#featuring my code alphabet

[sammypog]

woah heres a collection of silly AM doodles

[haedalkoo]

Jimin's thoughts are 오밀조밀

Long time no see! Today I'm bringing over a cute conversation between i-kookminers and k-kkms on Twitter. The lovely @goldenhickeysandramen sent it my way yesterday, and we woke up to replies from korean jikookers explaining the cultural context behind JK's words in a w-live. I found it so cute I couldn't not bring it to your attention here.

The first post was made by someone curious about why korean fans found this JK clip so adorable.

The phrase OP was pointing out is the following (JK's 27/03/23 live, min 51:51):

확실히 이게 사람마다 생각하는 게 많이 달라. Certainly, the way every person thinks is very different. 지민 형의 생각이 약간 오밀조밀하는 거 같아. Jimin hyung's way of thinking is a bit meticulous. 오밀조밀하다기보다 엄청 뭐라해야 될까… Well, more than meticulous, how should I say it...

(he didn't finish his thoughts LOL he went on a tangent after this :'))

The word he used to describe Jimin's way of thinking is 오밀조밀 (/oh-mil-cho-mil/). This word is a little difficult to translate because it's a 고사성어 (故事成語), aka a 4-letter-idiom that typically comes from ancient Korean literature or history.

(Before the invention of hangeul, the korean alphabet we all know, Korean used Chinese characters (also known as hanja) to transcribe Korean words and sounds. The heritage of this tradition can be found in words like this, or in the use of hanja in newspapers. Let me know if you want to know more about this!)

오밀조밀 is made up of these 4 characters: 奧密稠密.

奧 means deep, 密 means tight or dense (fun fact, it's one of the two characters that makes up the word 'secret', so it also has the meaning of 'hidden'. Secret in korean is 비밀 /bimil/ or ひみつ /himitsu/ in japanese, 秘密) and 稠 also means thick or dense.

But what does this word actually mean? Why did Jungkook using it cause so much fuzz?

Like OP and other korean fans have said, it's used to describe tightly packed, or delicate and meticulous things.

When I first saw the clip, I agreed with JK. Jimin's extreme attention to detail and delicate and catious thinking, both as an artist and a person, can surely evoke this word. I'd only ever seen that word used to describe someone's facial features, in one of those highly specific and slightly funny ways that Koreans have to compliment someone's physical traits, but I didn't think twice about JK's choice of words.

However, cultural nuance is so important and it cracked the code for me. Here's an explanation:

As you can see, the word still holds that delicate and tight meaning, but it's not used for abstract things such as thoughts. If you look up the hanja dictionary, it describes "a refined and detailed appearance regarding craftsmanship and skill/a very meticulous and detailed appearance." Synonyms include words like 'cute' and 'pretty' (아기자기 is one of them, which means small and cute, baby-like. Isn't that the most Jimin word you've ever heard??).

Like I told @goldenhickeysandramen, nobody knows (or loves) Jimin better than JK. So, yeah, of course Jungkook thinks that Jimin is 오밀조밀, despite how unconventional it may sound. Even his thoughts are pretty to him. 🥺💖

[starflungwaddledee]

masterpost for my oc centric shipping event. featuring my waddle dee oc/sona starstruck dee and her bald empty head, which is apparently totally perfect for putting kisses upon!

2025: shipaganza prompts are now closed!!! thanks for joining in this february!

submissions (art pieces of starstruck x anyone drawn by others, but please still read the rules down below!) are welcome year 'round, but i'm not currently taking new prompts to draw myself until i finished all the ones i have left!

*✩˚ʚ♡ɞ˚‧₊˚ what is this? ✩˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ ⋆˙⟡

the shipaganza is basically a totally self indulgent, oc-centric shipathon. for the month of february i take public prompts and draw art of my oc in cute and/or romantic situations with other kirby characters, both canon and oc. i have a tag for anything even tangentially related to oc shipping on my blog here under #🎀💖, where you can find previously filled prompts and a few other similar pieces! when i first started exploring the possibility of "shipping" my character i was super nervous!! so to get better at it, i asked the community to send me prompts, especially romantically coded ones, and it was a surprise hit! since then i kinda decided that she's just everyone's easy breezy girlfriend. ocs and canon alike, she's free real estate. look at all the folks she can pull by being autistic! peace and love on planet popstar. yippee! cringe but free.

*✩˚ʚ♡ɞ˚‧₊˚ how's it work? ✩˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ ⋆˙⟡

while the event is ongoing, i take prompts and try to draw them. no guarantees! i can only draw what i have ideas for. if you want to submit a prompt, check the rules out down below and trot over to the ask box! other artists are also welcome to draw their OC with starstruck (or starstruck with a canon character, if you really wanted!) and submit it to the event, but please read the rules down below first!! despite its intention to focus on romantic themes, this event is strictly safe for work, and frankly there's a relatively limited amount of actual "romance" involved. this is probably because i am aromantic and broadly headcanon kirby characters as not knowing what a "date" or "marriage" is. but we make do.

*✩˚ʚ♡ɞ˚‧₊˚ filled prompts ✩˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ ⋆˙⟡

divided into canon kirby characters and original kirby characters (characters created by other artists in the community) and sorted mostly alphabetically. just because a character is canon does not mean that the featured interaction/relationship is! all oc ships are sadly entirely non-canon to starstruck's storyline.

canon characters Big Hitters (ie: relationships most important to her canon storyline) first, then the rest just in alphabetical order. full comics are marked with a ʚ♡ɞ

✩ bandee ʚ♡ɞ // bandee ii // bandee iii ✩ galacta knight // galacta knight ii // galacta knight iii // galacta knight iv ✩ king dedede ✩ kirby ✩ meta knight // meta knight ii // meta knight iii // ✩ morpho knight ʚ♡ɞ ✩ coo the owl ʚ♡ɞ // coo ii // coo iii ʚ♡ɞ ✩ daroach // daroach ii ✩ marx // marx ii // marx iii ✩ sailor waddle dee (feat bandee) ʚ♡ɞ

original characters includes submissions drawn by other artists, marked with a ✎✧˚. reach out any time to let me know if i missed a piece you drew, or if you want your oc removed from here!

✩ J // J ii (feat galacta knight) ✎✧˚ // J iii ✎✧˚ ✩ sir meteor ✎✧˚ ✩ blanc ✎✧˚ ✩ centaur dee ✎✧˚ ✩ flower waddle dee ✩ phoenix knight ✎✧˚ ✩ techie (technical support) ✩ whitolor

*✩˚ʚ♡ɞ˚‧₊˚ rules ✩˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ ⋆˙⟡

please read these before submitting a prompt, especially if you're submitting an OC of your own. prompts that don't meet these rules will likely be deleted! these rules also apply if you are drawing your own art submission!

🎀 ADULT CHARACTERS ONLY. the most critical rule. starstruck is in her 30s. any suggested characters must be adults in a suitable age bracket (28+). this goes for OCs and canon characters. if you think a canon character is a child, do not submit them for this event! additionally if i personally headcanon a submitted canon character as a child (such as Adeleine), i will not draw the prompt! all canon characters i'm drawing with starstruck for this event are adults in my world building.

🎀 no nsfw prompts flirty characters are great! bullies are fun and even violence is okay (something tonally similar to the marx prompt or galacta knight's birthday kiss, for instance). but i have a hard enough time even making the orbs smooch non-platonically; anything more explicit is clearly going to be out of my ballpark.

🎀 this event is Valentine's Day themed, explicitly! my metrics for romance are scrambled by aromanticism and my own experiences and preferences, but it is important to me that the shipaganza is understood as a romantically coded event (even if the characters themselves don't understand romance). while i love and adore character friendships, please do not suggest a character who you think would be "just good platonic friends" with starstruck for this event; i find it really infantilising in this context.

🎀 please don't be rude! yes, this is super cringe!!!! yes, my oc has 50 billion boyfriends! we are just playing with our touys!!! you can block the tag on my blog if you dislike this event or oc x canon stuff!! no shade; i completely understand that this is not for everyone so i make it easy to block! take care of yourself.

🎀 you can ask for a repeat character! this mostly pertains to canon characters, but i actually find this incredibly fun!! kinda like rooting for your fave!! a special rarepair just for you. if you wanna see more of a match-up that's already been drawn for, feel free to send in a new prompt for them and you might get lucky!!

🎀 scenarios are inspiring! for some characters i already have a lot in mind, but if you give me something to work with, i'll be better able to come up with something and feel more inspired to fill your prompt! this applies even more to OCs, especially if i don't know you or your OC well. please please give me some info about your oc and why you think they'd work together as a couple. like, would your oc make a move that starstruck fails to notice? are they accidentally dating? do they share an interest? is your oc a hopeless pining romantic, are they a charmer, are they a bully, so on and so fourth!

and that's all; thank you for reading!! as always feel free to ask if you have questions, but i hope folks will enjoy the event!

animated gradient heart banners from @/cafekitsune!

[sanguinesky-if]

[Dev Log] February 2025

Hello, I hope your winter days are going well!

This is the first dev log of 2025, which means the end of my January break and the resumption of:

▹ Patreon billing and monthly activity. ▹ Monthly dev logs.

Although I took things easier in January, I still worked on the story and have quite a bit to share about my progress.

What was done last month?

▹ Worked on the draft for Chapter 3 Pt. 2.

Since shifting the story format from a visual novel to IF, my draft has required some changes and updates. There are some scenes I'd like to include from the old version, but I hesitate due to the potential increase in workload [I discussed them on Patreon]. Even without those additions, Chapter 3 Pt. 2 is shaping up to be massive, and I already can tell it shouldn't be expected until late spring [assuming I decide against including those moments and scenes]. As usual, the most recent updates on my progress will be shared weekly on Patreon and monthly in the dev logs here on my blog.

▹ Refined stats and their distribution.

I began refining the stats distribution in December, but I also made some changes throughout January. Overall, the full list of changes includes: ▹ Refinement and redistribution of personal and hidden stats. ▹ Renaming the "Approval" stat to "Alignment" [this change will apply in the next update]. I'd like to thank this anon for the idea; I should have done it sooner. A few more words about the stats: Something about the personal stats feels… lacking. I can't quite pinpoint what it is, but I have a feeling I need to progress the story further to understand what's missing, so for now, I've decided to focus on Chapter 3 Pt. 2.

▹ Finished the shortcut to Chapter 3 Pt. 2.

I decided to take care of the shortcut feature in advance, and it took me some time to compile all the choices due to the variations readers can encounter in different scenes. While I may return to it later if I decide that some choices from Chapter 3 Pt. 1 should be included, I'm glad I finished adding all the essential parts.

▹ Improved some scenes and fixed numerous grammatical errors, as well as a few coding issues.

Here's a list of major changes: ▹ L's phone call scene [Chapter 2]: Added a reserved flirt option and made the non-romantic option available to everyone [these changes will apply in the next update].

▹ K's morning scene [Chapter 3]: The last assertive flirt option in K's scene no longer includes "I forgive you", so the reader is not forced to immediately let go of all the tension when choosing a flirt option. Small note: I have some reservations regarding the choices provided in K's scene after their apology, so I will likely post a poll on Patreon to gather feedback on this matter.

▹ Solo morning scene [Chapter 3]: Due to an oversight, the solo scene didn't include a variation where the reader decides not to talk to the MC's twin sister and immediately goes to sleep. This variation of the scene has now been added.

What will I be working on in February?

▹ Chapter 3 Pt. 2: translating the draft and outlining the files for coding.

In addition to that, the bonus content on Patreon that will be released this month will include:

▹ Morgan's NSFW Alphabet. ▹ K's NSFW Side Story POV [Interactive].

Author's note.

I'd like to extend my gratitude to everyone who took the time to send helpful error reports, asks, and kind messages! Your support and interest help me improve my story, which truly means a lot to me.

Thank you for reading to the end! Wishing you a wonderful week and days after that! ♥

[idioticbat]

i'm curious about something with your conlang and setting during the computing era in Ebhorata, is Swädir's writing system used in computers (and did it have to be simplified any for early computers)? is there a standard code table like how we have ascii (and, later, unicode)? did this affect early computers word sizes? or the size of the standard information quanta used in most data systems? ("byte" irl, though some systems quantize it more coarsely (512B block sizes were common))

also, what's Zesiyr like? is it akin to fortran or c or cobol, or similar to smalltalk, or more like prolog, forth, or perhaps lisp? (or is it a modern language in setting so should be compared to things like rust or python or javascript et al?) also also have you considered making it an esolang? (in the "unique" sense, not necessarily the "difficult to program in" sense)

nemmyltok :3

also small pun that only works if it's tɔk or tɑk, not toʊk: "now we're nemmyltalking"

so...i haven't worked much on my worldbuilding lately, and since i changed a lot of stuff with the languages and world itself, the writing systems i have are kinda outdated. I worked a lot more on the ancestor of swædir, ntsuqatir, and i haven't worked much on its daughter languages, which need some serious redesign.

Anyway. Computers are about 100 years old, give or take, on the timeline where my cat and fox live. Here, computers were born out of the need for long-distance communication and desire for international cooperation in a sparsely populated world, where the largest cities don't have much more than 10,000 inhabitants, are set quite far apart from each other with some small villages and nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples inbetween them. Computers were born out of telegraph and radio technology, with the goal of transmitting and receiving text in a faster, error-free way, which could be automatically stored and read later, so receiving stations didn't need 24/7 operators. So, unlike our math/war/business machines, multi-language text support was built in from the start, while math was a later addition.

At the time of the earliest computers, there was a swædir alphabet which descended from the earlier ntsuqatir featural alphabet:

the phonology here is pretty outdated, but the letters are the same, and it'd be easy to encode this. Meanwhile, the up-to-date version of the ntsuqatir featural alphabet looks like this:

it works like korean, and composing characters that combine the multiple components is so straightforward i made a program in shell script to typeset text in this system so i could write longer text without drawing or copying and pasting every character. At the time computers were invented, this was used mostly for ceremonial purposes, though, so i'm not sure if they saw any use in adding it to computers early on.

The most common writing system was from the draconian language, which is a cursive abjad with initial, medial, final and isolated letter shapes, like arabic:

Since dragons are a way older species and they really like record-keeping, some sort of phonetic writing system should exist based on their language, which already has a lot of phonemes, to record unwritten languages and describe languages of other peoples.

There are also languages on the north that use closely related alphabets:

...and then other languages which use/used logographic and pictographic writing systems.

So, since computers are not a colonial invention, and instead were created in a cooperative way by various nations, they must take all of the diversity of the world's languages into account. I haven't thought about it that much, but something like unicode should have been there from the start. Maybe the text starts with some kind of heading which informs the computer which language is encoded, and from there the appropriate writing system is chosen for that block of text. This would also make it easy to encode multi-lingual text. I also haven't thought about anything like word size, but since these systems are based on serial communication like telegraph, i guess word sizes should be flexible, and the CPU-RAM bus width doesn't matter much...? I'm not even sure if information is represented in binary numbers or something else, like the balanced ternary of the Setun computer

As you can see, i have been way more interested in the anthropology and linguistics bits of it than the technological aspects. At least i can tell that printing is probably done with pen plotters and matrix printers to be able to handle the multiple writing systems with various types of characters and writing directions. I'm not sure how input is done, but i guess some kind of keyboard works mostly fine. More complex writing systems could use something like stroke composition or phonetic transliteration, and then the text would be displayed in a screen before being recorded/sent.

Also the idea of ndzəntsi(a)r/zesiyr is based on C. At the time, the phonology i was using for ntsuqatir didn't have a /s/ phoneme, and so i picked one of the closest phonemes, /ⁿdz/, which evolves to /z/ in swædir, which gave the [ⁿdzə] or [ze] programming language its name. Coming up with a word for fox, based on the character's similarity was an afterthought. It was mostly created as a prop i could use in art to make the world feel like having an identity of its own, than a serious attempt at having a programming language. Making an esolang out of it would be going way out of the way since i found im not that interested in the technical aspects for their own sake, and having computers was a purely aesthetics thing that i repurposed into a more serious cultural artifact like mail, something that would make sense in storytelling and worldbuilding.

Now that it exists as a concept, though, i imagine it being used in academic and industrial setting, mostly confined to the nation where it was created. Also i don't think they have the needs or computing power for things like the more recent programming languages - in-world computers haven't changed much since their inception, and aren't likely to. No species or culture there has a very competitive or expansionist mindset, there isn't a scarcity of resources since the world is large and sparsely populated, and there isn't some driving force like capitalism creating an artificial demand such as moore's law. They are very creative, however, and computers and telecommunications were the ways they found to overcome the large distances between main cities, so they can better help each other in times of need.

[15writingducks]

The Manor Who's Maids Are Ghost C4

https://archiveofourown.org/works/63200743/chapters/163917937

Uzi jolted awake with her alarm blaring in her processor before she slapped herself to turn it off. She stared at the roof of the canopy before sluggishly rolling off her bed to get ready.

She grabbed a new dress and got changed regretfully. She walked over to the mirror to put the headband in, not wanting it lopsided. 

“Hey, Uzi? Are you up?” V called from the outside of the door. Uzi opened it and peeked her head out.

“Yeah, I’m ready, I guess…” Uzi shuffled slightly. V gave a soft smile.

“Alright, we’re going to the commons. It’s really the only place we can really get everyone together…” V sheepishly said as she stepped back.

Uzi walked out of her room and closed the door, hand lingered on the handle for a moment before Uzi faced V again. “Everyone?” Uzi questioned.

“Oh, there's about 26, nonono, 31 of us, me included.” V smiled as she led Uzi. Uzi simply followed. So, we got alphabet gang, and Doll, but who are the other 4? 

V stopped in front of a door and opened it, jestering Uzi to go in. She complied and went into the room. It looked like the rest of the manor, just more drones. Instead of the normal dark oak it was tan wood. There were small pods of chairs and couches around plenty of tables. Most pods looked like 3-4 drones could sit there. There were some nice deep blue rugs and dark oak tables with elegant carving. The couches and chairs were a nice tan color. Lamps were near them too, a nice golden base with a tan shade on it that casted a warm glow.

“You’ll meet your group over-r-r-r… There!” V pointed to a table that had a couch and 2 chairs that were arranged in a triangle pattern, the couch’s back facing Uzi. There was a drone in one of the chairs with a cowboy hat with a piece taken out of it. They waved to Uzi, She awkwardly waved back.

Before Uzi could go to him, J stormed by them to leave the room, grumbling about someone being late or something along those lines, Uzi didn’t care. She then walked to the new drone.

Uzi took her seat on the couch. “Hi?” Ah yes, lovely social skills Uzi, great job! You definitely shouldn’t try to drown! The new drone tipped his hat to her. He had light blue eyes and light brown hair.

“Howdy, Name’s Beau! You're, uh, Nori’s kid… uh, oh never heard your name…” his cheer melted into a sheepish embarrassment. Uzi gave him a very confused look.

“How do you know me?! I don’t recognize you?! But name’s Uzi.” She slightly glared at him.

“Uh, the office? I was the pill baby… Ma couldn’t make a body my code liked, so I kinda had to stay like that…” He rubbed the back of his head. “Who knew I had D-drone code too?” He gave an awkward smile.

“What?! You do?! That’s kinda cool!” Uzi immediately lit up. “What parts of you are? Any extra features? How did she work that in?” Uzi was practically jumping with enthusiasm, but masked it under an expression of slight curiosity.

“Heh, Arms are, got the extra eyes too, just hid ‘em under ma hat. I have no clue how she did it… and can’t really ask her…” His smile faded to a slightly saddened expression at the mention of his mom.

“Oh, uh… sorry…” Uzi rubbed the back of her head.

“[Uzi doorman? apologizing for once? Impossible.]” A familiar voice cut through, causing Uzi to jump.

“DOLL?! Why are you here?!” Uzi turned around to look at her, a small blush on her face. NONONONONONONONO Doll is sooooooo going to bully me for this. WhyWhyWhyWhyWhy. Uzi saw Doll in a maid outfit too, but still had the little button patch on her eye. Her other eye looked tired and done with life. Uzi instantly felt less embarrassed.

Doll’s eye just narrowed onto Uzi. “[Why are you here? Perhaps you have the answers? What makes you think I know?]” She didn’t move from her spot.

Uzi glared at Doll. “Well you normally know stuff. You said it yourself.”

“[You're still pathetic. Guess I shouldn’t expect that to change.]”

“At least I don't look like a train wreck.”

“[At least I could do better at any job they give us, unlike you.]”

“Really? How about you prove that with your new schedule.” J walked by, dropped 2 cards and  walked away.

“Well then, how about we review what you guys got?” Beau chipped in.

“[Fine by me]” Doll moved to the other chair while grabbing her card, tossing Uzi her’s.

Doll had the tasks of Serving food, Vacuuming, and Laundry. Uzi was given Dusting, Library work, and Yard work.

J walked by. “Are you done with reviewing your schedule now?” she asked as she tapped the table with her finger.

“Yes, J. We’re done.” Uzi said in a monotonous tone, glaring at J.

“You have 15 minutes until your shift starts, You both are assigned in the Right wing on the first floor.” J walked away.

“And she said words that make no sense.” Uzi said when J was gone.

“Oh I know where that is! I could show ya before we need to be workin.” Beau spoke up, smiling slightly.

“[That would be appreciated.]” Doll spoke as she got up, grabbing her card. Uzi followed suit as Beau did the same and started to lead the way.

“So this is probably the best one you guys coulda gotten, it’s the one closest to our rooms.” Beau walked through the door Uzi had come in early through, walked to the hallway to the comments, then turned away from them to another door. “This is the door for it, the only one that connects to it and thankfully directly.”

Beau walked through it, held it open for Doll and Uzi, then closed it. He then showed them all the rooms they’d need to go to, a quick rundown of what to do, and off to the next place.

Suddenly, a soft chime of a bell rang, signaling it was time to work. “Go! You only have one minute to get where you need to be!” and Beau quickly walked away, heading to wherever he was needed. Uzi and Doll went in different directions for their first tasks. Doll went into the kitchen area, and Uzi went to the closest to grab a duster, getting straight to work. This is going to be hell…

[---]

Sorry if things are worded weird, this was a chapter I rewrote.

Originally Uzi was supposed to sever food, and the manor would be more like a hotel of sorts? But I scrapped the idea.

[qu33rsources]

How to install NewPipe on Android

NewPipe is a YouTube replacement client for Android devices. It's open-source (meaning, you can see all of their code as you please), privacy-oriented, lightweight, and supports features that are normally locked behind a YouTube Premium paywall.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with NewPipe, YouTube, Android, Google, Alphabet Inc, or any other brand or name mentioned here. I made this guide to help my friends who were curious.

NewPipe's Website: https://newpipe.net/

The GitHub Repository

Step 0. Compatibility check

Make sure you're running an Android device! This won't work on an Apple device of any kind! Also, for those more tech-savvy among you, if you have the F-Droid store installed, you can download NewPipe straight from there!

Step 1. Downloading

Go to NewPipe's Github repo (repository, the codebase or where all of the code is stored). Scroll to the bottom of the page until you see "Releases". Click on the one that says "Latest" next to it in a little green bubble:

Your version number (v#...) will be different if you're reading this in the future! That's okay. Scroll past the changelog (unless you want to read it!) until you find "Assets":

Click on the first one, the one with the little cube ending in .apk. APK files are Android Package (Kit) and are the main format for downloading apps. Once you click on the link, it should begin downloading or your browser will ask you to confirm that you want to download this file. You should always verify the filename matches what you expect it to be (namely, the file format) before attempting to install! It might take a few moments for the file to download depending on your internet connection.

Step 2. Installation

Once you have the file downloaded, you can click the download popup in your notification bar or find the file in your device's file system. One of 2 things will happen:

You will get a popup asking if you want to install an APK by the name of NewPipe - confirm that you do (and make sure the app is really NewPipe!) and it will install automatically. You can then click "Open" to open the app and begin using it.

You will get a popup warning you that you have the ability to install apps from unknown sources disabled and that you can't install this. This is normal and does not mean that you downloaded the wrong thing.

If you got the first popup, continue past this step. For those of you who got the second, let's go over what this means.

By default, most Androids have this setting disabled. This is for security purposes, so you can't accidentally install a malicious app from the whole internet. If you enable this setting (allow installations from unknown/unsigned sources), you are theoretically putting yourself at risk. Realistically, you're probably fine. But, after installing NewPipe, you can always re-disable the setting if it makes you more comfortable. That will prevent you from installing updates in the future, but it can always be re-enabled.

Ready to turn that setting on? It will vary by your individual device! Some devices will take you directly to the page with the setting upon failed installation, and some you will just have to find it yourself using the searchbar in settings.

Once you've allowed installations from unknown sources (wording may vary slightly), try to repeat the steps above of clicking the download popup or finding the APK in your files and trying to install it. It should work correctly this time!

Step 3. Updating NewPipe

Like most apps, NewPipe is in development currently and frequently has new versions released to improve it and fix bugs. Unlike most apps, NewPipe needs to be manually updated, since we haven't downloaded through the Google Play store.

To update NewPipe, all you have to do is follow the above steps for installing the app, except that when you get the popup asking to install it, it will instead say "Update". That's it! NewPipe and Android handle the rest.

NewPipe also has popup notifications for when the app has a new update, so you don't have to worry about checking the GitHub for a new release. Just click on the "A new version is available" popup and it should take you directly to the webpage.

That's it! Enjoy browsing videos in peace without ads and with the ability to download and so much more. Pro tip: you can copy paste YouTube links into the NewPipe search bar to go directly to that video/playlist/channel.

[the-nox-syndicate]

SysNotes devlog 2 - retrieving data from the database and NEW profile features!

Welcome back to my SysNotes update! SysNotes is a system management app for people with DID, OSDD, and those who are otherwise plural.

Today I will flesh out the backend of the application (which was completely missing in the first devlog) and add some new profile fields.

First Devlog (1) | Previous Devlog (1.5)

Pulling data from the database and populating the profiles

If you remember, in the first devlog I used hardcoded data to test the interface like so:

Storing data in code is not sustainable or maintainable, so in devlog 1.5 I have identified the most suitable database structure, created some tables, and filled them with test data. To populate the tables I generated dummy data using the Faker library which uses random Latin words to create sentences. This was the result for the Alter Profiles table:

First, let's delete the hardcoded data from the code. Wow, the user interface is looking so empty now!

I already implemented the basic code for processing alter data and displaying it on the page in devlog 1. However, I had to make some tweaks to it due to the nature of database queries.

Firstly, when loading Alter Profiles for the side menu, I'm only selecting their name and ID, without the other fields (description, history, etc). A common mistake beginner developers make in simple cases like this is retrieving the entire DB record. But the side menu does not need the extra information, and loading it in alongside the name would make the page slower!

You may also notice that I'm getting the names in alphabetical order - I thought this would look nicer on the sidebar than if the names were all random, and make it easier to navigate. I'm only getting the profiles that belong to the current user.

When I get the actual profile data, I retrieve it with its status and characteristics, which are stored in separate tables:

And here we go, the profile page now uses the data stored in the database!

New profile features

But this is all just using the the proof of concept profile fields I mocked up in devlog 1. In this devlog, I want to add NEW fields to allow the profile page to do more powerful things, and better integrate with the future features of Inner World and Front Decider (still looking for a better name for it 😩).

(By the way, I assigned the Ulysses profile to a different user for testing, so you won't see that profile in the sidebar from now on)

Alter origins

One new profile field I've been wanting to add is an alter's origins. Some of my alters split from trauma, others from loneliness, and others through being AuDHD. I created a new table called "Alter Origins" with an optional owner ID. This means that some origins are universally available to all users, while others can be created by users themselves to customize their profile. In this example, "stressgenic" is a custom origin my user (Test System) created.

To use this table, I need to connect it to the Alter Profiles table using a foreign key:

Now we can access it on the front end!

(It shows on the top line, highlighted red)

Side note: I had issues with most Tailwind v4 colors not working so I had to manually define the origin badge color classes based on the official Tailwind values 😓 I'm not sure how to fix it, I wanted to leverage Tailwind to allow users to select "custom colors" from the Tailwind palette... I'll look into it at another time.

Relationships

I wanted the ability to set up bidirectional relationships between alters and display them after the character traits area.

I created an Alter Relationships table with some relationships and their badge colors:

And then I created a pivot table where alter 2 is Alice, alter 3 is Amari, and alter 5 is Benji:

Now if we go to Alice's page, we will see:

And Amari's will show:

This feature took a long time to implement because I ran into some issues with the pivot table and model relationships. I'd be lying if I said I have a good grasp of Eloquent 😅

Alter categories

One last thing I want to add in this devlog is to add custom categories that the names in the sidebar could be sorted into, which would be helpful for systems with many alters (or those who want to store their alter data and OC data in one place but want to distinguish between them, like me).

I will add some default categories to the database - however, you will be able to add new custom categories to suit your needs. I also want each profile to have one OR MORE categories for flexible filtering. This means, annoyingly, that I have to tinker with yet another pivot table 😩

Here is my Alter Categories table. Like with origins and relationships, "owner_id" refers to the user who made the category, and NULL categories are available to all users.

The pivot table looks like any standard pivot table so I'll omit it for this feature. I've had enough of pivot tables. Luckily, I got the model relationships correct the first time 😎

And now, Alice's profile shows her categories under her relationships:

(And here are all the category badges so far)

But this isn't all! I want to be able to filter my profiles by category in the sidebar.

Let's create a drop down! I think this looks alright:

Now let's load the categories of our available profiles into the dropdown. For this, I will need to fetch the categories table when getting the profile names.

The dropdown code basically takes the array (list) of all profiles, compares each profile's category to the selected category, and adds them to the array of filtered profiles, then displays them. If the selected value is "-" it just displays the full list of profiles.

And here we go, our fragments are Alice and Colin:

I also wanted to add the ability to group profiles by their categories (e.g. grouping by Age will split the names in the side bar into "syskid" and "adult" boxes). But this devlog has gone on for quite a while, so I'll save that for another time ;)

What next?

I wanted to finish the whole Profile section and move on to the more exciting inner World and Front decider features, however the complexity of the profile section so far requires me to spend a few more devlogs on it, oops 😅 So here is what you can expect in the next few devlogs:

Rethink the User Interface of the Profile page (all these badge colors are getting messy! And is the current layout the best for displaying the data? Find out next on Dragon Ball Z!)

Add a way to create new profiles using the New Profile form

Add ability to edit the profile information and delete profiles

Do you have ideas on other fields and features I could add to SysNotes? Or maybe you have suggestions on how to clean up the UI? I'd love to hear your thoughts! Thanks for reading 🙌

[theeccentricraven]

11th Day of Writemas 🎄🤶🎅❄️⛄🍒

Thank you again @agirlandherquill for the tag game/writing prompt/writing challenge that brightens the Christmas spirit and so far has been a cool alternative to NaNo for me ❤️🤍💚

If you'd like to know/get a refresher of the rules or join the tag list, check out the invitation post.

For the 11th Day Prompt I chose "He hoped for salvation, he prayed to the Gods, every one he could think of, even though he knew they would never listen." I thought about how I could incorporate this into another WIP where the subject fits well with the world development. Along with my other WIP's, I've worked on Columbus Day, a YA Scifi First Contact Buddy story as I like to describe it. I've left it in the trunk for over a decade but am now getting down to redrafting/rewriting/revising. I haven't posted much about it yet on Tumblr (sometime in the future I'll get World Building and Character posts up). In short, it involves aliens with wings discovering Voyager 1. This snippet starts the prologue.

__________________________________________________________

Demisen raised his greenish blue wings high above his head, releasing tension. He was nervous. He retracted his claws, bringing his finger claws inside his fingers, and pushing them out. He did the same with his toe claws. He felt a calm release. He checked that his appearance looked presentable for his audience. His greenish blue hairs and feathers were finely brushed. He wore the outfit for his flock - a pink jumpsuit with the orange letters that spelt VSHIKRI in the Zaramna alphabet. He projected a hologram image of himself. His solid maroon eyes charmed whoever looked into them. No need for any enhancements. 

He had every reason to be confident to give this presentation, yet he feared he could be opening a box to release a strange gas - a healing cloud and a toxic cloud in one. He hoped for salvation, he prayed to the Gods, every one he could think of, even though he knew they would never listen. The gods of two thousand deistic cultures in the galaxy were never expected to respond to prayers. Demisen knew them enough to be confident that he would meet the Mystery in the next life with a knowledge to know the secrets of the universe. He couldn’t help but fear the price to pay. He’d been a source for contention on the world he called home. He wouldn’t let that happen again. The discovery promised a way to connect the Proserims with another race. First contact meant the chance to find a powerful ally and strengthen the Zaramna Alliance. He longed to find them. Finding the makers of the strange device could mean gaining more knowledge, knowing other Gods, knowing the Mystery better, and finding a source of redemption. His legacy would be that of harmony, enlightening his path to the Mystery.

He listened to the recording, playing the moment of the history he held in his claws.

 "Lachra Nalthav thi Lachra Virthi, har sher shi?" Code Nalthav to Code Virthi, What is that?  One voice made a wheezing and gasping sound. “Vlit thaneg har nush lomthvi?" Do you realize what we have found?

With a wave of his wing, Demisen turned off the recording. He waved his other wing over a scanner on the computer interface to start a new recording.  He took the network friend band around his limb. He waved his wing over a scanner on the band, activating a broadcast.  

He raised his wings high.  “Dmurch Mthil’s Nephew Demisen Nbliju sends a message and announcement on behalf of all of Vshikri flock, I send a message to the world.”

And eventually, the galaxy.

He waved a wing over the band’s scanner, emitting a projection.  The holograph displayed a probe of ancient craft. The probe was the construction of obsolete technology. A plaque covered the probe. The plaque featured drawings of two fleshy beings, holding up their limbs or some other part of their bodies.  Heads, eyes, torsos, limbs, and curious details suggested the creatures followed the typical path of evolution.

Demisen continued to speak. “Somewhere in the void, our explorer probes descended into a wormhole to discover the fabrics of dark matter that powers the universe. And we found this.  Two members of our flock analyzed the probe’s findings. They discovered the probe had returned with a treasure. This is the treasure. This device was created by another race. We sent more probes out to that end of the wormhole.  And so we found not one but two other space devices just like it. The third probe taught us a threshold about the uncanny makers of these probes. Vshikri flock needed to keep this secret for some time, but now we are ready.  We declare another race under the creation of the Mystery, another people we share our galaxy with. Another people seeking to solve the mystery of life. We invite you to come to the projected coordinates, the Vlaksho arena. A great treasure awaits you. Of all the species the Proserims contacted, this probe could have only been created by a race who wanted to be found. Why would they want us to find them? Our data analysis suggests they want to share what they have in return for something. Whatever they need, we can’t know yet, but it’s likely they offer what other galactic races have offered. Gods and spirits to know. Opportunities to commune with the Mystery. Exchanging their treasures for survival tools. A powerful contribution to the Zaramna Alliance. Arts and entertainment. Adventures and challenges. They provide us the chance to form an amity that will enlighten us to know the Mystery in the next life.”

___________________________________________________________

Tagging! 🌟🎀🦌🛷🎁🎶👼🧝⛸️🔔🥁

@sunflowerrosy @furrywrit3r @wyked-ao3 @selenekallanwriter @drchenquill

@revenantlore @whatwewrotepodcast @jay-avian @constellationandcompendium @olivescales3

@ryns-ramblings @primroseprime2019 @illarian-rambling @kaylinalexanderbooks @kitty-is-writing

@kitkins13 @buffythevampirelover @willtheweaver @poethill @acmartin

@apolline-lucy @elizaellwrites @gioiaalbanoart @orphanheirs @pluppsauthor

@cowboybrunch @leahnardo-da-veggie @dandelion-jester @aalinaaaaaa @faeriecinna

@brynwrites @somethingclevermahogony @rickie-the-storyteller @raevenlywrites @winterandwords

@happypup-kitcat24 @the-golden-comet @ddgraywrites @autism-purgatory @mxxnwishes

@tildeathiwillwrite @screamingatanemptyroom @kbwritesstuff @spookyceph @pluto-murphy-writes

@talesofsorrowandofruin @kaylark @sleepywriter00 @americanfemcel @fairy-tales-of-yesterday

@inkednotebook @the-letterbox-archives @laureleavess @simonnebethel @forthesanityofsome

@melpomene-grey @creatrackers @stephtuckerauthor @theink-stainedfolk

@g0ttest0d @infinnative @little-peril-stories @lyneidas @late-to-the-fandom

and Open!

[asaka-lucy-dr-rc]

Analysis of Yuma's Design ②

The design of Yuma's head has several features that are related to "question" or "mystery".

Everyone has probably noticed that his ahoge design is based on a question mark. Also, anyone who has watched him closely has noticed that his pupil design (or perhaps I should say the area around the pupil) resembles a keyhole. Some might argue that it is an abstract shape and perhaps something else, but "key" is a symbol used frequently in RAIN CODE, so I think it is reasonable to interpret it as a keyhole.

The main consideration I want to talk about in this post is that the outline of his eyes is a closed ellipse. My guess is that this is because it is based on the letter Q of the alphabet. There are several characters designed by Rui Komatsuzaki in Danganronpa and RAIN CODE with closed eyelines, such as Gundham, Kazuichi, Gonta, Ryoma, K1-B0, Aphex, Zilch, Desuhiko, and Vivia. While there are exceptions like Ryoma, most of them have sharp or semicircular eyes. Characters like Yuma with rounded eyes and closed eyelines are rare, so I think there is an intention behind it. He has a single long eyelash at the corner of his eye, which to me looks like a diagonal line coming out of the circle of the letter Q in the alphabet.

Yuma's eye line is not a simple single line, but rather a line that branches out a bit, so this analysis may be a bit of a stretch. I just think it could mean something, and I think it's one of Yuma's most distinctive parts, so I personally always want to draw him with his eyeliner closed when I draw him. Please don't get me wrong, this is just my preference! I have no intention of criticizing any fanart that doesn't. In fact, in the art for the Danganronpa and RAIN CODE Collaboration Cafe, Yuma's eyeline is broken at the inner corner of his eyes. If Tookyo Games supervises this art properly, it may not be so important whether Yuma's eyeline is closed or broken.

[nb-hedgewolf]

I've managed to complete some doodles related to an AU, and I'm going to make it everyone's problem :D

KHAOS AU ART DUMP!

(aka, the hollow knight inspired AU i decided to create after getting just slightly invested in HK)

SOLARIS - HYPERION SOLARIS

Solaris, the sun god of Soleanna as the AU's stand-in for The Radiance.

Sealed away to prevent the flames of disaster from unleashing, released by a greedy king, His anger and his hubris cursing his body and mind, and the one's from those around him.

Queen Bernadette of Soleanna.

Archie Sonic's mother as the AU's stand-in for The Pale King.

"No cost too great" was too her motto, going so far as to try to give her own body to become herself a vessel of Khaos, but things don't always go the way we hope nor dream them to.

THE KHAOS VESSEL

Sonic himself, champion of chaos, as the stand-in for The Hollow Knight.

A vessel created by sacrificing a body to the darkness of Khaos, hollowed out by the chaotic void, but not even the purest of vessels was perfectly hollow, and the range of Solaris leaked through.

An unfinished doodle of Silver featured as possibly the Lost Kin vessel :) who knows!

The AU is still heavily under construction, it barely has a week of existing, and I am still changing things with the help of my friends who are more knowledged on Hollowknight! But I hope to make more stuff for this soon!

some alts + stuff under the cut

The text in both the Solaris and The Khaos Vessel's drawings are fully translatable, they're coded in the Sonic Prime alphabet, given the drawing itself sorta blocks or makes the text further illegible, here's some transcripts: (don't judge me I like MOTI, and the songs were what finally made me go further into learning about Hollow Knight)

Solaris drawing:

You're a hollow shame You're a moth to the flame Gaze upon me! Speaketh my name! Solaris!

Vessel drawing:

The idea instilled Made the empty fill Blinded by the love And so the vessel spilled No will to break No mind to think No voice to cry... My suffering!

[gav-san]

The Dark Age: 7

Masterlist here

MY HERO ACADEMIA Masterlist

The Dark Age Masterlist

Chapter Seven: Supervillain 101: How to Master the Art of the Overly Dramatic Entrance

Words: 2.3K

Previous/Next

Monday, the bank calls you.

Not your regular account. Not the grocery card. Not even the one labeled Do Not Touch Unless Set on Fire.

This is the offshore one. The account you made at seventeen with a forged ID and a shady teller who offered a complimentary fake passport with every deposit.

It now contains six figures.

You stare at the balance in horror.

The deposits are labeled with things like:

“For College (or Bail)”

“Emergency Lasagna Fund”

“In Case of Death (Mine, Not Yours)”

You squint harder.

The last one is underlined.

You march out of the bedroom, phone in hand. 

“Toshinori Yagi,” you bark like a woman on the edge of a felony.

There is no answer.

Only the faint chemical sting of lemon disinfectant and the kind of villain-level bleaching usually reserved for crime scenes and divine judgment.

The apartment is immaculate.

Not tidy. Not straightened. Spotless.

The furniture gleams like it’s been oiled with angel tears. The fridge hums like it’s proud of its GPA. The knives are alphabetized. Alphabetized. How? There is a laminated label on the toaster that reads, IN CASE OF ZOMBIES, UNPLUG FIRST.

You stare at it.

Then you slowly turn your head and find him.

He is wiping the windows like a man attempting to erase original sin. His combat socks are still on. He is tucked into a massive apron that reads Kiss the Cook or Else in bold, slightly threatening font.

“Are you having a breakdown?” you ask carefully. “Because villain lairs shouldn’t be this clean. It feels illegal.”

He doesn’t look up. “I am a villain. Not a degenerate. Also, I replaced your blender. The old one lost to a banana last week. It was time.”

You narrow your eyes. “Are you nesting? Are you pregnant with vengeance?”

He does not respond.

Which is exactly the kind of guilty silence you’d expect from a man plotting high-level treason disguised as domesticity.

You step back.

Your heel hits something hard.

You look down.

It’s a laminated chart titled How to Comfort Tenko If I’m Dead.

Right beside it sits an entire tray of lovingly labeled freezer meals. Chicken soup. High-iron curry. Miso comfort bowls. Each one features a sticker of a smiling bear and the words Please don’t cry into this.

You pick one up.

“Grief Stew?”

“It’s high in protein,” he says. “And it reheats evenly.”

You drop the lid like it burned you. “Are you planning to die?”

He offers you a pancake shaped like a cat.

You take it.

You don’t eat it. But you do hold it like it might answer your questions if squeezed hard enough.

He watches you with the blank serenity of a man who has either just finished his will or buried evidence under your begonias. Possibly both.

You slowly place the pancake back on the plate.

“This is suspicious.”

All Smite calmly wipes the counter with a fresh cloth. “Suspicion is a perception. Pancakes are tangible. And fluffy.”

You begin stalking the kitchen like a private investigator one coffee away from a breakdown.

You fling open the fridge. A full inventory is magneted to the door. Color-coded by expiration date. You scan the list. At the bottom, in a tidy little box, it reads: Emergency Ice Cream Rations — Tenko Tier Only.

You shut the fridge.

You open the freezer.

The top shelf is a culinary battlefield.

Every container labeled with passive-aggressive care: If I Die, Eat This and Hug Tenko. Chicken Soup for the Traumatized Soul. Revenge Lasagna. Sad Udon (Extra Noodles).

You close the freezer with the calm of someone deciding whether or not to commit arson.

Then you turn to him.

He is now polishing the stovetop with gentle precision, as if it were the last thing he’d ever do.

“Have you gone soft in the head?”

“I’ve gone proactive,” he replies, like this is an HR meeting.

“You’re disappearing at night. You’ve got a vitamin calendar for my nephew. You deep-cleaned the toilet. Men don’t deep-clean toilets unless they’re terminal or hiding a war plan.”

He pauses just a second too long.

Then gestures to the living room like a proud, deranged raccoon. “I also shampooed the carpet.”

You leave the kitchen before you can scream.

You march into the den. You dig into the cabinet. You pull out the stack of suspicious paperwork that had been bulging like a guilty conscience.

Beneath the tax folders and a 1996 rice cooker manual, you find it.

A half-burned blueprint. Soot around the edges. Scrawled over with red Sharpie like someone lost a battle with a rage monster. The words ALL FOR ONE scream at you from the top.

You stare.

Long and hard.

Then you turn slowly as he leans into the doorway.

“That’s a forgery,” he says gently.

You hold it up. “Your signature is on the back.”

“I sign a lot of things.”

You storm back to the kitchen.

Tenko is sitting cross-legged on the floor, sipping a juice box and watching a video labeled So You Want to Be a Combat Liability: Episode Two. Grandpa Gran Torino’s voice is yelling something about posture and emotional detachment.

The child looks up, calm as a monk. “Did you see the grief stew?”

“Yes,” you grind out. “I saw the grief stew.”

Tenko sips his juice. “It smells good.”

You pinch the bridge of your nose so hard your soul flickers.

You march back to the kitchen. You slap the freezer shut like it owes you money.

“I want the truth,” you hiss.

All Smite, now folding dish towels into crisp origami shapes, glances up with an innocent deadpan. “I’m just being responsible.”

“Responsible for what?”

He doesn’t answer.

Instead, he offers you a packet titled Letters You Probably Shouldn’t Open Yet.

You slap it down onto the counter.

“Stop nesting like a disgraced goose.”

His mouth twitches.

“I’m not nesting.”

“Then what are you doing?”

He smooths a corner of the towel. “Making sure you and Tenko are okay. If something happens.”

You go silent.

Not for long.

Your chest feels too tight. His voice was too calm. Too steady. The kind of voice someone uses when they’ve made peace with something awful.

You step forward. 

“You’re going to fight him.”

He doesn’t blink. 

“I’m going to end him.”

“...But you’re not planning to come back.”

A pause.

Long. Quiet. Cold.

He shrugs.

“I’m making room. Just in case.”

You want to scream. To throw something. To shake him until that stupid stoicism cracks and leaks the truth all over your clean tile floor.

Instead, you smack the cat pancake off the plate.

“Fine,” you say. “But if you die, I’m feeding Tenko nothing but cereal and resentment.”

His gaze drifts toward you, faintly amused. “He’s allergic to artificial red dye.”

You shriek in rage.

And also, just a little, in fear.

By Wednesday, Gran Torino breaks into your home.

Not walks in. Not rings the bell. Breaks in.

You are holding a basket of laundry in one arm and a banana in the other, halfway through deciding whether to fold socks or emotionally disassociate, when the front door explodes inward with all the grace of a disgruntled landmine.

Gran Torino storms through like a delinquent vacuum salesman who sells threats instead of warranties. Smoke follows him. You do not ask why.

“I’m taking the kid,” he announces, as drywall flakes off the wall behind him.

You stare.

“Do you people know how to ring a doorbell?” you say flatly. “Also, it’s hello, my favorite adopted niece. The bare minimum.”

He ignores you. Completely. Just tracks muddy boot prints across your recently sanitized floor and eyes the hallway like he’s in a hostage negotiation.

You blink once, slowly. “And for what, exactly, are you kidnapping my emotionally unstable gremlin for?”

“School prep.”

That’s it. That’s all he says.

As if that explains everything. As if storming a civilian residence with a hero license and a death glare is normal behavior for standardized testing.

Before you can respond, Tenko appears behind you.

He is already dressed.

He is already helmeted.

He is already holding a water bottle that says "Property of Future Hero" in Sharpie, as if anyone would dare steal from a child with that many traumas and the potential to vaporize furniture.

You look at him.

You look at Gran Torino.

You look down at your banana.

Then, with the resignation of someone who is no longer driving their own life, you drop it onto the floor.

“Fine,” you mutter. “Just—don’t let him get emotionally manipulated by any sad villains until after math class.”

Tenko salutes like he’s been trained by military raccoons.

Gran Torino grunts.

Then they both vanish.

Literally vanish.

Through the window.

You don’t even try to stop them.

Somewhere in the kitchen, a timer dings. It’s the grief stew. Again.

You sit down on the floor beside the laundry basket and pick up a sock. You don’t fold it. You just stare at it while your brain tries to put together a flowchart that explains how this is your life now.

Outside, tires screech.

Inside, the freezer hums.

Upstairs, Toshinori is probably sewing emotional closure into a trauma quilt or alphabetizing Tenko’s battle cries.

You don’t cry.

You just pick up your banana from the floor.

You eat it in silence.

Because someone in this house has to pretend things are normal.

Even if it’s you. And even if it’s Wednesday.

Thursday brings further confusion.

You meet your neighbor, Inko Midoriya. She arrives bearing muffins, warmth, and the kind of calm concern that usually precedes an intervention or a surprise parent-teacher conference. She’s soft-spoken, sweet-faced, and has the quiet intensity of someone who pays attention for sport.

Her son peeks out from behind her like a nervous bookmark. Green eyes, too big for his head. A spiral-bound notebook clutched to his chest with all the desperation of someone who has taken notes on how to breathe. You’re almost afraid to ask.

“Hi,” he says shyly. “Is your household always this loud?”

“It’s not loud,” you lie with the boldness of someone who once hid a grief stew in the crawl space. “It’s… spirited.”

He nods solemnly, like that makes perfect sense. Like he’s already filing it under quirky but manageable in his hero statistics database. You immediately feel guilty. You are lying to a child. You’re probably also giving him trauma secondhand.

Before you can recover, All Smite walks by shirtless, sweating, and holding a duffel bag that clinks. You hear the unmistakable sound of blades. On the side of the bag, in cheerful block letters, is a label that reads: Precision Throwing Tools for Emotional Release.

“Tenko,” he calls out a window, tone light and terrifying, “training montage in ten.”

Then he vanishes toward the backyard, leaving behind the faint scent of exertion and justice.

Izuku has stopped blinking. His hand is moving so fast across his notebook that you swear the pencil starts to smoke.

Inko gently touches your arm.

“Do you think Izuku could play with Tenko, when he’s free?” she asks softly.

You open your mouth. No sound comes out.

What you want to say is:

Tenko is currently doing backflips over emotionally charged sandbags. He gets vitamins on a timer and fights metaphorical demons before breakfast. Last week he drew a chalk outline of All For One and practiced combat declarations with a literal Supervillan in the kitchen. The toaster is labeled for zombie preparedness. There is no normal here.

But you just stare.

“Sure.”

Inko gives you a kind smile and pats your shoulder with the infinite grace of a woman who has already survived many things, including toddler meltdowns, hero documentaries, and the horrors of PTA.

She presses another muffin into your hand.

You eat it.

You don’t deserve it.

But you eat it anyway.

And when she and her small gremlin genius finally walk away, you close the door, lean your forehead against it, and whisper into the wood.

“We’re gonna break that child.”

From the backyard, you hear Toshinori shout, “Believe in your vengeance arc, Tenko!”

And Tenko screams, “I’m not crying, I’m releasing trauma vapor!”

You sink to the floor and wonder if Inko has another muffin.

Or possibly a therapist.

Or possibly both.

That night, you wake to the sound of armor.

Not footsteps, not creaking floorboards, not the usual muttering into a training log. Armor, metal, and memory—the kind of noise that should only exist in warzones or documentaries narrated by trauma survivors.

You slip down the hallway barefoot, guided more by instinct than intention. The door to the spare room is cracked open. Just enough to see.

Inside, All Smite is packing.

Not a duffel. Not an overnight bag. Not even his go-bag labeled In Case of Regret or Aliens.

Armor.

Real armor. Weighted. Fitted. Burnished by time and grief. The kind that doesn’t get worn unless the wearer intends to bleed. Each dent is a scar. Each buckle a confession.

He doesn’t notice you at first, but the mirror does. He sees your reflection. His hands are slow. They do not stop.

You say nothing.

Because you already know.

You think about the laminated charts, the comfort meal plans, the grief stew, and the way he started folding socks with militarized precision, like fabric origami would somehow soften the blow.

You think about the child in the next room. A boy with too many ghosts and a plastic nightlight shaped like a hero’s mask, finally sleeping without flinching.

Your throat is dry. Your fists are clenched.

But there’s nothing to ask.

He is preparing to die.

And he is doing it quietly, carefully, as if perfect freezer labels could replace presence, as if alphabetized knives and apology waffles could stand in for a man who once held a dying city in his bare hands.

You leave.

You go back to Tenko’s room, crawl into bed beside him, and wrap your arms around his small, warm frame like that might stop anything from leaving. You stare at the ceiling, eyes open. Wide. Raw.

You do not cry.

But your chest feels hollow. Like a stitch popped in a favorite shirt. Like a thread yanked too hard.

Okay, you do cry a little, but only after you’ve locked yourself in the closet.

[deadly-espresso]

Fun Facts About TROJAN HORSE!

The original concept of TROJAN HORSE actually dated back to February of 2023 (At the time, Illusion of Flattery was my most recently posted song). I previously only had the original melody thought out at the time as well as some basic plot details (The subject of the song's name was Troy and he was like some sort of guy obsessed with a girl who didn't reciprocate his feelings and he had eventually plotted an attack on her after becoming a Trojan Horse). However, I had originally scrapped the song due to audio mixing issues and overall lack of skill (I hadn't even started implementing proper keys into my songs until Wanderlust and Illusion of Flattery). I had briefly revisited the song in October of 2023, but then I forgot about it again until May of this year.

The fake BSoD that I made for the warning screen at the beginning of the song was edited in MS Paint, of all programs. This was because it was the only program I had where the "System" font (the font that used to be used on Windows BSoDs (or at least Windows 9x systems, because the base of the edit was a BSoD from Windows Me)) rendered correctly (I couldn't access the font in FireAlpaca, and the font looked blurry in Krita because Krita renders fonts as vector images with no feature to turn off anti-aliasing) The edit was hard to pull off and I ended up having to make some minor adjustments to the edit in FireAlpaca, but the edit was certainly doable because, well, I made it.

Some more fun stuff about the fake BSoD I made is that does include a reference to a genuine error code (In this case, the error code "04" refers to an "overflow trap"). Also, if you compare the string of numbers in the error message to this Base64 index alphabet table, the numbers actually spell out a word in Base64 code (but then you'll have to decode that yourself 😏)

While I'm aware that TROJAN HORSE's very premise is bound to spark some KinitoPET jokes (even I've made my fair share of jokes about it), I actually envisioned the whole premise of the song long before KinitoPET was released to the public (The KinitioPET game's release was in January of this year, although I didn't learn of its existence until March. Funny enough, I had even envisioned Troy having a pink color scheme and wearing black tights (or maybe that just IS his leg color, since he chooses how he looks? 🤔) before the release of KinitoPET. However, I still think the release of KinitoPET did have some effect on the final version of the lore and song I settled on (for extra funnies, it turned out the creator of KinitoPET is named "troy_en").

Before that whole crisis I had on deciding what voice would play Troy in TROJAN HORSE, the placeholder voicebank I had used for testing the vocal tuning was Solaria's lite voicebank.

[sanguinesky-if]

[Dev Log] December 2024

Hello, I apologize for the delay in releasing the dev log.

I'm currently away from home because a couple I'm friends with urgently asked me to pet-sit their animals while they took an unplanned business trip, so I didn't have time to prepare a post in advance.

This dev log includes:

A reminder of the release date for the public update.

An answer to the question of when to expect the next update.

Information about content that will be released this month [in honor of the New Year and the anniversary of the demo release].

A small addition to the "Secondary Rivals" section in the Romance System Overview.

Let's start from the beginning.

[Reminder] Public update release date

The public release of Chapter 3 Pt. 1 is scheduled for December 7.

Thank you for your patience and support!

A small note for my patrons: I really appreciate your help and support, but please note that saves from the Patreon demo will not work on the public release [since the files will be merged, as mentioned in the Patreon demo release post]. However, I will keep a working Patreon demo link for you where your saves will still work until the next update is released. I hope this will be helpful!

When will work begin on the next update [Chapter 3 Pt. 2]?

The work on the outline for the current draft I have for Chapter 3 Pt. 2 will begin after the New Year [a month after the public release, which is scheduled for December 7].

What was accomplished last month?

L's Side Story release.

There were some grammatical errors and a few coding inconsistencies because I used one of the variables incorrectly in the penetration moment ["the MC takes the initiative" scene]. Both issues have been fixed, and I apologize for the inconvenience. To my patrons, thank you so much for your support, patience and for helping with the errors. I'm glad if you enjoyed the story!

Bug fixes in the extended version of the demo.

There weren't many, but I still found a fixed some [mostly grammatical, as usual].

About my plans for the current month.

December 17 will mark the anniversary of the demo's release, and with the New Year approaching, I want to create something special to celebrate both occasions.

Throughout December, I'll be working on a collection of winter/New Year's themed short interactive stories, one for each of the ROs [featuring choices for the MC's name, gender, and one bold/shy flirt option].

Planned release: [Patreon]: end of December / first week of January. [Public]: a week after the release on Patreon.

I've also decided to release one of the stories in December before the full collection comes out.

It means the most-voted story and the most-voted alphabet will be released this month as bonus content on Patreon [I'm still waiting for the poll results since I released the post a little later than planned].

Secondary Rivals [a minor addition].

A small addition has been made to the Romance System Overview in the "Secondary Rivals" section:

Options marked [♡] establish relationship with the secondary rivals and unlock special scenes and narrative changes later on the story.

Thank you for reading to the end and for your support! Have a wonderful week and days after that! ♥

[xgutter-glitterx]

FUCKING GRISPS IT.

MY TAMAGOTCHI IS HERE!!! i just started it so he's still a baby but i'm so intimately familiar with the original v3 connections that the subtle differences are NOT subtle to me lol

first observations: - the sound is different, some things are slightly different notes (notably the low, mid and high notes in the get game) and the happy jingle ends slightly more abruptly - some of the sounds are a lot harsher than the originals (but not all of them) - the status menu is slightly different - you can choose between english and japanese when you start, and the cute symbols from the keitai are included in the alphabet - since there is no tamatown and you can't connect to the original connections, the connection menu is a lot simpler and any online interaction stuff is gone - There's a c button interact feature that the originals didn't have! I think the keitais did, but the american v3s didn't. - the pause feature is gone - no heartbeat - some original keitais and connections had a heartbeat and some didn't i'm really excited to raise a reproduction connection, i was so used to the coding of the original v3s that it got boring taking care of them. i can't wait to see what's different ^_^

[rosesandprosesstuff]

If you text in a language that uses the Roman alphabet that isn't English, I HAVE A QUESTION.

Do you take the time in a text message to use the different accents or special characters on certain letters? Things like ñ, ç, á, ß.

On my American English keyboard, getting the accents is just holding the key down and swiping up for the accented letter. It doesn't take that much effort, but I mostly use the feature for em dashes (—). And English doesn't use a lot of accent punctuation (which does not help with the world's most phonetically inconsistent language, but I digress).

Or does your autocorrect catch this stuff? Like if you type "ca va" on a French smartphone, does it autocorrect to "ça va"?

I just remember in French class using many more accents on letters and memorizing alt key codes for them on a computer. But I never progressed in French to like, have people to text with in French.

I'm just curious. Autocorrect and auto capitalization have contributed to texting being less "lol brb ttyl," but I wondered how far that extended in other languages using the Roman alphabet.