#i never continue things

[silent-browser]

Sooooo.... I continued it... But not really. Also I never continue things so fair warning if there is a drop in quality.

I was rewatching Scara's introduction and got to the point where he talked about the "Third Betrayal" and only JUST NOW realized that he doesn't understand death because he is a puppet and was probably still super young at that point and it usually takes normal human children a long time to come to terms and fully understand their mortality. He doesn't have to do that because he was originally built to last as long as possible. He had to be built that way to house a gnosis. And as a result death would have been a very hard concept to fully grasp.

Sure he understands that of you hurt someone enough they go down and possibly even stop breathing but they'll get up soon enough right? I mean how else would his enemies have so many people to fight for them if those still people didn't just get up and go back to what they were doing before? (Which was fighting him) He would probably need something big to force him to really understand death in a very short amount of time. (Hehehe)

Say perhaps if his precious Companion were to get injured for the first time in some random skirmish against hilichurls and he dismisses it. He's seen mortals leak the red before but he doesn't see it as any more than an annoyance when it gets on his clothes. His Companion insists on stopping to "clean up the wound" which he agrees to. That red stuff can really stain good clothing and other mortals look so weird and weary if you try to interact with them while still wearing the stains. And, even more importantly, such stains may get in the way if his future cuddle time.

After they are done fiddling with the wound and some random scraps of fabric they continue on but strangely enough his Companion doesn't seem to be doing as well as before. The injured body part seems weaker and is starting to become warm, sore and puffy. They have started to apply strange plant mixtures to the offending area, claiming that these poultices would help the injury "heal" though it seems to be doing the opposite. It was when they were about to leave the supposedly beautiful Qingce Village (he thought his companion looks 100× better than this random village of old people) that his Companion stumbled in their step before looking up at him and saying "please don't get mad" before dropping to the ground.

Scaramouche had never been so afraid. Not after being abandoned by his mother, not after loosing his friend, not after every hard fought battle and not even after loosing the gnosis he so craved. He watched their precious, delicate, achingly mortal body fall and screamed. He saw visions. Vivid as if he was right back to when they happened. Visions of soldiers felled by his blade, visions of Dottore's lab after he was done experimenting with delusions and the effects they had on mortal bodies and visions of the child he had once called friend laying still in that suffocating shack.

Near by villagers came rushing over to the small campsite that the two strange wanderers had insisted on setting up instead of staying in a guest house, to find a very distraught looking young man clutching on to his softer spoken companion as if they were his life line. Villagers quickly leapt to action and gently guided the young man to bring them to a cleaner space than the open air campsite and, with much coaxing and promises that he can remain by their side during the examination, to let go of them so that a local doctor can take a closer look at them.

When it is confirmed that the seemingly insignificant wound they had gotten from that hilichurl fight not to long ago was now infected and a much more serious problem than it once was Scara is devastated. How could this happen? Why did it happen? What does this mean for his Companion? What exactly is an infection? He almost holds this poor doctor hostage until he gets all of his questions answered and he understands the situation better. Once the poor doctor is release from the room and scara has a moment to think...

'Their injury is infected. They got injured in a fight. A fight that I obviously didn't protect them well enough in. Therefore they got injured because of me. That must be why they told me not to get mad. They knew that I failed to protect them. They knew and yet they still traveled with me. They don't want me to get mad.... At myself...'

He spends a lot of time stewing in that mental space. Thinking about things he could have done better in the fight. Thinking about all of the signs that something was wrong that he didn't notice. All of the winces when ever his hand brushed the injury when he want to hug or cuddle them. All of the herbal poultices used in vain to keep the infection at bay. All of the moments taken to rest that he misinterpreted as more head pat time for him. All of the selfish actions he took that might have made it worse. Thinking about what might have happened if they weren't anywhere near other people when they collapsed. Those thoughts scare him the most.

The only time he spends outside of his own head is when the local doctor comes by to redress and check on the wound. During that time he pays close attention to what the doctor is doing so that he could replicate it in the future, should he fail to protect them from another injury again. He gains a sudden interest in medicine after all of this.

After a week or two you are deemed healthy enough to travel once more, something scara is particularly excited about. Traveling will mean less of your attention is focused on other beings and a new chance to prove himself worthy of your praise and affections. A chance he will never take lightly ever again.

Scara becomes more protective after this experience. Insisting on looking you over after every single fight. Doesn't matter if you were even involved in the fight. Doesn't matter if his own limbs are hanging on by mere threads. Doesn't matter is some random guard or adventurer had gotten involved as well and were more obviously hurt. He is checking his Companion over for even the smallest scrape so that the ever looming threat of death could never claim you.

Not that he exactly had the right word for that feeling yet.

[inkskinned]

probably time for this story i guess but when i was a kid there was a summer that my brother was really into making smoothies and milkshakes. part of this was that we didn't have AC and couldn't afford to run fans all day so it was kind of important to get good at making Cool Down Concoctions.

we also had a patch of mint, and he had two impressionable little sisters who had the attitude of "fuck it, might as well."

at one point, for fun, this 16 year old boy with a dream in his eye and scientific fervor in heart just wanted to see how far one could push the idea of "vanilla mint smoothie". how much vanilla extract and how much mint can go into a blender before it truly is inedible.

the answer is 3 cups of vanilla extract, 1/2 cup milk alternative, and about 50 sprigs (not leaves, whole spring) of mint. add ice and the courage of a child. idk, it was summer and we were bored.

the word i would use to describe the feeling of drinking it would maybe be "violent" or perhaps, like. "triangular." my nose felt pristine. inhaling following the first sip was like trying to sculpt a new face. i was ensconced in a mesh of horror. it was something beyond taste. for years after, i assumed those commercials that said "this is how it feels to chew five gum" were referencing the exact experience of this singular viscous smoothie.

what's worse is that we knew our mother would hate that we wasted so much vanilla extract. so we had to make it worth it. we had to actually finish the drink. it wasn't "wasting" it if we actually drank it, right? we huddled around outside in the blistering sun, gagging and passing around a single green potion, shivering with disgust. each sip was transcendent, but in a sort of non-euclidean way. i think this is where i lost my binary gender. it eroded certain parts of me in an acidic gut ecology collapse.

here's the thing about love and trust: the next day my brother made a different shake, and i drank it without complaint. it's been like 15 years. he's now a genuinely skilled cook. sometimes one of the three of us will fuck up in the kitchen or find something horrible or make a terrible smoothie mistake and then we pass it to each other, single potion bottle, and we say try it it's delicious. it always smells disgusting. and then, cerimonious, we drink it together. because that's what family does.

[egophiliac]

since Eng is getting 7.5 soon(?), I felt motivated to go back to my Meleanor rig and make her a couple of lesson animations! ...except for alchemy, because the cauldron bubbles proved too hard to photoshop around, whoops.

maybe she just got lost on her way to the classroom...?

(credit: backgrounds are from the game, I just put her on top of 'em)

[tapakah0]

@somerandomdudelmao *cough-cough* *COUGH* Sorry I'm still not over this arc... *disappears*

Imagine Dragons - I Bet My Life

[vaguely-concerned]

are. are you telling me that if the romanced mage warden dies and alistair is king, he deadass stares greagoir down over her dead body and grants the circle of ferelden its autonomy after ordering it rebuilt somewhere safer. first you have to deliberately leave him behind so he won't die for you and then he does that for you once you're gone, even when you're broken up??? absolute and literal king behaviour of the highest order????? the actions speak louder than words of it all??????? I think I hauve covid

[14dayswithyou]

💖 Day 3.5 is now available! 💖

For the last couple of months, only Server Boosters had access to the 3.5 update... Buuuuut now it's available for everyone to play in the 14DWY Discord — and soon itch.io once I'm happy with the QA and state of the game — so please don't feel pressured to join unless you want to!!

The full devlog + even more screenshots are under the cut ^^

What's been added to the 3.5 version?

📺 Streamer Mode!

I've been told that it's difficult to stream and monetise age-restricted videos on YouTube and Twitch, so I added an option to remove the sexual content and strong language used in the demo.

Now y'all can invite Ren into your bed for cuddles without putting your streamer career on the line /silly /lh

This won't affect the 18+ rating or dark themes/elements of the game, however! Although Streamer Mode will prevent you from seeing any "gruesome" CGs in the future, most of the core elements of the game will still be tied to the choices and decisions you make. So you won't miss out on the overall experience by using streamer mode!!

⚙️ Custom Pronouns!

It only took me one entire year to get around to it, but you can finally choose your own preferred pronouns (or use a set of pronouns instead)... At the cost of being able to change them mid-game ^^;

Since the original pronoun screen wouldn't update until a new scene was displayed, I temporarily disabled the feature. But once I find a workaround, I'll bring it back!

💗 Choose how others perceive you!

You can now choose how the cast and narration perceive you! Originally, the narration was kept strictly gender-neutral (outside of pronouns and genitalia picked by the player), but this will soon change in future updates.

For more clarity: you don't get to choose the words specifically, but you can choose between masculine, feminine, and androgynous terms!

📋 Separate top and bottom genitalia!

You can now choose your tatas and pps separately! >:3

Alongside that, you can also choose your preferred body type!

I removed the "both" genitalia option because a few players still assumed it was an obscure version of "intersex". That wasn't my intention and I don't want to mislead anyone, so I took it out for now ^^;

I also didn't want to include a screenshot of the new genitalia choices in action (because it's NSFW), so y'all get the same character menu screen for the nth time instead lmao

📱 Relationship Screen Overhaul!

You can now change your own status for more immersion, and long-term Server Boosters will eventually be able to submit and use their own icon within the game as well!

Stalking finding your friends has now become easier by using "Buddy Maps"; a new app that allows you to see the location of all the cast members!

I want to offer players more incentive to check the relationship screen since they tend to miss the status updates, so hopefully this might help ;v;

It also says it "updates every few hours" so folks don't go overboard and check every 5 seconds to see where Ren is gdsghf (also keep in mind that he's a hacker lol)

🖤 Additional Scenes Update!

Day 2 received a brand new CG!!!!! Originally, I planned on only adding a few CGs sporadically throughout the game, but it didn't feel right to leave Day 2 so... empty... so I added a brand new CG to (hopefully) make things feel more balanced and natural!

If you decline Teo's offer on Day 3, Leon will now call and try to convince you to reconsider. However, players are still allowed to decline, and if they do, they'll reach a dead end.

After listening to feedback on itch, I changed some of the dialogue during Days 1-3 to make it seem more consistent! They're only small changes though, so it's honestly not worth looking for sdgjssga

🎶 Updated BGM and SFX!

I wanted to try out a different style of music to see if it fits the vibe of 14DWY more! The BGM features more acoustics to suit the "beachy" theme of Corland Bay, though I made a conscious effort to include piano elements as well to stay true to the original!!

I figured it'd be better to give players a live example before I make a poll (to see if they prefer the change or not) and publish it to Itch.

Some new SFX have also been added, though it's very minimal and honestly not that noticeable.

How to download and play the update?

(warning: clicking on the following links will open Discord!!) To download the Day 3.5 update, simply join the 14DWY Discord server, verify your age, and visit the "14dwy-updates" channel!

Alternatively, you can also wait until the update is publicly released on Itch to play it as well!! (It normally gets released shortly after a round of QA testing/getting feedback from the server, though I may release it earlier if I feel like it hehe ^^)

Enjoy!!

[gayori-boi]

Gif of Gamz stimming, because I'm projecting very hard on him

[endermagpieart]

What do you mean I’m a bit late for Janus’ big day? Of course not, how could you say such a thing! I definitely didn’t forget all about it in my absence and only get reminded in the incorrect quotes video live chat; that’s not like me at all ;]

Anyways I decided to dress our sassy snake in some different outfits I think he’d like. He seems like the type to get all dolled up on his birthday and it goes with Thomas posting pics in outfits inspired by the sides on their appreciation days!

@thatsthat24

[shalom-iamcominghome]

If anyone is interested, please feel free to light a digital candle through Illuminate. I got a name a few years back, and it's a name I won't forget. May every name we have found be a blessing. May their names never be forgotten. May we never forget.

Never again means now.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

I want it back / I drag its dead weight forward.

[hyacinthsdiamonds]

I'm sorry but the irony of Nico calling Max unprofessional is sending me so bad like sir there's an entire garage full of people, who were literally in the trenches trying to survive the Brocedes fallout while just doing their jobs, who might have a few things to say about your (& Lewis') level of professionalism at that time 😭✋️

[skunkes]

[zykamiliah]

girl it's not that shen yuan forgives the atrocities, the atrocities were part of the enjoyment while luo binghe was a fictional character, the atrocities gave the fans a hard on because it was a dark power fantasy. but when luo binghe became a REAL person it turned into a REAL issue that's what half the novel is about

[sensitiveheartless]

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[corpusdiem-seizethedead]

*Angel and Husk taking Nuggets for a walk, minding their business*

Some rando: Slut!

Angel: *stops*

Angel: Hold my pig-

Husk: Kick his ass, baby. I got your pig-

[blackkatdraws2]

I have a lot of leftover drawings in my gallery. [Blank Scripts AU]

[Content Warning: Images below contain Gore, Death, and Disturbing/Uncomfortable Imagery]

I find it a bit cute knowing they start out as crazy and then slowly settle into something calmer and relatively healthier after learning to adapt to each other's lust-turned-love. [Stanley did it first but hey :3]