#need to save that idea for a sequel to that one creepypasta

[titleknown]

I will say, while Doug Walker sucks, the phrase "Hulk Hogan isn't real, he's just a big puppet" from Bum Reviews lives forever rent-free in my mind

[dragonomatopoeia]

Hello, would it be okay to ask what kind of horror games you've enjoyed? Please feel free to disregard! I saw from Stella's post/tags that you enjoy tragedy in horror and I find that concept very compelling.

I can definitely throw a few game recs out there! I will say, Stella might have been overselling it a bit by saying I like tragedy-- it's more that i tend to have more tolerance for when characters die and horror that makes me feel Very Sad than Stella and Alicia do.

Accordingly, some of these are going to skew more meditative/sad than horror, and some will skew more towards horror than sad, but I'll be sure to make note of each

Oxenfree was already recc'd by Stella, but I'm seconding it here. I'm a big fan of horror that plays with the resentment and wistfulness and 'tu fui ego eris' of ghosts. I also love the use of radios in horror. Something about attempting to establish contact or mutual intelligibility and it going horribly wrong (that's also a feature I really enjoy in the Silent Hill games, but i imagine that those need no introduction)

Stella also recc'd Anatomy (which I made her play for me because I was too scared) and if a game about a house that is so resentful of being abandoned that it begins to lash out sounded interesting to you, Kitty Horrorshow has made a lot more games where that one came from. Jacob Geller has made a video about one of the collections if you'd like to preview the offerings on display

I'd also like to second the rec for Devotion. It's a beautifully told and terrifying game that explores the tragedy of a family that is pushed to their breaking point and exploited by a religious movement

Lobotomy Corporation is a game I haven't completely finished yet because I've only been playing it whenever i stream for my friends, but it draws on a lot of creepypasta and SCP influences. Mostly, however, it draws on "Capitalism is Evil and Soulsucking" influences. it's a management sim where you are in charge of a facility and have to extract energy from Abnormalities. it has extremely punishing gameplay, compelling characters, and every mechanic (and i do mean every mechanic) is diegetic.

Because I haven't finished it, I haven't played the sequel, Library of Ruina, which my friends assure me will absolutely decimate me with themes and agonies and emotions and time prison

What Remains of Edith Finch isn't really a horror game so much as it is a story of a family's experiences and relationship with death, as well as how they experience and process it. Playing as Edith, you explore the Finch family home, learning more about the curse that has followed each generation of the Finches through the mechanism of the stories they tell about themselves and each other. Most of the game-play is a hybrid of Walking Simulator and interactive segments where you have to pilot each Finch to their inevitable death

Likewise, Outer Wilds isn't so much a horror game as a game that has scary aspects, scenes, and sequences. The primary mechanic of the game is reliant on you being stuck in a timeloop and attempting to determine why and how, as well as attempting to discover how to save everyone from the sun exploding

I've only played a bit of Everybody's Gone to The Rapture , but it has a very Twilight Zone tone and feel to it. Whether or not this is a horror game could be contested, but I've had enough recurring nightmares of everyone I love vanishing overnight for this to be Terrifying. The gameplay is pretty firmly on the walking simulator side

I haven't played The Mortuary Assistant yet because it freaks stella and alicia out and I'm too scared to play it alone. However, the idea of fighting against demonic possession while embalming bodies and confronting your own past is compelling to me.

Also there are quite a few visual novels I've read that grapple with horror and tragedy, like the When They Cry series (content warnings for everything you can possibly imagine in there) or Zero Escape. I've been meaning to play The House in Fata Morgana for a while but I know i'll need to shake my friends down for content warnings on that one before I can even begin to approach it

I might update or add to this later because I recently downloaded a bunch of itchio games, including Hypnagogia and the 2022 Haunted PS1 Demo Disc, and I def want to check those out before I start scattering recs willy-nilly

I hope at least a few of these will pique your interest! You're also welcome to hop in with more specific requests for direction or places to look, as there are a few horror or horror-leaning games I've left out because I was pretty lukewarm about them and their endings, but might still fit the bill of what you're looking for (ie The Vanishing of Ethan Carter). Likewise, there are some games I know of but haven't played for myself if you'd like some direction re: games with mechanics, style, and tone that you might be interested in checking out

[backyardi-gan]

Updated Backyardigans fanfic rec list

You said “send me the link privately” and I went, “actually I’m an overachiever for now I’ve decided” so here’s an updated version of the list of fic recs that other anon dropped a while ago. Now with more fics and little descriptions for all of them. Lemme know what you think of these! Might update you later if I find any other good fics. Happy Reading! (Note: I’d put all this under read more but I don’t know how to do that when submitting from mobile. If you want this to not take up as much space on your blog, you can like, copy/paste all this under a read more or something. I dunno) Hopefully these links work Backyardigans MiniAdventures and Randomness by WildImaginationGirl21 A collection of oneshots. Creative scenarios, and you can tell WildImaginationGirl21 was really passionate about Backyardigans at the time. A few oneshots are Austin/Uniqua A Nightmare’s Dream by casslass A fluffy little hurt/comfort fic I guess. Pretty well written. Uniqua has a nightmare. Her friends are there for her. There’s some Austin/Uniqua at the end. Very cute. Robot Rescue by Ruki Ki A sequel fic to robot rampage written in script format. They’re trying to fix all the robots. Backyardigans To The Future by cardsharks87 Goofy but in a good way. Uniqua turns an old car into a time machine and she and Pablo accidentally travel to 2050, where everything’s screwed-up and weird. Script-like format again. The Backyardigans: The Mouse Problem by Katy-Kale The Backyardigans are all staying in a hotel together for some reason and there’s a mouse. Some Easter Eggs/ references to episodes of the show, and also other things, including repurposed songs. The ending’s pretty cute. It’s All About the Paint by Sir Mustapha Tyrone and Austin are running competing paint companies and are also at war? Uniqua is a reporter that gets roped into the whole thing. Actually really well written! For a Backyardigans fic, anyway. The Masked Retriever II by Katy-Kale A 7 chapter sequel to The Masked Retriever. Pablo reads about knights and then tries to be one. Also he ditches Don Austin. Contains Pablo/Uniqua. Also contains some pretty funny scenes. Katy-Kale once again outsources songs Morning Commute by ZombieCatTookMyPudding A short crossover with the Wonder Pets about cartoon logic. Not much else to say. Smugglers Cove by backyardgameboy Quite a few typos, but still pretty good. Austin’s parents take the gang on a vacation to a touristy town called Smugglers Cove, where, rumor has it, pirates used to bury their treasure. Obviously, the Backyardigans are going after that treasure. Pablo is portrayed as really dumb here for some reason?? Austin has a dream where he turns into Sonic the hedgehog?? Austin/Uniqua. Minor Tyrone/Tasha. Lots of references to various episodes. What Is Love by casslass Short, sweet, and shippy! Takes place within the world of Robot Rampage. Robot Roscoe/Robot Reba, Austin/Uniqua. Return Of The Bug Goddess by Musk-ox-Leia Structured like an episode of the show. Tasha erases Uniqua’s memory in order to win a competition of Gods. Uses songs from the show-sorta, the lyrics are completely different Solider Boys by Bat138 Script format. One of the first Backyardigans fanfics on Fanfiction.net. Features original “songs” (though I guess it’s just text so... poems? IDK) Tyrone and Pablo have to save Princess Tasha, who was kidnapped by Austin and Uniqua Backyardigans of Madagascar by cardsharks87 A crossover with the penguins of Madagascar. Sherman got left behind when the wormans were going to Wyoming and ended up in New York via wacky hijinx now the Penguins of Madagascar and the Backyardigans need to take him to Wyoming. A Light in the Sky-The Backyardigans by Cyberstorm4 A suspenseful, supernatural Backyardigans story that takes place during summer break. Ongoing, and undergoing rewrites. Last updated March 11 of this year. The writing is okay, but the dialogue in the first few chapters feels OOC. It’s tagged creepypasta, but I genuinely have no idea why. Lastly, there’s a surprising amount of Backyardigans fanfics on deviantart. Most of them are pretty OC-heavy, I’ve noticed. Luckily, a deviantart group has already compiled a lot of them

[tlbodine]

Project Managing Your Writing

I am not an organized person. I’m more of the absent-minded professor type. All my life I have chafed at rules and schedules because they make me feel panicky and claustrophobic.

Ironically, I love systems! I love putting things in order and organizing and planing!

It didn’t occur to me for...an embarrassingly long time...that the reason I hate schedules is that other people made them. So what if I made my own?

Enter...the bullet journal.

Bullet journaling is trendy, and for a while it seemed like EVERYONE was talking about it and I just...couldn’t quite figure it out. But it seemed to work really well for people, and I’ve been desperate to impose some kind of order on my life because I am juggling roughly a million responsibilities, so I figured, what the hell. Let’s try it. 

I bought this journal after spending kind of an embarrassingly long time in Walgreens leafing through various notebooks until one clicked with me. I liked this one because it’s a nice size, and it’s my favorite color, and the pages stay flat when you open it, and it feels nice in my hand. Seemed like a winner. 

So here’s the thing about bullet journaling that makes it unique, and also which I definitely did not understand at all until I sat down and started filling it out and then it clicked. 

The thing that makes the system work is that you number all the pages, and then you put an index in the front that tells you what thing is on what page. 

What this means is that the actual pages themselves do not need to be organized. There doesn’t have to be a logical flow between pages. You don’t have to save pages and then panic that you have too many or too few. You want to put your budget on one page and then a grocery list on the next and then a list of books you want to read on the next one? Cool. You just do that. Put whatever the hell you want in the pages, then note it down in the index so you can find the right stuff later. 

So right up front, I made my index, and then I did sections for Achievements (because I get down on myself a lot about not getting anything accomplished) and Goals (because I have aspirations, duh). 

Note that the goals are not to-do items. They are more aspirational “be the type of person who...” type goals, to remind me of the things I value. To-do list comes later. 

Okay. So the next spread is a year calendar. Because it’s a free-form thing, you can start it wherever the hell you want. I bought this Nov. 1 so that’s when my year starts. I penciled in important events for the month. Holidays, because one of my goals is to be a person who cares about holidays (because I rarely do anything special, and that makes me sad), and also submission deadlines for certain things. Other big-ticket items that go in here would include stuff like conventions and travel plans, that sort of thing. 

After this section, there are sections (one page each) for every month, line by line, so you can map out more specific events and crap you have to do (like what to do on what day for the holiday prep, when parties are, when appointments are, etc.) Not pictured because it’s boring to look at. 

I made these pages separate from the deadline/calendar pages for each month because I wanted them to look pretty, and ALSO to keep track of specific things that I value. In this case: What am I writing, what am I reading, what am I watching? (my life revolves around media, ok, sue me) And then to-do lists and achievements for each month, to keep me motivated. 

I have some other boring pages that are irrelevant to y’all, like a budget and stuff, but then let’s skip ahead to this bad boy here. Here’s my to-do list for writing projects. If I’m working on it, it goes on the list. If i’m done with it, it gets a checkmark or crossed out or something, idk. 

Creature Features is an anthology I have planned, of themed stories. I want to finish all of those stories in it and try to publish them in other places first, and then compile them into the collection, because I like money. (You might recognize that most of these are creepypasta I’ve posted. I’m expanding the story seeds into proper long stories). 

Some of my writing to-dos are pretty simple (rewriting is just...rewriting) but some of these are more complex and involve multiple steps so I made project management pages. Here’s one for House of Lazarus, my sequel to River of Souls. As you can see, I’m doing an outline for this one (I usually don’t outline, but I need to in this case because it’s part of a series and I have to keep story threads consistent). 

So the idea here is to be done with all the prep work (outline etc.) by the end of November, and then have the rough draft finished by the beginning of April, and the final done sometime around June/July so I can get it to my publisher, because that’s when their reading period starts for the year. I tried to make my deadline as generous as possible (about 500 words written a day will get me there) to allow for wiggle room. 

I made myself a cute little progress chart that I can fill in at each 10k word milestone, and then immediately fucked up the chart numbers and covered it up with scribbles. I’m so good at this ;) 

There’s lots of empty space left on this page. What will go in it? Who knows! Probably something, considering how long I’ll be working on this thing. I’ve got plenty of space though if I do need to work things out (like, say, an editing calendar, editorial deadlines, promo work, etc.) 

So there you go. A lil’ glimpse into my creative life and attempts at organization. I’ve been at this for 3 days which is why I’m still very enthusiastic about it. Ask me in a couple months how I feel. But it’s worth a shot, right? 

[synthient]

Oh no, undertale on main sideblog

Is anyone talking about the fact that two completely different points in the timeline have been collapsed together? Like, the weirdest thing about this universe isn't that Asriel's alive, it's that he's existing as a teenager/twentysomething at the same time as all the characters from Frisk's era

Susie is one of the best parts of this game and I love her but why is her name spelled differently than Clam Girl's Suzy. Whats going on with that

I also love Lancer A Whole Lot. He's the main reason I hope the Dark World is actually real, even though it probably makes more sense if it's not

I know everyone loves ""Ralsei,"" so I'm sorry, but...I don't trust that fellow. Something's off about that kid. What's Asriel up to

One of the characters called Kris and party "guys or girls" at one point and it made my heart go :(

(I mean "guys or girls" is an awkward enough wording that it might be some kind of intentional...thing, but until it's explicitly canonically stated, I'm ever nervous about the possibility that Toby just stumbled into nb rep by accident)

Who is Kris. Appearance-wise and personality-wise (they're a little creepy, Toriel has to hide the chocolate from them, etc) most signs point to Chara. But then there's the fact that they seem to have been adopted by the Dreemurrs young enough that they didn't realize they were a human at first, while Chara's life was defined by their awareness of their humanity and what it meant for the Underground. Guess they could still be a version of Chara from a radically different universe though.

I've also heard a theory that they're Frisk and Kris was their deadname, so that'd be sad :( Don't really want to believe that the Dreemurrs would insist on deadnaming them though, even in the Bad Timeline.

And this is clearly the Bad Timeline. In this hellish world, Alphys thinks Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2 is better than Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 1.

(Which is actually really interesting, and not just in a Your Faves Are Not As You Know Them way. Alphys originally hated Mew Mew 2 because it dropped the hope and kindness and optimism of the original in favor of being 2 Edgy 4 You, but Bad Timeline Alphys loves it because she thinks it's a ~dark adult masterpiece~. So it's potentially commentary on Deltarune as a sequel and its sense of Wrongness and maybe even commentary on the original Halloween Hack)

I was initially really weirded out by the whole Toriel Has Become Catholic thing, but now I think it's another way of cuing us to the Off-ness of this world. In Undertale the monsters had never heard of human religions and holidays, but here the Dreemurrs have been practicing Christians for years (meanwhile Kris just wants the Sick Fruit Juice. Whoever they are I love them)

Speaking of Deltarune as a topsy-turvy opposite-world version of Undertale, it's really interesting that Undertale had multiple endings, but it only gave you one save file, adding to the whole theme of how a meaningful experience can become meaningless if you treat it like it's repeatable and disposable. But Deltarune lets you have 3 save files, and even copy your save file, even though there's only one ending and Your Choices Don't Matter TM

Not only does pacifism being the only option make it less meaningful, but by focusing exclusively on the Fighting Bad angle, the game sidesteps any other ethical issues. It's genuinely fucked up that the Lightners abandoned and imprisoned the Darkners and yet the Darkners can only find fulfillment by helping them, but the heroes don't make any effort to free the Darkners, and the final conflict gets reduced to "the king just needs to stop being mean to the poor Lightners"

That's also one of the reasons I'm lowkey suspicious of ""Ralsei."" He's the one pushing us along on the One Set Path, and then when the Spade King's like "We shouldn't have to worship and obey the Lightners! We should be allowed to find our own purpose!" Ralsei's just like "No!!" and. that's that.

Anyone else concerned that Susie’s like “so sealing this fountain isn’t going to destroy your kingdom or anything, right?” and Lancer’s like “I have no idea! :P” and then we never find out what happened

(Guess it's less of an issue if the Darkners are really just toys in a dark empty storage room, mad that the "Lightners" outside stopped playing with them)

Odd that Susie never goes "huh, this is weirdly similar to the situation in the Underground that we monsters just escaped." Given that, the Toriel Is Now Catholic thing, and Kris being adopted at a young age...is this a universe where the monsters were never sealed underground?

If the Dark World really is real, did the Darkners take the monsters' place?

A lot of the Opposite World differences seem to be directly rooted in the fact that Alphys never became the Royal Scientist (possibly hinting at the ooooo Gaster~ thing)

I love the part where Kris licks the book, but is Toby jossing flavor text theory? Is he winking conspiratorially at it? What does it meannn

"Simple shapes...circle...square...dodecahedron" Chara? Is that you???

I don't actually think this is building to the Most Boring Chara Interpretation (aka: They're an evil serial killer. They've been evil since the tender age of Birth. They were trying to forcibly possess Frisk's body and make them go through with the no mercy run from the very beginning player what player. This suicidal 10-year-old is the one irredeemable Undertale character and the sole exception to Undertale's "everyone has hidden sympathetic depths" rule.) But that ending was stil,,,Bad. Unless it was supposed to feel like cheap dumb creepypasta shock value, in which case it did its job excellently.

"You just have to trust the dog" I'm trying