#anyway now I'm learning how to use a tape recorder

[eisthenameofme]

I have acquired. Tape recorder

[thestarfishface]

Wassup gamers guess who finally started listening to The Magnus Protocol

For those who weren't around when the first series was airing, prepare to be SICK OF ME, I was decently active in the TMA fandom a few years back and I am once again diving into my Bri'ish eldritch spooky show

Some thoughts below for folks who know

So I'm only on ep8 or so, been listening to it while doing my morning yard work for the past few days. SOME THOUGHTS!

-✨💻 Windows is Haunted 💻✨

-Hackles go up anytime ANYTHING even REMOTELY referencing the first series is mentioned, as I’m sure is intended

-Related: I usually skip thru credits but, I’m sorry, Gwen’s last name is what? It’s hm?? Hmmmm????

-I’m sort of getting vague Fear and Hunger 2 “machine god” vibes from the way the computers/cameras seem to be listening to everything like the tape recorders in the first series. The Eye learned how to use Windows

-Related, computers possessed by previous avatars maybe?? Hello??? John Email?????

-ARE JON AND MARTIN IN DA COMPUTAH...... ARE THEY IN THERE. ARE THEY IN THE COMPUTER. ANSWER ME, PODCAST

-That one guy turned into a plant. He's a plant now. Plant man

-I keep accidentally falling asleep and needing to re-listen to episodes. Being lulled to sleep by eldritch horrors beyond your imagination

Anyway I'm not gonna go fandom diving until I get caught up but prepare yourself. I wanna drawe... fanarte...

[architectureandmorality]

It's sad to know that I'm probably part of the last generation that had contact with technology working physically, and all the fascination that it brought. Looking at vinyl records and trying to imagine how the needle would fit through the grooves to produce sound. Wondering why I couldn't open the camera if the film was being used. Then laying back on the grass with the negatives to look at the blue tint on my mother's skin in the tiny frames, against the bright sky outside. Pulling out VHS tape from its broken casing to try to see the frames. Why wasn't it like the film that went in the camera? Sitting with my mother's typewriter, trying to write school assignments on it because I was fascinated with how the hammers moved. Watching my dad opening the TV up to fix some wires. Later I would sit very close to the screen and wonder how the bars in three colours made up all of those pictures. We broke things. We opened them, we fixed them. Learned from my dad how to fix them, and how to solder. Now everything is miniaturised. Efficient. Practical. In water-tight casings, that you can't open, or won't open not to void the warranty. But if it breaks anyway, you just buy a new one.

The video is there, the music is there, you don't know how it got to you, how it works, you just accept its presence. And you consume.

[char-lie-spirals]

I would like to learn about the rest of the aus you mentioned here:3

Okay okay so!! I talked about some of them, so I'll just put the entire list under the cut and either link to my previous responses or cook something up! And what I cook up can possibly include a snippet of my writing too :]

Also since this is a lot of AUs/WIPs I'll try to be brief, but feel free to ask about more details on them!

Terminus' Ritual

This is an AU I've had for like a year now, and it answers a very simple question - What if the End HAD a ritual? That its avatars complete between mag 159 and mag 160? Simple answer - Zombies. And also some deaths getting reversed because getting a quick taste of it should make people more scared, and it's hard to keep a zombie apocalypse going with too few people. (This doesn't match the End's values, I Know.)

I have some notes on different characters' situations, who comes back etc etc but honestly the storyline I focused on the most is Oliver seeking shelter in Graham's old flat only for Graham to also be there, Pretty Confused about the passage of time between his death and now. :]

Graham gets spat out AU

Sasha gets replaced, NotSasha picks up the tape recorder and goes to dispose of the tape. The Artifact Storage is silent, but not empty, as a man who doesn't recall his own name wakes up on the floor. Okay this already sounds a bit like a snippet so I guess you can have a proper one too:

It was all pointless, you only suffered longer -- but is that truly pointless?

This one is a WIP in which I just wanted to explore the idea that the only reason Graham lived for so long was because he was scared that entire time, to the point the NotThem wasn't in much of a rush. It's pretty angsty, but can be bittersweet too if you look at it at the right angle and I am a simple man with a lot of hope in my heart. I've not been making much progress with it, and I'm not sure if I'll end it on the title-question and leave it up for the reader to decide, or if I'll provide my own answer, but let me say here: I don't think it was pointless. Not to me.

Michael(s) experience confusion

Already talked about this one here!

Graham Lives WITHOUT Becoming

Graham survives the events of MAG 003 because Oliver gets there in time to help him, and the two of them try to navigate the aftermath together. They go through many ups and downs, Oliver ends up becoming an Avatar himself, but Graham just kinda,, doesn't?? It just never happens. No fear claims him. At this point a lot of people are convinced he's an Avatar because of how his life is intertwined with the Fears but nope. Just some guy who can bluff pretty decently, gets lucky a lot, and loves his End-Avatar fiance a whole bunch :] (yes they're engaged now)

Graham Folger Lives because The Eye Is A Backseat Gamer

One of my Eye Graham AUs :] The main one, you could say! In this one, The Eye backseat-games his MAG 003 experience, and he Knows where to hide, what to do, and how to survive. After that, he goes on to start working at the institute, becomes an Archival Assistant after Jon's promotion, and goes through the horrors! I also talked about it Ages ago, right here- hold on that was in MAY???? 2023????? 10 months ago???? This is messed up.

Anyway! here's a little something I have written about it so far :]

DeathNote intro

Just me trying to explore how Graham and Oliver might've met, grown closer, gotten together and stayed together for 6 years :] No clue if I'll ever publish this and if so, if I'll use it as a backstory/background for one of my AUs or as its own stand-alone thing? But yeah it's just the two of them growing closer and falling in love :] You can have this snippet of it, too! It's their literal first meeting!

Antique seller Graham

Talked about this one here! I will probably do so again soon! But you can also have a snippet, since I guess writing all this really put me in a snippet mood! This is from this AU's version of Amy's statement :D

Cockroach Graham AU

I don't think I need to elaborate.

[lock-my-feelings-in-a-jar]

i'm gonna just answer the missing ask that mysteriously vanished like this because i can

because i already had some things typed out and when it gave me errors for saving/posting it, i copied everything into a notepad so i wouldn't have to retype it if i back out and try again

but then i couldn't anyway because the ask was just gone

@lil-melody-moon you sent in 2, 8 and 10 for the ask game and tumblr didn't like that apparently. (unless i read wrong, i can't go back and check now!!)

but anyway hello!!!!

so 2 wassss "what is your go-to karaoke song?"

i have never done karaoke in my life and i've never sang in front of anybody since i was a kid when my parents laughed at me because they thought it was cute but in my little kid brain i was like "if they're laughing at me then this must be an abnormal thing to do that draws unwanted attention and i will never do it again as long as i live" and that's been stuck with me forever even though i know better now. i hope to break out of it eventually. but if i DID do karaoke i would wannnnnt (me searching through my russ ballard playlist) all of these. no but wait. ummmmmm. 'a woman like you,' but instead of the original, i'd find a way to make this clip specifically my karaoke song, when he did it acapella for fun while switching out guitars:

i love him and how comfortable and happy he is

annnd 8 wasssss "what do you think is the best song to play during sexy times?" oh. WELL . wait. i. (me quickly scrolling back and forth throug my russ playlist probably looking very lost)

i. i. i. i. i. i,

i feel i may be tooooooo. i don't know how to word it properly. like. i . i mean like that's never really a thought in my mind when i'm listening to songs, or just about anything else for that matter. i mean i could probably say all of them and none of them at the same time. i don't know how to explain that. somehow it feels like this one doesn't really apply to me.

okay so 10 was "what band were you obsessed with as a child? do you still like them?"

YES my favorite childhood band was sweet! i used to play my dad's old cassette tape of them over and over and over and over and over. it was like a compilation one or something so it had songs like fox on the run and ballroom blitz and action and hell raiser and little willy and wig wam bam and teenage rampage and the six teens, it just had a lot of good songs and i would not stop listening to it every day all day for as long as i was allowed. i used to look at my dad's(now they're mine) old sweet record album covers too, my favorite one to look at was desolation boulevard because i liked steve priest's red hair and i remember trying to figure out who was who, like who was the main singer and everything. i never knew much about them back then but i was so addicted to their music. i was posting them here for a while a couple years ago when i decided to learn more about them. they'll always be one of my favorite bands ever.

[resizura]

speaking of re2 characters if they didn’t suck, thoughts on ben bertolucci’s remake treatment? he got made SO much worse in the remake ngl, just turning him into a crazy guy who gets killed instead of a rational guy who’s literally right about the corruption in the city. and tbh saying it out loud, it kiiinda adds to the whole thing in re2make where the police corruption is consolidated solely into the character of chief irons being paid by umbrella and not something within the system

OMG YESSS GOD how they treated Ben in remake is so.... I'm screaming at the top of my lungs.

Like when I first played RE2 I had not seen anything with the original game and even I was confused at how Leon treated him. There's a weird trend in RE2R where the characters talk as if things are normal, despite them obviously not being normal (Claire/Leon telling Marvin they need to get to a hospital, Leon telling Ben he has to talk to the chief, etc). Like when Leon said that, I groaned because I'm like, for all you know, Leon Scott Kennedy, the chief is dead. Sorry you can't fulfill your dream to cosplay a cop but you have no authority right now. stfu.

But anyways, in the original game Ben had the intel Ada was looking for, that Umbrella was up to something big and that the chief of police was also in on it. This is the important nuance that the remake forgot! Remake basically says that Irons took bribes from Umbrella and that's bad. Original says that Irons took bribes from Umbrella which, in turn, helped him gain control over basically the core part of the city, allowing him to enforce the law and cover stuff up as he pleased. They don't emphasize the control Irons and Umbrella had over the city!

(why does leon never learn about irons in the remake lmao)

Ben is the one who locks himself in the cell because he's terrified of Birkin killing him. Despite Ben being a dick, Leon still wants to save him. It's interesting how in the remake, Ben is begging for his life and instead, Leon's refusing because "he must've done something to deserve being locked up." All they had to do to save the face of the protagonist is have Leon genuinely try to save Ben, but he unfortunately gets killed before he can. No, Leon just stands there while Ben gets his skull crushed and when Ada comes by he just says "I don't know what happened." YES YOU DO? YOU JUST LET A MAN DIE, LMAO? Seriously, did they want us to like Leon at all in this game? He's so unlikable lmao.

In the remake, even Ben's death is in vain because he had a tape recording on him that Ada and Leon listen to, whereas in the original Leon had to be there for Ben's final moments, and in that instance Ben was able to use his final breaths to help Leon and Ada uncover more about the secrets going on under Raccoon City.

All in all, I think the original portrayal of Ben was perfect? I really don't know why they changed it and why they changed it the way they did. Remake Ben ends up hurting 3 characters in the process, and he overall is just a character who was there Just Because he was in the original. They could've had him be a random civilian, already squished to death, Leon spots the parking garage key, and when he finally opens the door picks up the key and tape recording and literally nothing changes.

[julianobungus]

Another idea about the Infinity Train.

When creating Cars, One-One is inspired by what he saw when viewing Memory Tapes. Watching the tapes is his only way to see what is outside the train. So he rolls on other people's memories, looks at different places, things, creatures and at the same time reads the recorded thoughts of the owner of the memory.

In this way, he learns about new concepts and uses them when creating new cars. For example, he learned about the concept of dinosaurs in one memory, and the concept of baseball in another, after which at some point he made the Dinosaur Baseball Car.

But he also takes concepts from recorded thoughts. Some Passenger could at some point in his life think about what dinosaurs playing baseball would look like, and One-One read this thought and decided to embody it in the form of a Dinosaur Baseball Car.

And thus, the Denizens of the Dinosaur Baseball Car can either be based on the images that the Passenger came up with, that is, the Passenger came up with the appearance, names and backstory for each dinosaur, or they were entirely created by One-One.

The conflict with Amelia happened because One-One did not want to create a car exactly copying something that already existed. He could have created several cars based on concepts from Amelia's memory, while she wanted him to stuff all these concepts into one car. She needed a car that would copy the city where she lived and in which there would be Denizens who would look like and consider themselves to be people from that city.

However, many years later, when One-One became a Conductor again, and Amelia began to help fix the damage she had done to the train, he decided to finish what Amelia had not been able to do for all these years. He finished the Unfinished Car.

He removed the jam pond and the holes from which the wind blew, added walls to unfinished buildings, fixed gravity and everything else. After his work, the city began to look like the city where Amelia lived, except that instead of humans there were turtles. And the turtles forgot that once the city looked different and they had to adapt to different things. Now they think their Car has always been like this.

After that, One-One calmed down, as he really didn’t like the existence of a clumsy unfinished car. And at the same time, the finished car did not contradict the rules and the idea of the train, since there was neither Alrick nor any other human person in it, only a lot of turtles. There was nothing that would have motivated Amelia to stay on the train forever.

Now I wonder how Amelia would react after One-One showed her and Hazel the Finished car

Ooh, a fascinating and fun idea!

Honestly, I'd imagine Amelia to be pretty upset, since he went and did it anyway after she was told not to and punished for trying. I'm not sure how Hazel would feel honestly. Maybe less alone since there are other turtle denizens? Comforted?

[bitchy-peachy]

I'm so desensitized that whenever I see someone say, "Omg this movie is so scary!"

I look at said movie and then go:

But now that I think of it, that does look kinda insensitive of me.

My parents didn't care much for actually raising me so they left the tv and vhs tapes, regardless of genre or rating of said movies, to babysit me.

Turned out I grew addicted to movie horror and gore. Movies like Hellraiser (not for kids but I WAS A KID watching this), Friday The 13th, Halloween, The Howling etc were literally what kept me in the house during the first years of me learning how to put tapes in the vhs by myself.

Now I watch horror movies and like them more for storyline, creative kills (especially with practical effects), genuine acting, and building up unease rather than just "scares". In fact I rarely get scared and clutch at my chest in fear. Jumpscares just make me laugh and some gore and horror villains can just be hilarious to me rather than scary.

Could be a good thing or bad thing. Well... I think very coolly when under threat and people that tried to actually hurt me needed protection from me once I defended myself so I guess it's done some good?

I mean, I don't freeze up when under threat (well I have ptsd thanks to my parents so it might be that and not the horror movies.) I even got warnings from cops for using too much excessive force in defending myself and some even thought I had a man do shit for me cos no woman could possibly be that homicidal and vicious defending herself 🙄.

As if they didn't have my record showing why I learned how to fight like a psycho towards people bigger than me. (I didn't work on my upper arms and shoulders to have some bitchass predator try to put his stupid paws on me. I ain't satisfied until I break his bones and make him fear everything remotely "feminine". Plus his blood spilled is good forensic evidence)

Anyways, back to subject. I'm not saying you have to be a desensitized "weirdo" like me. I'm saying that I'm aware that there's people out there with very different upbringing than mine, reactions etc and that's why we react to fictional horror very differently and that can even affect how we do things irl.

Some people are scared of what I call "horrormedy" which is comedic horror that is so overexagerated that you just laugh and think to yourself "Oh no! I just exposed myself as a weirdo that thinks these Looney Tunes type of bloody deaths are funny." (Yes, yes I do but that's besides the point)

I've got friends my age that didn't even get into horror franchises until fairly recently which gets me excited since I can finally fangirl with more people and recommend stuff from underrated movies, animes, books...

So I guess as a big girl, I grew up from the stage of thinking people that were simply different than me regarding horror were the "weird ones".

We're all different. We all have our reasons as well and our own personalities determine how we react to tense situations even if said tense situations are fictional on a screen.

[aprillikesthings]

ONE MORE TODAY gghhhh I just want to finish out the first season

s1 ep13 The Battle of Bright Moon

Dear netflix: what the fuck. this show is only really four seasons.

it's like the opposite of what cartoon network did to Steven Universe:

TRUE STORY the actual over-arching plot/backstory of SU doesn't start until halfway through its first season, literally episodes 25 and 26, which were MEANT to be a cliffhanger and then the first episode of the second season, instead of partway through season one.

But a lot of character and world-building does happen before that. So when people aren't sure whether to attempt to watch all of SU (it's......a LOT) I tell them to watch until Lapis Lazuli shows up, because if they don't like at that point, they're not going to --but 90% of the people I know get to those episodes are are like WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED?? WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT???? and keep watching and meanwhile I just cackle because congrats, you're one of us now, have fun being confused!!! It only gets worse!! :)))

(Like seriously every tiny bit of the plot being pushed forward is dependent on more of the backstory/lore being revealed. So much of the plot is just dependent on huge amounts of history and trauma that we learn about at the same time as Steven.)

Also keep in mind each episode is like 11 or 12 minutes, and that's including the intro/credits. It's painfully easy to marathon SU because any single episode is short so you always think "oh just one more" and the next thing you know six hours has gone by.

OKAY back to she-ra

you cannot actually be surprised by this

also everyone's freaking out specifically at the snow/ice, and I keep wondering if Etheria has seasons at all??

She's a little grotesque!

(Gargoyles are specifically water spouts, and called that because of the gargling noise they make. Yes, really. Grotesques are the ones that are decorative. So Catra here is a grotesque, not a gargoyle. /pedantic nerdery)

oh that's just living in Oregon eyooooo

I can't get a good screenshot but Entrapta is yelling into her tape recorder and spinning around in a wheely office chair, I love how much they leaned into her being autistic, she's so happy and stimming like mad.

But also SPEAKING OF SU AGAIN I can't see her with that tape recorder and not think about Peridot ahaha

"April is that from Too Far, the episode that started your OTP" yes. yes it is.

Also I used to have a phone case meant to look like it until I ran it over on my bicycle ):

ANYWAY

plot: activating the Black Garnet runestone is sucking power from the other runestones and making the weather "go screwy."

Having Catra say "IN ENGLISH PLEASE" after every one of Entrapta's infodumps is such a great way of allowing Entrapta to make technical-jargon infodumps and then making them easier for the viewers to understand

oh that's right Entrapta doesn't have a runestone. Makes sense. Her abilities are all technical knowledge, not magic. Which means "Princess" doesn't necessarily mean "has a runestone/magical abilities."

Catra: "We're going to take out Bright Moon's runestone!"

gee, why that one, specifically, i wonder

(i do not wonder)

Bow: She-Ra can't fight off the entire Horde???

SIGH

this is just a nice contrast to the shot of Catra I got earlier

yeah but ALONE?

oh shit she hadn't told everyone Catra had been in the Crystal Castle. And Adora blames herself for Catra getting worse. because of course she does.

STAAAAAAHP

Angella: "But you're too stubborn and hotheadead...and brave, just like your father"

Me: huh I'm really starting to like Angella Me, remembering later plot events: ah right so it hurts more

that thing is pretty

awww they all have some armor now! nice

paused it here by accident, but she looks so fucking DONE, either that or kinda high, hard to say

also I made popcorn

Angella made the Moonstone do a cool sonic wave thing, nice

So this is a problem all shows of this type have: when Adora/She-Ra makes those ships blow up, there's likely Horde soldiers IN them, and does she ever think about those people? that maybe she knew them? that they were forced into being soldiers just like she was?

WAR IS BAD, KIDS

I knew she was gonna be there and I startled anyway

Catra: Y'know, I'm actually glad you made it out of there alive Adora: *moment of visible but short-lived hope*

oof

This whole fight scene is why I'm not the only fic writer to assume at least one of them has nightmares about them trying to kill each other

the temptation to re-write the specific dialogue in my fic to match this scene...

OKAY so it all happens so fast (and animated in a way that makes it clear how much it hurts but also makes it a bit less bloody) but Catra just straight-up drags her claws down She-Ra's back with her full weight behind it, and She-Ra responds by--well, screaming in pain first, but then backing up and slamming Catra into some rocks so hard they shatter, and then they both have a moment of just gasping in pain:

And lemme tell you, I have seen both of those mentioned in fics repeatedly. Mostly Catra seeing Adora's scars and feeling guilt and shame. But one fic has Catra realize she never told Adora that the smashing-on-rocks thing broke a few ribs.

owwwww more scars but on her face this time

Not gonna type up Catra's vicious little speech here, but oh MAN

ow

What is it with these two and CLIFFS

well no but you do tend to distract her (something something Light Hope something something "attachments")

not now Scorpia omg

another example of Cartoon Bondage

part of me was like "WHY does Catra look unreasonably hot in this shot" and then remembered we're literally seeing her from Adora's POV, like we see through her literal eyes as they open and focus on Catra, ahahahah

(Reminds me of a post I saw about why Blackbeard looks the way he does when he meets Stede Bonnet in Our Flag Means Death--there's that slow shot panning up to Blackbeard's face and he's framed in the most attractive way possible--because that's how Stede sees him.)

fAcE tOuChInG

ow

MERMISTAAAAA

PERFUMAAA

She-Ra finally found her healing powers!! WOOOOO

BAHAHAH okay so all the runestones are healed and get little bubbles of protection or something, but this includes the Black Garnet, and all the tech shit attached to it gets blown off, the room goes dark, and all you see:

Entrapta's goggles

ANYWAY the princesses are all back to full strength and there to fight together and woooo VICTORY

defeated by the homosexual agenda

I've hit the image limit despite deleting a few and didn't want to do another two-parter but there's a moment when everyone's like YAY WE WON WOOO and Scorpia and Catra take off in a skiff and Adora watches them go with a face that shows her mixed emotions.

(I have so many thoughts on this, like yay she saved the world (for now), but her friend she's known the longest hates her guts and refuses to be near her except to do a violence, like at least Catra's alive and clearly going to be okay, but I'm sure Adora's trying to do a whole "but we won, so it's fine, everything is fine")

Also Mermista lets Sea Hawk put an arm around her and actually says "Really good job" to him in a way that sounds genuine (given their expressions they totally boned later)

And then She-Ra gets hugged and thanked by Angella and her eyes do a "omg I'm so happy" as she turns back into Adora

And then Catra and Entrapta and Scorpia have a chat with Hordak and knowing what I know about later plot I'm laughing bc this is the first time Entrapta and Hordak interact, and Hordak is like ">:( you failed" and Entrapta's cheerfully all ":D no we didn't! I learned SO MUCH!!", she's just incapable of being afraid of Hordak here

Anyway now Catra is officially second-in-command

AAAAAND END OF SEASON ONE

which means (given the list up there) I am actually 1/4th through the show, NICE, tho I will continue to use Netflix's season numbers on the posts for clarity

[va1ennyx]

MOTHERMAKER Progress Report

(WEEK 1)

INTRO:

Ever since 2020, I've been toying with the idea of making an authentic 'MOTHER' engine within the limitations of RPG Maker.

I bounced from engine-to-engine, trying to find the right Maker to start work in, and eventually settled on RPG Maker MV.

You can even see some of my early progress here!

The hyperfixation eventually subsided after some small adventures in the MOTHER fangame scene, and I took a fairly long hiatus.

Fastforward to 2023 and you'll find me. In my room. Really Fucking Bored.

It started off with me brushing up on my event code, making some practice menus and playing with switches and variables. Eventually I ended up with this.

NOW. For the fun stuff...

TECH! TECH! TEEEECHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Going into this project, I had like. Three Fundamental Rules.

Those being;

All CORE systems must be retroactively achievable in previous versions of RM.

Everything must be achievable through RM's default features (i.e. I must utilize the default map editor, database, etc.)

Plugin/Script usage MUST be kept to an absolute minimum.

This will definitely make things difficult moving forward, but if I wish to create some sorta out-of-the-box MOTHER framework (especially one with THIS scale), I think it's important to adhere to SOME kind of design philosophy.

With these principles in mind, allow me to show you some of the duct tape and bubblegum holding the code together!

Starting with;

Menu Stuff!

In RM, developers are very limited when it comes to customizability, at least out of the box. That changed around the time we first received those iconic Don Miguel fan translations. Many developers were dissatisfied with the default systems given to them, and instead opted to use in-game eventing to manipulate pictures to do whatever they wanted. Very interesting stuff!

However, despite me being able to Talk For Fucking Centuries about RM history, I don't wanna lose too much focus on the subject at hand. You can check out my favorite website ever over here to learn more about the early lil seedlings of our community!

Anyways, almost every graphic-based aspect of this project is done through vanilla eventing. Now, as any Well Seasoned RM Developer can attest, THIS IS NOT A FUN PROCESS!! This is done by modifying variables based on inputs, and referencing those variables to determine where your image should be drawn.

This process can range from easy:

to HARD:

(just reference the scrollbar size for an idea of the process, this kinda shit is NOT something you want to see)

Now, for the save system, it was relatively straightforward. I just changed some switches to record which save the player selected, and a few variables to record which 'flavor' the player chose. These are referenced at various points, such as the battle system, the in-game menus, and even small stuff like dialogue boxes.

For the naming system, well, I haven't actually finished that yet. But you'll undersTAND WHY I PROMISE..

Basically, if I wanted to do this in a way I could "easily" downport to other versions, I had to avoid writing a plugin for it. As you can imagine, eventing an entire custom naming system is Not Fucking Fun. It's fairly easy to do however, just mighty tedious. I did some digging in threads for old RPG Maker MOTHER fangames, and I saw a few examples of people explaining how they made their systems.

Let's call my Chosen Approach 'The Roach Method'. This is named after the creator of a long-since-cancelled fangame called EAGLELAND. Essentially, he made different 'Actor' slots in the database for each letter of a characters name, and referenced them in dialogue through text codes. Once set up, it should look a little something like this;

So on and so forth.

The frontend of my keyboard (and a tiny bit of the backend), is functional. Obviously I can make it prettier and more responsive, but I want to make the naming process smooth first.

I'm thinking of making it so that when you press okay, it triggers a switch to move onto the next letter, and then when you press the cancel key it goes back by one? Idk yet this Keyboard Is The Worst Fucking Thing Ever.

Movement:

Most RM devs know this, but 'pixel' movement doesn't really play nice with the way the engine handles collisions. In my (few) years of Mother Fangame Experience, I've come to learn that the weird pseudo-collision detection utilized by RM (iirc its just a coord check to see if you can move or not) doesn't really Provide the Movement Experience we've come to expect from the MOTHER series.

This is one of the many contentious aspects of making MOTHER fangames in RM. A lot of devs treat (newer) makers like this "out of the box" solution to everything, this framework that you can just absolutely stuff to the brim with plugins to achieve whatever functionality you want. However, in practice, this proves to (almost) never be the case.

It's an especially nasty mindset because it contradicts the reality of gamedev (at least within RM) being a constant uphill battle full of compromise. Unfortunately this stuff takes effort, more effort than just dragging and dropping a JS file into the plugins folder.

tl;dr: plugins and scripts should only ever be complimentary to your event code, don't expect them to do everything for you!

RANT ASIDE!! For the most part, unless you want to make a whole new movement and collision system from scratch, you're gonna wanna stick with the grid. Most grid-based diagonal movement plugins allow you to turn on a setting that lets you clip through the corner of tiles (PLUS, the default follower system is 'MOTHER' enough). This is good because it allows you to make pseudo-slope collisions, which is really useful for stuff like fences and buildings!

You can even see an example of this here!

So yeah, when it comes to movement, the main compromise is choosing between functionality and fluidity.

Mapping:

I'll keep this one brief. The default RM mapping system is less than stellar. However, parallax mapping is NOT a good solution. It leads to massive bloated images inflating file sizes like no tomorrow, long loading screens, and occasionally lag. That's why its better to design your games around the limitations of RM, and maintain your project's scope.

That leads us to our....

CONCLUSION

Unfortunately when it comes to fangaming (specifically within RM), you need to be willing to compromise. You (most likely) will not be able to perfectly replicate your favorite game, and that's okay.

This is where The Big Question really rears it's head;

Are you making a good MOTHER game, or a good RPG Maker MOTHER game?

This is the main conflict when it comes to developing one of these weird lil things, and it's been the death of many a project. After all, you'd have to be Fucking Insane to put yourself through all the eventing bullshit that comes with the territory of anything custom being done in Rm. I mean, sometimes even *I* wonder if i even like doing this, or if I just REALLY wanna flex. Usually it's a lil bit of both. ;)

HOWEVER, it's important to manage your expectations and work ALONGSIDE the limitations of the engine, rather than forcing it to do something it can't and ending up dissatisfied with the final product.

Good read? Good read. See You next week (maybe) mwuaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

[cyanide-latte]

Got to thinking again today about pirating media and how many people make it about a moral quandary and how we here on Tumblr tend to be very gung-ho about pirating and this time in particular it boiled down to what I think the root is of why I'm largely okay with it.*

(*please take note, this post is about pirating platform-exclusive movies and shows. I do not support or condone piracy of books, comics/graphic novels or manga unless literally no other option is available to you. I've been a teen who had no choice but to read awful scanlations for manga growing up because I wasn't able to or allowed to purchase physical copies or even borrow them from the library. So I know that struggle, and I'm sympathetic to a degree. But please support your libraries, ask the librarians to teach you how to use the system, and use it to help support authors and artists before it is a legal and free way that actually helps. If you are in a situation where you have literally no choice for now, I recommend being responsible and trying to either buy the physical books when you can to help make things up or use a library when you are finally able to and borrow the materials, in order to still show support.)

This is probably my age showing but when I was a kid, we recorded shit on the VCR all the time. Buying actual movies was still something we did when we could, but in the 90s, stuff on VHS could get as high as $40 [USD] sometimes. Not all of them were, but the prices tended to be high enough we couldn't really afford to buy them ourselves; those had to be asked for as Christmas or birthday gifts, and even that wasn't a guarantee we'd open a rectangular gift to find a brand-new clamshell of the newest Disney movie.

But you know what we could afford to get? Blank video tapes. Depending on the brand and the length of the tape strip, they could cost as little as $3.99, and you could often get multiple blank tapes for a decent price. (I vaguely recall a half-dozen pack of tapes for maybe $25? We got a few of those when I was around 7 or 8 y.o.) And we would use that "Record" function on the VCR. We caught movies on the TV way less often than we would have liked because without a TVGuide or knowing someone who kept up with movie showtimes on various channels, you were kind of at the mercy of fate and fortune. Plus, we rarely tried to record a TV run of a movie if it was one we knew we REALLY wanted to buy on VHS.

Ah but shows! Shows we could generally depend on. You learned what channel(s) it played on and when, and you'd time it so you could record your episode(s), commercials included, and stop recording at the end of it. Presto! I could watch my episodes of Batman the Animated Series or Wishbone whenever I wanted. I'd have it forever (well, for as long as the tape can last anyway) even if the show went off the air and it didn't get any real VHS release. Lots of shows did get VHS releases, but they were limited to maybe three random episodes per tape, and were not usually for regular sale at most retailers; they were on the shelves of rental video stores and we couldn't keep them.

Until we got a special VCR that allowed us to record a copy of a tape onto one of our blanks. Again, not an endeavor we really did with movies, but when the family decided we were going to move in the future and wouldn't be sure we'd have a Blockbuster or Hollywood Video or Family Video wherever we were moving to, there'd be a burst of going to the nearest rental chain and carefully picking the tapes we knew we loved and wanted to be able to watch again, renting them for a couple of days, and putting that copy/record VCR to work before returning the proper copy back to the video store. Or if some friends had a movie and we wouldn't see them again, there was often an offer to record copies of their tapes. Didn't happen often but it was a handy solution to the desire to have access to the media in the long-term, and it wasn't looked down on as far as I can ever remember, because everyone recorded stuff on blank tapes and none of those people had no major moral crises about making copies in order to have the movies/shows they loved.

Now, when DVDs came out, things got a little bit different. DVD players and DVDs were expensive at the start, so the cost of all VHS tapes gradually started dropping. As with pretty much anything, pirating DVDs took off before long and soon just about every DVD had that in-your-face message about piracy, reminding you that copying and selling bootleg DVDs was illegal and "piracy isn't a victimless crime". I only vaguely recall being annoyed with DVD piracy, because what bootlegs I tended to see were extremely bad quality, and it was more annoyance at the idea that you could be swindled out of your money for something of barely-watchable quality. (I was 10 at the time and had not ever yet had to face the idea I could one day fall victim to being swindled myself, cut me just a little bit of slack there.) But to me it didn't really seem any different than what everyone I knew or ever interacted with did with VHS tapes. Selling the bootlegs to make your own profit, that I did eventually get; a chunk of a movie or show's success soon came to depend on DVD sales, and for a while I was very anti-piracy in that regard. But I never saw an issue with like, making DVD copies to trade with friends if we were able to do that.

Now it's 2022 and we are so inundated with streaming platforms left-right-and-center, I don't have regular TV channels or cable or satellite. I use a streaming platform to find what I want to watch, or a pirating site if what I want to watch isn't available otherwise. I also have a very large DVD and Blu-ray collection, and I use them regularly. And, the more and more so many streaming platforms release "exclusive" movies or shows that you won't be able to watch anywhere else and that they have no intent of making physical releases of? The more and more I find myself reverting to the mindset I had as a kid, wanting to make a copy of that Swan Princess tape we could only find at Blockbuster but couldn't afford to constantly rent. It isn't that I don't want to support the movies or shows themselves, or the people who pour themselves into making something I love. I want to support them in any way I can, including watching it on the platform if I have access to said platform.

But sometimes those platforms just...quietly remove the titles they've carried. Sometimes they jack their prices too high and I can't afford to keep paying that fee month after month because it stacks over time. Most often, I want to collect the media physically so I have the opportunity to revisit it in the future whenever I want, especially if I have a friend who has never seen it or even had access to it before. Physical media is wonderful, and there's something special about owning it. It's the same kind of special magic that it's always been about when I was 10 and could hold a freshly recorded VHS tape with episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess on it and know it was mine now for keeps.

This has already been quite a lengthy ramble and it's very colored by a sense of nostalgia, but for once I think that nostalgia really has come in handy for explaining why my outlook on something like pirating shows and movies is the way it is. I don't like this platform-exclusive direction; it's more or less just another paywall that can prevent entire swathes of potential audiences from connecting with movies and shows, and at this point, it's becoming almost too much for me to keep up with. So no, I have no moral quandary about cancelling subscriptions at some point and pirating episodes and movies and burning them onto a physical copy for keeps, and any reservations I used to have about buying bootlegs? Gone. I've seen blu-ray bootleg releases of platform-exclusive media that are much higher and more accessible quality than some official stuff, especially the made-on-demand stuff. At this point, I gotta respect the hustle and I can't complain about someone who burns a DVD better than I could.

Yo ho ho, y'all.

[blackvahana]

Mm. Yeah. My role with Black very much centres around reconsideration. I'm very much a means through which Black is stopping, sitting, and asking questions about himself, his trajectory, his preconceived notions about the world, and so on. It's why my work with him is completely anchored on this processing of his mind and thoughts and seeing through my eyes, obviously this is getting into his business and that's. no one else's business. obviously. But that's why I'm here chewing his mind and reordering his thoughts, my gravity is being used to process the orbit of his own life. I'm a rhetorical question

I'm in a way a second look at things that have happened, or a means through which to get a second look. I've spent so much of this look viscerally locked into "I'm lesser than what I saw I see, I am small. I take up no space. I am Despair. I am transient." and that's very much... yeah. I'm a recording played in reverse. I'm speaking once spoken now being dragged back and revealing pockets of eyes in the gaps that weren't visible when I was hearing recognisable language in the tape played forward.

Anyway. I'm supposed to be going and meeting Lev as the Almadia which is to say I already was there which is to say I am always there which is to say I Am. This is all stuff I've said before, but... Does it make sense? It makes sense to me, what I mean is do you see what I mean when I say peering through the hole to witness the God Self caused a retraction into personhood, I am a person, I witness the God Self through personhood eyes, I learn whether or not my approach of constantly curling into my shell and making myself small is working, I learn how to approach god. Yes?

[jbmymusic]

Okay, studio time starts this Wednesday, 9/4/24.

For confidence, I always record a cover first. For example, my first time in a studio - the first half of Everything Happens - I recorded "Beth" by KISS. Second half of EH, I didn't do a cover, and it shows. You can hear the uncertainty in the songs.

Second album - Leftovers of an Unanesthetically Torn-Out Heart: first session was "Used to Love Her" by Guns N Roses, second session was "Dead Flowers" by the Rolling Stones.

Live at Horizon - a live show from 2001 that has full video and audio. I never got nervous live, so there was no covers. I do look at the set list now and see how the EH and the "Lost" Album - Jersey - was set up. Funny story: we had no video camera, but a cassette player in the board and a VHS-C recording. Someday, I'll get around to having those mixed and remastered into better quality. I think IIRC, there was also a B&W security camera with no audio recording at another angle as well.

Third album - Living in a Ghost Town: this was a bit strange. I recorded two versions of this album. I wasn't happy with the first, so I did it a second time with different tracks. The initial sessions, I recorded nothing as a cover. It showed. The second sessions, I recorded multiple tracks for the album that are old public domain tracks - "Worried Man's Blues", "Delia's Gone", "Where Did You Sleep Last Night", and "House of the Rising Sun". I felt very confident.

Fourth album - Long Walk Home: this took several sessions. The best songs covers from those were "Night Moves" by Bob Seger, "Personal Jesus" by Depeche Mode, but in Johnny Cash's style, and "Cats in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin.

So for this fifth album (I think I have the name, but I'm not telling you yet), I've decided to start with "Southern Cross" by Crosby, Sills, & Nash. I just need to find a 3rd guitar quick to balance the Squier and the Olympia, which sound great together. I have a few songs fully written that are brand new. Trying to avoid politics this time, even though it's 2024 and I'm very politically outspoken in my everyday life. I'm going to lay down the initial guitar for "Southern Cross" Wednesday the 4th, possibly the vocals as well, then ship it off to a few friends to see if they want to contribute bass and drums via Dropbox. "Southern Cross" should also kick off the start of at least 3 new songs.

I already chose a cover of an obscure song called "Dora the Female Explorer" by an English band called Stackridge as the cover for the second sessions. I'm shocked Nickelodeon didn't get sued for that. I died when I heard the song, because my kids used to torture us with Dora daily. I watched videos of live performances to learn it. Not a hard track. By the time that's done, I should have another 3-5 songs for the new album done and RTG.

Hoping for a release by...Halloween? Sounds fast, but that's how I work. Until LWH, every album took under 24 hours to complete.

Back to the "Lost" album titled "Jersey": this was the follow-up to Everything Happens. Around the time I finished the track list and did at-home demonstrate on a single cassette, my 2 year relationship with my then-girlfriend ended. We both take blame for that. Anyway, I left for a bit, and that take, and ONLY that tape, was missing. She knew it was set and done. What she missed was looking into my 3.5" floppy disks. Looking at two .doc files gave me all the info I need. So this might pop up before this next album is finished, because (shhh...) I STILL HAVE DEMOS OF ALL OF THOSE SONGS AND THE LYRICS. I also feel very confident about them, because they date back to 1999-2002. Some were cut from EH due to studio costs, but appeared on the Live at Horizon album. All were played at various shows through the years. I just passed them up for later albums because they didn't fit. Maybe because...they belong together.

Other things I've (sadly) discovered that vanished with that hard drive failure: Prior to the release of EH, I did some...techno???... under the moniker DJB. Something close to 50 tracks. See, I discovered this interesting "game" called the MTV Music Generator for the PS1, then the PC. Codemasters made the sounds royalty-free. I loved it, and made a double album from it. In 2012-ish, I digitized all the recordings from the cassettes that were done through the A/V outputs. I resurrected that for one track at the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who to make one track, with Whovian samples, but ALL of those files were on the hard drive. I MIGHT have some of the original tracks in THE VAULT of hard copies, but most likely not all. I could be wrong, I'll have to look. The hard drive "recovery" I attempted didn't recover a lot of things - full mp3 files of my solo music, full mp3 files of the Lapsis Angeles stuff, most of the recording files, but just about everything else is corrupted. Maybe someday, I'll drop the $300+ it will cost to recover all the contents, but that isn't likely any time in the near future. Maybe when the kids graduate.

I mentioned "friends contributing" above. There's a couple I specifically have in mind, but I won't say who. They have their own project and lives going on, so the ball is in their court. I would like to get at least one album done that is fully fleshed out with a rhythm section, and while I trust myself to do it, I funny have a bass or drums at my disposal. I'll be calling at least one on Wednesday. He seems to forget to call when we make plans to call. If they are onboard, this will push back a release, as between their project and the back and forth through Dropbox, who knows how long this will take.

There's also a BUNCH of unreleased tracks in the computer still, some missing their recording files, some not, but I do have their music and lyrics. "In the Real World 2010" - the lone decent song from the second half of the EH sessions - came from these. I'm not certain if these will appear anywhere. There's also 28+ cassettes of live material from the City Park days, a show at a place called Harmony Grounds, another at a place called Coffee & Connect, possibly one with my wife at what is now known as Papa Lou's, and demos dating back to 1994 or 95 (those physical mediums can come in handy later). I have to go get a cassette player and digitize these to see what I've got there. Hell, there might even be 2 more shows from Horizon.

Until the next post, look around and take in everything you see, because life is fleet and none of us knows how much time is left.

[merulast]

Tech talk

Tomorrow is kickoff. How do I feel? Kinda. Okay? I fetch a flu on the last days and my credo "do this or die on the road" starts to kick in. But on the other hand we always get a flu when we don't need it, eh? And when had we ever needed one? Anyway.

So far I wrote quite some Blog posts about how to find routes and plan stupid stuff. Stupid, because many things will not work once you start the trip anyway. But planing is still a good thing (isn't it?) because at least you learn about the possible options. And knowing the options is always a good thing!

But lets talk about something else: The Tech!!!!11!elf

It's so tech!!

I want to travel some 'roads' that are not very common for mid Europeans to hit. And what do you do if you want to know more but have no friends that ever leaves the home town? You reach out for social media and videos. And you probably had already noticed that I'm not quite a fan of vtubers and traveling youtubers. I would love to rant a bit more about them. But not now.

I still enjoyed to see the scenery. To see the locations. See the bus or the trains and having the opportunity to create my own, silly incomplete picture of what it is like. And so I decided that I also want to capture media! At least this time. Because last time, I did not even shot an single picture of anything in more then 1 year of living in Xi'an.

What to do with this media. Well. I don't really know! Will I just place them online? Maybe? Make youtube Videos that violate alot of copyrights? Maybe! Make fun on other popular vtuber content that made me cringe? Hell yeah! We will see!

(obviously I will most likely do nothing of all that!)

(Noel Philips - full time 'being not at home to review toilets' v-tuber)

Timelapse

The main brain fart that made me plan this trip was to see and feel the 'world' in between two places. And I noticed that some bored highway guys made timelapse videos of driving from a to b.

And while timelapse videos can have this 2007-warcraft-rouge-in-bw-with-linking-park-music feeling, they also can be interesting. Plus they ripe like wine. They are usually just showing the raw thing. No filters, no effects. No 'selection' of what to see. And I kinda like this. Nobody might be interested into a timelapse now. But it might be interesting later.

Anyway. So I decided to try that. And noticed, that there are not really affordable 'timelapse' Devices on the marked o.o?

Mobile Phones can do the trick. If you use some nice apps, they even could do it well. But for how long? What do you think how long will your power last? Mobile phones are small computers. They are not meant to record something for 4,8,24,48 hours non stop. And im pretty sure that most of the apps had not been written for this kind of 'professional usage', too.

Cameras are bigger devices. The can have a lot more capacity on board and the image quality should be nice. Okay. Do you want to spend more then 500 bucks on them? I .. dont know. Isn't it overkill? Another thing is that this cameras are huge. How to place them in public transport and let them run for 24h without getting robbed?

Build something! Yeah. Sure.

I got my hands on a cheap gopro7. When it comes to timelapse feature, there is absolute nothing positive to get something more modern. It shoots in 1080p and, to my big surprise, the build in power supply was able to last 12 hours straight without external supply. It is smal and I can easily tape it where-ever I want. With one picture taken all 5 seconds there is no shaking visible, even if I tape it straight to the casis of a bus, the picture remains very smooth.

360° Pictures

Why isn't this a thing? You shoot a picture and people can look around the whole place! ITS AMAZING! Fuck selfie with Ninni-Graniny in front of a Town sign. See the whole place! You can even upload them on google 'streetmap'!

See that tiny blue bubbles? Klick on them to see what this part of 'desert' looks like.

✅ Thats amazin! How could you not love this to look around all by yourself?!

❌ Serious cameras that make 360° pictures our of the box start at much moneyz

✅ But every modern smart phone can do that out of the boy if you take multiple pictures!

🆗 And It may looks not very professional for many reasons. You should watch an tutorial for better results

(who told you emojis would look nice on this? Grandmother whatsapp?)

Conclusion

So yeah. I will try both. Making some 360° pictures of locations that have none available, and also record the time lapse. We will see how it turns out!

[julien5-malfunction]

25012024

I changed my cassette catalogging method a little C-XXX is for tapes originally from dad's collection, B-XXX is for those bought seacond hand... Maybe I should have class A and D as well... I started with C for 'Cassette', but uhh... hold on, let me just draw this...

Like this! Except it's all wonky like that. So I'd have to go with the one with red letters.

I guess my life is so messy I try to classify things that don't really need that much meta data.

If I was to take that further, I'd try to classify the type of music contained, but considering that most are mixtapes , that would not make any sense. Neither am I gonna even try that since I suck at identifying music genres in general, and I'm gonna rec over these anyway so no... just no.

So it would be "A-001" for a tape that was pre recorded and belonged to dad, and was the 1st one to be backed up.

Now, another reasonable identifyer would be to add the run time in minutes, especially if the lable was gone, since you can see the run time on audacity. So " A-001-60" if there was 60 minutes of tape.

Am I making this too complicated?

If I am, it's to make things slightly more simple in the future. Or for the fun of it.

So far tape B-002 is the most interesting one, it begins with really odd, muffeled sounds. I suppose the tape is just so worn out after being re-recorded so many times...

When I learn enough to do so, I want to sample the odd drone ambiance and use it in my own music hehe!

few hours layer;

Got trough 4 tapes today.

Sorted all the tapes on the floor. Most of them are the exact same kind, TDK brand, 60min. I'm guessing that 1/3 of the covers and cassettes are missing. Oddly enough, each one was numbered with either regular numbers or in broken roman numerals and I spent two hours matching these together. It was fairly fun tho! I found few interesting ones that seem to be actual whole albums, and some have diffirent hand writing on them, that of dad's brother... One is of my grandmother too, I suspect.

So ... to do

Contaniue backup-ing

Find a diffirent USB storage since Archive is full.

Design and find a way to print out new lables / cut them out of paper

CLEAN THE TAPES THEY FEEL DIRTY eww.

See if the deck is operational bc that will make it possible to rec a tape straight from you tube, If not, FIX THE DECK, (AGAIN)

Figure out how to rec from a CD on the other thing

Make some playlists for mixtapes, I guess / find some albums that are not available in the library...

Make cool drawings covers, I guess...

Set up the stereo system so I don't have to wear head phones all day while doing all that...

[aflyingcontradiction]

The Magnus Archives Relisten: Episode 181 - Ignorance

Salesa: Hmmmm. Interesting. Did you carry it [the tape recorder] in? Things shouldn’t be able to manifest in here like that

Oh man, I just realised - it makes some amount of sense that the tape recorder is perfectly comfortable in Salesa's little bubble, seeing as he has also invited a Web avatar in!

Salesa: Now you mention it, you actually remind me of Jurgen a bit.

Oh, that stings! I'm surprised Martin doesn't even comment on that comparison!

Jon (in compelling voice): Tell me what happened. Salesa (slowly, clearly savouring the moment): Noooo.

Okay, the delivery here is pretty hilarious.

Salesa: She keeps mostly to herself, and when she does talk, it’s usually more of the sinister monologue variety, or cryptically telling me I’ve got ‘guests’. Martin: Er, yeah, that sounds familiar. Jon: I’m trying to be less cryptic.

This episode has some pretty chuckleworthy interchanges...

Jon: I-It’s going to be difficult to relax with a spider lurking around.

As something of a minor arachnophobe: Very hard agree!

Salesa: Oh, saying that, I suppose there was that insect thing that stumbled in here a month or so back… (...) Some creature of the Crawling Rot. Anyway, it didn’t actually make it into the house before Annabelle managed to get rid of it, so I refuse to count it as a guest.

a) The spider killed the insect thing. Because of course that's how it works! b) Do we know anything more about this creature of the Crawling Rot or is it just ... undefined Corruption?

Salesa: When I say I was one of his assistants, you know exactly the kind of education that would be.

Oh god, I totally forgot Salesa was Leitner's assistant! Do we learn about this before this episode? If so, I erased it from my mind twice!

Salesa: The man was a genius and an idiot.

More the latter than the former, really. I really didn't get any genius vibes from Leitner, to be honest. He learned a lot about the powers in the end by being utterly obsessed, but that's "knowledgeable" at best.

I believe it operates as a sort of, er, battery, charging itself on all the quiet worries that come from living in hiding, and then when the sanctuary collapses, all that fear flows out at once.

Oh, that makes so much sense! Of course the camera isn't just a talisman, that's not how this world works! All the "magical" artifacts are Fear things!

Salesa: Anyway, no more stories, I think. Let us relax, and talk and drink. And not worry about who might be… listening.

Way to be all "In case you forgot, there's the tape recorders!"

My impression of this episode

This is a rather slow episode, which makes sense, given that it's the first time Jon and Martin really get to REST since the world ended. But, well, it's still slow. And a tad dull. And I really wasn't looking for or particularly satisfied by getting a Salesa background episode. It was ... fine, I suppose. Had a few good moments.