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I'm working on something, guys.
Don't know when it'll be done
But it'll be done.
Better late than never.
#shenko#mshenko#mass effect#mass effect 3#commander shepard#kaidan alenko#I'll make a femshep version too dw#but DAMN how could they give us two trailers but none with Kaidan ??#it's about goddamn time to fix this#this up there is just a quick test frame to check some stuff#but the model is all set ; next step is animation#wish me luck ; - ;
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what about plushies and aliens and inanimate objects? I'm curious now
there's more than I can fit in one post, but here's some examples
the figurines on the desk in this card represent honami, ichika, shiho, and saki, in that order.
leo/need also quite often have each others instruments as keyrings or some sort of model in each others' cards. shiho's dlf card has their actual instruments instead of miniatures. bonus points to their zodiac signs + colors in honami's card above.
the red shooting stars in this card represent honami in her new role as L/n's leader.
the ORS cards all have VBS-colored gems, and Akito's has the vivids and bad dogs ones paired together.
and there's MMJ colored gemstones in the step by step cards (plus minori & haruka colored bows in minori's card)
the anniversary cards from this year all have references to the other characters in each unit. shiho has the keyrings and mentioned above, airi has colored clovers, toya has lilies with vbs-colored stamen (an's on the left, kohane's on the right, he's holding akito's), nene has mozaic arts with wxs-colored canaries (plus the one she's holding that has green feathers), and ena has paints and paintings (clockwise from the top: mafuyu, kanade, ena, mizuki)
i've seen some people theorising that the aliens tsukasa is holding in this card are meant to represent saki and toya based on the colors, and i think it's pretty likely. also the alien nene has matches emu's species instead of her own unlike the other cards in the set which all have the character interacting with the same species as them. also emu/nene/rui colored aliens + a star alien for tsukasa in emu's card.
the pegasus here possibly represents saki (it might represent himself, but it was the tenma siblings event so i think saki is pretty likely).
much like vbs and mmj, wxs also has gemstones in this card
the lights in rui's star of the story card have a gold star for tsukasa, pink heart for emu, green music notes for nene, and a purple spanner for himself.
really really obvious, but tsukasa and emu robots! also the cat plushie that shows up in a few of rui's cards represents himself (it's a plot point in wonder halloween). oh and bonus tsukasa balloon. there's also wxs colored animal toys in len's amidst a dream card.
the crystal apple pendant in the sayonara persona cards represents mafuyu. kanade is embracing it, ena is reaching out to it, and mizuki is comforting it, referencing their roles in mafuyu's story.
there's n25-colored flowers on the bench next to mafuyu in her our escape for survival card.
and i should've put this in the animals one but i forgot. akito dragonsona.
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hii! can you do a scenario about the obey me boys finding out MC wears glasses?
*insert anime glasses flash gif* it is done
Obey me + MC with Glasses
Lucifer
You rush down the hall, skipping as many steps as safely possible down the steps, to try and make it to the auditorium on time. A benchmark you were well past, but still holding out hope for.
You were supposed to meet Lucifer that morning, before school, to go over some of the details for the culture festival. But your alarm didn’t go off, and you had overslept, and now you were rushing to make up time.
“I’m here! I’m here!” The door made a loud clatter as you burst through it. Trying to catch your breath now that you had crossed the finish line.
“Your late.” Lucifer replied sternly. Apparently also cross. “Being on time is an important part of your commitments [Y/N]. It shows respect.”
“I know, I know.” You reply as you stood up straight. “I didn’t mean to. My alarm malfunctioned. It was an honest mistake.”
The eldest demon brother stared at you with a perplexed expression. “You’re wearing glasses.” He said finally. You which, you were very surprised, and nervously adjusted your frames out of habit.
“Y-Yeah. I am. I usually wear contacts, but I was in such a rush to get here I didn’t have time.”
Lucifer continued to stare at you for a moment before he smiled, “they look nice.” You blush at the compliment and fidget with your glasses again. “Despite that, please be on time for our next meeting. In contacts or glasses. You look nice either way, so your appearance is irrelevant as long as you’re here on time.”
“….thank you….” You supposed that was a compliment.
Mammon
“I’m gonna take one of these. One of these. Ooo…two of those.”
You walk behind Mammon with a grin as he went through the boutique like a kid in a candy store.
He’d just gotten paid from one of his new modeling gigs. Which meant that he was due for a reward, in his opinion. Which also meant that he was going to be broke again here in a few hours but….he was having fun.
“Oh hey, these are cute.” You turn towards the luxury eye wear display when a cute set of frames caught your eye.
Mammon seemed to pick up on your interest and came over. “What do you need those for?”
“Uh…to see…?” You reply as you try the frames on for size. Hmm….not a fit.
“You don’t wear glasses.” He replied with a know-it-all tone.
“Yes I do,” but he clearly didn’t know that. “I just usually contacts. Have you seriously never seen me in glasses?” You try on another pair and turn to him. Looking for his opinion. Mammon seemed so flustered though that he couldn’t get a word out.
“I-I…I knew that! I just meant…you don’t wear ‘em that often…so…so you don’t need new frames. But…if you really want those, I guess I’ll buy them for you. You should have only the best. To protect your eyes I mean!”
You giggle a little at Mammon’s floundering, and hand the frames back to the woman behind the counter to buy them. “Thank you Mammon.” You coo at him. The demon getting red at the tips of his ears as you continue shopping.
Levi
“I’m so excited we get to work on costume’s together [Y/N]!”
“Yeah! Me too!” You cheer along with Levi as you get ready to work. “It should be a fun performance. And the costumes that Asmo designed look really brilliant.”
Levi let out a small huff and crossed his arms. “I guess they’re ok. They don’t really capture the essence of the series though. Only the general design. Which is typical for a normie.”
You giggle at Levi’s otaku elitism. “Well, I’m sure your otaku love will pour into the costumes, and give them that flair that’s missing from the pictures.”
“Do you really think so [Y/N]?” He asked hopefully.
“Of course I do!” You said with encouragement. You then reach in your bag to pull out your glasses. “Ok! Let’s get to work.”
You looked over at Levi, who seemed stun into almost a petrified state. His blank expression just locked on you. “Levi? What’s wrong?”
After a long pause, he finally said, in a quiet voice, “….Hime-sama is wearing glasses…..”
“Oh, yeah. It’s a little easier to for me to see the stitch work with my glasses instead of my contacts. I thought you knew I wore glasses? I mean, I wear the color contacts for cosplay, and I’m really good at them. I thought that was a hint but….Levi!”
The demon had stopped listening halfway through your explanation as his nosebleed caused him to faint and pass out. Otaku Megane Overload.
Satan
Of course, everyone knew that Satan’s favorite thing to do was to read. Second to that was spending time with you.
He tried to deny it, that you were his priority, but you knew where you stood. You couldn’t beat the mythical love stories between pages. The bonds he had built over years with the characters in some of these books. But it was nice of him to act like you could.
In any event, you were both doing his favorite activities of spending time together and reading. If there had been a cat here, he could die a happy man.
“Could we turn up the light in here?” Satan looked up at your question perplexed. “It’s just that it’s kind of dark in here, which makes it kind of hard to see by candlelight.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Satan apologized. “I only have the candles unfortunately. I’ve never really liked modern lighting. It’s garish, and excess lighting can be damaging to the books. I can light more candles if it’s an issue.”
You sigh loudly, then rummage through your bag. “You and your gothic aesthetic.” You mutter as you put on your glasses, and tuck back in to reading.
“You wear glasses?” Satan asked. More perplexed than ever that he didn’t know that about you.
“Only when my eyes are strained, or lighting makes it difficult to see.”
The demon seemed torn between his desire not to bring you discomfort and his desire of finding something new about you. “Well, they look nice on you. They suit your face. Very…scholarly” He complimented.
“Thanks,” you reply, “that’s totally the look I was going for.”
You both chuckle for a moment before returning to your books. Spending the rest of the evening peacefully together.
Asmo
“[Y/N]-chaaaan!” Asmo called as he let himself into your room. “Are you ready to go?”
“In a second!” You call back from your closet. Merging a few minutes later with some different top options to try on. “I just need to pick out a shirt, shoes, and accessories, and then we can go.”
“So not done at all.” He bemoaned before shuffling over to your bed and dramatically flopping down on his back on top of the covers. “Oh well, I suppose beauty can’t be rushed.” There was a long pause, only the sound of the hangers in your hand clacking as you demoed each top, before Asmo popped up again. “Hey wait, are you wearing glasses?”
You turn to Asmo with a startled expression and touch your face. “Oh…yeah…” You forgot to take them off when he showed up. Usually you put your contacts in as part of your getting ready routine, but rushing around you forgot to take them off. Now Asmo knew your secret.
“Why didn’t you ever tell me?!” He asked. Bounding off the bed and over to you. “Think of all the accessory options we have now! Plus, they look super cute on you.”
“I…I thought you’d make fun of me for wearing glasses.”
“Why in Devildom would I do that?” He asked. Seeming genuinely confused. Like it was never a thought to make fun of someone for their glasses, or hair color, or anything else about them. That just showed how beautiful of a person Asmo really was.
“Yeah, your right.” You agree. Adjusting your frames with a small smile. “You know what, I’m gonna wear them today. This will be a lot faster too. Let me finish getting ready and I’ll meet you in the lobby.”
“Oh~!” Asmo beamed, before leaning in to give you a peak on the cheek and wait for you downstairs.
Beel
It was your turn on kitchen duty tonight, and you were trying a new recipe you found online.
“Ok…a pinch of salt….6 harlequin leaves….fire moss….”
“Hey [Y/N], you need some help?” Beel asked as he came into the kitchen.
“No! Out!” The demon stopped, like a startled deer, as you yelled at him and pointed for the door. “Last time you ��helped’ you ate all my ingredients, raw, and broke two bowls. You can’t help me this time Beel.”
Beel hung his head and shoulders a little at being scolded. Looking like a sad, wounded puppy with it’s tail between his legs. “Ok [Y/N], I’m sorry. I just wanted to help….”
You sigh heavily, feeling bad now, and call to him before he could make it to the door. “Wait Beel. I’m sorry. You can help.” The redhead immediately perked up and came over. “But no eating the ingredients.”
Beel nodded enthusiastically as he posted up beside you. “What are you making?”
“This new recipe I found on Devilgram.” You show him your phone with a picture of the final result, and he already started to drool. “But it’s a little complicated. No like…complicated, complicated. The instructions are easy. Just precise. So it’s hard to-“You’re wearing glasses.”
You stop your rambling when Beel cut in. Having put your glasses back on your nose as you were talking. “Oh. Yeah. I don’t need them all the time, but the font is really small on my phone. Helps to see it a bit better.”
“Can I try them?” The tried-and-true question of all non-glasses wearers.
You take them off and hand them to Beel. He carefully took them in both hands and put them on. “How do I look?”
Your immediate thought was ‘cute’, but you decided to go with, “very distinguished.” Which made Beel’s chest puff up. “Now, give those back so I can read the recipe. Or we’ll never have dinner ready.” He immediately handed them back.
Belphie
You opened your eyes with a flutter. Confused where you were for a moment before you let out a groan. Realizing you had fallen asleep.
“Belphie get up.” You urge in a groggy tone and give the demon a nudge. “We fell asleep.”
“Uh, yeah.” Belphie replied before breaking into a yawn. “It’s kind of my thing.”
You sigh and roll over to the edge of the bed. “Ok. We were only out for an hour. So we still have time to study before we head downstairs for dinner.”
“Are you wearing glasses?”
You stop as you realize you had gone through your morning routine without thinking about it. Putting on your glasses before you get started for the day. “Yeah. What about it?”
Belphie reached out and carefully took your glasses from your face. Trying them on. “Oh wow. You can’t see at all.” He stated as his eyes adjust to the frames. “Like…not see at all. How do you not run into more stuff?”
“I’m not blind!” You argue.
“Barely.” He retorted, and gave you your glasses back. “Ugh. Now I have a headache. I’m gonna lay down for another hour until it passes.”
“Belphie, no! We have to get up and study. The test is in two days and we need to…..” He was already snoring half-way through your speech. Pinning you down with his arm across your waist.
You sigh again, then pull out your textbook. If you were going to be trapped, might as well make use of the time.
#;ask and ye shall receive (request answers)#lucifer#mammon#levi#satan#asmodeous#asmo#beel#belphie headcanons#obey me#obey me beelzebub#obey me beel#obey me belphie#obey me mammon#obey me lucifer#obey me asmodeus#obey me leviathan#obey me satan x reader#obey me satan#obey me lucifer x reader#obey me levi x reader#obey me mammon x reader#obey me belpie x reader#obey me beel x reader#obey me scenarios#obey me imagines#scenarios
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This notion that character design and animation in Wuthering Waves is somehow less then Genshin is ridiculous.
First off Genshin has 5 character models and 3 (maybe 4 eye) styles they reuse. Which makes total sense because it save their team a lot of time, but it also leads to a lot of characters that look the same face wise.
Wuthering Waves has unique face shapes, noses and eyes for most characters. This is just a fact, though the females can look a little samey here as well.
Listen, Genshin puts a lot in to their clothing because they don’t have a lot to fall back on in other areas, but if you’re telling me that you could tell Navia was a defacto mob boss, Lisa was a librarian or Garou (or Cyno or Kokami for that matter) are leaders of an army just by looking at them you are a fucking liar.
Gaming? He’s just a kid in street clothes that doesn’t fit in with the fantasy setting that is Genshin and he most certainly doesn’t scream lion dancer by looking at him.
You know these things because you were told these things. Let’s be honest. These characters always appear in game before banner and if not in game they are plastered over every YouTube video, livestream and drip marketing.
For fucks sake. You’d have to have your head in the sand to not anything at all about these characters before release.
Next the super special Genshin animations that take oh so long to do.
Most characters, especially outside of 5* characters (and even then some of the 5*) use the same attack animation at varying speeds. It’s noticeable in everyone, but most of all archers and lancers.
Again, it is to save time and that is understandable, but we are not going to pretend that Genshin does not recycle assets to a degree that characters are beginning to blend together visually as well as play wise. After all, you only have 3 buttons to utilize.
Buuut Layla, there is only so much you can do with a bow?!? Yeah sort of. I guess and if it was just limited to that I would understand, but it’s not. Heavy attack broadsword? Spin.
Go ahead. Tell me I am wrong. I have played Genshin and I played it for a very long time.
In comparison Aalto, Chixia, and Mortefi all feel and look different in their movements. Aalto feels and looks like he flows with the wind, Chixia playful and fast, Mortefi flashy and arrogant and it shows in their animation.
As for catalysts they too play different. Verina rides her vines on heavy attack, Baizhi uses her bird thing, and Encore literally lobs sheep.
Short swords. Everyone I have poked at is unique. Yangyang has a quick step with very purposeful moves, Spectro Rover quick finesse, Havoc Rover slow and sweeping. This also turns in to a scythe by the way. Danjin girl a mix of low and high stance and she stumbles a bit on heavy.
Broad sword. Jiyan uses both his sword and a flipping lance to fight as well as his whole body. He kicks and there is very little wasted movement. Cal I have not tried yet, but I promise you none of them heave attacks involve spin to win as is the case with every great sword user in Genshin.
The most unique characters so far in Genshin is Wrio and Heizou. Both catalysts and both punch boys. Lingyang punches and Yanwu kicks and they are both unique. Neither requires spam plummeting to play.
Lastly, Genshin recycles movement in talking cutscenes. Characters, if they have a mouth, are not visually expressive a lot of the time due to the limitations of their game. Pretending otherwise is being disingenuous.
WW has not only facial expressions, but unique animations that coincide with the words coming out of faces which have mouths, noses and sync animations.
Clothing is not personality (behavior, expression and even the way they fight is) and the characters and their designs do tell you a lot about them if you bother to actually play the game.
There are 2 known regions in this game, these characters all look like they come from one of these two places and they all fit in to the world that has been built. You shouldn’t need over the top outfits to carry your characters, but this “I can’t tell anything about them” bull shit is from people who haven’t touched the game.
Little touches like Yangyang’s feathers, Jiyan and Mertefis scales, Lingyang as a whole, Verina’s vine tail? That tells you nothing? lol
If you can’t tell anything about them by looking at them it’s because you haven’t played the game or bothered to learn about the world and thus it is a you problem and your “criticism” is invalid.
Everything can always be better and Wuthering Waves is far from perfect, but at the end of the day this shit is from Hoyo bots and it simply holds no water.
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When was the first 3D video game published? Trick question, this is a post about how "3D video game" is a meaningless phrase.
In 1984, King's Quest: Quest for the Crown was published. King's Quest was marketed as a "3-D Animated Adventure," even though it looked like this:
At first glance, it looks like any other low-resolution 16-color adventure game of the pre-EGA era. But it has one revolutionary feature that sets it a step above its peers: You can walk behind things.
To be clear, that's basically it. There's not even sprite scaling or anything; King Graham is the same size whether he's close to the "camera" or not. Modern gamers would probably find it a bit ridiculous to say this game has a "camera" at all. But you can walk around in that green field, and you can go behind the tree or the castle tower, and those things would hide the part of Graham's sprite behind them—and you could also walk in front of them!
Well, if you didn't fall off the bridge. Why did Roberta Williams never put handrails on those things?
Anyways, the next game I'm going to mention is Wolfenstein 3D (1992), another game which marketed itself on cutting-edge 3-D technology.
You can see a lot of graphical improvement between these two games set in castles, and not just because Wolfenstein has thrice the resolution and 16 times the colors. The sprites can be scaled with their distance from the camera, for instance, and the backgrounds aren't static flat planes. They're dynamic flat planes, capable of warping as your angle to the wall changes.
In some ways, this is as great a leap over King's Quest as King's Quest is over Zork, or at least Mystery House. But is it really 3D? It's still just a bunch of distorted 2D sprites being drawn to the screen. There's nothing really 3D going on in the computer. It's no Super Mario 64 (1996).
SM64 is among the first popular "real 3D" games, with models and polygons and stuff. And it is, again, a great leap above Wolfenstein 3D. It doesn't distort 2D sprites to mimic 3D shapes; it shapes 2D textures around 3D models. Totally different! It has polygons and stuff!
Now, I'm not 100% sarcastic about that. There are some technical differences between how SM64 handles its textures and how Wolfenstein and other Id shooters handle their sprites. But those differences aren't so much "doing something completely different" as they are "doing the same thing with fewer limitations".
And it would be absurd to claim that Wolfenstein graphics have more in common with KQ1 than with SM64. It would be even more absurd to say that SM64 has less in common with W3D than it does with older and newer titles using what people commonly consider 3D technology.
On the left we have Battlezone (1980), an arcade title which predates KQ1 as much as W3D predates SM64. It has little in common with Wolfenstein's graphics, not needing to distort any kind of 2D image file to mimic 3D, because it's just wireframes.
From a graphical perspective, it has more in common with KQ1 than W3D; both use vector graphics. (Bitmap images would take too much storage space for KQ1.) In fact, you could probably make a compelling argument that KQ1 and Battlezone's vector graphics have more in common with each other on a technical level than they do with Wolfenstein's 3D sprites or SM64's 3D models.
And on the right...it's either leaked security cam footage from Area 52, or The Callisto Protocol (2022). I can't explain what separates it graphically from the other games in this post, because there are so many new systems—systems which require specialist graphical engineers to understand, let alone create or use. I could rattle off some technical terms like subsurface scattering and cloth simulations and soft-body deformation, but I don't understand these techniques on anything but the shallowest level, and TCP has elevated them to another level.
I know it sometimes seems like graphical technology stopped having Big Improvements some time around the seventh or eighth console generation, but it kept going. The difference, I'd argue, is that the improvements have been more spread-out, enabled less by advances in hardware technology and more by learning how to use those advances, distributed throughout a hardware generation rather than concentrated at the start.
Anyways. The point I'm trying to make is that modern games make every prior game in this post look ridiculously primitive. SM64 was impressive in its day, but Mario is rendered with less than a thousand triangles, separated into several rigid components. And his face is just a couple dozen flat polygons with a texture printed on them. Even modern indie games often animate eyeballs with more polygons than Mario's entire body, with the eyeball and eyelid and so forth all being separate models with textures and shaders bringing them to life. Giving them more depth.
Making them even more 3D.
There is not a firm line between 2D and 3D. Wolfenstein 3D is more 3D than King's Quest I, and Super Mario 64 is more 3D than either of them, and Skyrim more 3D than that, and The Callisto Protocol more 3D still. If someone dismissed Doom as not being "real 3D," they're drawing an arbitrary distinction around one of many graphical innovations that made gaming graphics incrementally more verisimilitudinous. That's all.
#video games#graphics#3d graphics#cgi#meta#rambles#king's quest#wolfenstein#super mario bros#battlezone#the callisto protocol
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Skip to Loafer and Transgender Role Models: A Brief Analysis
To any who watch or read Skip to Loafer, Nao-chan is a presence you immediately can not ignore. The protagonist’s aunt, she is the primary adult we interact with in the series and one of the main characters of the supporting cast. Our first introduction to Nao-chan does not immediately reveal her transgender status- we are instead introduced to her as a kind, nurturing, caring and protective adult in Mitsumi’s life. We learn later about her being trans through negative whispers from strangers and immediately the tone is set: instead of having Nao-chan hear the gossip on the train, she is instead immediately given a small gesture of love and support from our protagonist Mitsumi. It is a simple but deliberate scene and seems to offer a quiet promise that Nao-chan is as deserving as happiness as anyone else in the cast, an overarching theme that becomes more and more powerful for many characters over the course of the story.
I specifically want to talk about Episode X from the anime and a few scenes from it. For anyone who hasn’t watched it, I will summarize as best I can: Mitsumi asks permission from Nao-chan to invite her school friends over for a slumber party and she happily agrees. However, she also says that she wishes to tell her friends she is biologically male “just in case”. No reason is directly stated why but many can easily spring to mind. We cut then to Nao-chan dressed in a more masculine style than normal, serving Mitsumi’s friends and being referred to with male honorifics. As Nao-chan leaves, however, our beloved supporting cast all pipe up to compliment Mitsumi’s stylish and kind aunt. We see Nao-chan listening from outside the door, joyfully tearing up.
Later, Nao-chan reappears in her typical feminine attire and makeup to the girls, informing them she’s stepping out. Mika ends up following Nao-chan out, the two having somewhat of a repertoire from earlier in the episode, and Mika confides in her reasons for leaving the slumber party early. Nao-chan immediately is able to relate to Mika’s anxieties and fears based on her own experience growing up, the viewer given a quick shot of her younger masculine self. Before letting her leave, Nao-chan offers advice and urges Mika to return to the slumber party, imparting an important lesson about embracing being genuine to yourself her (with some briefly hilarious word choices).
At this moment on our first watch, my husband turned to me and said “God, if only I heard that growing up.”
It can’t be overstated how shocking the amount of respect and affection Nao-chan gets in the story is. First, the story’s way of choosing to address her being transgender while keeping consistent with it’s happy and airy tone is done masterfully. Nao-chan makes a very realistic choice for her situation in wanting to present as male to Mitsumi’s friends and the narrative respects that. But it also doesn’t linger on the issue either by having Mitsumi’s friends immediately address it positively to the viewer. I think my favorite thing however is that the story lets Nao-chan hear the praise and kind words. We get to see a transgender woman in a moment of maximum gender euphoria. She is respected as a character and as her gender at all times, whether she is there in the moment or not.
Things are taken a step further in the next scene, going beyond simply supporting Nao-chan as a transgender character in the story but also as an adult role model too. In a time where radical rhetoric says transgender women can never understand the struggles of cis women, the story shows the exact opposite. Not only do a group of cis young women all think Nao-chan is beautiful and kind, they also see her as a safe person to confide in and a person who can relate to their feelings. Mika’s short time with Nao-chan earlier in the episode was of a more slapstick variety yet her honesty with Nao-chan feels organic when it happens. We can understand how the two would find common ground on their feelings, even if they lived completely different lives. In fact, it is implied that Nao-chan’s feelings are uniquely pulled from her experience growing up assigned male.
Part of this is contributed to the fact Nao-chan breaks the curse of transgender characters in much of anime by being surprisingly “sexless”. Not once is a perverted joke made at her expense or does she slip in a strangely blunt reference to her body. Part of this is thanks to the genre and overall tone of Skip to Loafer which is incredibly comfortable and chaste.
I was inspired to write this after realizing that there would be a chance that this character and this story’s handling of her might slip under the radar. Though she is not the focus of the story, she is present constantly within the narrative just as anyone else and her presence only enhances the experience. When I see the same examples being passed around of what qualifies for good trans rep in anime, it makes me burn to think she may not be included in these lists.
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Beginner Blender Tutorial Basic Render: Part One (Importing a Sim and Adjusting Textures)
To learn the basics, we'll begin with a super simple render: one sim, one pose, one background.
But first, the anatomy of blender.
(image & list courtesy of Blender's online manual)
Yellow - 3D viewport (workspace) The 3D Viewport is used to interact with the 3D scene for a variety of purposes, such as modeling, animating, texture painting, etc.
Green - Outliner The Outliner is a list that organizes data in the blend-file, i.e. the scene data, Video Sequencer data, or anything that gets stored in a blend-file.
Blue - Properties The Properties shows and allows editing of many active data, including the active scene and object.
Red - Timeline The Timeline editor, identified by a clock icon, is used for manipulating keyframes and scrubbing the Playhead.
The tools I use most I've highlighted below:
I won't outline their uses just now, but we'll be going over them as we use them.
Different creators like to split their blender window up in different ways, but this is my preferred setup when I'm working:
I use the yellow half of the screen as a render preview/3D workspace
I use the blue half for shader editing, posing, etc.
You can set yours up like mine or find what's comfortable for you.
When you first open blender, you'll be greeted by the default cube, lamp, and camera.
Delete them! You can do this two ways:
Click and drag your mouse over all 3 and delete or Select all 3 in the side menu and hit x on your keyboard
Step 1: Importing our Sim
After deleting the default items, we'll import our sim. This tutorial assumes you've already ripped your sim (if you haven't, check here for how to do so!)
Now, let's import.
Click file -> import -> collada (dae) Select your DAE and click "import"
Your sim will look a little... off (thick eyelashes and a weird shine), but that's okay we're going to fix it! Your sim might also look solid white. If that's the case, make sure you're in the right mode. You can adjust modes by clicking on one of the four circles in the top right of the screen.
These are your viewport modes.
Wireframe (far left) - good for mesh editing Solid (middle left) - good for posing Material Preview (middle right) - what we work in most, shows everything with textures (color) Rendered (far right) - this shows your render preview We'll be working mostly in Material Preview
You can also switch between modes by hitting z on your keyboard then selecting which one you want I'll be using mostly keyboard shortcuts but I'll show you how to do both as we go along
Step 2: Adjusting Our Sim's Textures
Let's fix our sim's textures.
First. set up your workspace. Separate your workspace into two windows (as shown in the picture above with a yellow half and a blue half) and select "shader editor" in your right-side window. Like this:
Next, navigate to your Outliner and click the little dropdown beside "rig"
Under "rig" you'll see your sim's body parts listed. We're going to select "Body" When we click "Body", these colored blocks will appear in our shader editor window.
These are called Nodes. We use Nodes to adjust textures for various items in blender (sims, walls, furniture, etc). To add a new Node, you can select "add" in the top bar, or hit Shift+A on your keyboard and add in the node you need.
We're going to add in a Mix Shader and a Transparent Shader (both found under the Shader tab) and adjust our nodes this way:
Snug the Mix Shader between the Principled BSDF and the Material Output. Now we have to connect our Nodes and adjust our Principled BSDF. For the sake of this tutorial, I'll show the basic Node & Shader adjustments, but we'll go into each of them in a later tutorial.
Adjust your Principled BSDF like this, then connect your Node lines exactly like this:
You'll see that our SIm's body looks a bit different from her head, hair and shoes. That's good! Now we need to duplicate that texture to the rest of our sim.
Navigate to your Outliner again, and use Shift+Click to select the rest of the body parts in the list Don't select pose or rig.001 and make sure the Body is selected first EDIT: You'll only see "body" if your sim has a full body outfit on! If they have a shirt and pants, you'll have "Bottom" and "Top" instead! In this case, select "bottom"!
Now, hover your cursor over your sim/the 3D viewport window, and press Ctrl+L on your keyboard. This brings up the Link/Transfer data window. Select "Link Materials"
Our sim is looking better, but her eyelashes are still dark, let's fix that now.
In your Properties area, navigate to Material Properties (the little red ball)
Change your Blend Mode to Alpha Hashed We will always set Blend Mode to Alpha Hashed
Now our sim looks right!
In Part Two, we'll pose her, set up the scene, and run the render!
#salemsims tutorial#render school tutorial#sims 4 render tutorial#sims 4 blender tutorial#blender#render tutorial#sims render tutorial
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Last Line Tag Game
Thanks for tagging me @teejaystumbles ! A really nice surprise!! :D I am indeed contemplating writing two Dead Boy Detectives fic right now, but they're both in the very early 'being-outlined-in-my-head' stage, haha. They both revolve around post-s1 Edwin pining for Charles, one where Edwin takes matters into his own hands and one where he decides to have a chat with the Cat King about it. Not sure if they'll ever be written but they're intriguing!
But for the sake of the tag game, here's a lengthy bit from a Dreamling wip I've slowly been chipping away at for a few months!
A scene from Every Little Thing (Working Title)— In which Morpheus is a figure drawing professor who has just been fired from a film production based on his comics, and Hob does part-time figure modeling and is determined befriend the aforementioned professor.
Morpheus picks his class schedules wisely— he runs two first year general figure drawing classes, at 8 a.m. and at noon on Mondays and Thursdays. He helps the uni’s live figure workshop club on Wednesdays and Fridays at 6 p.m., and meets his sister for lunch on Wednesdays. All other free time was dedicated for his industry work. That wouldn’t be a concern anymore, would it. By the time Morpheus unlocks the door to the studio, sets his bag down by his desk, and starts fiddling with the ceiling studio lights pointed at the model stand, all of Morpheus’ thoughts have reduced to pure spite. Fine, maybe the big studios don’t want him. They don’t deserve him, then, their loss. His portfolio and repertoire are infamous in the industry, they’ll be crawling back to him in no time. Too bad, maybe he would have started his own production studio and he’ll end up with the next ground-breaking animated film. Maybe— Morpheus’ thoughts are interrupted by a knock at the door. He shakes himself out of it, calling, “Come in.” A glance at his watch tells him it’s only 7:48, perhaps it’s an overeager student here early. It’s only the second week of the semester, they grab every opportunity to prove themselves with a spirited step that Morpheus might be slightly envious of. “Hello, Morpheus Endeles?” Hearing his full name startles Morpheus, and he turns from the lighting settings to the door. “Yes?” The man who steps into view can only be described as radiant. He can’t be much older than Morpheus, not much taller either but wider in the shoulders. His hair is cropped just above his shoulders and he sports a neatly kept beard. Morpheus registers this all first simply because of his profession but— he gets caught on the man’s brilliant smile and deep brown eyes. There’s something there that knocks all thoughts clear out of Morpheus’ head. The stranger smiles warmly, smiles like he already cares. “I’m here to model for the morning and noon figure classes?” The man says. Morpheus clears his throat and steps forward, “Yes, this is the right studio.” He extends a hand, “Robert Gadling, I presume?” The man takes his hand— god, he’s so warm— and shakes it steadily, “Please, call me Hob! All my friends do.”
I'm a sucker for the 'Morpheus catalogues Hob's appearance during their first meeting' trope in most Dreamling human AU fics, I couldn't not do it too :]
Besides this, I've also got a Dreamling Velvet Goldmine-ish AU fic that I want to get done this summer. I'm a very slow and ruminative writer so let's see if I can commit to any of these fics now that I've posted about them lol!
No pressure tags! I have no idea who's been tagged recently so-- lol. @hardly-an-escape @valeriianz @moorishflower @amielot :)
#ive seen so many Artist Dream AUs but theyre always pretty vague with the specifics of his work so i was like#i need to write the specific ins-and-outs of what my ideal Artist Dream AU would be. and its this#that he's a really difficult collaborator with extreme creativity who starts out in animation#and branches out from there into art directing various things doing his own comics on the side (the corinthian is one of his comics)#(he DEFINITELY forays into themed environmental design)#which is half inspired by my actual professors' professional lives and a guest speaker that spoke to us recently#i want morpheus to be really good at teaching younger artists#and i want him to doubt weather his passion for storytelling is worth it#and i want hob to befriend him and ground him by reminding murphy about what he loves about making art#and of course i love figure drawing classes so much! theyre the essence of narrative art#and ofc hob and dream are gonna fuck at some point. i already have a mildly kinky sequel scene planned involving hob knowing how paint#anyway god this is so long#i just love the ideas in this fic theyre so personal to me. i really hope i finish this fic and get to share it with everyone :')#LONG POST AUGH ANYWAY BYE THANK YOU FOR TAGGING ME TASH!!!!!!#i dont really get to talk about my fic anymore so this was really nice thank you :') !#rex writes#rex speaks#tag game#last line tag game#long post#fic
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Anime conventions and their Yamato roots
by Dave Merrill
“Conventional” (ha ha) wisdom says that the first American convention devoted to Japanese animation was Project A-Kon 1990 in Dallas, Texas. This prototypical event was instigated by a group of Texas anime fans gathered under the banner of Star Blazers’“Earth Defense Command,” a Space Battleship Yamato fan club that grew to embrace all of Japanese animation. As of this writing, Project A-Kon is preparing for its 20th show.
But was A-Kon the first anime convention in North America? No. Not even close. For years, we’d seen references and offhand comments about a “YamatoCon” that was held in the Dallas area years earlier. Were these references true? Our crack team of researchers donned their explorer togs, dusted off their pith helmets, and began the harrowing search for enlightenment. Well, to be honest we sent some emails. Here’s what we found…
The first YamatoCon – that is to say, the first American fan convention devoted to Japanese animation – was held on August 13, 1983 at the Harvey Hotel in Dallas Texas. This one-day affair was the brainchild of Mark Hernandez, Don Magness, and Bobb Waller, each of whom had experience in the Dallas comics/SF fandom community and each of whom put up their own hard-earned cash to make YamatoConhappen. Scheduled the next-to-last weekend before school started, Mark Hernandez remembers the planning being as simple as getting commitments from dealers, finding a venue, and setting a date. Yes, it really is that easy to start a convention.
Programming consisted of the first 26 episodes of Star Blazersrecorded off TV, shown in continuous order (minus commercials, of course) and a bonus Yamato film. This 13-hour Journey to Iscandar (“It was a long day,” says Mark) was a primary attraction at YamatoCon, 1983 being a time when VCRs and blank VHS tape were expensive, collections of Star Blazers on video were hard to come by, and the experience of watching Star Blazers outside the morning or afternoon UHF timeslot was a draw in and of itself.
Star Blazers on video wasn’t the only activity, of course. Like other conventions past and future, YamatoCon had a dealers room consisting of 22 tables of for-sale memorabilia. It might sound small by the standards of 25 years later, but we must remember that anime merchandise of the day – what was available in the States, anyway – hadn’t achieved the tidal wave proportions it would reach in the wake of Robotech, to say nothing of the total saturation of the post-Pokemon, post-Sailor Moon years. Anime merchandise in 1983 consisted chiefly of books and model kits. Roman Albums, Anime Comics, black and white manga volumes, the occasional manga weekly, and other publications streaming from Japan in the wake of the Yamato Boom battled for the anime fan dollar alongside model kits from Yamato, Crusher Joe and My Youth In Arcadia…not to mention the endless ranks of giant robot kits from unseen shows like Mobile Suit Gundam, Dougram, Ideon, and something called Macross.Along with the remnants of late 70s super-robot merchandise sold here as Shogun Warriors, the anime con dealers room in the early 1980s was far from barren. In fact, I still waste my money on that sort of stuff.
Also available at YamatoCon were copies of Mark Hernandez and Don Magness’s Star Blazers fanzine Argo Notes. Future EDC officer/contributor, fan artist and “Between Galaxies” author Logan Darklighter won the model contest with, naturally, a Yamatomodel. It proved to be a pivotal day in Texas anime fandom. Approximately 100 attendees and 8 dealers made the show an unqualified success. Don remembers it this way: “I remember we got to the hotel early and set up the rooms, then went out to breakfast. When we got back, there were 3 young men sitting on the front steps, one of them had a convention flyer. Mark asked if they were there for the con, and they said they were. We went inside and out of their hearing range and had a little celebration. 3 people had come! We had no idea that the place would soon be packed.”
A showing of 100 might not sound like a lot in today’s numbers (“that was about 100 more than we expected,” said Don). However, when considered against the attendance at general SF conventions in 1983 – a time when your absolute largest cons MIGHT draw five or six thousand attendees and your typical Dallas or Atlanta comic book show maxed out at three – YamatoCon‘s ability to nail down that many dealers and customers is commendable.
The show’s importance went beyond the one day; people across Texas and indeed, across fandom as a whole, who were unable to attend or who heard about it after the fact were spurred into action by the mere fact of YamatoCon‘s existence. That such a thing could happen – that Americans could organize and hold a successful anime convention – was both revelation and reassurance. Anime fandom was going to be more than just a video room grudgingly tacked onto the local Star Trek show or a half-page of merchandise in the back of the latest issue of Fangoria.
READ THE REST HERE https://ourstarblazers.com/vault/317/
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Feyre Archeron is just trying to get through the end of the semester and move on. Rhysand Nox has spent the past year reeling from the breakup that shattered his heart. The last time they saw each other, things ended in disaster. As fate would have it, they meet again.
Rated T. 800 words | Epilogue | Main Masterlist | Fic Masterlist
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Two Months Later
The bell of the coffee shop door jangled loudly as Feyre stepped through it, relieved to be out of the February chill.
She scanned the seating area but didn’t see the familiar face she was looking for. Not surprising – she was plenty early.
In late morning, the shop was plenty busy with students studying and groups dressed in business casual grabbing a quick coffee. Luckily, her favorite spot – an L-shaped couch in the corner just large enough for two – was still open. She shucked off her coat and set it down on the couch to claim the spot, then ordered her usual.
“One large peppermint latte, coming right up!” the middle-aged barista confirmed, handing Feyre her receipt.
She murmured her thanks and went back to claim her seat. Only a few minutes had passed before the barista brought her the steaming coffee cup. A single sip confirmed it was extra pepperminty – just as she liked it. The baristas here knew her too well, which was saying something, considering this place's popularity.
She had been back here plenty of times since that fateful December day when her life collided with Rhys’s again – usually, with him.
The bell rang again as the door opened, and Rhys stepped through, looking rather windblown in a way that tousled his usually immaculate hair adorably.
Just as she had, he scanned the bustling shop until he landed on her, his gaze lighting up as he made his way over.
She set her drink down and rose to meet him, wrapping him in a hug.
“Hello, darling,” Rhys murmured into her loose hair. She pulled away from the embrace just enough to press a quick kiss to his lips, cheeks heating a bit at the PDA she always hated to see from other people. But these days, it was all she could do to try and keep her hands off of Rhys.
“I already ordered,” she said. “I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all. I’ll be right back, then.”
Rhys quickly ordered and returned with his coffee in hand. He shrugged off his coat and sat down beside her, curving his body inward so he faced her.
“So, how has your day been?” Feyre asked, at the same time Rhys asked “What have you been up to?”
They both laughed. “You first,” Feyre insisted. “I want to hear how your project has been going.”
Rhys caved and launched into an animated story about his latest research project at the archives, mapping back the histories of some of Prythian’s oldest families. Feyre listened, trying to soak in every word. Even though they had mostly passed the honeymoon stage in this second iteration of their relationship, the easy conversation with him still felt like a gift.
After that December night, they hadn’t been able to stay apart for long. Soon they were texting or calling every day, and then seeing each other nearly daily. And now…here they were.
���So,” Feyre said slyly. “Valentine's Day is next week.”
“Oh?” Rhys said, feigning surprise. “I hadn’t realized. Did you have any plans?”
She lowered her voice so they weren’t overheard. “Well, I did go shopping a few days ago, and I picked out some red lacy things, but I haven’t found an occasion to wear them yet.”
Rhys gave her a wicked grin, his voice equally low. “Well, darling, I can assure you my bedroom would be the perfect place. And if you need someone to model your new clothes for, I’d be happy to help.”
“In that case, it sounds like a date,” she replied, and the look Rhys gave her in turn made her toes curl.
She let herself pause for a moment, looking around the coffee shop, taking in the bustle around them, the sight of Rhys next to her, wholly and completely hers.
“What?” he asked, mystified.
“I just…want to remember this, always. And I want to appreciate everything that I didn’t before.”
Rhys’s smile turned soft, as he reached for her hand. “I do too. And I’m so grateful that I didn’t leave you standing in the cold in December.”
“I don’t know how I got so lucky,” she confessed.
“I do. It’s because you’re a wonderful person, and you deserve wonderful things.”
For once, Feyre didn’t let herself protest, and soaked in her surroundings. This time last year, she had been a shell of her former self. She was proud of the person she had become – with and without Rhys by her side.
And she would never stop feeling grateful that fate had led her here, back to his side, at last.
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AN: Thank you to everyone who's stuck with me throughout this story! I have a really hard time finishing multi-chapter fics, so even though this one wasn't incredibly long, I'm proud of myself for seeing it through and creating something I'm happy with. I hope you all enjoyed!
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@thron3ofbooks @the-lonelybarricade @swankii-art-teacher @ghostlyrose2 @brieq @cretaceous-therapod @live-the-fangirl-life @achernarlight @reverie-tales @starfall-spirit @starswholistenanddreamsanswered @highladysith @areyoudreaminof
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Davy loves throwing tea parties! Usually he’ll invite all the stuffed animals in the Pad (mostly his and Peters but sometime he ransacks the Michael’s’ room for theirs) and have very deep and grown up conversations with them (such as how to stay in the lines while colouring). But if they’re not busy, he’s able to rope the guys into attending and makes them wear boas and tiaras (some less reluctantly than others). He’ll call them rude and remind them of manners if they don’t stick their pinkies up when drinking. Davy prefers when the guys join him because they’re allowed to have real tea, Mike doesn’t trust him with hot beverages if he’s not right next to him
AAAH SO CUTE!!!
Davy gets so excited when he invites the guys to his tea parties. he makes invitations (that are pretty much unreadable but the guys just pretend it’s too fancy for them to comprehend and have davy read it for them) Most of the time peter will join in in most of davy’s tea parties, pretend tea or not. they set up a bunch of pillows in the corner by the hammock (which has also become their dedicated pillow fort spot. they also sometimes do pillow forts in their bedroom!) but sometimes it’s just davy and every stuffed animal in the house (and sometimes wooden animals, and the cookie jar shaped like a chicken…)
Davy loves tea parties with the guys though because he gets to be all “in the know”. usually the other guys have to explain all the american things to him but now HE can explain to THEM all the british things! (he totally doesn’t make some stuff up, which definitely didn’t cause peter to think that he needed to do some silly thing before drinking the tea when they went to go visit davys family in england)
Micky totally goes all out with the costumes (see glamrock glitter micky from the 70s) and he’ll run upstairs and then model walk down the spiral steps in a boa and tiara and having broken out the ms. arcadian dress, ready to play Duchess whateverthename (complete with a small bag of glitter that he can throw whenever he needs to accentuate a point. mike tries his hardest to ban this because they keep drinking the glitter that gets into their tea, but somehow the glitter bag always comes back) and proceeds to be the campiest, most eccentrically elegant noble-person from over-the-way-somewhere that anyone’s ever seen. It usually makes davy start to either giggle, or get really frustrated, depending on how obstinate micky decides to make his character. but usually it ends in davy falling on top of micky (while mike desperately moves teacups out of the way) and then micky ends up ticking davy.
They all put on characters for the tea parties. davy is The Host, “cordially” (he definitely knows how to pronounce “cordially” and does NOT whisper to mike for help pronouncing it. and mike also definitely knows how to pronounce it too and doesn’t panic a bit whenever davy asks him for help) inviting everybody to his tea party. Micky is as earlier described. Peter switches between a bunch of different roles but tends to forget that he’s suppsoed to be doing a british accent or to call davy “Mr. Jones” instead of “davy” and then davy scolds him. mike got all flustered about the tiara bit and just decides to show up in a sparkly cowboy type outfit (that definitely doesn’t include pieces of his irl nudie suit) and davy accepts him as “ah yes, the american.”
And mike has to be like “well davy honey—Uh, Mr. Jones—maybe the stuffies need to drink pretend tea.” and then davy will protest and mike needs to figure out how to not just say “davy, they don’t have mouths”
#the monkees#davy jones#davybaby#mike nesmith#peter tork#micky dolenz#i didn’t expect to type so much lol but this ask is so cuuute!!!
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Green and Red
small batarou ficlet. I figure i'd post it to tumblr since it's so short, but you can also read it here on ao3 instead if that's what you prefer. Rated G, warning for language, no other warnings apply.
“The fuck…” The pink contents of the dryer are spooled out on the floor like the innards of some animal. Tama walks in, curls up in the middle of it. “What the fuck, what the fuck…” and Badd is muttering to himself, pulling out fistfuls of his once white shirts, socks and boxers until he finds a bright red sweater at the bottom of the drum. He bends to get it until he’s nearly hip-deep in and rises back out. It was Garou’s job to do the laundry last.
“Garou!” Badd calls. He shuts the dryer, steps carefully over Tama. “Garou!”
The morning sunbeams pass over his face in shapes as he stomps down the hall, past the bathroom, past their bedrooms, to the living room. Garou is there, reclined on the couch, and his heavy head is in his hands as if he just shot himself awake. “Mmn-yeah?” He says in the middle of a yawn, “Can I help you?”
Badd looks from him to the television, “Did you stay up all night watching Millionaire Matchmaker?”
“Mmmnnno?” Garou says, “…yeah, kinda.”
Badd’s shoulders slump. He sighs, holding up the sweater. “Look at this.”
Garou blinks. “A sweater.”
“A red sweater.”
Garou blinks again. “Okay.” Like he didn’t really believe Badd.
So Badd tilts his head, “This is red.”
“Sure.” The uncertainty is still there.
Badd squints. Garou must be playing with him. It’s red, it’s as real as the sweater in his hands, and Garou’s sitting here debating like its existence was theoretical. Maybe it is. Maybe… no that can’t be it. He’s identified colors before.
Badd thinks of it some more. Okay, he hasn’t.
Garou waves his hand, “Hello?” A frown, “Can I go back to sleep, or are you gonna keep daydreaming over me?”
Badd drops the sweater dramatically, stomps back down the hall. Then the hairs on the back of his neck stand up at the thought of leaving something on the floor, making the living room seem a mess. He walks back over, picks it up, and he’s back down the hall again.
Zenko’s got a stack of magazines in her room that she takes apart when she wants to do collages. Badd got her a set of safety scrapbook scissors and everything, so there’s little bits of ribboned paper here and there when he barefoots over the carpet. He can already hear her little voice in his head now: don’t come in my room! You’re invalidating my privacy!
And he imagines himself arguing back while absentmindedly stirring something over the stove. Invading, Zenko.
I’m sick of your doubletalk! I have rights!
He thumbs the stack until he finds the one he wants, the face of the model on the cover already cut out in a sloppy oval.
Down the hall again. He’s got the magazine pages wrapped back to shove a color blind test in Garou’s face. “What number is it.” He says.
Garou scrunches his nose, pushes aside Badd’s arm. “I’m not doing that.”
Badd throws it on his lap instead, finger pressing on the dotted circle in the middle of the page. “It’s easy, just say what number it is.”
“No.” Garou’s got his arms crossed. “Leave me alone or I’ll fuck you up.”
Badd stands there for a moment, thinking about what to do. He’s colorblind. He’s so colorblind.
“Forty-seven.”
Badd grins. “It’s a six.”
“Whatever, man!” He throws the magazine at Badd, standing up from his Lay-Z-Boy. “Those tests don't prove anything anyways.”
As he walks by, Badd says, “Then why’d you get it wrong?”
Scowling, Garou’s got his head in the fridge (where it often is). “Because—!” And he slams the door, glass bottles rattling inside. “I dunno! Because it’s bullshit!” He snaps the metal cap off a bottle of Coke using the corner of the counter (which Badd had told him to stop doing).
“It’s not a bad thing to be colorblind, dude.” The magazine is on the kitchen table, Badd takes a seat next to where Garou’s standing and using the mouth of the bottle to hide his pout.
“Well, I’m not.”
“Yeah, you are!”
Garou narrows his eyes. “Give me the test again.”
“I already told you the answer—”
“Well, go to another one!”
Badd sighs, folds over the page to a fresh test. Garou comes up behind him and leans over the table, studying it.
“Forty-seven.”
“It’s the letter A, Garou.”
Garou snatches the magazine. “How do you even—!” Turning it upside down, to the side, right-side up. “You’re playing with me!”
Badd has to put his head on the table to hide his laughter. His back is pelted with the magazine. “Garou—Garou. It’s okay—It’s fine.” Snorting and giggling.
Garou’s cheeks are red and he’s downing the rest of the Coke, Adam's apple bobbing. “You are such a tool.”
“Okay–okay.” Badd collects himself, sits up. “You’re just—You’re just not gonna do laundry anymore, man.”
“I’m not colorblind!”
“Yes, you are.” Badd rakes his hand through his hair, catching a breath. “What is that—like, genetics? You said your mom also had white hair and stuff, maybe she also had this.”
Garou’s eyes widen marginally. He scoots out the chair across from Badd and sits. “She didn’t tell me anything and if you’re suggesting I call her—”
“I’m not.” Badd says, flipping to the next page of the magazine. There’s a cologne sample Zenko ripped out prior, but the page still smells citrusy. “Just a thought.”
Garou wrinkles his nose at the smell.
“You’ve lived your whole life like this, doesn’t make it any different now that you have a name for it.” Badd says, echoing something someone told him about his fighting spirit once.
“I know that.” Garou whines quietly, head resting on the heel of his palm. “At least I don’t have to do laundry anymore.”
“Oh, right.”
Badd punches Garou on the arm.
“Ow! What the hell!”
“That was for ruining all the whites.”
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Friday, March 31, 2023
In Persona 5 Royal, just before New Year's, Joker has a strange dream in Shujin Academy as he transitions into Maruki's Cognitive Reality. But how does this scene work, on a technical level? Strictly speaking, like this. Gross.
Let's go step by step and cover what exactly is going on here. In P5R, every time slot of every day is controlled by a "Scheduler" BF File. BF, otherwise known as Binary Flowscript, is a low-level bytecode scripting format created by ATLUS back in 2004 that most Persona games use. The game loads a Scheduler function based on the current timeslot, and each function is named after the timeslot it occurs on, so we can determine this takes place on Year 1, December 31st in the Late Evening.
It's important this takes place on the Late Evening instead of next morning, as the shading and coloring data of Shujin Academy at night is much more moody and appropriate. Additionally, at night, all NPCs in Shujin are despawned.
After turning off the Date UI, the game loads Event ID 485_310, a sort of precursor where Joker wakes up confused in Maruki's Office.
Afterwards, the script sets COUNT values 18 and 22. COUNT values are special integers stored in the game's save data but often come with special properties. 18 and 22 set Joker's current field model ( .GMD ) and animation set ( .GAP ). 18 parses the integer as several arguments, in this case loading c0001_117_00.GMD, while 22 loads the requested field animations in BF0001_212.GAP. c0001_117_00.GMD is his Velvet Room Prisoner attire with GAP 212 being a slow, shambling walk.
After setting many flags in the game's memory linked to specific features like disabling the main Triangle menu, the game sets COUNT 0X10 ( A.K.A 16 ) and calls Keyfree Event 651_103. While a regular Event in the game is a regular cutscene, a Keyfree Event is a sequence where you're allowed to walk around. Take for example, any chase scenes or special sequences. Keyfree events work by essentially overriding every file associated with a specific field, whether it be trigger data, npc placement, script functions, etc, and replacing it with special curated Keyfree files.
Interestingly, this Keyfree chose specifically not to include a modified INIT script, so the scene where joker glances around and assumes he needs to go home is actually performed by the normal Shujin Academy INIT script every time you load into the field. This is why COUNT 16 is set before loading the Keyfree, the Shujin Academy INIT checks this value to determine which of several Keyfree story sequences it's in to pass onto MAIN_65110100_MidnightSchool_Ready()
After setting the Place Name from Shujin Academy to ??? - ??? and redundantly setting Joker's model and animations, EVT_CA_START() applies a wavy Chromatic Aberration to the screen, making it appear hazy.
The rest of the script is dedicated to making joker walk into the hallway and setting up the Blue Butterfly you chase, which is actually an NPC!
Set along the hallways are various invisible trigger boxes that activate the function EVT_CA_BUTTON_ANIME(), a special function created mostly just for this scene that temporarily paints the screen blood red while increasing the strength of the hazy Chromatic Aberration.
This is how the Keyfree event mostly plays out! Various invisible triggers exclusive to this Keyfree are hit that tell the game to move the butterfly farther away while playing specific voicelines and at the very end the last trigger plays a normal Event showing Joker rejecting the new reality before proceeding on with Year 2, January 1st! That's all for now, see you soon!
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NATLA - Episode 2: Warriors (4/4)
[Masterlist of my NATLA thoughts]
An explanation of what I'm doing here and my history with ATLA.
Of course, full spoilers ahead.
<previous/next>
I like the choice to have Kyoshi take over Aang's body first rather than Roku. Even though Roku and Aang have the closest connection, having Kyoshi herself come to defend her island and HER people was amazing. Suki's face as she watches her idol save her village is just…ugh it's so good. The sheer joy and excitement of seeing your hero, who you've modeled your life after, standing up for you - it's so great. Yes, Roku punishing the fire sages who've turned their backs on the Avatar is epic, but if they're going to introduce Kyoshi as the first former Avatar we actually get to know anything about in the animated series, it makes sense that we actually get to…know about her. Also the music choice when she was wrecking shop was amazing - maybe I'm biased because it reminded me of the Wheel of Time soundtrack (specifically the track for Avienda), but that chorus singing behind her was epic.
I like the change that it's Zhao's report that alerts the Fire Lord to the Avatar's return (and Zuko finding him). In the animated show, the fire sages see the signs and alert him, but now, it's more personal and we get to see the dynamic with Ozai and Azula after the banished prince as come close to doing the impossible. Really sets up a lot of stuff for the characters.
In the animated show, the first half of the season lacks any sort of urgency despite us knowing there's a war, genocide, and people actively being subjugated all over the place. While that can work for an episodic kids show - where most episodes are going to focus on character and little side quests that add to the depth of the world and characters rather than the overarching plot - it doesn’t work with 8 episodes. The tonal whiplash of hanging out on an island to ride Elephant Koi fish with no intention of ever leaving right after seeing the remnants of a genocide just wouldn't make sense for the more serious take on the war the live-action wanted to take. In the next two seasons of the animated show, this tonal shift happens, but the lackadaisical nature of specifically the first half of season 1 of ATLA animated show has consistently been one of the weakest points of the show. Yes, Aang running away from his Avatar duties is an important character point to hit, but the live-action shifts this from a physical avoidance of his responsibility to him trying to shove the responsibility off onto the previous Avatars - that way, we get the character beat of 'Aang isn't taking the seriously' with still a forward momentum for the plot.
So overall, this was a super solid episode and had some of my favorite moments (Kyoshi wrecking shop and Sokka batting away the fireball with a fan) and I like what they're setting up. It still holds very close to the animated series - it's not until next episode that they really step outside the strict adherence to the story order/settings of the animated show. While episode 3 is where I really started loving the show and fully bought into this new iteration of the story, I still left this episode with my heart pounding and so excited to continue watching. Themes were seeded and concepts hammered home (like hope - lots of hope talk) that I think really make the season more cohesive than the animated first season was.
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kickstarter
We find peace together in a small cottage within a village, nestled inside a forest filled with monsters. Only by working together will we survive.
Welcome to Cottages & Cerberus.
'Cottages and Cerberus' is a new cottagecore monster-hunting TTRPG system. Inspired by games such as Animal Crossing, Harvest Moon, and Monster Hunter, you and your group of friends will live out your lives day to day in a cottage in a fantasy realm. You will hunt vicious monsters to gain materials and improve your cottage. The Core Rulebook includes 50+ monsters to hunt and slay, and each monster comes with a hunt that is taken before the true fight can begin.
As part of this campaign we are offering special bestiaries for Pathfinder 2E and the D&D 5E. These bestiaries will be available as both PDFs and as a softcover book. Both are available individually in their own tier and also as add-ons.
Download the Preview HERE!!!
CHARACTER SHEET HERE
Pick up and Play
Cottages & Cerberus is a cottagecore monster-slaying tabletop RPG. The game is simple to pick up but hard to put down. The base rules can be learned in minutes, and since each monster has a hunt— a mini adventure that leads up to the boss fight– you can pick one and start running within minutes. Quickstart characters found in the back of the book reduce the friction of having too many character choices, so players can just choose one and go. But, for those who want to nerd out creating your character and load out, you can spend hours picking the perfect abilities for your character. The rules are easy enough to learn quickly, but varied enough to support a vast array of complex and unique characters.
The core of the system involves making checks. When attempting a check, characters roll a number of six-sided dice based on their attributes and circumstances. The GM will then set a target number, determining how difficult the check is. Players will count the number of dice that rolled the target number or higher and then consult the chart below.
Spoons
Spoons are the key resource system in C&C. They are an abstraction of a character's physical and mental capacity. The spoon resource system was inspired by the Spoon Theory, an abstract model created by Christine Miserandino that attempts to explain the energy cost of certain actions for people with chronic pain/illness and mental health conditions. Failing checks and being attacked by monsters cost players spoons, as do some abilities.
Cozy Mode
While in Cozy Mode, you can make checks to do things such as fishing, gardening, crafting, and more. Success grants you Cozy Points. Gain enough Cozy Points and Miss Luna, the goddess of the Moon, will increase your Cottage Rank. In addition, the book presents an optional PC+NPC romance subsystem that is explicitly meant to emulate romance elements found in farming/life sim games.
Character creation in C&C is very simple but rich. Character creation consists of 4 steps: assign your CALM, chose 3 ABILITIES, pick a VIBE and chose either a MAGIC ITEM or a PET
CALM
CALM refers to your attributes. These 4 scores (CHARM, ALCHEMY, LORE, and MUSCLE) range from 1 to 4 at character creation. Whenever you make a check, you roll a number of dice equal to one of these attributes.
Abilities
Next you chose 3 abilities from the over 200 abilities in the book. ABILITIES can have several tags. Abilities with labels like <ACTION> or <REACTION> are powerful combat-focused skills, while tags like <PASSIVE> or <POWER> denote abilities that offer creative, character-focused uses in and out of combat.
Vibes
VIBES are the general energy your character gives off. Each vibe offers a way to restore spoons.
Pet or Magic item
Magic Items can grant various benefits. Pets are fully loyal creatures that are controlled by the player. They have a miniature stat block and can be used both in and out of combat.
Start playing quickly
If all of these character options feel overwhelming, don't worry! The book offers options that can help you build your character. The back of the book also contains several quick start characters.
Cozy Calling
The book also presents an optional system called Cozy Callings. Each Cozy Calling includes a bit of lore and questions to help you write your backstory. They also include recommended abilities, and abilities written specially for that Calling (but available to all characters). Cozy Callings are optional, you can take several Callings or take none. A Cozy Calling is merely a starting point for creating your character. Cozy Callings in the book include concepts such as the Cheerleader and the Spell Knight.
Hunting mode is the a core part of the game loop in Cottages & Cerberus. After defeating a monster, players gain new materials that they can use to craft items for their cottage. There are over 50 monsters to slay in Cottages & Cerberus. Each monsters contains an hunt, a miniature adventure consisting of anywhere from 1 to 5+ scenes and minor challenges that must be completed in order to face the fearsome beast.
Quick and Brutual Boss Fights
Fights in C&C are meant to be brutal, intense, but quick. These monster fights are explicitly meant to be BOSS fights, and the rules for combat are built to emulate intense battles. The monster starts each fight with an OPENER before its first real turn. Afterwards, it's the players turn. Players decide among themselves what order they want to take their actions. After all players have gone, the monster activates CLOSER abilities that auto-target based on which character(s) meets certain conditions. (As an example, one monster might have an ability that deals damage to the character with the most spoons).
Each monster also has challenges. Challenges come in two varieties. Hook Challenges offer plot hooks related to the monster. Variation Challenges represent subspecies of the monster that alter its ecology, lore and abilities.
Kickstarter campaign ends: Sat, October 7 2023 2:03 AM BST
Website: [twitter]
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I’ve written a little about original content in the Doraemon anime that I’m not a big fan of, but there are other cases where I think it can be quite good. One of these is the episode “できすぎラブレター” (approximate translation: “Over-the-top Love Letter”) from the 1979 anime series. It aired in 2005, making it one of the final episodes of the classic Doraemon anime. Although it is an adaptation of the manga chapter “もはん手紙ペン” (“Model Letter-writing Pen”, which I mentioned previously here), the story has been substantially modified.
In the manga, there is a gag in which Nobita tries to use the Model Letter-writing Pen to write a letter to Shizuka, only to end up penning an... age-inappropriate message, because the age setting on the pen had been incorrectly specified. After Doraemon fixes the problem, this incident never comes up again. The episode, on the other hand, makes it the focus of the story.
In this version, Nobita writes the letter alone in the park, instead of at home. There, he is spotted by Suneo, who takes the letter and reads it, and it is then that Nobita realizes that he’d gotten the settings wrong on the pen. Suneo is intent on embarrassing Nobita by showing the letter to everyone, but the next person to read it, Dekisugi, is actually very impressed by Nobita’s writing skills. Gian, however, decides that the letter needs to be shown to Shizuka right away.
Before Gian and Suneo can take the letter to Shizuka’s house, Dekisugi steps in and tricks them(!!) into thinking that Shizuka is out shopping, which gives Nobita enough time to write letters for Gian and Suneo expressing his appreciation and admiration for them. They are so moved by Nobita’s writing that they return the letter he wrote for Shizuka and leave him in peace.
With the matter resolved, Nobita puts the letter away into an envelope... but he’d forgotten that he’d already stuck one of Doraemon’s Super-express Stamps on it. Whoops.
As expected, Shizuka is very flustered after reading Nobita’s letter and is unwilling to see him. Later that day, however, she stops by with a letter for Nobita, explaining that she’d figured out that he wouldn’t have written a letter like that on his own. After getting confirmation from Doraemon that Nobita had been affected by one of Doraemon’s gadgets, she encourages Nobita to write to her as himself, using his own words.
Meanwhile, Dekisugi is none the wiser about how Nobita was able to write such charismatic letters. He shows up at Nobita’s door the next morning and tells him that he plans on running late to school with him, in the hope that he’ll be able to pick up the same skills by emulating Nobita’s behavior!
It’s a sweet story that puts an original spin on a minor plot point from the manga, while giving some depth to almost all the characters involved without contradicting their established characterization. Well done to the anime for this one. It would have been fun to see more of this type of interaction between Nobita and Dekisugi in the manga (or the franchise in general)!
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