#except it takes a lot of time to make tutorials and such lol

[ryuichirou]

I been wondering what would it be like for the cast to be parents? I seen how Idia and Azul will likely be terrible ones and I am curious for the rest. (Except for Lilia for obvious reasons)

Anon! Sorry for the late reply. The day has come for me to share with you my nrc-as-parents headcanons lol I’ve mentioned this theme a little bit in one of the previous replies about Azul and Idia a while ago, and I’ll reiterate: we usually don’t really love the scenarios than involve characters becoming parents, and because of that I probably ended up talking about how bad of a parent all of them are lol But I tried to make it as fair as possible.

Actually, some of them turned out to be not so shitty ones! Which is quite surprising, not gonna lie.

Alright, so…

Riddle – such an anxious parent. One would assume that he would try not to mess his kid up as badly as his mom messed him up, but it’s Riddle we’re talking about; he’s still super dependant on tutorials and rulebooks, and whether he wants to acknowledge and avoid his parents’ mistakes or not, he’ll end up overthinking it and messing up massively. I guess it all depends on his partner, but he’d need a lot of help. He’s going to copy his mother until somebody stops him, although at some times he would think “I was actually very upset when my mother did that, I should stop”, but he wouldn’t be able to catch or even see all these moments, especially on his own.

Trey – “oh he is the perfect dad!” I hear the crowd saying. “NO!!!” I’m yelling back at the crowd. Of course, he is super caring and empathetic and has experience with children. And looking at some of the other…. Uh… contestants… of course, Trey is one of the best. But he is also an enabler that spoils his kids rotten. He’s way too doting. He’s strict about their dental hygiene! But other than that? Nah.

Cater – god I don’t think Cater would ever want a kid. I think he would think that unless he has a perfect and stable life with a house and no need to move anytime soon, it’d be too irresponsible to get a kid. But even then, he would be so focused on not messing up his kid (and he would only have one because siblings sucks) that he would probably make things worse lol He would also probably try to make everything seems perfect and his kid really wouldn’t appreciate it when they get older.

Ace – he’s the dad that doesn’t pay child support and visits them like once or twice every other week. I know I judge him based on his younger self, but I don’t feel like this guy is getting mature or responsible anytime soon. He’s the type of parent that always looks hella confused about what to do with a kid, especially when they’re too young/too old to appreciate his sick magic tricks. He’s not heartless, he just doesn’t get it and gets frustrated because of that and doesn’t want to continue trying.

Deuce – he would try to do his best. He would actually be quite a nice parent, but that doesn’t mean that he won’t make mistakes or get frustrated. He’ll mess up A LOT; he’s just very good at learning from his mistakes and knows how important it is to have a good parent. And his mom would help out a lot.

Leona – distant, lazy, always salty at someone for some reason. The type of dad who could technically brag about his kid to someone, but when the kid is there he just sits on a couch and watches tv in silence. He gets inspired to teach his kid how to throw a ball from time to time, but he’s also the type of a dad to miss the perfect timing for this kind of bonding and end up with a teenager who doesn’t want to hang out with him. Wow that went dark lol

Ruggie – on the one hand, he also has a lot of experience with taking care of children. On the other hand, his kid would know how to pickpocket at the age of 2. Just in case. His kid would love him a lot, but he’s definitely not the most conventional dad one could have. He’d also never have a child without any sort of financial stability because he doesn’t want his child to be raised up in the streets.

Jack – oh come on, he would be such a good father that it’s actually boring, NEXT!!!

Azul – Riddle’s mom 2.0. I’m sorry, this is the hill I’m going to die on. Yes, Azul was loved by his family and surrounded by nothing but support and care, but he’s also a psychotic control-freak that truly believes that he was too spoiled and that his parents should have been MORE STRICT WITH HIM!!! So in his head, the best thing he could do is to make sure that his kid knows magic by the age of 3, knows how to work with contracts by the age of 5, learns how to play an instrument, does sports, knows how to cook, has perfect pronunciation and vocabulary, and oh of course the kid also needs to have a hobby because if they don’t have anything they’re passionate about they’ll never succeed in life! Azul is overbearing lol but he is also probably overly protective of his kid. He’d also yell at his mom for spoiling her grandchildren lol but his mom would make a great counterbalance for his attitude with her being sweet, so it’s not that bad for a child...

Floyd – HE DOESN’T NEED A KID. PLEASE. HE AND JADE BOTH WOULD PIT TWO NEWBORNS AGAISNT EACH OTHER AND GO “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT”. But if we’re being honest, I just think he’s too volatile to be a proper parent. The possibility that he’d get bored and just ditch this whole parenting thing altogether is too high lol

Jade – If we don’t go the “baby wrestling” scenario, he’s… confusing. He might be a wonderful dad who is surprisingly perfect at parenting and smiles at you with his “what, you thought I would be bad at it? too bad” smile. As if he’s doing it to spite everyone. As if he’s plotting something. But I can also picture him leaving his kid in a forest just to see if he would find his way home.

Kalim – Oh he’s the most doting dad ever. His kid would have everything they want, he’ll shower them with love, kisses, songs, tasty food, gifts, snacks, cool outfits. He would photograph everything and have tons of videos on his phone. He would talk about his kids all the time. He would be so obnoxious and insufferable, Jamil would actually ask him to PLEASE consider not spending half of their funds on his child’s birthday gift? You’ll literally go broke please stop PLEASE.

Jamil – he’s also probably the one not to have a kid for a very long time because of having too many irons in the fire. But he’d be an okay parent. His biggest problem would be the fact that he’s busy. His kid would probably be super mature from a very young age though. And learn how to cuss from Jamil. Jamil didn’t mean to teach them that, but oh fuck. But also I think he would somehow end up making some of the same mistakes his parents made with him. He’s way too focused on Kalim to notice that he pushes his kid away a lot hoping that they’ll “understand” because they’re “smart”.

Vil – he would be a solid one! He’s also super focused on his kid learning a bunch of stuff from a very young age, but he is much more mature and empathetic than Azul is about it. Still, he’s quite strict, but he’s also super doting when he has his soft moments. But sometimes he still takes his own perfectionism too far. He’s the one to read a lot of the books about parenting and try to be as prepared for it as possible. But mistakes are unavoidable so let’s hope that the great Vil Schoenheit shows his excellence at everything he does yet again.

Rook – oh the weirdo. He has his strong points, and a lot of them: he’s super supportive, super loving, he helps out a lot, and he would actually provide a good balance if the second parent is Vil for example. At the same time, it’s impossible to have a “normal childhood” when your dad is Rook, because he’ll teach you how to hunt, how to survive in the woods, how to hide your presence from a tiger. His kids will watch him snap a deer’s neck at the age of like 2. So yeah, on the one hand he would be that parent who yells in excitement at his kid’s elementary school play, but he’ll also give the most ruthless critique to them afterwards. He’ll show his kid the beauty of nature, but he’ll also leave them in the woods for a week to survive alone. Don’t worry, he believes in them~ (his kid and Jade’s kid would stumble upon each other in the same woods and become friends lol)

Epel – he’s too much of a baby… I can’t even picture him having a kid. What kind of a teen mom?.. He’s going to be too focused on this whole cute/manly stuff, this never ends well lol

Idia – the awkward and avoiding parent that kind of wants to hang out with the kid but also wants nothing to do with them. He doesn’t know how to act around them and it’s painfully obvious. So he might miss the moment to actually bond with them just like Leona, but on the other hand, if the other parent is Azul, Idia could be “the fun parent”: the type that you can eat ice-cream with and play videogames for hours. But when the videogaming and ice-cream eating hours are over, he’ll just stop communicating with the kid again and hide somewhere. He doesn’t like being a parent much; he’d prefer to be “a cool uncle” of sorts. The one that only comes to visit twice a year…

Ortho – an actual cool uncle lol I also can’t picture Ortho as a dad. He’d be a collection of all the dad tropes from the tv. He would have so much fun! Not sure of the kid would have fun though. But Ortho would!

Lilia – oh we all know how good of a father he is. The best one.

Silver – a very sweet and empathetic one, caring and protective; his main downfall is the fact that his own childhood was so messed up that he doesn’t really know how to care for kids. Of course he wouldn’t just drown a kid in milk like his own dad did, but he also wouldn’t automatically assume that it probably isn’t safe to just let his kid play with a sword on their own. Something among the lines.

Sebek – absolutely obnoxious. Sometimes he’s surprisingly good… because his childhood wasn’t as bad as Silver’s, so he knows better. He’s also the one to read a lot of books and hope that he won’t make any mistakes. But he’ll make mistakes, get frustrated and angry, and make even more mistakes. And then he’ll sing an ode to Malleus instead of a regular lullaby because the young one needs to learn what’s important from the very first days of their life!!!!!!111 Silver and he need each other to balance shit out lol

Malleus – he would try, but I don’t trust him to try hard enough lol he would be invested and loving at first, but he would also get moments when he would just leave a kid and go on a stroll. It would probably take some time for him to learn that he probably shouldn’t do this. Hey he went through the same thing, right? Was it fair then? Why isn’t it fair now? (besides, Silver also turned out alright!) Not everything is about you, Malleus…

[d4isywhims]

hello friends! 🌷

recently i got an ask on how i edit my instagram screenshots and here in gemville, all you have to do is ask and you shall receive my child

fun stuff under the cut!

this guide will be divided into two parts: how i take & edit my gameplay screenshots and how i edit my simstagram posts

before we get into the actual tutorial, here are a list of things that i use to help me take better screenies :)

gshade

i'm using an older version of gshade because - thanks to my procrastination - i never updated the version before everything went to shit.

2. presets!

i switch around between presets a lot lmao but for the most part, i use ellcrze's gshade preset for my family dynamics save, sunset n vinyl for my globetrotter save & sim download pictures and a modified boho dreams for my tjol legacy save (first post coming up soon!) sometimes i use lithium for cas pics too :p click here for a somewhat detailed explanation lol

3. tab mode camera mod

this camera mod is a godsend and makes taking screenshots soooooo much easier! 😌 i highly recommend getting this mod!!!

i think i mentioned this before in an ask - i edit my screenshots in photoshop before posting them on tumblr :D i don't really do much, just running a few actions and cropping my screenies. gshade does most of the work for me lol

this tutorial by @buglaur is insanelyyyy helpful omg i based my entire editing process on her tutorial, except for the colouring part because i'm lazy hehe

here's an example of my screenshots before and after editing (cropping the screenshot and running some actions)! there’s not much difference because as i said earlier, gshade will basically carry your entire editing process 💀

sometimes i put text in my pics like these screenies below :) i mainly use these two fonts - winkle and lemon milk :D

and that's about it for part one! now it's time for

here's what you neeeeeed

1. photoshop

i'm using a 🏴‍☠️ version of photoshop that i got from a somewhat sketchy website but it runs great so i'm not complaining 💀

2. instagram post template and instagram story template

a HUGEEEE thank you to @windslar for sharing the instagram story template link 😭 she is such an inspiration to me 💛

3. the actual instagram app

this is how i add text and emojis to my simstagram posts lol

disclaimer: i am NOT a photoshop expert. there's probably an easier way to do what i'm about to show you, but this works for me and i don't really mind the steps hehe

first things first, you're gonna want to open the psd files on photoshop and it'll look like this, depending on which file you opened

i usually just hide the layers that i don't need so in this case i'll hide the tagged users layer from the story psd and the bg layer from the post psd.

these are the layers that i hide but you can also leave them on if you want hehe totally up to you my dude. then you'll end up with something like the pics below

now we move on to the profile pictures! so what i do is i click these layers (shown below) and go 'file > place embedded > selected picture'

once you do that, you'll end up with something like this (below)! use 'ctrl + t' to resize your picture to fit into where the profile picture would go.

right click on the layer of your selected picture and click 'create clipping mask'. then you can hit 'ctrl + d' to adjust the picture to your liking!

now for the actual pictures for the posts. click on these layers (shown below) and go 'file > place embedded > your selected picture'

now all you have to do is 'ctrl + t' to resize your pictures, right click on the layer of the selected picture and click 'create clipping mask' then 'ctrl + t' again to adjust the pics!

after this whole process, i'll export my pics to my family dynamics folder on my desktop and queue it up on tumblr! :D sometimes my simstagram story posts have text and emojis like these ones below

all i did was upload the pics to google drive, download it to my phone, add text/emoji on the actual instagram app then saving the story to my phone... a lot of work but i don't really mind <3

aaannnnddd that's it!!!! i can't believe i made this guide 😭 hopefully this helps :D english isn't my first language so apologies for any grammar/spelling mistakes i've made in this post 🙈 feel free to ask any questions and i'll try my best to reply to you asap!!

[otakween]

Digimon: Battle Spirit - Final Thoughts

My first Digimon GBA game! The GBA SP was my first handheld as a kid, so it holds a special place in my heart. In my experience, licensed games for the GBA were always really short and this one is no exception. It takes less than an hour to beat if you know what you're doing. I beat it twice for good measure. To complete the game, I'd have to beat it like 10 times to unlock all the digimon, but I rather move on. The gameplay for this one was pretty meh, but as you can probably tell from my screenshots, the sprite art was adorable!!

Notes:

My first playthrough of this game I lost a lot because I had no idea what was going on. This is another one that could have really benefitted from a tutorial round because I was very lost (I guess they expect you to read the manual).

This is technically a fighting game, but your goal isn't really to K.O. anyone. Instead you're meant to knock little orbs out of them and whoever collects the most wins. I didn't find the "hit and run" gameplay that satisfying . To be honest, when I switched on easy mode the game was a lot more fun because you could just beat the enemy up like a sandbag. (My first playthrough was on normal mode with Terriermon, second was easy with Guilmon).

Very similar to the last Wonderswan game I played, this one has Impmon as an optional boss. I just thought it was curious that they both threw that in there.

The final boss is Millenniumon. It was cool to fight him directly since in other games I've fought him using a turn-based approach. At first I thought the fight was really hard, but then I learned the strategy for dodging his attacks and it's actually pretty easy. Kinda like a Zelda boss.

When you beat the game it gives you passwords for Digimon Rumble Arena. I think it's really fun when games interact like that. It's great for people like me who try to play all the games in a franchise.

Supposedly the Wonderswan version of this game is the "definitive" version because it has extra digimon in it. Maybe I'll check it out someday, but I'm not making it a priority.

I feel like they low key did the Family Guy pose here lol:

[kyomunosaki]

I started Hypnospace Outlaw

...and I've noticed a few small things that are super interesting, mostly with the idea of tutorialization.

I didn't plan to do a writeup on this, so I don't have any of my own gameplay's screenshots. I remember most of the gist, so I can probably write a few sentences on this topic that really stuck with me. I would've gone back for more screens but I'm feeling very lazy and I might repost this with editing/photos in the future lol

So Hypnospace Outlaw is basically a pre-2K "internet janitor simulator" except that you don't do it for free. You're like a free contractor/PMC janitor, where you get comissions to hunt down certain infringement of internet/Hypnospace law.

The first case is to find instances where the copyright for a 1968 of a cartoon character named Gumshoe Gooper is being infringed upon. I found this case to be a phenomenal tutorial for both the game mechanics and the philosophical(?) questions the game wants to ask.

Gumshoe Gooper (Hypnospace Outlaw)

At first upon getting this case, I was still grappling with the game mechanics, exploring the Windows 98-ass interface with the skill of an old man in a nursing home. At the time I entirely forgot about the search function, so I just explored by going through various web portals and webrings, a la Geocities.

I found a lot of interesting sites that I don't really have the time (nor screenshots) to talk about and do justice with, but there's a lot of awesome things to find in Hypnospace if you're willing to just take time and look around. I do want to possibly talk about that later if there's interest.

After just stumbling around the internet and remembering how hard it is to find stuff through web portals, I remembered the search function existed thanks to one of the sites I ended up on having tags that open up the search window. So I searched for "gooper"

You find 3 sites from that search, two from AbbyWrites58 and another from another woman who's name I can't recall right now. The first site is a typical late 90s personal site you might find, for a first-grade teacher. It contains mentions of memorials to dead lost ones, a Hypnospace Heaven or something, and is part of a "Spirituality" web ring, but otherwise not much to note. The first link however, is a link to "Drawings of Gumshoe Gooper by my first graders"

Webrings on Abby's World (Hypnospace Outlaw)

On the link, its filled with pencil/crayon sketches of Gumshoe Gooper by a bunch of children, but also 2 gifs that seem like legitimate copyright infringement. I still felt apprehensive about reporting this page to the Hypnospace Enforcers, because it felt like a teacher just wanting to share the work of her students and I was hoping to find other violations to fit my quota. Regardless, even if I were to fill out my quota there were only 2 very clear examples of copyright infringement on the page.

So, I went back and checked out the other site by AbbyWrites58, and this one was... a political support website for a local politician? Who was seemingly a politician that had different views than, I, the player did? And she was using a GIF of Gumshoe Gooper saying that he supported her? I didn't have much hesitation just hitting her with the copyright violation on this page.

The third page was just another site but with an official Gumshoe Gooper strip posted on it. As you can tell the rest of this essay is lazily thrown together and just a retelling of events, but I do not remember the exact details of the page. I just remember still feeling apprehensive about reporting stuff on the page with children's art, so I think I reported that strip.

I still hadn't reached my quota of 3 violations reported, so I begrudgingly made my way back to the initial site I had landed on in my search. I decided to report one of the GIFs, and didn't feel too bad about it since while she did teach first graders I did find her political views somewhat, off-putting. I was going to make my way back to the case page to finalize it, but I got a notification on the not!Clippy software, telling me that if I find more violations I could get a bonus on closing the case?

A child's drawing of Gumshoe Gooper (Hypnospace Outlaw)

So, I decide to report the other GIF on the page as well, and look at that: more money. And then I have a dark urge to test something out. What about this first grader's art? What if I file it for copyright infringement, what would happen? Would the kid get in trouble? Will the teacher get the blame? Did the teacher even deserve any blame? Well, I hit the report. It works. So I go through the page, filing every crude drawing of Gumshoe Gooper by children as a violation of copyright law.

I get a lot of money, and I don't feel too bad after learning more about AbbyWrites58. Besides, the other members of her webring were openly fascists! That sort of association makes you liable to uh, getting in serious trouble over copyright infringement of a 1968 cartoon character right? It's just my job! I needed to hit the quota! And what if I flag her account to the authorities, her account with her location and other personal information tied to it?! What is the worst that could happen, and maybe I would feel a bit more bad about it if her political views weren't so, wrong?

This sort of self-justification I found myself doing just felt fascinating. It was some of the most engaged I felt with a game's narrative in so long, and it's only been made more fascinating by later cases like even the one just following this with ZANE_ROCKS_14. If you liked this post, maybe I'll actually try to edit this one down properly and actually take screenshots too. Regardless, if you got this far thanks for reading!

Edit: I can see how this makes me look like kind of a dumbass but I guess what's more accurate is "what her political views were being signalled as" is more accurate for some of the stuff I say above lol, but I'm too lazy to edit the post more than this

[thegongoozlerreacts]

Dead Plate (Part 1)

hello!! its been a while since ive posted but here i am!!! so this game is Dead Plate created by STUDIO INVESTIGRAVE

i had played one of their games before, Elevator Hitch, and i really really enjoyed it! so im very excited for this new game that theyve released

though, this game is probably really different from Elevator Hitch, because that game was a visual novel type of game while this one has restaurant tycoon gameplay

still, im very excited

i hope i can get all the endings today (but probably not) as always, spoilers under the cut!

i know its literally just the title screen BUT it looks very classy

also the music? its a bop like yo BellKalengar is the composer and sound designer and like yo!! amazing job its literally just the title screen and im amazed already LMFAO

alright then lets begin

lolol i like the way they named the buttons for doing the tutorial, skipping the tutorial or just leaving the game on auto progress time to show up at 5 am then

the art is really cute these characters are really cute too esp the protag

i know its just the tutorial but i am very nervous LOL doing service jobs make me nervous (even tho this is only a fictional one)

bro protag why did u skim the interview thing 😭 is that why u've had 28 jobs in 7 years 💀

ooh interesting the cooks have an order in which they cook meals i need to remember that

wow so theres a lot to do huh theres seating the customers, taking their orders, bringing those orders to the kitchen, serving the food, going to the cash register to take their payments, cleaning up the tables AND throwing out the trash its a lot more than i was expecting,,,, lol good luck to me i guess

so like fun fact im actually not that good at playing games LOL esp this kind of game where theres like people and they have like a happy meter kind of thing going on i wonder if any of the endings will be tied to how well we do during the work day ?? probably

also can i just say that the music is really good i like the kinda jazzy (is that the right word??) vibes going on

it makes me less nervous about serving customers since its very chill LOL

WHY IS THIS CUSTOMER HITTING ME WITH A HARD QUESTION

I HAVE NO IDEA IF WE HAVE TO-GO BOXES OR WHATEVR WHAT HUH ?????

there is a right answer and i have no idea what it is im gonna lose my mind please. ok well lets pick an answer

im gonna go 'no' since the restaurant has a strict menu that changes daily right? so maybe they wouldnt do to-go boxes or ordering ahead and stuff (RIGHT???)

oh phew ok i picked the right one

LOL the banter between the protag and the tutorial guy (i dont know his name)

??? what the hell this customer just left right as i got the food bro 😭😭 have some patience damn this aint a fast food place

now i have to throw away this perfectly good meal (sorry cooks)

oh no now the real game is starting uhh aight alright then lets go

ok so that was like only three customers, i did pretty well but the day's not over yet shdajhsdsakhj i feel like a disaster n it was only three customers LMAO

oh it was only 3 customers for day 1 nice (i got jumpscared by the sound effect for the day ending LFMAO)

ooh green onion rolls,,, it looks good damn now i want to eat LOL

BITCH YOU LIVE LIKE THIS?????? damn,,,,

the music for this area is pretty chill tho

THE BATHROOM IS FLOODING??? AGAIN ?!??! BRO ??? THATS DISGUSTING

the window has a horrible view its just another building

oho? she? who???

bro dont leave the dishes for later thats sooo gross

??? HOW DID YOU BURN CEREAL???? WHAT DID YOU EVEN DO ??

i am appalled at the protag's lifestyle i cant even

so he has not finished writing lyrics and love letters for this girl he mentioned earlier the game is not revealing her name and im wondering why hmm its very sus

sorry im laughing so hard??? its mostly empty except for some cans and the fucking green onion rolls im cackling?? they look so out of place in this fridge LMFAO

bro how are you so bad at cooking that you burnt food in the microwave??? what are you doing???

wait. is his bed the couch???? bro i feel so bad for this guy

he biked through the rain,,,,, and he thought doing it fast would dry him,,, in the rain,,,,, im starting to understand why he somehow managed to burn cereal

he doesnt own an umbrella

aww this is cute thanks boss

he LIVES here??? wow damn his apartment is upstairs thats very cool

LOL protag keep ur mouth shut

day 2 here we go

SHIT HELP I TOOK TOO LONG ONE OF THE CUSTOMERS LEFT NOOO im restarting jkdsljlds its a good thing i saved

ahh i did way better this time but the day ended right as i was about to take out the trash LOL

oooh those look tasty too

oops ok so like i started day 3 right

well i was like 'i'll take out the trash before serving any customers' so that i can just easily clean up the tables right

uhh but then suddenly this happened ??? so like protag dropped the bag and cut their finger and the boss is having an odd reaction to the sight of blood methinks

HTHE BOSS JUST SLAPPED HIM ??? WTF

bro he just slapped him then was like 'oh dw someone else will clean it up' hello???? you just slapped ???? me ???

ok then moving on to the rest of the day i guess??

kinda weird looking but it still looks appetizing (the magic of art LOL)

oh shit theres a magazine ?? oops im gonna go back and read through previous ones oh nevermind its just the same one lmao

ohhh so this is where i buy items ok aight

and this catalogue is how our protag knew about the job for a waiter it also has an interview with our boss (Chef Vincent Charbonneau, i finally know his name) about the low number of employees i was wondering why we were the only waiter in the restaurant and i guess thats why

ok i bought the rollerskates cuz i need to be faster for the customers

oh and u can interact w the telephone to call 'her' but she doesnt pick up oof

sorry what is happening right now

what is that weird squelching sound?!?!?

BRO?? WTF WAS THAT ??? so like his body felt itchy, pressed Z to scratch and then suddenly lines were all over his body and then knives came out and i am so very confused

i think that was just a dream but what a weird nightmare

i guess onto day 4 then ?? at least i have my sick new rollerskates now

ooh that looks tasty

man i think im too slow cuz the timer always runs out while one more customer is still around lmfao, oh well

oh shit another nightmare

ohh so i can only equip one item at a time hmmm well since i bought the watch anyways i guess i'll use it

PFFT A CUSTOMER LEFT SORRY LADY,, she was waiting to be seated but i was preoccupied with serving food oopsies

restarting the day then

the nightmare hmm is the protag's name Rody since thats what it says on the label

DAMNIT I TOOK TOO LONG AGAIN

ok im just gonna use the rollerskates this time

AGGHH I KEEP TAKING TOO LONG ON THIS ONE CUSTOMER

restarting again,,,,

should i just let it go? probably but im not going to

IM GONNA LOSE MY MIND IVE RESTARTED SO MANY TIMES

ok well youve not seen it but i have restarted day 5 soo many times and i am hungry so,,, here's where i'll leave it for today

even though i am struggling and getting frustrated, im really enjoying the game so far! i wish i wasnt so terrible at playing it so i could see more of the story LOL

like what is up with the boss? who is this girl that the protag likes so much? what is up with his weird nightmares??? and will i ever be able to finish day 5 ?????

tune in next time LOL byebyeee

[lemonysnicket]

adventures in bookbinding: making the negret colophon playing card book!

it's diy girl summer and i am Bored. time to attempt a completely new craft with zero research except for like. 3 youtube videos!

so, to start off, i suppose i will ramble a wee bit about my plans/goals/reasoning. truth be told, i just really really like my blorbo who book binds and i think it would be very fun to become Just like him for real. therefore we will be embarking on a journey!! to become my blorbo and also find something crafty to do today. quick psa that this is not a real tutorial because i have absolutely zero experience, but more of a general guide and/or craft with me! let's do this in sectionssss!!

1 - the plan!!

so for my first bookbinding project we are going to do something small, starting out by being silly and taking a page (lol) out of negret colophon's book (lol....) when he makes a tiny book and uses two playing cards as the covers. this will give me a little tiny trial run so i can learn the basic skills and use easily available materials around my house!! afterwards i think i'll sketch out a more ambitious journal idea - i have lots of fabric lying around that would work perfectly to cover a cardboard cover. wow, that's wordy! so! without further ado let's begin :) negret's little bookbinding project is described in the first chapter of raconteurs in this little excerpt here.

seems simple enough!! also the absolute perfect beginner project. it is tiny and the materials consist of Literally Anything. let's get groovy!!

2. materials!!

here's what we're working with:

playing cards! i found a deck lying around in a random drawer somewhere and chances are you have one laying around too. i chose the ace of spades and diamonds, because the text specifies a pair of aces but i couldn't find a matching pair, lol. i was also very tempted to choose one of the king cards as an homage to maisie's story later on (and because the king cards are absolutely gorgeous and detailed) but we're sticking to canon right now. we'll use the other cards for a future project.

needles!! a lot of the tutorials i see use very big or thick needles but i don't have those and this is also a very small project, not a huge journal, so any can work.

thread!! use whatever color you would like! at this point i was very indecisive because i have a lot of options and they're all quite pretty colors, but i settled on red later.

an assortment of papers!! use literally whatever you have lying around. for me, i managed to dig up the one scrap of newspaper in my house, since that's specifically listed, but most of my pages were from a book i sacrificed for an old art project, magazines and flyers, a lot of which were college mail because we're at that point in my life, lol. this is a recycling sort of project. choose anything! the more variety the better :)

i didn't display these in the photo, but if you have an awl, use an awl! i do not have one so i improvised, which i'll elaborate upon later. also, scissors! to cut the pages to scale. a ruler also came in handy :)

alright, now that we have all our tools in order, it's time to get into it :)

3. creating the pages!!

our first step is to measure our playing cards! you might not have to do this step because i'm fairly certain most cards are uniform in size/make, but check just in case, lol.

my cards measured to be 2.5" wide and 3.5" tall. i am no mathematician but using my singular brain cell i deduced that the papers should be twice the width of our cover, since those will fold to be the same size. so, using my Expert calculations, i made a little template cut from an index card measuring 3.5" x 5".

now we get to cutting!! using your various materials, cut out a bunch of papers to the size of your template. i just cut around it because i could not be bothered enough to waste time tracing, lol. i didn't go in with a plan, but i cut 16 papers to this size, which ended up being perfect. here are all my pages !! look at all the colors and textures!! the fun thing about the project being so small is that you can specifically cut the pages as the most interesting photos or sections, or you can even do it at angles too. as long as it ends up the right size, anything is fair game

now, we're going to make the papers into signatures! i just learned this word today lol. essentially, we will be grouping our papers and then folding those in half to become little mini books/pages. since i had 16 papers, i made 4 signatures with 4 pages each.

at this point i was tempted to go cut up more and make a fifth signature, but i decided against it since i didn't want the book to become too thick, and 4 sets with 4 papers each ended up being just about right. one of the tutorials i watched suggested that you group your signatures with paperclips or bobby pins, and at the time i waved off the suggestion but i totally agree now. i didn't have any clips to work with and i managed fine without them, but it definitely would have been easier if i had. so if you have them, use them! it'll make your life better lol. at this point you can stack your signatures together and itll look like a book!

oh yeah now we're cooking!!

4. preparing for binding!!

it was at this point in the process where i ventured out from knowing what i was doing to completely balling, but everything turned out okay and i'll walk you through it! our next step is to create the holes with which we will sew our signatures together. we're going to mark those off. once again i have zero clue how to do math but i managed to use my giant incredible smooth brain one more time to mark my template with a few equidistant points with which we can mark our signatures.

in case it's not clear, i kind of just counted the lines and then had to look up how much that was, but you can also just eyeball it if you're good enough. side note, i added two more holes after this, with one just below the very top and one just below the very bottom.

pardon my very unsightly nails, lol - here's how i used my template to mark the very center of each of my signature. you'll want to mark the point on the center line where you folded it while keeping the pages of each signature together. HOPEFULLY WITH A PAPERCLIP. and without further ado it's time for the stabbing!

now...here's where i got a little bit sacrilegious. you'll recall that earlier i mentioned how i don't have an awl in my possession yet? well, i managed to improvise a solution...

yes that is a sewing pin. IN MY DEFENSE it's all i had, and functionally it's basically the same as an awl! just on a much smaller scale. it worked out though - i imagine that if i'd been using thicker paper it would have posed a bit of a problem but for this project specifically, it was fine. do not kill me book binders. now it's time to get serious...

5. the binding

everyone stay calm! stay calm! it will be okay. i was lowkey intimidated by this part as this was Truly out of my depth of expertise, but i promise it's not that complicated. you're going to get your needle and thread now - i settled upon this gorgeous red color because it contrasted nicely with the playing cards, and there really wasn't much red in the papers i chose.

gorgeous!! tbh i always knew i'd go with the red because i've always envisioned the book with red thread anyways. like come on look at my very first drawing of negret WITH it. literally the exact same materials. i simply had to.

okay. now to the binding part. i don't have any real photos or insights or instructions for this whole stage because 1. i was deep in focus mode and 2. entirely relied on a tutorial for this part. here's the tutorial i used - massive shoutout to this lovely lady ! my spine didn't turn out nearly as neat as hers because i did not properly follow directions for the first bunch of knots (and i had to kind of improvise with the cover) but here's how it turned out!

not too bad for my first book, lol. try not to stress out about it being perfect because this book is not supposed to be perfect! the imperfections give it character. worst case scenario, if you really mess up, your eclectic book is just a little more eclectic than intended. and that's never a crime :)

now the one problem i had to figure out on my own was how to attach the covers, since most tutorials explain how to attach actual big separate covers and not - essentially paper. i ended up just... attaching them as if they were another page or signature to the front and back. my holes on the covers were a few millimeters away from the edge, though, since there's no crease or fold to align them with. what i did was essentially do the first knots/stitching on the signature like the tutorial said, but for each hole i sewed through in the first/last signature, i also made an additional loop through the adjacent hole on the cover. you can kind of see how i passed my needle through like instructed and then took a little extra detour to stitch the card as well. in some places i ended up making new holes in the signature too that were closer to where the cards' holes lined up?? try not to do that but it worked and it looks fine so really whatever makes it attach and hold is perfect.

6. bask in your glory!!!

aaaand that's it!! you did it!! this was a ton of fun to work on and i absolutely loved making this little adventure into a new craft with something so near and dear to my heart. if you make one please be sure to tag me!! i would love love LOVE to see :) here's an additional picture of my little monster (+ next to the legend himself. art credit to me lol. look the books are twinning!!)

[leavemetoexist]

I finished all 4 Studio Investigraves games and I have opinions. (Spoilers to all the games by the way but you already know that)

I played them all backwards from the most recent to least recent by complete accident hence why I shall be reviewing them from least recent to most recent. I'll be judging them based off gameplay, characters and story. Of course don't take this too seriously it's my general opinion and I wouldn't mind hearing other people's personal tier list about which game was their favourite. My interpretation of the characters can of course vary from others opinions as well so keep that in mind.

4. Eloquent Countenance

Gameplay: the gameplay in this one wasn't actually bad, I quite liked doing the different tasks however with that being said, I also got lost multiple times about what I was supposed to do (I think i'm to blame for this once honestly because it was spelled out for me). Overall I still liked it but again I had issues. I did however adore the mix of 3d modelling and 2d models.

Story: The story isn't bad, if anything it leaves room for so many things. The explanation to the end did confuse me though because I couldn't tell if Forcas was talking to the woman trapped in the body or if he was talking to the angel that had taken over the body. And also why did us the angel decide that we did want to give the body back to her? Again a lot of questions that I think can be expanded on if they ever to second game. (I think this is mostly me wanting a second game so badly lol)

Characters: Our character Lisa is alright, I have no grievances with her, she's funny and sarcastic as hell and honestly my favourite. Forcas on the other hand... I like his shenanigans, but there is only so much fourth wall breaking one can take before it isn't very special, I guess? The way he speaks is like how I would write an overpowered annoying know-it-all character when I was 13. So yea not my favourite. I do love their characters designs though, absolutely gorgeous in my opinion.

3. Cold Front

Gameplay: I had no problem with the gameplay, except maybe when I was running from the monster, that was the only hard part. This was a shorter game so there wasn't too much gameplay and coming down to the end I was honestly a little annoyed that we'd basically ceased gameplay and had started basically just started reading out the rest of the story. I wish there was a boss fight to the end, a little something something to really close it off would've been nice.

Story: It was heartwarming (ironic). I can not express it enough that I really love how well done the story is, both endings really got me. One was a happy ending technically with only Augustine living and it was so dark that he was happy to finally feel seen again once Winnie was dead. Winnie had no idea that he was breaking a lot of Augustine's boundaries but at the same time, these two just needed some communication and they were fine in the end which was perfectly okay with me. They both reflected and became better people together.

Characters: No notes, they were good. I loved the fucked up anxiety version of Augustine and Winnie, it really shows how anxiety is and how overthinking and keeping everything in can really harm a friendship.

2. Dead Plate

Gameplay: There is so much that needs to be talked about with the gameplay. First of all, our character Rody, does not have a side and back angle so that you can tell which way you're facing, which messed me up a lot when I tried to serve tables. When I first booted up the game it took me way too long to figure out the what to do in the tutorial (This one might be on me tbh so I won't be too mean to the game about it). The various customers did not make any facial expressions as to help indicate to the players their level of annoyance going from good-> annoyed-> angry-> leaving. I really wished they had that, even if it weren't a face at least some sounds would've been nice.

Story: I adored the story, it's fucked up, it's nice and it's overall really good. Genuinely no notes, it's cut and dry, nothing overally complicated and I loved it.

Characters: I loved the characters. Rody is so deeply in love with his girlfriend (Marieanna) and loses his sense of self. He literally does not know who he is without her and instead of listening to her and improving himself and becoming his own person, he makes himself think that if he just had enough money, that she would take him back. Vince on the other hand, woah that motherfucker is a little mad in the head isn't he? I was expecting your usual obsessive yandere esc character but no. He becomes not really obsessed but more like testing a theory. He has never tasted food and wants so desperately to make food where you can taste the love in it so when he found out about Rody whiles dating Marieanne, well he just had to put this theory to the taste test right? I also live for the theory of him wanting to express his love to Rody by feeding him the thing that he loved most (I think this theory is actually pretty solid tbh and I'm not sure if it's a theory or confirmed within the game. I played this so long ago that I've kind of forgotten).

1. Elevator Hitch

Gameplay: This one might be obvious to most people who follow me but Elevator Hitch is literally my absolute favourite. The gameplay itself was quite fun, I enjoyed the puzzles and tasks that had to be done and the uniqueness of each floor. I had one problem where I didn't realise you could look around the elevator, I wished there were some arrows to indicate you could do that but overall the gameplay was solid.

Story: The story is simple, simple in a fun complicated way. It certainly didn't answer why the building is the way it is but that was alright with me. I enjoyed especially the small glimpses at protag's life before he got stuck in the elevator. I loved the ending, the fact that he had no real choice but to go back was *chef's kiss* Sad ending for Protag but that's okay, solid story.

Characters: One of my favourite head cannons about this game is that coworker is actually pretending to be stupid about the situation that we the player are experiencing and I can be more than be convinced about that. Our main character definitely has shit going on, as saw in the end he needed that job and well the fourth floor with his parents. I loved the dialogue options and the dynamic going on between the two of them. They're both silly and share one brain cell and I adore them for that.

[dollsorwhatever]

Since the topic of glue seepage is coming up again I figured I would share my method, which is a combination of the Totally Awesome Soak and the Tea Tree Oil Method that I was using back in the day lol Keep in mind this method is a lot more labor intensive (and expensive because TTO is expensive) than most so it's likely not the best method for people who regularly collect Mattel dolls from that era or have large MH collections, but I do not frequently buy dolls with glue head so it works for me and I like the results so I thought I'd share lol TTO also has a risk of dissolving face paint (and will dissolve the scalp paint) so you have to be really careful with this method lol While the TA method is definitely the best solution with the lowest amount of risk imo, I wanted to see if it would be possible to not just stabilize/harden the glue but completely dissolve it because I had worries about the glue eventually yellowing the scalp or interacting with the vinyl over time lol Tea Tree oil works well at dissolving liquified glue on the surface of the scalp, but it’s not very good at dissolving the thicker/harder (but still unstable) glue inside the head (and it’s hard to wash out) so i figured that an introduction of Totally Awesome into the mix would do something- and it does:

(Webarella after 1.5 weeks of treatment with no glue left inside her head, on any plugs or the inner surface of the scalp- with the exception of two tiny crumbs of hardened glue that rinsed out right after this lol) Another potential issue is that most glue-heads do not have knotted plugs inside the scalp, so there is an increased risk of the hair falling out once you dissolve the entirety of the glue- for this reason I recommend detangling your doll prior to glue removal so that you don’t have to do any hard pulling once you’re done de-gluing and ready to style! You can also re-glue the hair once you're done with a more reliable, non-leaky vinyl glue like E6000 or Liquid Fusion, that reroot artists typically use to secure plugs. I haven’t experienced any hair loss as a result of this (and I do a lot of shit to my dolls when I style their hair- tugging, flat ironing, washing etc) but I figured I would leave a warning lol  Tutorial below the cut!

Glue Melting Ritual (evil)

Things you’ll need for this dark ritual: -Tea Tree Essential Oil (preferably a large bottle)

-LA’s Totally Awesome household cleaner

-Two plastic syringes

-Shallow bowl

-Virgin sacrifice, optional Step 1- Remove doll head Step 2- Shampoo and rinse with hot water, from the faucet is fine

Step 3- Fill bowl with 50%  hot/scalding water and 50% Totally Awesome, keeping the water level below the doll’s face paint- just above the hairline is good Step 4- Lay dolls head upside down (neck hole facing up) into the bowl, making sure the water is not touching any face paint Step 5-

Shoot a quarter-syringe of tee tree oil directly into the dolls neck hole, rotating the nozzle inside to coat the entire inside scalp- BE CAREFUL, tee tree oil can melt face paint, this cannot touch the doll’s face.  Step 6-

Shoot Totally Awesome inside the neck hole until completely full- make sure you use two different syringes for TTO and TA so as to not contaminate the TTO and TA containers  Step 7- Place bowl somewhere safe, making sure not to jostle it around.

Step 8- Leave soaking for 24 hours, then rinse and scrub head with hot water and Dawn dish soap (you can leave it for longer but I like to redo it every 1-2 days), you’ll know it’s time to redo when the water is cloudy and full of dissolved glue Step 9- Fill head with water and shoot it into the sink until chunks of glue stop coming out- knocking the head (neck hole down) against your palm is good too Step 10- 

scrub and rinse with dish soap again to make sure the face is clean Repeat steps 1-10 until the head is completely squishy and there is no glue visible inside the head- it takes me about 1-1.5 weeks to completely de-glue a doll Step 11- Rinse and clean the inside of the head with dish soap and water, then scrub and shampoo hair and face until all glue and oil are gone (repeat 2-3 times each)

Note: do not stop scrubbing and rinsing the hair until the dish soap is able to form suds; if there are no suds, the glue and oil haven’t been broken down by the soap. Step 12- Condition and leave to dry- if the hair still feels oily or gluey once dry, repeat step 11 Step 13- Reattach head and style! Step 14- Thank the dark lord for your glue-free doll head, perhaps with an animal sacrifice under the full moon

[nattikay]

NattiKay fursuit 3.0: digitigrade edition is in the works 👀 still in the planning/materials gathering stage atm but hoping to start on the actual work within the next week or so. If all goes according to plan she should be ready in time for AWU in a few months!

NattiKay 1.0 was made in 2017, followed shortly by 2.0 in 2018. I'd wanted a digi suit even back then but I was new to fursuit making and figured digitigrade might be a bit above my level, so I stuck with plantigrade. Welp, since then I've upgraded almost every part of 2.0 at least once (at this point it's probably more like 2.7 or smth lol)...EXCEPT for the wings and bodysuit, which is still that same plantigrade one I made in 2018, so it's been in use for nearly six years now. The most recent upgrade was her current head, which was...I think two years ago?

SOOO...after getting inspired by seeing some of @happyfoxx-art's WIPs, I've decided...it's finally time. No more 2.2, 2.5, 2.8. It's time for 3.0!! Gonna make every single part fresh!! And finally gonna try to upgrade to digi style legs!! Been wanting to for years and now the time is right!!

I'm a little apprehensive because I know it's gonna be a ton of work and I'm wary of getting burnt out (has happened before, usually because of rushing to finish before a con) but I am DETERMINED to pace myself and take my time and do it RIGHT even if that means slow. I'm starting early enough that there should still be plenty of time to get it done before AWU without feeling rushed, and if I'm gonna put in all the time effort to make a whole new suit from scratch instead of just a replacement here and there I want it to look GOOD. Been looking up tons of tips and tutorials and such and definitely hype! I'm trying to temper my expectations because of course my execution is not gonna be pro level BUT there's definitely a lot of potential and it should at least be decent!!

I will admit I'm "cheating" with the head by using a premade base this time though. Found a really adorable expanding-foam-cast one for sale and I'm hoping the fact that it'll be all smooth and symmetrical will help with the furring, especially around where the muzzle connects to the head, which is a spot I've always struggled with sculpting and furring in the past. And I suppose if I end up not liking it for whatever reason I could always go back and sculpt my own anyways. We shall see!

[spacenintendogs]

3 10 16or 17 for the httyd asks!!

3. Did you play School of Dragon? If so, what dragon(s) did you have?

i tried back in 2018 but my laptop couldn't handle it. i never got past the tutorial with toothless and immediately uninstalled it and then was still devastated when they shut it down :')

10. What are your favourite songs from the soundtracks?

the big 3: forbidden friendship, test drive, and romantic flight.

see you tomorrow is a BANGER

all of the jonsi songs!!

once there were dragons is also so good... listened to that on repeat after i saw the hidden world in 2019

16. What is your favourite plot arc?

edit: i realized this said plot arc and astrid's character arc doesn't rlly count but for plot arc: hiccup & snotlout's arc of learning to respect each other more in riders/defenders of berk. basically the screaming death arc!!

astrid's in the first movie... it's near perfect and her role in the story is so vital bc her mind being changed makes stoick's mind being changed so much more believable. astrid's arc is such an interesting throughline to see the movie through. astrid being the most viking like of the teens and taking everything so seriously only to decide to give hiccup a chance (yes she was hanging off a tree rlly high off the ground and then only apologized bc toothless was whipping her around as payback for her attitude lol) but once toothless calms down that's when astrid rlly sits back and gives toothless & hiccup a chance & you just. see her relaxed for the first time in the movie and smiling so wide and it's SOOOOOOO. i love her so much.

17. Do you read or write HTTYD fanfic? If so, give some recommendations!

i do both!!

for reading, i haven't done a lot & i am kinda particular abt what i read (i heed tags & stuff seriously!! they're there for a reason!!) but!! from recent memory & my bookmarks

promises, promises is by @artinandwritin and it's abt her httyd ocs and @beebooca's oc set post the hidden world (except the dragons are still there!!) and it's such a fun exploration of the effect things can have on oc characters based on what happens to the canon characters they're connected to!! it's very good (and i am honored to have helped beta read :'))

translations by @bignostalgias is a hijack fic where jack frost ends up on berk after following silver dream sand (and ends up becoming "alive" again) and there's the whole thing where he's confused abt how berk exists and seems to be behind modern day and dragons exist. everything is so thought out and carefully put together and i just can not wait for more!!

frowny kisses by @tysonrunningfox bc my snotstrid loving ass adores those losers so much and op has got them DOWN!! the original snotstrid person fr fr i am begging y'all to pls check out their stuff!!!!!!!!!

also fics by @eemoo1o-tfrmoo & @kolasharkattack are also rlly rlly good!!!!!!

and yea i write fics lol but i go through spurts of YEAH UPDATE LET'S GO WOO and then quickly losing steam & updates come rarely even tho they take up so much space in my brain bc writing hard :')

the summer snotlout jorgenson got laid is tied to my modern au & it's abt the brief period astrid & snotlout decided to try dating & obv they break up but hey. unrestrained summer fun :)

burn is a series following astrid & snotlout's friendship. there's only 2 fics rn but windburn is complete and heartburn is a work in progress. i have a few fics for series stewing around in my brain as well but!! yea!!

then there's the calm dragon nip provides which is basically my fishlout smokes weed fic and it's not even a year old yet & tbh i'm not happy with it at all but i don't regret it enough to delete it. u can read it if u wish but i'm not proud of it. c'est la vie.

and those are my most recent fics!! and then my docs are just. full of incomplete bullshit lol <3 ty!!

[athenaholmesartistsguild]

Had this card finished for a while before posting, but I was kinda insecure about it lol. I talk a little more in depth on this card's Patreon post (you can view and download it for free btw), but long story short, I got stuck in my head about whether I was embodying the symbolism of The Star and then I realized I didn't have to have a one-to-one counterpart to every Rider-Waite-Smith card lol.

Once I wasn't so stuck in my head, I realized I really like the way this card came out! I usually struggle to draw fire, but I found this quick tutorial and it actually gave me a process to try! Would recommend!

But let's go ahead and talk interpretations. They'll be below the cut as always:

After The Tower's destruction, The Star rises from the wreckage-- a shining beacon of hope.

While you likely experienced a period of pain and upheaval in the past, the presence of The Star suggests that good things are coming your way.

The Star is a card of hope and renewal. It reminds us that even though we went through trauma or generally crappy situations, we can emerge from them confident that things will get better. There are good things coming and we're urged to focus on those.

A lot of the symbolism within this card is somewhat religious in nature. The original woman is kneeling down with one of her feet seemingly walking on water, an homage to the Christian understanding of Jesus. The Star appears to be very in touch with the higher power within her whether her understanding of it stems from religion or her own spiritual beliefs.

In this way, we're urged to have faith in the forces we might not be able to comprehend. Sometimes singular or series of events can happen without us putting much effort into their creation. Sometimes, something we wanted or needed comes to us even when it didn't seem at all possible. The Star urges us to have faith in ourselves and trust that what we want will come to us.

Be confident in yourself, have hope that things will change, and begin to free yourself from the fear that keeps you from living authentically.

Reversed, the once hopeful figure of The Star has lost their glow. They've become lost in their pain and struggle to find any reason to stay positive. There's only so much a person can take before they feel beaten down and hopeless.

An important distinction, however, if that a reversed Star does not mean you have no hope. There are still plenty of chances for our situations to improve and for us to heal, this reversed card simply indicates our own feelings and thoughts.

While it can be frustrating to hear that something's 'all in our head', a reversed Star can be looked at as a sign that we have the power to make things better. Whatever higher power put us on Earth also gave us the ability to alter our reality and create a better life for ourselves.

Of course we may need help along the way whether that be a therapist, doctor, support group, or our loved ones, but that help is out there.

Even a reversed Star is a message that the worst of our pain and suffering is over. The pain we suffered is real and valid, it always will be. But The Star reminds us that we have the power to heal from it and come back stronger than when we started.

When designing this card, I wanted Haruka to represent the Star in question.

After Kiryu's entire family died, he felt like he had no reason to stay alive. The whole reason he went on his journey in the first game was to be reunited with the people he loved. He was willing to forgive those that had hurt him and move on, but in a very short period of time, everything was taken from him.

Everything except Haruka.

Haruka isn't free from suffering, either; her mother was taken from her and her father tried to kill her, but she serves as an anchor for Kiryu to hold onto his desire to live (even if he continues to struggle in the future).

She's an opportunity for Kiryu to get away from the Tojo Clan-- the organization that gave him everything he loved, but also took it away so many times. A beacon of hope leading Kiryu towards the life he actually wants.

Things aren't easy. Healing from such intense trauma rarely is, but there's hope for this little girl who never had a proper family and this man who just lost his.

Fate seemingly destroyed both their lives, but it seems like it also gave them everything they needed to find new meaning in the mess left over.

[storiesbyjes2g]

Time has come! Use the OC list you made earlier and answer the following:

1 and 3 are in charge of arranging a general house party. How does it go? 2 appears in the news broadcast. What has happened? 4 and 5 need to buy a birthday gift for 6. What do they get? 3 asks 6 to teach her/him/them something. What is it and how does it go? 1 finds a seemingly lost cat. What does she/he/they do? 5 has to buy a quick snack for her-/him-/themself, what is it? 6 uses a search engine (Google or similar) and searches their own name. What are the top results? 4 has to take one of the other numbers to a date. Who's the lucky(?) guy/gal/other? 2 invites all the other numbers to a party - except one. Who's left out? 3 learns a dirty secret about 5. What is it and does she/he/they keep it? 4 has lost a bet and must get a tattoo. What will she/he/they get? 1 and 3 are stuck in an elevator. What happens?

You can answer with simple text, or take a picture or write a short story if you feel more inspired.

I swear you ask the best questions! I was excited even before I read the scenarios LOL. Okay let's go!!

Luca & Sophia's House Party

First of all, Luca would be stoked to plan a party period because he's neither hosted nor been to a house party, but to throw one with Sophia? Ohhhhh BOY! Secondly, he'd also be terrified on top of being excited because most of his friends are ladies he's attracted to and/or have gone on dates with. The party would be at Luca and Ali's house because Sophia's house is tiny. They would do all the party planning in person because they're both really into each other and don't see each other enough. I'm pretty sure by the end of the party they'd be a couple lol. Whenever they are together, she is constantly cracking jokes and making Luca laugh, so I'm not sure how much would actually get done. The party will probably turn out to be just okay because of their distractions but also neither of them are big party people. But whether or not the party is lame, those two will surely have a good time.

Emmy on the News

Emmy would be on a segment of the news highlighting small businesses. Or, maybe she got some women in business award and they aired her acceptance speech on TV.

Nadia & Anissa's Birthday Gift for Rodney

Ooooh this one is hard! Okay, so Kameron is the one who started this. He's an investor in Rodney's restaurants, and they have a casual relationship. He mentioned in passing Rodney's birthday was coming up but never followed up. Nadia of course is the administrator of the home, and when she found out Kameron still hadn't sent him a gift, she took on the project lol. Instead of doing something generic, she called Anissa because she knew she was acquainted with Rodney through Loren who is married to Rodney's best friend. They met at her wedding. But Anissa doesn't know Rodney like that so she texts Loren for an idea. They all settle on sending him a very expensive bottle of whisky. And because Nadia was feeling particularly salty and petty that day, the card was signed "From The Piersons and Friends." LOL see what I did there? 🤣

(this got long so the rest under the cut)

Sophia's Cooking Lesson

Sophia is not a good cook. Her kitchen looks exactly like it did when she first moved in. She likes Luca a lot and wants to do something nice for him, especially since he's always so caring and taking care of everyone else. And she always heard the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, so she decided to learn to cook something well. But she could only get so far from SimTube tutorials. They either went too fast or spoke like she was supposed to know what they were talking about. No, she needed someone to show her live. One of her favorite restaurants is Taqueria Alchone, and the owner--Rodney Eason--was always so nice and personable with his customers. Surely he would help her. So she went there one day after work. She worked 7-3, so it was pretty dead when she arrived. She ordered and waited for Rodney to come around and greet her.

"Okay, so, this is gonna be a really weird question, but I'm gonna go for it," she said.

He flashed his signature smile. "Go for it! That's what I always do."

"So like...I have this friend... I wanna do something nice for him but-"

Rodney gasped. "You tryna snag your man? I'm in! What I gotta do? You want me to call him? Gimme his number!"

Little did she know Rodney was a romantic...and a very gregarious goofball.

"I want to make him dinner, but I'm terrible at it. Can you show me how to make something simple?"

A huge grin came across his face. "You came to the right place. I'll show you a lil sum sum. BUT...you'll also need a recipe for breakfast." He winked at her. "You know what I'm saying? Come on in the kitchen. I'll get you right! You'll have that dude screaming your name in no time!"

Oh, Rodney LOL.

Luca Finds a Lost Cat

Given his experience watching his mother take in stray pets, he'd probably try to feed it, putting a bowl of food near them. Cats aren't like dogs and are way less trusting, so he probably won't be able to befriend it, not that he'd want to; he's not much of a cat guy. Since Tofu just died, he'd probably call Emmy and see if she's interested in taking care of it.

Anissa's Quick Snack

When Anissa has back-to-back surgeries and zero time for lunch, her go to snack in the vending machine is a Payday candy bar. It's sweet, it's salty, and she gets a nice amount of protein to keep her going. It's an older brand, and not very popular, but her Pop Pop used to love them and that's how she got introduced to it.

Rodney's Smoogle Search

As a restaurateur, Rodney is very much concerned about what people say and think about his restaurants. So when he searches for his own name, more than likely the top results will be Yelp Reviews and food critic blogs. I also wouldn't be surprised if a gossip blog was there too lol. He's a good boy now, but he was a bit reckless in the beginning.

Nadia's Date

Nadia had one engagement left to attend from her tenure in the mayor's office before she was completely rid of them, but Kameron had agreed to take Noemi to come aspiring lawyers camp thingy, so she had to find someone else to accompany her. Her first thought was to call Bryce, but things are weird between him and Kameron. Nick is all the way on the other side of the country now, but even if he weren't that would be weird too. She thought very hard and methodically about it and decided to call Rodney. She had recently sent him a birthday gift, and they were mildly acquainted. Plus it would be a good networking event for him, so she called him, and he accepted.

Emmy's Party

Emmy invites everyone to the party except Luca because it's a surprise party for him lol. (cop out? maybe! lol)

Sophia Learns a Dirty Secret About Anissa

And this is the part where I realized I should have picked names all from the same story LOL. Let's say it's Nadia and Anissa. Nadia is nosy, so she'd definitely try to find out more lol. Depending on what it is, she might ask Melany about it. If it's really dirty she might even ask Anissa herself.

Nadia Loses a Bet

The consequence of losing this bet is she has to get a tattoo. She would get some word or phrase about love written in Mt. Komorebian since that is where she and Kameron reaffirmed their love for each other in a very impromptu and non-traditional vow renewal. It would be located somewhere only Kameron can see when she's naked.

Luca and Sophia Stuck in an Elevator

What happens? What doesn't happen! 🤣 This is exactly what Luca needs lol. They're gonna talk first. But then Sophia will ask a very poignant question about his feelings toward her. He'll try to skirt around it, but she does not have time for him to continue being scared and draws it out of him. They kiss! And if the elevator isn't fixed yet, they might start something they can't finish lol.

[lordfreg]

Hi! I was wondering if you could share with us b&b Mikey dating headcanons if you'd like ofc!

Have a nice day and here is a cookie :]

🍪 <- for you

OMGGGGG absolutely anything for you anonymous user 🧡🧡

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good

-he absolutely ADORES you! Would give ANYTHING for you!

-He loves to give you gifts, as well! Anything he could think of, it’s there. Mention you want that pretty necklace? At your door. You wanted a small bracelet? Done and done. Baked goods? His specialty.

-He’ll absolutely PAMPER you with everything he has! Love, affection, words of affirmation, gifts, quality time and much more!

-Mikey is ALWAYS down for cuddles. But if you don’t want too, he’ll respect your personal space and try to love you from afar.

-expect texts every morning and night, just so you don’t forget how much you mean to him! If you’re being negative about yourself, he’ll kiss all that doubtfulness away💖

-he’ll ALWAYS try and take you out on dates. Wanted to see a movie? No problem! Snuck you in. Wanted to go to the zoo? Ninja-ed you into the exhibits to see the animals up close! Wanted a food they where sold out of? ….don’t ask what he had to go through to get this for you.

-he’s LOVE anything you make for him. Supper supportive of anything you want to do! Art? Lemme give you ALL the tutorials. Writing? I have a bunch of books we can spend time together reading! Dancing? You already KNOW we’re hitting the dance floor every night

-he likes to call you pet names a lot; usually one of an animal like “bunny” or “doe”. He also likes old fashioned names like “sugar”, “dearest” and “babydoll”. He’ll call you “doll” or “doll face” a lot so prepare

-he absolutely LOVES to hold you; he likes being small spoon but his shell can get in the way. (Dw, it’s dull and not spiked too much). His favorite positions are ones were he can just watch your face, and easily place kisses all over your face. He loves to shower you in kisses!!

-he’s honestly the most lovey dovey one of the group, and is MORE then willing to talk about problems in your relationship then any of the other boys (except for Leo lol). If you see an issue, he will change immediately. Because he loves you so much🧡

The Bad

-this dude is ALLLLLLL over you all the time. He just always wants to be touching you

-dude doesn’t listen either, you’re going to have to explain to him why you don’t want to be touched, or how constant touching is over barring. He still won’t understand and just assume you don’t like him anymore :(

-Mikey will talk VERY publicly about your relationship, any part, and will not hesitate with details. Your his, why should he worry about people?

-he’ll say things like “I know that you don’t really love me.” and “It’s okay if you think I’m a hideous freak.” You’re going to have to CONSTANTLY validate him

-he’ll tease you SO MUCH, to the point of bullying. He doesn’t grasp the concept of having sensitive feelings (despite him being sensitive himself) and will just relentlessly pick on you

-Mikey will just randomly bite you out of nowhere. “Gah! Why, Mike?!” He’d stare at you and say, “I dunno, just felt like it.”

-he’s really insensitive to your feelings in all honesty. Mostly because he doesn’t realize that he’s supposed to be nice and take your feelings seriously. He doesn’t quite grasp how much your dog really meant to you, and doesn’t understand why you can’t just get a new one and by happy

-Mikey wants you to be happy and will do ANYTHING to ensure that you are; even doing risky things like shoplifting or bribery to get you anything and everything you want or need.

The Ugly

-he’ll DEFINITELY get possessive over you, and how much time you spend with his brothers. Not saying you would replace him, but he’d rather not take that chance

-Bro has the DIRTIEST minds of all the brothers, ALWAYS taking things the wrong way and making the worst jokes about it

-Before you started dating, he would follow you home and leave mysterious love letters in your mailbox

-he’d follow you on EVERY social media and like every single one of your posts; downloading every image of you or your face/pets/family/whatever else you post

-not to say Mikey would KILL over you, but he’s been thinking about cutting off that connection with Casey a lot…

[pallisia]

as a fellow ace attorney loving hater, i remember some critiques you posted (i think on twitter?) about the great ace attorney duology, more specifically in regards to its pacing. i'd really like to hear your thoughts on this elaborated and any other general criticisms you have on them

it's been a long time since i watched the entirety of both games (before they were localized lol) but i didn't even make it to case 3 of the first game when i played it myself last year. the tutorial case feels like it takes 30 years. it's like the extraterritorial rights guy from investigations, except the game starts like that.

i went back to skim the first case of trials and tribulations and compare since they have a lot of similarities. they're both cases where someone destroys crucial evidence on the witness stand. in t&t, the case wraps up in about 15 minutes past that point while revealing new information about the killer's motive. in tgaa, the trial drags on for another hour, and since the mystery has already been solved, it goes off on this boring tangent about the two nothing-ass witnesses at the start and their antique coin. like sure, evidence is everything, i get it, but who cares!!

ace attorney pacing is the same thing as mario & luigi bros. attacks. i know i tweeted this at some point but it's still true. dl-6 is chopper bros and tgaa is one of those bloated cutscene attacks from dream team. nice animations though

[a-dragons-journal]

It's the dragonlinker anon, just wanted to thank you for the help, and ask a couple follow-up questions if that's alright? Do you have any tips/tutorials for dragon vocals? You mentioned "throat-clicking" which sounds like it might be a noise I've been trying and failing to make lol. Also, less of an advice thing, but how do you feel about quadrobics in relation to your own draconity? Personally as much as I want to walk on all fours my body is just not proportioned the way it should be for that

Of course! Glad it was helpful.

Assorted Noises Posts:

On clicks of various kinds

The bullshit tongue-click that's a part of my name (R-ani, except I have no way to transcribe it properly lmao)

From @/dreamingdragonkin, a bunch of assorted noises and their meanings + an explanation on roaring

A recording of various noises of mine

A recording of me hurring, unvoiced, since I kind of skipped over it in the above link

An explanation of throat-clicking, complete with diagram

Bonus explanation of growling high up in the throat (as opposed to the hurr, which is much lower):

Growling - there are a million ways to do a growl, but the way I do it I can sustain it for a lot longer than hurring, and it takes a lot longer to wear my throat out (I can only hurr so many times in a row before my throat starts hurting). It does sacrifice some of the low pitch, however, since it’s higher in the throat and thus has a smaller chamber of air to vibrate. It’s a uvula motion, not involving the vocal or vestibular folds at all, and it’s basically closing up the back of the throat as much as you can and then forcing air through so the uvula is forced to rapidly vibrate/open and close the passageway, creating a kind of rattling/hissing growl. Tense up the muscles in the floor of your mouth/jaw to accomplish that. If you put a hand on your thyroid cartilage (Adam’s apple, the hard bump you can feel most prominently when you run a hand down the front of your throat), you should feel that move upward as it partially closes off the airway, like it does when you swallow, except it stays elevated instead of dropping back down into place. Then exhale while holding that, and it should produce that rattling growl sound. (I find it helps if I snarl/pull my lips back to bare my fangs teeth, possibly because it helps pull the submandibular muscles tense.)

Bonus crocodilian noises for your enjoyment, because Big Dragon Feels for the me

And personally, I'm a big fan of quadrobics/bear crawl, though I can't maintain it for terribly long. It feels very natural and very awkward all at once because of how bad human proportions are for it - it's not just you, humans just aren't built for it. It gets easier with practice, as you might imagine.

[yandere-daze]

just wanna share that i recently decorated my office and i began thinking about the self aware enstars au again. it made me wonder what the characters (shu, mika, nazuna and arashi) in my office would think of me trying so hard to make the place perfect :0 i cant believe i spent an hour decorating though LOL

You know, when I first read this I thought you were talking about your irl office and was wondering if they had access to your phone's camera to be able to see you change everything around lmao

But yes, they would definitely all really appreciate you making your enstars office all pretty for them! They already feel so special because you chose them to occupy your office which must mean that you like them a lot! It gives them a lot of opportunities to see you after all and it gives them the illusion that they're kind of living with you!

Honestly, that's a very nice selection of characters you have right there with obvious connections between all of them. ( in case you're wondering, my office has Mika, Ritsu and Kohaku right now)

Shu is quite the perfectionist himself so he totally understands your need to have everything suit your aesthetic vision. Would take some notes on how you decided to decorate your office as it gives him some hints on what kind of aesthetic you like best. He could try to incorporate some of it in Valkyrie's next outfits!

Arashi thinks that everything looks even cuter now! She definitely approves of what you did to the office. Appearance is very important to her so she will try to keep your preferences in mind when she goes shopping the next time. Maybe she'll buy something that makes her think you may like it and then disguises it as a new free furniture you can get in the next event?

Mika is honestly just so ecstatic that you spent so much time trying to make everything look pretty for him. Though honestly, anything you do is perfect in his eyes. You could honestly make the entire office barren except for a single chair in the middle of the room and he would see nothing wrong with that.

Fun fact, that's exactly what my office in engstars looks like right now. I just put down the chair you have to buy for the tutorial, placed Mika in the room and called it a day. The poor boy lmao but it's so hard when you don't have a lot of money you can throw around in the beginning of the game

Nazuna is obviously also very appreciative of the effort you put in to make all of them comfortable but he also worries about you a fair amount. Sure, he's happy that you spent so much time looking at them and your office and that he in turn got to be in your presence for such a large amount of time but looking at your phone for an entire hour in concentration isn't good for you! Please do remember to take some breaks in between to make sure you won't get a headache or the like. You'll have plenty of more time to talk to him afterwards!