#but the fact that like MOST people on our server were SAME BRAINCELL. I needed to share

[varyathevillain]

Aziraphale entering his Jonathan Sims arc was not something I had on the bingo for season 2 of Good Omens.

[smaidjor]

and i pay for my place by the ring (Chapter 1)

Hey guys! Welcome to another angsty fic by yours truly, provider of flower husbands pain.

Some things you should know before you jump into this:

1. This is a companion fic to my fic "i know they're losing". You can understand it without having read the other one, since it's the same story from two different POVs but I think the overall experience is better with both!

2. The overall title of each fic is from the mitski song I bet on losing dogs. Chapter titles are from the Last Goodbye from the Hobbit films.

3. There is a lot of lord of the rings lore in both fics, and I mean a lot. You may be kinda confused if you've never read tolkien's works. It will all be explained eventually, though!

4. With the fact that it's a companion fic and a lot of people came here from Jimmy's POV in mind- this is a lot heavier of a fic. The content warnings are heavier and the angst is more intense. You have been warned.

(Obligatory disclaimer that this is about characters, not ccs, and do not ship real people, as always!)

Chapter Title: to these memories i will hold

Chapter Wordcount: 4000

Content warnings: suicidal thoughts, self-esteem issues, panic attacks, past death, very frank discussion of death. (In general, if suicide or death are triggering topics for you, this is probably not the fic for you. Stay safe and take care of yourself!)

AO3

Actual fic under the cut:

Scott didn’t expect to survive 3rd life. No one did, he thinks, but especially not him. Clever, clever Scott, who knew his fate too well for his own good. He could have chosen his allies carefully, he knows, could have played on their emotions to make them think he was loyal until the moment he turned on them to win. He knew who the strongest factions and warriors were, the most cunning and intelligent participants in this death game they were forced into. Instead, he chose Jimmy. Sweet, dopey Jimmy, who had the personality of a golden retriever and only a handful of braincells at any given time. Jimmy, who was worth more than all the stars in the sky to him. Who made him feel alive . No, Scott didn’t expect to win. Not when it was Jimmy by his side- when it was Jimmy by his side, winning didn’t matter. All that mattered was Jimmy’s blush when Scott pressed a kiss to his cheek, the way his hair looked like gold in the sunlight and his smile lit up Scott’s whole world.

After Jimmy died, Scott stopped wanting to survive 3rd life. What was the point? The stars can shine on without the sun, but all life on Earth would wither and die. The same happened to Scott’s broken, bitter heart, he found. Jimmy was the first person in years to love him truly, wholly, with no strings attached; it was terrifying how quickly Scott fell for the first person to look at him and not expect him to be anything but what he was. Scott’s world, which used to be mountain peaks and endless blue sky, narrowed to warm brown eyes and a grin like sunshine quicker than he could comprehend. Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, it all came back to him. What was Scott without Jimmy? The unwanted twin, the unloved child, the un-elven elf. Because who cared if he was a good shot with a bow or good at organizing teams or building pretty little houses? He would always be second-born, second-best.

It was fitting, really, that when Scott died, he died alone. Some might find it ironic that the man who knew enough people to fill the roster of a championship held by a god every month died without a single person to witness it save his enemies, but in the end, it was always going to be like this, Scott knew. He hadn’t been there to see Jimmy die, he hadn’t been able to hold him in his final moments and soothe the agony of death. Maybe this was his punishment. He wouldn’t be surprised; the gods of this world did not smile on him and never would. Why should they, when he had failed the only person who had ever found him good enough?

When he woke up in Rivendell, he was almost disappointed. Almost. He considered ditching the rest of the elves, up and leaving to somewhere that didn’t make it feel like the noose of immortality was slowly tightening around his neck. If nothing else, Noxite would let him crash at the MCC server for a bit until he found somewhere to go. And yet, in the end, Scott’s stubborn sense of duty won out. The elves needed a ruler. Xornoth had disappeared to god knows where, and though they had been braver, wiser, better in every way, Scott was the one who had stayed. Who was willing to take up the crown that weighed so heavily on its bearers. So Scott, who no one ever expected to rule, took up the burden of leadership.

Now, he tries and fails to get out of bed and wonders what the point of that even was. He’s fading, and worse than that, he’s fading over a human. His ancestors are probably rolling in their graves. Rivendell will be leaderless within a decade, and this time there are no heirs to take control. Not even a ‘spare’ like Scott used to be. What a mess.

There are footsteps on the stairs. They’re unfamiliar, meaning they could be a threat, but he’s too tired to bother sitting up. If he dies, well- it’s inevitable, really, in the same way watching the mortals he loves dies is.

The person comes around the corner, and Scott realizes with no joy that he won’t be dying today after all. Katherine looks both curious and concerned, but her voice tilts towards the latter when she asks “Scott?” and then, more hesitantly  “Lord Smajor?”

He blinks at her, exhausted. “Hi, Katherine.”

“I came to talk to you about some empires stuff, but, I mean, if this is a bad time, I can come back later…?” She sounds so thrown off by his state that Scott almost feels bad.

Whatever it is, it must be important if she’s come all the way here, though, so he gestures her to a chair. “No, no, stay. I can muster the energy for a meeting, just don’t ask me to get up.”

Katherine takes the seat. “I came to talk about the corruption on the server, but- are you okay? Are you sick?”

Nothing about the question is funny in any way, but Scott laughs regardless. “In a way, yes.”

“What do you mean?”

“Take my hand.” He offers it out, knowing the unnatural cold is unsettling no matter if you’re elven or not. Katherine does as he asks, the concern on her face only growing as she grips his icy hand.

“Elves don’t get sick like mortals do,” Scott explains. “Nor do we die of old age. But we get...heartsickness, you might call it. We call it fading in our tongue- the cold hands are a symptom of that. Our souls are fragile, and the grief of the mortal plane can be overwhelming. If an elf is too struck by it, they fade away and die.” The words taste bitter on his tongue, a frank reminder of the slow and painful death that awaits him.

Katherine gasps, and Scott knows he’s alarmed her.

He goes on, though. “It usually happens to old elves, world-weary.” Ironic, it’s ironic that he’s saying that as a young elf explaining his own death. “Those who are tired of existence. But any elf who has experienced enough grief is at risk.”

Her face is nothing short of horrified. “You’re- fading? But doesn’t it usually happen to old elves? Wait, are you old?”

“I’m fifty-five.”

“Is that old?”

He has to laugh. “Fifty is the elven equivalent of eighteen for humans, the age of maturity.” Though he feels so much older than that, both in elven terms and in human.

“Oh.”

There’s a moment of silence, then, “How can you be so calm if you’re dying?”

“I’m tired, Katherine. The world tore me away from the people I loved, and..I’m tired of fighting it.” He’s so, so exhausted. So sick of having to claw and scrape and struggle for the barest scraps of happiness.

“Is there a way to reverse fading- to fix it?” Katherine sounds so hopeful that the question seems almost naive even though she’s far more capable of a ruler than he is. Naive in the affairs of elves, maybe, much as she’s intelligent in so many other ways.

Scott tries not to flinch at the innocent inquiry, thinking about the deaths from fading that he’s watched. “Technically, yes. If an elf recovers enough emotionally, it’s reversible. But whatever caused them to fade the first time can- and often does- cause it again.” And again, and again, until there’s nothing to be done but let them die , he finishes in his head.

Katherine nods, a look of determination overtaking the hope. “We’ll just have to reverse it, then.”

“That’s sweet, Katherine, but I’m dying.”

“No. You’re not going to die. Now come on, you can show me your empire while I fill you in on what’s happening on the rest of the continent.” She sounds so firm that he doesn’t dare disobey, though his exhaustion makes a fair effort at convincing him to. Will this really fix anything? Unlikely. But it’s worth it to try, if only to humor Katherine. At least this way she’ll have the comfort of having tried to save him when he inevitably fades away into nothing

Scott takes her hand, though it brings him little warmth, cold from her trek here. “Alright.” He swallows the bitter grief in his throat before it can seep into his words. “We can try.”

He leads Katherine around Rivendell, taking some pride in the way she oohs over the decor. If there’s one thing he can do right, it’s building. While some elven rulers might see it as below themselves to help build houses for their citizens, Scott finds building soothing. It’s one of the few skills he picked up during his time away that people really appreciate; no one wants to live in a shitty house.

As they walk, she also tells Scott about the demon, Xornoth. “The demon’s already visited a lot of people, I think. Gem and Shubble for sure, and Fwhip and Sausage. That’s not even mentioning the corruption that’s been spreading.”

If Scott said that the name Xornoth didn’t make him flinch, he would be lying to himself. It’s not your sibling , he tells himself. It’s just a coincidence .

It’s through the virtue of years of lying that his voice comes out steady. “There’s corruption in Rivendell too. Likely Xornoth’s work. And given that Jimmy still has Vilya-” his heart doesn’t ache when he says Jimmy’s name, it doesn’t- “well, I haven’t been able to do much.”

“Vilya?” Katherine asks.

“A ring of power. My inheritance from the Noldor.”

“Why does Jimmy have it?”

He doesn’t answer. He won’t- can’t talk about Jimmy, not without remembering how he looked with an arrow through his throat, bright smile gone and face frozen in fear. How does he explain how much Jimmy meant to him? How much he’s now giving up, knowing he’ll have to lose it one way or another?

Katherine drops the topic, seemingly sensing that she’s stumbled on something sensitive. When she has to go home, she leaves with a friendly goodbye and a promise to visit, and Scott believes neither. Who would put the effort into visiting him? He’s not a good friend, he’s not a good king, and god knows he’s not a good husband. In fact, he’s actively avoiding his husband. He may have kept the pufferfish Jimmy gave him, but that doesn’t mean anything. He can’t fall in love with Jimmy again. Loving Jimmy will kill him. (Scott ignores the small voice at the back of his head that whispers that he’s still in love with Jimmy and it’s already killing him just as he always knew it would.)

To his surprise, Katherine does come back next week, and the week after that. He’s ashamed to admit it, but there’s some part of him that’s pathetically grateful when she shows up at his doorstep. It’s a chance to not be alone . Much as he dreads the day when she finally gives up on him, it’s nice that someone cares enough to try and save him from himself.

The third week, Katherine doesn’t show up. Instead, the footsteps on the stairs are familiar in a way that makes Scott’s heart twist painfully.

He takes a deep breath. “Hello, Jimmy.”

“How’d you know it was me?” Jimmy asks. Scott can tell he’s startled by the way his voice goes up, almost frightened.

Scott steels himself, taking a deep breath before rolling over to face his ex-husband. “Do you think I could ever forget the sound of your footsteps?” He forces himself to not get distracted staring at Jimmy, instead going on before Jimmy can open his mouth. “What are you doing here?”

“Katherine asked me to visit, I’m not sure why, but...here I am. Say, why is she visiting every week?” Jimmy’s so curious. So naive, as always.

Scott laughs, bitter. “Katherine thinks she can save me.”

“Save you from what?”

Scott hears the concern in Jimmy’s words, and he can’t bring himself to break the news. It’s not as if it matters. It’s not as if Jimmy would care; he came here because of Katherine. Maybe he cared at the start of Empires, but Scott’s been nothing but rude to him since. There’s no reason for him to care. (He cares. Scott’s lying, like always. Jimmy cares and Scott knows it.)

“Save you from what?” Jimmy asks again, more insistently.

He refuses to say it. He needs Jimmy out, out of his room and out of his life before he does something he’ll regret. “You should go.” To prove his point, he tries to stand, finding himself too dizzy to quite pull it off. Jimmy rushes to catch him, and Scott hates himself just a little for how that still gives him a warm feeling.

“Scott, what is going on?”

He brushes Jimmy off, letting go of his arm and hurrying for the stairs. He can’t let Jimmy work his way into his heart again; Scott won’t be strong enough to let him go this time.

“Scott, seriously! Answer me, are you okay? What’s happening?” Jimmy sounds almost angry, but Scott can hear the distress under it and that’s what breaks him.

“I’m fading, alright?” His voice nearly breaks at the concern on Jimmy’s face when he whirls to face him. “I’m dying, now leave me alone!”

Jimmy sputters, seemingly caught off guard. “You- what- but elves don’t die, right?”

“We do. From poison, from swords-” Scott thinks back to third life- “from arrows through the throat, from grief.” The words come out more raw than he intends, leaving him scrambling to recover his composure. He takes a deep breath in and out, forcing his voice to steady again. “Come on. If you’re not going to leave, I might as well show you around.”

“You can’t just drop something like that on a man, you know!” Jimmy calls after him, although Scott can hear his footsteps following as well.

“You did ask, to be fair.” Scott replies. His voice is calm. He’s fine.

“I guess so, but- but still, dude.”

Scott pushes open the side door, holding it for Jimmy. “Here.”

Jimmy nods and slips through the door.  “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Scott starts towards the bridges, intending to show Jimmy the enchanting tower and then the door. He doesn’t care about how fast he’s walking, Jimmy can keep up. He’s taller than Scott and probably has better balance at the moment too. Scott’s struggling not to fall, honestly, but his pride won’t let him go slower.

Jimmy breaks the awkward silence with the question Scott least wants to hear. “So, uh..are we going to talk about 3rd life?”

“No,” Scott says firmly.

“Why not? We need to talk about it some time-”

“I said no .” He can’t talk about it.

“It’s literally killing you to not talk about it!”

The words strike right at the raw wound of Jimmy’s death, and Scott freezes. Inhales. Exhales. Tries to keep calm.

“Tell me I’m wrong, Scott!” Jimmy cries. He sounds so upset, Scott’s heart aches. “I dare you, tell me I’m wrong! Tell me you never cared about me, tell me you didn’t bother to bury me, tell me it didn’t hurt even a little when I died! Tell me I was just stupid little Jimmy, a toy for an elf who’d live far beyond my lifespan! Tell me whatever, just tell me the truth! ”

Scott takes a deep breath. “Fine. You want to know what happened after you died?” He can’t think straight through the rage clouding his head, the desperate need to prove that Jimmy’s wrong , that Scott loved him so much it’s killing him. “You want to hear about me screaming until my throat went raw? You want to know that I kissed your face and sobbed and begged you to wake up, over and over until I couldn’t speak at all? You want to live with the knowledge that Grian had to physically pull me away from your body? Is that what you want to hear, Jimmy? ” His voice damn near breaks on his husband’s name, and Scott thanks the gods he stopped believing in a long time ago that it doesn’t.

“No,” Jimmy says. His voice is soft, gentle, almost as if Scott is a wounded animal that needs a delicate touch. “That’s not what I want to hear, not at all. I’d rather you be happy than love me.”

The words punch the air from Scott’s lungs, raw and soft and real. Scott is an excellent liar. Jimmy isn’t. Scott knows that Jimmy is telling the truth. What he doesn’t know is how to handle that level of devotion. He wonders again how Jimmy- sweet, genuine Jimmy who wears his heart on his sleeve and is hopelessly devoted to an elf who can’t be fully his- chose Scott of all people. Scott, who’s as bitter as Jimmy is sweet, who’s sarcastic and snarky and hasn’t been good enough for just about anything in his life. He certainly wasn’t good enough to save Jimmy, Scott thinks bitterly.

He shakes off the thought. “I buried you on the hill above our houses. I planted a poppy over your grave.”

“Oh.”

“Grian came over the next day. I didn’t want to see anyone who wasn’t you, but I let him in because I had to. He helped me do the straps on my armor and asked me if he could do anything else to make things easier. I told him to bury me next to you.”

“Did he?”

Scott almost laughs at the innocent question. “How would I know? Grian was honorable enough, though, loyal to his allies. I like to think he did.”

“He was a good guy,” Jimmy agrees. “A little bit bloodthirsty, I guess, but good. I don’t suppose he survived any better than the rest of us, though maybe being bloodthirsty helped.”

“Maybe.”

“Can I- can I ask you why you hate me so much now?” Jimmy’s tone is uncertain, hesitant and it hurts . “I mean, if you mourned me in third life and all.”

Scott looks away from his earnest gaze, but he can’t stop the truth slipping out. “I don’t hate you.”

“You don’t?” Jimmy asks, seemingly bewildered. “But you burned the pufferfish-”

“I didn’t. I kept it.” Scott doesn’t want to think about this, wants to say it even less. “I never hated you. I don’t think I’m capable of it.”

“Then why do you keep avoiding me?”

“I’ve been kind of busy dying,” Scott says wryly, unable to resist a bit of morbid humor at his own expense.

“Scott! That’s not funny!”

“It was a little funny.”

“No!”

Jimmy sounds genuinely distressed, and Scott drops the wry smile. “Jimmy, I’m an elf. I won’t live far beyond you, but only because I’ll fade without you.” It’s a simple statement. The truth, as much as he can give.

“So your solution is to isolate yourself and fade now?” Jimmy’s outrage is justifiable, but Scott just shrugs.

“It does sound stupid when you put it like that, doesn’t it?” It really does. “But I lost you once, and I don’t think I could bear it again.”

A hand lands on Scott’s arm, and he turns, startled. Jimmy doesn’t give him time to react, throwing his arms around Scott and pulling him close. Scott almost lets out a very undignified squeak at the sudden contact, though he slowly relaxes into Jimmy’s hold.

He should pull away. He shouldn’t give Jimmy false hope like this. But Jimmy is so warm , and Scott is so unbearably cold. Every fiber of his being is screaming that this is what’s right; screw Rivendell and obligations and too-heavy crowns, Jimmy is home to him. He’s warm for the first time in months, and the most heartbreaking part is that it can’t last. He can’t do this again.

He pulls away, ignoring the painful hope on Jimmy’s face. “I’m sorry, Jimmy.” For the first time all conversation, his voice well and truly wobbles. “I can’t. Not again.”

“But-”

Scott shakes his head. “Losing you will destroy me. We dared to love, and now all we can do now is lessen the pain when it all comes crashing down.” The words are like glass in his throat, but he forces them out anyways. They have to be said.

Jimmy’s silent, and it hurts more than if Jimmy had yelled at him.

“Goodbye, Jimmy,” Scott manages, turning away before Jimmy can see the way his face twists in pain. He makes his retreat as quickly as possible, stumbling and nearly taking a tumble just before he reaches the door. Unlike before, there’s no helpful ex-husband there to catch him, to make sure he’s alright and ask a million questions until Scott’s forced to admit that he’s not okay and hasn’t been in a long time.

He fumbles with the latch, hands shaking and vision blurring. Finally, it clicks, and Scott stumbles inside and slams the door shut before sliding to the ground. He won’t cry. He won’t . He doesn’t love Jimmy, he can’t love Jimmy anymore. Jimmy was never meant to be his. They might have carved out a few precious moments, stolen them from the universe and giggled like kids with their hands in the cookie jar as they kissed amongst the flowers, but those brief moments were all they were ever going to be allowed. It was always going to end this way, Scott tells himself. There’s no use crying over a mortal who will be dead in the blink of an eye to an elf. What would his parents say? That this was typical of him, probably. Typical Scott, always wanting what he would never be able to have. Typical, predictable Scott, loving a mortal who shouldn’t be worth anything to him.

He’s crying. There are tears spotting his cyan robes, splashing onto the wood floors he worked so hard on. Scott rubs at his eyes furiously, but that only makes it worse, sobs shuddering through him and leaving him hollow and aching. He’s so cold . The ache in his chest has returned tenfold, stealing away his breath, and he curls further into himself, struggling for air.

He’s going to die. He is going to die , alone on the floor of his house because he fell for someone he couldn’t have. For all that he’s spent every minute since Jimmy’s death in 3rd life wishing for some way out of this cruel world, he’s terrified now that it seems inevitable. He’s scared in a way he hasn’t been in forever, breath coming quick and shallow. He's scared, and he is so, so tired of this ache that haunts him, the chill that he can never get rid of.

“Jimmy,” Scott whispers. There’s no way for the human to hear him, but the name brings him some comfort. “ Jimmy .” He wants his husband. He wants someone to hug him. He doesn’t want to fade away freezing and alone, no one there to hold his hand or reassure him that the pain will be over soon. Internally, he begs for someone, anyone who cares to come looking. To find him, even if they’re too late to save him. Someone. Anyone. Please.

No one comes, and Scott lays on his floor until his breathing steadies out again. His head spins when he forces himself to his feet, and he has to lean against the wall for a few moments. There’s no time for dramatics, he tells himself sternly. He has a kingdom to rule. He cannot afford to break over a mortal he never should have fallen for in the first place. He doesn’t love Jimmy anymore, he can’t .

(He’s lying. But Scott has always been an excellent liar, even when it’s to himself.)

[ictvibe]

INFO MADNESS

#January  18 - 22, 2021 ( Week 14)

Howdy folks! As to what I have said last week, I will be talking about the things I have learned upon coding my website! See the title? Yeah that’s right! INFO MADNESS! Let’s start!

Here is a quick overview of what I'll be talking about.

Layout  Navigation bar Card Columns Slideshow Video Audio Hover Responsive Gallery Shaking Image and Flipping Image Image Sprites Search bar Center Image iFrames

So let's start this up with the Layout!

As to what Sir Peralta said when he announced this project, "All information you need in creating your website are within the reach of your fingertips." So I made the most of it. He actually sent a file which contains some code that we can use. We just have to fix it base on our likings but I didn’t use it since I wanna challenge myself more even though it will be harder in my part. 

And so I watched some videos in YouTube on how to make a two-columned website but I ended up not doing them because I find them complicated and offers a lot of complexity that my last three braincells cannot process. And luckily when I searched on Google how to make a two-column website, I stumbled upon W3Schools so expect that all of my reference will come from here!

So as I was saying, I found a two column website layout and the codes were much easier to understand than those of the ones the Sir Peralta sent so I used them instead. 

That’s the layout I found. This layout offers two unequal columns just like what Sir Peralta wanted. contents can also be separated by card for easy findings. So how does this work? Well, according to w3school: “The main content is the biggest and the most important part of your site. It is common with unequal column widths, so that most of the space is reserved for the main content. The side content (if any) is often used as an alternative navigation or to specify information relevant to the main content. Change the widths as you like, only remember that it should add up to 100% in total:” 

Since I used two columns, I use 30% and 60% for the width and added  5% left and right margins so they all add up to 100! 

Navigation Bar 

For the navigation in which I had a hard time fixing and coding it, I watched a video on YouTube if how can I make a navigation bar with dropdown and I just copied its code. It was actually hard at first because I have to customize it the way I wanted it to be and I always mess up. And when I finally get to understand the codes in which it took me almost two hours to do so, I finally got the flow of coding the navigation bar alone. 

Ok so I keep on babbling about navigation bar, so for y’all information, navigation bar is a list of links in a website and if you click one of it, it will direct you to your desire page.

Card

I didn’t, like, code this myself, I just adjusted the padding, width, size and etc from the layout that I found. To find my desired card size, I did a trial and error which was a wrong decision to do because I always mess up and ended up ruining my website layout.

“Is a bordered box with some padding around its content. It includes options for headers, footers, content, colors, etc.“

Slideshow

Slideshow is for words, pictures, gifs that is projected in slides in a limited time. Slideshows are mostly on loop that’s why you can see the pictures again and again after the sequence.

Disclaimer!!! I made that description myself because I can’t find any. As for the slide show, I coded it easily since I already have a background on it. I edited the sizes of the pictures first so they will be uniform to each other and it’s pleasing to the eyes of my viewers!

Video

As for this, the HTML <video> element is used to show a video on a web page. I have actually known this already since it was discussed to us by our previous ICT teacher. But the problem here is that, it wasn’t responsive to the size of the screen so when I searched how, I just have to put the max-width on 100% full and it will be responsive! Tada~ as easy as one, two three!

Audio

The HTML <audio> element is used to play an audio file on a web page. What I did to audio is the same as for the video. It was kinda frustrating at first since I really don’t know what to do with it and how to make it responsive not until I realized that... oh max-width, of course! So for this, I’m not familiar with it since it wasn’t introduced to us back then so I have to do some research for this feature.

Hover 

“The :hover selector is used to select elements when you mouse over them.

Tip: The :hover selector can be used on all elements, not only on links.

Tip: Use the :link selector to style links to unvisited pages, the :visited selector to style links to visited pages, and the :active selector to style the active link.

Note: :hover MUST come after :link and :visited (if they are present) in the CSS definition, in order to be effective!”

This thing is so hard!!! I swear I had a hard time doing this feature because I will either mess up my codes or it will not work. I mean, I searched the codes and all but still, adding it to my existing features is hard! But as for my navbar, I wasn’t the one who coded it since it was already included to the navbar code that I found. 

Responsive

Ok not me babbling about responsive thingy when in fact I haven’t introduced it to y’all yet. Sorry for the delay of info but according to a to w3school “ It is called responsive web design when you use CSS and HTML to resize, hide, shrink, enlarge, or move the content to make it look good on any screen.”

Image Gallery 

I used image gallery so I can put pictures with caption side by side. I only used this for one webpage since I don’t really need it. Instead of linking it to its actual picture, I linked them to various website that is related to the person or band in the feature, in that way, people who gets intrigue about them can just click the picture and tada~ they will get to know them more!

Image Sprites

“An image sprite is a collection of images put into a single image. A web page with many images can take a long time to load and generates multiple server requests. Using image sprites will reduce the number of server requests and save bandwidth.“

So what did I used this for? I used this to link my social media accounts. They just have to choose if which one do they wanna see, Facebook, Instagram or this blog site. I did this because it is more convenient and it kinda fits my liking. Plus, this is my website mins so I should be the one who will decide if what features should I use and add. 

Search bar

And the last feature that I will introduce is this one. So for this, I’m really hesitant if should I add this or nah since I don’t know how to make it work although you can see it in my website. Yes you can see it it’s just that when you search, nothing appears. It is just like a display and it’s kinda frustrating to know that it won’t work!!! So to anyone who is reading this right now, how can you make a search bar work? Please drop it down on the comments below if you know how!

So i guess this will be all for now huh? For next week’s blog content, I will update you if how is my website, my plus points and etc so stay tuned! I hope you learned something new today. Bye~!

[dramarising-replacement]

You Know What, FR

What’s the fucking point of continuing to play this game when FR not only won’t fix Accent/Skin previews in the AH, they’ve somehow broke them from working on the FR Item Database, too? How the fuck am I supposed to see if a Skin/Accent works on my dragons if there is literally no goddamn way to do it short of dragging the dragon (…ha) I want to preview all the way to the front of my lair? Especially given how buggy FR’s system for THAT is?

“Just report it lol why are you complaining here” fucker I’ve reported it more than once, it’s not even the first time they’ve done this, Skin/Acccent previews are always broken SOMEWHERE but usually it doesn’t take this long to get it sorted. I’ve barely touched FR this month. I don’t have any interest in playing because what’s the point if I can’t even dress up my dragons? Breeding makes money but clicking one button once every five days, wow, such engagement. 

I have friends who sell Accents and this is driving them up the wall. It’s directly cutting into profits – because normally we can just get around FR’s broken bullshit with the FR Item Database (even though FR keeps trying to break it because GOD FORBID THEIR USERS HAVE SOMETHING USEFUL AT THEIR DISPOSAL,) but not it’s broken too, so just… what the fuck does FR want?

Do they want people to stop giving them money? Are they aware that pretty much the bulk of their whole entire income is through the Accent/Skin market? That it vastly overshadows every other income source they possess? That not fixing this massive glaring issue on their website is hurting their bottom line? They probably don’t actually care. Caring implies not just competence, but respect for your customers, and we all know that FR lacks that in spades with their track record of abuse and lies directed at their userbase.

At any rate, I know this won’t help fix the issue either, but I needed to vent somewhere, and as we all know, no one is allowed to talk about site problems on the site itself without getting an infraction. I can report this until I’m blue in the face, but it’s not going to matter. They don’t care. Not a single fuck to give. Unless the whole site gets ready to go to war over something, it NEVER gets fixed or worked on – you can say people here overreact, and you’d be correct, but it’s because the Staff have conditioned them that the ONLY, ONLY WAY to get ANYTHING to happen no matter HOW VITAL IT IS, is to fucking riot. Otherwise, get fucked, you’re just a wallet to them, and wallets don’t have needs.

I love FR, I actually do like the majority of our community? Sure there’s some fuckers here, but honestly most of the site is pretty alright. But GOD the staff – the actual people running the backend, in this instance – are fucking awful at their jobs.

And don’t give me that ABLOO ABLOO MAKING A WEBSITE IS HAAARRRDDD nonsense – no shit, Sherlock, it’s difficult for sure, but that’s no excuse for not even ACKNOWLEDGING that there is a problem until your site riots. Given FR’s track record in the past of “ignore the problem and maybe it will go away” – just, frankly? I’m tired of coddling these fucks. They’re a small staff team, sure. They were inexperienced going into this, yes.

It’s been nearly four years, though. How long are we going to keep making excuses for a team of people who have been failing to do the same job for four years?

Do you know how many fucking things I had to stay up and overnight learn on my job? Because there was no waiting to fix it later, or waiting for someone else to do it it, no, it was my JOB and it needed to get done – so I did what I had to do to get it DONE. And oh god it was hard sometimes, absolutely, sometimes you gotta ask for help and you gotta put in a lot of work. It’s not easy! But you can’t just let it sit. You have to get your job done, or get help to do what you can’t – and there’s no shame in asking for help. Leaving the problem to lie is the thing someone should be ashamed of.

When there is a problem, you don’t try to hide it, you don’t ignore it and hope no one notices (THEY WILL,) you don’t deny that it’s there and berate your customers for complaining about how it’s making your service hard to use. You fucking acknowledge that there is a problem, and then you give a basic explanation of how it went wrong – even if it’s just “we’re not sure yet” – AND WHEN YOU ARE SURE YOU COME BACK AND FUCKING EXPLAIN – and then you give a timeline of when it will, hopefully, be fixed. You update while it is being worked on in case something goes awry. You have ONE FUCKING OUNCE OF PROFESSIONAL DECENCY.

And you know what happens then? Do you, FR?

Your customers say “oh, okay, thanks!” AND THEY LEAVE YOU THE FUCK ALONE, TRUSTING THAT THEIR PROBLEM IS BEING WORKED ON.

Or at least, that’s how most businesses work (and yes there are entitled pisswanks out there, but those are going to be here whether you’re a competent company or a gutter business like FR) – even if FR had the pair of braincells to rub together to realize how to be professional, they’d abuse that trust and never get ‘round to actually fixing things, and their customer relations would get even worse. If FR had some modicum of trust from their userbase, the users – including me, would tolerate their mistakes SO MUCH MORE. Because we know it will get resolved. We know they make mistakes. We get it.

But the reason the staff get so much shit is because they’ve proven they can’t be fuckin trusted lmao, they’ve proven it again, and again, and again. They have shown that they WON’T fix something as long as the site is still online. Even if it’s impacting THEIR PAYING CUSTOMERS they won’t fix it until the site basically holds them at datapoint to force their hand – they won’t EVEN LOOK to SEE if there is a problem! Their users have no fucking faith in them because every time we want to give them the benefit of the doubt, we get burned.

These people should not be working with the public, to be entirely honest because they – and it’s not their fault they’re completely ignorant on how to work customer service, it is a learned skill – have no idea what they are doing, and it’s killing them.

… As a final note, there is a lesson FR’s staff really needs beat into their skulls:

If there is a service your users want.

And you don’t provide it.

They are going to do it themselves.

And if you then go and take that service from them, and harass or even ban them for using that service,

They are going to keep using that service, but do it in a way you won’t know about.

And on top of that, even people who don’t use that service are going to think you are the scum of the fucking earth.

If there is something your site NEEDS, such as the Item Database you hate so much, and you don’t provide that service for your users, THEY ARE GOING TO FILL THE NICHE ON THEIR OWN. Your tantrums won’t stop it, threats won’t make that void in your offered services go away, literally nothing you can do OTHER THAN PROVIDE YOUR CUSTOMERS WITH WHAT THEY NEED is going to make them stop doing the thing you don’t like. S.tylish is not a harm to your site, you fucking– you’re so uninformed that it would be comical, if it wasn’t so toxic.

Do you know why people use S.tylish to see what familiars they’ve awakened? Because you don’t goddamn offer that service, except through the Bestiary, and it is ASININE AND TERRIBLE to try and make use of that when you can’t even search through it. The fact that you really can’t… search anything on the entire site is a major problem frankly? I shouldn’t have to memorize what page an item is on in my Inventory… you fuckers need a fucking inventory search. These are both basic features you should have had from the start, but now the users have to manage it themselves or do without because you don’t seem to even realize there’s a problem here (and you ignore people who point it out) – and you want to ban them over it, over making their experience LIVABLE, for IMPROVING YOUR SITE FOR FREE, because they did it in a way you don’t approve of, despite the fact that all they’ve done is make your site better where you FAILED THEM.

You’re terrible, you realize that, right? You’re incompetent and paranoid and honestly, it’s… really unsettling. The way you react to things you don’t understand, with hostility and even censoring of conversation (the Naomi incident) is just… really fucking unhealthy, it’s really quite frightening? Your forums are extremely overmoderated, I’m saying this from a position of someone who has pulled Community Manager work before, your forums are genuinely Stepford in how little you can really say. You actually cannot have conversations in FR’s forums, you can’t control your own RPs (which is why I don’t set foot in FR’s RP forums, sorry,) you can’t really… do anything but discuss dragon commerce and dragon share. Sometimes memes, but even those are being moderated out of existence.

You guys have a problem.

The problem is you.

But TL;DR – FIX THE FUCKING ACCENT PREVIEWS ON THE AH. Maybe get some customer service training because you guys are killing it. In the literal sense. You are bludgeoning your customer relationship to death with a cudgel. Perhaps consider, for a moment, that the users so dedicated to making your site livable that they spend hours of their day making things to clean it up or pay server hosting space to run services you don’t offer, are the people you should really be supporting, instead of damning to the fiery pits of hell for their actions, which literally only benefit you. Actually communicate with your users, and permit them to hold discussion, instead of going silent until the entire site riots to get an answer from you. You guys have had a communication problem from the getgo, and it’s never really gotten any better. 

Just… this is harsh, but at this point? You guys are nearly four years old now, right? The Training Wheels have come off. You are’t a tiny startup anymore. If you don’t have the Staff to actually make your site function, if you can’t make it work with the people you have…

Fucking hire the people with the skills to do that job. The alternative is to continue limping along like this, and at this rate your site is going to be dead by the time you get around to fixing major problems. 

Just… fucking it would take you one day of work to get me to give you money again. FR has a huge-ass database but your backend is not THAT complex. Just take a day, and fix the fucking Skin previews. Use the Status box and say HEY. WE KNOW THIS IS BROKEN. WE’RE WORKING ON IT. Maybe while your at it, fix the numerous apparel issues because lmao, some of the apparel for Skydancers has been broken for THREE YEARS now. 

Three years to fix a one-number error in your database.

And you wonder why none of your users trust you. Christ.

Get you shit together FR, please. I love this game, but you guys are still, after all these years and all this drama, the same people you were when the site launched – it feels like sometimes you haven’t learned a thing, and that makes me sad. I don’t know how a small team can work on something they claim to love for all these years and manage to learn not a fuckin thing about their jobs.

Sorry for ranting, just… god damn FR still has problems, don’t they? And yeah they try but they are so misinformed… a couple of customer service classes at the community college is in their budget lmao………… it doesn’t have to be like this and it drives me up the wall. I want to see this site run smoothly, I would literally hop in and fix the damn item issues myself, it would take maybe a day to hammer out all of them – honestly probably not even that long unless their backend is as much a mess of spaghetti as I’m guessing it would be.

I want to believe they are trying to fix shit but after all the years on this site, I know better than to give them the benefit of the doubt. Partial refund on Scatterscrolls my fuckin’ ass.

Thanks for letting me scream into the void, DR2.