#Static testing tools

[johnnyshrine]

★ 082 // “YIPPEE!”

[blacklocksecuritynz]

Static Application Security Testing (SAST) & Static Code Scanning Services

Enhance your software security with our Static Application Security Testing (SAST) services. We analyze your code for vulnerabilities early in the development process, helping you build secure applications and reduce risks before deployment.

[labs]

Hello again, Labs here with a recap of our test of Collections! We introduced this prototype back in September and then handed the feature to a handful of volunteers sourced from the notes on that post. Thank you again to all volunteers! 

We got so much useful feedback, and wanted to share some of that here, and reveal some next steps we’re taking. There are a couple of big projects cooking in Labs, and Collections has taken a backseat lately, but it is important to us to not leave y’all hanging. We very much want to build things with you here.

Our goal with the volunteer-based super-early phase of Collections was to see if those volunteers actually use the feature, watch what they come up with, and check whether anybody they invite to Tumblr signs up and becomes a regular user of the site. Turns out, nobody did sign up — it’s not as useful of an onboarding strategy as we thought it could be.

However, one piece of feedback we got is that Collections make great custom feeds, which people on Tumblr have been asking for a lot over the years. We hear you loud and clear: you want to supplement the standard Following / For You experience with more intentional control over feed content. That’s really important to us.

With that in mind, for those in the prototype, we’ve moved the Collections list to the left sidebar / mobile navigation as an expandable area like Account, for quick access. We like this better than putting them in the dashboard tab bar, but it’s still something we’re mulling over:

We also heard the need for more filtering options beyond just blogs and tags. What about only including a blog’s posts that use a certain tag, or excluding posts using a certain tag? Or list tags with a boolean AND operator (“posts tagged [tag] and [other tag]”), not just the OR operator we’re using now for sourcing tagged posts. Lots of ideas on how to further customize what shows up in the feed, and better define what the feed is “for”.

There were other fun, tangential bits of feedback, too, like the desire to make these Collections a collaborative feature, so that more than one person can help build a Collection. There were also several usability issues that came to the forefront, which we’ve addressed. And there were some well-articulated thoughts and questions about etiquette, such as how to seek a blog’s “permission” to be included in a Collection – that’s something we care a lot about, to help prevent this kind of feature from being a source of abuse.

Another piece of feedback we heard repeatedly is the desire for Collections of posts. This is not really what we intended with what we built, but it’s not too far afield either. We totally agree that having better, easier ways of collecting and curating individual posts would be useful, so we’re going to investigate that as a separate project.

With all of this in mind, we’ve split the work on Collections into two separate tracks:

Shaping this feature as a “customizable feeds” solution, away from an “invite others” tool.

Building a new thing for saving and curating static posts.

Stay tuned here on the Labs blog for updates on when/if we’ll be moving these Collections tracks of work to more people on Tumblr. (If you are one of the volunteers who helped us with Collections, you’ll still have access to it for the time being!)

Thanks for reading! And please reach out to us via Support, the replies here, or your reblogs, if you have any more feedback, as always.

[felidae-sims]

Resources for Creating: My Go-To things.

Update: I’ll be updating the list on this page from now on, since Tumblr can’t handle so many hyper-links in one post, on Dreamwidth - right here, so I won't have to update it multiple times. Please note: I keep updating this list, and updates aren't showing up on reblogs. Please check the original post for the most up to date list.

Sooo this is going to be a long comprehensive list. I got back to this game after a long time and with a different computer, with a dedicated graphics card, hurray! It made me want to return to making things, so while gathering back all the necessary stuff, I've complied this list. It might be is updated as I go along, but these are the main things I use. Maby one day i'll even finish something. So here are my go-to resources & tutorials; I'm posting it here for safekeeping, and hopefully others will find it helpful. Everything that's listed is here free. So many wonderful things for free under the cut.

Programs – General:

Creating: Blender. Blender Addons: 3D Print Toolbox – comes with blender, enable it from within the program. Originally for 3d printing. Good for fixing flipped normals, and some quick general repairs. Source Tools And source tools wiki – for exporting as SMD!!!! (SimPe: to enable bump maps for the mesh on import). GMDC Addon for Blender 4.0+ by Nopke.

GIMP. GIMP Addons: G'MIC-Qt. Resynthesizer. Nvidia dds?. Doesn’t it come with Gimp?

Other: Nvidia Texture Tools Exporter (iirc it works with all graphic cards that are compatible, doesn’t require Nvidia). For making Normal / Bump / Cube Maps. For high quality compression.

NormalMaps - Online, For making all types of maps, has good setting menus. A very cool tool.

Converting: Umodel, for Unreal Engine (Static meshes: export as gtlf.2. Animated meshes: export as psk. Requires Add-on). AssetStudio, for Unity. AC Viewer, self implied (+ USD Addon for blender). QuickBMS* and support forum, for basically everything else. (don't forget the required scrips, down the same page). *I haven’t tested it fully yet, but it was recommended here. A tutorial for it is listed further down. Works like a charm.

UV Mapping: UV Mapper, Classic (free) and the most recent Demo (for visualization).

Programs – Sims:

Never Mind the Bollox, Here's Osab and MAGIkarp to the rescue!

Latest version of SimPe, works with a non-default installation path. Chris Hatch's updates.

Home Crafter installation, Post by Huge Lunatic at Sims2Artists.

Repository Wizard, by Pick'N'Mix Mods. A game changer.

DBPF Compare, by Pick'N'Mix Mods.

Object Relocator, also by Pick'N'Mix Mods.

SMD Tools, by Lazy Duchess.

The Compressorizer, by JFade – Lazy Duchess's edit.

Bulk Rename Utility, to change file names in well, bulk. As explained by io here.

Lot Adjustor, by Mootilda at MTS.

Tutorials:

Override the game's graphic settings via Nvidia, as explained by iCad. The settings to Nvidia Profile Inspector she linked to at MTS have been deleted for some reason, here they are via WebArchive.

Meshing in Blender:

Mesh Optimization Info (and links), by Crisps&Kerosene.

Additional - Reducing Polycount:

Tutorial, by Flaming-Chickens (another username on other sites perhaps?)

Edge – Un-subdivide, a quick one by CG Link.

Transfer high poly details to low poly object in Blender, by 3Dnot2D.

Shrinkwrap Modifier - Blender Tutorial for Beginners - Basics, by in2vert.

Placeholder for this Addon that I want to try but haven't found, something for AR that was on facebook's defunct AR.

Scaling tips, by Blender Secrets.

How to fix inverted/ flipped normals, by ipaintsmallthings.

Converting: How to Extract 3D Models, Textures, Music from Unreal Engine Games, by iwanMods.

Extract 2D/3D/SFX Unity Assets fast & easy from your Unity Game, by iwanMods as well.

How to use QuickBMS, by darkhorse.

Guide to Converting 3t2 and 4t2 Part 01 and Part 02, by Chiaroscuro/tenlittlepandas.

Converting TS4 Windows and Doors, by Crisps&Kerosene.

Using Different Material Maps as Shading/Details for Base Texture, in Gimp or Blender, by Pineapple Forest & Crisps&Kerosene: https://www.tumblr.com/crispsandkerosene/764893644571525120/great-info-thats-the-reason-some-conversions?source=share

Texture Editing in GIMP:

Using Gimp Add-ons: G'MicQT. Resynthesizer. Both by Davies Media Design. This guy's channel for Gimp in general – here's a good one to begin with. And another one about layer masks.

Making a texture Tile Seamless: 1. My favorite - How to Make Seamless Textures for Cinema 4D - 3 Levels of Photoshop Wizardry using iPhone Photos, by School of Motion.

2. Simple Trick for More Realistic Texture Patterns in GIMP, by Davies Media Design – Quick and simple, using the Resynthesizer plugin. Good for patterns.

Making walls in SimPe out of a square texture, with minimal quality loss. To be written.

SimPe: Cloneable Objects: A List of Good Objects for Cloning, by IgnorantBliss at MTS.

Huge Lunatic's Tutorials, Her website.

Object Creation for Absolute Beginners, by Moune.

Sims 2 start to finish Object Creation Tutorial, by JWoods, Numenor, Lethe_s & IgnorantBliss.

The Material Definition (TXMT) Guide, by PixelHate – very comprehensive. Part 5 is about Bump/ Normal maps.

Null (Texture-less) Groups, by Skell. For bodyshop, for Objects see an elaboration by Midge the Tree below.

Crisps&Kerosene discovered how to add specular maps to objects! It's incredible there are still new things to discover in this ancient game.

More on Specular Maps, by Pineapple Forest.

Making new flooring & walls with SimPE, by Charisa. Includes adding Bump/Normal maps. She added a file to clone from in the comments below. It works for normal maps as well. Here's cool discovery in the game files.

Expanding footprint: a mini tutorial, by Deedee.

How to add correct drop shadows to objects, by Yuxi, via Wayback Machine.

Making Objects Viewable in Neighborhood View, by iCad.

Making Objects Visible In Build/Buy Mode, Invisible In Live Mode, by Midge the Tree.

Making Seasons-Friendly Trees, by Echo.

Io/ Serabiet's resources list, mainly for Bodyshop but not just.

Pineapple Forest's Tutorials, useful tips for efficiency and optimization.

MTS modding forum in General.

The Sims 2 Tutorials, on Tumblr. A database, is more updated.

Sims2Artists tutorials section.

LeeFish modding forum.

Garden of Shadows, Tree of Knowledge section.

Troubleshooting: What to do if you get a System.OutOfMemoryException Error, SimPe Forum, via WayBack Machine. Thank you @fanseelamb for the find.

How to read object error logs: I just want to know what causes it!!, by Episims.

Common TS2 errors, by Midge the Tree.

General game fuckery: How to Stop Sims 2 Crashing (Memory Allocation Fix and 4GB Patch Repair), by Jessa.

Graphics card problems, LeeFish forum.

Graphics help - DIY, by Kiri. How to fix faulty Texture Memory allocation, and the problems that stem from it. Tumblr can't handle anymore hyper links so here it is: https://celebkiriedhel.tumblr.com/post/189431721483/graphics-help-diy

General: Switching between save folders without renaming them, by Nopke.

Resources:

3D Models Online*: Various furniture designers' websites: Porada, Zanotta, Muuto, Hay, Poltrona Frau, many luxury furniture designer basically.

3D Warehouse, belongs to Sketchfab (get the Collada files).

Scan the World.

Wikimedia Commons. And more.

*(NOT OPTIMIZED).

Textures: Architextures.

Fabrics & Wallpapers: Natural Stones: Wall Plasters:

iCad's Woods. Shastakiss's Cluedo Metals, Yeti Metals, Pirate Woods. Goat's Woods.

Textures from other games: Dishonored, Thieve and much more, by Saricoya at GoS. Dreamfell by io.

Resource sharing threads at Garden of Shadows.

SimPe - General: CEP Extras list, HugeLunatic at Sims2Artists.

TXMT settings for different materials, by Hafiseazale.

Extended SimStandardMaterial Shader for the Sims 2 + Optionally Brighter Sims, by Crisps&Kerosene.

Custom CubeMaps, by Crisps&Kerosene.

Shiny TXMT Settings & Cube Maps Packs, by Pineapple Forest.

Build/ Buy: Templates for Recoloring Maxis items; MTS Templates sction, Hafiseazale (+cc), ZeroDark.

Template for Seasonal Trees, Gwenke at Sims2Artists.

Making Roof Recolors, Tutorial & template by Numenor, great template by iCad.

Pack for making food clutter usable, by DeeDee.

CAS: Default Makeup Packages - BYO Packages, by Huge Lunatic.

Body shape, Io/Serabiet on Tumblr.

Skin template, Io/Serabiet on Tumblr.

Hair texture, iCad.

Color Actions, Pooklet on Tumblr.

That's it for now.

Edit: forgot about CEP extras. Added more links. Edit 02: Added Troubleshooting section under tutorials.

[lavendermin]

disasterology | boothill

boothill x reader, mad scientist reader

wc | 1.7k

genre | light banter, ambiguous relationship

warnings | nsfw, artificial cyborg guts, suggestive, body horror, love bug (literally via data transfer), mentions of giving boothill a womb, boothill bluescreens

note | my piece as part of the autumn festival collab hosted by @owlespresso ^^ I’ll probably make a part two to this to squeeze in more banter and get some actual freaky stuff in

“You’re back at my lab… A little soon, no?” The question is thrown at Boothill without a spared glance as you are engrossed in several tasks at once. The Galaxy Ranger makes his way over to your mess of screens and tools by your main work desk, his strides reminiscent of someone a little too comfortable in your bubble.

“Annual checkup. Don’t tell me you forgot already, doc?” Boothill teases with feigned hurt, sharp teeth flashing with his playful grin.

“Not a doctor,” you correct him flatly.

A holo-screen appears before his face, stopping him from nearing your concentrated form. A flurry of data scrolls by and a pop-up appears with a few dates.

With a few final taps you swivel toward him and the screen. “According to your record in my data bank, you’re not due for your checkup for another nine weeks,” you state matter-of-factly. With a few taps and a swipe, the screen is gone and you meet Boothill’s gaze for the first time. “So, what’s the actual reason you’re here? Surely not just a friendly visit to the resident witch or whatever they’re calling me these days on this planet.”

“Recent scrap didn’t end too well. Leg’s been acting up.”

Your eyes scan him briefly, humming in thought as you enter new data and access his file.

“I definitely noticed a few new scratches to your outer shell armor,” you note, speaking more to yourself as you log the new data. “I’ll run some tests and analyze further.”

You roll back in your chair near him, gathering a few tools here and there and holding an emesis basin in front of him. Boothill squints at you in confusion, a frown pulling down his lips in a glimmer of dangerous, sharp teeth.

“Here. Spit them out—all the ammo you have. Now.”

His eyes sharpen, but he relents with a grunt. The metal of the bullets hitting the basin is all that fills the silence as you return to some screens and rummage through rows of drawers and drawers that line the walls.

It’s a chaotically organized yet unorganized lab, to say the least.

“There’s an empty box near you. Go ahead and remove all of your outerwear and any other weapons so we can get started,” you instruct as you prepare a table nearby.

Boothill begins to protest. “Doc, it’s just my leg. I don’t need–”

When he turns back to your desk you’re gone from sight. It unnerves him and you appear behind him seemingly from thin air.

“Hey–!”

You plug several chords into a few outlets on his hip. The feeling of the data processing through multiple base drives makes his entire body feel like numbing static courses through it.

Your face is close. Too close.

“Let's get a base-read on what’s going on here for now. I’ll leave the room so you can get undressed if you’re modest like that.” Your eyes flit down and you smirk. “Not like I haven’t seen your full model before.”

His face flushes a bright crimson and he sputters, shoving you away. You laugh out loud, unsettling and loose as you go back to your screens. It’s become more apparent with each visit that you aren’t entirely sound of mind.

“I still wonder why your face flushes red when your synthetic blood is blue. Perhaps I’ll find out today,” you grin, looking up and being met with a metallic click and the barrel of a gun between your eyes.

There’s a fierceness in Boothill’s glare, red cheeks betraying his threat. Though his hand is steady, your monitors signal increased levels of core maintenance and adrenaline. He doesn’t know how to handle your teasing— never will.

“I don’t have time to be yer forkin’ lab rat,” he sneers.

Your expression remains calm, unbothered as a lazy smile makes way to your lips. It’s an irksome sureness that makes the ranger’s eye twitch and teeth grit. Perhaps that’s simply your insanity creeping into him as well.

It draws him in like a moth to a flame. And he convinces himself that he hates it.

“You wouldn’t hurt me.”

“And what makes you think I wouldn’t put a bullet in yer head for crossing me?”

“Plenty of reasons. But really I only need one.”

“Yeah? And what’s that, sweets?” He scoffs, patience running thin.

You gently tap a knuckle over his heart core, the area making a soft metal clank as you do so. Boothill falls silent for a moment as you say nothing more. The mental gears turn a little harder than usual and suddenly his face is hot. Too hot.

“Wh– What– Who ever said I liked ya like that?! A ranger doesn’t get wrapped up in those feelings, ya hear?!”

And you fucking smirk.

“I’m not sure what you’re insinuating. All I meant was that you wouldn’t get rid of your one and only mechanic on this side of the galaxy, would you? Who else would be stupid enough to take all your last minute tuning appointments and repair jobs after reckless battles? You need me, ranger.” You pause and shift your gaze directly at him. “No reason to get so defensive. Unless… you have feelings for me?”

“Negative feelings,” he seethes.

But you’ve seen right through him. It’s an act of pity that you just chuckle and resume your work on diagnosing some of the sensors around his midriff. Still enough to keep the cowboy grumbling and red in the face.

“Feelings nonetheless,” you chuckle under your breath as you swivel back to the flurry of incoming data. “I’ll head to the back to grab a few things I’ll need and see if a few spare parts are lying around that are similar to some of your fractured hip joints. Do not touch anything.”

Once you’re out of sight, Boothill grumbles and removes his hat and jacket. The bright industrial lights only serve to irk him more— never was one to like hospital settings.

It’s a bit more of a predicament when the wires attached to his hip get in the way of removing his bottoms. He clicks his tongue and listens as your fumbling in the distance remains constant.

Whatever. Damn cables are in the way. What is he to do? He yanks them off and removes the last of his articles, shoving them in the box off to the side you left for him.

“Fork me,” he grumbles. There’s an unruly mess of cables on the floor, most of which look the same and range in color. Naturally, none are labeled.

Just his luck.

One of your monitors beeps and a few pop ups come up as the data flow abruptly ends. In a panic, Boothill grabs a red and a black cable and plugs them in. He clicks a few of the pop ups to make them go away and resume whatever they asked. He didn’t have time to read whatever jargon it said, not that he would have understood it anyway.

He’s seated and on the examination table by the time you walk back in with a few boxes stacked in your arms.

A warm hum settles in his core with his data processor kicking in. It’s pleasant, albeit an odd sensation.

You set down the boxes and glance at the screens, humming with thought. The pause is a beat too long and Boothill can only hope you don’t prod. You tap a few things on the screen and approach him with a smile.

“Alright. Pain receptors are off and your maintenance mode is on. Let’s get started.”

—

Only about forty minutes have passed but it’s becoming increasingly clear to Boothill that something is clearly wrong. He’s used to certain processes being shut off while you work on him— that part is normal.

Right now, he can’t seem to take his eyes off you. And you won’t spare him a glance as you work, much too engrossed in his guts— literally. He huffs and you don’t bother looking at him. It pisses him off.

“If you’re feeling discomfort use your words, ranger,” you mutter without missing a beat. “If your pain processors kicked in due to something that went wrong I need to know before you blow up on me.”

Your tug at a particular wire makes him gasp, his grip on the edge of the table warping the metal.

“Fork– Watch it!” His breath shakes with a gasp, face flushed.

“You didn’t exactly come with a manual.”

“Please don’t say that while yer hands are in my guts.”

You snicker, ignoring his glare as you continue to work methodically.

“I could always give you new insides if I mess these up,” you tease smoothly, fingers deeper still in his abdominal cavity. “Would you like it if I gave you a womb?”

Boothill huffs with a shiver as you tug at that same wire again, his back arching slightly off the cold, metal table. His mouth hangs open, unable to say a word. It’s overwhelming, an intense sensation that he feels in every artificial nerve end.

You call his name once more— so sweet and full of concern. The auditory hallucinations have begun from the wrong dataset he hooked himself up to earlier. Your voice in actuality is much more nonchalant than he processes.

“Booth? Ranger? Are you still with me?” You tap his cheek, his eyes darting shakily around the room. Red hearts for irises replace his usual programmed eye setup when he blinks to glance at you. You sigh. “I told you not to touch anything didn’t I?”

“Yer… my soulmate.”

“No,” you deadpan, flicking your wrist to bring up a holo-screen before you. Seems the neuro-processors couldn’t sort the wide range of the artificial emotion dataset and developed a love bug. “Boothill, if you can still understand me beyond the love bug, I’ll be turning on your standby function for a few minutes to finish.”

You’re not sure if he heard you at all, watching as whatever he heard in his bugged brain makes him red in the face and shiver.

Then, he blue-screens and all is quiet after his metal body clangs against the table.

You heave a sigh, a smile still on your lips. “Only your soulmate would put up with a ranger this obtuse.”

[foolish-watcher]

DPxDC IDEA #2

So this is just an extention of my previous idea so Hear me out.

Danny Phantom didn’t just become King of the Infinite Realms. He earned it. Twice.

First, he took down Pariah Dark, the old undead tyrant who ruled with screaming banshees and bone dragons. Everyone thought that was the big moment. But nope. That was just level one.

The real test? Dan Phantom. His own future self, the version of him that broke, snapped, and drowned the world in ash. Danny faced him. Fought him. Chose to be better. Ripped the crown off his own worst fear and said:

“If I become you, then who’s left to stop me?” And then he won. And the Infinite Realms saw that and went: “Yeah. That’s our king.”

But here’s the kicker: the Infinite Realms isn’t just ghost limbo. It’s deeper. Weirder. It touches everywhere. It’s the spiritual backend of the multiverse. It’s where souls go when Death claims them, where stray ideas from Dream float by, where Destiny’s threads get tangled, where Delirium’s chaos paints the sky, where Despair weeps, where Desire whispers. It’s not one place—it’s all places in-between.

And now Danny’s running it. With a hoodie, glowing green eyes, and a very tired expression.

That’s when the Endless stepped in. They didn’t fight him. They didn’t test him. They just… looked at him. Saw what he’d done. What he was doing.

And they gave him a name.

Deliberation. Because Danny chooses. Always. He weighs, he wonders, he hesitates—and then he jumps in headfirst anyway, because someone has to.

He’s the eighth now. The unexpected sibling.

Delirium loves him.

She showed up in the Realms once, riding a fish made of television static, screamed “NEW BROTHERRRRRR!!!” and tackled him midair. Danny screamed, Fright Knight almost decapitated her out of reflex, and Clockwork just sipped tea like this was normal.

“You’re sticky,” Delirium giggled, clinging to Danny’s arm. “You’re real,” Danny blinked, “Wait, are you—are those shoes made of bees??”

They’ve been chaos buddies ever since.

Clockwork, of course, is one of Destiny’s tools. A soft-spoken failsafe. A little cheat code Destiny made in case things got too messy. He watches over Danny like a tired dad/grandpa/supervisor with a headache.

“You are exceeding your quota of nonsense,” Clockwork sighs. “You made me king of ghost limbo, what did you expect?” Danny deadpans.

Fright Knight? Used to belong to Dream. A nightmare that got kicked out for being too edgy. Now he stands guard outside Danny’s throne room like a very dramatic emo uncle.

And the Neverborn? Souls that were almost, but not quite. Not ready for life. Formed from ectoplasm and longing. Danny tries to help them move on, guide them into reincarnation. But some… just don’t fit. So he places them gently in the hands of the sibling they belong to.

“This one dreams in colors that don’t exist yet,” he tells Dream. “This one burns for things she’s never known,” he says to Desire. “This one… hurts too much,” he murmurs, and hands her to Despair.

He’s the bridge. The balance. The one who does the in-between work the others don’t see—or maybe choose not to.

And even if he never asked for this, even if the title weighs heavy, he still shows up every day.

The crown he wears isn’t gold. It’s choice.

[areyoufuckingcrazy]

“Dark Water”

Chapter Five: Iron in the Voice

The Bad Batch x Reader

Rain streaked down the wide windowpanes of the observation deck, the sky outside Kamino’s sterile lab facility a dull grey. Below, banks of consoles gleamed with soft-blue light as two cadets crouched over separate terminals in the center of the slicing bay: Fixer, Delta Squad’s quiet prodigy, and Tech, Clone Force 99’s fast-talking firebrand.

You stood beside Sergeant Kal Skirata, arms folded, as the two boys were handed their challenge prompt by the Kaminoan overseer.

“Both will be given identical encrypted data cores,” the Kaminoan droned. “They are to extract the primary data payload, identify the false trails, and re-secure the system with no external support. Sabotage is permitted.”

“They’re still kids,” you muttered.

“They’re soldiers,” Skirata replied, flatly. “And this is Kamino. You think the real war’s gonna wait till they’re ready?”

You didn’t argue.

Not here. Not in front of the Nulls, who were slouched in the back with arms crossed, eyes sharp.

Below, Fixer tapped once to acknowledge the test. No wasted motion. No questions. Just cold efficiency.

Tech, in contrast, adjusted his goggles three times, then pushed up the bridge of his nose and muttered, “Ah — we’re beginning already. Excellent. I had concerns about the test design, but this—this will do nicely.”

Skirata snorted. “Is he always like that?”

“Worse,” you replied. “He narrated his own vaccinations last week.”

⸻

Tech’s fingers were a blur over the interface, his brow furrowed as he worked his way through five firewalls and an obfuscation spider-layer of recursive code. “Crude,” he muttered. “But well implemented.”

Across the room, Fixer had already bypassed two layers of security without a single verbal comment. His expression never changed. No muttering, no celebration. Just clean, silent efficiency.

Tech peeked over his shoulder briefly.

“Oh. Oh that’s fast,” he muttered. “Okay. Okay, it’s a race now.”

He cracked his knuckles and pulled a secondary cable from under the table.

“I’m rerouting my partition. Not technically regulation,” he said to no one, “but well within the parameters of testable creativity…”

He pulled a spike tool from his belt — homemade, by the looks of it — and jammed it into the dataport.

On the observation deck, one of the Nulls — Mereel — leaned forward and squinted.

“He made that himself,” he said. “Did you give him permission to modify the slicer tools?”

“No,” you said, frowning. “But he’s… inventive.”

Skirata grunted. “Reminds me of Sev. With less blood and more monologues.”

Fixer paused just long enough to notice the tremor in the data feed.

“Interference,” he muttered.

He traced it to Tech’s console. A deliberate loop injection.

Without missing a beat, Fixer countered — flooding the shared sandbox environment with null packets, static noise designed to crash low-level buffer systems.

Tech’s console stuttered for half a second. Long enough to be noticeable.

He blinked, surprised. “He’s sabotaging me. Oh, good. This is now a true contest.”

“Your boy’s cocky,” Skirata said, eyeing Tech.

“He’s ten and smarter than half the Kaminoan engineers,” you replied. “He’s allowed a little arrogance.”

“He’s gonna learn it doesn’t keep you alive in the field.”

You nodded slowly. “Then I’ll teach him what will.”

Tech’s strategy changed. He abandoned the route he’d started and began carving a new one — a longer one — and began patching over his past mistakes behind him. Not just slicing anymore. Cloaking.

Fixer noticed.

He adjusted. Hard countered.

Back and forth it went: silent duel over code and cleverness, one looping and twisting, the other dissecting with ruthless precision.

Eventually — as the test’s timer reached zero — both terminals chimed.

Data retrieved. Payload secured. False trails identified.

Match drawn.

“Well,” Skirata muttered. “Neither of them lost. I’m not sure that’s a good thing.”

You glanced at him. “Means we’ve got two assets. Not one.”

You stepped away from the window and headed for the exit, tapping your comm once to send your evaluation of Tech’s work to the instructors’ logs.

Behind you, Fixer and Tech were unplugging their tools and walking off the mat.

“…That was exhilarating,” Tech said, pushing his goggles up. “You’re very skilled. Efficient. Elegant, even. You hardly said a word!”

Fixer looked at him. “You didn’t stop talking.”

Tech looked genuinely pleased. “You noticed!”

Fixer didn’t respond. But there was, just briefly, the hint of a smirk as he walked away.

Tech watched him go, then turned back to the empty lab.

“…I liked him.”

⸻

Tipoca City — Mess Hall

2043 Hours

It was late by Kaminoan standards.

The mess hall had emptied into that liminal quiet, where the cleaning droids hummed softly and trays clattered only once every few minutes. A few cadets lingered, muttering over ration bars or staring into nutrient paste bowls like they might tell fortunes.

Tech stepped into the room, datapad clutched to his chest like a prized relic.

His eyes scanned the space and — there, toward the back — was Fixer, alone at a table. Tray pushed aside. Console open. Fingers dancing over keys in precise, economical movements.

Tech hesitated only a moment before crossing the floor.

“Hello!” he said cheerfully, sliding into the seat across from him.

Fixer barely looked up. “You don’t stop, do you?”

“I’m trying,” Tech said earnestly. “But I’ve found most silences are simply opportunities to fill gaps in mutual understanding.”

Fixer paused in his typing. “…You’re talking again.”

“I am.”

Fixer stared at him flatly.

Tech cleared his throat. “I… just wanted to say your code loop countermeasures today were incredible. You rerouted the sandbox flood without destabilizing the sequence, and your packet injection efficiency was—”

“Average,” Fixer interrupted.

Tech blinked. “That’s demonstrably false.”

“I made two mistakes,” Fixer replied. “One delay on the decoy bypass, and I used a loop that was inefficient. You still almost beat me.”

“I didn’t even finish my best algorithm,” Tech admitted. “I overcompensated when your spike flooded my initial path.”

They sat in silence for a moment.

Fixer tilted his head. “You coded that spike tool yourself?”

“Yes.”

“Send me the schematics.”

“…Really?”

Fixer gave a curt nod.

Tech lit up like a reactor core. “Absolutely! I’ll send them through the shared uplink once I debug the sublayer compression.”

Fixer returned to his console. “No rush. I’ll rebuild it better.”

Tech smiled. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

Across the room, the doors hissed open.

Boots stomped in, loud and uneven.

“Well if it isn’t the Nerd Herd!”

Tech looked up to see Scorch, decked in slightly scuffed cadet fatigues, two ration bars crammed into one hand and a bottle of high-protein caf in the other.

“Fixer! I thought you swore off social interaction unless it involved ‘tactical necessity.’ You finally making friends?”

Fixer didn’t glance up. “Trying.”

Scorch stopped mid-chew, looked between them, then jabbed a finger at Tech.

“You! Goggles!”

“Tech,” he said politely.

“Right. You’re the loud one.”

“I’ve been told that before.”

“I heard about your little slicer showdown. You realize Fixer’s the reason the rest of us don’t even try anymore, right?”

“His skill is remarkable,” Tech agreed.

“You’re lucky you still have a console,” Scorch muttered, flopping down beside Fixer with all the subtlety of a plasma grenade. “Last time I challenged him, my data terminal burst into flames. Pretty sure it cried.”

Fixer didn’t look up. “You deleted your own boot files.”

Scorch waved a hand. “Details. Point is, you made an impression, Goggles.”

“I aim to,” Tech said, a little proud.

Scorch leaned back in his seat. “Well, guess the quiet killer has a sparring partner now. You play sabacc?”

“Not against probability,” Tech replied. “It removes the tension.”

Scorch stared, mouth full of ration bar. “…Stars help us.”

Fixer typed one more command, closed his console, and glanced at Tech.

“Same time tomorrow?”

Tech nodded enthusiastically. “Yes. I’d… like that.”

Scorch snorted. “Maker, you two really are bonding over data encryption. Someone warn the Nulls. The nerds are uprising.”

“Statistically improbable,” Tech said absently.

Scorch just cackled.

⸻

Kamino — Outer Training Deck Gamma

The storm rolled heavy over the ocean, lightning painting the sky in violent flashes that reflected off the metal plating of the training yard. A dozen cadets stood shoulder to shoulder on the firing line, their modified rifles slung low and helmets tucked under arms.

You were on the upper observation balcony, soaked to the knees from the walk out here but too stubborn to complain. This was sniper day — and the only day you’d been warned about ahead of time by Skirata with a grim smirk and a flask in hand.

“Long-range accuracy under simulated field conditions,” Vau intoned dryly as he stepped up beside you. “Each cadet will have one shot. 1,200 meters. Wind shift every six seconds. Targets move randomly. And no, we don’t let them brace.”

You raised a brow. “You want them to fail.”

Walon Vau smiled behind his helmet. “We want them to adapt.”

Down below, Crosshair stood at the edge of the group, helmet under one arm, a frown on his sharp face and his posture full of quiet tension. Unlike the other cadets — including the taller, broader sniper from Omega Squad, and the shockingly composed Null named Kom’rk — Crosshair didn’t speak to anyone.

He just watched.

And calculated.

“Cadets,” barked Sergeant Gilamar, stepping in front of them. “You will fire in pairs. One at a time. First pair: RC-1205 ‘Sev’ and Null-C Kom’rk.”

Sev stepped forward, already grinning. “Hope the target’s got a will.”

Kom’rk didn’t speak. He just dropped into a kneeling stance, rifle already shouldered.

Sev fired first — a clean, brutal shot. 1,200 meters. Impact.

Kom’rk adjusted slightly and fired — almost at the same second. His shot split Sev’s round. Even from the balcony, you heard the trainer next to you exhale.

“Show off,” Sev muttered.

Crosshair stepped up for his round when called. His partner was the Omega Squad sniper in training, a clone with textbook stance and regulation posture.

The trainer called it.

Omega fired first. A good shot — clean hit, upper right quadrant.

Crosshair barely moved.

He didn’t drop into position like the others. He crouched low, rifle steadied in his elbow rather than his shoulder, breathing so shallow it barely misted.

“Crosshair, fire.”

He didn’t even flinch. His scope realigned.

Bang.

The Omega cadet’s shot had been good.

Crosshair’s round hit dead center, splintering the internal core of the target and sending a flash of red through the training readout.

No one spoke.

“Lucky,” Omega muttered under his breath as they stood.

Crosshair’s lips curled. “Skill. Something you’d know about if you stopped shaking when you breathe.”

That got the kid angry. “Say that again?”

Crosshair just kept walking, leaving his helmet tucked under one arm, his long rifle balanced with the lazy grace of a child who knew he was better and didn’t care who liked it.

“Arrogant little shabuir,” Skirata grunted from the back.

“He’s not wrong,” you murmured.

“He’s not right either,” Vau added. “That kid is a shot — no question. But he’s ice. He pushes everyone away. That kind of sniper gets someone killed on a team.”

You didn’t reply. Your gaze followed Crosshair as he returned to the prep bench, checking the sights again, not speaking to anyone. Even Sev gave him a sidelong glance.

“He’s going to be one of the best,” you finally said.

“And the loneliest,” Skirata finished for you.

⸻

Cadet Barracks, Later That Night

Crosshair was sitting alone at his bunk, rifle spread in parts across the mat, a soft cloth in hand. He wasn’t polishing it for show. He was cleaning the trigger mechanism like it was an extension of himself.

“Nice shot today,” came a voice.

It was Sev, carrying two protein bars and a half-finished can of caf.

Crosshair didn’t look up. “You missed center.”

“You split it,” Sev shrugged. “Didn’t say you weren’t better. Just didn’t think you’d still be cleaning that thing two hours later.”

“It keeps me steady.”

Sev flopped down across from him. “You know you can be good at your job and also have a personality, right?”

Crosshair finally looked up. “I don’t care about personality.”

“Clearly.”

A pause.

“I was going to offer to help you mod the scope next week,” Sev muttered, “but now I’m thinking I’ll just watch you struggle.”

Crosshair smirked faintly. “I don’t struggle.”

Sev rolled his eyes. “You do now. You’re talking to me.”

⸻

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

[polycraftory]

Here is our complete guide to curling a heat safe wig!

We specifically figured out this method worked best when styling this wig for my level 3 Imogen Temult cosplay. She's from campaign 3 of Critical Role. There are many other methods to curl wigs, but this is the one that got the best hold and our desired look on this particular wig! Of course, then I decided to cosplay Imogen at level 13 first and her hair is totally different so this wig is going in storage but at least we got to make a useful tutorial first.

We already have a video version of this tutorial up on our Tiktok and Youtube that we will move over to Tumblr, but honestly I struggle The Most with learning from video tutorials. I prefer things written out so we wanted to make this sort of tutorial as well for accessibility!

Additional tips & all of the products we use are under the cut. Feel free to shoot us a message if you have any questions or want more tutorials on wigs!

What We Use:

Wig: Pastel Purple Wavy Lace Front Synthetic Wig LF5110 from Wig Is Fashion. It technically comes with a curl but we straightened and recurled it differently. Whatever wig you get, just make sure you check that it's heat safe before attempting this!

Silicone Spray: Mane 'n Tail Detangler. Yes, this is technically for horses, but listen, it works SO WELL on synthetic wigs. It keeps it from getting all static-y and tangled. We've only ever used this brand but it works really well so we're def sticking with it.

Setting Spray: Schwarzkopf Got2b Glued Blasting Freeze Spray. This makes sure the curls you spent hours making actually hold!

Crimper: SixRiver Ceramic Waver Hair Tool with 4-in-1 Flat Crimping Iron Plates. This comes with four ceramic crimping plates and Nic uses the one with the "most wiggles" on the lowest setting (320). You can probably use any crimper that goes low enough. Crimp it fast, you aren't holding it like with curls.

Curling Iron: Conair 1 Inch Curling Iron. We use this on "19", whatever that means because it doesn't actually have temperatures. Any curling iron with low enough heat settings will do, you might need to play with settings to make sure you don't melt the hair. Test it on the bottom of the lowest layer of hair where you could cut it off if you melt it. As with curls on human hair, different barrel widths will give you wildly different curl looks.

Teaser Brush & Large Tooth Comb: Honestly these probably came with one of our first hair cutting or wig styling kits so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Apparently the teaser brush is Revlon branded.

We aren't sponsored by anyone, this is just what we use! Feel free to substitute in anything that you have / know works well with wigs. We hope this helps! Please let us know what other cosplay or crafting tutorials you'd like to see <3

[dayofaestheticorsubculture]

Studyblr

Studyblr is a portmanteau of “study” and “Tumblr,” referring to a subcommunity on the microblogging and social networking platform Tumblr that centers around academic motivation, study aesthetics, productivity, and educational self-improvement. It is part of a larger trend of internet-based productivity and self-betterment communities that use social media to share resources, inspiration, and personal progress. The Studyblr movement rose to prominence in the mid-2010s, particularly among high school and college students, and has since evolved into a broader cultural and pedagogical phenomenon. Unlike traditional educational tools or support systems, Studyblr is grassroots and peer-led, combining elements of digital journaling, lifestyle blogging, and academic coaching.

The Studyblr community emerged organically from Tumblr’s broader user base in the early 2010s. It was initially inspired by the pre-existing aesthetic blogging culture of Tumblr, which was characterized by curated visual content, moodboards, personal diaries, and thematic tagging. As users began sharing photos of their study spaces, handwritten notes, planners, and school routines, a distinct identity coalesced around the tag “#studyblr.”

This emergence coincided with growing global interest in academic competitiveness, mental wellness, and productivity among digital-native students. While the community had no official founding date or centralized leadership, key influencers—users who consistently posted high-quality, original content—helped shape its ethos. Over time, Studyblr expanded beyond static images to include long-form reflections on study strategies, mental health, goal-setting, and the lived experiences of students navigating academic systems.

Studyblr is perhaps best known for its distinctive visual and textual aesthetics. Content typically revolves around carefully arranged photos of notebooks, stationery, desks, laptops, and textbooks. These images often feature natural lighting, pastel color palettes, and neat handwriting in cursive or block letters. The emphasis on presentation serves both motivational and aspirational functions: it reflects the user’s effort and self-discipline, while also creating an idealized image of productive student life.

Beyond visuals, Studyblr content is deeply text-driven. Posts often include personal essays, daily study logs, motivational affirmations, study tips, productivity challenges, book reviews, and planning systems. Many users integrate bullet journaling and time management methodologies such as the Pomodoro Technique, Eisenhower Matrix, or Getting Things Done (GTD) framework into their content. The aestheticized academic life depicted in Studyblr is often aspirational, yet it can also contain candid reflections on academic burnout, impostor syndrome, and the pressure to perform.

Studyblr functions as a decentralized, informal learning network. Users share and exchange knowledge across disciplines, offering peer support, explanations, and curated resources. Unlike formal education systems that follow rigid curricula, Studyblr promotes autodidacticism—self-directed learning based on personal interest and need. It is common to find comprehensive guides written by users on how to study specific subjects, prepare for standardized tests like the SAT, ACT, or A-Levels, or learn foreign languages.

These peer-led instructional materials often emphasize metacognitive strategies, such as spaced repetition, active recall, mind mapping, and Cornell note-taking. Studyblr can thus be viewed as a space for educational praxis, where learners not only consume knowledge but also critically reflect on how to learn. In this sense, it parallels and intersects with the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement, albeit in a more informal and socially curated manner.

Studyblr supports a complex and multifaceted set of identities. Users often present themselves as diligent, growth-oriented individuals who are striving to improve their academic lives. However, the community is also interwoven with issues of self-image, performance, and socio-cultural pressures. Many Studyblr participants are women and girls, and there is a strong feminized aesthetic to the community, including a focus on journaling, pastel tones, and emotional self-care.

Despite its empowering potential, Studyblr has been critiqued for perpetuating perfectionism and romanticizing productivity. The aesthetic emphasis can lead to a performative culture where the appearance of studying becomes as important as the actual work done. This dynamic mirrors broader critiques of social media platforms where curated self-presentation can mask internal struggles and contribute to anxiety or imposter syndrome.

Studyblr also functions as a digital safe space for marginalized students, including LGBTQ+ individuals, neurodivergent learners, and those with mental health challenges. The community often provides emotional support, practical advice, and solidarity across identity lines, creating an inclusive environment that is often lacking in traditional academic institutions.

Tumblr’s platform design—featuring reblogs, tags, and anonymous messaging—facilitates the decentralized and viral nature of Studyblr content. The use of tags like #studyspo (study inspiration), #productivity, and #studentlife allows for rapid content discovery and thematic categorization. Reblogging allows users to build upon others’ posts, adding commentary or visual remixing, thus fostering a participatory culture.

Many Studyblr users extend their presence across platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and, more recently, TikTok. These migrations have contributed to the cross-pollination of related communities like Studygram (on Instagram), Studytwt (on Twitter), and StudyTube (on YouTube). Each of these platforms introduces distinct norms and media affordances, but they share common themes of academic productivity, peer support, and aesthetic curation.

While not formally recognized by most academic institutions, Studyblr can have measurable educational benefits. Its emphasis on goal-setting, reflective practice, and resource sharing encourages students to engage more deeply with their learning. It can enhance intrinsic motivation and help students develop executive functioning skills such as planning, prioritization, and time management.

However, critics argue that Studyblr may reinforce elitist or exclusionary narratives. The idealized images often feature expensive stationery, minimalist furniture, and uninterrupted time—luxuries not all students can afford. Furthermore, the emphasis on constant productivity may inadvertently glamorize overwork and contribute to toxic hustle culture.

There is also a tendency toward Eurocentric and Anglophone academic norms, which may marginalize students in non-Western contexts. While some Studyblr users challenge these biases by posting in other languages or highlighting alternative educational systems, the dominant aesthetic and rhetorical style remains rooted in Western liberal education ideals.

A distinctive feature of Studyblr is its intersection with mental health discourse. Many users openly discuss their struggles with anxiety, depression, ADHD, and other psychological challenges. This openness creates a dual narrative: one of ambition and productivity, and another of vulnerability and resilience. It also reflects broader generational shifts in attitudes toward mental health, particularly among Gen Z and late Millennials.

Self-care routines, therapy experiences, and coping strategies are frequently discussed alongside study schedules and exam prep. This integration of mental wellness and academic performance represents a holistic approach to student life that stands in contrast to traditional educational discourses that often neglect emotional labor. However, this discourse is not without tension—there is an ongoing debate within the community about whether the focus on aesthetics and high achievement can undercut genuine mental health advocacy.

Studyblr is more than a niche interest group—it represents a convergence of education, technology, identity, and aesthetics in the digital age. As of the mid-2020s, while Tumblr’s overall user base has declined from its peak, the Studyblr ethos continues to influence newer platforms and educational content creation. The cultural DNA of Studyblr can be seen in online productivity communities, Notion dashboards, digital journaling apps, and even remote learning pedagogies that emphasize autonomy and engagement.

Its legacy lies in reshaping how students view learning—not merely as a path to grades or degrees, but as a personal, expressive, and communal act. Studyblr illustrates how digital communities can serve as sites of both empowerment and critique, offering new possibilities for how we understand motivation, knowledge, and the lived experience of education in a connected world.

[flamingpudding]

Ghost Hunting Vigilantes #2

Ties to: Ouija Board Prompt and Ghost Hunting Vigilantes

A/N: The electric gun thing was inspired by Elton from TFIL Overnight. They used it in one of their videos I just don't remember which and what they called it. Also thanks to @cyber-geist for sparking this follow up idea.

Danny was pressed flat against the wall and floating close to the ceiling. His hands still covering his mouth. What the actual fuck? How prepared was this teen? Sam had made him watch a lot of ghost hunting videos online but none of these 'hunters' appeared and held themselves like Red Robin.

Ancients, he wouldn't be surprised if they also had some Fenton Tools now.

Danny watched how Red Robin was frowning at the screen, the camera was still pointed at him. Once more the Ghost King looked down at himself, feeling for the familiar hum of his powers. He definitely knew he was still invisible.

"It's all a little blurry but I think the SLS Camera is picking something up…" The Teen muttered and Danny watched how the girls wandered over to look at the screen too.

"That's just a bundle of yellow lines. Doesn't even remotely look like a stick figure." Spoiler commented and Danny really wished he could let out a sigh of relief. So the camera was not picking him up. That was good to know.

"That is strange. When I tested it before the background image was still clearly visible but it looks like everything is blurry and static like." Red Robin muttered and Danny couldn't help but suck in a breath when the teen looked up directly at him.

The Ghost King knew they couldn't see him but right now this feels like the teen could. Danny let out the breath he sucked in once the teen turned to the vigilante in blue.

"Hey Nightwing. Could you spark some electricity?"

"What?"

"Your escrima sticks." The teen deadpanned. "Use them and spark some electricity into the air to charge the molecules."

"Why the fuck should he do that?"

"The interference I am getting on the camera is probably because the ghost used up most of its energy with the little music stunt it pulled. So to recharge and offer them some energy to keep communicating with us, we will release some electricity into the air. This will also prevent the ghost from attempting to drain any of our batteries or in the worst case our own energy or stamina if you want to say it like that."

What? Danny blinked. Okay he was the Ghost King, yes he had learned from his tutors that there are some ghosts that feed on electricity but most of them had an electric core and as far as Danny knew he was not sucking up battery power or life energy, not a power he had developed…. yet? He probably should ask his former rogue Technus if he knew anything about what Red Robin just said.

While Danny contemplated this the other vigilantes were staring at Red Robin and his explanation and the teen sighed. "Look if you don't want to use them, under the table to your left is a case with a modified stun gun that will do the same."

"We are not giving this Pit Demon power!" Robin declared as he moved to sit in front of the case blocking Nightwing as well as anyone else potential access to it.

Nightwing only shrugged and took out his weapons letting them spark to live.

There was a very hearable sharp intake of air and suddenly the rooms temperature dropped. The vigilantes watched how a sheen of ice spread around the walls and ice flowers started to bloom on the windows and glass like surface.

"What the fuck?!" Red Hood yelled, dropping the controller he was holding and pulling out his guns.

"We didn't invite Mr. Freeze, did we?" Spoiler asked no one in particular, rubbing her arms for warmth. Orphan was taking on a fighting position with her eyes surveying the room. Robin had sprung up on his feed, katana out and ready to fight once more, even Nightwings whose escrima sticks were still crackling with electricity assumed a fighting position.

The only one who appeared unconcerned was Red Robin, his eyes were still glued onto the screen that was still blurry and static like at times. "Hmm they weren't drawing energy front he camera... but now we know that the ghost has temperature changing abilities. I wonder… if I use the integrated heat-vision of our masks...."

"RR not the time to get stuck in your head!"

Danny couldn't breath as he pressed himself further into the ceiling. Green glowing eyes focused on the visible electricity sparking and humming from the blue ones weapons. His entire focus was on that and he hated it.

He had fucking trauma with a capital T. His friends knew that. His siblings knew that. His parents knew that. His former rogues knew that. Ancients. Even Dan had admitted it once to him that he had a similar problem with electricity!

Everything in him screamed to get away from that electric hum, he barely remembered to keep his invisibility up as he sought out the point farest away from what he probably presumed were tasers sticks. He hated how his core trembled and he wanted to do nothing more than fly as far away as he could.

"HEY GHOST FUCKER! STOP TRYING TO MAKE US POPSICLES!"

Green eyes snapped away from the crackling electricity and Danny could only stare at Red Hood who clearly didn't know where Danny was but still yelled profanities at every wall of the room not once moving from his spot though.

"Like yelling at the ghost will work. Anyone happen to have a blow torch on hand?"

"<tt> I told you it's a Pit Demon and now because of Red Robins stupidly we might end up frozen."

"Look how was supposed to know that the Ghost would use the electricity to change the Temperature this drastically? I knew they could change the temperature slightly but not like this!"

"Nightwing stop fucking sparking electricity already!"

"Oh right." The electric hum stopped and Danny felt himself relax slightly. "How do we get out of this? Think we could get B on the coms to bring us something?"

"Isn't he with the Justice League, right now?"

"<tt> You are all too relaxed for this."

"Oh, do you have a better idea than Demon Brat?"

Blinking Danny realized he had frozen over the entire room and that the ice had traveled up to the knees of the vigilantes. Nervously he rubbed at the back of his neck as he let his powers run and told the ice to withdraw from the vigilantes.

-Sorry, I am not got with electricity like that.- The Ghost King apologised in ghost speech sheepishly as soon as that spirit box was no longer covered in ice and his own trauma infused panic had settled down. It was probably better not to let them hear his voice right now.

Red Robin instantly turned his attention back to the SLS Camera Screen only to find it shut down. The cold had messed with something in it, making it blue screen and shut down. The vigilante narrowed his eyes, had the ghost maybe done this on purpose like Robin had said?

"Okay fucking noted. No sparking electricity if we don't want to be popsicles." Red Hood grumbled clearly not happy with what happened as he dramatically stomped with his boots like he was testing if he could feel all his toes.

"Did you die getting electrocuted? That was a pretty strong reaction." Nightwing couldn't help but ask. A little worry as well as curiosity layering his voice.

"Wait didn't Mr. Ghost say last time that asking about how he died is rude?"

"We are not pissing of that fucker any more than we already have." Red Hood decided, crossing his arms, guns still in his hands, while the EMF Meter lay forgotten by his feet.

"This Pit Demon is clearly tricking us. This was an attempt to get rid of us."

"Stop saying that! We still don't even know if it's a Pit Demon in the first place!"

Danny felt a presence appear next to him as he continued watching the vigilantes argue, a little amused as well as still apologetic because of the ice. Carefully he side eyed the presence hoping for all there was that it wasn't who he felt it was only to gulp. Next to him was Lady Gotham and she was once again holding the ghost club in her hands. A new kind of panic settled in the Ghost King's stomach, he slowly started to understand why Clockwork had such respect for this spirit.

"Oh look at the time. It has gotten late. Gotta go! BYE!"

Okay he panicked and once again forgot about ghost speech when he opened the portal home right next to him to escape her first swing but in his defense: That spirit had a mean swing that rivaled all the females of his family when they had the Creep Stick at hand and were pissed.

[rewind-redux]

New Experiments - Chapter 2 - Harley Sawyer x Reader

All you could feel was pain. A numbing, freezing pain that coursed through your veins and confused your senses. You didn’t know where you were, the only thing you could hear was your thrumming heartbeat in your ears. And a rough muffled voice. It sounded like it was asking questions by the pitch, but you couldn’t make out anything being said. Every part of your body felt heavy, a metal hand pushing your limbs back on the table when they limply fell off. 

Sawyer scoffed. “None of my tools, my lab equipment, my monitors… This place really has gone to hell.” You could hear him talking to himself, but didn’t open your eyes, your eyelids feeling too heavy. “And you. Stop squirming like those children did, or else I’ll have to get the red smoke.” You didn’t even realize you were moving your body until he scolded you, now realizing that’s why your limbs kept falling off the edge of the table. 

You opened your eyes to see Sawyer standing above you, his metallic hands working on your abdomen. He didn’t even react when you groaned, the only way you could tell he heard you was because of a slight brightening of his screen.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get your voice back in time. And… don’t make a fuss when you fully awaken, it is tiring cleaning up after patients all of the time.” He set something to the side… forceps? You couldn’t tell, your vision was still a bit blurry, and his hand was not fully in your sight. He looked down at you, watching you sluggishly react to your surroundings. “You won’t be fully conscious for a while now. At least, most patients aren’t.” He pushed your hand back on the table, his hand lingering just slightly, as if testing out the texture of your arm. 

You couldn’t make out what he said next, the tingling feeling of his hands working on you lulling you into an agonizing sleep.

When you woke again, Harley Sawyer was a bit away from you, working on one of his bodies. You felt… odd. Like you weren’t yourself. You eventually gathered the energy to sit yourself up, your head pounding. 

“Subject’s awake, I see. Took long enough.” He swiftly turned and walked over, his footsteps light on the metal ground. He looked you over, moving your limbs to perform an impromptu check-up. “Good, the procedure went perfectly, subjects vitals normal, responsive to sound… Good to know Pierre didn’t ruin my capabilities by stuffing me in these bodies.” His bitterness and anger was felt through his touch as he grasped harder onto your already sore arm.

“Let go…” You managed to choke out the words, your throat sore and your words rough. He watched you for a second before grasping tighter.

“Do you think you have control in this situation? That you tell me what to do?” He chuckled, the sound cold and detached. “Let me remind you. You have no power here. You are my little experiment, my perfect creation. I have made you what you are, and you should be thankful. I’ve made you useful.” He pulled you closer by your arm, his TV head so close you could practically feel the static. “Don’t think for a moment that what I did before creating you was for your gain. It was a simple… lapse in judgement from only having those insufferable little critters to work on. An eagerness to operate on a human body once more, even if it wasn’t a traditional exam.” He let go of you, your arm falling to your side. 

You could barely even think of what to say back before he started speaking again. “In all my years of experimenting… you are the only one I’ve had full belief in that you will be perfect. Subject 1008 was too… autonomous. Too impatient. A successful experiment, yes, but flawed in its own ways. It never listened, and when it did, it was at the wrong times. But I got information from him. I got results. And you, my little experiment… You will be my final result. The solution that I created. Not Stella, not Eddie, not Ludwig, and not Pierre. I’ll have the final laugh, and I will have the credit for everything I’ve done. Nothing of mine will ever be stolen again.” 

You managed to sit up during his rant, your head dizzy and throbbing. You shut your eyes and tried to rub your temples, but it felt like… metal. Your head was too fuzzy to think through what you felt, but you knew it wasn’t right. It shouldn’t feel like that.

Before you could even try and process what you felt, he pulled you closer to himself by your collarbone. “Open your eyes.” The words still sounded fuzzy. “I said open your eyes, experiment.” His tone turned annoyed, his eye narrowing. You finally managed to force your eyes open, eyelids still heavy. Sawyer was staring right at you, his purple screen focused on your eyes. “There you go. It's not so hard to follow orders, now is it?” He examined your face and eyes, before shoving a thumb past your lips. “Open.” You did so without thinking, the action almost automatic. He pressed his thumb down, opening your mouth wider, then ran it across your teeth slowly. “Not as…toy-like as I wanted, but this will do. After all, who can say they’ve successfully made humans immortal?” 

…Immortal? 

You pulled away, closing your mouth and going through the action of swallowing without doing so. “...Immortal?” Your voice still didn’t feel like your own, the sound echoing oddly in your throat.

“What do you think the whole point of my experiments were? Of course, the Bigger Body initiative was a large… part of my experiments, my progress. But it wasn’t the main point of all of this. Of these other experiments, of the people and children we used.  It was a means to an end. The Bigger Bodies initiative was simply a… stepping stone. It was an experiment in and of itself, to see if I could push the limits. And I did.” He looked at you, his screen almost… sneering down at you. “This was all but a means to an end. This is the progress that the heads were so afraid of. This is why they turned me into an experiment. But that didn’t stop me. Progress like this can’t be stopped by a simple… obstacle. All they did was “poke the bear” as some might say. And when the Hour of Joy came along? Who did people like the warden have to turn to?” He laughed, a bitter, angry sound. Laughing didn’t even seem like the right term to put to it. “He groveled to me. I was his only saving grace that day. Oh, the sound of his confusion and fear was… fascinating.” He paused, looking over at a door to the left. “But all of this was done for a better purpose. Playtime was the only company willing to even consider it. It’s why I’d stayed the whole time, even if the rest of the staff were a joke. They had the resources to make this– Immortality– possible. They just needed the right man to do it. To make the impossible possible. And I…” He paused, looking over you, analyzing your form. “Just needed the right subject. The rest of them had flaws and mistakes. Most of them couldn’t even form a thought in their sad little minds after the procedure. They were weak. Useful in their own ways after the hour of joy, but they weren’t progress. And then you came along.” His hands ran over your body slowly, testing it out, testing your reactions. “My creation.” He watched you, his demeanor a bit calmer than during his rant. 

“What… if I didn’t want this?” Your voice still felt odd, having a mechanical voice box now, but you would manage. 

“I’m afraid you have no choice in the matter. I couldn’t pass up such a perfect subject. Besides, your… reactions to everything days ago seemed otherwise. Unless…” You felt yourself heat up at his pause, feeling like you knew where this was going. With a click, fans inside your body kicked on, cooling your overheating wires and circuit boards. Harley chuckled at the sound and raised a hand to feel your temperature. “Unless it’s a more… personal interest, hm?” Your fans kicked on a higher speed, a nauseating mix of burning wires and freezing air coursing through your body. “Your… reaction tells me I’m right. So tell me, my experiment. What intrigues you about me? Why come all the way back to playtime, into the depths of this hell, just to find me? After all, you were a nobody during your time here. None of the heads even knew your name, much less what you looked like.” 

You glanced away, unable to answer his question. You didn’t come back for Harley, but then again, you didn’t exactly know why you came back. Maybe it was for him.

“Perhaps it was a passing interest? A consuming obsession? Maybe you were intrigued by my experiments, by my work, and so you had to see what became of the man you looked up to. Maybe you’ve already shown me the reason days ago, when I… examined you.” His voice lowered on the last sentence, sending a chill down your back and through your arms. If you still had skin, you were certain you would have had goosebumps all over your body. Instead, you had a chilling feeling trapped inside of you, with no automatic physical response to get it out at least somewhat.

“I don’t know why I came back.” You knew that was the truth, and yet… it didn’t feel like it. It felt like you were omitting information from Harley, that you were lying. 

“I think perhaps you know the reason, yet you can’t find the words to… describe it. To face the truth of why you came back. You can’t face your own… obsolescence. But you don’t have to anymore, since I’ve made you into something useful. Something- Well, the company can’t use you anymore, but I certainly can.” You sighed. Maybe you’d never know the reason why you came back, but… a part of you is happy that you did. At least you tied off some loose ends, closed some chapters in your life. But you can’t exactly tell if finding out what was really happening behind closed doors in Playtime was really for better or worse. 

A sudden thought struck you as you dug deep to figure out why you came back to Playtime. What Harley made you into… now you’d never be able to leave. You’ve become a monster to others, the very thing that shut Playtime down in the first place. You would be shunned, even though you took no part in the hour of joy, not even being present when it happened. People would call you a monster, group you with the rest of the toys like Huggy Wuggy and Poppy. And Sawyer. He couldn’t leave no matter what. He was stuck here forever. A surprising pang of.. pity struck you as you thought about Sawyer’s fate. He didn’t have the ability to leave Playtime like the rest of the toys, and even if the toys were welcomed with open arms– which you knew that they would never be– Sawyer would never be able to leave this cursed factory. Sawyer was stuck in a hell of his own making, doomed to suffer because of the hands of the heads who had stuffed him in that machine. 

“You’re stuck here forever…” The words came out as you thought about it, soft and quiet. Pitiful.

He scoffed, his eye flashing red for a moment. “We’re all trapped in this… hell that the head’s made. None of us are getting out of here. It’s no use thinking about that.” He sounded bitter, angry… maybe even sorrowful.

“What if you told me how to operate on you?” he whipped around at your question, almost hitting you with his body. 

“What?” The word came out fast and sharp, his tone shocked. “No one else is operating on me. I was operated on once, and this is what they turned me into. They turned me into an experiment.” Was he… afraid? 

“Sawyer, I’m not going to mess you up anymore than what they did. I… want to get you out of here. Out of Playtime.” You knew this was a huge risk to ask; Harley was known for not playing nice when faced with an option that wasn’t his own, even if it was the better one.

“Out of Playtime? And my work? I can’t exactly smuggle all of my experiments out of Playtime without anyone noticing.” You paused. He couldn’t but… did he really need all his work? Or only the best creation?

“What about only taking me? You did say that I was your best creation.” Your words came out much more confident than you sounded.

“Hm… I did, didn’t I? But a scientist never works with only one subject at a time-”

“You don’t have a choice, Harley.” Your words came out harsher than you intended, but you kept on with the tone, knowing it might be the only way to get your point across to the stubborn scientist in front of you. “If you want to get out– to leave Playtime– then you need to realize you can’t have everything. You can’t take your experiments, your equipment. All we can take is ourselves and maybe a bag full of small tools if you really need equipment that badly. We can’t take that much evidence of what happened here, Harley.” That made him pause. For the first time since meeting him, you had rendered him silent. You had made him question his thoughts and actions.  

“Tell me, why should I leave all of this behind?” He sounded accusatory, but you knew he was curious to see what could possibly be out there after ten years of isolation.

“Well, you… couldn’t exactly continue your experiments-” He scoffed, cutting you off. 

“And here I can.” Now it was your turn to be exasperated.

“Can you? Can you really? Because It seems like me and that other employee were the only ones to actually come down here, and from what I’m hearing, you never actually experimented on them, you just killed them.” He tried to speak up to defend himself, but you cut him off. “No, shut up. Do you really think that you can ‘experiment’ anymore down here? All that’s left is corpses and experiments that are out to kill you. You have nothing here, Harley.” His eye flashed red, glitching.

“I have nothing? I practically built this entire place, made it what it was! Everything around you, every critter, every single experiment and creature you came across was my doing.” He grabbed you, forcefully pinning you to the table. “You’re saying that I’ll have to give up everything if I leave, and you call that a good trade? My life’s work, gone in an instant because you want me to leave.” His grasp tightened, his metal creaking on yours. His voice was sharp and enraged. “If you meant any less to this project, I would have killed you the second you started talking back. I would have torn out your stomach and stuffed it inside another toy, making you useful for something.” He sighed, barely pulling himself together. “Instead I have to listen to your… ailings and try to block out this… nonsense you’re talking about.” His eye was still red, but his grasp loosened.

“Harley-” 

“Keep quiet, germ. I think it’s best to save your new voice before I tear it out of your throat with my bare hands.” That shut you up, and you promptly closed your mouth, but not before huffing in disapproval. He glared at your huff, but didn’t move to punish you in any way, instead taking his hands slowly off, as if waiting for you to make another wrong move. When you didn’t react at all, he fully pulled away, turning to the tool cart beside him. “Now, I think you’ve exhausted your new body enough for the time being.” He grabbed an anesthesia mask and fitted it to your face. “Don’t fight. Or do. But fighting only makes it work quicker.” He turned a valve, red smoke rushing out of the mask and into your system. It only took a few minutes for everything to fade, the last image you saw being Harley glancing back at you before turning away to continue cleaning up the tool cart.

You woke to Harley muttering to himself, the words fuzzy and indecipherable to your delirious mind. You opened your eyes to see his robotic body pacing back and forth, a joke about wearing down his hydraulics popped into your mind, making you huff in attempted laughter. He whipped around to you, the sound interrupting whatever he was doing. He stared for a second, then went back to pacing, realizing you weren’t exactly getting up and walking around any time soon. 

You spent the time trying to think, but it was hard, as if you were trying to think through a wall of fuzz. Eventually he came over, sitting you up and staring at you. “I’ve been thinking.” You sluggishly looked up at him, trying to just keep your head up in your current state. “And I’ve had an idea. I could get out of here with you, and take Yarnaby with me. He is rather useful, if not a bit… primitive in cognitive ability.” You could barely respond to the things he was saying, though you did manage to hear it. “I would… guide you on how to transfer my organs into a body I could actually use, instead of controlling these… machines. You would have to gather them, however. They’re throughout the prison of the factory, and there are only two other than my brain, which I’m sure you’ve noticed is in here with us.” He paused, looking at you. “Of course, I would be the one actually doing the procedure. You would just be… helping.” You blinked a few times, shaking the sedative off. 

“Helping… right…” 

“We will get this done by… well, soon. It’s not exactly like we can tell how much time has passed in here.” He checked you over then walked off, mumbling to himself about his plans. 

You slumped back down on the table, still exhausted from the red smoke. It would probably take a few hours for it to clear, and maybe even a few days for it to leave your system. Well– you weren’t entirely sure about that, not exactly knowing how your new robotic system actually worked. 

Hours later, you shook off the rest of the sedative and sat on the edge of the table. Harley was off doing calculations and tests for the new body he would be placed into, talking to himself about the risks and placement of everything.

For the first time since you laid down on that table, you finally stood. Or rather… you tried to. After one step, you remembered that your legs weren’t the ones you started out with. You stumbled and hit the floor with a loud clang, startling Harley from his mutterings. He quickly turned around and sighed when he realized what had happened.

“I should have expected you to get up and try to walk right after waking fully.” He walked over, not in any rush. He picked you up easily, his robotic body capable of handling the weight of your new robotic body. “Is it so hard to sit still and possibly support yourself for a bit?” He sighed deeply and set you back onto the table in a sitting position. “Next time you get up– because I know you’ll ignore everything I said– just support yourself on the table so that you don’t interrupt my work again and have me come and pick you up like a limp ragdoll.” He checked over your body for scuffs and scrapes, nodding to himself in satisfaction as he found none. “Sturdy. Good. Just as I made you to be. It’s nice to see that at least one experiment is going right.” He turned and walked away, back to his work station.

After a few minutes, you managed to shakily walk over to where he was sitting and taking notes. You leaned on his shoulders, and he grunted in surprise before scoffing in a annoyance.

“Don’t you have anything better to do than pester me, germ?” He continued writing as if you weren’t even there. Maybe he was hoping that ignoring you would get you to go away.

“There’s nothing else to do here.” That drew another disappointed sigh from Harley.

“I’ve already told you that you need to get my heart and lungs, and bring them here. Or were you too out of it when I told you that?” He turned to look at you, his eye narrowed and showing frustration.

“Right… I’ll get to that.” You pushed yourself off of him, but before you could walk away he grabbed your wrist, pulling you back over. 

“Communicating through the intercoms might lead to… unwanted attention.” He shoved an earpiece in your ear, making you wince. “I know that didn’t hurt you. Now go get the organs. And don’t come back empty handed.” He shoved you away, the doors slamming shut as you left.

You mumbled to yourself as you walked in the eerie silence, back through the hallway that felt like forever ago when you first walked through it. You remembered the stench of the place, the papers crumpled in your bag, the GrabPack’s weight on your shoulders. All of that was gone now, and… you were on Harley’s side. Gods, you’d wanted to kill the man yourself when you found him, but now… now you were saving him. 

“Can you hear me, little germ?” Harley’s voice rang out in your head through the earpiece, the roughness of his voice almost scratching against the inside of your head. A groan almost escaped your mouth, but you managed to keep it together.

“Loud and clear.” 

“Good. I’m watching you over the camera’s, but still. Do be careful. I would rather my organs come back in one piece.” You heard the crackle as he shut off his side of the line, not even giving you the chance to respond. You grumbled to yourself before continuing on through the prison, hoping one of his experiments wouldn't find you.

It took a while to find your way through the prison of Playtime, distracting yourself from the silence by wondering why Playtime even had a prison if half of the experiments couldn’t even think for themselves. After a few more minutes, you came upon Harley’s lungs. They were in a separate room from the experiment labs, hidden away where only Sawyer knew. You quickly took the lungs out and stored them in a container Harley had given you. You quickly made your way out to where his heart was. 

“Harley? I got the… your lungs.” 

The earpiece crackled as he responded. “Good. Now get my heart and come back quickly. There’s no experiments out right now, but there are traps. Don’t be foolish and get yourself caught in one.” You sighed to yourself. Of course. Nothing was ever easy in Playtime.

It took a bit longer to get to Harley’s heart, having to return to his ‘lair’ and drop the lungs off before venturing back out to find his heart. It was once again stored in a separate room from everything else, hidden in the back.

“Harley?” You glanced nervously around the room.

“What.” 

“Why the hell is there a chop saw in here? And on wheels?” He sighed through the earpiece.

“It’s not going to come alive and kill you. Just get my heart and get back here.” You grumbled because of him again, and made your way inside to his heart. 

“The door’s sealed, Harley.” 

“Then open it.” A huff escaped your lips.

“I don’t have a GrabPack. I can’t.” Now it was his turn to huff at the situation.

“Right, right. I took it from you. Get back down here and get it.” He promptly shut off his earpiece, leaving you back in silence.

You mumbled angrily to yourself about Harley as you made your way back, mapping how you got there in your head. You never liked the silence of Playtime since you came back, much rather preferring Harley’s company, however brash he may be. At least you knew he was an… ally? Someone who wasn’t obviously out to get you? Either way, you could trust him to do what he said, unlike the experiments here, who would rather tear you to shreds than talk.

You got back to his ‘lair’ and sighed as you closed the doors, exhausted. Before Harley could make a smart comment, you glared at him. “Just give me the pack.” He huffed a laugh and picked it up, bringing it over. 

“Don’t break it. I’ll need it to leave this place. Now go get my heart.” You didn’t even respond this time, tired of hearing him say the same thing over and over. He pulled it back as you reached for it. “Ah, ah. Don’t you have any manners? Look at me when I speak to you, germ.” you scowled, but reluctantly looked up. He sneered and dropped the pack in your hands. “Now be a good experiment and get my-” 

“Your heart, yes I know. You’ve said so at least five times, and the more you talk, the longer it takes.” You turned around, not wanting to face his controlled wrath a second time. The red smoke from the first time still felt like it was sticking to your system, unable to fully leave.

You stormed out before he could respond to cutting him off mid sentence, shutting the doors quickly. You made sure to shoot a glare at the nearest camera to solidify your annoyance with him. At least now he’d know you weren’t running away. Well, you hoped he’d think that.

Eventually, you once again made your way back to where his heart was stored, glancing at the chop saw as you passed it. Another item caught your eye though, a GrabPack hand stuck to a cabinet door, the wire… stopping right where the saw was. You walked over to it, picking it up. It was indigo in colour, different from the usual blue hand that came pre-installed on the GrabPack. 

“Stop gawking at every little thing and do what I sent you over there for.” You dropped the hand out of surprise, forgetting that Harley could talk to you through the earpiece. 

“Right, right. Don’t have to scold me like a child.” You gathered your wits and went over to the door, pressing the blue GrabPack hand to the scanner. It felt like the scanner was taking forever, but then again, you hadn’t used a GrabPack in what felt like years since you walked into Harley’s lair. 

Seconds later, freezing air started being released from a pipe next to the door. You tried to pull back, but the GrabPack hand was stuck to the scanner. You didn’t want to call up Harley and have him berate you for making such a ‘simple mistake’, so you tried to manually take off the blue hand to no avail.

Your mind started racing, the freezing air starting to blow out faster. You could feel your nose starting to turn cold, probably even numb at this point. You cursed and tried again, pulling at it with all of your strength. The hand wouldn’t budge, so you looked around for another solution. The pipe had nothing to turn, nothing to stop the flow. It was just a pipe that seemed to be burst. You closed your eyes for a second and cursed to yourself internally. How could you be so stupid and fall for such a cheap trick? Harley’s going to kill you for this…

“Harley?” Your voice came out shaky from the cold, but you’re sure he didn’t even notice.

“What is it this time?” He sounded annoyed. Great. That’s the one mood you didn’t need Harley in right now.

“I’m stuck. On the scanner.” He sighed deeply. 

“Stuck on a scanner? How did you manage to do that? I’m sure even-”

“Cut it, Harley. The hand’s stuck on a scanner and I’ve got freezing cold air blasting out of a burst pipe.” That made him pause for a second, as you assumed he went to the cameras. 

You could feel your body getting colder, your thoughts starting to slow. The air just kept getting more intense and faster, your lips numb. You didn’t try to speak to Sawyer again, hoping he would just fix the problem instead of chewing you out for it.

“Hello?” You closed your eyes as you heard him, his voice… fuzzier than usual. “Speak to me, so I know I can tell you what to do.” He sounded annoyed, but a bit… worried? You couldn’t tell, your thoughts mushing together in a pile of what felt like sludge. 

You slid down against the wall to the floor, sitting with your back to the wall. You were too tired to deal with all of this, with Playtime and Sawyer and Experiments. You just wanted to be home in bed, sleeping past your alarms, cozy in the warmth of the blankets… You could practically feel yourself warming up at the thought. Of a warm cup of coffee or tea, a tv show mindlessly droning on in the background… Oh, what you’d do to be home right now, waking up from this nightmare of experiments, past co-workers haunting the factory, and monsters chasing you at every corner…

“Get up, don’t fall asleep!” Harley’s yelling felt so far off in the distance, like he was miles away. “Get up! What are you doing?!” His voice started to meld with the droning of the TV, mixing with the monotone voices coming from it. You breathed deeply, relaxing into the thoughts of home and bed. You closed your eyes, eyelids feeling like lead. It was a losing battle to try and keep your eyes open, and so you gave in quickly, succumbing to the heavy feeling surrounding you.

“You little germ! Get up!” You felt so comfortable, so cozy… You didn't want to get up because the TV said so. You wanted to sleep all day in your bed, the steady wind howling against the windows as you were in your room, safe. 

You felt like you were floating heavily in a dream. Like floating on a cloud was right there, but you had an anchor chained to you, dragging you down. You thought about how nice it would be to sleep for a few hours, just until the wind ceased. It would only be a few hours, you told yourself. The wind never lasts long at your house, storms over within the day. Just a few hours.

You could barely hear the sound of footsteps pounding louder and louder as they got closer.

[forevergoldgame]

2 MORE DAYS EVERYONE!!

LS here. Today I'm going to talk about my favorite thing: UI design. When it's good, it's utterly invisible, but when it's bad, everyone notices!

There were definitely some hurdles and hiccups in the UI design of the demo. Part of it was me being unfamiliar with my tools, part of it was not understanding some of the in-built features of the sugarcube twine template. Since then I've brushed up on my JS and restructured things to make the game more intuitive.

First up, we now have two different options for the choice menu! By default, the game displays the "scrolling list" as seen on the left. Using either touch controls or your mouse scroll wheel, you can cycle through the available options before making your choice... or if your device lacks touch/wheel options (or you dislike needless UI animation), you can set the choice menu to "static list" and have your options display in a plain list.

Next is the top bar! At first glance, the buttons might look the same as they did in the demo, but they are not. Yes, the larger of the two still leads to a (new) character summary, but the smaller button now opens the new glossary rather than than being a redundant link to the inventory.

The glossary is a small feature a few readers suggested and it does exactly what it says. It combs through the current passage and looks for vocabulary words which may be unfamiliar to readers.

As always, the glossary feature is meant to be a convenience for readers who may have taken breaks in their playthrough and would like a refresher. It's an anti-frustration feature, not "homework!"

The settings menu is much like it was before, but with a few new features. Changing the theme now changes the UI popups as well as the main layout, so no more white text on dark backgrounds for light theme users! Mobile users will also be happy to learn that you can adjust touch sensitivity - this should hopefully fix some of the issues with people triggering the touch menu when scrolling down the page.

(The touch sensitivity range given in the menu might be tweaked later though - I've only had a few people test mobile for me so my perception of "the average mobile device" has a lot of holes in it. Mobile users, you'll have to let me know if the range is too great/too small to be useful!)

The "You" page has been separated from the Party menu and overhauled. This was mentioned in a previous post, so I'll move on to how the Party menu has been restructured!

Wanting to have as much information as possible easily available, I did away with the individual subpages in favor of these smaller summaries you can scroll through (using touch, mousewheel, or buttons).

The longer, unclear lists of companion thoughts are now represented by almost equally vague relationship icons. The left icon gives you an overview on "what" your relationship is, while the right icon gives you an idea of its "tone." Broadly speaking, "low tension" relationships are ones where the given companion and Quincy largely agree, and "high tension" relations are ones where you do not. A friendship with high tension might manifest as a cheeky rivalry, while a low-tension enemy might be someone who resents Quincy but stays polite for the sake of shared goals.

The travel log has gotten a similar retool for ease of use. We've chosen to drop the framing of "quests" in favor of plainly listed "tasks." Itemizing story events as "quests" was a sort of holdover from early development, when we were still conceptualizing what "gameplay" for an IF story like this would even look like, but as development progressed, it became clear that was kind of an overcomplication.

The timeline on the synopsis page has also been done away with in favor of this woven history log which tracks the beginning/ending of arcs and some big ticket player choices. You can scroll through the squares for a brief reminder of what you did in your specific playthrough!

The inventory has been redone to better reflect how we're putting the inventory system to use in-game. Doing away with "notes," we now have three categories of inventory item: actual items, Quincy's observations, and oaths. What is an oath? You'll just have to find out!

The codex has received a ton of QoL updates - namely, better options for navigation and a simple search function. We've also altered the categories somewhat and reassessed what "deserves" an article and what should exist as an amendment to a larger article, as - for example - giving each and every named location a codex entry like we originally planned would very quickly spin out of control and overwhelm players. We hope the end result is a cleaner codex experience!

And, finally, we have the retooled map. Instead of awkwardly navigating submenus, we now have one huge map with everything on it! The player can navigate by either clicking the points on the map or the list of available locations. A selected location will display in the corner, and list any active story tasks associated with that location.

And that's all for today's post! We're so close to release, and I can't wait to hear everyone's thoughts on what we've made!

-LS

[poupeesdecirque]

WiP - Okarun Mask (Dandadan)

Sometimes a design just speaks to you and you have the urge to craft... this is exactly what happened here. I always had a thing for masks and those teeth remind me so much of Kaneki's mask :')

I had to. Follow my progress below.

As you see above I first made a papercraft mock up of the mask and then transfered the pattern onto EVA Foam, then I cut a bunch of teeth while the contact glue was waiting to be dry enough.

I added the nosebridge then, I didn't use a pattern here I just ... estimated how it should look like.

Testing how many teeth I need (spoiler: I cut too many), i went for a less straight design because I felt like it.

Glueing the teeth went faster than I thought. I filled some gaps before I attached some foam clay.

I wanted to have a more rough tattered structure for the mask, like it was the curse/spirit of Granny wavering around it.

I filled in some more gaps before I added more structure with my rotary tool, the foam clay is fun to work with but details get lost when it dries.

Favorite part next: PAINT.

Damn I love painting things bonus points when I am allowed to smudge paints to have a used/weathered look in the end.

As you can see I added some red to make it seem like the mask is organic and not just static.

Adding more depth with pastels and almost done, magnets left and painting the back.

Done by 30/11/24

Not me being happy that my round glasses fit a character and I can wear them.

[cybergrinding]

Routine Maintenance

You gently laid down on the table and unbuttoned the top of your uniform. It was time for your mistress to perform your routine maintenance, your heads-up display notifying you of recognized issues. It was all part of the job, and perhaps for any other doll engineer, would be as bland and clinical as working on any other machine. Your engineer, however, your mistress, was different. She reveled in getting to play with your wires and parts more than anyone else that's ever worked on you. You squirmed on the table just thinking about what she had in store for you today.

You heard her speak from across the room, she was still getting her tools ready. "Alright Eris, any problems you're currently having? Any parts need replaced?" She spoke casually to you, using the nickname she made for you rather than your proper designation, E-415. She may have been reprimanded had any of her higher-ups witnessed her casual conversation with you, let alone what her maintenance entailed.

"Sensors have recognized a bulging capacitor in section A, number 3 specifically. No other issues of note currently."

"Mm, I'll probably have to replace the whole section. You'll also want to keep notice of any other ones too, if one has reached its end of life, the others probably aren't far off. No issues with connecting to your weapons?" She walked over to the table, holding a screwdriver and a toolbox of common replacement parts. She was already wearing her anti-static wristband. Though your external armor was plenty capable of warding off damage to any of your interior circuitry, you would still be pushed to the limit so regularly that bits and pieces needed replaced frequently, necessitating every frontline combat doll have dedicated maintenance staff.

"None, all weapons were fully operational when last connected, high altitude thrusters functioning normally. All weapons disconnected without issue."

"Good, good. Sounds like this won't take too terribly long before we can get to your favorite part." She shot you a devilish grin, you could hear the fan on your back spinning faster to disperse the heat. Not giving you a moment to calm yourself, she took the screwdriver to your abdomen, removing each of the screws holding the steel plate in place. She then pulled the plate off, and set it aside.

“E-enabling hot-swapping mode, mistress.” Though most maintenance staff would set their combat dolls into a low power mode while swapping parts, mistress always preferred to keep you largely powered, doing the minimum to allow parts to be replaced over without causing you to blue-screen.

She took a small flashlight in her hand and shined it into your now open abdomen, looking for the faulty capacitor in question. “Yeah, I see it here, shouldn’t be too hard to replace.” She placed the flashlight in her mouth, and grabbed out the necessary parts. A portable desoldering tool in one hand and the new capacitors in the other, with a soldering iron to the side to set the new ones in place. She reached in with the desolderer, and began working to remove the faulty capacitor. “You know, used to be that I’d need to pull out this whole board to remove the capacitors, but nowadays you can keep your insides inside while I work” She continued giving casual conversation as she worked, hard to understand with the flashlight in her mouth.

Before you knew it, all four had been replaced. Ordinarily, that would’ve been it, your engineer would give you a quick look over and close you back up. Mistress had other plans, of course. “Okay, I think we’re ready for a bit of stress testing.” She removed the flashlight from her mouth and set it down. “Are you ready, machine?”

Machine, there was always something about the way she called you that, so formal, yet so sensual whenever she said it. Nothing else made being a doll feel so good in your mind. You eagerly nodded your head.

She gave an amused chuckle and continued. “Very well, how about we start with…” She reached her hand into your open abdomen, and unplugged a small 3 prong connector from its socket. The fan on your back quickly slowed down and came to a stop. “It’s always important to test for these things, right?”

“A-ah, yes mistress.” You could feel yourself begin to warm up, you still had more than enough airflow to keep yourself from overheating, though to have your wires played with still excited your mind, the disconnected fan prompted a warning on your heads-up display, which you quickly dismissed.

“Hm, How about we test your radar tracking next?” Before you could respond, she disconnected the cable to your camera, leaving you unable to see. Another warning popped up, another warning dismissed. Despite this, you were still able to track what your mistress was doing, no combat doll would be limited to visible light camera for tracking targets.

You tracked your mistress as she clambered onto the table with you, and sat herself on your hips. She leaned forward slightly, and suddenly your vision came flooding back, the connection being restored. Actually seeing her now, on top of you, overwhelmed your senses.

“I’m almost done here, there’s just one last little thing I’d like to test before I’m satisfied.” The playfulness in her voice excited you, until suddenly all feelings of bliss cut off. Another warning popped up, notifying that another cable had been disconnected. You looked up to your mistress, she was holding a small 4 pin connector in one hand, the one that controls all feelings of pleasure. In her other hand was a paper clip.

She unfurled the paper clip until it was just a bent piece of metal wire, and leaned in again moving the metal wire towards the pins the connector used to be plugged in at. “So, all I have to do here is touch this to the first and fourth pins inside you, and…” A jolt of pleasure surged through your body, stronger than you could have ever imagined. By bypassing any sort of control and monitoring system, and simply shorting the two pins, she could overload your mind from sheer ecstasy leaving you, the once fearsome aerial combat doll, little more than a quivering mess on her mistress’s table.

After a couple more taps from the metal wire, you couldn’t focus on anything anymore. You hardly even noticed when your mistress got off of you and began reconnecting everything she unplugged. It was only when you heard the cooling fan on your back spin up that you finally came to your senses.

You looked over to your mistress. She was screwing your abdominal plate back into place, a content smile rested on her face. At all other times, you were E-415, an Excelsior class combat doll. But here, in these few tender moments you had, you were Eris, a machine loved by your mistress.

-----

I really hope you enjoyed this little thing I wrote, its my first time putting anything like this out on Tumblr, and I really enjoyed writing it^^

[telebeast]

[ID: a medium-close shot of Tanisha Davis and Ferro, looking over Tanisha's shoulder. Tanisha is a black teenage girl in a red jumpsuit. Her hair is done up in locks with a few colored orange. Ferro is a robot with a white faceplate and a blank black visor. She is missing her right arm, and a hole has been torn in her chestplate to reveal internal components. A bullet hole is also in the middle of her face. Tanisha is holding a voltage testing wand to an open panel in Ferro's arm. The light on the wand flickers green, yellow, and red. A small red light on Ferro's chestplate blinks. The ground around them is littered with junk and tools. The first version of the image animates and the second is static. End ID.]

Still Alive

@cozylittleartblog's Tanisha finds Ferro during a scrap run.

[askdannysroleswapau]

animation test thingy i did for voidball!!

the static on their face is constantly dripping, but the droplets always disappear before they hit the ground. one can only wonder what lies beneath...

tools: FireAlpaca SE, some information from Draw With Jazza's "Spookify Art Challenge - Who Killed Mario!?"