#hire visual basic developers

[softwarefrim]

Hire VB.NET Developers

YES IT Labs provides professional VB.NET developers to meet your app development needs. Hire VB.NET Developers now and transform your business!

[lifeinacartoon]

CREATING AUTHENTIC DEAF AND HARD OF HEARING CHARACTERS: A WRITER'S JOURNAL

Introduction

Creating authentic characters in your writing is essential for engaging storytelling, and this includes characters who are deaf or hard of hearing. To craft a character that accurately represents this community, it's crucial to do your research, gain a deep understanding of their experiences, and portray them with sensitivity and respect. In this journal, we'll explore how to write a deaf or hard-of-hearing character, including key information and preparation steps.

Understanding Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Characters

Research: Start by researching deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals' experiences, challenges, and culture. Read books, articles, and personal stories, and watch documentaries or interviews featuring members of the Deaf community.

Consult with Experts: Reach out to members of the Deaf community or experts in Deaf studies to gain insights into their experiences. They can provide invaluable guidance and help you avoid common misconceptions.

Diversity Within the Community: Understand that the Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities are diverse. Some individuals communicate using sign language, while others rely on lip-reading, cochlear implants, or hearing aids. Be aware of these differences when creating your character.

Character Development

Backstory and Identity: Consider your character's background. Were they born deaf, or did they become deaf later in life? How do they identify within the Deaf community? Understanding their identity and experiences will shape their character.

Language and Communication: Decide how your character communicates. Are they fluent in sign language, or do they primarily rely on lip-reading and spoken language? Their communication style will influence their interactions with other characters.

Cultural Awareness: Explore the cultural aspects of the Deaf community. Understand the importance of Deaf culture, including its history, art, and values. Incorporate these elements into your character's life when relevant.

Writing Tips

Dialogue and Communication: When writing dialogue for a deaf or hard-of-hearing character, be mindful of their unique communication style. Use visual cues, body language, and facial expressions to convey emotions and context.

Access to Information: Consider the challenges your character may face in accessing information. This could involve issues with closed captioning, subtitles, or accommodations in educational or work settings.

Social Interactions: Depict social interactions realistically. Show how your character navigates conversations, group dynamics, and social events within their community and with hearing individuals.

Preparation

Sensitivity Readers: Consider hiring sensitivity readers who are part of the Deaf or hard-of-hearing community to review your work and provide feedback. Their insights can help you avoid stereotypes and inaccuracies.

Learn Sign Language: If your character uses sign language, take the time to learn at least basic signs. This will not only enrich your writing but also demonstrate your commitment to accuracy.

Beta Readers: Seek feedback from a diverse group of beta readers who can assess the authenticity of your character and offer constructive criticism.

Engage with the Community: Attend Deaf community events, workshops, or online forums to immerse yourself in the culture and better understand the perspectives and experiences of deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals.

Creating a deaf or hard-of-hearing character that resonates with readers requires dedication, empathy, and thorough research. By following these steps and embracing the rich culture and diversity of the Deaf community, you can create a character that is not only authentic but also promotes understanding and inclusivity in your writing. In addition, when writing dialogue for your deaf or hard-of-hearing character, remember:

It's important to clarify why, when writing dialogue for a deaf character, you should continue to use structured English grammar and not sign language structured grammar.

Maintaining Structured English Grammar:

Readability: Writing in structured English grammar ensures that the text remains accessible and comprehensible to all readers, including those who may not be familiar with sign language or Deaf culture. It avoids potential confusion that could arise from using sign language grammar in written text.

Universal Understanding: English is a global language, and adhering to its grammar rules allows for a wider audience to understand and engage with your story. Sign language grammar varies between different sign languages, making it less universally applicable in written form.

Respect for the Medium: While sign language is a rich and expressive mode of communication, it is primarily a visual and gestural language. Attempting to replicate sign language grammar in written text can be cumbersome and may not fully capture the nuances of sign language communication.

Balance of Realism and Readability: Striking a balance between authenticity and readability is crucial in storytelling. Maintaining structured English grammar while depicting a deaf character's interactions helps convey the character's experience without compromising the reader's ability to follow the narrative.

As an illustration, consider the following text: Dialogues with Descriptive Sign Language:

Sarah greeted John with a warm smile, her hands moving gracefully as she signed, "Hi, how are you?"

John returned the greeting in sign language, his expressions mirroring his words. "I'm good, thanks. Did you see the new movie?"

Sarah's eyes lit up as she signed back enthusiastically, "Yes, I loved it!"

In summary, using structured English grammar when writing dialogue for a deaf character is a practical and respectful choice that ensures your writing remains inclusive and accessible to a broad audience while still authentically representing the character's identity and experiences.

Furthermore, it's essential to avoid creating a character who is overly perfect or one-dimensional. In real life, we understand that everyone has imperfections and complexities, regardless of whether they are deaf or hard of hearing. Therefore, it's entirely acceptable to depict your character as a villain with a hearing issue if that aligns with your storytelling goals.

[nanowrimo]

5 Techniques to Help You Write Your Novel

Every writing project is unique, and the methods that help you draft one novel may not work for another. If you’re getting started on a brand new project this Camp, NaNo Guest Vee James has some suggestions for different techniques to help you explore your story. It took a few NaNos before I realized I was developing different techniques each time I sat down to the challenge. I think we all do this naturally, but it helps to step back and observe the process. If you’re strictly a pantster, you’ve been working on the story ideas in your head. If you’re a planner, you’ve set to paper the story concepts, characters, and an outline of what you are about to produce on paper. Some people take a hybrid approach to NaNo. Granted, the basics remain the same: butt in chair, accomplish the hourly/daily goal, and allow yourself to tell your story.

I discovered that each unique novel presented particular challenges, and I had to adapt my style and writing techniques in order to explore the story and keep the production happening. Some of these came from writing instructors and wonderful podcasters. Some came from “how to write” seminars and workshops. Others grew out of a feverish search for “more words.”

Here are five techniques I’ve found that helped me advance writing projects:

1. Research

It was a surprise to me to discover the concept of researching for fiction. I initially thought, “Just make something up.” But there are so many ways to broaden your approach. Plumb your memory, take a course in something related to the story, talk to an expert, and ask lots of questions. You could even become like the character in order to feel what they feel. If you’re writing a western, go ride a horse.

2. Write Scenes Out of Order

If you have a premise, you’ve already got scenes in your mind. Don’t wait until you get to chapter 18. Write that scene now. You can always revise it when you catch up to that point and it gives you something to develop toward. To expand on this technique, when you’ve written the scene, ask yourself, “What happened just before this?” or “What does this scene lead to?”

3. Put disparate characters together and have them have a conversation

Often, we write secondary characters who take a more subdued role in the plot. But what would happen if your protagonist’s best friend had a conversation with the main antagonist? Or if the antagonist’s agent of destruction came upon the protagonist’s love interest? In my experience, these conversations frequently produce more depth in your secondary characters and almost always it’s something you weren’t expecting.

4. Play with Genre Tropes

What have you chosen to write? Urban fiction? SciFi? Fantasy? You already know what your reader expects you to write, and what the plot ahead holds for them. How can you twist it? Sometimes the simplest thing you mentioned in chapter one can be the linchpin of a great plot twist.

5. Study Film

It’s no accident that some of the most astounding stories have been told through film. Quite simply, movie companies invest heavily in every aspect of their production and hire some of the best writers around. Yes, it’s a visual medium and has some advantages over prose. But the main lesson with movies is in the structure of the stories they tell. Here’s a good example: when I was writing a fairytale novel, I wanted to stay true to the classic story structure. One afternoon I was watching the comedy, Galaxy Quest, taking careful notes on the structure. I realized the story structure mapped very closely to what I was doing in the fairytale. It was comforting to see this, and it also gave me some ideas on how to approach the ending.

Most importantly: NaNoWriMo is a thrilling if exhaustive experience, and I urge you to immerse yourself in it completely. Write with utter abandon, delve deep for concepts that will give you the next 2000 words, and try new things like you’re a Mad Scientist in a hurry. We all know that what you end up with is a messy creation. But you will find you have given yourself a great gift.

Vee James is a cross-genre author who loves to write comedies, fairytales, and YA supernatural. He participated in NaNoWriMo for ten years in a row, writing over a half-million words, and it led to nine NaNo novels plus two more non-NaNos. Out of this work, he’s published four novels, with a fifth nearing completion. If interested, visit his site at www.veejames.com and leave a message. He loves to talk to writers of all kinds. Vee's photo by A. Roger Hammons Photo by Daniel Álvasd on Unsplash

[artistic-izzy-multifandom]

Izzy's Heavily Improvised Essay on Bambi 2

(to folks who follow me for other stuff, I apologize right ahead of time, just doing my "multifandom" name justice XD)

Okay y’all, bear with me, this was written in the heat of the moment and therefore I might go around in tangents. I’ve been dying to write this essay thingy for months actually, but I kept chickening out when I went to try and just do it. And it was also inspired by Wreckham’s own Bambi post that I saw a while ago, so uh... Yeah.

(also this mainly features my opinions, don't take them as facts >_<)

So, starting things off with this:

It shall be no secret that I’m an avid fan of the Bambi movies (more the second than the first, but we’ll get to that in a bit). 

It’s no surprise that visually speaking, Bambi is a spectacle from beginning to end, on top of having a beautiful soundtrack and a fascinating way of being the closest thing to an animated documentary with its environments.

However, it comes with the price of... Well, lacking a concrete plot. And by that I mean outside of just showcasing Bambi’s life from birth to adulthood. Not to say there’s no value in that, but I reckon it’s not the kind of movie lots of people nowadays would just want to watch multiple times in a row.

(plus considering how much of the novel’s plot they cut out when adapting it to the screens… That’s a can of worms for another day)

Yes, even I, the avid fan, will admit this flaw in the storytelling. And it’s a big reason why I maintain my statement on loving the second movie more than the first.

And oh where do I begin?

Namely how its plot is basically about the time that happened between Bambi’s Mother’s death and the scene with all those cheery singing birds — in other words, the period in which Bambi was raised by his father, the Great Prince of the Forest.

While animation’s changed significantly (given that, y’know, 64 years apart) and also different voice actors were hired for the characters (again, 64 years), I will come here and say that visually the movie did the original justice, and did it in spades!

Plot-wise? On one hand, there’s more dialogue and the humor is a bit more targeted for younger audiences, which in fairness will put off some who are more inclined towards the original.

On the other hand, the movie is also not afraid to explore some darker subjects, some indirectly (like the whole aspect of grief both for Bambi and his father and their respective ways of dealing with it), and some directly (such as the entire Deer Call scene).

And the fact that unlike the first movie, the characters here are more fleshed out, the main highlight of that is none other than the Great Prince himself; in the first movie he... Didn’t have nearly enough screentime or lines to justify his status as protector of the Forest, at best he was a minor character given too much importance, and at worst he was a living prop.

In the second? He’s the second main focus of the story, with a whole character development arc on how to be a father to Bambi despite his belief in tradition (aka the whole “the does care for the young” thing). In fact, I think I should dedicate this part of the essay on his character, shall we? Because years of rewatching the movie made me think a lot of things regarding him (which I don’t see many or even anyone talk enough about):

If we’re gonna think about it, we never really get to know the Great Prince too deeply prior to his mate’s death. Everything we do know about him personality-wise came afterwards, at a time when he had to look after Bambi while also looking after the Forest as a whole.

It’s incredibly easy to label him as a jerk and a deadbeat father when one fails to consider a few things:

1- His mate died, and given the timeframe, the Prince was unable to reach both her and Bambi in time before Man shot her; made worse when you remember that in the first movie he was able to save them both from Man. Literally, at the beginning of the second movie, one of the first expressions we see from him is sadness. Wouldn’t you think he was feeling not just grief, but guilt too?

2- He was left to raise his son alone, at one of the harshest points of wintertime, and only asked Friend Owl to find a doe because the owl offered some help in the first place; recalling the tradition thing, the Prince had no experience with children whatsoever, can you blame him for being baffled at the idea of him raising his son at first?

3- He’s the protector of a whole forest. That’s like, hundreds and hundreds of lives he’s dedicated to keep safe from Man at all times every single day, hundreds and hundreds of animals depending on him to not get shot. Even if he’s experienced at what he does, that’s still a huge pressure onto a single individual, and the fact that he can’t always save everyone every time Man is in the woods.

And a bonus: forget his status as the Great Prince of the Forest for a moment, and what do you have? A stag who lost his mate (whom he genuinely loved) and is left to raise their son entirely on his own.

If I were to guess, I’d say the Great Prince was far more serene prior to the tragedy; still a recluse, what with being the protector of the woods and then some, but less stern in general.

Everything we see of him before the completion of his character development, is him trying to make do with something that was out of his control and dealing with its consequences. (there’s a reason why ‘Parents as People’ is a trope, y’know)

Hell, it was all but stated that even before he became more open towards Bambi and embraced his role as a parent, he already cared about his son in his own way. I’m under the belief that he’s always been capable of raising him, all he needed was some time (and a bit of a nudge from Bambi himself at points).

Plus he was already regretting the whole “new mother to Bambi” plan and intending on calling it off by the time Friend Owl brought Mena, he only went through with it anyway because he thought he screwed things up with Bambi for good - btw I do not blame Bambi for being mad, poor guy’s spent most of the movie trying to impress his dad and taking every lesson to heart, only to find out about the arrangement at the worst time possible.

On another tangent, I feel like one aspect that’s often overlooked is how both Bambi and his father reacted to going through with the arrangement:

By the time Bambi was going to leave with Mena, he wasn’t even mad anymore, just downtrodden and upset that he wouldn’t get to see his friends as often, but otherwise resigned and accepting that it’s what he should be doing. Putting up a brave facade all the while, much like the Great Prince himself.

Same for the latter, he was trying to keep his regal facade up as well and insisting that “a Prince does sacrifices” - he was mostly talking about himself, having to give his son up so he’s raised by someone better than the Prince.

And let’s get one fact clear before heading to a main point in this essay: although Bambi did get mad at his father (down to even wishing his mother was there instead of him), he was far more upset at being separated from him and not getting to see him as often, and it’s made obvious he regretted yelling those words at his father.

Otherwise, Bambi wouldn’t have rushed back to nuzzle him goodbye, wouldn’t have thought of retaliating against Ronno when the latter taunted him about being “given away” due to his father “being ashamed of him”. And he certainly wouldn’t have run to another cliff to meet his dad after defeating the last of Man’s dogs.

In fact I more than believe that they would’ve reconciled on the spot as soon as they saw each other again, which was what likely gonna happen after Bambi saved Mena and got rid of all the dogs.

But then the cliff scene happened.

(aka one of my favorite scenes in the whole movie, and yes I will defend it right now)

Now, I can see why a good bunch of people hate that scene (namely the whole Disney Death thing), but allow me to say that it’s in the movie for a reason, and it’s not to trick the audience into thinking Bambi did die from the fall.

It’s to showcase the Great Prince’s character arc coming to fruition.

Remember when I said that the Prince did love Bambi in his own way despite not knowing anything about raising children? This is the scene where he finally realized just how much he did care all along, shedding away his “prince does/does not” mentality for good. Realizing that Bambi needed him as a father

There's so much that goes unsaid in the scene.

How the Prince’s voice nearly breaks when urging Bambi to get up, him saying “A Prince does not...” but never finishing it. What was he going to say? We don’t know, and that’s the point. Maybe even he didn’t know, maybe it was said out of reflex.

How he gets down and looks at his (seemingly) dead son before nuzzling him, keeping him as close as he could, and crying.

This all makes it more meaningful when Bambi does wake up and calls him Dad for the first time, showcasing how far their bond has gone and developed.

I believe, among other things, that the scene (and perhaps counting the dog chase as well) was also meant to be a mirror/parallel to the dream sequence from earlier in the movie. But that’s perhaps an essay for another day!

So, in conclusion… I swear I’m 100% normal about this movie, I totally did not spend days on end trying to make this improv essay as cohesive as possible-

[essay ends here, roll credits]

[chattercap]

hi chattercap!! :D

i absolutely LOVE your visual novels so much. i've played mindmindmind, karamu and kanau, and all of them were spectacular. as a new game dev your work is extremely inspiring and it truly makes me wanna keep going and get better at game development, story writing and art, so thank you for all that you do! <3

i wanted to ask if you've shared your process for hiring voice talent for your games. the visual novel i'm working on right now is extremely reading heavy, and i think it would be much more enhanced if voice over was added at some point. the vas you have in your visual novels are so talented, and i was wondering how you discovered them/hired them! if you don't feel comfortable sharing this process, that's okay! to be honest, any tips that you have at all for a new visual novel game developer is appreciated :)))

again, thanks so much for putting out such great work. keep it up and i'll definitely be playing your future projects! <33

Hello sugarrchaii!!

GOSH you're too kind 😭 I still have quite a long way to go as a dev myself but it makes me so happy to know there are other new devs looking up to my work 🥹 I know that you'll do FANTASTICALLY, I'm rooting for you!!

And of course, I don't mind at all!! (I asked around and got a lot of help from kind developers when I was first doing VA, in fact!) I basically looked for VAs on Twitter/X, as well as Casting Call Club. Most of the people I eventually worked with were from Twitter/X, but people on CCC are quite talented as well! Admittedly I did this before the Twitter/X exodus, but I do know a lot of VAs are on Bluesky now.

You can see an example of the post here:

Here's an example of the most recent casting call that I posted! It has most of the basic information you should include in a CC (project info, compensation, timeline, expected workload, etc.)

I found it particularly useful to have people fill out a Google Form rather than emailing auditions since it made things a lot easier to organize, especially if you're fielding hundreds of auditions! And, of course, if you're paying VAs, make sure to include the details as well. There are a lot of talented VAs who are willing to work with a wide variety of workloads and budgets, just make sure to be clear in your CC!

In terms of reviewing VAs, I typically do a pass for audio quality (make sure to listen on high for noise or things like that, and make sure you can clean up the lines of the VAs you hire), then another for "character fit," and then another for emotional range. I would also make sure that your VA read your CC and properly included all the information you asked for, just to see if they'll be a good person to work with.

And lastly, I try to make sure that I have a script ready for my VAs by the time my CC ends, so they're not waiting too long for it!

I think that about covers how I generally go about casting, but if you have any more questions, feel free to email at chattercap@gmail.com, or reach out on Discord (chattercap)!

[askagamedev]

Hello. Do you think having a game programming YouTube channel can be useful as a portfolio? Like recreating game mechanics from existing games or creating new ones, and explaining my thoughts and decisions through the videos. Similar to Artstation for artists, but in this case for programming.

I do like the idea of having an online portfolio where a candidate can showcase their skills, but I am not sure that a youtube channel is the ideal platform for it. I can see good gains to be had from doing so, but there are also non-trivial drawbacks. I'll explain what I mean.

First, doing personal game development projects earns top marks. There's no better way to stand out as a candidate than to have experience doing that work already and game development is no exception. Show us that you can do the job by doing similar work. Earning experience as an amateur will translate to leveling up as a professional.

Second, there's definitely a lot of benefit to practicing communication skills which you get from posting for public consumption. My own personal ability to communicate has improved significantly since I began this blog. The regular practice of posting to the blog has honed my skill at taking difficult, technical, and/or complex concepts and conveying them in an intuitive and understandable way. These are extremely helpful skills in a professional setting, especially when communicating with others who are not versed in the technical or design context.

There are also two drawbacks I see here.

The first drawback is in the choice of platform. Video production is extremely time-consuming - at the very least you will need to record the needed footage, write and record the commentary, add any needed visual bits (e.g. intro, outro, key art, transitions, etc.) and (most time-consuming of all) edit each video together. Most of these skills are not directly transferable to game development and are the primary reason I decided against going the Youtube route for myself.

The second drawback is in the public-facing nature of posting your work. If you get hired by a game company, you will become a corporate representative to the players of that company's games 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Your personal public posts will likely be read and dissected by the game's fans and used as potential ammunition against your employer. It is not abnormal for public blogs and the like to need shutting down (either temporarily or permanently) once you get hired. It may become a legal liability and that's not something you want to deal with while juggling a full-time job. I avoid this by staying anonymous but it's a double-edged sword - I must also forgo the benefit of having a public portfolio that I can show to potential employers.

That's basically the rundown. There's a lot to be gained from doing personal game dev work and posting it publicly, but you don't need to go all or nothing. There are really good skills you will develop by doing so, but you should absolutely be mindful of the major drawbacks of doing so in a public venue. I would encourage you to consider these issues and find a solution that you think will work best for you.

[Join us on Discord] and/or [Support us on Patreon]

Got a burning question you want answered?

Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter

Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr

Frequent Questions: The FAQ

[alquido]

JOJOLands Theory: A Case for Acca Howler as Part 9's Main Villain

Chapter 21 of Part 9 (and every chapter release in general) has changed my brain chemistry and I need to talk about it desperately

Spoilers for The JOJOLands Chapter 21 (and all JoJo parts) below the cut!

Howler as a Budding Villain

As of JOJOLands chapter 21, Acca Howler has had a very interesting yet not very impressive showing for the audience. He's nothing like any other JoJo antagonists, even the secondary mid-part antagonists.

He lacks the imposive and authoritative aura that the others have. In fact, he appears more like a naive and spoiled brat (fun fact: he is older than Pucci). He does not remember who he's hired to do his bidding, and seems to have even less backbone than his subordinates (compare this to the likes of DIO and Diavolo, who incited loyalty and struck fear into their underlings). Key West has to basically tell him "stop being a little wimp and lock in, you're supposed to be the final boss."

Howler's introduction is also him being instantly put on the backfoot from the main gang's actions. Compare this to the introductions of any part's major antagonists; even one of the less intimidating villains like Red Hot Chili Pepper from Part 4 immediately killed Keicho, showing him as a force to be reckoned with.

Right now, Howler is a manchild who is already folding under the first bit of pressure from the protagonists. He is not worthy of the title of main part villain; he's barely even worthy of being a mid-part antagonist. By the end of the story, however, I believe he will certainly be one of the two. He just has too much backstory and importance just for him to be discarded within the next few arcs.

Howler will need to go through a lot of pains and trials, but I think he still has strong potential to become Part 9's main villain. Araki's plans for Jodio involve his "journey of growth" into the more heroic figure of a Joestar from his current state as a "scumbag". Howler could develop in parallel with him to become worthy of the status of "Final Boss".

Howler with an ACT Stand?

To complement a possible character development arc for Howler, it would be perfect for him to have an evolving Stand; specifically, an ACT stand.

ACT Stands have historically been used in JoJo to demonstrate major character growth over time in their users. Both Koichi and Johnny started out weak-willed at the beginning of their parts compared to their Stand user contemporaries, but by the end become among the bravest and most selfless of them.

I believe that Howler, as of now, has too weak of a will to be the owner of a powerful Stand. That may be why it only manifested partially in chapter 17 in response to his strong emotions (like Koichi in early Part 4 summoning egg Echoes).

It will take a massive turnaround on Howler's part if he has to turn from a manchild to someone who can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with villains like DIO. Not only would Howler having an ACT Stand be the perfect way to visualize that development, it would also serve to continously raise the stakes for our protagonists.

SpeKculation for Howler's Stand Name

What name Howler's Stand will have is unpredictable. It could be a King Crimson (KC) song since Howler is a reference to them, but Part 9 has been 50/50 so far with character's names matching musical references with their Stands.

(honestly this section is partly me coping for another KC reference and mostly an excuse for me to talk about KC lmao)

King Crimson's 80s era released a trilogy of albums, the first two of which have already been referenced in Part 9 (Matte Kudasai from Discipline and The Howler from Beat). Thus it stands to reason to complete the trilogy of references with the third album: Three of a Perfect Pair. There are two JOJOLands theory videos by BatuTetric (1 and 2) that talk more about this; they are interesting and I recommend that any Part 9 fans watch them.

On that third album is the track Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part 3, the third installment in a five-part series of songs spread out over KC's discography. It would be a great name for an evolving Stand, going from Part 1 all the way to Level Five.

This additional fact may just be a funny coincidence, but Howler also does seem to have an obsession with feeding himself and his flight attendants/lovers fancy dashi stock (broth). Aspic is broth set into a gelatinous form (usually with other foods placed inside it). The name Larks' Tongues in Aspic evokes the vibes of some exotic and expensive dish, which seems like the type of name that a rich brat like Howler would pick.

[hatedmaggot]

hello hate been think bout ur ocs . any lore u wanna share? i just like em a lot

GRAH. this is hard to answer bc theyr hard to sum up.. i have my main most developed ocs; budgie, reneta & lion.. aannndd my fav oc group; aksel, jørgen, wolfgang, szlomo, erik & thomas. theyr a 2nd wave inspired black metal group..

icant rlly casually explain budgie n reneta so uhh,

aksel started his band, behead, with jørgen & wolfgang joined shortly after bc he's real close w jørgen since she's multilingual n translates for him all the time. wolfie only speaks german n vaguely understands some norwegian. not long into the band wolfie gets diagnosed with fatal insomnia & it slowly kills him., they bury him in the backyard of the house theyr sharing since they can't afford anything fancy or to even contact his family in germany. eventually they hire some rando (erik) as their replacement drummer. but erik actually hates drumming n really dreams of being a dsbm vocalist. so he sorta wears down jørgen n aksel til they let him take over as singer and band leader. one of the key moments for him in behead is him cutting down wolfies grave marker w an axe, in protest of all jørgens 'this isn't what he wldve wanted' arguements. but eriks shit at singing and his dsbm style clashes with the rest of beheads theme. on top of that he signs them to his older brothers record label, even tho thomas is (known only to erik at the time) a murderer. it all destroys the band over a couple years n they split up for good & erik moves onto whatever other bands later on.

szlomo matters bc in the early days he's beheads artist n biggest groupie basically. he designs their merch n logos., despite kinda being blind as shit. he was born w polychoria, a cleft lip & really messed up teeth bc his parents (czeslaw & kasia) are siblings. hes visually based on hellhorse's decade of dust album cover. plus his old pet owl's name is decade. he met behead thru jørgen, they were online friends for years. when jørgen moved from denmark to norway, szlomo moved frm poland with her.

ilove szlomo bc his design is so unique and idk. he's cute. he's real clumsy bc of his eyesight, he doesn't wear glasses or contacts plus he wears his hair over his face. he's a really joyous creature.

aksel can look pretty tough and metal but he's actually a really big softie.. he's got a kind heart n is pretty emotional, he mostly just misses his little sister, who moved to america to join her own band. they grew up with an abusive father n absent mother so he's really protective of her.

thomas and erik r lowkey visually & slightly personality-wise based on craig mabbit and ronnie radke.. tho thomas is a lot angrier than craig. both brothers have severe anger issues and narcissistic traits. iirc thomas murdered @decemberhigherpower's bm oc, kristian, in uhhh 2001 ? and only got caught for it around the time behead split up. so like 2006 ? ithink ??

that's all ican rlly be bothered w typing out atm, but actually if u add me on my alt discord (locked outta my main rn) hatemaget icould talk more abt them. i llooooove discord vms

[dylansanders]

Ok, I have I ton of questions I gotta know the answer to, so I guess you can view this as an interview!

2. Which of your fics is your pride and joy?

18. How many WIPs do you have, and how many do you expect to finish?

20. Share your favorite kiss scene from any any of your three pilot fics :))

23. What's a story you'd love to write but haven't even started yet?

24. Which scenes/themes were the inspiration for memories of who I was before and raspberry amphetamines?

27. Are any of your stories inspired by personal experience? 👀 (raspberry amphetamines /lh)

28. What's the angstiest idea you've ever come up with?

And 32 and 33. A character you enjoy making suffer and a character you want to protect (somehow I get the feeling I know the answer and it's the same one for both.)

2. Which of your fics is your pride and joy?

-is it a cop out to say all of them? 😭 raspberry amphetamines is my only FINISHED story so far so it’s a little difficult to label one as my pride and joy when two are still in progress but memories i think has gotta be my favorite. it was my first tøp fic so it’s always gonna have a special place in my heart. plus, clancy/torchbearer holds such a grip on me, i love writing them so much. clancys character is so universal and you really can portray the trauma his character has in so many ways, im really pleased with where it’s headed and proud of what ive put out so far. i’m hoping people are liking it :)

18. How many WIPs do you have, and how many do you expect to finish?

-memories and it’s colder are still WIPs, and i actually only have one other right now that isn’t published. it doesn’t have a name yet but the pinterest board for it is named after a blue october song! basically tyler is a serial killer and has josh in his basement, but his routine starts to go wrong when he realizes josh is developing stockholm syndrome and there’s kind of a folie à deux situation. i have about 6k words written so far but i expect it to run around maybe 20/30k so it’s got a bit to go. i’m very focused on my two current ones though!

20. Share your favorite kiss scene from any any of your three pilot fics :))

-this would have been much easier before the last chapter of memories! bc they JUST kissed at the end of it (spoilers if anyone cares sorry 😂) but i think it’s gotta probably be the kiss in raspberry amphetamines where josh uses his tongue to mama-bird tyler a tab of molly lmao

23. What's a story you'd love to write but haven't even started yet?

-i think a ghost hunting au would be really cool, maybe around halloween i’ll get into the spirit (haha) for it! i also might play around with a mob boss/hired criminal au bc ive done that for ghostbusters a few years ago and actually LOVED it.

24. Which scenes/themes were the inspiration for memories of who I was before and raspberry amphetamines?

-memories was kind of a weird one for me to start with. i knew in my head where i wanted it to get to but i had a hard time starting it. i had the visual of a mute, terrified clancy having to figure out how to live again after dema and a torchbearer who was just trying to figure him out. the pair of torch and clancy is so complex to me that i just needed to start writing it down to get the words out so that’s what i did!

-raspberry amphetamines actually came to me super easily. i love anything with oral fixations and was really into spit that week (is that gross? sorry lol) so tyler’s whole thing with the glowstick was easy peasy. i was also just in kind of a down spot mentally and was thinking about dr!gs a lot so it was a weird spiral of being super horny and super into like, the visuals of a fucked up rave. in my head, it started with them dancing and swallowing pills together and unraveled from that.

27. Are any of your stories inspired by personal experience? 👀 (raspberry amphetamines /lh)

-unfortunately i’ve never been a rave kid bc i have crippling social anxiety so that part is not a life experience ive had 😂 but i do dabble with dr!gs and have had,,, public relations,,, so that part is fair game lol

28. What's the angstiest idea you've ever come up with?

-oh god uh??? it’s colder, although it is an inspired by fic, has a lot of my own twist on it. basically the first chapter is tyler’s inner thoughts after he’s kicked out from his house and walks essentially knowingly to his death, and a lot of that inner monologue stuff is probably the angstiest i’ve been. in written record at least lol.

And 32 and 33. A character you enjoy making suffer and a character you want to protect (somehow I get the feeling I know the answer and it's the same one for both.)

-boy if you ain’t heard about this motherfucker tyler joseph? this poor boy is VERSATILE. cover him with bandaids and blankets but also beat him to a pulp and leave him for dead. i might need to see a therapist. (in other words it’s tyler/clancy from my memories fic lol)

[cupofadonis]

Sosic the plasticinо

I was so upset by the previous result. So I wanted to draw in a different style, which, surprisingly, turned out to be very easy for me to learn. Even though my standard style is something different.

In general, a small light outlet, I usually spend only an hour on such drawings

Rubric: a little blog

I started developing my own game with my friend!

Yeah-yeah, I tried to do this before on my own: I made a visual Yandere Novella (Chapter 1). But, to be honest, my True Crime hyperfix disappeared too quickly, and my mental state began to improve for the first time in many years, and the need to transfer all my problems into the game disappeared.

My friend works much harder than me, he is a professional programmer who is gladly hired for highly qualified work. I, in turn, am a hyperactive ulcer-treadaholic, drawing two drawings a day.

So, I think something will work out for us. The game will be a Metroidvania, and I'm taking a lot of inspiration from Hollow Knight, having been a longtime fan of that game. Now I'm actively working on the script, characters and basic mechanics.

[beemers-hell]

Can you drop more lore on Raina???

I wish I had visual images to accompany this, but oh well lmao, anyway Raina lore beneath the cut cause i like running my mouth!

Basically, Raina's kinda just vibing! Like Bank, she was born riiiiiight before Nevada went to absolute Hell, so she has very vague memories of what Nevada was like before the madness really took over n' everything. For a while, her and her family were doing well enough surviving through the early years of Nevada's newfound apocalypse state, however, one by one, her family members would be killed off, through random incidents. Eventually, around the time she turned 11, she was the only surviving member of her family, and she was, as you can imagine, incredibly distraught about it. Confused on what to do now that she was alone in the world, the only thing she could think of was making her way to a site inhabited by the Agency, since she at least knew there would certainly be adults there.

Obviously, since she was a tween, it's not like they were gonna hire her or anything, however the site she found herself at was in need of test subjects for a new series of experiments they were conducting, and, yanno, it's not like a kid is gonna survive for very long out in the wilds anyway, so they decided to take her in as fodder. There, she would be subjected to various experiments that were meant to test a new idea some scientists had been brewing; Maybe there was a way to turn Nevadeans into ultra powerful, supernaturally gifted entities, by somehow harnessing the powers of places and entities from beyond Nevada (ie. The Other Place, Dissonance, The Betrayers)? Which would certainly beef up their soldiers, if they were able to figure it out. So, the subjects of these experiments, including Raina, would be rung through the ringer in order to try and manipulate their bodies into becoming capable of supernatural abilities. Though many of these early attempts were unsuccessful, by the time Raina was registered into the experiment, the Scientists running it had finally broke through the initial troubles they were having and were at a place where some of the experiment subjects were actually surviving, and were displaying abilities they had not wielded before. So Raina's chance of survival/success was pretty assured.

And, yanno, trying to warp the body in order to make it capable of unnatural powers is gonna involve some pretty invasive procedures/testing, and Raina was subject to that shit! But she would eventually make it through the prep stages, which involved such procedures as; A couple of brain surgeries, multiple DNA splicing procedures, many rounds of injections with various substances, etc, etc...But she made it out alive so that's good! Though her physical body had been warped, as a result of her DNA and genetic material having been spliced with that of romp material. Oh well!

Raina showed pretty promising results; the Scientists in charge of her had been wanting to develop a way to engineer a grunt into being able to teleport, and they had managed to get it figured out with Raina. So she was teleporting! It was very uncontrolled and she seemed to have developed some sort of seizure disorder as a result of the signal misfirings occurring in her brain when she teleported, but kinks like those were to be expected and they were working on ironing it out with her. Unfortunately for them though, she managed to escape when a false alarm had been called on the facility she was stuck in, and managed to teleport herself outside of the perimeter of the building. And then she just fucking BOOKED it. By now she was around 14, and she was determined to figure out how to ensure her survival without relying on any outside help, since, yanno, her first attempt at relying on someone resulted in her getting turned into a science experiment lmao.

So she worked very hard on developing her survival skills, and learned how to make do for herself out in the wastelands. She'd picked up some skills from some of her fellow experiment prisoners, and had internalized a lot of the academic information she'd been exposed to from the scientists around her, so she spent a lot of her time split between honing in her ability to survive in the apocalypse, as well as nurturing her newfound interest in science and engineering.

Not much else happened in her life for a while, she was just busy surviving and learning, but by the time she turned 18, she had come across a little group of people calling themselves "W.M.S.Q." and at this point, she figured she could make a more educated judgement on if she could trust people around her by now, so she joined their little faction as a worker for them. And they were very good to her! So she stayed with them, and that's where she's at currently. She's a fantastic worker, a very skilled marksman, and extremely gifted in the engineering department, having gotten so good at her craft that she's just straight up inventing her own specialized weapons to use, just for herself. She's learned how to use her teleportation powers to the absolute effectiveness in combat situations, as well as whatever the hell it is that her weird romp abilities allow her to do. She's a very laid back type of guy in spite of the horrors she bore at a young age, in fact, due to them, she has no sense of fear left in her! Which has been proving to be a difficulty for her, but yanno, everyone's gotta struggle with something lol

[moose-mousse]

I work for insane people

So… I started work a few months ago and...

I keep being impressed with corporations lowering my expectations.

Like. EVERY time I think "Surely, this is as incompetent as it gets".

The boss is nice, the workers are nice, every PERSON is great so far. But the firm is just… fucked in ways that makes it hard to not scream with laughter.

It is like working in the ministry of silly walks by Monty Python. Insane things are happening, and everyone just acts like it is normal.

A dude was stating to someone else near me, that despite the costumers saying they did not want it, his code that crashed the application once a day, was NECESSARY, because writing code without memory leaks in C is basically impossible. Like… I just have all these small moments of insanity. Completely disconnected from each-other

My boss showing me and the other 3 new hires the coffee room, where a big screen proudly shows that not a single software product have 100% code coverage… as in, not a single person in this entire building filled with software people knows how code coverage works. He then points out an empty bowl, and declares "Twice a week, there is a fruit event". By which he means, fresh fruit is provided, and people can just grab some…. just said by a alien who is pretending to be human. Badly.

He then explained that the 2 coffee machines in here makes bad coffee. He then takes us to the copy room, showing us that THIS is where the GOOD coffee machine is. Which only takes coffee beans from a SPECIFIC vendor (Is… is the coffee machine… sponsored????)

He briefly pets the Foosball table (Again, in the copy room), which is jammed up against the wall so you can only reach the controls on one side ( Because, again, it is a copy room, and there is not enough space for it ) and he exclaims "Ahhhh… Not enough people are using this"

Suggesting, that he is trying to promote the little known sport "Single-player Foosball">

I start setting up my work PC and... Whenever any of the developers in this place wants to install things on their PC's, including compilers and testing frameworks, they have to either use the "SOFTWARE CENTER" program, which installs it FOR you… or in 10% of the cases, fails, without giving you any context for why it did that, and no tools for fixing it. Is it missing a dependency? Not working with the OS? Who knows!

Some programs cannot be installed like this though, because the SOFTWARE CENTER is not updated a lot. And when you want to install something the normal way… You get a popup, where you must provide a written explanation for why you need to have temporary admin rights to your own dang PC … you then submit that, and your screen will then be watched remotely by a worker from India, for a varied amount of time you are not told…

Or at least it says so. Maybe the Indian dude watching me is just an empty threat. Who knows. But they get to see me running absolutely… BONKERS .bat files

Like, I CHECKED them, and a good 80% of them calls a Power-Shell script in the folder above it, called "YES_OR_NO.ps1" which opens a windows 95 window informing you that DURING INSTALLATION YOU MAY NOT USE THE KEYBOARD OR MOUSE, AS IT MAY DISTURB THE SCRIPT THAT WILL INSTALL THE PROGRAM. A normal installation wizard then runs, except the developers are not trusted to click the buttons, and instead the script does it for you by moving and clicking the mouse.

All of this is documented. In markdown like reasonable people? Of course not! It is in ENHANCED markdown. Which is markdown in the same way javascript is java.

ENHANCED markdown requires browser and visual studio code extensions to be read. Completely missing the point of markdown being readable both raw and encoded… And sometimes word documents And sometimes power-point presentations left next to another bat file… this one calling the .exe file… right next to it…. I later found out is because the idea USED to be that all documentation MUST be made with Microsoft office tools.

I had to read the code of conduct today. And it was actually very well written.

I then watched a interactive animation telling me about the code of conduct… which it not only got a fact wrong about, it also broke it once.

I repeat. The introductory course in the code of conduct… broke the code of conduct'

After I watched that, and read the safety material…. which literally just said "Wear safety boots in the production floor"… I was then show the testing room.

I was lead to a different building, saying hello to the Vice CEO who was walking the other way, we walk into the production floor, ignored the fact that none of us have safety boots on, and walks into a room, with a 3*2 meter wide machine, several meters tall.

We edge around it, quietly hoping no one turns it on, since we would get slammed by it if they did, and walk down some stairs into the basement. Casually walk over a small river in the floor from a pipe that is leaking… what I really hope is water, and over to a shelf rack FILLED with the most MacGyver shit you ever did see.

Including, but not limited to, the 3D printed plastic block, with a piston that repeatedly smacking half a aluminum nameplate over the device it is testing. You see, it is a capacitance button, and it is testing it by simulating a human finger pressing it many thousands of times, a saws off antenna which is the end of a cable that is attached to it via a nice thick bolt, so it can send fake signals into it.

And of course the 24 volt, 5 amp system that is turning a circuit board on and off again, until it will crack.

We walk back out, remembering to step over the small river, which never even got a comment, and walk back to my department It is SO great. It is like working in the ministry of silly walks by Monty Python Like… Do I think I can bring value to this company? Like, making it better and more efficient? Yes. It would be hard not to!

And his is the largest pump manufacturer in the world! A super serious company with 4 billion dollars of revenue a year. And it is just… a NUTHOUSE

Like… NEVER believe the myth that corporations are competent.

[anigrams-productions]

Hello, I'm trying to do some research on the visual novel community to better understand the needs of indie game developers in this niche. Any response helps. Thank you for your time!

(Shameless plug under the cut.)

===SHAMELESS PLUG===

If you are looking for a contractor to help you with the technical aspects of your visual novel, you can now hire me on Fiverr. I would also be interested in working with some guinea pigs game designers and/or writers for a significantly discounted rate (or even free, depending on the project) to help gain some initial traction - just click on the link and choose the "Contact Me" option.

=========END========

With that out of the way... In all seriousness, I'm curious what the market actually is for people who want to make visual novels but don't want to write the code. From experience, I know it's pretty common to hire artists, and it also seems fairly common to hire music producers and even writers for a bigger budget project. But I rarely hear about people hiring developers.

Of course, visual novel engines like Ren'py are pretty easy for anyone to pick up the basics, and I'm sure there are some no-code options out there as well. So, I do think it's plausible that most people, even non-developers, just do it themselves - in which case, I suppose there's not much of a market for my services.

[mysteriouseggsbenedict]

I don't have a therapist right now so Tumblr is getting all of my thoughts...

I just got hired for what honestly feels like a dream summer position, and it's a big deal for me because I have struggled majorly with employment in the past. Getting through a job interview while autistic is pretty much a special form of hell. So now that I've succeeded I'm really proud of myself for working hard at getting better at something that's difficult for me. It feels like I won at this game finally.

But it also is kind of, like, still shitty. So I struggled in a system that is unaccommodating to me, failed multiple times and took some big hits to my self confidence, but after working really hard I overcame those difficulties to Win At Capitalism? Is that really something to celebrate?

It's like the "disabled person is so determined and inspirational that they navigate inaccessible environments through the force of their will" narrative.

There's just something that rubs me the wrong way about congratulating myself for succeeding in a job interview, as opposed to, you know, living a life that's free of the need to participate in job interviews. In a world that is actually ideal, we wouldn't need to kill ourselves developing interview skills just to survive in our society's economic system.

I did utilize accommodations for my interviews that made a huge, huge impact in my success. So I guess my own argument isn't perfect, because I did modify the situation in some ways, instead of muscling through the completely traditional interview format.

Asking for the questions in advance changed the game for me. So far, I have asked for questions in advance prior to three job interviews, and none of the employers questioned me or refused to send them. So I was able to prepare answers to the questions before the interview and even practice speaking through them out loud. I can get tongue-tied if I'm trying to speak off-the-cuff, so doing this basically allowed me to articulate an accurate impression of my skills.

In the interview for the job that I got hired for, they told me that I'm able to use visual aids if I want, so I actually prepared a slideshow to screenshare during the interview. I had my qualifications on the slides so there was no way I'd mess up telling the employer about them. It was great to have an aid on the screen for me to follow along with as I talked, and it also demonstrated that I had prepared for the interview.

Since most of my mutuals on here are also neurodivergent, I'm curious if you have thoughts. Have you figured out ways to succeed at interviews? Or not? What has helped you the most? What's your mindset around conforming to expectations and trying to train yourself to perform well? (I'm also a little bit curious just because I'm finishing up a research project about this exact topic, because I always end up centering my research around the stuff that is bothering me in my real life, lol).

[basket-of-cats-and-witches]

Tidbit Tuesdays: Cut for Time and WIPs, WIPs, WIPs.

Not gonna lie, my ADHD's been out of control all week, meaning there's a lot of ficlets that have been put off because I literally forget they exist and start a new one.

*sighs*

But! With new chapters on the horizon, and this new card set (🕯️Sylus COME HOME🕯️), my burst of inspiration is back. Let's hope I can actually finish more pieces.

Anyway, if you don't know what Tidbit Tuesdays are, this is basically where I post abandoned pieces and WIPs that I'm super proud of! It's a way of encouraging myself to continue growing. This particular week's set is quite suggestive, so just be aware!

Today's interesting tip: If you're writing fic and you also happen to be into the Sims, building the room/house layout you're working in is an excellent way to visualize things and set them correctly in your head. Sometimes having a visual makes it easier to set the scene for the reader.

Anyway, on to the tidbits! If you enjoyed this, please give it a like or reblog! It lets me know people like what I'm doing, and encourages me to continue writing!

First up: This insanely long fic that was meant to be a one-off and is developing plot. This is a constant WIP, I'll release it to the wolves someday. And by the wolves, I mean my friend who is super enthusiastic about my writing. I love you and adore you, Sunflower.

This was meant to be a one-off "oh no we're stranded and there's only one bed left in the motel" tropey thing, and then suddenly Sylus and Kit, my OC, decided to talk about their feelings.

🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛

“Look.” Her gaze follows his to a full-length mirror across from them, mounted on the wall.

She gasps at what she sees, horrified.

Her skin is lobster red, an angry color wherever it was exposed to the sun. There's a large swath across her cheeks, ears, and nose, along with her arms and shoulders.

No wonder her shirt hurt to take off.

Sylus holds the bottle in front of her, full of light green gel.

A picture of an aloe vera plant takes up the whole label.

Kit looks down, shame curling in her gut. “I'm a fucking idiot,” she whispers. “I swear I put sunscreen on, it just doesn't seem to have worked. No wonder you were teasing me about the bottle.”

A pair of nice socks step in front of her, until Sylus crouches down, clad in only that and a pair of briefs.

If she wasn't already riding the shame train, she would have been flustered out of her mind.

As it stands, her nose stings and she feels horrifyingly close to crying.

“That's why I wanted you to finish taking your shirt and pants off,” Sylus says softly, his gentle tone somehow making her feel worse. “You can't reach everything on your own, kitten.” He taps her nose playfully, trying to brighten her mood. “I wouldn't ask something like that without good reason. You know I wouldn't hurt you.”

“That's not why,” she mumbles, too miserable to snap back at his hand.

Sylus undoes his hidden holster, setting his backup gun aside. “Speak up. I want to hear you.” His hand reaches for the strap of hers.

Kit sniffles, holding out her ankle obediently. “I know I'm just your lackey, but I'm a warm-blooded woman, too. I know you don't feel that way, so don't bother putting me in my place. I know it's inappropriate. I just…” a tear drops onto her skin. “I know I'm not pretty,” she says miserably. “So I don't particularly want you to see me with my clothes off, whether it's for practical reasons or not. I also hate disappointing you, I want you to want me around, even if it's just because you hired me.”

Red eyes, dark as rubies, meet hers. Sylus raises his brows. “You don't think you're pretty?”

She laughs wetly. “Of course that's what you focus on. We're out in the desert, stuck in a shit hotel in a one-bedroom and covered in sand and dust and who knows what else, and that's what you're stuck on.”

“You're deflecting,” he says, taking her hands in his. Sylus's touch is light as a feather, but her sunburn makes it feel like he's trailing fire across her skin.

Kit tries not to flinch, but he notices anyway, changing it so the pads of her fingers rest on his palms. His hands are massive compared to hers, calloused but unblemished against her scarred skin.

“Tell me what you don't like.” He phrases it as a request, but she knows it's not. Sylus seems to like to crack open her mind and dig out the most vulnerable parts of her.

Sometimes she wishes he wouldn't.

The undeniable truth, however, is that she always feels better after.

“I'm…too tall,” she grits out.

He snorts. “You still fit under my chin, unless you're in heels.”

Instantly, she knows how this is going to play, but she can't help but be stubborn about it.

“I'm built like a rail,” Kit counters. “Men like curves and I'm all angles.”

“You're lithe and well-muscled. You're made for agility and grace, and I've never seen anyone move across a battlefield or dance floor like you do.” He uncaps the aloe vera, gently smearing it across her skin.

Kit sighs at how heavenly it feels, her eyes fluttering shut.

His warm chuckle snaps her back, and she glares at him.

“I'm scarred to hell,” she says flatly. “Who wants someone covered in bullet and blade scars?”

His hands trail up her arms, sliding over a gnarled cluster where she'd sliced her shoulder open once jumping through a pane of window glass. “It means you survived, sweetie. Better scarred than dead. Anyone practical will appreciate that more than anything.”

Kit’s heart rate picks up as he continues his path along her reddened skin. “I don't wear pretty clothes,” she mumbles, watching the way his face remains open, more relaxed than it has been all night. “I don't own pretty things. I'm not- I've never been…cutesy.”

Sylus meets her eyes, smiling when her gaze skitters away shyly. He smooths the gel over her chest and throat, and she's sure he can feel how fast her heart is pounding.

“You don't have to, kitten. You're beautiful in the dresses I buy you, and…” he leans in, eyes glinting mischievously. “You're very cute right now,” Sylus purrs.

Kit shivers as his fingers draw upwards, the gel making them cling to her skin. He traces across her cheekbones and over her nose, tapping gently on the tip before pulling away.

Before she realizes it, she's grabbed his wrist, fingers encircling and thumb skimming across his pulse.

His heartbeat is terrifyingly fast.

Sylus tilts his head curiously, smirking. “What is it, sweetie? Did I miss a spot?”

The barrier between them is quickly crumbling, or maybe it's been long gone and she never noticed.

It occurs to Kit that Sylus has never treated her like he does the twins or any of his subordinates. Even when he's pissed or terse, he still watches out for her.

Takes care of her.

“Why do you care whether I think I'm pretty or not?” She whispers hoarsely. “I'm just your lackey. I don't know why you're so kind to me.”

He chuckles fondly, a strangely hollow sound. “For someone so incredibly good at their job, you don't pay attention when it matters.”

Kit furrows her brow. “What-”

Her question never finishes. Sylus rises up from his kneeling position between her legs.

Like a wave crashing against the rocks, he surges against her, dropping the bottle to slide his clean hand into her hair.

Sylus kisses her, and Kit feels her whole world tilt on its axis.

🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛

-

Notes: This next one is something I intended on releasing, but it needs a bit of rewriting before I feel comfortable enough with it. Perfectionism strikes again. It was actually mentioned in my last Tidbit Tuesdays, and I finished it, but I'm not quite satisfied.

I wanted to explore the complexities of "soulmates vs falling in love", which is more to say Sylus loves Kit, but what misunderstandings would she have when MC (or Kiri, in my specific case) shows up in line with the events of the game? Which is all to say that Kiri, my Zaynemancer, is more interested in protecting Kit than pursuing Sylus. See "Sylus Deserves to Get Punched" for Kiri's context.

-

🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛

He nods slowly. “So earlier.”

“Earlier,” Kit repeats. She frowns and looks down at her feet. “I…if…if she's what you want…”

Tilting his head, Sylus looks at her. His eye glows even brighter, until she can feel the uncomfortable sensation like many fingers pressing inside her brain.

Kit can't bear to look at him. Her thoughts are all jumbled up, so complicated and upset that even she can't make heads or tails of it.

One thing is clear, however.

He deserves the best.

Kiri comes to mind, of course. She's dazzling, charismatic, calm, and even-tempered. Sylus deserves someone so beautiful, so diplomatic, so warm-

His strangled laugh breaks her spiral. Kit glares at him.

“If you're just here to watch me cry,” she says, furiously scrubbing at her face, “then you can leave the way you came! I don't even know how you found my apartment in the first place!”

Sylus shakes his head. “Move over.”

“No.” She crosses her arms. Her chin juts out stubbornly.

“No?” He repeats. “Do you want to hear my explanation, or do you just want to be upset?”

Kit sniffles. Sylus waits patiently for her answer, his tall form severely dipping the mattress. It was barely holding on to begin with.

Reluctantly, she scoots closer to the wall. He takes his shoes off and moves into her space, the tiny bed straining to accommodate two tall people. “Can I touch you?”

For a moment, Kit fights against it. She's upset, she's sensitive, and the one who made her this way is who she usually seeks comfort from.

With a sigh, she deflates, nodding.

Without hesitation he draws her into his arms, pulling them both down so she's cuddled against his chest. Their legs tangle naturally, months of sleeping together making it instinctual.

“It seems like you know the girl,” he starts off with. “Do you know about her evol?”

Kit wraps her arms around him, squeezing slightly. “We're childhood friends,” she mumbles. “My foster father used to work with Zayne’s - a mutual friend of ours - parents before he retired. I met Kiri through Zayne, and eventually Caleb, my ex. He lived with Kiri.”

At the mention of Cay, Sylus's body tenses. Kit instantly feels embarrassed at being slightly petty. Caleb is ancient history, especially now that he's passed. Still, Sylus's possessiveness is relieving.

She continues. “I know enough about it to answer your question. Her evol amplifies others. It also seems to have some influence on Metaflux, to the point of attracting Wanderers.” She peers up at him, that glowing red eye still brilliant in the dark. He's still reading her, then. “So it's her evol that makes her attractive to you? You're already powerful as it is.”

Sylus gently flicks her forehead, and she makes a soft sound of protest. “Stop it,” he reprimands. “You're trying to come up with reasons, now.” As soon as he finishes speaking, he presses a kiss to the spot he hit.

“I'm not attracted to her,” he says. “The person you emulate does not exist for me. I don't know how to explain to you how much she doesn't like me, to the point where she tried to fight me on your behalf.”

A startled laugh escapes her. “Did she?”

“Mmhm. My shins suffered.” He squeezes her in a hug as she snickers, relaxing just a little more.

Sylus smiles. “She and I have mutual feelings, which is to say, none at all. Your Kiri detests me, and I'm indifferent. Holding her hands is just the easiest way to resonate. It's not working, however.”

Kit makes a confused noise. “How so? She resonates with me and our friend Andromeda just fine.”

There's an oddly childish rude sound, and it takes Kit a second to realize it's coming from Sylus. “It seems,” he grumbles, “that she's disgusted by me. As our doctor friend says.”

Kit just bursts out laughing at that.

The sound makes him curl closer around her, as if he can fold her into his body until they're melded together, never to separate. “You're the one I want, Kit,” he says, the sound muffled by his chest. “Never doubt that. And if you do, I'll remind you again and again.”

She angles her face up towards his, watching as the glow finally fades. “Will you remind me now?” Kit whispers.

“Yes,” he replies, as the final bit of glow is snuffed out, and he claims her in the dark.

🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛🐦‍⬛

Notes: Next up is a change of pace! I'm slowly working through my hangups on Rafayel's personality. By which I mean he's too similar to how I act normally (nobody read into that), so it's hard to write him.

This piece centers around him meeting Nimea, my she/they OC, who's not the MC but is a librarian who handles the childrens' programs in a tiny library on the coastline. It also features my favorite OC, Oliver, a young boy who eventually gets adopted by Nim.

🐟🐟🐟

It's been some time since Mr. Rafayel came by.

Not that Nimea expects him to return, or anything. One of his paintings now hangs high in the children's section, the beautiful abstract colors drawing the eye, each elegant sweep of the brush creating beautiful lines.

She likes to look at it, when she has time.

“Thinking about that artist again, Nim?” He coworker teases, nudging her as she passes.

Nimea blushes instantly. She adjusts her glasses. “Don't you still have some books to shelve, Diana?” She whispers back fiercely.

Diana giggles and pushes a cart along, heading off to the nonfiction section.

Huffing, Nim looks around for something to do.

There, in a beanbag chair, is one of her favorite regulars.

Oliver, a young boy, sits curled up with a thick book. It's far too advanced for most visitors of the children's section, but he's no ordinary boy.

Drifting closer, Nim smiles at the title.

Encyclopedia of Sea Life. She's unsurprised.

“Hi Ollie,” she says, making the boy peek up from his book. His brow is furrowed, until he realizes who it is. Instantly, he relaxes.

“Hi Miss Schulz,” he replies simply. A page is turned, and she crouches beside him.

“What section are we on today?” She asks, peeking over his shoulder.

Ollie points at a picture of an octopus. “They're sep- sef…”

“Cephalopods?” Nim supplies. He nods, mumbling the word to himself until he has it fixed in his mind.

“Yeah. Mom says they're creepy. She calls them ocean spiders and says they're slimy.”

Nim sighs. She tries hard not to show Oliver how much she dislikes his mother. “Well, she's not entirely wrong. They've got eight arms like spiders, and I guess living underwater would make them feel a little slippery. But I wouldn't call them creepy. You know they’re just about as smart as people?”

His eyes go wide, and he turns in his beanbag excitedly. “Really?”

“Mmhm. They can open jars with their arms and solve some puzzles. They even remember people even if it's been a long time since they've seen them.” Nimea smiles as she watches him light up, his closed off demeanor completely vanishing with his excitement.

“What else?” He asks. Oliver looks at her like she hung the moon.

“Um,” she says, searching her brain. Most of her knowledge comes from things she's learned in aquariums, or whatever her dad’s crew told her while they were at sea together. “Well-”

“They dream,” a voice cuts in. “Their bodies turn different colors when it happens, in cool patterns and shapes.”

Nimea startles when a long pair of legs appears in her line of sight, Rafayel sitting down with them. He winks at her. The thick cardigan he wears looks almost as cozy as her sweater.

Oliver turns his rapt attention to Rafayel. “They do?”

The artist nods. “I've seen it. They go from brown to green to blue to orange in the blink of an eye.”

🐟🐟🐟

Notes: This last one really was just me playing around with an earlier version of Nim (as River) and Rafayel in a group chat with Kit. I love playing around with personalities and seeing how different combinations mesh.

I mostly cut it because it took up a lot of space and while it was enjoyable, didn't add a lot to the story. It also might be a bit hard to follow. Text conversations are always weird to write.

🐟🐱🐟🐱🐟

Kit Renamed the Group Fish Are Friends Not Food

Kit: Crisis time, fishies assemble

Raf: Ya present 🐟

River: Also here wassup, y r u asking us 🦈

Raf: Cause we're reliable and cool

River: Press X to doubt

Kit: Hush, Fishies. I need advice from the two hottest people I know

Raf: Wow

Raf: Didnt kno u felt that way

Raf: Compliments get u everywhere what do u want

Kit: On mission, am required to have “sex appeal”

Kit: [Photo Sent]

River: OOOUGH

River: BARK BARK BARK

Raf: 😒 thought u only had eyes for me

River: yea but I have eyes ur always telling me 2 appreciate art

Raf: tru

Raf: Dont c the problem

Raf: sex appeal u got it

Kit: I'm supposed to be the hot plus onw

Kit: one*

Kit: I look nice but I'm used 2 taking people out not seducing

River: OH

River: I gotchu

River: pre Raf hoe levels hm

Kit: yeah

Kit: teach me your ways master

River: ATTENTION!!! CLASS HAS BEGUN

River: every1 take ur seats

Raf: do i have 2 be here

Raf: there was a snail

Raf: effervescent

Raf: inspiration struck

River: ok bby u can go paint

River: lov u 🐟❤️

Raf: lov u 2 🦈💙

Raf: gl Kit

Raf: glub glub

Kit: glub glub 😭

River: Kit we call rq

Kit: Sy will see

River: tell him u need to use the restroom or smth idk

River: ur menstrual cycle came early. Men hate periods LMAO

Kit: actually he saw me look at him and told me to go take my phone call

Kit: how does he know…

River: [started a call]

🐟🐱🐟🐱🐟

-

If you got to this point, thank you so much for reading! That's it for this Tuesday! 💖💖💖

[fantasyfantasygames]

Mutants On Demand

Mutants On Demand, Sea Change Books, 2017

You were hired for your skills, your dedication, and your biological compatibility with one of the world's most dangerous gene-splicing techniques. Now you possess incredible superpowers derived from your personality and existing talents. Your loyalty is ensured by your bond with your teammates... and by the fact that without frequent drug treatments you'll explode.

The world is mostly like our own at the start, which is canonically just as the news breaks about your superpowered existence. Of course, the people who can afford to enhance someone like you are the ultra-rich. My favorite thing about Mutants On Demand is that it doesn't shy away from naming actual, real-world ultra-rich people as its major NPCs. Not many games have statted-up descriptions of Mukesh Ambani, Bernard Arnault, and Larry Page. (I'm sure at least one other game has a statted-up Bill Gates, though.) The game's creators did some real research here. The assumed plot basically revolves around you investigating the shady company that created you all, while either partying it up or trying to figure a way out from under your billionaire patron's thumb (most likely both).

The game's art is a mixed bag. Apparently the publisher held a contest, with the winners having their art chosen. (Pro tip: do not do this. It is not an appropriate way to treat artists.) Unfortunately, they didn't have a lot of takers. Submissions were sparse, and Sea Change decided to use almost all of them. Visual styles and ability to handle human anatomy vary substantially. Some are even black-and-white in an otherwise full-color PDF.

The system borrows from Icons, which is a fine place to start for a simple supers game. 1d6+bonus vs. 1d6+bonus, higher roll wins. More-or-less exponential attribute scales, but capped at 10 so the exponent never gets too high. Excess points of success deal damage to health, or calm, or fatigue, depending on whether you're dealing with the Might, Mouth, or Mind stat. Chargen (another cool element) has you selecting your superpowers first. Those give you options for what skills you can take, what your character's emotional reactions look like, and what sort of psychological issues they might develop.

With MoD's close similarity to the Icons system it would be fairly easy to just move it over wholesale. I'd recommend keeping the chargen system, though. It has some real potential.

Sea Change Games was sued into oblivion for defamation of character in the UK, where the laws about that kind of thing are ridiculous. All known sources of the game had to pull them. You'll need to find a PDF in someone's personal collection. All of them are watermarked with the buyer's name and copy-paste-proofed, which is obnoxious as hell. If you get to play it, let me know how it goes - I want to hear whether the psychological integrity degradation system works over a reasonable timeframe instead of just dumping you into severe mental issues immediately or being something you can just ignore.