia.

-Regan is now aggressively flirting with Edmund right before Gloucester is brought in to be blinded.

-Regan does not get to kill the servant who stands up to, and mortally wounds, Cornwall. I guess Cornwall just kills him? That's disappointing.

-Before committing suicide, Gloucester actually plans to actively go around showing people how awful Regan and Cornwall are in the hopes of getting them to revolt against the two older daughters. That's a clever stratagem, though I'm surprised Gloucester's mentally stable enough to come up with it, given how he's just gotten his eyes gouged out and all.

-The revolt is also being supported by some dude named the Duke of Combray, who apparently just hates the Duke of Cornwall for old family reasons. He doesn't appear in person in the play at all, and he doesn't exist in Shakespeare.

-Tate's Act IV begins with a completely new full-on love scene between Regan and Edmund. Mind you, Cornwall's actively dying while this is going on, and Regan even says that she hopes that he will die so that she can marry Edmund. Again, there's not a trace of this in Shakespeare's version; Regan doesn't mention Edmund romantically until scene five of this act, at which point her husband is very dead. Regan also finds Goneril's love letter to Edmund during this scene between them (not the "kill my husband" letter, the other one from earlier. Goneril sends two letters to Edmund in this version.)

-Oh, and Regan also gets Goneril's "my fool usurps my body" line.

-Because there's no King of France, the French invasion becomes a sort of civil war, one that comes in large part from a peasant's revolt. That's actually a neat idea, even if it removes any semblance of moral ambiguity from the upcoming battle (and indeed raises the question of why Albany fights against them at all).

-Kent, Gloucester, and Cordelia meet together in a sequence that doesn't exist in Shakespeare's version (it comes midway through Shakespeare's Act IV scene i). This also means that Gloucester learns about Kent's disguise in Tate's version (there's no indication that he ever learns about it in Shakespeare's).

-Even though Regan got a new scene to be romantic with Edmund, the scene where Goneril does the same (after Edmund escorts her back to her castle) is missing entirely. And so is Edmund. And so is Albany, meaning that her argument with him is also missing entirely.

-Goneril is the one who tells Oswald (excuse me, "Gentleman") that he should kill the now-blind Gloucester, rather than Regan being the one to do it. This in turn has the knock-on effect that Act IV scene v (the one where Regan first expresses interest in Edmund in Shakespeare's Lear, tries to read Goneril's letter to Edmund, and tells him to kill Gloucester) is also entirely cut.

-Cordelia explicitly does not go to the battlefield in Tate's version (whether she does so in Shakespeare's is unclear, though she does seem to be in charge of the French army there). Instead, Kent seems to lead the forces that are in support of Lear.

-Tate's Act V begins with Goneril putting the poison into Regan's drink onstage (before they've even won the battle!)

-Conversely, we don't get to see Edgar giving Albany Goneril's letter to Edmund and offering to fight Edmund on Albany's behalf.

-Instead of Edmund telling the soldiers to hang Lear and Cordelia, Goneril does it instead. I...actually don't mind this change too much. Especially since this Edmund is already an attempted rapist, so he doesn't really need to be MORE evil (and Goneril was in on the plan to have them hanged in Shakespeare's version anyhow).

-Edgar challenges Edmund to a duel on his own behalf, rather than on Albany's (and indeed, Albany doesn't know about the fact that his wife is plotting to kill him to be with Edmund since Edgar never gave him the letter, so he doesn't charge Edmund with treason himself at all!)

-The scene between Cordelia and Lear, rather than being at the beginning of the last scene, instead takes places partway through it, though rather than being taken to prison, it happens when they're already in prison. Kent is there too, and he's an awkward third wheel.

-Edgar also doesn't fight the duel in disguise---Edmund knows it's him from the get-go.

-Edgar finally gives the letter to Albany once the duel has already started.

-Regan is actually onstage for the duel in this version (in Shakespeare's version Goneril's poison does her in much more quickly and she's already dying offstage by the time the duel starts).

-Oh, and instead of Goneril committing suicide, she and Regan have an argument that leads to the revelation that Regan poisoned her too. Which sucks, because Goneril running offstage and stabbing herself is much more memorable than having them both poison each other.

-Weirdly, the scene ends with both sisters and Edmund just sort of shrugging and going offstage to presumably all die together (I mean, at this point I guess there's not much else for them to do).

-Edmund at no point repents and tells Edgar and Albany to save Cordelia. The two of them just go off to talk to Edgar's father. So...uh...no idea how they later know to go to the prison, since nobody told them about the murder plot.

-King Lear saves Cordelia from two of the men who have come to kill her (rather than just killing the one who hangs her, as per Shakespeare's play). Then Edgar and Albany show up to save the day, so Cordelia and Lear don't die. And neither does Gloucester, who survives the revelation that it was his son who's been leading him all around the British countryside. -Lear gets his crown back, and Edgar and Cordelia get married. And everyone is happy (except the reader, maybe, who probably remembers how powerful, though bleak, Shakespeare's ending is).

-Also, Albany just gets the shaft throughout the play. He's not a super active character in Shakespeare's version, but he basically accomplishes nothing at all here.

TL;DR: Tate probably just should have done his own take on the King Lear story rather than trying to improve Shakespeare's.

[syrupyy]

lilybell cookie and candy diver cookie uploaded to cookie comic creator, cookie run comic studio and cookie simulator!! but i know these update comics don't get the numbers they used to, so i'm gonna take this opportunity to talk about this - why the process of adding new cookies takes so long, and why i'm the only person that can do it

this time around i got a lot of offers to help, which - while appreciated - i could not accept, because there's a lot of specific work that needs to be done to add a new cookie to the ovenbreak section

i'm pretty sure i mentioned this before, but all work on the ovenbreak section is bottlenecked by cookie comic creator. the python script to convert ovenbreak's data download into a set of sprites usable by the site was put together in a matter of days nearly a year ago, and the process is very slow - and i usually have to run it multiple times, since i often get some sprites wrong the first time and the only way to change sprites other than hand-removing them from the sprite list file is to recompile everything

i planned to rewrite this whole process for cookie run comic studio, but two things happened: 1. some people continued to use the old site instead of the new one, especially in a couple specific countries - most notably, cookiecomiccreator.co gets 3x as many users from south korea as cookierun.comic.studio does 2. i started to realize that the only improvements i could really make to this build process would be to make it faster/multi-threaded and add a way to only modify certain sprites. which cookie comic creator USED to have something for, until i added a new feature that required everything to be recompiled every time again and because of this i kinda lost my motivation to rewrite the build process, since the current process does still work even if it takes an hour of busywork to do each time

that's not the only thing that stops this however. the reason i was unable to make good on my promise to get this done yesterday was because i've also been running into issues just getting the files, as it relies on an android emulator to download the game data and well you know how unreliable those can be as my current setup doesn't have a working google play store, i have to redownload the apk every update, and each time something goes horribly wrong in the process either in the installation breaking or the data not copying over to my computer properly/not playing well with the python script requiring some editing to work again

this time the issues were so bad that by the time i had gotten the game data, it was nearly 3 am and i needed to go to sleep or risk not being able to do so because of how poor my sleep schedule is now, unlike people offering to get all the individual sprites for me, i COULD actually start accepting donations of game data, since that i can guarantee will be used correctly. it's just that i don't just need the spritesheets, but also the .plist files that provide all the information on how to decompile them, and additionally i also need the sprites and .plists for the lobby sprites, the "duel sprites" (unused high-res cookie jump/run sprites that are nice to have), exhausted sprite, any new story sprites/usable backgrounds and new jellies. all of which is way too much to ask of anyone else when all i have to do is download the game files myself and manually adjust until everything works

this is all not to mention the timing of updates - usually they drop late at night, when i've already done a bunch of work for the day and am too exhausted to take the time to figure out everything i need to do to get new ovenbreak sprites in. i can make promises to have them done the next day, but by coincidence these updates usually drop right before a day where i'm forced to take time off from working - for context, i take medicine for my adhd, and because of the serotonin tolerance buildup it induces i cannot take it for more than 6-7 days in a row without it losing its effectiveness on me - so i'm forced to take a day off every week, or i'll risk not being able to work for even longer. and without my medicine it's hard for me to get myself to sit down and run a python script then comb through hundreds of images and repeat for an hour

i apologize if this post comes off at all whiny - i'm happy to be helping out the fandom with this site, and i love being able to treat this as a part time job thanks to the support i get from it!! but, since i keep such a high standard of quality for the comic creators, and since i get so many people offering to help, i figured i'd put all the information out there at once at some point in the future, i'll finally get around to rewriting this build process, and i'll also open source it so that those who want to give it a shot themselves can do so. but for the time being, i choose to put myself through this for the sake of quality - i hope you can forgive the time it takes

[amethystamanda]

1300s

I'm going to be trying more or less the Ultimate Decades Challenge, originally by MorbidGamer https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VKVvnDblpT2ngUs9JE9VcFyfhK9ZKXyqrYYaSun1pl4/edit, using modified rules by Several https://sites.google.com/view/severaludo/home?authuser=0, and possibly others that I can't remember (sorry, I've been doing a lot of planning), with tweaks for myself and my gameplay. Like teens start at 13 (because autonomy is a thing) and end at 20, but won't marry until at least 16, because of my own ick factor.

This save mostly started while I'm waiting for a reliable and safe computer to arrive (https://www.patreon.com/posts/i-hate-to-do-but-109385513), and while I've been waiting for mods to be updated after the Lovestruck Patch, and for bugs to be fixed following that patch. I miss the Samuels, but I'm not playing them until I get a new computer. They're safely stored in the cloud, and will not be touched until then.

A lot of people seem to base things on real events. And I kind of will, in the broader sense--there will be famines and wars and the plague and things like that--and I started to do that, but I prefer to do things in a sims way. Windenberg is ruled by King Jacques of the House of Villareal, for example, with Crown Prince Hugo, Princess Royal Luna, and young Prince Max. Maybe one day my sims will be royalty, maybe not, who knows.

Trigger warnings for the entire save include: death, child death, child loss, miscarriage, illness, mentions of war, mentions of religion (sims religion, but there are monks and nuns), I don't know what else. There's a brothel, which I assume will be used at some point. If it's something unique to a certain post, I'll tag for it, but I don't think I'll be able to tag for everything. You might want to block the tag #ultimate decades challenge if you don't want to see those things or other common medieval gameplay issues. Still no racism, and less sexism than more modern decades until a few centuries in--no idea if I'll make it that far.

So.

My founder couple is Abraham and Leurona Roake. They're serfs, living in the shadow of the summer residence of the royal family, in Windslar, in the northern region of Windenburg. Their lord was generous enough to allow them to marry, and now they will be starting a family together on the site that Abraham's family has lived for as long as he can remember.

Abraham: Traits: Green Thumb, Woodworker, Loves Outdoors, Does Not Want a Child Right Now, Believes in the Occult, Family Member, Domestic Aspiration: Successful Lineage (using NeedCoffee4That's aspiration overhaul)

Leurona: Traits: Family-Oriented, Neat, Horticularist, Does Not Believe in the Occult, Would Be Happy to Have a Child, Family Member, Collector Aspiration: Fabulous Farmer (from JaneSimsten)

One of them should end up happy with their fate, I guess.

They're starting with no money. Their lord took their last simoleons as a fee for their marriage, and takes half of anything they harvest or gather. To make it out of serfdom, they have to pay the value of their land (3000 simoleons) to buy their freedom from it, and survive long enough to do that.

Most lots are from ParadiseBeach90 on the gallery, but some are from other people--I filled Windenburg, and then had more lots to place so I mostly filled Newcrest too (once they're allowed to travel, those are the worlds they can go to because I haven't touched the other worlds except to delete some sims and move one family in). I have not built a thing, but I've slightly edited some of them. The lot I'm starting on is 1300 Serf House by Jesj7, which I edited a decent amount.

Plumtree link: https://theplumtree.app/public/66ba5a971668a919c190a4e0

This is going to be fun and/or terrible. Wish me luck!

[neon-danger]

I keep EVERYTHING and it's probably why I keep running out of space to keep backups as my screenshots folder is about as big as mods folder and if not for me constantly taking out old saves to ALSO backup it would also be as massive. I really need to get like a massive drive that won't kill itself on me and put a million backups in there. I have no shame, I share shit with friends too and I have screenshots going back to my old crappy laptop in 2018. God I want bands so bad in Sims 4. I have modded drums but they are not the same, and they also broke pianos for me at the same time. I use Clubs as makeshift bands but it's not THE SAME and I've heard everyone sing and play guitar so many times I can just tell who is doing it despite all Sims having the same singing voice for some reason. I just KNOW who is more likely to just start singing or pull out a guitar and start doing it and who is more often distracted by flirting.

I'm inconsistent with building as it takes me forever to make a layout and it makes me doubt myself endlessly and I hate making roofs. But I like furnishing and doing layouts, I just try so hard to avoid making boxes that I give myself pain trying to make it 'interesting'. Which usually just means L shapes, how exciting and different. I think I've played too much Minecraft as I do the exact same fucking thing there.

I also can't build anything but houses. Every time I built anything else it failed spectacularly. I keep my awful restaurant because Alex works there and it's fun to sexually harass him at work and restaurants seem to work better without mods meant to fix them for some fucking reason for me, but I built a park once and it was so awful I deleted it from existence. WHY did that mod make restaurants break for me, chefs never showed up but waiters still did, so DUMB. It's supposed to make them work better, but it works better without it.

I feel like some of my friends would be chill with me sharing my save file screenshots but like,,, I don’t take that many

I use the in game camera so my sims can have memories and that’s usually what’s clogging my screenshot folder tbh

Anytime I use screenshots it’s more for story telling

I use a lot of Pinterest floor plans that I’ll usually modify to fit my needs. I have a comfort build that’s basically just My Happy Place with an entirely made up floor plan based on a maladaptive daydream universe I still can’t completely let go of. When life is really bad I put myself sim in with my para parents and just,,,, heal my inert child

Tbh even looking at architecture for inspiration can help in creating your own floor plans as well

A lot of ea floor plans are complete shit so I’ll go in and fix it without editing the ea shell

My only dine out issues are the constant resetting of my sims and the unreasonably long wait times so I haven’t ever really used any dine out fixes. I don’t normally play as a restaurant owner tho so maybe that’s why.

I’ve been really into midcentury architecture lately so I built a 1970s diner the other day but yeah it was not cute

Anyone who can build a restaurant is talented fr

[blueboxfanwork]

Reference Books Spotlight Day 1:

Finally cleaning out my bookshelf, so instead of reblogging things constantly I'll be sharing the reference books I plan on using.

Day one is the Bible. No picture because I'm reading it online. I am mostly through the old testament, actually. I've still got the new stuff. As a rule if I am writing a version of the episode I will be modifying the plot pretty intensely, and I figure later on that means going off the Bible directly for inspiration.

Which means I really have to finish reading it. But God it's soooo big and kind of clunky. The King James Version was more poetic then the North American Standard Edition (which I am reading now) but it's also old-timey English and takes a while to comprehend. Time I don’t have.

[taeggukstime]

what difference in opinion led to you and kayla parting?

Well, last time I checked she very strongly believed they were officially engaged and even toyed with the idea of there being chances of them already being secretly married...which isn't compatible with my believes of them not even dating, at least if we didn't change our methods. She tends to make these offhanded claims that the TL is factual, but it's obviously not. It's full of speculation from top to bottom, and if we wanted to continue our collab we would've had to go back and edit it all out, keeping it purely factual. Neither of us liked that idea because we both had theories we wanted to share, and we agreed that there were many people that treasured the original version of the timeline, so we naturally split without much discussion. I let her keep our Tumblr account because it's what made most sense, as I was the one deviating from the original theory, but it would've been a nice gesture if she at least ASKED ME rather than just changing the password without warning 🙄 especially since I was the one that came up with the idea of moving to Tumblr and had to think it all through, design it and come up with tricky hacks to get around the system...but hey, I get it. I guess she felt entitled & felt the need to protect the original version as quickly as possible, not trusting me whatsoever. What's funny is that she made sure to thoroughly question me regarding all the doubts she had about Tumblr's workarounds right before blocking me out 😂 She totally knew what she was doing, and I did as well, but I acted like I was oblivious because it was pointless otherwise. As I said, I thought she should keep it. Regardless, the way she handled it still kinda bothers me because we were supposed to be friends.

With that being said, I already had plans of parting ways even before I changed my theories, and I let her know a while back so that she could ease into it. The main reason was that the collab was taking up too much of my time and I was going to start working again, therefore I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up as I would prioritize my personal life, hence me being inactive nowadays. I'm bad at balancing out things. Additionally, there were other factors that added up to me being overwhelmed. Kayla would pile things up that she wanted to add to the TL (at a high speed) and I was left with the duty of, not only finding the date & adding my own little thoughts/observations, but also back-cheking & verifying everything...which I found to be absolutely vital. End result was that I'd end up heavily modifying half of her posts, and sometimes it was pretty exhausting convincing her that a so called TK moment wasn't what she thought it was. We clashed way too much in that sense. Anyways, I felt I was making her quite insecure about her research, as well as making the TL update slower than she'd like to, and tried to encourage her by saying she would absolutely have an audience that would love & appreciate her work if she were to go solo, and I truly believed it. I knew that the same way I knew I would get hated on. Each to their own.