#bc i want to write a program getting data from it

[oaky-dokey]

okay if you wanted to peruse a 38mb xml file, what tool would you use?

[probablyautistic-definitleygay]

ok before I get totally infected by the Bashir Brainworms I just gotta say that i love Data so much. he’s a machine with a human soul. he’s a human made of wires. he has a heartbeat. he’s curious. he’s autistic. he gets drunk. he loves to paint. he’s ambidextrous. he doesn’t pick up on social ques. his quarters are decorated with trinkets from his friends. he has a evil twin brother who got the reverse trauma. he misses his father. he values all life. he writes odes to his cat. his teeth are in great condition. he accidentally seduces people. he has dreams. he has nightmares. he is susceptible to finger traps. he’s a culture of one. he organises his closet by colour and function. he’s a cowboy. he’s canonically handsome. he sits up at 90°. he forgets to blink. he hovers outside conversations. he’s a Lieutenant Commander graduating class of ‘78. he tries so very much to sneeze. he can fly the Enterprise all on his own. he’s being so brave. he can sing. he’s so silly. he can be genuinely terrifying. he can pinch the barrel of a gun shut with two fingers. he wears a little visor when he plays poker. he went on trial for his own life and personhood and right to choose and won. he wonders about getting married someday. his voice is perfect. he’d love quiz bowl. he’s asexual. he’s programmed in multiple techniques. the first person he slept w was a lesbian. he keeps a hologram of her at his desk. he grieves. he’s been suicidal. he chose to stay. he glows in Geordi’s VISOR. he gets the emotion chip and immediately crashes out. he does standup comedy. he could take over the Federation in an afternoon but he just wants to play poker instead. he willingly violates the Prime Directive so he can save a little girl’s life. he can easily lift five tons with one hand but carries Spot with the same care as you would a baby. the only difference between him and a human is his physical form. he’s anxious. his side profile is gorgeous. he can control the rate of his hair growth. he fears he’s alone in the universe but considers the crew his family. he’s kindhearted. he’s gentle. he gives second chances. he has so many questions. he does drag. he loves his job. he’s immortal. he’s mortal. he’s genuinely funny as hell. he’s a poet. he’s a telephone. he makes a fedora look good. he hates Sigmund Freud. he twitches like a bird. he’s curious about romance. he can pry open metal doors with ease. he enjoys botany. he infodumps constantly. he plays the violin AND guitar. he gets kidnapped. he cares deeply. for 23 years he never knew what a friend was until he met Geordi. he joined Starfleet to help others. he loves Sherlock. he cosplays. he imprints on every small child he meets. he’s a cat dad. he’s a single father. he loves his daughter. he can breathe underwater. he once lost all memory and his first instinct was to help others. he’s made of circuits and wires. he’s so very warm. he looks damn good in a suit. kids love his peculiar swag. he’s a mafia boss. he values all life. he roleplays for fun. he cries when he reunites w Spot. he doesn’t understand hatred but he understands revenge when his family is hurt. he has an unwavering sense of justice. he’s a professor at Cambridge. the Enterprise is his home. he’s empathetic. he owns at least seven cats. he was fully willing to destroy the emotion chip bc he would not forsake his best friend‘s safety. his greatest desire is to be human. he says he has no emotions but he so so obviously does. he is a machine he is a person he is a microwave he is conscious he is alive he is sentient he’s my specialest little angel he’s my android husband he’s my sweet cheese he’s my good time boy he’s my dearest love he’s my favourite blorbo.

“this is your man?” yes he’s made of tripolymer composites and friendship <3

[livmightlive]

Maze Runner AU backstories

alright! Here are the backstories to the main guys in my maze runner AU! This is before they’re put in the maze. I’m sorry it’s so long, I was gonna write even more but I think that would turn it into a behemoth 😭

here’s a short chart of everyone’s ages and age that they entered HYLIA

Age lineup 

First is age taken. Second is their current age. The timeline in years is also included (being the year of the age they were taken. They all enter the maze in year XX86)

Warriors:   0yo* - 21yo  XX65

Time:        11yo - 23yo  XX74

Legend:    7yo - 18yo   XX75

Hyrule:      9yo - 17yo   XX78

Four*:        8yo - 16yo   XX78

Sky:          12yo - 19yo  XX79

Twilight:    13yo - 19yo  XX80

Wild:         11yo - 17yo  XX80

Wind:        10yo - 14yo  XX82

and here’s the backstories!

Warriors: Warriors was raised in HYLIA. His parents worked there and had him tested shortly after he was born for resistances to gloom and mind control technology. He tests very well, sliding into that <1% of the population that has significant resistance to the building apocalypse. He won’t know this until he’s an adult, but his resistances aren’t natural. He’s one of the first to be the product of genetic engineering, also one of the only successful cases. From a young age he’s trained in leadership classes and in other courses. When he’s 9 he’s told that a new program will run soon with other children like him and that it’s his responsibility to lead and represent them. The first kid in the program is time, who’s just a little bit older than Wars is. He doesn’t really care about how bossy Wars is, he kind of just goes along with whatever he wants. Wars is secretly happy to have a friend who isn’t Artemis, another kid like him who will lead any girls who enter HYLIA. Things are good until LEGEND comes along. Legend is the first person he meets who opposes HYLIA and isn’t there by choice. So he tries to steer him in the right direction but it goes poorly. It’s not much better when Hyrule comes along bc Legend immediately attaches himself to the kid. It goes on like that, and after a while Warriors finds that he’s not actually friends with any of the other boys except for Time and maybe Wind but that’s embarrassing bc Wind is a child. HYLIA uses Wars as the golden child of the group which he takes a lot of pride in. Deep down he really wishes they didn’t so that maybe he could join in on the easy comradery that the other boys have. When HYLIA tells Wars about the maze he agrees that it’s for the best. There is (seemingly) no other way to grab such important, and life saving data, as this. Hyrule being sent in first is kind of a traumatizing event for everybody but he doesn’t let it shake his resolve. After watching the maze for months, he finds himself questioning HYLIA’s methods. As soon as he voices his concerns, he’s sent into the maze.

Time: (I wanna thank @pepperpuppy417 for this one, a suggestion of theirs really helped!) Time grew up in a foster home out in the boonies of Hyrule. He grew up very happy in the countryside of Hyrule and lived in nature. Unfortunately when he was a kid the cult released a new variant of the gloom in the forest by the small town he lived in. This variant had the ability to spread not just to Hylians, but to flora and fauna as well. Soon his entire village gets sick, him included. When the Hylian royal army comes he overhears some dignitaries talking about burning down the entire village and forest deeming it a lost cause. He tells his foster father who tells him to run, so he does. He escapes the army but he bumps into a stranger right away. He’s too sick to run by this point, but the stranger treats his gloom sickness and miraculously he makes a recovery. He starts traveling with this stranger for two years. He never gets any name to call him except for Fierce. Their time starts coming to an end when Fierce starts dying due to a brain tumor. He asks if he can give Time a gift. A selfish one. Time accepts and Fierce implants a microchip into the top of his spine. He tells Time that when he needs to use it, he’ll know. Time doesn’t know what this means for a long time. He and Fierce get apprehended by Hyrulean guards. They find that Time has significant resistance to both gloom and mind controlling tech. He’s surprised because he didn’t used to be but says nothing. He’s sent to HYLIA and never sees Fierce again. He doesn’t trust them from the get go but goes with it. He likes Warriors, despite thinking he’s a bit brainwashed, but he senses a very earnest, kind person in him. Even if he’s neurotic. He becomes a bit of a big brother to all of the other boys in his ward. Time is always calm, he has a lot of humility. Time is biding his time, waiting for revenge, for his time. (Geez how many times can I say time??) Everyone is surprised when he reacts poorly to the idea of the maze. He’s been very compliant with Hylia up until now. He starts getting more and more vocal about how it isn’t right. They send him in shortly after Legend. 

Hyrule: Was found as a homeless child in a “cult town”. Cult towns are towns with a lot of the mind controlling technology around so that everyone in it is at the whims and wills of the cult. Hyrule, and Dawn and Aurora, were kids in that town that somehow didn’t get affected by the technologies. When the kingdom of Hyrule was finally able to overthrow that town, they sent Hyrule, and the girls, to HYLIA. He has the best resistance to the mind control out of anybody in the chain, but he has no resistance to the gloom. He and Legend have been like brothers since meeting. Legend took Hyrule under his wing because he wasn’t allowed to stay in the girls wing with people he already knew. He’s super grateful to Legend and looks up to him. Hyrule considers Wild to be his best friend. Hyrule was one of the people trusted to keep an eye on Wild when he was introduced to the group bc they knew any lingering effects of the mind control wouldn’t hurt him. Hyrule is sent into the maze first due to his high marks in survival courses, good attitude in high stress scenarios, and because they were slightly okay with him dying. They sent a person with the very good odds of being able to survive alone but also a person who wouldn’t be a total loss if they were to die. His lack of resistance to gloom is what sealed his fate. They’ll be able to go full out with the mind controlling technology when it’s just Hyrule in there but many of the others have good resistance to it as well. What Hyrule doesn’t have is gloom resistance, something they also really want to look into. It was between him and Wild. He, and the chain, were only told a day before he would be sent in. Legend freaked out so badly that he had to be sedated. He wasn’t able to say goodbye before Hyrule was sent in. 

Legend: Legend grew up with his uncle away from his father due to family drama surrounding Legend’s birth. (His father cheated on his wife and Legend was born out of it.) Legend’s uncle contracts the gloom and sends him to his father before he dies. Legend's father freaks out bc Legend has to be infected after living with somebody who had the gloom for months. Miraculously he doesn’t, so they have him tested and he’s just about immune. His sister is as well. Legend's family sends him and his sister to HYLIA where they both grow extremely resentful of their family and of HYLIA. Legend hated those early days. The only other people were Wars and Time and they wouldn’t spend much time with him. He and Wars also constantly butted heads. He was so lonely. When Hyrule comes, Legend attaches himself to him and makes sure Hyrule isn’t alone like he was. Legend is horrified when Hyrule is going to be sent into that place alone so he protests. Too hard. He wakes up in the med wing horrified when he realizes they didn’t let him say goodbye. He’s constantly monitoring Hyrule. You can’t pull him from the screen. When Hyrule gets hurt, Legend begs to be sent in. It takes two weeks but they finally relent and then Legend is officially the second person to be let in.

(The Four): So I decided to split Four into the colors, I feel like the maze needed more people bc it was kinda sparse and then I realized that Four can literally be 4 people. So Vio, Red, Green, and Blue are all half brothers. Their father, a captain to the royal guard, had a four month break one year and in that time he decided to have a bit of a ho phase. Later that winter a woman appeared at his house and begged him to take custody of their child. He agreed, being more well off than her and welcomed Vio into his home. To his shock, the same thing happens 3 MORE TIMES THAT WINTER. Obviously he gets dna tests and yup. All four are his. His father helps raise them, honestly does most of the job since the captain is very busy with work. The colors live very happily with their grandfather until a mind control machine is dropped into their village.. everyone in the town but the boys get messed up from it, going fits or dissociative states. He sends the colors to live with their father again. The captain is shocked that none of the boys are hurt. They get tested and lo and behold, they have a good amount of resistance to the mind control machines. Their father sends them to Hylia thinking it will be a really good opportunity for them to get better schooling. The colors do pretty well, they all have each other at the end of the day. The one issue is that they get RELENTLESSLY bullied by another kid named Shadow. Shadow got in just before they did and is of a similar age. Eventually Vio befriends him and they all find out that he’s just insecure yadda-yadda. Shadow is a weird case because he has no resistance to gloom or mind control, but was infected by gloom until he reached a stage 3 state and somehow recovered which was thought to be impossible. He’s involved in different testings than the chain. The colors and shadow all grow really close, Vio and him even becoming boyfriends. When they get sent to the maze, Shadow copes poorly.

Sky: I feel bad. For Sky I’ve had the most trouble with his backstory, (dw, I’ve got plans for him when he’s actually in the maze), so I apologize to his fans. Sky grew up pretty upper class basically in the royal family being born to a very high ranking royal guard. He was being trained to be Sun’s personal guard. When they’re both 12 they go through regular preteen checkups and the royal family is incredibly relieved that the heiress and her guard have substantial resistances to both gloom and the mind controlling technology that’s terrorizing Hyrule. To further keep them safe from an increasingly angry public and worsening political atmosphere they’re both sent to Hylia where they can get fantastic educations while keeping them out of the public eye. Sky keeps quiet about where he’s come from because he quickly realizes that a lot of these kids are not as fortunate as he is. He also quickly realizes that he’s treated a little bit differently than the rest of the kids. Some of them get physical training, a lot of them choose self defense courses. Sky does too, wanting to keep on top of his training. He quickly realizes that while their trainers are okay with occasionally injuring say Time or Hyrule, or honestly any of the other boys and girls, he’s never come out with anything worse than a bruise. He makes the choice to be the nice kid, the one who won’t start beef or trouble because this place is VERY troubling. Before he can really figure out what’s wrong and how he can fix it, the maze is launched and that solidifies his worries. This place isn’t what it says it is. They tolerate it when he’s caught sending messages to the royal family about his worries but they swiftly react when they find out he’s been trying to send messages to outside friends as well. They send Sun into the maze which basically sends Sky into a rage nobody ever predicted possible from the gentle guy. They sedate him and when he next wakes, it’s in the maze.

Twilight and Wild: These two have a story that is too intertwined to not tell together. They both grew up in the same orphanage. They had always been closer with each other over the other children and considered themselves to be brothers. The cult launches a mind control machine in their town and it lands on the outskirts. It doesn’t immediately plunge the town into a subservient dissociative state but everyone starts suffering from severe migraines and some start to struggle with seizures. Nobody can move it because the waves get stronger the closer one moves towards it. Wild doesn’t like what the technology is doing, he thinks it’s mean. Twilight listens to him complain about it but he tries to tell him that the Hyrule Royal Guard will send somebody to deal with it soon. Nobody comes and people start dying or dipping into the aforementioned dissociative states. Twilight wakes up to find Wild gone. Twi is panicked and runs after Wild to find him heading towards the mind controller. Wild manages to destroy it by the time Twilight catches up. He finds Wild unconscious bleeding from his nose and mouth, barely alive. Twilight doesn’t notice that he himself only has a small headache from standing so close to the machine. He drags him back to town desperately trying to find help. Wild wakes up, but it’s with little cognitive function. He can’t eat by himself, he can’t bathe himself, he can’t speak. Twilight is devastated, feeling deeply as if he failed to protect him. Only after the mind controller is destroyed does the government send anybody to the town. Twilight immediately hates them. He hates that he ever thought they could help. To his horror, he realizes that they might be able to now. He swallows his pride and asks one, who he doesn’t realize is a HYLIA representative, if they can fix his brother. They listen to his story and test Twilight to see if he’s mind control resistant. He is. They agree to help him if he agrees to join their program. Of course he does. While they fix Wild they discover that he’s incredibly resistant to gloom. It’s probably the reason they let him live. When Wild wakes up from surgery he can’t remember anything. Not even Twilight. Twilight is willing to rebuild his relationship with Wild, but there’s a deep anger boiling within him. He doesn’t think Wild’s loss of memory was a side effect. When the maze is proposed Wild is one of the first people willing to go in. Twilight does everything in his power to stop this.

Wind: Wind and his little sister are raised in a small beach town that’s pretty protected from the rest of Hyrule. Things are peaceful for a long time until, of course, they’re not. The gloom has spread to the waters near his small fishing town and people start getting sick fast. His grandmother becomes very ill from the gloom and it turns from her looking out for Wind and Aryll to them looking out for her. Wind, despite barely being 10, knows he has to do something and fast. Regular people can barely survive the gloom. A woman of her age makes the odds so much worse. He sets out to find somebody who can work and finds a government camp nearby who are probably there to stop the gloom from spreading into major waterways. He begs for an antidote and they take interest. Wind and Aryll have been closely exposed to their infected grandmother for days, maybe weeks, and show no signs themselves. They agree to help but will need a favor in return. They treat granny and tell Wind and Aryll there’s a place they can go where they can help everyone. Granny greatly encourages them, she believes it will be safer for them there rather than out here. So Wind and Aryll go to HYLIA, the last people to arrive. The older kids dote on them, even though Wind doesn’t think he needs it. He and Aryll also, unfortunately, kind of become a mechanism of control for the “rowdy” older kids. When something goes wrong or somebody acts up, HYLIA is not afraid to put either Wind or Aryll in the way. When the maze opens and many people begin voicing their discontent, Wind is sent in as a message to the other boys.

anywho!!!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LMK ANY THOUGHTS! I have a lot more info in my head but I think it would be confusing or too complicated to write it all out 😭 so if you wanna know more about anything or anyone pls know I am always so so happy to chat!!!

[narastories]

trying out Obsidian, my first setup, my opinions, etc.

Okay, so this is going to be a long post. Earlier this week I decided to give Obsidian a go to see if it would work for my longer writing projects. I heard some of my mutuals use it and others would like to see my setup, so I'm making a post about what I learned so far. I downloaded it three days ago so I'm sure things will change, but this is where I am right now.

I'm shy about my WIPs so what you see there is the beginning of heart worth the trouble. But hopefully, this lets you see my folder structure and the links in the notes.

My wishlist and how I got here

I recently wrote a rambly post about writing software which got way more notes than I expected (bc the lovely @barbex reblogged it <3). After I made that post, I started using Focus Writer (again a recommendation from the writing discord) for my discovery writing in March. After more than two weeks of heavy use, I realized I needed a little bit more than that (but it's a great program).

Initially, I tried combining it with Wavemaker bc I liked that when I played around with it, but that completely pissed me off, bc it turns out it's just not compatible with other things I'm using. Like Firefox. -.-

Still, this whole ordeal made me narrow down what I really want and need from a piece of writing software at this moment. I think it's a good idea to start with such a wishlist if you are looking for a new software. Here is mine:

free

no account required, not stored on someone else's cloud, I can back it up wherever I want instead

Linux support

widely compatible file formats

focus mode, where it's full-screen, and ideally highlights the paragraph you are working on

I can make it look nice and calming on the eyes currently all I want is a cream paper background look, and a friendly monospace font changed to brown or something

clicky keyboard/typewriter noises - luckily I got this covered by Mechvibes already!

something like the card feature in Wavemaker, where I can have individual notes and choose to display them on the side. this might sound like it conflicts with the focus mode but I just want to have the option to have some notes without having to vomit them into the draft

easy to rearrange the order of the scenes

wordcount obviously

Tall order? Weird order? Maybe.

I think the most important is to figure out is how you work as a writer and find tools that match that. This is just honestly what is important for me right now.

It seems like Obsidian might just do this.

it's free

doesn't require an account

text is stored locally in markdown files

works on Linux I'm using the AppImage if you want to know

can be integrated with Github for backup & sync

tons of customization options to achieve the rest of my requirements

The Basics

If you want to use Obsidian for note-taking (or for writing fic but you're not very picky about the how), you can pretty much just download it, pick a pretty theme if you want and you're good to go. It's that easy. I promise it's not as hard as people make you believe.

This is a local-first software, which I love. However, this also means if you are not used to storing your writing locally, you need to get into the habit of backing your things up because if something happens to your computer, there is no copy of your files on the web.

That said, you can pay I think 4USD/month for the subscription and then you'll have an account, and your files will get synched to other devices, and you can restore your files. (And remember, if something is free and doesn't have ads and you have cloud storage space you didn't have to pay for... then you are the product and the company is paying for it with your data. So the fact that this is paid is actually a very good thing.)

The file structure works pretty much 1:1 as your file explorer btw

If you create a folder on the sidebar, it will create a folder on your computer.

If you create a note on the sidebar, it will create a text file on your computer.

If you drag the note into the folder on the sidebar, it will put the text file in the folder on your computer.

Each note is stored as a separate markdown file. Markdown files are widely compatible with various software so that's great. Also, you can even just rename the file to have .txt extension instead of .md extension and literally every text editor will open it for you (you will lose the formatting tho). The opposite also works. If you have a note in .txt format, you can copy it into your Obsidian folder, rename the extension to .md and it will appear in Obsidian.

That all makes it very easy to import things and switch between files to edit them.

There is only one downside to this that I found. You know how in your file explorer you can drag and drop files into folders but you can't drag and drop files to change their order? Well, your Obsidian side-bar is the same. You can choose to order them based on the name, last modified, etc. But if you want custom order, I suggest you number your notes and folders.

I feel like we're not that used to this anymore but again, this is literally like a file explorer, so it's not a big deal imo.

Another important basic concept is linking your notes. You can just right-click a piece of text and link a note, drag and drop the note into your other note, or do [[Note]] whatever you like. Then you can quickly access the other note by clicking on it, or see a preview while hovering over it (If you turned that feature on). Linking notes is also how you get those cool graph views.

I just wanted to mention all of this bc I feel like all the videos I came across on Obsidian intimidate people into thinking it's more complex than that lol

Appearance

I go a little crazy about visual optimization if you give me a chance. You can change a couple of simple things out the box. Light/dark theme, change the font, etc. I'm using a font called Code Saver for the editor (regular is free for personal use).

Then, there are the themes you can download. There are so many awesome ones! I'm using one called Underwater right now bc I liked the rounded edges.

Most themes come with a light/dark version. But if you download the Style Settings plugin, you might unlock more easy-to-customize options. It depends on the theme what you see there. The one I'm using has a couple of built-in colorways. I went with the "rose pine dawn" option and then I switched out some colors in the color pickers. If you want to mess with the colors I highly recommend finding some hex color palettes online, they make your life so much easier. You can find colors that look good together and look up a color and find lighter/darker versions instead of trying to blindly click around on the color picker.

For this theme, you can also add a background image if you want. (If you really want to make it look like Focus Writer for example ;)

Plugins

These are the plugins I'm using right now.

GitHub Sync: This is what I use to sync my progress and back up my files. I started with this before anything else, but I'm not going to go into what I did bc I don't want to make this post even more complicated. If you have a specific question about it, pls feel free to ask me :)

Focus Mode: This is a full-screen mode, very nice for writing

Stille: Dims everything but the active paragraph, again, very nice for writing. I found that the combination of these two plugins work best for me, but there are others like Typewriter Mode that can do both (I couldn't turn down the vignette mode on that one tho and it was annoying me)

Smart Typography: switches the straight quotation marks for curly ones

This is how it looks with Focus Mode and Stiille both on.

And lastly, a bit of a disappointment: Longform. This is the plugin that everyone seems to recommend for longer writing projects in Obisdian. Basically what it does is it can compile your individual notes into one file, and allows you to move the order of them freely, unlike the normal Obsidian sidebar. Here is a pretty good video on it.

Unfortunately, this plugin gets absolutely wrecked by synchronizing to another device.

From what I gathered, this happens regardless of what method of synching you use, meaning it happens even with the paid synching feature. You can read about this more here btw. It's a community plugin so I'm not going to be mad at the creators for not fixing this, however this means it just doesn't work for me.

If it worked on the one computer where I originally set it up, just not on the other, I would be fine with it. But I set it up on my Linux, and after I synched to my Windows, the scene list disappeared from both. (Not the actual files! It just doesn't get recognized as a Longform project anymore so it pretty much becomes useless lol)

So, I just decided to create the the same structure with folders and notes. Right now, this is a discovery draft and I don't have chapters. But I'm making a folder for an "Arc", and put the numbered scenes into them. I'm also making separate notes that I can link with stuff I want to remember/work on.

At the moment I don't require an extensive wiki where I note what each of the characters like to have for breakfast and such. But you can absolutely do that with Obsidian. You can create a folder for Characters, Worldbuilding, whatever you want, really. Put images there, links both internal and on the web and just go wild if you want.

Obviously, without Longform I will need to compile the files into one at the end by a different method, like copy-paste into one, turn them into .txt, and concatenate from the terminal, you know, depending on your comfort level xD. It will probably include more work than with this plugin, but it's not like you don't go through your manuscript about a million times anyways, am I right?

Word Count

Lastly, mentioning the wordcount options bc they are important

there is a built-in wordcount, about which the common agreement is that it's not very good lol

because of this there is a community plugin called Better Wordcount, which is self-explanatory. If you want to get the total word count, you can right-click the top folder of your project and ask it to count the words for you.

Longform also has a wordcount and it will display it like words of the scene/total words of the project if you are using that

if you don't want to have three different word counts displayed I recommend you only have one of these active (:

That's where I am right now. If you have read all this to the end, you're awesome, and also we both should stop procrastinating and go write instead :P But if you also use Obsidian for writing and have cool tips pls let me know xx

[zyafics]

Hi! This isn’t a request but more so of asking advice from you. I saw that you’re also in college and I read that you’re double majoring. Did you already knew what you wanted to do when you got to college or did you explore your options? I was in nursing school, however I just got academically dismissed because I failed two nursing classes. I feel lost because I don’t know if I should continue nursing but at a different school or if I should explore other pathways and change my major? People are telling me that I’m still so young and that everything happens for a reason, and if it didn’t work out then it wasn’t meant to be. But I honestly don’t really know what to do. I’ve always wanted to become a nurse in the future but I feel like I never really explored other specialities in the health care field. I’m scared that if I do apply to another nursing program, I’m just going to fail again. I have no idea what to do and I’m petrified to tell my parents that I got kicked out… Maybe I’m just overthinking about this too much. Or maybe I just need to go to sleep, it’s 1 in the morning here in Hawaii LOL. Sorry for ranting, I guess I just needed to get this off my chest and just want to hear what someone would do in my situation 😭

omg, u lowkey came to the right person about this because i was struggling with my options. i came in pre-med, then i switched into mechanical engineering, then i went into earth systems, then i briefly considered philosphy/sociology/psychology, and then i jumped into environment systems engineering, then international relations, then back to environmental engineering, before settling on economics + data science!

so, yes, i did explore my options! i was looking at my life on a grander scale, outside of college and outside of just a job, and wrote down what i wanted and how i can accomplish them. there, i realized what i wanted (i wanted time to write my books, i want to go into law school, i want to work in policy, i want to travel the world, etc). i also tried several different classes to feel for something i wanted—i literally took econ 50 this year (as a junior) and adored all of it so i knew i liked econ and how challenging it presented itself to me.

i truly believe if u enjoy nursing, and really saw ur future in it, keep trying! transfer to another program, take a break, or even shadow other nurses to get a feel for the field! at heart and soul, i ask myself if this is the career i do for the rest of my life, will i be satisfied with it when i die? and that's usually how i sum up my answer.

also, if you've never explored other specialties, do a lot of shadowing! there's no shame in taking a break. there's no shame in taking a gap year. and ur path shouldn't feel the need to meet other people's expectations (versus your own time). i struggled with the same thing here (i think i'm going to graduate a semester late bc i chose my major so late) but it's okay! i realized that, just because i won't graduate on time with my class doesn't make me a failure. on top of that, college is my time, not everyone else's expectation of me.

but yeah, i completely get you!! dm me if u wanna talk so more <3

[glowcowboy]

wait what was getting ur masters like for being a librarian (what did u even get ur masters in im so intrigued??? i didn’t know i could do that)

hiiii !! so all of this is just my experience, but my library sciences program was 2 years. my specialty was in youth services bc i knew i wanted to be a children’s librarian, so a lot of my courses centered around children’s lit, collection development (deciding what gets added to/weeded from the collection), programming, child development, as well as teaching you how to do things like school visits and daycare visits. there are also general courses on the history of libraries, understanding how libraries function in society now, how technology has changed, understanding data & metadata, and learning other skills like grant writing and things like that.

there are also other fields within library sciences such as studying to be an archivist, other types of public librarianship (such as working with adults, seniors, specific age groups), school librarianship, music librarianship, medical librarianship, and so much more. it’s a much wider field than i think most people anticipate !

[dragonboyteeth]

Just to clarify a few things bc I mostly reblog stuff and don't make original posts about it and my stance is too nuanced to glean from reblogs of other people's posts:

I don't think AI is ontologically evil. It's just a type of computer program.

I don't think AI is an accurate term, but I'll still use it bc the marketing broadly worked and I want to be understood without having to write an essay about terminology every time the topic comes up

AI has genuinely interesting artistic applications (shoutout to @aholefilledwithtwigs and our beloved departed @nostalgebraist-autoresponder )

The vast majority of AI art (again, conceding to the marketing term for the sake of clarity) is not that.

The use of web scraping and mass processing of artwork without consent is self-evidently inethical. Machine processing is not comparable to a human artist taking inspiration from or referencing other artists. If you try to tell me it actually is the same and I just don't get how it works, then sorry, but I actually know more than you.

That said, I'm not in a hurry to litigate it. Ethical boundaries do not always translate well into legal boundaries, no matter how good the intentions of the lawyers. Copyright law is a fuck to begin with.

If you think AI art is fundamentally the same as photography, you've got a better head on your shoulders than a lot of AI artists, but you're still wrong. The neural network itself is indeed comparable to the mechanical function of a camera. The comparison between working out the right prompt to put in the generator and the artistic process of working out the right angle, lens, focus, and shutter speed is a bit shakier but still works. There is zero possible comparison between photography and the use of huge databases of training data.

I think images generated by AI should be public domain. Full stop. The legal precedent for that isn't actually all that convincing if I'm being honest, I'm just a huge copyleft advocate.

I think it would be great if everyone learned how to make neural networks and started creating their own, way more interesting, projects with training data that actually belongs to them. The results might not be as immediately impressive but it's pretty fucking elitist to put all the emphasis on visual fidelity and polish.

I don't like the gay sex cats because the cats themselves gross me out to look at for too long. Same with most AI art even if it's getting closer to looking right. This isn't, like, an actual ethical issue or anything, just personal squick. I think it would be cool if more people used it to make grotesque horror on purpose.

[jellyluchi]

omg idk if ure taking asks for that oc in university thing u rbed (delete if not HSKDKAKDK) i'd Love to know what Foca took up as a major, what class she excelled and struggled in, and if she ever dormed 👀👀👀

OH WORM 👀👀👀I didn't expect to get asks but I also don't mind! I'm actually filling them out for her little hazelnut baby!

But Focaccia went to college in North America! I never decided whether it would be Canada or USA but LOL let's say USA because I did that teehee 💞but anyways she did not dorm! Her parents especially her mom sheltered her LOTS and wanted her to study from home.

Major: Business Administration (which I majored in wow original! 🤪) and she later concentrated on IT which had a huge BOOM in 1990s! So her classes were a mix of administrative business stuff and some computer system stuff.

Excelled: written communication and data management! Thanks to her studious background (she used to have lots of tutors in South Asia) she was really good at writing and had a love for information storage.

Struggled: Coding and finance classes! While the programming/coding for IT was still getting its foundations etc she still found it pretty difficult. But finance and accounting were a terrible downfalls I'd say she failed them (bc I did wow original! 🤪)

To be honest, her college life was pretty boring and restrictive that's why she starts to plan her escape to another country during that period when her parents have less control over her and she has free time to look for a job out of school !

[dwncata]

its been ages since I've actually drawn an oc but anyways this mf has been in my head for a while

"he looks. familiar. to a character u draw a lot-" SHUT yea listen half my ocs are just a remix of characters i like thrown into the mischaracterization blender until they're literally a whole different guy

anyways, Xander Khorvis, ex-lead engineer for BlackEye Inc. Rare image where u get to see his eyes bc he always keeps them covered; the top right there is the BlackEye Inc. logo, which is basically his pupil as part of the cybernetics their employees have.

While he's long left and chosen to oppose the corporation, and the cyberware is defunct, he keeps the appearance as a reminder; though, for most intents and purposes, he always keeps his eyes hidden with a visor. this is also for the purpose of hiding emotion, and distancing himself in hopes of people not associating him with being "human"; he doesn't want any form of empathy to influence others interactions with him.

I have a lot written on him, he's definitely a main player in the story to unfold within Black's Eye...

What I will say is that while he is the lead of the opposition against Black's Eye, (which honestly wasn't initially planned as such but later ended up being perfect commentary / analogy on ai bullshit,) Xander does not have a hero's happy end. Despite the work he's done in attempt to atone, in a way,, this is the best ending he would want.

While taken far from his own hopes and ideas for the prototype when he developed it, at the end of the day he was the one who developed this program, capable of manifesting any thought through immense consumption of energy and samples. The fact they didn't even care to refine it, much less let him change things to at least be morally gray instead of this... monstrosity. It's what set him down the path to destroy it, no matter what it took. He resorts to some morally dubious means himself, but he doesn't care anymore; his sole drive, regardless of means, is to remove what he had wrought.

As such, he would not want a happy ending for himself, he'd just loathe it all further. His death is less of a "heroic sacrifice" and more of a tragic loss at best, or a gut wrenching torment at worst.

im not quite sure where i wanna go with the details yet, but i wanna do something where he's faced with a choice more or less to save the operation / destroy the 'Sensic Dream' for good, but at the cost of his sensic data getting corrupted. (basically getting shredded apart on an astral plane kinda level)

,,im not sure if i wanna make him salvageable or not, i kinda wanna let him be one of those split feelings characters when he "dies" yk

,,,but with Black's advanced tech if it were repurposed, if they were reclaimed by the resistance,, and also the entire "lost purpose / continuing to live with this guilt" could be interesting to write, now that i think about it I don't think I've gone into a headspace quite like that before in a character,,,,

forgive my rambling i have too much of these mfs in my head and no time to actually write it down coherently

[oo0-will-of-the-wisp-0oo]

On ai- I think one of the main distinctions between editing something and having ai produce it is one requires. Effort, and actual time/thought behind it. Spending a minute feeding a database prompts until you get something you want is nothing compared to the countless hours put into a piece, be it writing/art/etc

You could argue that by virtue of posting something online, people sort of sign away on what people do with their art, but even in such cases you cannot deny that ai companies went about collecting data in malicious and deceptive ways- often without any time to genuinely revoke consent.

With ai art, people can replicate someone's style, which can then threaten their own personal brand/livelihood. This becomes more apparent when you know that a major part of the actors strike was specifically against ai owning the rights to people's image/voice indefinitely. An actors entire workplace existence hinges upon the fact that they will be paid to be somewhere and say and do something- this gives them the security of an income, but it also gives them the right to turn down any works they don't agree with/don't want to be a part of. By removing the actual *actor* from acting, the company can get away with not having to actually pay someone, let alone pay someone a living wage

I think the biggest reason I, and many others, are against ai, is for the same exact reason people would be against reposting art instead of reblogging, or the reason we used to get all the warnings against online piracy: it will directly hurt the creators that spent countless hours working on something. The difference between piracy and ai, however, is ai hurts creators that are just like you, and your community, and it will continue to do so if left unchecked

It is a very big win that ai generated works cannot be copywrited, bc it means that people will not be able to profit off of something they did not truly make. It would be unreasonable for someone to launch a TV show where the premise was ai, or the script itself, or the actors, and then try to claim ownership over it, and insist that they make a profit off of it, that no one else can use it, when in truth they had no part in the actual creating of the show

This is kinda a mess, and im open to more discussion/providing links to stuff mentioned later, but hopefully this is kind of an insight into why ai isn't. The best

Yes! Thanks for the discussion!

I think you’re responding to my previous post: https://www.tumblr.com/oo0-will-of-the-wisp-0oo/748487000957550592/any-of-my-people-interested-in-discussing-ai

If I were to use AI, I would be 100% honest about. Also I would charge less in most cases.

The reason being is it feels to me like it is providing me with images/information, and therefore helps me save time. I prefer to use it as a tool, though rather than use it as a means to an end. At least with the few AI I’ve experimented with, I’ve noticed that the program/algorithm kind of does a half-ass job on it’s own and the final piece would need to be edited to my satisfaction - especially text prompts. Using only text-prompts produces pretty substandard results. I find whatever the AI spits out usually needs to be edited, sometimes rather extensively, or else it’s unusable. And it takes up more time than I like for the program to process. I don’t just want to text-prompt and keep whatever gets developed.

There are some AI that you can use a photo or drawing of your own as reference. AI Arta is one of these. I’m playing around with Bing and Picsart, too. And of course EVERY app seems to be providing its users with its own AI (although usually using original products such as Dall-E or Midjourney, is what I find)…

Also, my original link on my blog said AI can’t be copyrighted… However I’ve found at least Dall-E allows you to make a profit: “Subject to the Content Policy and Terms, you own the images you create with DALL·E, including the right to reprint, sell, and merchandise — regardless of whether an image was generated through a free or paid credit. Oct 29, 2023” - although perhaps this still doesn’t mean it’s under your own copyright… I’m not sure about that.

I’ll just finish this reply to you saying I think everyone should keep discussing AI. Thanks again for your own input. I figure the more it’s talked about, the more we’ll figure out how to use it. I don’t want to snub people who are completely for or against it. I WANT to hear what people think about it. If I learn something I didn’t know before because of keeping an open mind, that’s a good thing.

Hope what I’m writing is comprehensible, it’s after 5am. I should get to sleep! lol

Here’s a website where the opinion is that AI won’t “take over” people’s jobs/artistry, but it will make their jobs more efficient for them.

[chevvy-ryder]

WIP Wednesday Whenever

got tagged some time ago by @morganlefaye79, @gloryride and @ouroboros-hideout. Thank you as always <3

Writing:

Currently on refining CH02 as we had additional ideas to make it more interesting and I fixed Ryder's way to talk since this chapter is old as fuck and back then when I wrote him he was just created.

After they ended their discussion about the next gig they wanted to proceed, everyone seemed to be hanging in his own thoughts for a while. Scharfenberg just arrives back at the table with another fresh beer when he hears V cursing a mumbled “Fuck”, eyes fixed onto his mobile phone. “Yo, what’s wrong, V?” Vijay doesn’t look up but mumbles something to him instead. “Ah, I fucked up one of my programs. I’ve installed this new intrusion program, you know? ‘S called Wizard’s Book. Scans through billions of possible codes and code words in seconds, tryin’ each in one turn. In that way I can get code-ga—”  “Okay, I hear awkward runner language, V. I’m opting out!” Ry disrupts him as he sits back down at their table and promptly decides to give Chigasaki some attention instead before they fall asleep as they just yawned. Steyr puts a smirk to his lips. He knew how to stop Ryder’s curiosity. A “Hizumi-chaaan, tell me—” however is all Vijay hears Ry say in the background because his mind is back fully concentrating into finding more data about his new gained choom named Arki. 

Layouting:

Chrome Chamber Rave got a moodboard, a new OC, named Garnet, who owns the Hell Bunker, a concept and some rules:

I don't know if the current layout stays as it's been a while since I've done it and I'm always thinking about how to make it tumblr friendly as it is currently set in 16:9.

VP:

I've sorta been a busy bee and produced a bunch of new VP (some I'll still hold back until time is right as they are chapter-related and that takes me also a while). But I've set a bunch of posts into a scheduled queue so some of them might appear through the next 2 weeks while I'm in South Korea and Japan.

Here's a sneak peak:

and moooooore (bc I toook new ones today bc of some mods I was asked to take pics lol on my last day at home).

OCs:

I've collected a long long list of nexus mods for Hizu to create them as fast as possible after I come back from my trip. As you have already noticed I've chosen to create a new OC in between as I desperately needed to get him out of my head before I fly away tomorrow. So Garnet exists now. Ofc he is also available from now on for asks if there are any, as I like to develop him a bit as well. I'll put some facts in a next pic post with him.

—

tagging:

@nervouswizardcycle, @wraithsoutlaws, @astarionhistears, @kdval, @therealnightcity, @wanderingaldecaldo, @elvenbeard, @alphanight1-vp, @r3d-f0xs-blog, @heywoodvirgin, @fereldanwench, @breezypunk, @robininthewoods90, @shivsghost as always no pressure!

[rintarhue]

instant boyfriend ✆ 021 / i love you

➪ MAIN MENU | PREVIOUS | NEXT

Rintaro feels different.

For the past few days, he has been receiving notifications for updates in his system. As much as he wanted to grant it access, his system immediately rejects any form of data from the company to be distributed to his body. The once compliant Rintarobot is now finding himself, and he isn’t so sure if it’s for better or for worse.

He doesn’t remember when it exactly happened, though he can answer by giving a guess to the question why;

You.

Ever since you entered his life, his view on everything he thought he knew drastically changed. You helped him to be more open, you helped him discover himself, and lastly, you helped him to smile more. The most important of them all, you helped him feel more human.

Of course, a mere man-made device like him can’t be human. He knows that. And he only has a single purpose; and that is to make you feel loved—that you aren’t alone in this unfair world you all lived in. 

Despite knowing that, he can’t help but be selfish.

In the nights you think he’s already deep in slumber, he would smile to himself as he feels you cover his big frame in a soft blanket and kiss his forehead softly. How your eyes twinkle whenever you would talk about things you are so passionate about, he admires your dedication and perseverance in everything you do. Or the feeling of warmth spreading in his artificial heart as he hears your calm heartbeat, whilst the two of you are wrapped in the comfort of each other’s arms. Or even when he tries to grab every opportunity to use his sarcastic jokes just to hear your hearty laugh. He can’t help but be selfish and try his hardest to make each moment last.

“I have to tell you something,” he lets his words echo through the quiet night. All the lights in your room were turned off, and the only thing you could see was his face, kissed by the moonlight. He envelopes you in his embrace, as you let out a soft hum. 

“What is it, Rin?”

His arms tighten his grip on you, as he closes his eyes. Before he could swallow his words down, he opened his mouth to speak;

“I love you.”

Three words.

Rintaro feels his shirt get damp, as tears flood your eyes. After years of chasing for love; to be loved, to feel loved, and to love—you finally receive what you’ve yearned for such a long time. As you continue to cry, he rubs his hand to your back. The pain of yesterday finally seems to erase itself, like today, your story is finally being written. 

You choke out the words, “I love you too.”

The two of you stay like this for the whole night; arms wrapped around each other, legs over the other, and hearts entwined. You finally feel loved, and it feels so fulfilling. That night, you ignore all the suffering you were soon to face—because, for the very first time, you hear the first few beats of his artificial heart.  

‘You are programmed to love them; and when caught with any sign of malfunctioning in your system, your data will be immediately deleted.’

The risk he was about to make was worth it, as long as it’s for you.


— 🥲🥲🥲

— im so Sad. this made me sad.

— HWHDJRKFKDKEKDKFKFKFKEKEKKRKDKRJENRNDNDNRNRNNRNDNDNDNRNNRMFMFMFMMFMDMDMFMMFMFMDMRMDMNSWMMSMSMWMW

[UNEDITED CHAPTER - as always bc i lit rally write all of these written chaps in an hour 😭✋🏻]

taglist in the reblogs <3 send an ask or message me to be added!

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers: July 10th

I really let asks get away from me lately. I was super focused on working on that Patreon Moment. With that done I can finally think about doing other things, so here’s a new collection of answers!

Thank you for sending in questions everyone ^^.

For the new Patreon moment, will you be able to reference it in step 4? Or just like a tiny nod to it if you pick certain choices?

There won’t be. I’m sorry if you were hoping for that! The Patreon moment is meant to be entirely optional, it’s not something that gets you extra content in the main game.

Is the new CG artist the main one now? :0 I’ve noticed theres been a difference in the art style recently. Is the old CG artist still going to make art for the game? :0

The original artist still makes CGs for the game sometimes, but he mainly focuses on character sprites.

Are you going to put the NSFW our life moment on a website other than patreon? I would love to get it but I can't use patreon atm.

I don’t know. I'm afraid we can't release the Patreon Moment on a normal game storefront because we can't mix 18+ content with our family friendly game. If there's some other place similar to Patreon where it's not the normal type of full-scale public content releases we'd consider using that, but I’m not sure if there is another site that’s better than Patreon in that regard. I'm sorry.

Out of curiosity, in all of your games so far, which characters in each were the most fun to write? They obviously don't have to be your favorite characters!

Buffalo Seer in AFA, really everyone in XOD/XOBD is pretty equally entertaining to write, The Guide in LoV, and Cove in OL!

idk if you accept "personal" questions, but is there anything you've been watching/ listening to lately

Mostly, I’ve been watching/listening to Authortube videos as of late! It’s people who talk generally about the process of how books become traditionally published and/or share their own experience as they attempt to be published. I don’t have an interest in writing normal text based books, but it’s really interesting to hear about that world. I’m listening to a video about royalties right now as I answer these asks.

Will one of the desserts we get to pick be fudge? That'd be such a cute reference! 

Haha, yeah, it should. Unless I completely blank on it and forget when trying to include the various referential food options.

I don't know if this has been asked previously but what would be the approximate heights for the presets MC can choose from Step 2 ~ 4? Are there any measurement you had in mind? Sorry if I didn't make myself clear kk I've been struggling with my English lately 💀 

I don’t know, ahah. I didn’t have any numbers in mind for that. So it’s whatever you imagine it is!

I noticed a bug with the Patreon moment when it comes to what your character wears. When Jamie and Cove are kissing while my character only had dresses selected, I had both the option to remove the dress or to remove the shirt... Picking one of the options to interact with Cove, after he removed his shirt, it had Jamie remove their shirt followed by ther pants despite only having dresses picked. 

Thank you for reporting ^^

I keep refreshing steam to see when the new doc for xobd will be released. I noticed you haven't posted anything about it in quite some time. Would it be possible to ask about a timeline/potential date? (If it's even this year—) I know you and your team are probably working super hard, I'm just super curious! ~Thank you!~ 

There are more stories done, I just haven’t gotten around to publicly releasing them. Hopefully I will have a chance to spend the time on that sooner rather than later!

hello!! i’m not sure if it’s an update but i’ve just replayed our life and at the end i can’t propose to cove anymore? :(( i’ve actually tried playing twice but the options are not there anymore, did you guys remove the options? i’m sorry if you’ve answered this before!! thank you and have a good one :) 

I’m afraid things haven’t been changed or removed, so I think you might’ve accidentally picked the wrong things somewhere along the way and locked yourself out of being able to propose by mistake. Sometimes you meant to say you want to get married but instead you mis-click and have it so the MC isn’t thinking about marriage or something. All I can suggest is starting from the beginning of Step 3 and making sure to follow the steps listed in the FAQ. I’m sorry for that.

Did yall remove some of the options for when youre making out with Cove in the charity moment? I could've sworn you could grab his bonkadonk and its not there anymore 

This is the same situation as the above. We didn’t remove things and you’re not wrong that there are sometimes those options. But there are various choices you have to make to get those options and it sounds like you accidentally missed something. If your relationship isn’t long-term, you can’t do it for example.

HI IM SO EXCITED I CAN FINALLY GET THE STEP 3 DLC 

Thank you for getting it!

Is Shiloh super totally straight bc I’m very gay and a huge Shiloh fan, would my man make an exception?😩

Sadly, he is one of our super straight characters. I’m sorry.

Hi, I have a very dumb question. In Step 2 does Cove not wanna share his drink with us at the mall (or rather why he stops drinking it) because it's an indirect kiss? Or is it like ...weird to him to share? Because if I remember right he eats off our spoon in the birthday scene right? 

Yeah, he’s awkward about it because he likes the MC and it feels very personal to share a straw with his crush.

Hi! If you don't mind me asking, who is the artist for OL2? Their style is so pretty! 

Thank you for saying so! This is her Twitter- https://twitter.com/redridingheart

Do Beginnings & Always and Now & Forever exist in the same universe? 

Yep! XOXO Droplets also exists in the same universe. It’s one big GB Patch world, haha.

Do Pran's parents regret the way they raised him? Do they feel ashamed of it?

No. They’re the type of people best cut out because they’re not gonna change. Which is why Pran does go very limited contact when he’s an adult.

Hi! I just wrapped up my second playthrough of Our Life, and I absolutely adore it, but I had a question. I went to the gallery and found I was missing 2 CGS (specifically Step 1-3 and 2-3) and I had no clue where they would've shown up. Which moments are those found in? 

You get it by telling Cove about his dad offering you money to be his friend in Step 1 and Step 2. You can’t get both in one playthrough, since you can only tell Cove the truth once. I’m really glad you liked it!

Hi hi! Please, how tall is Baxter and Derek? Love the game so much and I can't wait to see more! 

I don’t know, aha. I think Baxter was around 5′10 and Derek was like 5′8/5′9, maybe. I really am not one who has specific heights for things in mind.

is adult cove a bottom, top, or switch? 

A switch, though would choose the top if he had to pick.

I was wondering if there is a way to transfer save data? Even if through the game files. I wanted to be able to transfer my save data from my desktop over to my laptop so that I could continue playing right where I left off from but I'm not entirely sure how to go about that. 

If you save the save folder/persistent data of the game from your desktop and put it into the game folder on your other device, that could work.

Hi! Is it possible for us to know the date when our life: now and forever comes out on steam? Sorry if you've mentioned it before but I haven't seen it and I'm looking foward to that happening and just wanted to know :) 

It’s gonna be a long time, I’m afraid. There’s no estimate right now.

I started playing Our Life with my sister a while ago, and I think you guys should know that we discovered your secret. >:)

L from death note and Cove are clearly the same person, and this whole game is just an origin story!!

I’ve never seen that show so I’m sorry to say I don’t understand the connection/reference you’re trying to make. I’m pretty out of the loop when it comes to media. I don’t watch movies or TV.

Will OL2 have options for disabled MCs?

I understand if it's too complicated, just curious

Unfortunately, it’s not really something we have a plan for. We couldn’t finish the game if we tried to include every disability and have it be meaningful. It’d just be too much content to create. But if we decide to only include a few, how would we choose which disabilities get to be represented and which are left out? I don’t know. It’ll probably have to be something we don’t include as an option again, sadly. I’m sorry.

playing our life > anything else 

Haha, I’m glad you’re enjoying it.

Honestly, I would like to thank Our Life for helping me come to terms with my sexuality. Before, I never would've actually thought that it was possible to like boys romantically and still be asexual. Almost all of the BL visual novels I've read had unskippable sexual content in them and it honestly just didn't click with what I feel. I'm glad I found Our Life. I love the game, the developers, and this fandom so much. Now, I can safely come out as homoromantic AND asexual (at least anonymously here anyway; my parents are still huge homophobes 😂). 

Aw, it’s great to hear you felt comfortable being yourself in the game! That’s wonderful. I’m really sorry about your parents, though.

Will the demo for OL2 be on android? Really not sure if I could wait any longer than I have to aha 

Yeah, it’ll be available for Android once we eventually release a demo!

Do all these reveals perhaps mean development is progressing ahead of schedule? Please let that be the case I'm already obsessed with Qiu 

No, sorry, aha. Art comes along much faster than script/programming-work for us. It’s gonna be a long time before the game is a finished thing you can actually play. But at least we can look at the beautiful images.

Hey! First of all I wanna say I reallllllyyyyy loooovvveeee Our Life and XOXO Droplets! I have over 300 hours of playtime on Our Life… Anyways, I was just wondering, are the Derek and Baxter DLCs going to come out at the same time? If not, which one do you plan to release first? :3 

They will come out separately and Derek will be first! Glad you like the game.

I keep replaying Our Life to get every possible iteration and I am loving it <3 I was wondering if Cove gets locked out of his confession because MC was talking to Lee, would it be possible to confess to him in step 4? 

Yeah, you can avoid the confession in Step 3 and then get it in Step 4.

Hi, my Cove wears bracelets through step 2 and 3 but I still don't get an option to give him a bracelet? I didn't even know that was possible until I seen someone else ask about it lol 

Hm, did you use the Cove creator? Maybe there’s a bug where using the creator to add bracelets doesn’t fulfill the requirement to give Cove a bracelet in Step 3.

Wait, I'm dense, when does Baxter appear in step 2? Is it from big park firework? I feel so bad since i really love Baxter and waiting to buy his dlc. 

It’s in the Soiree Moment. You have to be just friends with Cove, indifferent, or crushing but not ask Cove to the dance at all. Then while there you can find someone new to dance with. But if you bring Cove to the dance while crushing, the MC won’t wanna dance with anyone else so you can’t get the scene.

In step 2 when we go to the soiree I made my mc go alone and baxter chooses the mc to dance, i'm curious, why did he pick the mc? sorry if this has been asked before! 

Because the MC looked to be around his age, seemed to also be searching for a partner, and had nice legs. A perfect option for him.

I read some of the FAQs, and I saw that we could tell Baxter about the condo that he rented there was previously the mean old grandparents. how do we get the mc to tell him that? 

It happens in the DLC Moment “Late Shift”. If you don’t have a job you instead get a longer scene with Baxter.

I don’t know if you’ve addressed this or not, but are you planning on paying voice actors for our life: now and forever? 

Yeah, we pay our VAs in all our projects.

hey can i ask how you did the moments thing in ol? im trying to get into making visual novels and while im VERY sure its out of my comfort zone and all that atm i kinda wanna know just for the future, bc im p sure it would work well for something i wanna do :O but its also fine if you cant say for other reasons :> 

I’m afraid I’m not sure what you mean. Are you asking how we programmed the screen or something script related? Adding Moments like that is pretty straightforward, though. You just have buttons that open to different labels and then the scripts are essentially individual short stories/vignettes. Good luck with your VN!

Since Autumn becomes gender fluid later in the game, will there be a character who remains as he/him to romance in game? 

OL1 has the he/him LIs, OL2 is all about other genders.

I don't want to impose on your creative plans, but a parrot could possibly make a good pet in an OL-type game? They're pretty long-lived and likely to still be thriving by the end even if the MC got them back in step 1. 

I do appreciate the suggestion, but I’m afraid it’s not likely going to happen. I understand there are technically some animals that could theoretically live long enough to last the whole game that or we could have the MC only get a pet after some years have already passed. But the many things that would have to be considered/accommodated for makes it just something we probably can’t manage adding. I’m sorry.

As time passes will we be able to see Qiu and Tamarack's other stage arts as well?

They are both so cute i can't wait to be friends with them!

Yeah, we’ll show content from other Steps in the future. It’ll be a little while from now, though.

Can you date Cove and still have your family comfort you in the car?

You can’t get Cove’s Step 3 confession scene if you have the family comfort you in the car. But that’s not the only way to date him. You can get together with him earlier in the game or later on in Step 4.

Is Mc always going to be the one walking down the aisle or could Cove do it? Also could you choose to have one of your moms walk you? 

No. Cove wouldn’t want to walk down the aisle like that and the MC automatically respects that. And the MC also gets to have their preferences respected, so it’s up to you whether they want to do an aisle walk or not. You also can pick who, if anyone, walks with you.

Once step 4 is out, will you be able to go the whole game on crush/love without either of you confessing? 

Yes, as long as you tell the game you don’t want to progress the relationship. Even in Step 4 it won’t force you to officially get together.

Howdy, so in Step 4, there will be any Romance with Derek that is not part of any dlc? 

He’s only a friend unless you get his romance story.

Will the step 4 in OL2 be one big step or are you considering moments? 

Step 4 is just an epilogue in both games.

hi kind of a weird question but!! we know tht cliff doesn't start dating again but. wht abt flings? like does he ever do 1 night stands or anything? thank u!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Nope. Cliff has a very small interest in sex. If he’s not in a real relationship with a partner he’s crazy about it simply isn’t something he feels a need for, so one night stands wouldn’t even cross his mind.

sorry if you've already answered this, but i was wondering if there were plans for there to be bonus love interests in OL2 like how we have derek and baxter in OL1.

Maybe! There are side characters who could be given romance stories, but whether or not it will happen depends on funding and how long everything else takes to finish.

I don't know if i'm allowed to ask about ol2 here yet, if not u can ignore this or answer it later. My question is can you date one of them and be good friends with the other? I don't want to be strangers with the other bcs i love them both a lot :<

Yes you can!

what patreon level do i have to be to unlock the nsfw moment? im on the $5 one right now, will that give me access to the moment, or just access to the moment progress? 

That’ll give you access! Tier 2 and anything higher allows the player to download it.

[moved-19871997]

Do you have any advice for studying AS and A level chem or physics or compsci or math? Or all of the above? 😭 /gen

physics: use physics and maths tutor for information + past papers + some flashcards and u can always use past paper questions from other exam boards as long as u check the spec, the phsyics doesnt change that much really and ask your teachers for past papers/mulitple choice questions because they'll have access to more questions than u can (im pretty sure 2021 papers are locked for the general public but teachers could access them)

maths: past papers. literally just as many past papers u can get your hands on, even old spec or other specs bc maths doesnt really change that much ive found. u can ask your teachers if they have zigzag papers which r like a set of papers with a mix of 15-ish questions and idk which board you use but edexcel released a bunch of topic tests for each topic that have a ton of questions from old papers sorted by topic + physics and maths tutor have a lot of past papers. the solomon papers r also good

compsci: smartrevise is rlly good and its like . 12? pounds for two years. it has multiple choice questions and longer answer questions and it'll show you the mark scheme adn you can sort by which topics acording to the spec what u want to revise and physics and maths tutor has information documents for cs too

chemistry: i dont do chemistry but physics and maths tutor has past papers and some informaton document things but idk if theyre that good so. take that w a grain of salt

general: a way i like to study is by reading through a textbook chapter or a section of a phsyics and maths tutor topic document thing and on a blank peice of paper writing down like topic titles or terms or things (ex: data buses [next line], FDE cycle [next line], first normal form etc etc) and then closing the tab and writing down everything you remember (ex: data buses are bidirectional buses in the cpu that carry data between the registers and the RAM, FDE cycle - fetch: the address bus goes to the data address indicated by the program counter, etcetc) and then open the tab again and write out in a different colour pen everything you forgot (this is called blurting if you want to find a better explanation)

and when youre doing past papers use the examiners report to see what other people got wrong/how that cohort performed

ALSO take regular breaks, remember to have a balanced diet and sleeping a regular amount at regular times and do some sort of excerize - your brain works best when your body is taken care of, you'll remember more when you sleep a regular amount

GOOD LUCK 🌟

[entryno17]

For ask game Gaster

Its inevitable

yeah uh. this entire post should probably be under a read more. sorry </3

favorite thing about them -

personally, gaster was what elevated my love for undertale into full blown infatuation. somehow, he manages to appeal to literally every stupid thing that i love. he’s absolutely my favorite character in the game that’s not a character in the game. (papyrus is my favorite character, but gaster is my favorite non-character, you see.) i’ve basically always had a fascination for strange things in technology, starting at age 4 when i played my first video game. with access to action replay and all kinds of weird cheat codes, i found myself running into tons of weird glitches and oddities. they were scary, but they were incredible to me. they shattered the veil of immersion and revealed the game’s true nature: it wasn’t magic, it wasn’t real; it was lines of codes strung together. but that didn’t disappoint me—actually, it thrilled me. my interest grew further after discovering video game creepypasta (at a far-too-young age of course lol.) that stuff horrified me, the idea that something organic could be born from lines of code, whether it was an evil murder ghost or just a strange glitch—something about the concept just captured my imagination like nothing else. i’m still in love with the idea; i’m always reading about computer viruses, artificial intelligence, the mechanics of games and programs; anything that captures the strange wonders of technology. unused content in video games is another love of mine because of the unique insight it gives on the development of games. this interest has led me to learn and do so much, from writing simple code and romhacks to inspiring me to develop a game of my own. i don’t think i can explain just how much i love this stuff. SO. imagine how i felt when a certain game (that i already adored) had an entire character literally stuck in the game’s data both in and out of its universe, at the time only accessible through datamining and file editing. even though my first fixation on undertale died out in 2016, gaster has occupied a special place in my mind for all this time. but now that i’m once again obsessed with the game, i think he just is my entire mind at this point? deltarune’s next chapters cannot come out soon enough i'm going insane here

least favorite thing about them - the fact that he managed to dissolve my brain into goo. also that there’s so little content of him in game of course </3

favorite line - wow i get to pick something from his like 3 lines of dialogue!! anyway it’s the quote in my blog’s description, “I LOOK FORWARD / TO CREATING / A NEW FUTURE / WITH YOU.” it’s just... so ominous and exciting. and he’s talking to YOU!

brOTP - alphys probably? they might seem really different from each other at first glance but at heart they’re both just kinda dorky and weird. in my personal pre-core headcanon universe they’re really close—alphys and sans were both his assistants and they were all best buddies basically. alphys has always been really insecure but i think gaster would be good at reassuring her (one thing sans would probably absolutely suck at,) they’d both just be really positive presences in each others life and that idea makes me happy.

OH JEVIL TOO, this would be post-core gaster so like. man i don’t even know. they’d both just be fucking insane together and i love that

OTP - still got nothing. honestly, i don’t ship in general unless there’s really good reason to?? kingdings is kinda cute though, mostly because the name is fucking perfect and amazing it makes me cackle. OH MY GOD i forgot, i saw gaster x jevil referred to as jeviled eggs and just. why are these ship names so fucking good i can’t stand it nOTP - grillster I’M SORRY I JUST DON’T GET IT. no hate at all towards people who like it though, it just doesn’t interest me at all. also sanster because i personally believe gaster is related to him so like....... yeah no. (AND EVEN IF HE WASN’T I’D STILL HATE IT TBH. SRRY.)

random headcanon - gaster’s body is made from coagulated black goop of unknown origin. there could be a skeleton under there, but there’s probably not much of it left, if there is one at all. he has a white turtleneck, but only the neck part. his sweater fused into his body at some point—it’s literally just stuck there and he can’t do anything about it. he doesn’t have legs; the definition of his body terminates just below where his ribcage would be, and everything beyond there is an amorphous pile of goo. he can manifest arms (for hugs), but he usually floats his hands around since it’s easier. when he’s stressed or excited, his body melts a bit. he slithers on the ground like a slug, though he actually can move unnervingly fast? he may or may not leave traces of goo everywhere he goes. it’s horrible.

unpopular opinion - alright this is my hottest take in the entire undertale fandom: dadster is GARBAGE. grandpaster is clearly superior. i KNOW you fuckers just want to draw gaster as a hot dad BUT HE’S AN OLD SLIMY PILE OF BONES. YOU CAN’T CHANGE MY MIND. (YOU COULD JUST DRAW HIM AS A SEXY OLD SLIMY PILE OF BONES. IF YOU WEREN'T ALL COWARDS.)

song i associate with them - umm i can’t actually think of anything. maybe tout petit moineau - igorrr??? mostly putting it here bc it’s just one of my favorite songs like ever LMAO. it’s just very haunting, and the absolute chaos it further falls into with each passing moment is so incredible.

maybe also database batadase - gangpol und mit??? this association is even MORE nonexistent but fuck you i can do whatever i want. i associate gaster with synthesized voices in general and i really like this song. yeah that’s it.

favorite picture of them - GASTER ON THE UNDERTALE VINYL SET.

THIS IS THE ONLY OFFICIAL GASTER ART ASIDE FROM HIS SPRITE AND HE’S FUCKING ADORABLE

i still can’t believe i actually own this thing LMAO. as far as i know, he’s only on the cover if you preordered on the day of undertale’s anniversary which i happened to do. although the second set of prints haven’t been shipped yet??—he’s been removed from the boxart on fangamer’s website so there’s honestly a fair chance that he’s not going to be on those copies at all... if so, jesus christ i’m lucky. i can sleep so much more comfortably knowing that he is haunting my room.

[incorrect-ikevamp-quotes]

May I request GHJPU for Sebastian? Sebby needs more love :D (eee sorry if any of this overlapped or its too much, have a cookie for your troubles 🍪)

DID SOMEBODY SAY LOVING SEBASTIAN HOURS!?!?!?!?! FERAL EYE GLEAM

Bless your heart!!! Sebastian has found a new and very dear place in my heart as of late, I would be delighted to offer my thoughts!!!!! :D (your cookie offering has been accepted with the utmost glee 🍪, I hope my humble writing efforts will bring you equal joy, lovely~💖💖💖) 

G = Gifts (How does he feel about gift giving? What are his habits when it comes to this?) 

Awwww haha, baby boy Sebby is honestly a very observant and reliable kind of S/O, I think. He will notice even the tiniest of changes in MC’s expression--the slightest shifts in her temperament. As a result of his attentive nature he has an easy time deducing the things she might like, always makes a mental note of where her eyes linger. Is there a classic she once loved in her time being published for the first time in their era, on display at a bookstore nearby? Noted. Does she hover near shops filled with self-care products--things like scented candles or lotions or bath salts, things she considers indulgent luxuries? Noted. Is there an outfit that caught his eye in a boutique, something he thinks would complement her complexion perfectly? Noted. 

The thing about Sebastian is that his gifts will be heartfelt, timely, and devastatingly thoughtful. Whether something small or something lavish it will always be precisely what she needs/wants, and she can sense the loving care he put into finding the perfect gift.

H = Holding Hands (When/how does he like to hold hands?)

Honestly? Sebastian has spent the better part of his life alone. His circumstances weren’t the worst; for all that he’s lost in his life he never went hungry, lived comfortably. But...that doesn’t change the fact that his life has been fairly devoid of meaningful human contact. Even in college, friends and close colleagues were hard to come by. The few people he did develop budding feelings for he always gave up on long before it could become any kind of substantial relationship. He was always the type to admire from afar, never really felt worthy of the people he liked.

It was MC that was the first to reach out to him, and for the first little while in their relationship she will be the one most naturally inclined to reach for him. He isn’t really used to having someone by his side like this, somebody who would be delighted to hold his hand--who wants to be close to him. It’s always a shock when they go grocery shopping and he just feels her fingers wrap gently around his. She blushes a little and says something about not wanting to get separated, but it’s clear what her real motivation was.

After those first few months, it becomes much more natural for him to reach for her hand when they’re traveling somewhere together or when they’re alone. He likes to intertwine their fingers, loves the way they fit against his perfectly. His shyness wears off after a while, and it’ll be rare to see them together without them holding hands--unless they’re cooking or at work.

J = Jokes (Does he like to joke around with or prank her? How?)

Do you know how cats have their eyes all narrow thin pupil but then they go REALLY REALLY round? That’s Sebastian. I tend to refer to it as “Silly Time Mode Engaged.”

Now then, his kind of joking is very dry and very deadpan. It’s subtle and immediate, so if you’re not attuned to it it can be easy to miss. That, or people just look at him weird because they don’t quite get the connection he’s making and/or the delivery feels off because his facial expression doesn’t change at all, completely flat. That being said, one of his all time favorite things to do is to say something absurd or nigh histrionic (which tends to be uncharacteristic of him) and wait for the confused head turn/startled laughter to hit. He will make puns and play on words all the time--he puts his academic knowledge to good use.

“I swear when I first met you I was convinced you were an AI.” “Alexa taught me everything I know.” He’ll bow. “Oh? Do I have competition, in that case?” “Your speakers are suboptimal (he pokes her freckles), but you possess what Alexa lacks.” “And that would be?” He’ll gather her close, smiling against her lips. “My heart.” :D cutest robot I ever saw uwu

Bonus bc I have a problem: “Is stealing hearts in Alexa’s programming? Just to be safe, of course.” “I think it’s safe to say it isn’t within the parameters of her design--but that doesn’t mean you’re out of the woods just yet.” cue sounds of tickling and laughter

The other way Sebastian messes with MC is that he is an ENORMOUS tease in the bedroom. He’s very much the kind of lover that prefers to tantalize and draw things out; a long, slow seduction that will render MC immobile from the pleasure by the end. The promise of a kiss is almost always only a whisper of the feeling he intends to drown her in. Remember that Sebastian’s stoicism belies a nigh inhuman ardor and self-control. He’s more than willing to leave her wanting in order to fully capitalize on that desire later at night.

P = Pet Names (What does he like to call her?)

Other than her name? HE DOESN’T AHAAHAHAHAHA Just kidding of course, but given where he comes from pet names between couples aren’t...really a thing…(take it up with Japan, I Was Today Years Old, my sappy romantic ass would never survive)

The funny inverse of this though is that he does NOT fuck around with people that try to call MC pet names. When Arthur Tries It™ he canonically goes all steely saccharine, openly telling the others they’re together. So none of that “luv” or “doll” business, he will not have it (he won’t fight the purebloods on it because 1. they’re more like doting grandfathers than anything and 2. Sebastian does not have a death wish). If MC has a nickname of some kind, then I could see him using that or adding his own spin on it with a great deal of affection c:

U = Upset (How does he act when she’s upset?)

Whether he was the cause or not, Sebastian has a single modus operandi when his beloved is upset (and to anyone who’s upset really) and that is to offer gentle reassurance/an apology. He is very, very sensitive to the feelings of others and really takes it to heart when someone isn’t feeling well. That being said, he won’t always be overt about his concern--he’s more the type to do little things that offer constant support/reminders that he’s there for them. 

If it’s something more serious, he will do everything in his power to minimize the harm done and sooth the MC. His attempts to comfort her will be tender, muted, and consistent; prolonged hugs, doubles his offering of sweets, makes her favorite foods, gives her a relaxing bath salt to use--anything that he knows for certain will coax her lips up into a smile. He’s the type to freely offer space for her to figure things out if she needs it, but he will also be watchful; he won’t let things escalate if she needs externalized support to heal (bc lbr some problems we can’t solve alone ;-;).

His other go-to method is to offer distractions in any capacity that he can. Will offer to teach her a new recipe, or find a new type of flower he wants to plant together, or make up some kind of project he needs help with. Sometimes he’ll genuinely need the help, but most of the time he does it for the express purpose of getting her mind away from negative things and focused on him/the present. It’s hard to dwell on upsetting things when you’re body is physically demanding something else from you, even more so if it’s a fairly complex task. She’s known to be very dutiful; she’ll be so focused on doing a good job she’ll forget the sadness/irritation for a bit and the intensity of the emotion might ebb slightly.

If the issue is lighter, he’ll probably just cuddle/tickle her back to fighting spirit, pressing kisses wherever he can reach until she starts giggling. In these instances he prefers to hug her from behind, a reminder that she doesn’t have to face anything unpleasant or unnerving all on her own; he’ll always be there to hold her steady whenever she needs him. 

And rest assured, this man is always gathering data to optimize his comfort capabilities. He is incredibly adaptable, and will always be watching her reactions closely to adjust his strategies.