#i need to fix stuff up for the coding of the theme tho

[ranidspace]

"I cant switch to firefox because..."

"It's too much effort to switch"

If you install firefox, it will ask if you want to import your browsing history, bookmarks, saved passwords*, and in a as of october of this year your extensions as well.

*dont use your browsers built in password manager. they're very much not as secure, even firefox's. read about passwords here

You can't import cookies for security reasons, but external tools can do that for you (try to avoid this. if you do have some data you need moved over, usually websites have their own "export data as file" option)

Everything else that you may need to fully complete the switch will come up naturally over time, the initial setup can be half an hour, or if you're happy with how it is at the start, less than 5 minutes.

"They don't support [website]"

Firefox is entirely up to date on current HTML, CSS, and Javascript standards. Theres a bunch of websites that compare all the features that firefox supports compared to chrome and stuff and they're often just, wrong? I've used some MANY of the features that firefox supposedly doesn't support. Plus they're constantly updating it for added support of new and old features. anything they refuse to add is due to security reasons, and nobody uses those features anyway.

In my experience i've never had to switch to chrome to avoid a website breaking. Sometimes it was because of an extension* but thats a very easy fix. Firefox has profiles built in and really good troubleshooting features.

*(stop using privacy badger/possum, please, it's built into firefox now, most of all privacy addons are completely useless because firefox already does it for you!!! ublock is safe tho i love u bbg)

If a site tells you "switch to chrome to see this site as intended" they're lying, and you can use a user agent switcher to trick them into thinking you're on chrome

"i need chrome for work or school"

i'd say 4 times out of 5 you don't, they say you have to use it but in reality it's just that they have better control over what you can do with it.

My high school had a shit ton of extensions automatically installed on chrome, including some shit that was literally spyware, it reported to teachers and staff all of your tabs you have open at any given time, and they could force shutoff tabs and force things open. They had absolutely no control or ability to monitor me when i switched to firefox, and there werent any problems that arose from it.

You can also just use chrome for school/work and use firefox for your personal web browser. separate your work life and personal life, you can do this with two different firefox profiles as well.

"I don't like change"

The only thing that's different about firefox in a day to day usage is the bar at the top, which is entirely customizable. Right click, customize toolbar, and you can mess around with it to make it the same layout as chrome. you can also get rid of those weird empty spaces to the left of the search bar they add by default for some reason. mozilla pls fix. You can further use themes to make it even look even more similar to chrome, I did that with my school profile to differentiate them.

When I switched, there wasn't anything I missed, I didn't have any of the "ugh i dont like how [blank] is in a different spot", or "ugh they dont have [this]". it just worked. It's a web browser, it works and does everything it needs to be. I didn't miss chrome at all, nothing felt different and the adjustment period to the new browser was LESS than what i felt when chrome updated the design in 2018.

"I have no reason to switch"

If you care about privacy at all (which you should), i could list hundreds of reasons why you should switch. Google removed "don't be evil" from their code of conduct for god sake lmao. Every new change they do is a ploy to get as much data from you and feed you as many ads as possible.

The dumping of Manifest V2/dynamic filtering not only makes most adblockers useless, it makes any sort of content blocking worse. Blocking trackers, malware, intrusive and annoying website features, these are things ublock does for you which chrome is doing its best to get you to stop doing. They want you to be exposed to predatory ads and malware so they can get more money.

If you have issues with ram usage and performance issues, firefox includes a lot of (lesser known) features to monitor RAM and CPU usage. While it seems as it may use more RAM, it automatically releases it when more ram is needed by other programs, effectively using less. It also uses much less ram in total in cases where there's 10+ tabs open.

Firefox can automatically block sites from auto-playing videos whenever you go on them

As mentioned firefox has so many more customization features than chrome, allowing you theme and move around everything to your hearts content

While on desktop, Chrome and Firefox are very close in functionality, on mobile, Firefox is working to add full extension support to mobile, it already has a small catalogue of extensions you can use, such as uBlock Origin. It has all of the desktop privacy features as well.

Firefox, only has about 3% of the market share. Other than that, chromium controls over 70% of all browsers, with apple controlling over 20%. The less people use firefox, the more control TWO companies have on the very act of using the internet. The Mozilla Foundation is a fully non-profit organization, with full ownership over the mozilla corporation, they don't have shareholders, and prioritize an open, safe, and private internet. Don't let them die.

"but what about..."

there's probably other reasons but the last of my advice:

you can have multiple browsers at once, install firefox and don't get rid of chrome. try firefox, see if there's anything you don't like, and try to fix it, and whenever you feel the need to, you can go back to the browser you already had.

[gloomyshoujo]

So I heard about a site called bearblog.dev and decided to make an account. What's interesting about it, is that it's not connected to anything like most social media sites are. So really, the only way for people to find you is through word of mouth, or by paying (which tbh I prefer not being on a discover page tbh).

I liked their mission statement, about never wanting to sell, that it's run on donations and no ads, etc. But the biggest plus for me, was how you can customize things!

I haven't remotely worked on my own theme yet, but I poked around the code a bit, and it seems pretty straight forward; so I think I should be okay! Though, I can only play around the css, and not html without being a paid member.

Buuut I have experience though the sheer torture of having to customize everything through just css, so I think I'll manage.xD

I can't work on it rn, as I am finishing up on my Dreamwidth theme, as well as a drawing I need to get done soon.T.T But apparently, you can customize your dashboard!!! And, well, I couldn't resist.xD

This is, again, just the dashboard; so essentially, only I can see this lol. But I needed a break from my other 2 projects, and it seemed easy enough.xD

I definitely didn't go all out; as this is just my writing page. But I still wanted it to be calm yet exciting for me to work in! I chose colours similar to the Tumblr Classic (low contrast) theme, as I use that as my base on AO3 as well.xD (But I did shift the hue lol)

Initially, it was just gonna be solid plain colours but then...whoops! I had fun, and I did learn a few new things~

I had found a few codes a few months ago, and decided to play around with them, and made something new from them aha!

Which, if you would have asked me months ago, I would not have been able to figure out, but I managed to make something work.xD You can't see it here, but the headers have a subtle rainbow animation.:-P And when you hover over the boxes, they pop up, and have an animated rainbow shadow! Oh, and all links appear white, but when hovered, have animated rainbow on the text.:-) Yes, lots of rainbow!xD

Which like, technically these have been done in the past; but required Java Script back then. Now, they can be done through css only!:-D (Which was super helpful, since I can only play around with the css lol)

I could not install custom fonts, so went with a browser standard. I think for journal themes, it should work? But dashboard seems like a no go! (Idk tho, I'd have to test!)

Also, not very noticeable in the screenshot, but the body has a blur effect, so anything behind it will make it blur.:-)

And yes, couldn't resist adding Ranka.xD She makes me happy!

Also, yes, this is very busy for most. But I made it for me. The spacey background makes me feel calm and a bit nostalgic over some themes I had made in the past, or of other sites I enjoyed browsing. The rainbow is subtle, not too annoying; but still sparks something fun for me! The colours for the body do well for my eyes as I type/edit stuff, which is what I wanted. And having a character I love in the bg/cursor (which you can't see here either) is just a nice bonus aha~

There are still some very minor bugs I need to fix, but that will be for another time. I would like to make this code public eventually, but not sure how or where, or if anyone would actually want to use it.xD I'm thinking once I have an ACTUAL site one day, I'll post it there?

So uh yea, I'm working on a Dreamwidth, I have a Tumblr already; so why the fuck would I want another blogging platform?xD

A few reasons, which I feel like I've already kind of mentioned here lol. But another big reason, is I do enjoy having multiple spaces for different purposes if that makes sense? I like the idea of having Tumblr for whatever the fuck I do here.xD And Dreamwidth for more art and fandom related stuff (and maybe a few other stuff; but definitely long form posts; idk yet, I still haven't tested the waters. But think art/fandom blogging, mainly). And maybe a bearblog for more mmm...personal or intimate entries. Stuff I don't want too many eyes or engagement on.

Like, yea sure I could keep certain thoughts to myself. But I find myself always afraid of sharing thoughts, feelings, or ideas in my own spaces (I have soooo many drafts). Perhaps of fear of being "too much" or making someone mad; but I feel like I should learn to being okay being me, having opinions or thoughts on stuff, to be able to even change over time, and not worry about an algorithm showing it to the wrong person, ya feel?

And yea, I just want another site to test out coding/design without committing to having my own site again JUST YET lol. (I SWEAR I'll make one eventually...I'm just intimidated + unsure of which host to choose lol)

So yup! Uhhh idk when I'll be done all of this lol. I'll definitely finish my Dreamwidth first, which I will announce~! Once that's done, might work on my bearblog, and let you guys know of that.xD

[sciopticonexe]

all colors have a "the ends justify the means" mentality bc the society of sciopticon is basically just a balkanized fascist state. idk if i call them colors tho but i feel like its better to have a less fixed point of the faction identities in their name. maybe it can be derived from faction/color interests

red - disinformation/ secret police

blue - noise and chaos/ the populist wing

green - hierarchical understanding of the world/ the strong should govern the weak

yellow - rules based international order, pax americana, etc./ very institutions and state power based

purple - purely analytical model of the world/ surgical precision of policy implementation.

theyre meant to be "side" agnostic (in terms of coding as left vs right wing in an american politics sense and especially in a "good vs evil" sense) bc the color moreso represents means rather than the ambitions of whoever would be employing them. they are all tools after all, and tools are contextualized by how theyre employed. its not bc im trying to stake some claim as a radical centrist in making the game or whatever but because a worldview that centers human rights, social welfare, opposed to tyranny in all forms and other things i agree with is, at the end of the day, a worldview among many even if i do believe and would argue that its like objectively cotrect. which is smth i want more people to think about as a society i suppose.

also i feel like laying it out like this makes it pretty obvious that im cribbing mtg color wheel which i dont think is innately a bad thing bc i feel like its distinguished in that mtg color philosophy takes a backseat to differentiating between like. red's fire and lighting magic vs greens nature stuff and black necromancy and whatnot. meanwhile i want to draw out the philosophical side moreso in sciopticon. probably would be wise to try and figure out names for the colors that arent literally juat colors but i dont really know what theyd be in a way thats future proofed bc i feel like having a different setting for a set in the future would be cool. having names could reinforce the theme of sciopticon as a computer program though i just would need people smarter than me to help me come up with names lol (i have some rough draft ones that are pretty cringe.)

[luckyyyduckyyy]

TAG GAME NOM NOM NOM-

Thank you @divinit3a! 🐶🐕🐶 And you too @juukai I was going to tag you but it seems you beat me to the punch! How dare!!!!! /pos

I adore tag games <333

Tagging goobers I think would like to do this! If you're getting multi tagged, sorry but it's my duty to tag you. (No pressure tags tho <3)

And if I didn't tag you and you want to do this PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE- (Do it! I would love to see what y'all say! :D )

@midnight-mourning @pointyfruit @sinister-sincerely @fishm0ther

@ping-ski @r0b0-wannabe @amarynthian-fortress @flowysgonemad @meridiantears

@buzzybee3 @itsmuffiiee @alynwrench @mitathemita

What is your favorite color?

Pink! Specifically pastel pink! I love all the pastel colors though. (Oddly enough I don't have many pastel clothes-)

2. Describe the aesthetic of your favorite kind of jester. If you cannot vividly imagine a jester dancing in your head, describe any silly little guy that so strikes your interest.

I would be thrown into jail for life and doomed for eternity in the afterlife if I don't highlight the DCA. My main goobers! I never been so interested in Jesters or Clowns before, even solar themes, so when they initially caught my interest I was so confused. But just tricksters are so awesome, and gremlin, sassy, or even mean characteristics from them are so unique and lovable! Of course I love it when they're extra sweet too though <3

The poofy pants! The curly shoes! All the bells! Love it so much! I also reallllly love patterns, stripes and polkadots being my favorite! Though a good ol checkerboard can never go wrong!

I wish I could give more details about Jesters, but besides the dca I am a jester novice... 😔

3. Tell me an animal fun fact you think is particularly neat.

Chinchillas are the fluffiest animals in the world and can live up to 20 years in captivity. (They're my favorite animal too!)

4. What is/was your favorite toy, either from childhood or now?

This old, pink dog, LPS doll I had since elementary, it even has a code for the MMO game attached to its butt! It's very old and has stains, my dog chewed her nose off and I had tried to shoddily sew it back on with my little baby hands. Never properly fixed it even now because it just brings a sweet pang in my heart. I'll fix it if the nose ever falls off though.

5. What is your favorite word? You are entirely allowed to list multiple if too many are just so good, let's hear all your best words.

While I do have the funny words I like to use all the time like Goober/goobies or duders, I sincerely think my favorite word is love. I love to use it lol, it's so versatile! You can use it in average conversation, or use it to express just the wide varieties of love that are out there! I'm also a bit of a romantic I think, so love is also just something I like to see everywhere. :3

6. What is a line, section, or snippet you've written that you're particularly pleased with/proud of?

It's hard to pick! I got a lot of stuff I like, but I am very proud of my latest fic "Naturally, please show me your bones, bones, bones". I think it really shows how much better of a writer I am now than when I started. :)

" Like the dutiful animatronic he is, Moon carefully sat you on the bench inside the station and started to retrieve items to patch you up and care for that nasty burn.

Without removing his hand from your face of course, he could do everything one handed, deaf, and blind if need be.

He just didn't think you'd allow him to treat you if he released you yet; he did rush into such an act without even warning you.

How ungentlemanly of him…

But then again, he already knew his bones were ugly. "

I also have been working on another Moon-centric fic in my off time over a couple months and I got some bangers in there too! I was rereading the entire thing recently to re-introduce myself to what has occurred thus far, and found myself just so satisfied with this little scene! (No context because I'm evil hehe)

" He keeps his gaze on you while you start to row again. He seems to try to say something, but no words come out, eyes sparkling with unshed tears. Instead, he startles when the next soul passes through his hand, and the two of you watch the souls go by–conversing about their dreams as if nothing happened. "

7. Favorite non-real creature? (Includes cryptids, fantasy creatures, mythical beasts, yokai, original species, monster, any creature that isn't real but still makes you go "Oh, this one is neat")

Fae. It's such a good concept and creature man, I could eat them up all the time. I wish there were MORE in the dca fandom just so I can ALSO eat it up!!!! I love all the possibilities they have and just how morally grey they are usually portrayed as!

Though I eat up any creatures! Mer, cryptid, doll, ghost, Mutant, Monster, Hybrid, just anything really. Go wild man I'll even read about a sentient blender!

Making my own silly tag game

Normal tag games don't have the questions I think are really important, so here are exactly seven questions I actually care about.

What is your favorite color?

Describe the aesthetic of your favorite kind of jester. If you cannot vividly imagine a jester dancing in your head, describe any silly little guy that so strikes your interest.

Tell me an animal fun fact you think is particularly neat

What is/was your favorite toy, either from childhood or now?

What is your favorite word? You are entirely allowed to list multiple if too many are just so good, let's hear all your best words.

What is a line, section, or snippet you've written that you're particularly pleased with/proud of?

Favorite non-real creature? (Includes cryptids, fantasy creatures, mythical beasts, yokai, original species, monster, any creature that isn't real but still makes you go "Oh, this one is neat")

@ your pals to politely request they tell you these fun things about themselves via reblog. @ as many people as you want. @ no one. @ yourself. @ an image of a funny horse. There are no rules here.

I will tag some of my pals here :) @venomous-qwille @eyndr-stories @writing-forever @aviul @ohno-the-sun @pillowspace @kc-wilson-art

[cursedcola]

Ok but will you do headcanons for the lovely protag of tears of themis, because if so I would love some cute Hcs of her having a cheerful and loving female s/o who runs a bakery and packs her cute little lunches everyday so she can have the energy she needs to work hard (•̀ᴗ•́)و

and sometimes Rosa (which is the code name we get in the game for our protagonist) gets special sticky pad notes in her lunchbox cheering her on when she’s had a bad day, and I just want some fluffy domestic hcssss

*cradles gently* I just love lesbian girlfriend hcs so much ( ´ ▽ ` ).｡ｏ♡

A/N: Omg I'm gonna throw up I love this. It's too cute for my heart...ngl I simp for Rosa more than I do any of the boys. Can we romance ourselves? lol I'd pay Mihoyo to make it happen. TBH I ship Rosa x Kiki a bit since they just seem so much more on the same page with each other than our lovely gentlemen ( love Marius still tho frfr)

Our queen of justice would cherish her girlfriend so much let me tell you

Rosa has a habit of going above and beyond for the people she cares about. She’s normally the giver, and being on the other side of the coin is a whole new life

I can see it now. Every morning on her way to the Themis Law Firm she stops by her girlfriend's bakery. Rosa gets up extra early and brings her a cup of coffee/tea/etc. before the bakery opens.

She just loves to hear the jingle of the doorbell and see you arranging the display case behind the counter. Sometimes she'll pick up an apron and join you if she has extra time. Bonus points if your shop has a theme (like say you have a book café/bakery! And you dress to match the theme. You have a little knee length dress, mary-janes, and a bookish themed apron as the uniform. Maybe one of those cute little neck scarf/choker that you tie into a bow. Rosa would eat that up omg)

The first time she brought you a morning drink Rosa felt like an idiot because - well, duhh. You run a bakery! You sell this stuff! yet it became a bit of a trading deal. Rosa brings you your morning fix before the shop opens, and in exchange you pack her a few goodies.

It's such a ritual that Rosa now has a little thermos collection for you, and you have a lunch pail collection for her. It also gives you both a chance to see each other after work. On her way home (either after a shift or on her way to NYXX) she swings by your shop to drop off the pail and pick up her thermos. A quick goodbye smooch and she is on her way.

Lmao no. If she isn't going to NYXX then normally she stays back to help close the shop. If not then she begrudging leaves. Unfortunately you are not allowed to know about NYXX. It's too dangerous. You're aware that she works alongside Marius, Vyn, Luke, and Artem on the side - but are under the impression that it is for a special government case through Themis. They know about you as well. We love our ally kings. Sometimes you send Rosa off with enough goodies for all five of them when she swings by and can't stay.

Now. You know they all have/had a crush on her at some point. Especially Luke. The boy is a living golden retriever. Not to mention Artem who is just awful at masking. Thankfully your Rose is oblivious as hell, not that you're worried.

All it takes is the scent of one of your new recipes to have Rosa swooning in the palm of your hand. Before you started dating, you both were friends. You saw how she was always on a diet and depriving herself. Those little comments about her appearance making you the loving type of mad. Y'know, the type to passive aggressively eye her and be like "honey you are so beautiful that I have four men trying to steal my gf right now. Do not test me,". Which, of course, you'd only say the first part because that confrontation is not one needed considering the ally kings know their place.

Point being that we don't support that unhealthy diet culture. Big nono. She is going to eat good and she is going to like it.

Anywho. Back on topic. You know they like her and one way you casually tease is with loving treats. Yes, my dear Rose, please take this basket full of freshly baked bread to your meeting. The one with the ribbon on top. Why is it taped down? Oh, no worries my love. Just let one of the boys open it, okay? I have yours specially wrapped in a separate bag.

Meanwhile whichever poor soul opens that bag is going to get hit in the face with one of the sappiest and most suggestive love notes in all of Stellis.

"My lovely flower. Have a great day and be careful on the way home from your meeting! I have missed you so much and cannot wait to have you all to myself tonight. Enjoy the sweets with your friends" *insert a plethora of heart drawings*

Rosa will see them holding the note and simply think that you put it in the wrong bag. It's not abnormal for you to put those heartwarming notes in her lunches, so she apologizes. Vyn knows. They all know.

Dominance asserted, and your cute girlfriend is pleased by your loving note (and a bit embarrassed but it had to be done. Rosa deserves the abundance of affection. Her confidence needs to be boosted and she needs to recognize what a queen she is)

Did I mention that your shop is one of Rosa's favorite places? It's cozy, inviting, and she loves to study for her exams there. Sometimes if she's working on a case she'll claim a table for hours on end. Occasionally she sneaks glances of you working with customers and watches as a break. She'll blush if she gets caught, but it is so worth it.

Sometimes she takes her work breaks there as well. Occasionally you'll see her pop in with Artem, Celeste, Kiki, or perhaps another one of her acquaintances from work like that one Police Capitan. Darius, was it? That one always needs a triple shot of espresso. usually when you see him it means something serious is going down. It warms your heart when she boasts about your shop to them. She'll pick a table and like clockwork you'll come over to have a little chat before they get to work. It's so nice to feel included and to see her in the zone.

Whenever she is on a business trip she'll look for a little something to bring home for your shop too. Typically a decoration piece. Thanks to Rosa you have a little statue-esque tip jar from her trip to the desert, fairy lights above the main counter from a whimsical mountain, flower pots from an island trip, and more. You never question her many excursions because she always brings you home a surprise.

On one final note, your shop is her safe space. Sometimes she comes to your frustrated or nervous. It could be about exams, a particularly bad case...and sometimes she can't tell you. "Government case," she says and you know something really stressful happened. Those ones are the most worrisome. It's hard, being there when she disappears on a case that she can't tell you about. One of the gents are always there with her, but when she comes home in a near-shocked state you can't help but get anxious.

Yet Rosa knows you won't press it. She strolls in, most commonly near closing time, and you just know. You have a sixth sense for it, and without asking flip the shop sign to say 'closed' before preparing her a warm drink. Then you sit with her and let her talk. You don't question when she leaves things out, and let her vent.

You and your shop become like a second home to Rosa. Peace in a city like Stellis that never seems to rest.

[bnha-scenarios]

☕️ Special Thanks ☕️ 

As always, thank you so much for the coffee! Your kindness are very much appreciated! ♡

Emilija | Regan | Nela Kovaříková | 1 Anon

Onwards to the progress update.

I had. So. Many. Things. That I actually wanted to complete.

… Alas, work decided to be a bitch and swamp me with things to take care of. To put it simply, there were a lot of issues that caused a lot of overtime work even on weekends, so I had to step away from coding most of the time so I won’t burn myself out.

So yeah, I didn’t manage to complete a lot of features, though I did dabble on some stuff here and there. I’m not happy with the rather small progress either. But life happens, and there are just other things that are more important sometimes. So we just have to let it go and look forward to the next month!

I’d say that this month I was quite productive in terms of organization and planning instead of the actual coding. I have at least identified what I need to write for the ‘free activity’ time of the game, which makes about 30-40% of the gameplay itself. However, actually writing the scenes and executing it is a different effort altogether, which I have only started to embark on.

Still, it’s crazy to think that the development for the full game has been actively going for around three and a half months now. Whew. Knowing that I have a tendency to hyperfocus and then get tired of something after a short time frame, I’m going to at the very least give myself a pat on the back for still keeping this project up and running until now.

More details below ↓

Added Route: Kirishima

Let me preface this first with a declaration: I won’t be adding any more love interest after this. Please please please don’t make me do it 😅 Going through all the plans and re-setting up things to figure out how to add him in was such a painful experience…

But anyway. I will be adding this boy’s route to the full game, because a lot of people seem to want to have him in the game. He does seem like a fun character to write, so I thought I’ll give him a chance.

Gameplay

Places, Schedules, and Hanging Out with the Boys

I think you would have noticed from the last two devlogs, but there are several activities you can do in-game. One of them is to visit a place of your choice at a certain time in a day.

Some places can be unlocked when you reach a certain threshold in a specific stat, and there are others which will be unlocked when you reach a specific threshold in a character’s affection meter. Nai will message you whenever you manage to unlock a new place to visit, so keep a lookout for that!

But what happens when you visit a place?

Well, each character has their own schedules -- which you should be able to figure out either by coincidence or by talking to them at school when prompted to do so. Your Quirk will allow you to see the unlocked schedule of each of the characters, so my advice would be to check it out before deciding where to go! If you manage to come to a specific place at the correct time, you will bump into them. Normally, this will trigger a set of actions you can perform: Talk, Action, and Skinship.

Talking is a safe way to increase your love interest’s affection meter, especially in the first half of the game. More topics can be unlocked under some requirements. Generally, it doesn’t matter where you are, the topics you can talk about will be the same. There are topics which might trigger different reactions depending on how high your love interest’s affection is, so have fun finding them! However, be warned that most topics can be selected only once!

Action is another safe way to further increase your love interest’s affection meter. Unlike talking, different places have a different set of actions you could select from. More actions can also be unlocked under some requirements. Responses to this doesn’t exactly change based on the character’s current affection level, and it’s not limited to one time only.

Skinship is a riskier way to boost the affection meter: simply put, it’s a high gain with a high risk. Consider the character’s current affection level when you’re selecting from this list! He might not like it if you go touchy-feely when you’re not that close yet.

On the other hand, when his affection is high enough, you’ll find that you can have a lot of fun choosing the various options here. So be smart, bide your time, and have fun ;)

And that’s not all! Interaction is a two-way street, so depending on how your love interest views the main character, he will initiate Talk, Action, or even Skinship. There’s a lot of variations in here, and I hope you’ll have fun with this mechanic! I certainly am having fun while also pulling out my hair out of frustration designing this and trying to put the mechanism to control this into code…

Progress-wise, I think at the very least the functions for controlling this specific mechanic have been 80% completed. The actual writing however, is another story. There are still hundreds that I still haven’t had the time to write yet, and most of them are not yet coded in. Those who have been coded in still don't have sprites and music, so really, I’ll just say that the writing progress for this part is less than 1% completed….

On the left is the currently WIP full game project, with what I would say around 2-4% dialogue scripted in. And on the right side is the completed demo project.

…. Can you see how much effort the whole game is going to take me now? I did say to strap in and relax, cause this is going to be a long ride. And I wasn’t kidding lol

"Nai"

Although throughout the first week, the story will flow as your environment / characters around you teaches you on how the game works, I’m aware that the game mechanics might be hard to understand for casual players who aren’t too used to playing otome games (or games in general). Which is pretty much why I’m giving you a ‘helpline’ of some sort, in the form of another character.

Why a character? Because I can and I want to. Shush 😆

If you’ve played the demo, chances are, you’ve encountered a name which you had no recollection of existing in the canon My Hero Academia universe. Well, you’re right. Like the player’s character, Nai (full name: Namae Nai / 名前 ない) doesn’t exactly exist in the canon universe, but she’s here to help you throughout the game. (She’s also there because if she wasn’t, 1-A class members becomes odd number in total and that just feels weird to me -- plus, the team exercise system in Heroics wouldn’t exactly make sense if the class has odd number of students)

For those of you who hate Original Characters with a passion (why tho), you don’t need to worry too much. She won’t be an intrusive character in the plot and will mainly not contact you unless she really has to (seriously, her full name literally means ‘no name’, so give her a break, ok?). And if, even then, you still hate her, well.... Too bad you won’t be able to enjoy the game, I guess.

For those of you who don't mind her existence: I hope you’ll take a liking to her dark sense of humor and appreciate her helping you get through the game!

Others

Fixed some bugs regarding unlocking Special Moves from certain activities and games.

Played around and customized the ‘input name’ for a little bit, so it wouldn’t awkwardly sit on the bottom of the screen. I have 0 talent in designing UI though, so the background still stays as a black screen -- but at least it looks more prominent now.

Added a little sign to indicate which route the player has entered. I think it’s pretty cute! Hopefully you’ll like it.

Assets

Those who follow me on Twitter would have seen this coming, but anyway, I’ll be using TMGS OSTs as the main character theme for the four love interests. Hush hush, okay?

Other than that, unfortunately I didn’t have time to do any assets gathering this month.

Writing

Nothing much to say here. I think I managed to script around 50% of the events in the first day, but honestly I’m not completely satisfied with it so I might go back and tweak them a bit. Still a lot of scenes to be written!

Plans for December

I'm not too sure whether there would be much progress for the next two months, since there are so many things happening and deadlines to be met at work, which is making me really unmotivated to do other side projects in my free time lately. I also feel like I haven't been taking care of my health enough ever since quarantine started, so I'm trying to get back into doing more exercises and looking for healthier food options, which also cuts into my free time and motivation I guess.

With that said, I'll still at least aim for getting some scripts coded in -- particularly for the events in day 1. Other than that, maybe hopefully some assets gathering for supporting Kirishima's newly added route, and finishing up the coding parts that I was unable to finish this month.

I'll see y'all again at the end of next month!

[odeysseus]

if you ever do just want to play with themes again, seyche has an amazziinnggg up-to-date base code! i think i saw an ask you answered once that said you had your own base code you work off of, but just thought i'd mention it :) love your themes! congrats on graduating and stuff! <3

oh man ur tempting me.....i am hesitant just cause at this point i shall have to call all my old themes retired and start fresh bc i am Not crawling through all my old horrible code to fix everything that’s broken njfkdlngf the other day i went through all my themes and was like my LORD that is a Lot and it’s mostly Bad. howeverrrrr if i ever take a moment to figure out what in fresh hell is going on w npf photosets i may try it is true i am in desperate need to redo the theme on my main at least.......hm

and thank u so much!!! doesn't really feel like anything has happened it shall all come to an end tomorrow and graduation is cancelled even tho the uk is meant to be opening up this summer smh so. i shall read and maybe code. <3<3

[taberdoodle]

BSC AU: Before Second Chances Scott Ringsley:  “Hey-hey there! Just wanted to let you know more about our guidelines for the night shift, so you’re at least remembering or learning each day you work here. It should also help keep you alerted and awake for the few minutes I talk. So hopefully i don’t bore you with the details. Today I wanted to go over the Dress Code. As hopefully our hiring manager let you know, our Dress Code for the Night Shift shouldn’t be too difficult to follow. It’s very similar to our Morning Shift employees, so there shouldn’t be much confusion with it. We give our employees a few of the required things for your uniform just so we all are able to tell who works here together. Everything from us has our Fazbear inc. signature embroidered onto the fabric. It sometimes seems like our boss looks forward more to how we look and present ourselves then our own mental health and safety if anything, but thats beside the point.. You will be given a special name tag that you can customize if you’d like, a checkered tie to fit in with your Fazbear hat with a checkered brim. You will also be given a Fazbear themed watch, if you already have a watch, then let us know ahead of time. We even give our employees a Fazbear themed belt, since we’ve had too many incidents where our employees tried to excuse their sagging pants for them ‘not getting paid enough’ SO, for those who don’t have any, we can give you it right away! Just to prevent any tripping or even exposure to the people around you.  Now for the only parts we are more lenient on would be your dress shirt, jeans and shoes. It must be a collared shirt of some sort, any color is allowed. Just make sure it doesn’t already have any embroidery or like other companies name on it in plain sight. And please, wear your shirt the right side, i can’t even count how many times i’ve seen my coworkers try to mess with me and wear their shirt inside out in spite of me. So please, its not that hard to put a shirt on, we’re all adults. You must wear, Jeans, Dress pants or Khakis if you’ed like, sadly no leggings please, i know how comfortable they are but, a lot of parent’s will complain to us about it, plus I don’t want our coworkers making excuses to look in places they shouldn’t, so to make it easier on the complaint side, just pass on them. It would be preferred if your trousers don’t fall too far behind your ankles, as we dont want any safety issues with anyone falling or tripping on them. You can roll them up if you need to, as for ‘holes’ in your pants, just make sure they’re appropriate, if you wanna know if they pass or not for appropriate we can discuss in person about it, but over all its not as important as you’ll mostly be alone at night. As the Day Shift must wear nice jeans without holes. Just presentation reasons.  For shoes, make sure they are comfortable and black. If you can run in them, perfect, if you can jump in them perfect. If you can stand for hours on end in them, even greater! The more comfortable the better. Just...don’t wear heels, that’s all i ask.  And the last thing i want to add onto this conversation, IS CUSTOMIZATION!! You have free range to add flair to your outfit with our Fazbear inc. merch. This is very encouraged mostly because we want our employees to also fit in with the Fazbear look, like they can fit right into the room. Feel free to use stickers for your name tag, pins for your hat, tie, shirt, belt, anything at this point. Got some silly Freddy shades, feel free to wear them, but only wear them during the morning shift since there’s actual light during that time, im sure you’d be nearly blind in the dark with them on at night. Got Piercings? Tattoos? As long as they’re kid friendly, they are welcomed. Try not to wear anything dangling tho, or anything that can be yanked just for safety sake. Your hairstyle and hair color can be anything you want. Just be weary to put it up in messy cases or situations. Or even when dealing with food.  I think I went over all of the things I wanted to speak with you about, hopefully you understand and follow. If i miss anything go right ahead and ask away. If not, then I shall be going. Feel free to call me in emergencies or if you have any questions.  Thank you for staying with us here at FazBears inc. May you be safe and enjoy the night. Take care.”  ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I’ve always wanted to write up a dress code and fix up a few things with the outfits. To make them fit more into the scenery and everything, so i’ll be drawing up the others at some point in their uniforms too.  They’ll have a room for the employees to put their things in with lockers too just so they can keep their stuff not only safe, but if they are missing anything and need a change of a shirt or something, they will have them in that location during emergency wardrobe malfunctions. Scott is always in charge of making sure that the location is stocked with everything they need and tries to keep up with having at least 3 weeks more worth of everything than pretty much of what he needs.  Scott also tries to add onto the rules and take notes whenever there’s a loophole in the guidelines. Since its happened way too many times that his employees try to sneak their way into doing something they shouldn’t. 

[deeisace]

????

Odd dream time

Like my last couple dreams, this one doesn't involve time travel or train journeys at all, which is weird in itself

Although for a brief moment before I woke up I was the 13th doctor, whilst hanging upside down from the stair rail, uh, which I guess maybe counts as time travel? No? Idk

Anyway so right

Firstly, I left the house (not my house, just a house that was mine), leaving not-my-mum there, and my dog who could talk doing me a favour by transcribing typing up the audio of some recording I had - not-my-mum didn't know about the dog, so he was in like a soundproof box that went around my desk (big dark-wood fancy thing, v unlike my one now which is lighter wood and also I don't have a desk chair,,, Anyway), but either him or me had left the room door open just a little, so not-my-mum walked past and saw him sat at the typewriter, and then I got home (???) to not-my-mum freaking out a little and the dog being like "yeah, what?", and it sorta dissolved into the next part

Which that someone/I was trying to burgle my/a house, while the police were there

So like some kinda video game (tho it didn't feel like that, quite), waiting for a guy in uniform to go past the kitchen so I could duck into the (what do posh people call it, like a room for the washing machine an stuff) utility room, and from there through the yard, over the wall and down the street

I didn't get whatever it was I was looking for, and cs it was somehow also my house I was in, I didn't have any shoes on

So I had to find some disguise, somehow

And I didn't really, but a very rude man gave me a tie-dye face mask, and then I tried to con these two girls out of their money, cs I only had very little change and as I say I needed shoes, but it turned out that they were cons, too, so that didn't work, and then they took me to meet all their circus-y friends up the road, aerial types y'know with the ribbons and the rings up high, idk (mild flashback to the glasto year Joe Rush's missus and her burlesque uhhh group had a pirate theme)

Then that sorta dissolved, too, and I was at my nan's house

And apparently here I was in some sorta thing to steal the access codes to something, that were on a desktop computer in the study upstairs, that for some reason my ditzy stepmum was the one who had access to said access codes (why? who would choose her?)

So, outside in the garden, camouflaged against idk like a deckchair, was my dad, waiting for the con artist guy that I was in the last part of the dream to come and give him a thumb drive with the codes downloaded on - but like, that guy's out the door and over the wall, wandering the streets shoeless, so now I have to do it

Make some excuse to get out of the get-together in the living room (where my dad also is, somehow, as well as the garden, and this version Cannot find out what's happening, and also my sister's grandad, who's making absolutely no sense whatsoever, leaving everyone quite bemused), sneak upstairs (the banisters have been put back where they go, "because we have guests" but where they go is right across the first step like one'a them barriers you get for babies, except made of wood and immovable, so I have to soundlessly vault over it), avoid my dad who's upstairs to go the loo (never mind he could never get past the banisters) by briefly pretending I'm going to my room, log on to the office desktop, then into for some reason my uni moodle account, which I/someone had previously downloaded the super secret access codes onto, for some reason, then get back downstairs into the garden safely, to give my dad-in-the-garden the thumb drive with them on, while continuing to avoid my family and go quiet and quick

But halfway through (I've logged on everything but not yet copied the codes) my dad-in-the-house comes upstairs and we have a conversation cs oh no [ditzy stepmum] has just found she's downloaded the access codes somewhere by accident! She has to use the laptop downstairs to fix it cs god knows what would happen if someone got the codes

So I'm like, what. What would happen?

And my dad does one of his blustery "well, I don't know" sentences, which amounts to "it wouldn't be good"

And then he leaves, and idk what happens but suddenly I'm Jodie Whittaker doctor, upside down on the bannister

And then I woke up to a seagull at the window, which is such a lovely way to wake up /s

[unpredictably-raichu]

An ask blog needs asks to generate content but can't do that without asks... so how would a new (or recently revived) ask blog get the people's attention?

Oh, oh, yes! Advice time! :D I’ve been in the ask community for a little while now, so here are some things I’ve gathered over time for when you’re getting started (I’ll be assuming yours is a Pokémon ask blog, since you’re asking this to one).

Keep in mind this is long af and a bit detailed (though it’s only the first part that is long). If you’re interested in a in-detail guide, click ‘read more’ (which I would be very thankful for, I wrote all this shit for you after all, fam).

Here’s a little summarized version as a TL;DR for everyone else:

#1: keep your blog clean. If it’s about Pokémon, it’s about Pokémon; if it’s about Sonic, it’s about Sonic; if it’s about trees, it’s about goddamn trees, so no rebloging random puppy pictures or funny videos here, leave that for your personal blog, not your ask blog. Also try to keep all the out of character crap to a minimum.

#2: Have reference pages for your characters available. That’s actually a minimum requirement. An ask hints page would be useful too, but that’s optional.

#3: Have a tagging system to make everything easier to navigate.

#4 [OPTIONAL]: Give your blog a theme. Make it pretty, make it yours, and for the love of God, deactivate the god damn infinite scrolling.

#5: Tags are your friends. Tag your first post with “signal boost”, “first post”, and/or “intro post”. Tag every Pokémon that appears in your posts, including that one barely visible Caterpie in the background. Tag all your posts as “Pokémon ask blog” or “Pokeaskblog”. Tag. Tag everything. Tags are your friends if you want to be seen. Tags. Tags are. Your. Friends.

#6: Interact with other blogs. Like crazy. You are sure to be noticed when you’re freaking everywhere. Don’t forget to be nice tho. And don’t bully or harass people, for fuck’s sake.

#7: Take a chair, sit over there, get comfortable and be Patient. Like really freaking patient. Wait for months if necessary, but asks will come eventually.

#8: Have fun. That’s the whole point. Talk to people, make some shitposts, engage in silliness, and draw those magical pocket monsters that can shoot lasers out of their asses and we all love. It’s fun.

And that’s it. There’s not much else I can say, so I hope this is helpful! :D

Here’s the detailed thing:

Step #1: Organize your blog

It doesn’t seem like something that important, but believe me, it really is. Nothing turns me away from a blog faster than it being messy af and full of random, unrelated stuff. In order to keep your blog all tidy and pretty you can:

a) Refrain from reblogging anything unrelated. (If your blog is a sideblog, skip this one): You can reblog that video of that one adorable otter in your personal blog, but if your ask blog is about, say, Pokémon, don’t reblog anything that isn’t Pokémon related. If you want to go even further than that, only reblog things that are directly related to your blog, like mentions, fanart, or rp responses, instead of some random Squirtle GIF.

b) Have info pages/references of your characters available: By this I mean having specific pages containing information about your characters, including a visual reference, if possible. Reference pages are very important, since they allow people to quickly get to know a character and make interaction easier. They can contain information as simple and basic as their name, species, moves, etc. to more elaborated things, like occupation (if they have one), personality, or a brief summary of their past story/origin (unless you want that to be revealed as the story progresses in your blog or through an ask).

If you don’t know how to make a page, >here’s an easy tutorial<.

      b.2) Having an “ask hints” helps a lot when trying to receive asks, since it’ll help people who want to interact but aren’t sure of what they should ask. You can have general hints or individual hints for all the characters.

c) Have a tagging system: Having your posts clearly labeled makes it a lot easier for anyone who wanters through your blog to find the specific content they’re looking for. Here are three basic tags that make your blog easier to look through:

#OOC: “out of character”, for everything happening, well, out of character. Maybe an announcement, a shitpost, a question directed a the mod, etc. Try to keep ooc things to a minimum.

#IC: “In character”, exactly what it says on the tin. Use this for answered asks towards the characters, plot posts, rp interactions and responses, ect.

#[Character’ name]: Tag the characters that appear in a post, for anyone who wants to look through asks with one specific character in them.

Tags help a lot for getting your blog noticed. We will talk more about this ahead.

d) [OPTIONAL] Have a nice theme: This isn’t obligatory, but giving your blog a theme will make it look better and more ‘professional’. Here are some blogs that give really good, free themes/codes for Tumblr:

https://glenthemes.tumblr.com/

https://yukoki.tumblr.com/

https://zuvia.tumblr.com/thms

https://strawberryjeon.tumblr.com/tagged/themes

https://felinum.tumblr.com/tagged/theme

http://hellolittlered.org/themes/type/tumblr/

https://magnusthemes.tumblr.com/mythemes

http://dianthus-s.tumblr.com/themes

https://raiidens.tumblr.com/tagged/themesbyraiidens

https://yeolithm.com/portfolio

These are just some, but there are many, many others out there. Look for a theme that fits your tastes or your blog’s atmosphere, and customize it! You can even use this blog’s theme! However, make sure to not use overly saturated colors that make it painful to look at, it- kind of defeats the point. You can Google ‘color palletes’ if you need help with that.

NOTE: If you don’t know how to install a Tumblr theme, >here’s a simple tutorial<

NOTE#2: Sometimes Tumblr might not let you install a specific theme and shows you an error message that says that it can’t be installed because it is “making a reference to non- https directions” or something like that, which didn’t use to happen before. >Here’s a tutorial on how to fix it<, it’s quite simple, actually.

NOTE#3: For an ask/rp blog, I recommend a theme with one column, and that shows tags and captions, like the one in this blog.

If you’ve got any question about installing or customizing a theme, you can ask me, and I’ll see how I can help!

Step #2: Tags help you to be found

Be sure to use tags in your favor. Here are some things that have helped me a lot:

a) If you’re starting a Pokémon blog, tag every Pokémon that appears in your posts; that way, people looking through the tag of that specific Pokémon will be able to see your posts.

b) Again, if it’s a Pokémon blog, tag your posts as “Pokémon ask blog” or “Pokeaskblog” (or both), people looking for pokeaskblogs to follow usually look though these tags regularly.

c) Tag your first post/posts or intro as “Signal boost” and “First post”. There are blogs in the Pokémon community that look for posts tagged like this and reblog them to give them a ‘boost’, which helps a lot when you want to be seen. I’m not sure how many of these are still active, though, but you won’t lose anything from trying.

Step #3: Interact with other blogs like a madman

Send lots of asks! Interact with other blogs! Follow even more blogs! Send fanart and nice messages! Reblog/Like those posts of people looking for new blogs to follow! Some people will find you through someone else’s answered ask, some people will notice you’re following and will check you out, some people will see you in a like or a reblog, and overall there are higher chances of being seen when you are everywhere and interact with everyone (also, it’s really fun to just interact with other nice people over here).

Just make sure to be nice.

Step #4: Be patient. P a t i e n t. I’m serious.

If you think you’ll get lots of followers in a matter of a couple days then start forgetting about it. It took me two weeks to get my first ask at asktheweirdpichu, and a week and a half to get one here. And they were both spam. I cried. Two years later (holy heck has it really been that long?) I’ve got so many asks accumulated that I’m starting to think I should just fake my death and end my suffering (I’m joking, I love every single ask I get and get excited every time I get a new one).

It will take a while, but you’ll see that after enough time you’ll get noticed more and more, so don’t give up, you’ll get there.

Step #5: Don’t forget to have fun.

Make some friends, have some silly interactions, make some shitposts at 3 am, draw someone’s character and watch them shoot effusive love at you, enjoy your favorite blogs. That’s what all this is about.

And that is all! I hope it was useful! :D

[eshithepetty]

wholesome mp100 things:

(Because I really like to ramble about this show and I just thought I'd compile some things I appreciate about it):

Bottling up feelings? Nuh uh, bad idea, better have realistic and well paced development of you opening up more and learning to accept your emotions, kiddo.

Self!! Respect!! Not just learning it in a 'oh, I love myself, flaws and all' way, but the actual process of trying really hard to actually be proud of oneself, even when it's hard to see yourself as anything but terrible. It's all in the gradual changes and small moments of taking your own feelings into account!!

An actual adult? Actually acknowledging?? How actually fucked up all the shit the kids of the show have to go through is??? And going out of their way to lessen their weight of responsibility, and to protect them and offering them comfort, like,,, yes please!!!

'Huh...? You want? World domination?? What a ridiculous concept. What are you even going to do with that? People need other people, dummy. Honestly, you're acting more childish than the actual children here.'

Everyone!! Is!! Equal!! Yes, you may have god-like powers that could literally fling me into the stratosphere and I might be an actual sewer rat incarnate, but as people?? We all still long for the same validation. We all have the same rights. We're all human.

Not?? Sexualising any of the female/kid characters? Tbh, I don't really feel at my best giving points to a show for this, since it shouldn't be that surprising in the first place, but still, and I think this is easily overshadowed by all the thirst Bones has for Reigen, but that's the thing! They're putting all their (tbh not that creepy really and in character) fanservice into one grown man and that's!! Really great! Thank you Reigen for being our sacrifical lamb

On the subject of not sexualizing kids, Tsubomi, Mob's crush, while being portrayed as very pretty, is not sexualized at all either, and Mob's fantasies about her entirely consist of them just,, doing stuff like holding hands and walking home together?? Not even kissing or anything like that??? It's just so innocent and cute, gosh... also the fact that Tsubomi and the rest of the girls aren't stereotypes, but have their own lives that don't revolve around the boys and interesting personalities that are very distinct from each other, even if they don't get as much screentime as the boys :> (also, Tome being a protagonist in the Reigen spin-off manga!!)

Dealing with anxiety and dependency and manipulation/abuse, when you're an adult?? I honestly can't say I've seen too much of anything concerning this anywhere,,, Serizawa is so good

And all the adults for that matter!! All the villains! Their redemption arcs are all about intergrating into society again and learning to have a realistic worldview and all around getting well rounded as people. That's pretty inspiring, imo!

Also, Reigen, an adult, realising that he was being unfair to Mob, a kid, and specifically saying he was 'caging him in', instead of using excuses like 'trying to protect him" and trying his hardest to fix his life and mistakes before confronting him, and when he does, doesn't expect Mob to accept or forgive him or want to be friends with him again?? And tearing up for the first time on the show just from being a called good person by him,,,? That was honestly so tearjerking and pure and that arc made me feel the full range of human emotion.

Speaking of Reigen, the fact that all of his friends, for the longest time, are a bunch of middle schoolers, and that he has basically fathered them all is such a funny, yet heartwarming and also a bit sad and complicated thing, all at once, to think about.

The body improvement club!!!!! Super supportive and protective jocks, the absolute opposite of toxic masculinity. Thank you ONE for bringing us this gift.

The fact that every one of Mob's friends would likely kill, or at least give a very stern lecture to anyone who ever tries hurting him is amazing and sweet. The same goes for Mob, a big pacifist at heart, putting his strict morals on hold and fighting just for the safety of his friends, and sometimes even strangers or enemies. They're all just so protective and I absolutely love it,,,,

By the way!! Mob!!! I love that he's not a stereotypical cinnamon roll protagonist who is always pure. Like, he has his dark moments. He has hurt people. Sometimes, he's geniunely scary. But the fact that he's so aware of his faults and how much damage he could inflict, and thus tries so hard to better himself every day and to always stay on good morals, and always strives to understand and help people above all else, even through all the suffering he's gone through and all the power he posseses, is what truly makes him so kind and lovable. He's just.... grown so much. I'm immensely proud of him <3

Power of friendship, but done right, because they don't use bonds as some convenient power up, but rather primarily as a tool for character development, that, in turn, helps them become better and more stable and capable people ^^

The fact that the protagonist getting stronger in this show doesn't mean them gaining more power or becoming more book smart, but instead entails them learning to better understand people and to let others understand them as well so that confrontation can be as civilized and nonviolent as possible and become a better tool for helping everyone involved improve themselves is such a direct yet nuanced way of presenting how solutions can be made to real world problems and conflicts, and it's just such a different aproach to the usual shonen aesthetic of power being the defining factor on deciding who wins or loses.

In fact, a lot of the time there is no clear 'winner' of a fight. Sure, we certainly get to understand which side is stronger physically, but the impact those factors play into the characters' mental states and development is usually very removed from those results. A character technically winning can result in them plunging into a meltdown full of self loathing. A character losing often brings a very positive change in their life. Those experiences change the characters in different ways than just winning - positive or losing - negative.

The message that you don't need to be special! Everyone is fundimentally equal, so you being more or less special than anyone else is just flawed as a mindset. Reaching for the top is alright as long as you remember that the thing that matters the most is just trying to be kind.

Mob being widely recognized as autistic in the fandom!! A lot of characters having the capability to be seen as neurodivergent, actually. But even if it isn't intentional coding from the creator, all the messages about how people expressing themselves differently doesn't make them any less human or valid, how conventional isn't always the best, how being empathetic can manifest in wildly different ways and also the reoccurring theme of dealing with trauma etc. are still very much there and impact the narrative and characters a whole lot.

How the story was even able to become so popular, despite the nature of ONE's art!! Also, how the anime creators decided to stay faithful, even tho they had the opportunity to change the art style to something more conventional and not go as hard as they did, but nope, they admire and respect the source material and clearly have so much passion for this project, putting all kinds of talent and creativity and effort into every episode!!! They seem like they're having a lot of fun with it, and I'm very glad.

(Feel free to add more!!!)

[sk-salazar]

Here are my favorite things and some amazing observations about “Change Your Mind”. Needless to say, there are spoilers.

💖 Those cute rainbow caterpillar bois that Pink brought to Homeworld. And the image in my head of them chasing the Pearls. 😂 Someone needs to draw that.

💖 That DejaBlue pun.

💖 Connie standing up to Mama Blue and using her strict parents to her advantage.

💖 Steven standing up for his support of fusion instead of just giving Blue an empty apology.

💖 Blue realizing that she was wrong to use her emotional manipulation powers on her loved ones all these eons. And her comment about Homeworld failing Pink instead of Pink failing Homeworld. So many kids who defy the status quo need to hear this.

💖 Blue hiding the kids in her hair loop.

💖 The symbolism behind Steven throwing off his Pink Diamond getup and putting on his own clothes to confront White. (Maybe they’re just more comfortable, but I feel like there’s a clear message there.)

💖 Blue saying, “She prefers to be called Steven.” Even if she didn’t use a male pronoun, I can see a message here of accepting your trans kid and defending their chosen identify. Even if it causes a strain in your marriage.

💖 Connie’s courage (again!) to stand up to Yellow. Everyone kept blaming Connie for “blowing Steven’s chance to talk to White” because she fused with him. And Connie’s statement about changing the rules for everyone was the best clapback to that. Steven knows he’s right. Steven knows that servitude is wrong. He knows that denying who you want to be and not loving who you want to love is wrong. So if he is to confront White Diamond, he must do it on his terms, not hers.

💖 Yellow crying of her own volition.

💖 Connie’s “face-off” pun and all the hand puns about the ships. 😂 And Bismuth wanting to uppercut an upper crust. The writing for this episode was 🔥.

💖 Steven saying “GASP!” instead of actually gasping. 😂

💖 Lapis’ and Peridot’s new forms! I’m so in love with Lapis’ palazzo pants and golden sandals! She looks like she has so much more personality now. 💙💚

💖 Peridot saying, “Who needs thumbs?” even tho they’re the reason humans are an advanced species. 😂

💖 Steven’s observation about all his forms. Pink represented the “flight” response and Rose represented the “fight” response. Both of which are primitive responses to conflict. Meanwhile, Steven represents using logic and compassion to foster dialogue. He’s the most ascended form.

💖 Blue saying, “In order to fix [our family], we must admit that it’s broken.” Here, she voices the most common fear of those people who always push back against progress.

💖 Yellow telling Steven to #TakeAKnee . I see what you did there, Sugar Woman. 😏

💖 Yellow having the courage to tell White that “we need to talk about us”. (I love all the throwback references in this episode! One of which is this line, which is a throwback to the episode about Greg and Rose.)

💖 Steven telling White to “let us in your head” or to “get out of your head”. To be “in your head” means that you’re self-centered and unconcerned about the world around you. Again, that 🔥 writing.

💖 Amethyst’s owl pun. 😂

💖 Steven fusing with all the Crystal Gems to save them. Not only was it a great idea in an emergency, but it’s a great plot device. It gives us the answer to our questions about who all the Steven fusions are, thereby making it easier to wrap up the show sometime in the near future.

💖 The new fusions!!! Rainbow Quartz is a posh twink, Sunstone is a positive, 80’s rapper-esque cool dude role model for kids and Obsidian fucking Te Ka.

💖 Rainbow Quartz blowing a raspberry, Rainbow Quartz blasting off with a literal rainbow trail, Rainbow Quartz’s “two stones and one bird” joke. Just, Rainbow Quartz. 🌈

💖 The Crystal Gems forming a cheerleading pyramid to form Obsidian and Pearl doing a Swedish Alps move.

💖 That badass fucking shot of Obsidian’s multiple arms. As well as that epic music they played for her scene.

💖 The Crystal Gems’ new forms. Pearl has completely thrown off that flimsy veil thing that all Pearls have. (Which is a symbol of servitude to her.) And now, her outfit is a lot more conventionally human. (Maybe a sign that she wants to pursue Mystery Girl?) Also, the Star is on her back, representing her putting her past as a Crystal Gem behind her. Now, she’s just Pearl and she just wants to live her own chosen purpose.

Garnet has both red and blue in her corset. After Ruby and Sapphire spent time apart, Ruby realized that she liked being with Sapphire while still being herself. Maybe Sapphire came to the same conclusion. Maybe they both came to the conclusion that they’re not two halves of a whole. They’re two whole beings in one pair.

💖 Bismuth loving Connie enough to make her a custom non-Rose Quartz-themed sword. I love how much she loves and protects the new crew.

💖 The Great and Lovable Peridot declaring that she’s Homeworld’s savior.

💖 As unnerving as it is, I love the way White tries to mess with Steven’s head. She talks about Yellow’s, Blue’s and Pink’s impurities making them dependent on each other. (Essentially, colored diamonds are created because of impurities.) And also how Pink surrounds herself with outcasts in order to be considered normal or good. I don’t agree with any of her statements, but you’ll often hear bigots use the same kind of logic to justify their worldview, which really makes this show hit home in many ways. I have to admit, her words kind of messed with my head, too. For a moment, I had some intrusive thoughts, wondering if I believed what I believe so that I could be “the best of the worst”. I snapped out of it really quick, mind you. But this was an incredibly effective speech.

💖 Amethyst calling White a dirt wad. 😂 She has NO chill.

💖 Again, White Diamond being an absolute villain when she says, “Now I’ve removed all their flaws. Now they are perfect, now they are ME.” This could be an interpretation of God. He sees free will as a mistake because his creations choose NOT to glorify him and NOT to be molded in his image. So many awesome sneak-disses of real people in this episode. 😎👏🏼

💖 Yellow Pearl’s silly Pink Steven line turning out to be foreshadowing. 🤦🏻‍♀️

💖 The palpable representation of self-love in the form of Steven adoring his own form. Also, there’s a throwback to Rose Quartz saying, “Every time you love yourself or you love being yourself, that’s me loving you and loving being you.” Steven really is Pink’s ascended form. The song in the credits is from Pink to Steven.

💖 Rose Quartz and Pink being gone for good. So many stories have characters that come back to life and it seems like death loses meaning nowadays. As much as I love Rose, I’m here for her never coming back. Especially because that represents Pink/Rose/Steven growing and moving on. Just as we never go back to our old, naive selves, neither should Pink.

💖 Steven being equal to White in power, apparently. She was shook with that scream of his! And he took his sweet ass time walking towards his meat suit. That’s power right there.

💖 White saying, “I only want you to be yourself and if you can’t do that, I’ll do it for you.” A perfect representation of people nowadays forcing people to deny their true identities through draconian laws, unwritten social codes and bigoted statements.

(“You do not look like this, you do not sound like this, you are Pink Diamond” = “If you have a penis/vagina, you’re a man/woman.” “That gender doesn’t exist.” “Men and women are supposed to be with each other because...reproduction.” “You can live together, but don’t call it marriage.” Etc, etc.)

💖 The best line in the whole show: “I AM a child. What’s your excuse?” What a sweet, heartfelt way to remind us of the pilot episode, when all this magic got started. 😭

💖 White Diamond interpreted Pink’s “impurity” as warmth earlier. All this time, she thought that being “perfect” meant being detached, cold, unsympathetic, overbearing and cruel. But she becomes more likeable and multi-faceted when she absorbs Pink’s warmth/light. Without it, she’s a creepy, aloof puppet master. But with it, she becomes the same old White that the Diamonds loved. She changed quite easily, so that indicates to me that she felt the need to remove her emotions to become a more effective leader. (Kind of like how people with broken hearts often vow never to love again.) There should be a future exploration on this. Did she remove her own emotions? Did she do it in order to detach herself from grieving for Pink? Or did a higher, more eldritch power do this to her? 🤔 Either way, Pink’s warmth is the antidote to all forms of frigidity. For all that guff about her perfect white light penetrating everyone, she sure got shown a thing or two. 😁

💖 Apparently, Pink Pearl is okay-ish. She probably still has the trauma of being taken from Pink and having her eye cracked. But she apparently has no memory of being controlled. I was so tormented for the last month, wondering if poor Pink Pearl was screaming for freedom, trapped inside her own body. 😢

💖 Steven’s throwback to the song he sung to Lars and Sadie when they were stranded on the island. “If you let others just be whoever they are, maybe you could let yourself be whoever you are” is a throwback to “Let Yourself Just Be Wherever You Are”. It’s also a perfect message to people who rely on bigotry and forcefulness to serve as their whole identity.

💖 Sadie’s green hair. 💚 What a look! And Greg is such a good guy that he’s allowed Sadie and her band to play his song. ☺️ Also, her literal mic drop when the Diamond mothership lands above her. 🤣

💖 The way our perfect cinnamon roll always brings people together. The way he introduces the off-colors to the Diamonds like it’s NBD, like there hasn’t been eons of bad blood between them. And the way White is willing to say hello to them first. What a good grandma. ☺️ It’s funny that earlier on, White said that Pink inspires others to be their worst selves. Yet whenever Steven does stuff like this, it inspires me to be my best self. And many other fans too, I’m sure!

💖 Lars being kind to Lion. ☺️

💖 The off-colors and corrupted-now-uncorrupted Gems finally getting their happily ever after. ☺️

💖 Jasper still retaining a scar of her corruption. Because no one ever comes back unscathed and that little detail makes this story so much more real to us. Also, the way Amethyst explained everything to her, even after the way Jasper had bullied her.

💖 Yellow throwing up some deuces as the mothership was blasting off. 😂✌🏼 There is hope for these Diamonds after all.

💖 Steven’s closing song. What a perfect message to sum up the entire episode. 😍

[ghostportals]

Rejet’s Star Revolution: Starting the game

Uh yeah idk if there’s already a guide out but I haven’t seen one? so i figured i’d post a bit of one

keep in mind if you’re reading i can’t actually read japanese, a lot of this was done with google translate lol. but it can still be helpful to make things quicker till a proper guide comes out (if there. isn’t already one)

Menu stuff is at the very bottom of the post ! The stuff before the menu takes you through the tutorial and the basics that aren't covered in that.

edit before you click: warning that there’s currently irl blood on my desktop theme (won’t be soon tho)

Welcome to the Starevo tutorial! Lines with an * at the beginning aren’t in the tutorial, but are stuff I’m mentioning for the later gameplay.

1. Joining

Enter your Player name. Last name, then first name, Japanese style.

2. Intro

The school’s stuco VP will talk to you for a while. I’d like to tell what he says, but I’m not quite confident enough in my jp listening skills to do so lol. He does call you “president-chan”, though. You’re given a dialogue option:

It doesn’t matter what you say, but the top says “I’m not very confident” and the bottom basically says “I’ll try to do my best.” Both are not very confident sounding either way, which is understandable considering you’re suddenly being thrust into a position of power in a dang idol school, lol.

3. Lives - require LP

If you’re used to mobile rhythm games, the gameplay is pretty easy to get from just the images. There’s only one “button” and it doesn’t matter where you tap.

*Select a song, select a friend or guest as support, select a team, and click the pink button to begin (out of tutorial).

Small pink circle: Regular tap.

Blue circle with trail: Tap and hold.

Green circle with shine in the middle: Swipe.

Big pink gradient circle: Tap with two fingers (or double tap real fast, if you’re lazy.)

Star shaped: Tap A Lot Real Fast. You need to get a certain amount to get a perfect; continuing after the star fills gives you bonuses.

*After a live, you’ll see your results and get rewards. If your support was a guest, you’ll get a popup prompting you to send a friend request; you can send it (blue) or not (gray).

4. Lessons - require AP

You can increase affection(?) degree in lessons. Select the lesson type by selecting one of the colored circles. Keep an eye on the characters condition-- how effective the lessons are is directly proportional to how in shape the character is! (Just like real life wow)

Tap twice on a lesson type (circle) to begin. You’ll need to tap through several lesson types to complete a whole session, and can give items to the characters to increase how much they gain in a certain attribute by tapping on the orange button with a coffee cup.

Sometimes characters will be too tired, or moody, to participate in a certain lesson. Keep an eye on their mood, especially if you’re thinking about using an item. Sometimes they’ll sleep, which means they don’t participate in that bit of the lessons. However, letting them get rest can up their FEVER gauge and their tone. When the FEVER gauge is filled, the effectiveness of the lessons increases greatly.

*You can give presents during the lesson to make something good happen. Try to give what the character likes! When a character participates in a lesson, their affection goes up! Let’s become good friends with everyone!

*Lessons are done by unit. Outside of the tutorial, when you click the lesson button, you’ll choose a unit to train.

5. Story

The tutorial will next take you to the story page. After the introduction (which you already read), the stories will no longer be fully voiced. *You need to spend star/story keys to read most chapters. The mechanics work like any mobile vn; if you don’t want to sit through it, you can expand the menu in the upper right and click the skip button to fast fwd through.

*If you’ve played Enstars, the stories are similar to that. They’re organized by unit.

6. Units

Time to choose your boys! The screen shows you pura.net at first; switch between them by swiping, not by tapping the arrows. When a unit catches your fancy (or you find the one you’re already dedicated to), tap the pink button. It will then ask if you’re sure you want to start with this unit; click OK.

7. Gacha

Time to scout. You’ll automatically be taken to the gacha page in the tutorial, where you’ll be given a card of one of the members of your chosen unit. This ends the tutorial.

*Not in tutorial: the actual gacha function. If you’ve played other mobage, you know this. If not, it’s simple: The regular gacha (at the time of writing, only one, but there will probably be more) requires the little rainbow star stones. Spent 15 stars, get one card. Spend 150, get 10 cards. Getting 10 cards ups your chances of a better card! The point gacha (lower card rarities) requires 5000 points(?) for a 10 pull, and 500 for 1.

The tutorial ends after you get your card. The game will give you a couple messages and then prompt you to let it restart so it can complete more downloads (shouldn't take long). Upon starting the game again, you’ll receive login bonuses and be thrown into the fray.

8. Other stuff tutorial mentions

Cards can be strengthened using items. These are what you obtain from playing lives and completing lessons. You require a story key (blue star key) to read story chapters.

9. Cards

The top button on the card menu is your team organization. There are 5 team slots. Clicking the rightmost button on the bar that shows the cards will show the active skills in the team.

You have two types of teams: live teams, and lesson teams. When you open it, you’re on live teams. Click the other button above the card images to switch. There’s a bunch more buttons on here, but at the time of writing this idk what they are, I’ll. fix this later.

Second button is to level up your cards. Select a card (I have to tap them twice? sometimes more lol) to level. I’d like to add more but I can’t do anything there yet so I’ll fix this later;

Third button is awakening. I assume this is like idolizing/changing/blooming/ect. It looks to require items rather than a second copy? Will update later as well.

The bottom button lets you view a card’s stats. Level, specific stats, and skills. Click the middle button under the card to see the character’s profile. The third button will bring you to the unit pages, where you can look at any character’s profile by tapping them.

10. Menu stuff!

The main menu can be accessed from most pages by clicking the arrow in the bottom left. It’s shown across the bottom, and is showing by default on the home page. You can full screen your character/cg with the button in the left.

Left to right: Home, live, lesson, story, characters, gacha, friends, more menu menu.

10a. Friends

The rightmost button on the menu lets you view friends. It begins as a desolate and barren wasteland of loneliness. Right side buttons, top to bottom: Friends list, friend requests, pending approval from the other person, and search (find some friends!) The search page looks a bit glitchy atm but nothing gamebreaking. Click the button next to their name to view their profile, or the rightmost on their little bar to send them a request.

10b. More Menu Menu

Left to right:

Profile, settings, storage/inventory (items) Shop, friends, Transfer data, help, contact us Opening movie, terms of service, back to title.

10c. Settings

System options -> Live options -> Story options

System options top to bottom: music volume, sound effects volume, voice volume, lightweight mode (makes it run better).

Live options top to bottom: music volume, SE volume, voice volume, lightweight mode, timing calibration, movie (animations), cut-ins (the character popups when skills activate).

Story options is just text speed.

10d. Welcome menu

...This should probably be first but whatever.

Tap the bottom left button to access. Left to right (to bottom): OP movie, takeover/transfer/”inheritance”, clear cache, contact us.

In all honesty I don’t understand the transfer stuff myself... It looks like you can put an account on for sure, but I don’t know how to assign an email and password to your current account.

And that’s all I’ve got! When I figure out how to assign transfer codes I’ll add that in.

[comicteaparty]

February 4th-February 10th, 2019 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party week long chat that occurred from February 4th, 2019 to February 10th, 2019.  The chat focused on Offshore Comic by Stefan Gasic.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB START!

Hello and welcome everyone to Comic Tea Party’s Week Long Book Club~! This week we’ll be focusing on Offshore Comic by Stefan Gasic~! (http://www.offshorecomic.com/)

You are free to read and comment about the comic all week at your own pace, so stop on by whenever it suits your schedule! Remember, though, that while we allow constructive criticism, our focus is to have fun and appreciate the comic. Below you will find four questions to get you started on the discussion. However, a new question will be posted and pinned everyday (between 12:01AM and 6AM PST), so keep checking back for more! You have until February 10th to tell us all your wonderful thoughts! With that established, let’s get going on the reading and the chatting!

QUESTION 1. What has been your favorite strip in the comic so far? What specifically did you like about it?

QUESTION 2. At the moment, who is your favorite character? What about that character earns them this favor?

QUESTION 3. Given the comic’s focus on financial markets and all that composes them, what is something this comic has taught you about the subject? Alternatively, what is something you wished you understood better to understand the comic’s comedy?

QUESTION 4. How do you think the comic’s illustrative style and choices help the comedy of the comic? What is one moment where a particular design or image really stood out to you and helped the point the strip was trying to convey?

QUESTION 5. The comic features several recurring subjects like the legitimacy of IQ scores, LLCs, and more. Which of these recurring topics did you like the most? What about it caught your interest?

Stefan G

Hello everyone, 1) Just updated www.offshorecomic.com with a new strip. Check it out. 2) RebelVampire, are your questions intended for me or any new reader? Ciao, Stefan the creator of #Offshorecomic

snuffysam

They're intended for both (still working through the archive)!

keii4ii

Is there a way to get permalinks for individual strips, so I can come back to specific ones at a later time?

Stefan G

Thanks & okay, snuffysam keii4ii, unfortunately there’s no way to get permalinks for individual strips ... I coded the website myself as a side project and am not that good a coder

keii4ii

Oh man, I can relate to that... If I ever get rich, comic website coding and maintenance stuff is the first thing I'll hire someone to do for me

I do like how it loads and makes it easy to read through the archive, for what it's worth.

Stefan G

Thanks for the feedback ... and I totally, totally agree. One could spend a fortune for a coder to take care of all the fixings and stuff ... now I’m learning on the side whenever there’s time left over from work & family.

Stefan G

Answer to Q1 => readers have found the “happiness” strip the best. It’s also one of my favourite ones [succinct & clever & relatable] ...I truly don’t have a favourite strip, but the attached Reto & Urs -strips make me chuckle whenever I read them [I appreciate below-the-waist-humour and/or humour where people are really, really selfish].

lomcia (princess_lom)

1. The newest one is so funny

2. Trader

3. i dont work in office but i cant find nothing to improve that comic, i think the design of characters and humor is on really high lvl 12/10 for me

4. Style is perfect ffor that comic, i wouldnt change it

Stefan G

Answer to Q2 => at the moment my favourite character is the Economist. He’s a genuine IYI [intellectual-yet-idiot] ... which the world is full of and the finance industry in particular. The Economist is easy to write for because I’ve discovered a never ending source of humorous material called the daily financial newspaper ... please find attached also one of my favourite strips

Thank you, lomcia (princess_lom) for your feedback.

lomcia (princess_lom)

your welcome I hope i didnt misunderstood question 3 xD

Stefan G

I think you got everything just right

lomcia (princess_lom)

cool

Stefan G

Answer/comment to Q3 => I’ve spend my professional life in finance, hence, I know every nuance of the industry. However, for the layperson the finance industry [money, banking, insurance, etcetc...] is a big black box of unnecessary complication. My humble attempt with #Offshorecomic is to untangle this complexity and make money related topics more accessible/understandable to anyone ... using humour as my main tool. Finance is more stupid than you think; trust me

I’ll answer the rest tomorrow. Gotta go to now. is like in a totally different time zone and all that Thx again y’all !

RebelVampire

QUESTION 6. Which joke not related to finance did you enjoy the most? What about it made it stand out to you among all the others?

RebelVampire

1) i really enjoyed the life coaching strip about facing reality and lying to yourself. i just really enjoy the bluntness and simplicity by which the self-deception line is delivered. A+ comedy right. 2) i like p-bird because i consider him a much needed counter balance to many of the other characters. he at least has more feet planted in reality. 3) hedge funds. not that i understand them perfectly from the comic, but now theyre more than just a financial word i see tossed around. and despite the very negative absurdist humor regarding them, was still interesting to get some insight into what they actually involved. 4) i think the style overall really balances well with the comedy. a lot of the comedy is reliant on the dialogue, so keeping the illustrations clean, bold, and somewhat simple really helps direct attention to the words. i also really just enjoy the character designs cause every single one really hits that idiot or absurdist mark that needs to be hit. 5) actually i really liked the address of IQ scores. because literally these characters seem like the type whod wind up on r/iamverysmart and use their IQs to talk about how cool they are. so it was kind of nice to see some evidence for that with the subject. that and i always like seeing the concept of IQ being torn apart. 6) i actually liked a lot of the jokes that pertained to the academic sphere in regards to things like publishing and teaching. selfishly it most just stood out to me because academia is something im more familiar with in regards to its simultaneous setup of worthless class structures and cutthroat profs trying to further their careers.

Stefan G

Thank you, RebelVampire, for your thoughtful analysis & feedback I believe that the writing is the most important part in comics ... and the best humorous writing is often blunt & simple [you hit the nail on the head with that comment]. Furthermore, I intentionally designed the strip in a simplistic style in order to A) highlight the writing/gag, B) to save time and C) cuz simple drawings are funny I love to make fun of pompous, self righteous folks ... academics are thus some of my main targets [due to the same reasons I make fun of financial professionals].

Stefan G

Answer to Q4 => My childhood inspiration and spark for cartoons/drawing came from F.Ibanez [Clever & Smart] ... very funny yet simple style. Nowadays I enjoy Dilbert by Scott Adams or the political cartoons from cartoonist Jari Elsilä; also both of them are hilarious without wasting unnecessary lines. I believe a straightforward style highlights the writing and that’s what I’m trying to achieve. Moreover, I love to have backgrounds in my comics [to steer the reader to a particular thought or mood] but hate to draw them and/or dislike it when they clutter the cartoon ... I’m rather happy with a style that I’ve developed over time where I draw the background but reduce the opacity to 25 %. I think that works pretty nice

Stefan G

Answer to Q5 => My favourite themes are 1) anyone predicting the future, 2) mistaking luck for awesome skill and 3) incompetent yet pompous professionals ... there is so much hilarious material right there

Answer to Q6 => I often use the characters Reto und Urs for jokes/strips that are not necessarily financial because they are so endearingly stupid [well, mostly Urs is]. This one makes me chuckle

RebelVampire

QUESTION 7. In what ways have any of the strips changed the way you think about life, finances, or any other topic covered in them? Alternatively, what have the strips portrayed that you wish more people knew?

RebelVampire

(the archive for the chat on Poco Adventures is now available https://comicteaparty.com/post/182650076295/january-28th-february-3rd-2019-ctp-archive)

RebelVampire

QUESTION 8. Of all the parodies and jabs at financial markets and life, which do you consider the most on the nose as far as its representation in the comic goes?

RebelVampire

7) the strips have made me realize in a way that this is another industry where basically theres lots of ridiculous junk going on in the background cause you can never remove human faults completely. cause when it comes to finance theres lots of advanced vocabulary and concepts being thrown around usually, so for someone untrained it can sound intimidating and hard to follow. i think these strips do a great job of humanizing things tho and showing that the concepts arent all that alien cause at the end they were created by humans and reflect the desires of humans in a way. 8) one of my faves that i think is totally on the nose is this one where the economist is telling p-bird about ppl on twitter debating him being ignorant. and that his facts and stuff will prevail but p-bird points out that wouldnt even work on the economist. and the economist goes home confused. i think this is way too true for what its like to argue on the internet and how facts and logic get infinitely buried for the sake of narrative.

Stefan G

Excellent analysis/comments, RebelVampire really constructive. The human element is everywhere and money is such an emotionally laden topic that it’s easy to get confused even without the unnecessary complicated vocabulary ...which is often misused even by so-called “professionals”. If my strip has helped you understand all of that and un-demonised the beast, you’ve made me a very happy man Yeah, the Twitter-Fact-Confusion strip is one of my more relatable strips ... I’ve given up on trying to change people’s minds with facts; if changing minds is possible, it can only be achieved through via emotions. It sounds more logical the other way around but that’s not how we work. Here’s a special academically oriented strip just for you, RebelVampire Enjoy

snuffysam

haven't been able to get all the way through the archive yet, but my answer to both #2 and #8 is the Regional Manager. I love all the characters, but there's something to be said for the simplicity of having a guy literally run around headless.

Stefan G

Thanks , snuffysam. I almost forgot about the regional manager. I have to bring him back to life; I also like him ... by the way, there are 308 strips in total.

Answer to Q7 => I can’t claim that any one strip has changed the way I think about life and/or other things ... however, I do believe that writing & drawing Offshore strips has reinforced in me some of the main ideas from my favourite author, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who’s books have influenced me deeply [e.g. Black Swan, Antifragile, etc etc] ... luck versus skill, thinking about risk and stuff like that. I regularly come back to his books for inspiration and recommend his books & Twitter -feed. Here are two strips that highlight my point ...sort of

Answer to Q8 => wow tough question ... with 99 % of my strips I genuinely try to convey some message about basic human quirks and/or outright stupidities that actually take place on a regular basis when handling money + and then I add my own personal humours twist to it. Here are a few strips with the message never to buy something you don’t understand [a hint: they always have complicated names]...

RebelVampire

QUESTION 9. What other finance related topics are you hoping to see the comic explore? Which characters are you hoping to see involved with the topic?

Stefan G

Answer to Q9 => As the creator of the strip I’m obviously biased to answer this question, but I’d love to hear what the new readers have to say. I don’t have a particular preference for any topic [except make fun of pompous forecasters ] ... but I feel myself wanting to write & draw more strips for the Markets-Weasel and Reto und Urs. And that’s surprisingly hard to do; forcing it doesn’t work [at least not for me] ... Offshore’s main characters were supposed to be Reto und Urs and somehow P-Bird and the Economist and the trader stole the show. I guess that happens when you get to know your characters better. Funny how that happens ... here’s one nostalgic strip from my early work that I really enjoy

Stefan G

Addition to Q9 => ... I’ve steadily build up an audience on Twitter [@NonMeek] which consist mainly of likeminded financial and/or other professionals ...hence, hearing the viewpoints from anyone outside that sphere would be awesome

RebelVampire

QUESTION 10. What are you most looking forward to in the comic? Also, do you have any final thoughts to share overall?

RebelVampire

9) idk about specific topics, but id like to see the CEO who i think appeared in like one strip. I'm really interested to see the CEO dynamic with the other characters in terms of finance. learn how they view what theyre doing, how they view what the others are doing, etc. but im all for bringing the regional manager back too cause i enjoyed that character as well. a lot of great humor picking fun at how some managerial positions are kind of ridiculous to even exist to a degree. 10) learning more, mostly. overall its nice to see a harder to cover topic in comics. ive enjoyed how approachable and humanized the strips make finances, and how they remind you that professionals can be like this and actually have no clue what theyre doing. @Stefan G that academic oriented strip you shared was actually one of my faves. not necessarily in college, but i see this a lot in the blogosphere where ppl do a thing once and try to pass themselves as qualified experts to deliver advice. XD

Stefan G

@RebelVampire Thanks again for your opinions. Those really help with the development of the strip ... finance is a hard topic indeed and there are no really finance oriented strips out there [that I know of anyway], which is funny cuz the industry is filled with emotions and mind blowing mental errors. I guess people still believe finance & investing is some sort of scientific discipline which it’s really not ... there are hardly any black & white answers to anything even though there’s lots and lots of historical data ... it’s time to fix that myth with Offshore I’m glad you enjoyed that academic strip. It resonated rather well on Twitter too

@RebelVampire [adding to my previous answer] ... I agree that the managers need to be reanimated and given another chance. I’ll try to do that and see how they resonate. I never know beforehand which characters will work and which will fizzle out; e.g. der Compliance Offizier is one of my favourite characters, yet, resonates weakly outside the banking circles ‍♂️ [I love the strip below ].

keii4ii

I would like to see more strips that cracks jokes about this very specific context of finances! Things like that strip about funds blowing up on day 252. I think that gives this comic its own flavor. Readers get to laugh about not just any kind of incompetent people, but incompetent people in this specific field. Readers with no background in finances don't know the context, so more strips that shed light on the context of the jokes would be great.

Stefan G

@keii4ii All valid and excellent points ... I genuinely try to write & design my cartoons in such a way that the joke is understandable even though you don’t know the context. It’s a hard thing to do ... my wife is my toughest critic and she tells me the same as you ... but keep following Offshore and I promise to come up with more stuff like that 252 strip

Answer to Q10 => My ambition with Offshore is to 1) amuse myself first and see if anyone shares my sense of humour [if a cartoon doesn’t amuse me, I don’t publish it]. It’s a splendid way of letting out some frustration from work ... and 2) to make investing & finance more approachable to the layperson by infusing some humour into it in the form of cartoons ... which by the way nobody thought of doing on a serious basis. Weird. However, to produce material on a semi-regular basis I figured that writing only gags/jokes is too much work and/or too shallow of an approach, hence, the characters in the strip need to be interesting/relatable enough in order to create humorous material by mere interaction with each other. That’s easier said than done. I’m quite satisfied with my characters so far but am continuously looking for new interesting characters to add to the strip [either permanently or impermanently]. Like Scott Adams once told me: “The trick with comics is to reflect the reader's own experience. To allow people to say, "That's me!" I’ll conclude with this sneak peek strip [only for you guys] that should relate to the experience of anybody working in a big corporation.

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB END!

Thank you everyone so much for reading and chatting about Offshore Comic this week! Please also give a special thank you to Stefan Gasic for volunteering the comic and creating it! If you liked Offshore Comic, make sure to continue to support it via some of the links below!

Read and Comment: http://www.offshorecomic.com/

Stefan’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonMeek