#also a placeholder graphic

[lostxmelody]

quick sketch

[polinationtech]

HERE IS GREG, MY OC:

Greg is a doctor and a time traveler. His traits are, as seen above:

Workaholic: He loves his job, or that is what it seems 🤔

Unflirty: He is demiromantic asexual btw

Brooding: HE IS A VERY COMPLICATED MAN

Commitment issues: He is really paranoid about getting into relationships because trauma of being a time traveler.

Nurturing: But has a soft spot for children.

I love him so much ❤️

[stickytm]

soooo. i am following some folks while setting up! i was formerly @boywebbed but i've had that blog for long enough that i wanted a fresh start! i'm hoping to have a carrd up by later tonight or early tomorrow, but i am excited to get things going here <3

[britishchick09]

every single poto unmasking (original book 1910, 1925, song at midnight 1937, 1943, 1962, night gallery's phantom of what opera? 1971, phantom of the paradise 1974, 1983, animated 1987, 1989, mini series 1990, phantom 1990, staller 1991, the canary trainer 1993, journey of the mask 2000, 2004, musical 2011, graphic novel webtoon 2021, phantom heart 2021, ghost on the roof 2022, angel's mask 2023, my rewrite 2022)

[bloodxhound]

a little update. ♡

[hdjaeho]

𝑯𝑰 𝑭𝑹𝑰𝑬𝑵𝑫𝑺 ! it's so nice to meet you - i'm kiara ( she / her , est , 18 + ) and i'm here with my first muse ji jaeho !! i've been eyeing this roleplay for a whie so i'm pretty excited to be here , and hope that we can add some fun to your muse's lives ! jaeho's a starlight music trainee with a lot of discipine but a detrimentally big heart. i did sort of create him on a whim so pls bear with me as i get him fully settled ! but in the meantime you can find his info & some general connections below. and of course , please like this post if you'd ike to plot ! let's get going. <;3

𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐞. / 𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐲. / 𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭.

pls excuse the many inevitable typos until i can fix them ! my keyboard's being super wonky so my keys aren't all working right. :')

𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 ::

( tw : mentions of abuse , parental neglect , and abandonment. )

born park jaeho in busan , south korea. his birth parents were teens who'd accidentally become pregnant and had jaeho just after high school graduation.

the second jaeho was born , his existance filed his parents with resentment. she held a lot of hatred toward him for being the "cause" of them missing out on their youth , and they had no problem reminding him.

by the first seven years of his life , jaeho's learned how to be seen but never heard , especialy when it came to the mistreatment from his parents. it's only when his teacher notices a particularly alarming drawing in class depicting the violence in his house that he finally gets someone to vouch for him.

it's not long before he gets roped in the foster system , which was an incrediby lonely experience for him as an ony chid. however , it's also a comforting one in ways , when he's placed with families that fill his early childhood memories with far more love and support than his families ever have.

it's his last home that's filed with the most love, however, and it's the ji's when he's eight years old. they attatch to him instanty, and it's obvious from the very start how kind-hearted they are. with his foster mom being a fiery but loving therapist and his foster dad being a quiet but patient owner of a resturaunt , they knew all the ways to show him love , whether by nurturing his heart or his stomach.

they always aimed to fuel jaeho's creativity and dreams in all the ways his birth parents hadn't. it becomes no secret he takes a paticular liking to dance ( ballet's his favorite ) , writing , and art , though the first two are the strongest of his interests.

his foster parents try their best to gift him normalcy and the tools to reach their dreams , even if it means spending their last. they spend their checks on the best dance schools they can afford , and whle it's clear it's doing jaeho good , he feels awful about it. he doesn't want to feel indebted to them , and to make things worse , his dance peers bully him for his worn shoes and low income.

he feels so undeserving of their love - after all he's not even their chid. at least ... until he is. at the age of twelve , his birthday comes with the best surprise. not a new toy , not the latest video game , but adoption papers. finally , a true family.

but his best gift of all comes later that year when he receives news that another adoption has been finalized - a one year old named jieun. her parents had given her up after they discovered she was deaf. but , unsurprising due to their kindness , the ji's took her in with open arms.

with a deaf member of the family , miss ji was diigent in ensuring all the family members learned to use sign , including jaeho. he loves it , actually , as often when they were out in public it felt like him and his baby sister had a special language shared between them. as his fluency in ksl grew so did his love for her , and it's not long before he becomes incredibly protective and caring for the littlest ji.

but as he gets older , he starts feeling extreme pressure to repay his parents for all their kindness by being the best son possible. a mix of guilt & past rejections transforms him into an anxiety-ridden teen determined to come out on top.

as graduation approaches, he feels less and less encouraged to follow his dream to dance. it had taken so much out of his parents , and he didn't feel right continuing to take from them when it came with so much risk. so instead of continuing dance , he enrolls in colege as an education major , deciding to pursue another dream that will do his parents much less harm.

his mom can't bear to see him give up on something he showed so much promise in. so , she begins posting his covers she'd recorded for him to youtube , and eventuay , gets contacted to audition. the answer is an overwhelming no from jaeho when he finds out , extremely upset his mother had done such a drastic thing without asking him.

however , after an emotional heart-to-heart with his mom , he realizes ... running from his ream isn't doing either of them good , and letting go of his dream woud mean his parent's sacrifice woud be for nothing. so , in a very big leap of faith , he makes the huge decisison to drop out of school for the time being to pursue the trainee life full-time.

since he's been in seoul , he's faced an overwhelming amount of doubt in himself and guit. he's unsure if it'll all be worth it - being unabe to care for his sister , being away from his parents he oves so much , and trying to actually learn to care for himself and not just those around him.

𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘 ::

highly highy emotional. i think because of his sharp visuals & relatively quiet nature people might first mistake him for that mysterious & cool type , but he's really not. he's an extremely deep feeler , and though he tries to hide it , those who know him well know it's no secret. due to his past , he's gotten used to silence to repress how he's feeling , but his silence mixed with his facial expressions ( he really can't hide those ) makes it fairly obvious how he's feeling.

loyal , but sometimes to a fault. he has a strong nurturing instinct and desire to help others , even if it means hurting himself in the process. it's made the whole competitive atmosphere of the trainee word difficult for him , as he has to juggle his equally dominant desires to help others and be on top.

v random but he had a massive massive growth spurt HAHA. he was really small and frail his entire life unti his last years of high school , where he sprung up suddenly. that , mixed with his newfound interest in the gym transformed him into an entirely different jaeho than his peers had known.

quiet , but not shy. again , because of how he was raised in early years to be seen not heard , he tends to be pretty lowkey when he doesn't know you well. however , he's incredibly expressive through his dance , a stark contrast that makes his performances that much more powerful. he likes lyrical & hip hop now the best , because despite being very different he gets to channel the same level of different emotions. but in terms of socialization , those he knows well know that he can become a chatterbox & even a bit of a wild child if he's made to feel comfortable enough ! think kinda jun from svt vibes ??

once again , very nurturing. the mom friend , the type to stay late after practice to help you with a difficult part , cook you meals and pay for the bill when you look way. he's been a foster brother to tons of kids his adoptive parents helped raise , so taking care of others has practically become second nature.

adores kids , and it's no surprise that he's wanted to be an elementary school teacher , especially for deaf children , and he intends to do so when the idol life is behind him. after all - right before coming to his company he was working part-time as an after school kids dance teacher ! he just loves to love , and acts of service and words of affirmation definitely top his love language list.

with that being said , he's also a giant romantic. still not convinced it's in the cards for him , but desperately wants it to be. loves all those cheesy romance dramas , and falls deeply for people. but, because he doesn't always know to do what's best for him, he's literally set his friends up with his crushes in the past just to make them happy. can u tell already he likes breaking his own heart for fun ?? LMAO

as you can tell he's a true softie. but one thing he absolutey won't tolerate is laziness. he already feels so bad for pursuing this dream that he'll do everything in his power to make it worth it. which is why trainees who clearly don't put in a good faith effort will deefinitely see themselves on the rarely seen but incredibly scary bad side of him dwojdwiodwjio. in short - he doesn't take bullshit.

like i said , he's a deep feeler. but because of that , he has a really hard time forgetting things , and can hold a bit of a grudge. for minor things he's almost too forgiving. but if something major happens and things are said in the heat of the moment , it's like he instantly detatches & goes radio silent. he does it to protect himself but sometimes he needs to learn to forgive & also not to close himself off as much , especially with those he cares for the most.

loads of imposter syndrome. he doesn't have the connections and experiences he's seen some others have in the indsutry, and it definitely makes him question whether or not he belongs. trying his best to blen in but constantly feels like he's playing a role and isn't really cut out for the idol life , and also questions if he should've just stayed in school.

very analytical of people . tends to try and figure out people's personality before he even knows them well, because he's incredibly curious but afraid to get too attatched too fast. sometimes he legit just stares at peope trying to see how they operate because he wants to know them better pls don't mind him LOL

random fun fact but his family nickname is maehwa ! it means plum blossom , and his mom gives nicknames every kid she's taken care of revolving around flowers / nature. jaeho got his nickname because his mom thinks of him as a sign of hope and new beginnings, just like blossoming flowers signal the start of spring.

heaviy reliant on organization - his notebooks , calendars , and even phone are all color coded and alphabetically sorted to his heart's content. needs order to feel comfortable and it's often refected with how he trains and studies.

there's probably so much more but i'm so self conscious of how much i'm writing HAHA so for now , we'll leave it at that ! i'll add more if i left anything out tho <;33

𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒 ::

this will be a pretty small and general list for now but more coming soon !! plus i love brainstorming above all else , so these could work as mere inspos or we can create something totally fresh !

dance friends - jaeho didn't get along too well with many dance students , but maybe someone could be the exception ? someone who went to the same company as him when they were teens and acted as a sort of comfort to him. he's from busan but did his lessons in seoul !

a younger / less mature trainee who either is struggling to find their way or just needs a little care. a sibling-like relationship with someone who jaeho deeply cares for ! he can be a little overprotective but he emans well , and will certainly care for them as deeply as his heart allows.

language exchange buddies ? jaeho doesn't really speak a lick of english , but wants to learn. and in return , he can either teach foreign muses korean or even teach them korean sign language !

crushes / first love vibes - very loose idea that requires tons of brainstorming but maybe a little romance that's begun to spring up ? he's incredibly romantic though so he tends to get pretty invested , which can be an equally good and bad thing. but more of a sweet , slow-paced romance !

on the other side , exes ?? ngl with him it's MESSY though because as i said , a strong feeler ! takes forever to get over relationships , and if ended badly , often holds a strooong grudge.

best friends who do well at baalncing each other out - i think naturally, jaeho would probaby get closest to someone a bit different than him bc quite honestly if they're just as strong a feeler of him it can be Too Much haha ?? but people who bring out the best traits of each other and can be incredibly real w each other !

someone who encourages jaeho to actually let loose and be young for once ! he never lets himself havea break , so he could certainly benefit from friends who push him into a little healthy chaos.

enemies ?? which would be very interesting , considering jaeho has very few. but people who are rude without reason , lazy , or snobby are the small portion of the population that get on his bad side haha !

roommates !! honestly rooming with jaeho can be a whole adventure , but you're certainly gonna get free homecooked meals , a listening ear , and a plant collection out of it. pls keep this lonely boy some company while he's in seoul !

[tuberosumtater]

Pinocchio 3000 but it's made by a weaboo in an Astroboy phase.

The whole lore is just Pinocchio-flavored Astro Boy. And it takes place in a steampunk-like city. (wow I'm very "original" 😀👍 )

[jesterwaves]

placeholder sprites for the game i am "working" on

[suppermariobroth]

Super Mario Odyssey contains an unused capturable object called "SpaceShuttle" internally. No models remain for it, so the footage uses a simple placeholder graphic that is not indicative of whatever its intended appearance originally was.

After capturing it, it first flies into the air when pressing B. Pressing B again in mid-air will detach the red "base" object and turn the SpaceShuttle horizontally, allowing it to be steered as it descends. After landing, it automatically self-destructs and Mario is ejected.

This would likely have been either as a way to more conveniently cross large gaps or as part of a challenge stage where it would need to be maneuvered between obstacles. In a previous post, I have also shown a similar unused capture called "CornBoy".

Main Blog | Twitter | Patreon | Small Findings | Source: YouTube user "@gra6313"

[ganondoodle]

it may not look like it but this took a long time to make

heres a rough ability breakdown for the totk rewrite project (i know its hard to read in the pic so let me clear it up and add some extra info)

theres two ability wheels now, sages are not frame rate killing glitch ghosts around you but their abilities are selected through the wheel on the right (pic is rough concept, it is clearer what is selected and what isnt + it has names in final version, symbols are placeholders as well) and bound to the player, when you acitvate it an aura appears similar to the arm abilities and their ghostly form appears besides you, charging or firing when you hit A while the ability is active

SHIEKAH ARM WHEEL

ANALYZE: zelda tells you info about targeted enemy/NPC, it gives you info about it and informs you more dynamically about important things than the foto-entries do

FOTO its fotos :) zelda joins selfies tho and does silly poses with you

REWIND: functions like the time recall in canon, but this time it is a more developed version of stasis instead

AMIIBO: its ... amiibo

HOOKSHOT: grab onto anything (perhaps restricted but not yet decided), you pull yourself+zelda to heavy stuff, light weight objects are pulled to you (including light enemies like bats or small slimes) grab onto something and hold onto it, usable like a vine (think, ww grappling hook) but with limited duration (battery power?)

AUTOBUILD: like in canon but it uses luminous stones if material isnt all there (or other material you put out to so its more versatile and you are more aware of what you have, no accidental spending then)

BUILD: similar to canon, but no glue (it kinda just fuses with no extra graphic unless pehaps like a bolt or sth), you put stuff together anyway you want; build is also used for weapons (no extra ability needed), you just build a weapon on the ground and pick it up afterwards (it has to be a weapon handle part and then sth else to it, otherwise it wont turn into a weapon)

INFUSE: infuse somethign with ancient energy, useless on normal objects usually(?) but reactivates broken or deactivated tech like elevators and doors; used to dynamically access caves and especially labs (labs serve a similar function as shrines, they are old shiekah labs that broke over time, puzzles are diverse things like traversal and little quests in which you help the researcher ghosts of the people that died in these labs (by the calamity, earthquakes, accidents, or killed by the royal army when their tech was banned and they refused to give it up)

SAGE WHEEL:

WIND GUST: same as in canon

LIGHT SHIELD/LIGHT LASER: zelda uses a shield of light to protect herself in combat, it does not affect the player (or perhaps only when you happen to be within range, which is small, this is more a character thing for her than useful for you) for the player through the selection wheel; aim and tell her to shoot a light laser like rauru did in the moldora cutscene in canon totk (a bit more dynamic) it deals very high damage to anything hit but has the highest cooldown of all abilities; deals extra damage to miasma enemies

THUNDERSTRIKE: similar as in canon, it charges through you however (so the charging only gets stopped if YOU shoot an arrow or get hit)

FIRE .. BOOM THING: similar as in canon but yuno has a little animation of daruks shield around him again :)

YIGA TELEPORT/KOGA CLONES (undecided yet): A: target a location in range and koga grabs you like a naughty kitten and teleports you both to the targetted location, you spawn in a little above ground giving you time to either perform a bullet time move or a sword attack from above B: summons a bunch of koga clones that serve as a distraction for enemies and combat support, they die in one hit (reference to kogas and monk moz kyoshias similar moveset; since there are no sage ghosts around you all the time and a max of two companions (zelda always, sage in sage dungeon) it serves as a replacment for that)

WATER ...WELL(?): sidon gives you a shield of water, elemental effect is applied to weapon and lasts as long as the shield does no matter how many times you attack; if it is hit by an enemy it breaks but you dont take damage; if the shield lasts it entire duration without getting hit it it grants you a percentage of your missing health back upon dissolving (ref to mipha healing powers anyone??)

im open to constructive feedback but overall im quite happy of makign it work out like that, although there are quite a few things that need polish i think this is both realistic and works well with what else i have been writing; remember tho, this is my rewrite so im undoing the things i dont like, like riju never being there when you need her bc she runs right up to the enemy and her losing her charge bc she keeps getting knocked over + overall uselessness of minerus robot (to me)

(totk rewritten project)

[prostocupoftea]

tw: kinda violence (no blood, but still), kinda graphic descriptions of violence in song lyrics

Asmodeus

i promise there won't be much pain~

Asmodeus

song - Asmodeus Song - Puppet History

yapping n version w/o text under cut

Yes i put my playlist on shuffle and now one of the key moments in my au is forever embeded with this song

I just listened and like "yeah i bet your physical body being deleted feels like possession by a demon"

Oh, yeah, also this is first official post about my au ((: Now we can officially play my favorite game - guess who gets more dead in this part of story!

okay yeah that's Sonny getting deleted, im sorry simps, but i promice he is not dead forever at that point in the story-- yet----- >:) sorry im feeling mischevious today heheheheh

//btw i do not have canon-canon design for Sonny yet, im still in the process, so here is a placeholder but since he is kinda half-deleted it also works

//also most of the plot holes are being patched so soon enough timeline can be drawn and i'll finally post it structurally as plot goes so yay!!!

Do not look at the kinito's hand too much you will understand that this is first time i make 3d interact with 2d :')

W/o the text

also this is literally this i am not sorry

[solradguy]

GUILTY GEAR VASTEDGE XT - FULL ARCHIVE

Yeah. The canon pachislot machine. Here's everything we have for it at the moment, including a bunch of files ripped from the Android port, concept art, and a Japanese transcript of the game's dialog.

ARCHIVE.ORG

=== FOLDER CONTENTS ===

VXT CONCEPT ART - Character model sheets

FIXED COLORS - Color-corrected model sheets

VXT DIALOG TRANSCRIPTS - Transcript of the Japanese text, partial English translation

VXT MESHES + SOUNDS + TEXTURES - Assets from the game itself (graphics, etc)

MESHES

SOUNDS

TEXTURES

VXT MOBILE APP RIPPED FILES - 2 .OBB and 1 .APK files ripped from the Android port

VXT VIDEOS - Footage of the gameplay and of the physical machine in action (there were some cool moving bits, like an animatronic Junkyard Dog MK.II)

VXT ANIMATED GAME ASSETS - Anything from the game that moved (cutscenes, UI assets, etc)

CREDITS + INFO.TXT - Informational text file. Also including the credits and additional info in that file here below the cut:

=== CONCEPT ART CREDITS ===

Mister Guest (via e-hentai) Volcanic Fighter (Twitter: nincopyjasb; Tumblr: @nincopyjasb) Shmuel (Twitter: shmuelbrain; Tumblr @shmuelbrain) Renexuz (Twitter: renexuz1; Tumblr: @renexuz)

=== DIALOG MANUSCRIPT COMPILATION & PARTIAL TRANSLATION ===

Volcanic Fighter (Twitter: nincopyjasb; Tumblr: @nincopyjasb) Dialog script original host (defunct): http://priban.gozaru.jp/ggv.html

=== MOBILE .APK & .OBB FILE RIPS ===

Lux (Twitter: xaeldritch) Nainsoo (Twitter: na_insoo)

=== ANIMATED & GRAPHICAL ASSETS, MUSIC, AND MESH RIPS ===

Tillman (Twitter: validtine; Tumblr: @tillman)

=== RESTORED & REMASTERED OPENING ANIMATION ===

Shmuel (Twitter: shmuelbrain; Tumblr: @shmuelbrain)

Original video hosts:

Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-Vj8wymN3Q

Twitter: twitter.com/ShmuelBrain/status/1650153182725636098

=== ADDITIONAL THANKS ===

Shmuel (Twitter: shmuelbrain; Tumblr: @shmuelbrain) Renexuz (Twitter: renexuz1; Tumblr: @renexuz) The GG Lore Rev server

=== ARCHIVE COMPILATION ===

Sol Radguy

=== ADDITIONAL NOTES ===

About the archive - The files here were previously scattered across multiple websites and cloud storage services, making them difficult to acquire to those outside the small Guilty Gear archival group. I did my best to gather them all in one place. Please contact me if more files are discovered and I will add them to the archive upload on Archive.org.

The ripped mobile port files - The mobile version of Vastedge XT was only online and available to even download for around a year before the servers shut down. The two .OBB and one .APK file were ripped from the Android port of the game and are what Tillman ripped the animated assets, meshes, sounds, and textures from. A lot could not be ripped because it was stored on the game's servers. The encryption also makes ripping files from these difficult. It's possible there's more on them that was not able to be ripped.

Japanese file names - The original name of the .APK was ﾊﾟﾁｽﾛ GG_com.dtechno.slotguilty.apk and had to be renamed to be compressed into a .ZIP folder. If the file runs into errors during launch/cracking attempts, try reverting the name. Likewise, the Japanese names of the videos could not be compressed and were also translated. There is a separate .TXT file within VXT VIDEOS that includes their original Japanese file names.

Duplicate concept art images - There were two archives of the concept art. One was hosted on e-hentai by Mister Guest and contained the full, uncropped, images. The second was from a folder that Volcanic had compiled. Volcanic's files were a higher resolution, but were cropped and missing some information Mister Guest's files had. I've included them both here as well as the files from a third archive where an anonymous user on Imgur had restored the colors on the character models to match how they look in the game itself.

Neon colors on the concept art - The neon sections on these character model sheets are temporary/placeholder colors and not how they appeared within the Vastedge XT game. Their true colors can be seen in the videos within the VXT VIDEOS folder or in the FIXED COLORS folder within VXT CONCEPT ART.

Dialog transcripts - What we know of Vastedge's story came from official story summaries posted by Arc System Works on the Guilty Gear websites. The dialog is exactly that: character dialog. There may be lines missing, that are inaccurate (due to typos), or other written/spoken parts of VXT not included. It may be possible to get this missing information from the videos in VXT VIDEOS or from other VXT video sources online.

[deaf-solitude]

In The Shadow of the Valley Pt. 1 (Squire!Thaddeus x Knight!Reader)

Pairing: Thaddeus x Knight!Reader

Word Count: 1.4k

Warnings/Tags: Future graphic violence, injury and blood, no use of Y/N, placeholder knight name for the reader, mostly gender-neutral but reader is called “sir” at some points, the reader is called “my lord” a lot too, reader is also a bit of an asshole but dw they soften up

Summary: You’re a knight sworn to the Brotherhood of Steel, and you’ve just lost your asshole squire to a yao guai. Maybe it’s for the better, as you prefer to work alone anyway. Unfortunately, the Brotherhood thinks otherwise and quickly sends you a replacement. Turns out that the replacement is someone you never wished to meet again, but thankfully, he didn’t know it was you! Not yet, at least.

TDLR; What if Thaddeus was assigned to be your squire instead of Maximus’?

((A/N)) I have no defence for this. I’m so weak for pathetic men it's not even funny 😔 I’m planning on making this a 3 or 4 parter, so this parts a little on the shirt side for simplicity’s sake. Also I swear I’ve been trying to work on some Umbrella Academy stuff, but I got major writer's block for one of my requests that I was super excited to write. I’m hoping this little fallout tangent will kickstart my motivation. Anyway, enjoy my brain rot-induced fanfic bc there’s not enough appreciation for my boy Thaddeus lmao

You really wished you didn’t have to have a squire tagging along with you constantly. Okay, sure, you didn’t want to be carrying that overly-massive bag of shit yourself, but all they ever did was get in the way and die.

That’s how you found yourself in your current position, gripping your radio tightly between your metal-clad hands.

”No, I do not need another squire! Do not send one-“

”A replacement squire is currently on its way to you. Hold position.”

You groaned loudly as you released the call button, feeling inclined to rip the radio out of your suit and be done with the person on the other side of the transmission. You could do this all by yourself. There was no reason to waste yet another squire on a mission that could easily be completed by you and you alone.

Your last squire already had you walking a fine line between focusing on the mission and focusing on not smashing his head into a wall, though the yao guai he pissed off had beaten you to it. You looked back at the cave behind you, where your squire’s mauled body currently resided, deciding to move away from it in favour of getting yourself back on your intended path.

You didn’t stray too far from the general area, however, begrudgingly waiting for the Brotherhood transport to deliver your new squire. You leaned against a tree in wait, sighing heavily as you tilted your head back.

You were starting to regret ever joining this odd faction, though you supposed you didn’t have many other places to turn to as an abandoned child. Some knights had picked you up off the side of the road one day, where you were protecting an injured dog from a small band of rad roaches. You’d been caring for it for days, bringing it any food and water you could scavenge, and you weren’t going to give up on it so easily.

The makeshift spear you made with your small pocket knife tied around the end of a stick made them laugh, and they quickly shot the roaches before offering to take you back to the Brotherhood. They told you that you could help people just like you helped the dog. You, with your big heart and even bigger ambitions, agreed to go with them.

From that foggy interaction, you specifically remembered the look of the squires’ faces when you so readily agreed to tag along. They almost looked remorseful. You understood why now: the Brotherhood was not a very welcoming place to wannabe heroes. You understood that quickly.

…You never did see that dog again.

You weren’t sure how much time passed, maybe a half hour or so, before you could hear the familiar sound of an approaching vertibird. You sighed, pushing off of the tree and straightening up your stance. Here we fucking go.

You hardly had it in you to look up as your new squire rappelled down, the oversized bag he was carrying falling to the ground with a loud thump while he clumsily unhooked his harness.

He had already started talking before he even turned around, sending the rappel lines back up to the vertibird. “Oh, Knight Mire!” You barely registered the familiar voice before you saw his face, and it took everything in you not to scream or curse him out.

It was fucking Thaddeus.

He kept talking even as you froze in place, getting down on one knee and going on some spiel about how he was honoured to be in your charge, but it was drowned out by the ringing in your ears. You were going to strangle this man.

You and Thaddeus didn’t have the… best history. Arriving at the Brotherhood airbase around the same time some other kid—Maximus—did, you were both subject to his horrible bullying for a while. You were able to stand up to him after a while, giving Thaddeus a thorough beating for shoving you past your breaking point in your first few weeks there. You were pulled off of him by some officers and thoroughly scolded by Elder Quintus but returned to normal duties soon enough.

Thaddeus had enough of you after that, avoiding you at all costs as long as you weren’t near Maximus, who was now his group’s primary target. As nice as the younger kid was, he never had it in him to fight back against them. You decided to keep away from him regardless, not wanting to get caught up with those assholes again. Another infraction could’ve meant a much more severe punishment for you, and that was not something you were interested in.

“Uh, Knight Mire?” You were snapped out of your thoughts and looked down at Thaddeus, who was still kneeling and looking up at you with some expression of concern or anxiety. Did he not… recognize you? No, of course, he didn’t: he didn’t know your last name, and as far as he was aware, you were dead as soon as Quintus sent you off base years ago. Being sent off base almost always resulted in death.

Good. That was good.

”Rise, squire,” you commanded, your voice garbled by the voice modifier in your helmet. Thaddeus scrambled to his feet, his posture tense and his arms held closely to his sides. You inspected him a little longer, taking note of his skittish demeanour before brushing past him to resume travelling to your original destination.

“You’ll do,” you commented briefly as you passed him, hardly giving him a second glance to see if he was following.

Thaddeus was a bit taken aback by your words, pausing for a moment to mumble to himself: ”I’ll do…? Do for what?” He blinked and shook his head, rushing to fall in line behind you. He struggled to carry the pack that was nearly as big as he was, stumbling every couple of steps as he tried to balance himself.

”What do we have to do?” He questioned quickly, trying to keep pace with you. Great, still as talkative as he used to be. You could never forget his stupid rants, though they used to be more ill-intended, when he would muster up every possible insult and demeaning phrase he could to try and get you all upset. It worked against him, in the end.

You were tempted to pick up your pace and leave the fucker behind—there was no way he’d be able to keep up with you with that thing on his back—but you decided against it, lest the Brotherhood send you another squire.

”You just have to lug my shit around and try not to die,” you answered begrudgingly, “I will do everything else. That’s all you need to know.” You didn’t need another brainless squire getting in the way of your missions, so you hoped he’d take the hint and shut his mouth. But when did he ever?

”B-but the officers said you’d fill me in-”

You stopped suddenly, causing Thaddeus to run into you. You turned to glare at him the best you could from behind your helmet, but all Thaddeus could see was the intimidating blank stare of your metal face covering as you looked down at him.

“You will follow my command while we’re out in the Wasteland, or you will die. Is that clear?” You growled, taking a step towards Thaddeus while he took two steps back.

“Y-yes, my lord! I-I would never doubt you, m-my lord!” He responded enthusiastically, albeit nervously, eager to stay on your good side. That was going to get old fast. You turned back around to continue walking, slightly picking up your pace as Thaddeus hesitantly began following again.

”M-may I ask you something, though?”

You were unable to stop the sigh that came out of your mouth, the sound garbled and distorted coming out of your voice modifier. That made Thaddeus visibly shrink back, his mouth snapping shut at your disdain.

”Right, no! N-no time for talking. We-we have a mission to complete!” He exclaimed with a finger pointed in the air, unable to expel the shake in his voice from your previous order. Silence fell over the two of you for all of one minute before it was broken: “Do you think we’ll get in any fights out here?”

You were going to kill him, you were sure of it.

[bambiispots]

I posted my bind of Are You Flagging? earlier where I had a placeholder for a dust jacket.

I finally got my new design in!! I love it so much! I decided to go with a 80s style VHS box aesthetic and made it look vintage and grimy. I ended up liking it so much that I thought it’d be clever that if you “took the case off” it’d reveal an actual VHS tape 📼 📺 📼 📺

It was in incredibly tedious, but I love the concept and effect.

I like to use graphics in my typesets on blank pages to ensure all chapter headers start on the right, and I decided to go with a cute little Flagging 101 lecture! I was nosy and googled what the other colors meant, so by the end of the fic you’d know what all the basic colors stood for. And of course for the bookmark I just had to use a mini versions of Eddie’s hanky 🥹

My chapter headers represent Eddie and Steve- Eddie with his chain and bats 🦇 , Steve with his preppy polo buttons and a film strip from Family Video 🎞

This copy is for the author! the end papers are changed to tie in both the VHS cover and an alternate cover I’ll be posting later!

It’s watercolor babygirl pink and iykyk 😏

As always a huge thank you to the backbone of fandom- the writers and artists for providing such amazing products for us to consume and enjoy!

Are You Flagging? By Soidade on ao3 is an amazing top tier Steddie fic that I urge you to read. You can find it pinned on the authors page @ao3soidade

Also a huge thank you to @littleststarfighter for letting use their gorgeous art! I was so inspired I completely rebound this fic, redesigned the typeset AND redesigned my hardcase just so it’d match. They have quite a few stunning Steddie pieces so be sure to go show them love 🖤

[inkdragonworks]

June Update

Breaking the chain of not updating to talk about what I've been working on. As the absence of Poppin & Jupa here can tell, I switched projects back in April, to an older one I worked on for about 8 months in 2022. Main reason was feeling dejected a bit after the animation didn't do as well as I was expecting; been getting the impression that Tiera is more popular than them with folks lol.

Again I won't be cancelling it, or never working on PnJ, just switching focus so I can stay productive and make something that feels fun for me, which this has.

------------------------------

As a refresher, here's the game I've been picking at:

The game's current design can be broken down into:

intro sequence to introduce Tiera and the setting

initial puzzle + encounter to introduce the main mechanics

large hub in the form of Fragaria Park where you avoid the main threat, collect items, interact with side attractions, and access the 4 side areas

4 side areas, which have their own puzzles/challenges within with a primary goal at the end that progresses you towards the final escape

optional collectibles Since April I've worked on a part of the large hub, 3 of the 4 side areas, and the optional collectibles.

"Who works on optional stuff before the main game is done" well they play off of the main mechanics but mainly it's an excuse to draw something cute instead of programming.

These are Anna Banana and The Fruit Friends (Also Strawberry), characters from a cartoon show that Tiera likes (Except Strawberry).

They don't play any significant role/impact in the game (Besides Strawberry), but they reveal part of Tiera's interests, they form a small bit of the world's background, they make for fun type of collectible that gives something to do besides the main puzzles, and, again, I just felt like drawing cute shit.

------------------------------

For the hub, I worked on a themed side area dedicated to a playground. This does have puzzle elements in it, but a lot of it are silly interactions, and a reference to that cartoon I did a while back. Maybe you can recognize it here.

It's one of those "makes the setting feel more realized/fleshed out" deals.

------------------------------

For the side areas, what I've mainly been doing is settling on their exact design, blocking out the areas, and working on their puzzle sequence, obstacles, and any single screens that are tied to it.

Here's what I mean by "single screen":

Something that cuts away from the main game to it's own puzzle. This one here is for the performance theater. All graphics are placeholders just to get the logic in and see if it might work.

Making these type of puzzles is fun cause it reminds me the most of Resident Evil 1 and various flash adventure games I've played.

As for obstacles, a significant one I'm playing with for the theater is darkness, making use of Tiera's sonar to detect a safe path around deep pits.

She won't fall off right away, but it's tied to the same stamina system.

------------------------------

Another side area are the sewers, everyone's favorite video game setting. That obviously involves water, but the trickiest thing about it has been dealing with really complicated patterns of depth changing.

What that means is Tiera climbing up and falling down a lot, and trying to keep track of that. Here's what that looks like without proper graphics:

I'm very happy with how the area is turning out so far though, it's something you'd get to later and I think the puzzles do a good job of reflecting that progression.

------------------------------

The last side area I've poked at was the final sequence of the game. I've had a lot of different ideas of how to go about it but I think I'm happy with the set of them I have planned, something that builds up towards the climax and building off of what was set up in the rest of the game.

I wanna be careful about spoiling it, but here's one effect from it I've started work on:

------------------------------

I'm trying not to overshare here, though there's a lot more I've thrown into my server that I couldn't here. One of the side areas I haven't gotten to really pinning down is the Hedge Maze. I have a basic outline, but the main obstacle involved requires more dynamic logic. It's hard to settle on what that logic should be without set level design, and it's hard to settle on level design without knowing the limitations of that logic.

It's a similar issue with the main challenge of the game, both for the player and for designing: the ghosts.

What's intimidating is the feeling that they need to be very deliberate in this type of game, to balance between adding tension without veering into frustration. I'm hoping tackling everything surrounding them will make me more confident, but odds are I'll have to start with something simple and half-broken just to break the ice. And accepting I'll have to make something that gets thrown away, which I'm not used to doing... I really prefer thinking through stuff first before making it.

Anyway, thank you for reading.

[belowheavenrpg]

September Update

(This is reposted from my Patreon)

I have spent the last month putting together a bunch of scenes from the game's prologue. My intent is to release said prologue as a free demo once it is complete.

The majority of the graphics and sound effects in the present build are placeholders, so there's not a lot that I can reasonably show. Above is the only scene in the game whose assets are final.

One thing I can show, however, is the new and improved Caroline walk cycle. I've finally reached a point where I'm pretty happy with the direction to take sprites in (which means I won't be tweaking them anymore), and we have since implemented a system that greatly expands what RPG Maker can do with character sprites, which is exciting.

I will not be answering questions about these other costumes. You'll have to see for yourself in what context they appear in.

The battle system is still a bit of a ways away, so I doubt there'll be a playable build of the game this year, but I hope to be able to show off other parts of the prologue in the meantime.

---

In other, more concrete game dev news from me, Prototype N will receive a new demo version at SAGExpo 2024 this Friday. There are reworked stages and graphics, new music, and more importantly, cutscenes that finally shed light on some of the game's plot. Those were written and boarded by yours truly. The new character who shows up in one of them was also designed by me.

In addition, the game will now feature Brazilian Portuguese and Latinamerican Spanish language options. If you'd like to help translate Prototype N to your native tongue, feel free to shoot us a message.

I have other things in the works that I'd like to talk about, but alas, I must remain tight lipped until they're ready. But I assure you - exciting things are coming!