#SPARK OF CHAOS

[prixoruno]

KINSONA DOODLES

I Woke Up.

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[dclovesdanny]

Being Parent trapped x Dying Sparks

Danielle wasn’t stupid.

She could tell Danny had a crush on Billy Batson, the radio boy who they saw at the park. Danny had had a crush for months, ever since he saw Billy punch a mugger, but he was being stupid and ignoring the signs of Billy liking him back. Jazz said it’s because Danny has self worth issues and he didn’t want to put Billy in danger from the GIW. Danielle thinks that’s stupid.

Darla wasn’t stupid.

She knew Billy had a crush on Danny, the new boy in Fawcett who they visited in the park. Billy had had a crush on Danny for a while, ever since he had seen Danny telling the younger homeless kids about the stars. Billy was being stupid and ignoring his feelings though. When she asked Freddy why, Freddy said it was because Billy didn’t want to ruin the friendship and Billy didn’t want to put Danny in danger by dating a hero. Darla thought that was stupid.

Darla and Danielle didn’t realize it, but they both decided at the same time that they were going to set up their brothers.

However, due to their lack of knowledge on actual relationships, they each decided to use the fictional relationships for help.

Darla used Fairytales for inspiration for her plots.

Danielle used Romcom tropes for hers.

May the best matchmaker win.

[sparkbeast20]

Miracle?

So, just so everyone don't take that scene out of context and assuming things. Here's the context of that scene

[nightlark100]

My favourite plotlines in teen wolf fics:

Stiles taking down the Argents

The Betas getting turned into kids

Stiles being cared for by Peter after the Argent basement incident

Any plot where Stiles and Peter team up

Stiles getting kicked out of the pack and being a certified badass by himself

Stiles getting turned into some form of fluffy animal (and usually causing havoc)

Stiles becoming/being some kind of very unique shifter (my personal favourites i've read were Stiles as a Red Panda and a bitten Stiles turning into a lemming)

General domestic pack Mom Stiles fluffy

The Alpha pack as supernatural police

Scott getting knocked down a few pegs for being an idiot

Crossover fics (not usually a crossover fan but I have a soft spot for TW/Avengers and TW/Criminal Minds)

Stiles being related to Tony Stark

Stiles being sent to live with his uncle (usually Coulson) and getting semi adopted by the Avengers

The BAU being called to investigate one of the events in Beacon Hills

Stiles joining the BAU and being very casual about the weirdness in his life and then not knowing if he's joking or not

[backslashdelta]

Happy 10 year anniversary to these two who canonically shared a beautiful wedding 10 years ago today

[everygame]

Special Delivery: Santa’s Christmas Chaos (C64)

Developed/Published by: Dalali Software / Creative Sparks (Thorn EMI Computer Software) Released: 1984 Completed: 05/12/2024 Completion: Got a high score of 8750. I’ll take it!

Writing about old video games for an audience of very few could seem like a thankless task–especially when they’re as awful as Christmas Crackers. But there’s a reason I do it. One, I just love playing games, even if they’re so crap I give up on them in minutes. Two, I just love learning. I love discovery, I love finding out things that are new to me about video games and their history. And sometimes, if I’m lucky, I find out some things that no one has really paid attention to before.

I never thought playing a completely random Christmas cash-in on C64 would bring me anything like that.

Special Delivery: Santa’s Christmas Chaos is a game for C64, Spectrum and Atari 8-Bit released by Dalali Software under Thorn EMI’s “Creative Sparks” imprint. At the time it sank without trace due to, apparently, a lack of marketing. After playing it–and I will get into that–I did my usual investigation into the developer, and was quite prepared to dismiss Dalali as one of the many fly-by-night British game developers of the 1980s–they appeared to be only a going concern between 1984 and 1989 and didn’t have any particularly notable games to their name. They were responsible for ports of Rescue On Fractalus and Lilttle Computer People to Amstrad CPC, but largely seem to have had the bad luck of being most related to 1986’s Biggles game. The weirdest thing about that is that not only did I really like the movie on which it was based (which I’m sure no one else remembers but me) when I was a kid, watching it on telly several times, I’ve actually played the game! It was on Amstrad Action #68’s covertape (along with How To Be A Complete Bastard!) and, as vague as my memories of it are now, I’m sure I played it loads of times. Less than How To Be A Complete Bastard, admittedly.

This led me to dig a little further, and sometimes things just fall into place, because I found an astonishingly in-depth article from Sham Mountebank’s When Were They Now? blog (a new one to me) all about Dalali. I think Mountebank slightly buries the lede however, because digging into the linked articles it seems absolutely remarkable that Dalali is not only in the ranks of the earliest companies to have been founded (or co-founded) by a woman, but very likely the first game company founded by a Palestinian: Hanan Samara.

Hanan Samara, pictured in Computer & Video Games March 1985.

Game companies had been co-founded by women before–most famously Sierra, by Roberta Williams and her husband Ken in 1979–but I think Samara’s story might be unique.  According to an interview with ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast she believes she might have been the first female assembly programmer in the UK, starting out by converting software to work for the Arabic market. Moving to work for Thorn EMI, she’d see a Humpty Dumpty puzzle game–programmed by her future husband(!) Chris James–and be “hooked.”

After coding Jumbo Jet Pilot for Atari 8-Bit for Thorn EMI, it seems that she made the leap to founding Dalali–named for her mother’s maiden name (as her mother said go for it, while her dad said to get a job at IBM...) with another ex-employee, Adrian Wadley.

Something I really appreciate about Samara’s story is that she immediately brought herself to game design, with Dalali’s first game “Jinn Genie”. While this kind of Arabic-theming undoubtedly seems stereotypical today, in an interview with Popular Computing Weekly it is clear that this is an early example of someone trying to represent their culture via the art of video games:

“Jinn Genie is a game that incorporates many of the basic myths and children’s stories of my culture–I am an Arab, a Palestinian, and all the ideas of genies and so on are familiar to me.”

Jinn Genie, on C64.

The most disappointing thing, to me, is that Samara is, at this point, unheralded outside of a blog post, one short podcast, and about… three short articles featuring three pictures that can be found on archive.org! She’s one of the UK’s earliest female programmers, game designers and founders, perhaps the first Palestinian game developer, and she has managed to run Dalali since 1984 because it’s still going–they just stopped making games.

Samara’s story isn’t mine to tell, so I hope that institutions like GDC, The Video Game History Foundation or The Strong can find out more and champion her. Figures such as Muriel Tramis have gone from overlooked to winning the Legion of Honour, and if I can help get the word out about Hanan Samara, just a little bit, I’ll feel I’ve done my part.

But I know what you’re asking now.

“But how good is Special Delivery: Santa’s Christmas Chaos???”

So let's return to regular programming. First, I’m going to note that I believe I have played the wrong version of this. When it came to games, Samara was an Atari 8-bit coder, and it is absolutely transparent that Special Delivery is based entirely on Jinn Genie–both feature a flying section, a climbing section, and a section with floors and ladders. It does feel like I should have played the Atari 8-bit version to experience the most representative version, as I did with playing the C64 version of Pirates, let’s say.

(It’s worth mentioning here also that the ANTIC podcast–recorded seven years ago now–even notes that the version of Jinn Genie that Samara coded, for the Atari 8-bit, seems to be lost, although Samara does say that she has a copy of it somewhere. Aforementioned institutions could probably help with that too. What that largely means, though, is that the Atari 8-bit version of Special Delivery is the closest you can get to playing the original Jinn Genie.)

To be fair, the C64 version seems pretty close to the original (the ZX Spectrum port is… not).

As I’ve said previously, my expectations for a Chrimbo cash-in have been low, and no matter how much this is sort of a reskin of a previous game, that it’s got an idea and an actual design exceeds anything I’ve expected. At first glance you might go “well, isn’t this just Santa Claus again?��� (or even Santa’s Sleigh Ride.) But it’s honestly much more–even if it is still a bit weird.

In Special Delivery, you’re first flying across the screen in Santa’s (somewhat confusingly drawn) sleigh, collecting presents that… angels are dropping. Which implies that this is in fact the historical Saint Nicolas, or maybe I’m just overthinking it. You’re trying to collect a target number of presents, but you lose them if you crash into clouds (odd) or accidentally collect a demonic present dropped by a devil (who appear rarely, but look very much like angels, annoyingly.) Losing presents won’t kill you, but Santa has a set amount of hours in the night, and you lose an hour if you get struck by the lightning that occasionally appears from the strangely firm clouds.

If you collect enough presents, you get to land on a big house to put presents under the tree. First this requires you climb down the chimney, which in this situation is: huge, full of ladders, and lit so flames keep climbing the ladders that you have to dodge. Once you’ve done that, you’re actually in the house, where you have to Solid Snake your way to the tree, drop off the present, grab the front door key, and then leave through the front door, while the residents run wildly from one room to the next, seemingly out of their nut with either excitement for Christmas or hatred for Santa. Get hit by a flame or grabbed by a resident and you’ll lose an hour.

Interestingly, if you don’t collect enough presents, you don’t get to go into any big houses, but you do get to drop presents down the chimney of some wee houses. You only really pick up big points for going into big houses, which raises the concerning idea that Santa only gives a fuck about you if you’re rich enough to live in a big house.

But to be fair, the people in big houses seem absolutely determined to not get pressies, keeping their fires roaring and attacking Santa on sight, so perhaps he just likes the challenge. “I hope Santa doesn’t show up” they’re saying, “we’ve got all the stuff we need in this big house. We don’t need wooden toys or whatever the historic Saint Nick would be handing out, he should give those to the poor people in the wee houses.”

More fool them, I checked Wikipedia and he was dropping off bags of gold coins through people’s windows. (Admittedly to stop them being sold into prostitution.)

Anyway. Even before I knew the exciting context for Special Delivery, I was struck by how… weirdly ok it was! Maybe it’s just how bad the other Santa-em-ups have been (well, I guess I didn’t hate Merry Xmas Santa) but the different sections largely make sense together, undoubtedly because it’s based on Jinn Genie. The main problem really is that it just doesn’t control very well. Flying the sleigh is stiff, and when you’re actually controlling Santa himself, he reacts very slowly to your input, meaning you have to time presses based on the lag, and I probably lost most of my lives in the chimneys as a result–it might be better on the Atari 8-Bit, so more fool me.

Special Delivery is not really the kind of thing that’s going to hold your attention for very long, but it does actually manage to be playable and feels properly festive. I’ll celebrate that.

Will I ever play it again? I was surprised to see a non-zero number of people say online that playing this is a bit of a Christmas tradition. Well, I don’t think I will be taking it up, but I do fancy playing Jinn Genie at some point now--maybe once that Atari 8-bit version is found!

Final Thought: In my research I was surprised to discover not only had I played a Dalai Software game before, I’d also played a Creative Sparks game, similarly loads of times: Danger Mouse In Double Trouble. Strangely, it has the same multi-game design as this (and I guess, a lot of the computer games of the era) but suffered a lot more for them not having any meaningful connection and mostly being rubbish. Even as a child I remember enjoying just the jungle level and suffering through the rest to get through that. The things you’ll do when you’ve got nothing else as a child.

Every Game I’ve Finished 14>24 is OUT NOW! You can pick it up in paperback, kindle, or epub/pdf. You can also support Every Game I’ve Finished on ko-fi! You can pick up digital copies of exp., a zine featuring all-exclusive writing at my shop, or join as a supporter at just $1 a month and get articles like this a week early.

[swan2swan]

[muffin-snakes-art]

"If dreams can come true, what does that say about nightmares?"

[dragonsbluee]

I see your gay uncles of the straw hats Jimbrook and raise you old, gay, heartbroken, pirate captians who find a loving, romantic relationship in each other as they watch over a group of chaotic youngsters.

Because Brook and Yorki had a heartbreaking goodbye, and Brook spent 50 years mourning, but now he has a second chance. He wasn't expecting anything, but then, lo and behold! A handsome, kind, capable fish man enters stage right, and Brook is smitten. Here is someone who understands the grief of losing a captian and partner, then having to take their place to hold the crew together, but ultimately watching thier crew fall apart or suffer due to factors outside their control.

For Jimbei the last few years have been a whirlwind of chaos. He was looking forward to a new adventure full of chaos of his own making and choices. Now, enter stage left, this fantastic, enigmatic, adorable skeleton (and he's a musician!), who is a wonderful presence on a ship full of younger pirates. Jimbei never really moved on from the loss of the Sun Pirates, and hasn't had time to mourn all the friends he's lost in the past few years. But now he finds companionship and comfort in Brook. Someone who doesn't expect him to move on, let's him reminisce, but keeps him from getting stuck in his mourning. He's never thought of romance seriously before, but now he finds himself wanting.

The two meet in the middle, center stage on a ship of dreams as they forge a new one together. They still keep and work towards their individual dreams but find pieces of each other in them. Brook looks forward to the day he can introduce Laboon to Jimbei, and Jimbei has promised to translate the whale's words for Brook. Jimbei will see freedom for his people and finds motivation in every new song Brook writes and story he tells. Together, they find peace, calm, and rest. They find excitement, companionship, and a harbour in the other after years of storms.

[toxicanonymity]

thinking about the good old days when I was just having fun... and didn't hold myself to a standard... and wrote a lot of drabbles...

thinking your thots and asks might be the missing ingredient sometimes. like y'all are so creative and have inspired me so much, and yet I all but cut myself off from this life force last yr, out of guilt that I couldn't do every request, or anxiety that I already had WIPs

thinking about taking requests and answering asks all willy nilly without regard to plans or WIPs or anything but my whim 🤔🤔🤔

[prixoruno]

KINSONA DOODLES

i really like using flash (preparation for something)

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[ratrrriot]

Hello i have a question about your oc spark. You said in their bio that their robot body is a toy for them, but have ever thought about them secretly going off to do heroics and fight crime like perry the platypus or the monkey from dexters laboratory?

Something like that…

[sparkbeast20]

One of my favorite Beelzebub moments

That face, you know for the fact that he's still horny and I love it!!

I'll gladly let him hold my chest XD

[sparkshock]

SPARK. MY LOVE. MY WIFE. WHAT ONE THING ARE YOUUUUU MOST EXCITED FOR IN SEASON 3?? 🎤

THE WORLD NEEDS TO KNOW YOUR WISDOM (I mean im asking everyone but you’re the most important I swear, this is a VIP interview)

- @knight-says-rawr

HELPPP HELLO HAHA 💕

I think what I am most excited for is seeing Soyona and The Handler interact, especially when the raptors are involved. Two characters that have been painted as antagonists, yet they are both so unique that they are both extremely memorable on their own; it's going to be interesting to see how their dynamic plays out!

[eclipselunarchaos]

Well, here are some designs for them, might change them.

I got alot more in the oven, it's just cooking.

Basic idea for this:

Prime's are essentially born to become vessels in order to contain the infection. And unfortunately, OP is stuck in the egg when Rodimus comes along. Don't worry, he got plenty of growing to do.

Feel free to ask about any of the others and anything else about the AU

Next

Naming it Hollow Spark btw, just sounds cool

@rottingdecepticonv-8l

@fatherviridis

[takaraphoenix]

Though I generally like everything I write and post (otherwise, I wouldn't post it), occasionally, I will write something I really deeply love, that has me go "Damn, this is good" and I love when that happens. And it makes me all the more eager to share.

I just posted the first chapter of Mischief and Chaos. And I am deeply loving it, so have an excerpt of chapter 3: The Wolf and the Fire.

This story is a canon divergence where Stiles and the Nogitsune willingly merged before Claudia died and Stiles gets to really hone both his Spark and his fox's powers. It's a True Mates Steter fic, where Stiles is the reason why Peter was the only one who managed to survive the fire.

(Also, Chris and Allison moved to Beacon Hills in the kids' first grade and Allison and Stiles are best friends. Important context for why Ally is here.)

@superfluffycam-blog

--

“Stiles? Where are you going? Why are you wearing your jacket?”

No. No, no, no. We have to go there. I have to see the chaos. I crave it, Stiles. We have to go.

Stiles breathed through his nose. He was aware of that, but he couldn’t really get rid of Ally now, could he? They’d have to compromise. Void bristled at that, displeased. Stiles huffed.

“I dunno, there’s something big. Dad wouldn’t have left in the middle of the night on his night off if it wasn’t really big,” Stiles wiggled his nose. “I wanna see. I’m curious.”

Allison rolled her eyes and grabbed her own jacket. “Put on proper shoes, Stiles.”

Right. Better than loafers. Good thinking. That was why he needed Allison. She thought of the things Stiles forgot. He reached for her hand for reassurance before the two headed out. Once outside the house, Stiles let the chaos guide him. It was like sparks dancing in the air, cackling like fire. Until they reached its source and Stiles realized why the chaos felt like fire. His breath hitched when they stood in front of a large mansion set ablaze. And then he took a deep breath, inhaling the chaos of it all. Void was buzzing as he got to feast. Stiles stepped closer when he noticed movement. The window to the basement, there were hands sticking out of them. Once Stiles was near enough, he saw a man, trying to reach out. His face was horribly burned, but his eyes stood out, such a bright blue, in contrast to the flames. Stiles’ eyes widened. Not just at the horrifying realization that there were people inside the burning building, but because of the strange feeling in his chest.

Looking into those blue eyes, Stiles felt like something was snapping into place. Mine.

That one thought, that one word, was all it took. Without making a conscious decision and without effort did he summon a storm. The sky above them turned pitch-black with rain-clouds, but the darkness didn’t last long as the earth-shaking thunder rolled around, accompanied by flashing lightning so bright it looked like day for a few seconds. And then the rain poured down, strong and thick, not easing up until the flames were completely extinguished.

The thunder echoed, louder than Stiles had ever heard it before, mirroring the scream that was stuck in Stiles’ throat. Someone had done this. An accident wouldn’t have waken Void like that. This was chaos – destruction and devastation, intentionally created to cause harm. Lightning hit a nearby tree, setting it aflame. Allison jumped and rushed over to Stiles to grab his hand.

I will hunt them down and I will make them bleed.

Void was purring in delight at the thought reverberating in Stiles’ mind, over and over again until it consumed him whole. This would be horrible enough if it had happened to a stranger, but it had happened to the man with the blue eyes. The one who was Stiles’. Stiles may not understand what that meant, how this man was his, but he knew that. The same way he knew how to breath, the same way his body blinked. Automatic, natural, a part of existing.

“S… Stiles,” Allison gasped, her eyes wide in fear. “Your eyes… they’re glowing.”