#first design iteration don't expect to be final

[lurkingshan]

Love for Love's Sake Episodes 7 & 8

Well holy shit, that went in some directions I never imagined, and it was very dark indeed. I can't believe this intriguing little show is already over. So let's unpack what happened here.

My interpretation of everything we learned in these final episodes is that Myungha already died by suicide in the real world after a series of hardships, including the death of his grandmother, a long-term struggle with depression, and rejection from his ex and his mother, and the author gave him a chance to live again in the game world. The ending suggests he will now stay in the game world with Yeowoon and get another chance at life where his core objective is to make himself happy, and any expectation we had that he would have to return to the real world is out the window, because his life there has already ended.

But what exactly is this game world? I don't think we'll ever fully know for sure. Certainly, the show did not explain the how of it, or tie together all the vignettes we saw of Myungha and the author discussing their philosophy on life in a clear throughline to how we got to the game. The game world was purportedly based on the author's fictional novel, but all along it has taken on the features of Myungha's real life, including all the significant people we saw in his first life flashbacks. His grandma is here, his mother is here, his ex is even here in the guise of Yeowoon's agent. Myungha's memories and consciousness seem to inform the way this world was built, even as he did not create it. The author is given the role of Creator, somehow designing this world for Myungha to try to find happiness via seeking to make someone with very similar experiences to his happy.

Now, on this point, I don't think everything that happened in the original iteration of the game totally holds up. The way the author was messing with Myungha and forcing cruel choices on him really does not track with a desire to help him find happiness, and the point where Yeowoon seems to discover the game and somehow intervene to pull Myungha back in was lacking some clarity. And I wish the show had grounded us in Myungha's experiences earlier on rather than holding everything back for the sake of mystery--I do think that choice got in the way of a more coherent emotional arc for our protagonist.

But despite those quibbles, I still was able to connect with Myungha's struggles. This is a boy who has been so mired in his own misery that he doesn't know how to let anyone else in. He is too afraid to trust and let someone care for him in the way he cares for others. I wanted to reach through the screen and strangle him when his own emotional paralysis caused him to destroy the game--Yeowoon was telling him exactly what he needed, but he couldn't find the strength within himself to give it to him. And this is why knowing Yeowoon is exactly what he needed to see a different path for himself, because Yeowoon has experienced many of the same hurts but still finds within himself the ability to trust and rely on Myungha. Yeowoon is the stronger of the two of them, and Myungha needed to learn from him to overcome his own cowardice. Their happy reunion in the game world felt earned, and I believe in Myungha's ability to try again at both life and this relationship without holding back this time.

This show definitely wasn't perfect, but it really did some interesting things and left us with a lot to think about. I am looking forward to reading everyone else's interpretations of these final episodes, and Myungha and Yeowoon will be staying with me for a long time.

[hua-mo-jin-is-a-cutie]

Every time a voicebank I like gets a SynthV update I always have mixed feelings. Because on one hand, I'm happy for them. I'm glad they were seen as viable enough to receive a new voicebank in the first place. I'm glad people are finally using them, finally seeing their potential. But on the other hand, SynthV is so realistic that I personally feel like in many cases, the voicebanks getting these updates are losing so much of what made them special to me in the first place. They have lost the characteristics that I enjoyed and lost the artificial sound that drew me to vocal synths in general. They sound good, but what really makes them sound any different from the other SynthV voicebanks that DT has been pumping out? At what point does the character design do all the heavy lifting? How many people will buy this updated voicebank, use it once, and then sell it for 2/3rds it buy it new price on twitter a month later? How many people will plug and play with SynthV auto pitch and not mess with their parameters at all, leaving them sounding even blander. Because SynthV can sound really amazing, but you still have to put in the work and make creative decisions for it to sound really special, just like with any other vocal synth, but so many people these days just let auto pitch do most of the work.

The only SynthV update I haven't felt absolute dread in the pit of my stomach for is Hibiki Koto, likely because she was already an AI voicebank when she released for Vocaloid 6, so there wasn't much change in her characteristics other than engine noise.

Gumi SynthV can sound like Gumi's earlier vocaloid iterations, but so often I would not be able to tell it's her without seeing her name attached first. Same with Otomachi Una SynthV.

Miki and Kiyoteru sound very generic to me which is such an utter disappointment.

UNI is one that personally hurts because I am such a huge fan of her vocaloid voicebank, it's so nice to see her getting more attention from the western community now that she's on SynthV2, no longer majorly overshadowed by SeeU. BUT she's lost so much of that charm she had in her transition to SynthV. On a technical standpoint she sounds so good, and she introduced Korean to the engine which is awesome. Her tone just feels so different to me now. She's going to be forced to sing the same Japanese and English songs as every other vb with XLS that comes out these days, her Korean is going to be just a fun quirk explored by westerners for a month or 2 and then forgotten about by everyone in the western fandom, just like it happens with every Chinese voicebank before her.

I'm glad that vocal synths are more accessible than every, I really am. More often than not, SynthV is cheaper than the other major commercial competitors and has outstanding vocal quality. I don't want anyone to get the impression that I think it's a bad program or that the voicebanks coming out for it or being updated to it are bad. I use SynthV, I think it can make some great stuff. I just think the way I see it used these days is so far removed from what I enjoy in a vocal synth. I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum here, I prefer the artificiality, the accents, the crunch of really obvious engine noise. My favorite engine is NIAONiao, what do we really expect from me? I often wonder if I would have received these updates better had they been for Cevio AI / Voisona because those engines maintain a level of artificiality while still having the ability to sound very realistic. They walk the line in a way I like much more than the hyper realism of SynthV.

I dunno what I want the take away from this post to be. I don't want anyone to stop being creative, I think it's great when someone picks up a vocal synth even if what they make with it isn't something that interests me personally. I suppose UNI's release has just made me a bit frustrated and Iroha's announcement a little anxious. At the end of the day, I guess I just hope that standard voicebanks won't become a thing of the past forever, because there are plenty of people like me who prefer the sound of something less flexible. I would honestly love if SynthV would put out more standard voicebanks, Eleanor Standard is genuinely one of my favorite voicebanks ever. I know that's delusional to hope for, it's not going to happen, but a girl can dream.

[rivertakis]

After that recent DD interview, about the Phantom and how the writers didn’t want to kill off Bobby, what would you say to the idea that Bobby isn’t dead? (Yes Edgeworth said he was dead…but he could have just been using “exact words” ie Bobby doesn’t want his old name and life back. It’s been destroyed.) If AA7 focused on Athena and actually followed up on the plot points of DD (like why Metis was researching the Phantom, and what spy network is creating emotionally stunted killing machines like him anyway) The idea that Fulbright isn’t truly dead - possibly coming back Godot style with a whole new attitude, wanting justice for his old life and all those who suffered from the Phantom’s masters, is an interesting one to me at least.

I would much rather AA7 build on the plot of DD, and the Phantom’s spy network, than send Athena to a brand new country where she gets a completely new, never even set up backstory, with a secret other family or something…

First of all, thank you for this ask, I love getting a chance to yap about my ideas and interpretations! ^^

I have a lot to say in regards to this topic, as I am a huuuge fan of Fulbright and the phantom, but I would like to emphasize, that this is just my opinion and thoughts on the matter! I'm definitely the furthest thing from an authority figure on this lol

Since this is a decently big ramble, a quick summary of what I'll be yapping about:

Will Bobby Fulbright be coming back in AA7 and should he?

The unidentified body.

Athena and a potential arc for her.

Final thoughts.

I do, sadly, think that the real Bobby Fulbright is canonically dead, and is unlikely to come back in another Ace Attorney iteration. In this interview, the director, Yamazaki, and character designer, Fuse, discuss Fulbright's "living" status. And they are kinda right - it would've been an odd decision to bring Fulbright back to life at the end of the case.

They do joke about bringing him back with a bionic arm, which, while I do find very amusing, I feel as though would be a move that would undermine Dual Destinies narrative wise, and thus, very unlikely. The fact that we never meet the "real" Bobby Fulbright is meant to be a gut punch, and meant to force the player to reconsider everything they believed up to that point. Reversing that choice would mean discarding that important element to his character.

To me, the phantom reveal meant a lot of things. It made me question how we define a person, what makes them "real" to us, and whether we can love something we don't truly know or understand. A lot of Dual Destinies fans love Bobby Fulbright, despite never having (technically) met him! I think a big reason for that is because we don't meet him. He is like a manic pixie dream girl, really - we can make up his flaws, his strengths, his habits... I do wonder how much people would like the "real" Bobby Fulbright if he were to come back as a character. He would likely be different from the expectations we've built in our heads.

Point is: If Bobby Fulbright, the real Bobby Fulbright, were to come back as a character, it would pop the illusion of the pure justice-seeking detective a lot of the fandom loves. I would personally really enjoy this, as I already view Fulbright as not an entirely positive character (I actually made a post about it!), but I don't think it would fulfill general fan expectations if Bobby Fulbright showed up in AA7.

So yeah, I don't think he'll be a part of AA7 (Though I would be happy to be wrong about this) and I think that's actually kinda a good thing! I think meeting the real Bobby would contradict the point of DD, and it wouldn't be quite the Bobby we think of anyways when we tinker with such ideas.

However! That doesn't mean I don't enjoy a good fanmade AU every now and then! Sometimes, concepts are better as fanworks rather than canon, and I think that in this case, AUs make for a much better and fun alternative to having one specific story for the real Bobby Fulbright coming back to life. In fact, I don't think I would be as interested in Dual Destinies if it didn't have the many narrative flaws that it has, as well as its ambiguity regarding the phantom/Fulbright lol. Being able to consider alternate versions of events, potential stories and how they could go, as well as doing deep dives into a character that has very little "self" to work with? This thing was made for fan AUs!

There are many plot holes regarding the phantom, but were talking about the potential for the real Fulbright to be alive, so I'll simply talk about the most glaring one - the one that you bring up - the unidentified body (Quote from my beloved transcript).

[ME] “But there’s more. I’ve yet to share my most important finding. ............Mr. Wright. Prosecutor Blackquill. You’d best brace yourselves.” [PW] “Uh, oh...” [SB] “............” [ME] “The man you see there before you... Bobby Fulbright............ is already long dead.” [PW] “Huh? Wh-What’s that supposed to mean...?” [ME] “An unidentified body that was found a year ago... ...has now been proven to possess Bobby Fulbright’s fingerprints.” [SB] “Then does this mean...?” [ME] “Yes. That man there is an impostor pretending to be Bobby Fulbright.”

I think a big issue of Dual Destinies, is that it pulls things out of its ass without explanation sometimes. This scene is meant to be interpreted as the complete truth, but it doesn't give us new evidence in the court record, we don't uncover any of this ourselves... In fact, I really dislike the fact that Edgeworth just jumps in at the right moment to give us the exact evidence we need. I know that it's canonical and should be interpreted literally, but the way the story is put together here just really makes me question the legitimacy of this new piece of evidence.

In fact, this flaw opens up several avenues of issues: why did it take a year to identify the body, if all they needed was fingerprints? How was the body unidentifiable? How did Edgeworth link this specific body to this specific case? In what world would the phantom leave a body physically unidentifiable, but leave fingerprints? Why don't we get a general autopsy report, or at the very least, see this evidence? The list of questions goes on.

Because of these flaws, you could argue that the identification was falsified in order to further the case and catch the phantom. Or that the fingerprint database got messed with for... some reason, and only now did they get a match. Or that the body isn't Fulbright at all. Basically, there's a million different options for why Fulbright could still be alive in a fanon setting. In canon though? Ehhhh, it would mean undoing a tad too much of the build up that already exists.

There's also the aspect of Athena. And, boy, is there a lot of shit going on there... I think Dual Destinies really dropped the ball on her arc with how they focused on Phoenix and Apollo more than I think was necessary. My ideal Athena game would drop those two losers and focus on her entirely. Reopening a closed case once more, though? I think her traumas should be explored more, specifically, her panic attacks, but solving the spy ring case would be too similar to AAI to me, as well as a bit redundant? There's also the previously mentioned point of it eliminating the intended mystery behind the phantom, which would suck narrative-wise. In this case, it would be phantom-focused, not Athena-focused.

While I do agree that giving her the Apollo treatment would suck, I think it would be wayyy more natural for her to be in foreign countries considering she has traveled Europe and studied there, and with a focus on that, we could also find out how she and Phoenix met, etc!

Though, I will say, I don't have the strongest opinions on this. I like many interpretations and ideas, and personally, I'm just patiently waiting for the games release, regardless of what it'll be. I do think some outcomes are more likely than others, but again, I won't complain if we get more of Fulbright/the phantom.

In summary, I think that the phantom/Fulbright are as fun to me as they are because we don't know that much about them, and there's a lot of space for interpretation. While I wouldn't hate for Bobby to survive and show up in a later game, I don't think it's likely, and I think his characterization would be a big hit or miss. And while I also really like the idea of Athena working on a case to catch the phantom/the ring of spies, I don't think it would work well as a canon story and is more fun to explore in fandom.

Anyway, sorry for this big wall of text! I had a lot of fun putting together my thoughts on this, I hope they don't come across as rude;;; I'm also open to discussion! I'd love to hear if you have more thoughts on this or if you disagree with what I've talked about!

[l-1-z-a]

This is really cool! I'm curious to know if there are any in-game features (in any iterations, but esp Sims 3) that you feel like not many people know about? Or any features that didn't get the traction you expected?

Also, are there any interesting in-game features that didn't make it into the final version(s) that people may not know about? If so, why didn't they make it in?

Super appreciate this AMA! Thanks for sharing your knowledge with all of us here! - Matt Brown’s Answer from the r/Sims3 AMA (May 11, 2025)

Absolutely! I love talking about The Sims and gaming history and development in general.

And that's a really good question. I'm sure I'm missing something (I'll post back here after I poll some of the other designers). I think at this point, the game has been around long enough, and the community is so passionate about digging in and finding everything that I really don't think there's anything super secret hiding in there.

At this point, I can say that the best chance of there being something that no one's ever seen is probably in The Sims 3, just because we made it so easy to add random little features or little one-offs, Non-art content (e.g. books) were so incredibly cheap to make that it didn't really matter if no one ever saw it. You could still justify slipping it in. But looking through the wikis, I can't think of anything that people haven't found.

The meaning behind some of the random text and objects might not be known, or the origins of common terms like "rabbit holes", "moodlets", etc. But those aren't really easter eggs per se.

One huge planned Sim 3 "feature" that many of us felt very passionately about was full player scripting of new content in C# (a well-known flexible programming language). I was and still am a C# fanboy, and I felt that moving away from the rickety visual scripting language in Sims 1 and 2 (called Edith) to a "real programming language" that was still accessible to hobbyists would significantly open up what we could do with the game as well as allow us to give players the same capabilities and just generally unleash the crazy :).

The goal was to basically provide a "Sims SDK" with a robust and documented API that anyone could use to create pretty much every type of content in the game. Objects, interactions, careers, rabbit holes, new motives... anything.

In the end though, The Sims really was the first game/entertainment oriented product to actually try to use C# in that way (Unity, which uses C# extensively, didn't even exist yet). And while we managed to build the game on that foundation, and the flexibility of it definitely enabled the crazy breadth and depth of The Sims 3, enabling it for players ran into too many additional hurdles (legal, security and safety, performance, etc.) and had to be cut. Bruce Wilkie (also the guy that did genetics in Sims 2 amongst many other things) was driving everything C# related and made amazing progress, but we just couldn't address all of the complications.

Source: Matt Brown’s reply on the r/Sims3 AMA (May 11, 2025)

[senaridaes]

I've decided that if I just continue to collect those sketches it'll never go anywhere, so it's as good time as any to post them, I suppose.

A LOT more info and pictures under the "keep reading"

Remember this comic idea I posted in December, I think? It changed. Everything including the characters and the title has changed. It has been "New Age", then "This Brand New Age", finally it settled on "This Bright New Age". Also, the main part of it will now be black and white, because, AS IT TURNS OUT, it takes a lot of time to draw a comic page. Below are some iterations the first pages went through:

The plot stayed the same mostly (actually, did I tell anybody here about the plot?): the newly terraformed planet that lost contact with Earth roughly 300 years ago (during which it managed to bring up 7000 people, from The Tube, of course) finally catches a signal from a ship. It's the second expedition from Earth! Who didn't expect to find anyone living on this planet. Everyone is bewildered, and so the comic begins.

There's also now limited travel, mostly in form of people from Distant Future recruiting spies that are native to this era (take a wild guess about who'll become an agent like this and ruin her life in the process). If anyone knows a piece of media that comes to your mind when I describe any of those subplots, please tell me, I would like to familiarize myself with their plots and make sure they're not too similar to the comic.

↑ above are the sketches that I made for myself, when figuring out how the characters and the setting are supposed to look. The upper row are three adopted siblings (from The Tube, naturally, and their ages vary from 22 to 57, because I liked the idea of having a fifty seven year old princessfailure for a protagonist), who technically are supposed to inherit the planet after their mother's death, but who wants that, really. I'm sure they'll figure something out.

Also, if you have any constructive critisism (or just anything to say about the concept, really), please let me know. It's still pretty early and things are subject to change. What do you think about the premise, style, or the designs? Are there some cliches I don't see? If you were to read a comic like this, what would you like to see different? Also, any advice on which platforms would be the best to host page-by-page comics (Tapas? NamiComi? The Duck Webcomics? I like those from the English internet)? Is anybody at all interested in a comic like this?

[miloscat]

[Review] Zuma's Revenge (PC)

A beautiful little time-waster.

For a bit of nostalgia I picked up a Popcap bundle on Steam. Their games were some of the first I had when I got my very own laptop for the first time. I used to spend hours on Zuma Deluxe when I was supposed to be studying for uni. No regrets. Well, some regrets.

For this trip down memory lane I first booted up the older Zuma Deluxe from 2003. It still has the power to suck my time away, and before I knew it Steam was telling me six hours had gone by! However, the difficulty curve was too steep and the Steam Deck touchpad, while surprisingly responsive, was not effective enough a replacement for a real mouse. How I ever did this on just an iBook's trackpad is beyond me! So I got stuck on world 9 and decided to move on to the sequel.

The Zuma formula is a good one, a match-3 game but with a dimension of action and skill (on top of the usual randomness). Your frog character fires orbs out of their mouth which join a snaking line of orbs, trying to match and combo to stop the line advancing to the dead end. Puzzle Bobble but more dynamic. The stage design gives a good amount of variety to each new level, and powerups help to stave off the relentless orb crusade (although they too often seem to blink out just when you're about to nab them). Of course, like most Popcap games this is a ripoff of an earlier format, in this case Mitchell Corporation's 1998 arcade classic Puzz Loop/Ballistic. Popcap got there first in cloning it but were followed before too long by Luxor and Sparkle.

Whatever iteration it's a fun design. Zuma's contribution was adding a potentially slightly racist layer of Central American theming, and of course the timeless frog character. Zuma's Revenge followed in 2009 with the frog washing up on a tropical island, the setting being swapped out for a slightly racist "tiki" theme that Americans seem to love so much. At least you don't have a guide character speaking to you in broken English this time. Instead there are boss tikis who taunt you as you get closer to their lairs.

The boss fights are a highlight, with little gimmicks to shake up the gameplay. The final boss in particular has a fun fakeout and gives you infinite retries; much appreciated. There's other additions since the original too: more cool powerups, some levels having you swap between positions or slide on a rail rather than rotate, and new gameplay modes (they're mainly just more difficult versions of the main game, so I didn't delve too deeply). There's also the expected layer of polish over the whole experience. Plus I didn't get hard stuck for hours, so the difficulty must have been rebalanced a bit for the initial campaign, which is nice.

Popcap are [or were] great at making addictive gameplay loops, getting you into a flow state, as well as infusing their games with colour and character. It's no wonder they became an indie success before being scooped up by EA. Sadly, past this point their output became gradually more scummy and focused on free-to-play (but heavily monetised) Plants vs Zombies spinoffs. Zuma has had a time-limited Facebook iteration—now delisted— in 2010 but post-EA the series has seen just… a literal slot machine. Ugh. Maybe one day we'll get the Peggle or Zuma sequel we deserve, but it's seeming less likely the more layoffs happen over the years under their corporate overlords. Now I've made myself sad. At least we'll always have Zuma's Revenge for $1.50 on Steam.

[baxterstockmanisthecenterfold]

why do you hate the DC Baxter so much lol

I knew I was bound to explain this eventually...

The reason I'm not a big fan of either of his portrayals especially the movie version is because they miss the mark on who he is big time. They literally depict him as the misconception that the entire fandom already THINKS he is. He's everything wrong with how Baxter is seen & characterized by both fans and the writers sometimes. A sniveling subservient minion to the Shredder you don't even have to think twice about because he's not a serious threat, he's just "oh it's just that guy no big deal" & aside from being the scientist that builds things & again Shredder's muppet, he doesn't do anything. At all. It's not who the character is. Yes I'm aware it IS part of the TMNT multiverse & he's just another version of Baxter that exists, the problem is that that's the portrayal of a lot of people associate him with. Mostly because it's the go to screen portrayal for him for some reason, starting off with 1987 all the way to 2016 & it somehow just gets worse & worse with each installment. Yet DC somehow managed to make it way worse because they didn't even bother to put effort into this iteration. He felt lazy from the getgo from his design to dialogue to his overall role in the film. I wasn't expecting him to have a ginormous part or anything like that but I was expecting & hoping he would be more than just a nothing character if you can even call him a character at all considering unlike other versions of Stockman he doesn't even have a character at all. Hell HE doesn't even know what his character is he said it himself more than once in the movie. Which was supposed to be a "funny" gag but why tho? Why make it a gag at all? Why have him do the gag? Unless. He WAS the gag..

I think I also finally know why this particular version of Baxter bothers me the most. And that's because he's Not a Baxter. He's a parody of him. He's just a pathetic fly guy that serves the shredder & because Jeff Goldblum's fly inspired his mutation in the first place they parodied that too. He's literally a TMNT fan's (or non fan) "in a nutshell" parody take on the character & that's why he bothers me so much & why he just left (& still does put) a poor taste in my mouth personally.

[mip-dev-center]

MIP Interactive Scenario 2: The Personality Donor Process

Part 5 (Final) - Your MIP Unit's Activation

[Part 1] <-

???: "Oh! There you are! You don't seem to be able to speak properly just yet, but that's okay! Um... I'm just glad you seem to be able to see and hear me!"

???: "You can hear me, right…?”

This time, you reply more coherently. Something between a “yeah” and an “uh-huh”.

???: "Oh, good! I got really worried for a moment..."

???: "Y'know, I had a pretty rough time with my activation, too, so don't feel bad!"

???: "Um... S-Sorry, let me get back on track... Do you remember your name and designation?"

You tell the being before you that your name is Y██N██Y██N██Y██N██.

???: "N-No, um... Your name, silly!! That's your Donor’s name… Um… Wait, d-did we even get you a name beforehand? Oh, oh voids…"

You tell her your correct name, which is "Ode To The Void".

???: "Oh…! Yes, that works. I mean, um, yes, that’s it! Yay; I'm glad..."

She notes something on her clipboard for a moment and then returns her focus back to you. She smiles.

SLS: "I was worried you wouldn't remember… Um, my name's Starlight Symphony, by the way! I'm MIP_09. Do you remember your ID number?"

You tell her you're MIP_44. Somehow, the knowledge comes to you immediately.

SLS: "Yes!! Yes, you are! We're doing great! Okay, um... Lemme tell you the Mission Statement..."

SLS: "The Mobile Iterator Project is an experimental project heralded by No Cost Too Great, with the stated goal of supporting Iterators in their productivity, maintenance, and longevity, so that they can operate at maximum efficiency, even after the inevitable mass ascension. ‘MIP Units’—mobile iterators under the project—are created puppet-first in the ‘MIP Development Center’ and later assigned to Local Groups, where their structures are built to support the Iterators around them."

SLS: "Uhh, that's you! You're a MIP Unit! And that name you mentioned earlier was your Personality Donor. They gave you their memories and experiences… Um, they're no longer with us, so please cherish those gifts."

There is an awkward silence. You sort of half-process whatever she's saying.

SLS: "So, eventually, you'll get a Local Group, too! And, um, here—"

She motions to the room around her.

"—Is the ‘MIP Development Center’! Um… The full Project Mission Statement is a bit longer, but you can just read that on your own time. It's in your ID drone!"

She points to your ID drone. It seems unfamiliar, and you can faintly recall owning one with a different shape. Or was that your “Donor?”

SLS: "Um... Do you have any questions?"

Despite the presence of far more pressing concerns, you ask SLS if she knows anything about your plush toy. You can't entirely remember what it looks like, but you're certain you had one, and that it was very important to you.

SLS: "Oh... You remember that...?"

SLS: "I-I mean, um... Of course! Plenty of your memories were transferred over from your Donor; we just haven't given you the important ones they decided to save yet, so your Activation wouldn't be so overwhelming, haha..."

She doesn't sound particularly convincing.

SLS: "Um, that does remind me, though..."

Starlight Symphony presents you with a plush toy of some sort of Ice Fairy. You feel an intense connection to the object.

SLS: "Um—Your Donor really wanted you to have this! Th-They, um, had us save this for you...!"

Something stirs beneath your processes. A flash of euphoria, followed by a wave of concern. You ask SLS if Umbra is okay and about what happened to them.

SLS: "Y-You... Remember a lot more than I, um, expected you to, haha..."

You begin to realize that this Unit is terrible at keeping confidentiality.

She stares at you for a moment with a worried expression. Her brow furrows, and then she seems to commit to something.

SLS: "Um.. Well, if you promise to cooperate and not freak out, I'll tell you the truth..."

SLS leans in closer to you, ready to whisper something. It's kind of an adorable gesture, given it's utterly and completely pointless. Whispering isn't going to make a difference in a room under constant surveillance, especially with two security cameras speaking to one another. But, sure, whatever, you guys keep up your little farce.

SLS: "To be honest... Um... W-We're not supposed to keep this kinda stuff... Your Architect displayed a lot of attachment to this item, so it was meant to be used in the, um, Transfer process..."

SLS: "But... Well, Umbra tried to save it anyways, so they, um..."

SLS: "Well, they'll be in trouble when they wake up again... R-Right now, they have to undergo maintenance and stuff because of an accident..."

A well-deserved punishment. They were interfering with the Transfer Process. It's a good thing that the Director is clever enough to come up with solutions on the spot.

SLS: "Well, uh, anyways... Since you seem to be functioning properly, we can help assimilate those data pearls into your system, and then you can keep them in your living quarters at this facility. And you can take them with you once you get assigned to a Local Group!"

You ask SLS what you need to do next.

SLS: "Um... W-Well… Once you're in your living quarters, you can talk to San-Smoothed Reckoning, maybe? He’s the Iterator we're living on! He’s, uh…"

SLS: "Nice."

You can tell she doesn't think particularly highly of him and that she is avoiding giving you a direct answer. You prompt her to finish.

SLS: "...Um, unfortunately, you'll have to be deactivated again… But juuust for a little bit, okay? To make sure everything is 100% perfect! Um, but this time, you should have the rest cycle subroutine running, so it won't be so scary..."

SLS: "Um... Sorry. But if you need help with anything in the future, you can feel free to ask me...! I-I’m an Assistant, so it's my job to help!

You nod.

SLS: "..."

SLS: "Have a good rest..."

You are deactivated.

[SCENARIO END]

---

Author's Notes:

You might notice a pretty stark difference between the first image here and the rest of them... Originally, there was only one image, so I drew more uh... like. As I was transcribing this. I also re-wrote large chunks of the later parts.

This Scenario is... A little atypical, I think. OTTV was activated during a time period in which there was a lot of demand and a lot of activity, so quality control for each particular Unit was a bit spotty. I think 44 was also just... particularly unlucky; this was probably the worst handling they had. They didn't even confirm their Unit's name first! (which was because I hadn't confirmed a name for them yet oops . but yknow instead of shoving that in somewhere earlier I just... incorporated it.) But, like, normally, the whole... idea of direct consciousness transfer is broached pretty early on. If someone doesn't seem into that, and genuinely just wants to copy their personality into an Iterator, they tend to be let go for ethical and practical reasons. The... Method is a little... Less explicit, oftentimes. Volunteers are aware that the Transfer Process is risky and often necessitates Ascension, so they at least go in with the idea that they might be ending their life on the carnal plane. (See Item A on SLS's Log Page! Complimentary Void Fluid Baths are offered to Volunteers.) But... The details of how one is transferred, while present in the Contract, are not oft or readily discussed. It... Depends, really. The Ethics Committee has summoned the Director many a time.

Is 44 canon? Only dubiously. It's... schrödinger's canon, I think. They're a can of worms and a half. Why is YNYNYN's name censored? I was really lazy and didn't want to make one for them. I really do hope 44's Donor's initials are not actually YNYNYN.

I think the scanner design needs to be updated. It's gotta be larger so you can have walls that slide in the interior. (since the interior is filled with void fluid.)

I considered making two separate machines, but... if the samsarite is thick enough, and the machine is being properly maintained, then I think it's fine tbh.

speaking of I still need to make that comic explaining samsarite eventually. maybe I can cheat and make that a series of images instead, too? kinda fun format. sigh. we'll figure it out, surely...

The narration in the later parts was inspired by the sort of prose my friend Viridi writes.

[minis-and-magic]

My Review of All D&D Editions Part I: Original D&D (1974)

I played them all so you don't have to. In honor of THAC0, low scores are better.

Where it all started.

This is the primordial soup that the game we know and love crawled out of to take it's first shaky steps on dry land. The system itself is an eclectic mess delivered in classic Gygaxian prose (read: big fuckoff paragraphs with important game mechanics buried in the middle). It's less a complete game and more of a bolt-on modification for an existing game (Chainmail) which happens to be where you'll find most of the actual combat rules. Considering that the wilderness exploration section of booklet 3 boils down to "Use the rules and map from this 3rd party board game with our house rules", it has the feel of a very enthusiastic homebrew rather then a real product.

This game was made on a shoestring budget and a dream and it shows. The formatting is particularly challenging, even in my "White Box" version which has been revised and cleaned up from the first printings. It should go without saying, but very little love and care is put into the visual design or artwork. Important information is rarely visually emphasized, the tables are cluttered and the order and arrangement of information can cause a serious headache. Do not expect any helpful sidebars or neatly columned spell lists.

That said, the game itself can be pretty enjoyable. It does not feel like what I'd consider the expected D&D experience; it is at it's heart a tabletop wargame more than a roleplaying game. There are few mechanics or opportunities to develop your character outside of combat or sweet *sweet* looting. But even in this earliest iteration you can see the nascent ideas that really defined the game to come. You probably would find the spells, monsters, character races and classes very familiar outside of a few name oddities (Not Fighter... Fighting MAN)

Fuck the dragon entry, blow the art budget on a sultry amazon! -G. Gygax, probably.

Truthfully, its biggest sin is that it doesn't live up to its own direct descendants. All versions of the Basic rules (and their infinite OSR clones) are much simpler and cleaner, AD&D is a far more complete experience and all of them have a much better play experience at the actual table.

All in all I would say it's still playable in this day and age but definitely chore-adjacent. It will almost certainly feel clunky and unintuitive to anyone who grew up playing 3e onward and suffers heavily from a painful lack of streamlining. Later products like Greyhawk massively improve the flow of play, but it is pretty clear that this was an unfinished and unrealized version of the game.

FINAL REVIEW: Chart-a-liciousness: Moderately Chart Heavy Sleaziness: Someone lend her a shirt! Formatting: I had to get my glasses for this one Ease of Play: Hope you have two other out-of-print games FINAL SCORE: 9

[ladyirisreviews]

Final Fantasy 7 - Review

This is the game that got me into trying Final Fantasy games in the first place. It is often regarded as one of the best RPGs of all time and deemed so important by Square Enix that they made the remake trilogy.

It is by far the one Final Fantasy game most people know about, and also the most talked about, and as the contrarian I was back when I heard of it, I had to give it a go, but not without having a big bias against it.

This time I came back to it with an open mind, and while it was way better than what I remembered, I still find issue in people calling it one of the best ever, but more on that later.

The plot is what I criticized the most the first time I played the game, but I have to give a brief summary of it first.

You play as Cloud, an ex-soldier acting as a mercenary for a group called Avalance, an eco-terrorist organization trying to sabotage the energy corporation Shinra, who are using the vital energy of the planet as an energy source, slowly killing it in the process, with more threats popping up along his journey.

I really don't want to go past that because 1) spoilers and 2) the main focus changes so much from one moment to the next it's really hard to make a summary without it being a summary of half of the game.

Overall, I like the theme of the game a lot, it being the preservation of nature, it really drives it home in showing the consequences of excessive industrialization and how not only does it affect nature but also the people.

In the past, I thought the plot was confusing and nonsensical in some parts, and even though it can and does get confusing, it's not nearly as bad as I remembered.

Other than that I do feel like the characters could have used some more work and fleshing out, there's a point where some characters just stop getting lines or have close to no development, the way the game handles the events hurts it too in my opinion, with almost always your benched party members not being present for plot events inside dungeons.

I think the only point where I haven't changed my mind that much is with the main villain, I do still feel like Sephiroth is a bit flat when compared to other characters in the series, it does a good job at being intimidating but it doesn't really go past that for me, which could be said about most antagonists in the series, the antagonists are not the strong point of Final Fantasy games.

But in general, I think the plot works, it has some very good moments, and I only wish there was more dialogue and interactions between the characters, something I think almost all of the games in this series need.

The character design is great, this is probably the best designer job Tetsuya Nomura ever did. Tifa and Aerith both look like archetypes of female characters but their characterization subverts that expectation pretty well, Sephiroth's design is also iconic, it's probably the most visually interesting villain for me this far, after Kefka, though Kefka only applies if you look at this concept art or illustrations.

But the meaty part of this game is the gameplay.

You guessed it, ATB comes back, and it works basically the same as in the previous game, your party size is now 3 characters as opposed to the 4 we had in the past 2 games, probably because of the deep character customization the game offers, but I will explain that later.

The unique addition in this iteration of the battle system is the limit break system.

Every character has a gauge that fills by a small amount every time they suffer damage, and once it's filled the attack button changes into a limit button, which allows you to unleash a very powerful attack, or in some instances, a pretty strong buff for your party.

There's 4 levels of limit breaks, with 2 limit breaks per level, mostly. You can only have one limit break active in a battle for any character, and the way to unlock higher level limit breaks is either to defeat a certain number of enemies or use a limit break multiple times, with the final one being locked behind a sidequest most of the time.

The system is fun, if a little broken in most situations, you are able to carry over the progress of the limit break bar to the next fight, which if it is against a boss, you could wait until all of your party members have their bars full, and then avoid using the limit break until you reach the boss, which is doable if you have magic or special skills equipped to avoid using normal attacks for damage, and then blast the boss with limit breaks, chopping down a big portion of its HP in the process, but the downside is that you stop grinding limit break uses for the next unlock.

But I don't think it is necessary to use that exploit, since I feel like this is one of the easiest games in the series, not including the super bosses, I never really felt like I needed to either change up my strategy or grind.

The other core system in the game is very flexible enough, the materia system, this is what makes the gameplay stand out and at the same time what can make it so easy.

So characters in this game don't have unique characteristics between each other, only their limit breaks, stat spread, which isn't that different from character to character, and whether their weapon is ranged or not, all the skills come from items called materia, which you equip on your weapons and armor, each weapon has materia slots, and they vary from weapon to weapon, with some having paired slots, where some materia can react to each other.

What materia does varies from type to type, represented by a color, green materia allows you to use different types magic, blue materia can be paired with other materia for different effects, yellow materia gives you new commands, purple materia gives buffs or stat increases, and red materia is used to call summons forth.

Equipped materia can also level up, each level unlocking a new spell, strengthening the effect or increasing uses of that materia, it depends on the type. Also, when a materia reaches max level, you get a level 1 copy of the same materia, which is the only way to get more than 1 copy of some rare materia.

This is the most flexible customization system in the series so far, every character is able to do anything as long as you have the materia and enough slots in your equipment, but I do feel like it makes the characters feel not very special.

Having their only unique characteristic be their limit breaks and weapon range, makes it so the best characters just boil down to who can deal the most damage with their limit breaks, and even if every character is viable, allowing you to beat the game with any combination, I wish it was a bit more like Final Fantasy 6, with characters having actions unique to them, on top of the materia system.

But overall, this is a very good game, if I were ranking all of the main Final Fantasy games I would place it right above the middle, personally.

While it has one of the most solid plots so far, it feels very incomplete in the character department, with Final Fantasy 6 being able to explore more than double the characters while also providing them with arcs and different interactions.

While it has one of the most flexible systems, the difficulty is way too low to truly take advantage of it, even with sub-optimal combinations every main boss is very easy, to the point I never felt the need to use attack spells, normal attacks are the fastest way to win almost every time, and with the limit breaks and you being encouraged to use them as much as possible, a lot of fights pose no threat.

If I could change something about the limit breaks, it would be the bar not carrying over between each fight, and instead starting from 0 every time, and changing the conditions to unlock higher level limit breaks, a sidequest or normal level progression would be better than grinding in my opinion.

The gameplay in general is pretty good regardless of my issues with it, but the dungeon design is quite lacking, probably the worst in the series so far, to be clear, they all look very good and memorable, but there's nothing besides going from point A to point B in them, barely any side paths or puzzles.

Something the game does have going for it is that it has quite a lot of memorable places, setpieces, and minigames that break the normal flow of the game, from the presentation of some areas to the density of NPCs and things to explore in some towns, I think out of any Final Fantasy game so far, this one has the best towns, it makes the places feel more real and the NPCs help flesh out the world a bit more.

So while this game does a lot of stuff very well, the moniker of the best RPG ever still bothers me, not because it's not good but because it makes a bunch of people settle for this game and not look beyond what less popular RPGs have to offer.

They might not have as much iconic imagery but there are games with better gameplay, better plot, better characters and so much more, maybe not with everything at the same time but with settling for one game you can't really visualize what a much better game it could have been with small improvements, like adding more dialogue, adding interactions, finishing character arcs, or making dungeons more than pretty hallways.

I understand very well why so many people like this game a lot, but all I want to say is that I wish more people gave more games a chance because while, again, this is still a very good game, people are missing out on a lot of different experiences the RPG genre has to offer.

[angelofthepage]

Okay, so lately I've been seeing a lot of mixed feelings (namely on Twitter) about the announcement of Bendy: Dreams Come to Life getting a graphic novel iteration. There is a LOT to talk about when it comes to this thing, and maybe I'll discuss it more another time, but today I wanna talk about the thing I've been hearing the most: strong feelings about having canonical designs for the human versions of some of our favorite characters.

In Dreams Come to Life, we have physical appearances from the following BATIM characters (that I can remember off the top of my head, I may be missing some):

Joey Drew

Sammy Lawrence

Norman Polk

Thomas Connor

Allison Pendle

Bertrum Piedmont

Wally Franks (this one I'm unsure on, it's been a hot minute)

This means that for the first time, we're gonna know what all of them look like as humans in the minds of the game developers, since, let's be real, if they're doing this thoughtfully, there is likely a lot of communication with the artist they got for this book. Making sure these characters fit their vision is a very probable priority.

In this fandom, we have had the freedom to design whatever the heck we want for the human versions of these characters. And that has been so much fun. You've had all sorts of takes, from characters mirroring their voice actors to completely original things that you never would have expected. Some things would pop up consistently in fan designs, and others would be an occasional pleasant surprise. We've seen a lot of things tweaked over the years, sometimes because we latch onto designs we like from artists we've met in the fandom and incorporate them into our own. Sometimes it's because we get new information in the canon, like Sammy confirmed to be blonde in The Illusion of Living (EDIT: I was extremely wrong on this, he is not confirmed blonde in this book, but he does have long and floppy hair that Joey thought should be slicked back more, and also Jack had some wild fashion), Allison is platinum blonde in DCTL, Wally having a hat as of his YouTube audiolog, Shawn and Tom wearing belts as of Boris and the Dark Survival, Tom being a wall of a man, Bertrum being a bear of a guy, etc. But even before Wally was confirmed to have a hat, a lot of us gave him a hat anyway, because the idea of him with a hat is fun! Bertrum being large, Tom being really tough! Heck, I saw a number of blonde Susies and Allisons before we got that bit on Allison, because it's fun to contrast their looks with that of Alice. That's the spirit of all of this, we make these designs because it's fun! You have characters all across the board in terms of race, sexuality, gender identity, age, body types, etc, because it's fun to imagine the possibilities for all of them with this cast that we love (and sometimes connect with them on a personal level), regardless of what's "canon" or not.

One of the things I'm hearing a lot is that some people don't want canon designs, and it sounds like it stems from a fear that they can't make their own designs anymore. And for those people, I'd like to ask, when has that ever stopped us? I mean that as a genuine question, I'm not here to mock anyone. Like, my first big fandom experience was over with Sonic as a teenager, and I never dreamed of deviating from the canon because I just, did not have any experience with that at the time. Bendy was really good for showing me that there's a LOT of ways the fandom experience can go, especially on this front. When Bendy and the Dark Revival came out, and we got two really major reveals for character designs: Memory Joey and Henry Stein. Henry, a character fans have been designing for YEARS, a character shrouded in mystery, finally got a confirmed design, and you know what happened? We started drawing this new design, but we didn't stop drawing our fan designs just because we got this new one. BATDR Henry has kind of been adopted into the fandom the same way we do designs for AUs, he's just another AU guy that happens to be canon to the sequel game. Heck, I love seeing art where fandom takes on Henry are interacting with BATDR Henry, it's really sweet honestly.

And that's exactly the attitude I have towards this graphic novel. It does not matter how these characters are designed, we are still valid and allowed to make whatever the heck we want. And if people really try to gatekeep it and scream that you're only allowed to draw the canon, I think that says more about them than it does anything else. Go draw what makes you happy (so long as it's not hurting anyone, obviously there is some nuance here but that is a whole other can of worms)! The only thing that this actually changes (or at least, what I'm guessing will change) is what's gonna fly when it comes to stuff like the fan art contests and challenges/what the devs might choose to retweet in terms of fan art. But that's only one part of the fan art scene. Otherwise, go fandom your way! No one is stopping you, draw what makes YOU happy. I am still going to draw a pointy blonde disaster of a music director however I please, even after we see Sammy in canon. Because darn it I like my Sammy, he is my strawberry blonde (depending on the world, sometimes it's more ashy) buffoon, and one new version of a book doesn't change my love for that.

That said, I am really curious how the teams behind this series imagine these characters. I feel the same way about it that I do my fellow fan artists. To me this really is just another AU, the DCTL AU. I think I'm less curious about the game characters and more about the characters native to this book, and that's got more to do with, well, I don't see a lot of people designing them! There's some, but they're not flooding my timeline like the game characters do. Like, I've designed the DCTL art department before for a Sims game, but I haven't gone much farther than that. I wanna know what Abby looks like, give me her fashion! I wanna see Buddy, Dot, and Jacob! I'm still keeping my Jacob design regardless, I love playing with him, but gosh do I wanna know what Jacob looks like in canon. Same with Dot. I have a lot of hopes for both of them, and I'm trying to lower my expectations so as not to be disappointed if it doesn't turn out that way. Like Dot has potential to be our first plus sized Bendy character given how she's described (also the first to wear glasses), of COURSE I want to see that! She's my writer girl that's super sus and incredibly interesting to me personally, I love her! And then I have more information to consider when I go to design my dolls (because believe you me, dolls based on the books have been on my list for a LONG time). I'm curious how much input Adrienne Kress will have here as the author, like I would love to know what's going on in her mind with these characters!

Whatever happens next, the most important thing to remember is that you're free to create whatever you like. Go make things that make you happy. That's all the devs are doing in the end, and if it's good enough for them, it's more than good enough for us. Bendy is made the way it is (hopefully) because that's what they wanted to make. Like why make an indie project that makes you miserable, you know? I don't know what to think of this new graphic novel, but whatever happens, I'm gonna take it with a grain of salt and keep doing what I always do: make my own fun out of what we're given. That's what fandom is, a place to enjoy a piece of media. And everyone enjoys this sort of thing differently. Find what works for you.

[the-eeveekins]

January/February Gunpla

HG Gundam Lfrith Jiu

Certainly a neat design for a Gundam, especially the shell unit making up the face. The kit itself is solid like most G-With builds, but also suffers from those awful C clip ankles. Honestly my biggest issue with the kit is the same one I had with the Calibarn: the clear plastic for the shell units is just too dark, and while that may be more accurate, it unfortunately keeps the colorful permet lines from standing out.

You can, however, flip off people with the big arm.

SDEX Gundam Aerial

My very first SDEX kit, and I'm in love with this little Space Oomfie. From what I've gathered, it's a bit of a step up from previous SDEX kits (the backside is fully designed, even with color correcting stickers), and it looks great sitting on my desk. My only caution is: I spent more time applying stickers to this kit than actually building it, and while it certainly looks good with most of the stickers properly applied, it needs A LOT to reach near color accuracy, and poorly applied stickers can definitely hurt it. If you want to paint it accurately, you're in for a long project.

HG 105 Dagger + Gunbarrel

I've wanted this kit for years, and it finally got a reprint! As a lover of funnels, bits and all manner of remote weaponry, I've always loved the Ganbarrel Striker; it's my favorite of the bunch. The kit itself certainly shows it's age (2004) with basic part design, limited articulation and poor color separation, but the simplicity was almost refeshing after building nothing but modern WFM kits the past year. I had to paint a lot more details than I initially expected, but the results were worth it.

Absolutely in love with the Gunbarrel Striker though, and of course I had to attach it to my favorite OMNI suit, the Windam.

HG Rising Freedom Gundam

Oh, I love it. The body itself is probably my favorite iteration of the Freedom series of Gundams, and if it wasn't for the wing stripes and lack of Dragoons/Wings of Light, it would be my favorite of the Freedom line. The kit itself is well designed, although back wings for the MA mode interfere with the wing articulation. 90% of those stickers are for the backpack (and the rest are basically for the gun), and if you don't intend on transforming it, they can be pretty safely ignored. I think it looks WAY better without the white stripes on the wings.

[thatfrenchacademic]

do you have any advice for someone going into writing their bachelor's thesis? I'm having trouble pinning down a topic that seems manageable.

Hello!

This will be highly field dependent, so my advice will be most relevant for social sciences and humanities - anyone from STEM, fell free to chip in as well!

Let's see, if a student came in at office hours and asked me this, I would probably break it down like this :

Get familiar with the expectations

A thesis the first big, semi-independent work you will have to conduct, so it's uncharted territory. Get rid of the anxiety by looking again, and again, and again, at any guidelines set by your course director, school, college. How long is it supposed to be ? Is there a set structure ? Is there a first draft due before the final draft ?

Look at dissertation from previous years! Ideally, find at least 3 so you can have an idea of how diverse the work can be.

2. Talk to your supervisor

And don't bullshit your way into impressing them. If you are absolutely lost - tell them. If you already have an idea - tell them. If you hesitate before three topics - tell them. That first meeting is where you lay down all the ground work. In all likelihood your supervisor barely knows you, so give them something to work with !They want you to do well!

3. Start broad, then narrow it down, narrow it down, narrow it down

"Pinning down a topic" is an iterative process, but the good part is that it's also an introspective one, in my opinion. It's the art of peeling back layers to figure out what, EXACTLY, is it that you want to know.

For example: let's say you want to broadly talk about accessibility in higher education. Ok, great ! But what exactly, is it that makes it interesting to you ? Have a sit down with yourself. Are you wondering how higher education defines disability ? Or is it about how disability impacts entrance into higher education ? Or specifically access to teaching resources ? It could be about the architecture and physical design of campus spaces, or it could be about the lived experience of disabled students ?

Some of these you will not be that interested in, some of them you are interested in but not in an "academic" sense, ... so you can start to narrow it down. Some you may already have a vague answer in your mind, so then you play the three year old toddler with your self, by asking "but why", "but why" until you feel like you have reached the real crux of the issue.

Throughout this process, you can 1) take peaks are the relevant literature to help you move the thought process along and 2) talk with your supervisor so they can steer you in a productive direction.

Because...

4. You are looking for a Good Bachelors Dissertation Now (TM).

Broadly this is what you want to keep in mind :

A good bachelors dissertation for you, with this supervisor is not a good PhD dissertation, not a dissertation that would be great with another supervisor, not a dissertation that doesn't fit your degree... It is good in its context, and that context is :

you + your supervisor + now

Don't feel disappointed or frustrated if you are steered in a slightly different direction - it may be one where your supervisor can actually help you better. Or if you are asked to downscale or scope down: better a narrower dissertation where all is properly covered than a too ambitious one that you will not able to carry out properly give the limits of the format.

Hope that helps!

[spotsupstuff]

How is Spore in off-the-strings au? (post asendtion)

worse but also better- so Orion and her got somewhat a little bit together again sometime after the MA, but not really to the same distance as what they used to be. like they don't chat daily, Spore is still sorta kinda uncomfy and restless while speaking to him, she would rather listen and trust Gem n Expiation than him. that sorta stuff

but well, this is their positioning on the map (Expiation is right southeast from the Root)

so whether she wants it or not, the Iterator who will come collect her is Orion

not that she actually Knows what's happening at all. her comms are kinda spotty so she doesn't get the broadcast that Boreas sends into the group disclosing that what's happening (puppets getting loose off of the umbilical arms and retaining consciousness) is a group-wide thing and that everyone shall make their way to the Root (with outer rim Iterators goin first n slowly collecting others along the way). Spore just sorta gets separated from her Hivemind, falls off her umbilical arm and is So shaken up from that separation that she can't move from where she fell and doesn't know how to deal with this. so she's just terrified

then Orion makes it to her and the funny interpretation of the scene is this

and the serious sad interpretation is that he cuts his way through the shroom forest to her structure, climbs all the way up and finally makes it into her chamber and finds her curled into a ball and shaking in absolute primal fear

he slowly comes to her, announcing his presence and she gets both spooked and relieved by it. she had No idea someone was coming. she is So happy to see anyone at all that any bad feels she had against Orion get thrown out of the window and the moment he kneels next to her, she forces herself up, legs limp, and just nose dives into his chest

so they just sorta sit there for a long while, Orion hugging and comforting her to the best of his ability. he then explains things to her, that this disconnect is happening to everyone and that they are expected to meet up at the Aeolus Root

the next cycle they set off on the road, with Ori carrying her on his back since she doesn't know how to walk yet. he helps her learn whenever it's safe to stop and they always sleep in shelters cuddled up together. there is still a blaring pain of loneliness in Spore's mind, right there where her existence as a Hivemind without an Individuality is supposed to be, but her elder brother hugs her tightly and warmly and it's not so bad like it was back in her chamber

this build up closeness on their journey to the Root is why they!

almost constantly stick together in the Root's village n don't have issues sassing each other. they get back to being close siblings, even though both of them are different than they used to be Orion should be technically within the Root with Boreas as the "second in command" while Spore should stay in the house they designated med centre, but Orion doesn't really give much shit about the shoulds when Spore is on the line anymore

anyway, Sparrows arrival made Spore happier! she gets to have a patient again!!!! she adores taking care of her and is honestly willing to come between Spars n Boreas to keep her safe. it feels like having a purpose again

but she's also worst off because Gem n Expiation are hanging around and ofc Gem won't let up on her manipulative bullshit and even when Ori tries to talk Spore out of staying friends with them, he fails cuz Spore is still desperate for companionship

then also she's still infected by the fungi. Sparrows as a Mechanic offers to take care of her and rid her of all that, but again. Spore doesn't want to be alone. so she says no and disregards any logical factual reasoning Sparrows brings up. ofc one day this will be solved and Spore gets cured while staying safe from isolation, but yeah

[bitchfitch]

Idk, I want to talk about Lino's prosthetic.

He gets his first while in The Sun. the Leader gives it to him to 'celebrate' his birthday. Lino doesn't know when his birthday is, no one in the corona knows theirs because it was seen as outlandish and wasteful to celebrate oneself like that. That was what the Leader said when they were banned soon after the Sun formed. But the prosthetic .

The implants were put in too early. Lino is still fighting the same infection he got from his crush wounds not being treated right. A less obedient doctor would have taken one look at his femur and say they need to remove the whole thing if they're ever going to make a functioning prosthetic for him. The implants hurt. The bone they're supported by is weak and they're too heavy for someone Lino's size.

The leg itself was even worse. It was a perfect mirror of his other. It was warm to the touch and the skin felt real and it could move like it was flesh and bone instead of metal and silicone. He even had some sensation of touch through it. But it was so extremely heavy, and his implants so poorly done that using it was agony. It would twist his hips with every step and make him stand with his entire weight on the other. It looked perfect though and that was the point. It wasn't meant to make Lino able to walk again. It was meant to make him 'perfect' again. The fact it gave the Leader an excuse to remove Lino's chair from the picture and trap him more fully where he was needed for the image the Leader was trying to project was just an accidental benefit.

after he escapes back to the bunker Lino takes the leg apart piece by piece. Cannibalizing what he wants and discarding the rest. He's a tinkerer at heart. He has no formal training but he's gotten enough machines apart and put back together that he can reverse engineer the contraption. His first version is barely better than the original. Hes still trying to make it look like a leg and wasting a lot of weight to do so. His second is better, it's all skeletonized aluminum but still too heavy. his third, fourth, eighth, they all have problems. but each iteration gets closer and closer to what he needs.

until he finally has it. He still calls it a prototype, because he doesn't expect it to work so well. It's light, its cuff is designed so that the meat of his thigh takes some of the weight when stepping and standing so his implants don't have to do so much work. He wires up the touch sensors to help deal with the phantom pains, and the heater so he could still go outside in the winter without it getting unbearably cold where it meets his leg. It's an ugly, purely functional thing and he loves it so much more than the perfect leg he had been given.

[the-tzarina-alexandra-paracosm]

Some of my favourite art - a timeline

Part 2: 2010-2012

Cca. 2011 (aged 10). Mario fanart. This was my main fandom at that age. We can see the very first iteration of my signature (Alexandra D.* except with a drawn 5-point-star. I later simplified the design but otherwise kept the signature ever since).

2011 ish. Adventure Time fanart.

Mia and me fanart (does anybody else remember that show haha?). Cca. 2012

Mid-late 2012. Mario and Final Fantasy fanart. I was introduced to FF via the Mario Hoops game illustrated in the very first pic.

Late 2012. Final Fantasy I fanart.

Late 2012 or very early 2013. Final Fantasy XI fanart. One of the first documented attempts at drawing in an anime style, which will henceforth be the main influence of my artstyle for the next few years.

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The main characteristics of this era are big heads contrasted with thin bodies and limbs. The eyes are at first simple ovals but eventually transition to an anime style. Bright colours but mostly in pencil this time; much smoother and intentional colouring than the previous years. More diverse facial expressions and poses than before, but still with significant anatomy mistakes.

From a more meta point of view, the most significant aspects of this era are 1. The development of my personal signature and 2. The intentional archiving of my art, as can be seen by the numbering system. Whereas around my tween years I had started to get extremely self-conscious about my art and threw a good chunk of it away on a whim because I didn't like it anymore, by the time I was about 11 ½ ish I developed a sense for the necessity of art preservation. Thus I stopped throwing old art away (and if I really hated half a drawing but loved another part I cropped it, hence why so many pieces of paper are visibly cut up). I was eventually very sorry that I had ever thrown out any art. While these are some well-preserved pieces, this timeframe is actually a lost media era of my art because of the sheer amount I disposed of, have away, or didn't put effort into keeping in a safe place. The first lost media era being ofc my earliest childhood drawings, which, ironically, were much more well preserved than my tween era drawings, but at some point we were no longer able to locate the box with my oldest stuff. One day I hope to find it again. I cannot say the same about my tween art, most of which I actively destroyed. This has been a harsh lesson I had to learn, and I urge any young artist to not fall into this trap, no matter how "cringe" you may think your art is. Having learned this lesson, starting around early 2013, I started keeping my drawings in a box and indexing them (hence the numbers. #4 means it was one of the very first drawings I preserved and a very recent one at the time of establishing my personal drawing box). I'm currently almost at 3000 if not already having passed that threshold. That's 3k pictures in a 12 year timeframe. And I'm sure that if I had never lost any piece of my art ever, the lifetime number of drawings would be double that.

So if you, especially if you're a young artist, ever feel insecure, please don't throw away or destroy your art! And remember that progress takes time. I'm showing my favourite drawings across the years but please remember that it took my entire life + thousands of drawings worth of practice to reach my current level. Don't compare yourself to other artists, your art is worth keeping around even if not yet to the level you expect.