#not sure if I added the link to the original correctly

[roughsketch2010]

I don’t know why I made this

Original:

[the-jade-palace]

Fin Fin on QEMU (Current Version - v2.2)

Fin Fin on QEMU is a project designed to create an easy to use way for anyone to play Fin Fin without the need for any complicated setup on modern operating systems. It is fully compatible with Windows 10 and 11, but will also work on any version after XP.

The version of the game used is a custom made translation that includes all 6 worlds in English. It has working microphone input, sound recording, and all associated features such as screenshots and the encyclopedia work as well.

Rather than using virtualization, this works through emulating an entire Windows 98 machine. To play it there's no need to install any hypervisors or set up a virtual machine, as everything is already set up, and ready to go.

The download link can be found here! (Hosted on MEGA)

Installation

The whole thing is portable, meaning nothing is actually "installed" and all the data is wherever you place the folder. This also means that if moved to another PC, all user data will still be present.

To run, all you need to do is extract the folder in the .zip to a location of your choosing, and then run one of the launchers.

Included are two launcher versions for the different QEMU display options, one that uses GTK and one that uses SDL. The only difference between the .bat script and the .exe versions is that a command window will be shown when using the .bat script.

Both have pros and cons, so I've included both to let the user decide which one they want to use.

SDL has broken window scaling and no mouse integration, but has a correctly stretched fullscreen. GTK has a stretched fullscreen mode, but has working mouse integration and window scaling. Basically if you want the game in fullscreen use SDL, otherwise use GTK. For a bit more info about these, checkout the 'Files' section under the 'Keep Reading'

Important Info

Before launching the main game, be sure to create a profile using 'New Contact', as the game will not run until doing so. When exiting the game use the shutdown option in Windows 98. Exiting through closing the window forcefully can possibly cause data loss/corruption. When using SDL, mouse and keyboard input will be captured. To release this, press 'Ctrl + Alt + G'. When using GTK, the menubar can be hidden or shown by pressing 'Ctrl + Alt + M'. To make the window fullscreen, press 'Ctrl + Alt + F'.

Sounds

Included are two "sound effect packs" for the in game sounds that play based on the number keys from 1-5.

By default, the game will use the sound effects from the 5 Worlds version, but you can swap out to the 6 worlds one by renaming the "sound (alternate)" folder in the D: drive to just "sound", and renaming the original sound folder to something else.

I hope you all have fun with your new best friend Fin Fin!

Fin Fin is a wonderful little enigma from the past, and my attempt to make it easily accessible even in the present is something I hope you will all enjoy.

If you encounter any issues in Fin Fin on QEMU, please contact me about it.

To view the changelog, credits, and some more info about this project check below the 'Keep reading'.

Changelog

Some information is cut for brevity, the full version can be found inside of Fin Fin on QEMU and the MEGA folder.

v2.2

Added several new Fin Fin screensavers the user may choose from Updated method for calculating Transfer folder size Updated emulated machine to use 128mb of RAM and a Pentium Updated main teoboot.exe executable to fix several issues Updated shortcuts

v2.1

Removed WHPX launching options Removed FinFinWHPX.bat and FinFinWHPX.exe Removed startup crash fix as it was only needed for WHPX Modified folder settings in Windows 98 to open folders in the same window Rearranged Fin Fin on QEMU folder layout for cleaner appearance Added 'OK' button back to Microphone Setup that was mistakenly removed Updated shortcuts for Microphone Setup and Sound Recorder Fixed problem with 'Encyclopedia' launching script that caused screenshots to not show up in the photobook Added 'Transfer' Folder which allows for transferring files between the host and emulated machine Added options for launching with either GTK or SDL display Altered updater to improve ease of use and used NirCmd to improve process as a whole (Updater.bat & updater.iso)

v2.0 (Major Update - 6 Worlds Edition)

Modified original Taiwanese 6 Worlds version to add English Translation Added 'Microphone Sensitivity' shortcut to the desktop and start menu Added in 5 Worlds version Encyclopedia (finfinEncyc.exe & encyc30.GIZ) Added sound effects from 5 Worlds version (D:\sound) Added Mouse Integration Added Nircmd to replace launch batch scripts (C:\WINDOWS\nircmd.exe) Added Windowed Mode shortcut to start menu Altered launching scripts (FinFin.bat, FinFin.exe, FinFinWHPX.bat, FinFinWHPX.exe, FinFin Update.bat) Removed large amount of unecessary setup files from finfin.qcw Removed 'Task Scheduler' from taskbar Added Credits and Changelog shortcut to start menu Added dll to fix issue with running on Windows 7

v1.3

Added animated Fin Fin cursor

v1.2

Added guided updater (FinFin Update.bat & updater.IMA) Adjusted wallpaper Renamed startup shortcut ("_setup.bat" to "Crash Fix" at C:\WINDOWS\Start Menu\Programs\Startup) Adjusted Volume Control Settings

v1.1

Added new wallpaper (C:\background.jpg) Added new startup sound (C:\boot.wav)

v1.0 (First Public Release)

Changed from qemu-3dfx to base Removed unnecessary files in Windows Added missing shortcuts on Desktop

v0.5 (Playtester version)

Moved all Fin Fin data to finfin.qcw Created batch scripts for Disc.id Added shortcuts to launch programs Removed unnecessary programs from Windows Removed unnecessary files in Windows

Credits

Resources

The finfin Homepage (finfin.de) - By EMGE The finfin Archive (finfin-archiv.de) - By Xvemon, Nadine S., and EMGE Fin Fin 6 Worlds "Beta" (finfin-archive.de) - By Harald G.

Playtesters

mchi22 that-one-scratch-on-your-arm

Software

QEMU 7.1.0. (qemu.org) - By QEMU team: Peter Maydell, et al. NirCmd (nirsoft.net) - By Nir Sofer Resource Hacker (angusj.com) - By Angus Johnson

Updating Versions

Included is a guided updater that will help you transfer your save, screenshots, and sound recordings to the latest version.

Place the new version in a temporary location without replacing the original. Then, just run "Updater.bat" and follow the instructions.

System Time

Time in the emulated machine is synced to the host PC.

If you would like to time travel in Fin Fin, you can change the time in the emulated PC but it will go back to normal after a restart. Note that if you do this you will not be able to go back to the original time, you can only go forwards using this method If you would like to permanently change the time, you can use the built in date-changer present in the 'New Contact' program, but this will cause the loss of the current profile.

QEMU

Though it should be quite obvious by now, this project works through the use of QEMU, an open source emulator. Specifically, its emulating a full Windows 98 SE machine, and then the game is run on that.

The emulated machine has 128mb of RAM, an AC97 Soundcard, and a Pentium CPU.

Files

The only files this project really has aside from QEMU are FinFin GTK.bat/.exe and FinFin SDL.bat/.exe

The reason I list the .exe and .bat files together is that they do exactly the same thing. The executables aren't really 'true executables', but are instead just batch scripts that have been converted into .exe files. When they run, they essentially create a temporary batch script that deletes itself. The only real benefit of this is that its a bit more straightforward for launching and creating shortcuts, and that there is no distracting command window while playing.

Within the 'Data' folder is where the bulk of the project is. Inside are two virtual hard drives, w98.qcw being the main Windows 98 drive, and finfin.qcw being where all the Fin Fin game data is.

[simplyanjuta]

Styled Looks Add-Ons:

Fix For Removing Shoes and Tops & Undresser for All Age Groups

1. Fix For Removing Shoes and Tops

Last week I spent some time trouble shooting a few peculiar issues I came across concerning Styled Looks. One issue is addressed here, the other one I found is the following:

Since an update in mid 2022 Styled Looks where sims are barefoot or topless (so this mostly concerns outfits in the Swimwear and Sleepwear categories) don’t remove shoes and tops anymore (only noticeable if your sim is wearing shoes or tops before you apply the look). The issue also comes up with EAs looks and seems to be happening since mid 2022 (I suspect the Werewolf patch or earlier). I made a report for it here, but I don’t have much hope there will be an official fix.

I just now made the connection that the cause is the same as what I had noticed previously with SL using unlockable CAS items: CAS parts missing the “ShowInUI” flag are not registered in Styled Looks. Not sure if those CAS items used to have the flag originally or if sth was changed about how SL work (latter seems more probable to me). But setting the flag makes the items functional in SL again.

So I’m sharing a fix here which is an override of the respective CAS parts adding the missing flag. Be aware, though, that the override will mark your sims with the CC flag (while you use it).

Known conflicts:

Necrodogs HD feet (the files override the same CAS parts for feet).

Any other CC overriding CAS parts for feet or bare tops.

2. Undresser for All Age Groups

While trouble shooting I also made a SL undressing the sims. I know there’s already a similar one that was made previously (see link below). But since the creator deactivated their account and the SL wasn’t working correctly due to the described issue, I made my own version, also adding more options, and decided to share it here:

The Undresser SL works for all age groups and outfit categories.

Furthermore, I added an additional swatch that undresses the sims without removing make-up. Update as of August 5th 2023: This swatch also doesn't remove nail polish, while the other swatch does.

The Undresser SL is made in the same style as my custom Styled Looks and needs a custom background, which you can get below as well (if you haven’t it already in your mods folder along with my looks).

Also note that custom SL are always listed behind EAs looks. You will need MizoreYukiis mod linked below to hide EAs looks in order to see the Undresser SL as first entry in the list. That's the only way it will be useful, imo.

💐All credit to Floopi for the original idea. You can find their version which was recovered couple of months ago (since the original post is not accessible) in a reblog here. You can use it instead of mine – but it will also require the fix to work correctly.

3. Downloads:

Fix For Removing Shoes and Tops: SFS | MF

Undresser for All Age Groups: SFS | MF

BG1: SFS | MF or BG2: SFS | MF (I made 2 different subtle backgrounds that you can choose from depending on whether you use a colored CAS background (BG 1 recommended) or a white CAS background (BG 2 recommended).

Hider Mod for EAs Styled Looks by @mizoreyukii

My custom styled looks are linked here.

@maxismatchccworld  @emilyccfinds @thefoxburyinstitute

[elliespectacular]

Any tips on how to correctly credit clips used in YTP? I'm very lost when it comes to finding copyright info and stuff like that.

The stakes are pretty low for YouTube Poop and crediting clips in the video/description is not standard practice - but it's a good thing to do! That said I am not an authority on this and even my method has some blind spots. These are just some generally good ideas for being a slightly-more-courteous-than-average shitposter.

The acknowledgement is the most important part, stating outright what the names of the sources are. Pay attention to the official titles of what you use and try to trace them to their original form - for example in The Price is Rice COMPLETE I wanted to credit the gamer-themed Dust-Off commercial I used in The Price is Rice Jr. Usually ads are more difficult to track down than other kinds of televised media, so often "___ TV Spot" does the job, but a quick peek at the official YouTube channel reveals that the ad's actual name was How to properly clean your gaming computer.

Then there's an acknowledgement of the owner. I try to list composers for music, directors for film, and of course artists for art. You aren't required to give an exhaustive list of every single contributor to the art you've sampled, but make sure you credit the person/company it belongs to at the very least. Going back to the Dust-Off example, the YouTube video contained a link to dust-off . com which now redirects to falconsafety . com - I lucked out because the top of the page indicates clearly that Dust-Off is a product owned by Falcon Safety Products Inc. but this info is often in the About section of a website or at the bottom of the page.

I like to throw the year on each YTP credit as well. Academic citations usually require a more precise publication date if available. Among other benefits it helps distinguish between things with the same name/owner that were rebooted later - for example there are multiple games called Sonic the Hedgehog owned by SEGA from different years (In fact in this example there are two games from 1991 so it's also important to note what system the game is for!) Generally your source credits should communicate to a viewer where to start looking for a specific thing or who to ask.

You can use Wikipedia to orient yourself if you need a lead on where to start tracking down copyright information for popular media, but make sure you cross-reference what's there with other sources. For Movies/TV I usually just look at the very end of their credits which usually has the copyright info. For music I use Discogs. Sometimes for more obscure or less-documented things I have to do some search-engine sleuthing.

If you're stuck, ask a friend for help! It can be fun and rewarding to track down something that isn't answered by a quick google search, and like most things turning it into a collaborative effort makes it less of a slog.

Copyright acknowledgement is tricky to do correctly and not every Best Practice applies to each situation. There may come a day when MLA-style citations become normal or required even for shitposts and your due diligence will become greater. Do your best, give credit where it's due, and you'll be fine :)

[simmishccfinds]

Dahlia Suarez Sim Download (With CC Links)

For the second anniversary of my Suarez Legacy series, I finally got around to uploading Dahlia for download! She has all of her skills + likes & dislikes. If you are coming from TikTok, thank you so much for your support. The series wouldn't be what it is today without you all! She only has one outfit to spare you from downloading a million files. I hope you enjoy her as much as I have :)

Download & tutorial under the cut ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

TOS:

You are welcome to do whatever you want with Dahlia in your personal gameplay but please do not include her in your social media content. However, I would love to hear how your gameplay is going with her, leave a comment and spill the tea!

Please do not reupload my sims for download anywhere, including the gallery.

How to download

Unfortunately, I cannot upload a version with CC included as it goes against the creator's TOS, but I've linked everything here for you! You must download ALL of these links for her to show up in your game properly. The genetics are especially important, if you are missing presets or sliders her face and body won't look right.

Step one: Download all of the cc files and place them in your "mods" folder. This is typically located in documents > Electronic Arts.

Step Two: Download the tray files at the bottom of the post and unzip them. These go in the "tray" folder. This folder is also located in documents > Electronic Arts.

Step Three: Open your game and go to the gallery, then to your library. If you followed the previous steps correctly Dahlia will be there! Make sure that "include custom content" is selected in your filter settings.

I always recommend making a back up of your tray files before adding anything new in. Your tray files are what shows up in your gallery library, so if something goes wrong you could lose those households/lots. You most likely won't run into any issues but better safe than sorry.

Alright, that's enough yapping from me, let me know if you have any questions!

CC LINKS

Genetics Skin overlay, Face details, Belly overlay, Stretch marks, Eyes, Nose, Hip Slider 1, Hip Slider 2, Thigh Slider, Shoulder Slider, Ears, Eye Width Slider, Eye Preset, Lip Preset, Jaw Preset

Phew, you made it passed the genetics! That was a lot.

Outfit Top, Skirt, Shoes, Necklace & Earrings, Bracelet, Anklet, Rings, Nails, Toenail Polish

Makeup Lipstick, Eyeliner, Eyeshadow, Blush

Hair Hair, Hair flower, Eyebrows (#11), Eyelashes

Tattoo- I couldn’t find a download link for this tattoo ANYWHERE so I uploaded the file onto SFS myself. If the original creator sees this, or if anyone has the link, please let me know so I can give credit!

TRAY FILES Download

Happy simming! ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

[flufftober]

Hello and welcome to our second annual Flufftober 🥳

We’re so excited to be back and to once again have you here!

Let’s fill the month of October with as much fluff as possible 🥰

You’ll find the entire prompt list - as well as a list of prompt substitutes! - at the end of this post so you can easily copy/paste it all. But first:

Rules & FAQ

No inc*st or p*dophilia - we can’t keep you from writing it or creating art for it but it won’t be reblogged.

No hate or ship bashing - we’re all different and we all love different things. As long as it doesn’t go against rule #1, it’s allowed.

Tag correctly! Trigger warnings (including cheating!), ships, ratings, (pure) smut, etc - it’s all fine as long as you tag it.

There’s absolutely no word count restriction, write as little or as much as you like.

In regards to art, anything goes: drawings, paintings, collages, mood boards, gifsets, videos, playlists… the sky’s the limit (though not really…)

While we can’t force you to write fluff or create fluffy art, please try to keep in mind that this is a fluff event 😉

You can start writing and/or arting as soon as you see this - but please refrain from posting before the respective day.

You can participate on as many days as you like, even if it’s just one; you can also create multiple entries for the same day.

NEW this year are our prompt substitutes! These are the five most loved prompts from the previous year, and you can use as many of them as you like instead of five prompts from the original list - or even in addition, that's completely up to you.

It’s okay to write one story/a series for all the prompts as long as it’s separated into chapters and the respective chapter/work is posted on the given day.

You do not have to stick to one ship or even one fandom - switch as often as you like to or even write for multiple ships for one day.

The ship does not have to be a romantic one! Friendship and family feels are more than welcome (but this is not a way to get around rule #1!)

This event can be combined with other events as long as the other event allows it.

Late entries are always welcome, even if it is months later.

All fandoms and ships are welcome - fanon and canon - as long as they’re of age (in case you want to add smut) and not related.

Posting

Posting to tumblr

Please use the tag #flufftober2022

Since tags are sometimes wonky, make sure to also add @flufftober in your post

We will try to catch them all, but please don't be mad if we miss a post or if it gets reblogged a bit late

If you're absolutely certain a post has slipped past us, feel free to send an ask with the link to your post

To make reblogging easier for us, make sure to add the following tags: #flufftober2022 #day [xy] #[fandom] #[ship and/or main character(s)]

If you're using a prompt substitute, instead of #day [xy] tag it as #alt 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5

Posting to ao3

You can add your creation to the collection flufftober2022 or flufftober_2022 (yes, we've claimed both because so many people added to the wrong collection last year 😅)

Late entries are always welcome, on tumblr as well as the ao3 collection! Neither will close - but like last year, reblogs will become less and less and further apart the more months pass...

Prompts

1. Wearing Each Other’s Clothes

2. “You’ve told your parents?”

3. Thick as Thieves

4. Supporting Silly Quirks/Hobbies

5. “Oh no, you’re a Morning Person!”

6. Candles, Lanterns, Fairy Lights

7. Movie Marathon

8. Shooting Stars

9. Game Day (Sports)

10. Love Language

11. Poetry, Art, Music, Craft

12. “You kept this?”

13. Secret Family Recipe

14. Truth or Dare/20 Questions

15. Accidents don't just happen accidentally

16. “I hate you” – “I love you too”

17. Animal Shelter

18. Soulmate AU

19. Hot Chocolate

20. Bedtime Stories

21. Kiss for Good Luck

22. “Have you heard?”

23. POV Outsider

24. All the Hugs

25. First Dance

26. Blankets

27. Reunion

28. Picnic

29. Leaves

30. Dear Diary

31. A Sweet Treat

Prompt Substitutes

Last year, many of you asked for it, this year we're delivering 😊 introducing: Prompts Substitutes!

As explained in the rules, these can be used if there are prompts in the original list that you don't like for whatever reason. No need to explain or apologize for it, simply switch them with one of the five most loved prompts from last year. Or... you know... just add these five to your list of 31 prompts that want to be written 😉

Alt 1: Slow Dancing

Alt 2: Caught in the Rain

Alt 3: Falling Asleep Together

Alt 4: Up Against the Wall Kiss

Alt 5: Winning a Teddy for the Other

We hope you like these lists, and now

Happy Creating 🥳

[kindestegg]

Analyzing all the differences in the storyboards posted by Yasmin Khudari and the final product! - Part 1: No Collector Edition

Hello everyone!! Today I bring you a different kind of meta post than usual... I'm sure some of you are already aware that Yasmin Khudari who worked on The Owl House has posted quite a lot of storyboards for episodes in season 2B and For the Future as well. I will reblog this post with the link to her site later (as if I believe correctly the issue with posts with external links on them getting shadowbanned still is not fixed).

But for now! Under the cut, I will point out every difference between the storyboards and the final cut and what this could mean! There's a lot of exciting stuff to go through, so much so in fact that I will have to cut this post in half to showcase the Collector related storyboards elsewhere because there is just! So much ground to cover! And the 30 image limit would burst!!! (I know this because I've literally tried.)

(A small side note... I have elected to sometimes to not show picture evidence of things changing because we do have a 30 images limit here and I want to hopefully talk about all the changes!)

Starting with Season 2 Episode 12, Elsewhere and Elsewhen, we have this cute little scene of Lilith cutting some branches out of the way while Luz follows her and does a little twirl. I imagine this was just cut because it wasn't very necessary, but it is cute as hell.

In the final episode, they cut directly to the scene where Lilith is looking at her book showing the Pools of Time entry.

Another subtle difference likely cut for time, Lilith originally would sniff the seaweed brought by her palisman that ended up on Luz's head. In the final episode, this little action is absent.

Something that was not cut but rather added this time! In the storyboards, Lilith only goes "Eh?" when she thinks she failed in finding the time pools, whereas in the final episode, she goes into her whole spiel about how she "triple checked all her calculations, her equipment is first rate". It's possible that while the moments seen before were cut, this was added instead.

There is also another slight divergence in dialogue. In the final episode, Lilith's monologue goes: "Maybe the blood was too dry? Is it not algae blooming season?" Whereas here Lilith wonders if the map was outdated or if the oak was a bit more of a pine before wondering if it's not algae blooming season.

And finally, there is a moment that was also cut from the finale episode where Luz is wowed by the discovery of the prehistoric Boiling Isles, but finds out she can't breathe in there. This would explain why in the final episode she is heard coughing before pulling her head back out.

I do think it's a shame this was cut as it would better explain why she was coughing and would be a neat little nod to the fact the air would have been different in that era of time.

Next, we have another set of boards for Elsewhere and Elsewhen, this time showcasing Luz and Lilith traveling with Philip to the head. I'm excited to get to this one because this has some juicy changes I want to discuss.

And our first change already shows exactly what I mean: there is no mention of The Collector in these boards. Instead, both Luz and Philip are seeking something called "The Song of Stars".

And equally, Luz doesn't refer to it as a "he" who can tell them how to clear the mist, but rather just something that can grant them power.

Is it possible that at the point in time these boards were getting done, the Collector was not yet meant to be a character? Maybe the Song of Stars was rather some kind of powerful spell, something that would grant Philip a power similar to the draining spell.

Smaller detail but just something I thought was cute: In the original boards, Luz did not say "snap snap snap" out loud, so I'm glad that was added in the final cut. It's cute!

But you know what did not make the cut? Philip being a suck up to flatter Luz and Luz being absolutely adorable about it. He calls her crab language "beautiful" and says both her and Lilith are very brave and that they're like warrior princesses, which sure makes Luz happy. Oh, if only her happiness could've lasted.

A blush and happy tears!! My god girl!! I am so sorry your idol turned out to be a douche! You deserved to have kept that happiness!!!

I do have some theories as to why this was cut. Could have been reworked for time, or could have been that they didn't think people may get the reference (this reads like a Xena Warrior Princess one to me at least), or even that it might seem odd for him to have that concept...

I do think the blush here is interesting, we have seen characters in the show blush in contexts that aren't romantic such as when they are embarrassed, looking up to someone or think something is cute. So this isn't too odd, Luz is meeting what at the current time is a big idol for her and he is saying very nice things to her, which would understandably get a strong reaction.

Minor change: Luz goes "what!" in the original storyboards before asking if Philip uses glyphs too. Again, very minor change, but! Cute!!!

Interesting change here: In the original boards, Philip does not comment that it took years for him to find the glyphs and that it was almost as if the world wanted to hide them from him.

Instead, he comments he "didn't realize there was one for light as well".

This is REALLY interesting to me, because it also makes me wonder if the subtle theme of it being ambiguous whether the Titan's consciousness lingered and somehow hid the glyphs from Philip or if he was just that disrespectful and stubborn towards the B.I culture and wildlife that the only way he could rationalize his hardship was through the world being against him... was way less present in an earlier draft of the story.

He also does not comment "a warrior and a scholar, truly impressive" at Luz after she tells him she also found a glyph in a snowflake, just being quiet instead. I think that part may have been added to make more thematic sense with Lilith having a small quiet moment of looking weirded out by Philip's flattery right after.

Another minor detail: Luz also blushes in this storyboard when gushing over teaching Philip the light glyph, but this is absent in the final cut. I wonder if this was done so people wouldn't get the wrong idea, or, rather, if "my idol is so cool" gushing would be considered to be something that wouldn't be worth blushing over.

Another instance of The Collector being replaced by The Song of Stars. I find it funny in a silly way that it's in all caps, makes me think of how RPG games will write important key items or boss characters in all caps.

And that's all for the differences in this episode! But before we move onto the next, I wanted to talk a bit more about the Song of Stars because this all just... fascinates me? Coupled with that one storyboard we have seen from The Owl Beast nightmare that showed what seemed to be three figures instead of one, I wonder if back then they were toying with the idea of the celestial magic opposing earthly magic from the titans and the collectors as a species being the reason why titans are gone, but they didn't think to actually have a collector as a character back then, only have them as some distant threat and adding to the lore. The song of stars could have been some kind of powerful spell or weapon left by then way back when, perhaps even what killed the titans.

Maybe we will know once the series ends and we can ask all about the cut storylines that ended up being discarded in favor of the current one. I certainly want to know!

For, Them's The Breaks, Kid, now, we have one minor dialogue change. Eda adds a "honestly", when she says she thought there'd be more (to her misdeeds). Maybe they took it out because she WASN'T being honest? LMAO.

This is an interesting cut line: In the storyboards, before saying she'll be separated from Lilith, Eda says her parents "will kill her". While we know this is classic Eda hyperbole, I think this is interesting because to me it may have been cut due to the fact that this could be seen as odd when her parents have been shown previously to be pretty understanding... or maybe there is more to the Clawthornes than we think of.

I'm definitely not saying Dell and Gwen would be abusive, fucking hell no, but Gwendolyn has at the very least been pretty overbearing on Eda at times, and has made Lilith feel left out, presumably even before the curse if Lilith's desperation to stand out above Eda is anything to go by. Maybe, even without meaning to, Eda and Lilith's parents were pretty strict about getting them a good enough education and nudging them to join the Emperor's Coven. I mean... where do you wonder their aspiration to it came from?

Or, again, I'm just looking too much into this and this line was cut precisely because this wouldn't reflect Dell and Gwen well.

Small detail, in the storyboards, Eda said "I'll do anything to make up for this" instead of just "I'll do anything". I think it's possible they cut this because it made more sense to imply she'd do anything to stay rather than "make up for" things she wasn't truly sorry for.

More small details! Faust doesn't say "no child is beyond redemption", but rather "no one". This is interesting to me because it would imply Bump's life philosophy extends to adults as well, and in my opinion nods to the goodness in his heart.

Also! In the storyboards Eda doesn't laugh nervously, just raises her hand at Bump.

"IFWOT" also used to not have its name be said in the storyboards when Faust explained it to Eda and Bump, instead he simply called it a "special training program for gifted students of the Isles". I think this was more of a change to let us know of the name really, and it's possible they didn't have the name when it was boarded.

And finally, Faust was I guess supposed to laugh offscreen when he walked away, but this is absent from the final episode. I guess they either thought he might not be the type or they just forgot to add it, after all it would require someone to remember to record the line and add an offscreen sound effect.

Another set of boards for the same episode also shows Lilith and Eda in their studying together.

For starters, instead of Lilith saying "Trials for the Emperor's Coven are just around the corner", she says "The Emperor's Coven will be here *any* day" in the storyboards, which to be fair isn't a big difference, specially since the storyboards afterwards continue the same way with Eda pointing out seven months isn't any day/just around the corner.

Also something interesting, when giving Eda her question, Lilith specifies a potency the Leadfoot potion would have. Does this imply that potions can be mixed with varying potency, making some purposefully weaker or purposefully stronger? Maybe as a way to create balance?

Also it is barely a real difference, but I thought it'd be criminal to not let you all know Lilith is described to be "slightly envious" in the storyboards when stating that Eda is correct lol

She also had EEE on her dialogue before saying "imagine us both getting" on the storyboards which I'm sad didn't make it in!

Also there was no dialogue for Lilith pointing to the clock in the original storyboards! I'm guessing they added "look we're gonna be late" as a way to clarify what pointing anxiously at a clock meant lol

The storyboards then cut to way later in the episode, with Raine having transferred to Hexside and Eda meeting them in the cafeteria. Another slight dialogue change is Raine used to simply say their parents were surprisingly cool about it, rather than they hated the cold on the knee like they do in the final product.

It is very faint, but there is also a cut frame of Eda blushing at Raine while smiling here. Very cute!

Raine also used to take a sip while saying "give me the rundown of this place" while cutting that sentence in the middle and going "blegh" because of the taste, rather than in the final cut where they say the full sentence and then take a sip.

I think this may have been cut simply because it made the pacing of the dialogue way too awkward.

And finally, Raine used to laugh at Eda commenting on how much she liked the apple blood, which I think is just cute.

Next up, Labyrinth Runners! We have three different sets of storyboards for this one to get through!

First of all! After Bump takes a fighting stance, the coven scouts look at each other and shrug, which was cut in the final version. Guess they'd usually not think much of Bump huh...

Another set of storyboards shows us a pretty different look at the scene where Adrian has Gus held inside the gym: First of all, for some reason this set of boards is missing all of Adrian's dialogue, which makes it hard for us to infer just how much changed about that from the storyboards to the final cut, but we can see a glimpse of a different storyline with Gus' one line in all this:

"I'll never join your coven"... does that mean, originally, Adrian would try to force Gus to join the illusion coven, and Gus was resisting because he probably figured out by now getting coven sigils is bad news? But then again, I can imagine this was cut and quickly reworked into something a little less convoluted and more straightforward: Gus wouldn't know yet just how bad joining a coven is and about the draining spell, and Gus DOES specialize in illusion, so it could look odd that he is resisting this much.

There's another set of boards of when Hunter wakes up at the infirmary, and sadly this one is also missing dialogue. But we can still infer some differences!

First of all, after Skara tells him it's not an illusion and he is in the healing homeroom, Hunter opens his mouth briefly, maybe speaking words of relief or just sighing in relief really.

Also minor thing: it's a bit hard to tell with how these storyboards are with missing chunks, but it seems like Willow would have walked up to Hunter to defend him without him having to have brought up Gus' breathing exercise.

And for the last board in this, uhm, I don't... think this was meant to make it into the final cut but. LOL. LMAO.

Moving onto King's Tide!

Originally, we would've seen Luz use her safe fall spell when dodging Belos' attacks!

Also, instead of saying that it took him years to figure that (combining glyphs) out, Belos instead says it took him years to "harness their strength"... and he does NOT say anything about it being almost as if the titan was hiding it from him. Hmmm. Perhaps, more fuel to the fire of the theory that back then, there was no subtle implication of either the titan's consciousness lingering or Belos attributing his own disdain and lack of care to the titan?

This also curiously alters the next bit of dialogue: he still says "though you're still decades away from beating me", just earlier. And soon after, he says "that was almost impressiv-" getting cut out when Luz sends fire out at him. Not gonna lie, I almost wish this was kept because I like the idea of Belos getting cocky and immediately getting blasted, unable to finish his sentence. But oh well!

Speaking of dialogue differences!

Here, Philip says "And I'm giving you a chance to be saved, Luz. To go home!" instead of "And despite our differences, I want to help you, Luz. I can send you home." I consider this more or less the same, really, but it is an interesting change. He leans more on the saving aspect here.

And there is a pretty big cut scene also with how Luz responds to "I don't want to see another human life destroyed by this place".

Here, she snaps that he's the one destroying things, and wonders what it is all for, and then asks "what do you think they DID to you?"

Only after this, in the storyboards, does she go on to her "you're such a hypocrite" lines.

To me, this is a bit of a shame for having been cut out, because I feel like it brings up a good point about how Philip self justifies his wrongdoings by believing that the Boiling Isles residents are all inherently bad by the way they simply are, and that this divergence he cannot understand could somehow justify the drastic violent measures he takes.

I think it could have been this was cut for time, or maybe the crew thought this addition would be a bit confusing for some audiences to understand the implications it is trying to set up. It IS indicative of a bigger exploration of Philip's psyche after all.

Another incredibly interesting change: in the storyboards, Luz used to not have the petrification spell continue crawling up her, and is able to shake it off okay. I imagine they changed this to maybe make the situation look more dire and up the stakes a little, otherwise the scene might be too stale and anticlimactic with just Luz being able to keep talking and not having time ticking down on her life.

She also shuffles to her feet and is able to stand up while facing him, while in the final episode she can't get up due to the petrification spell still crawling up on her. Not gonna lie, I almost wish we did get this one, because the way she controls the situation with Philip here kind of feels more satisfying like this, while in the final product, you're busy going "shit shit shit LUZ OH NO".

She also used to cry a lot more on the boards when begging for the deal... I wonder if they added the petrification continuing really to just hammer home the desperation and make her crying have a "reason", though uh... hot take, I think she has reason enough to cry considering the Draining Spell threatening to kill everyone.

Also! Belos used to "chuckle" as the boards call for it when he was about to shake Luz's hand, but he doesn't do so in the final cut.

And finally for this batch: there's a small cut moment of Belos saying "you" with pained effort at Luz after she fucking booms him and gets the sigil on him, and she fucking STARES back with the most ominous badass look. I'm kind of sad that didn't make it in. Yeah it's minor but I like every time it's very clear Luz is being a thorn on his side and he is actually really fucking bothered by it actually.

Next batch of storyboards for this ep shows the fight with Belos on the bridge! First difference I can think of is that Luz was supposed to say "Philip" very quietly before getting jumpscared by him showing up behind her. It may have been cut similarly just because of them not getting audio for it or something or it not being necessary.

Bigger dialogue change: Instead of saying "we don't belong here", Belos says "I wanted to save you", which adds more fuel to the fire that they used to put a lot more emphasis on Philip's psychology of seeing himself as the one who gets to decide who is saved and seeing himself as a savior and martyr, and also someone done wrong by the demon realm.

I can't really know for sure why this was reworked and why more emphasis was put on rather Philip seeking to relate to Luz in their humanity. A lot of these boards seem to put even more emphasis on them as foils, standing up as equals against each other, and I do kind of lament we lost that? I mean, don't get me wrong, I can totally see that STILL lingers in the final product, but it feels way stronger in these.

By the way, if you're wondering, Luz does not say "I'm nothing like you" here either, it just cuts right onto Willow grabbing Belos with vines.

Also! When the gang shows up, they used to have no dialogue about how they're here to help and all, just cutting to Luz saying "you guys!!" (in the final product, she says "You guys are literally the coolest"). I do like the final product more, it's cute and adds more I think.

This one deserves to get shown: there's a cut little moment after Amity covers Luz where they look at each other and blush and it is! So cute! Why did it not make it in!! WHAT! Just because it "isn't the time to be gay"? Bullshit! Yuri time is all the time!

But for something that wasn't in the boards but made it in! Hunter protecting Willow was added in the final product!

And that is it for King's Tide... and so I ask that you tune in next time for when I analyze the For the Future boards!! I am VERY excited to get through those, specially because even between the roughs and cleans for a scene, there's so many little differences!!! And I want to talk about it ALL!!

[wild-karrde]

NEW WEEK, NEW RECS! START SENDING YOUR FAVORITE FANDOM CREATIONS FROM THIS WEEK IN FOR ME TO QUEUE UP FOR FRIDAY!

The goal of Fandom Friday: provide a place where people can shout-out their favorite creators from the week, whether it’s a piece of fan art that made you smile or a fanfic that moved you. Drop a link to your favorite creations this week into my ask box along with what you loved about it, and I will give them a shout! It doesn’t have to be Star Wars either! If it’s on another website (AO3, Twitter, etc.), please be sure to state that as well.

This happens each week, so don’t feel like you’ve got to get out everything in one week. Just keep track of them throughout the week or send me an ask whenever you find something, and I’ll drop them all on Fridays (or throughout the weekend if I get a lot). You may submit for this week until THURSDAY MORNING (I’m in the Pacific timezone). Anything received after that will roll to the next week. A summary of the weeks’ recs will get added onto this post on Saturday, so check back here for all of the awesome fics and art! And be sure to go give the creations on that list some love (and don’t just share the ask responses I put out).

This week’s submissions will start posting on Friday, October 6 13.

Rules and additional details under the cut! PLEASE make sure you read the rules before sending something in. If your submission violates any of the rules, I will delete it.

Rules:

Please send submissions to my ask box (sending them all to one place makes wrangling them easier each week). In your ask, please include the creator’s handle, a link to their work/post (if links aren’t working for the ask, please DM me them), and what you loved about it!

Please ensure the link is to the creator’s original post and not your own reblog or repost of their work (if they’re on another platform). The idea is to drive people to visit the creator’s page!

The creation does not have to have been posted this week! It can be something older. Also, don’t worry about whether or not a rec is a repeat from a prior week. Just looking to celebrate things that made an impression on you this week, whether you’ve seen it before or not!

NSFW is alright! Just make sure you note it in the ask so I can flag appropriately! Since I’m including 18+ material, minors may not participate. 18+ posts will be tagged with NSFT/lemon/lemony lemon (trying to cover all my bases).

NO incest, underage, cl*necest, master/padawan (or similar power dynamics), dub-con/non-con/rape. Also, no H*rry Potter. There are a few others that I also won’t share due to my discomfort with them (i.e., R*xsoka), so if you’re not sure, ask. Also, many of you submit multiple works at once, and that’s fine, but if one of those works contains something that violates the rules, I will delete the entire ask, so something to be extra careful about when submitting!

If your rec involves spoilers from a show that’s currently running, please include that info in the ask so I can tag it appropriately (I will normally tag a few different ways, but I always use #<show title> spoilers if you need to filter, for example: Andor spoilerswill be tagged #Andor Spoilers). I will stop tagging spoilers two weeks after the show stops airing.

You can submit GIF sets or edits, but please ensure you are submitting from the blog that actually created them. Wanted to add that caution since there’s been a lot of people stealing/reposting GIFs and edits in particular recently. So just be cautious.

Try to avoid commentary in your ask that might make others feel bad (“the only person who knows how to write XXX correctly…”). It’s important to be able to appreciate creators without making others feel bad, so let’s try to keep the commentary complimentary without being off-putting for other creators.

Self recommendations are allowed and encouraged! Shout out your own hard work! You deserve the recognition!

*Rules subject to change so PLEASE make sure you read them before sending something in. If your submission violates any of the rules, I will delete it.

**If you have any questions about any of the rules, don’t hesitate to DM me!In addition to sending me asks, I highly encourage you to go either leave a comment on and/or reblog someone’s work (tag me or use the #Fandom Friday tag if you do!). Let’s get the interaction back up on this website and show the creators that work so hard on their stuff some love!

[deathlessathanasia]

It's so funny (and annoying) seeing people associate Artemis with the moon and Apollo with the sun. Like, people? That's Roman gods Diana and Apollo.

As far as I know Apollo was associated only with the light in Greek mythology but not with the sun, right? That was Helios. And of course Artemis had nothing to do with the moon.

I can see what you mean. It is particularly annoying when "god of the sun/goddess of the moon" are used as their primary identifications, and one of my biggest pet peeves in Trojan War retellings is the characters calling the sun Apollo. It's so anachronistic please stop.

That said, while this idea doesn't really seem to be attested in the Archaic period, the association between these two gods and the sun and moon apparently existed in Classical Greece. To quote Timothy Gantz's Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources:

„Whatever his other early interests, no source prior to the fifth century ever calls (Apollo) the sun (the latter is always Helios or Hyperion). Parmenides and Empedokles may have done so, if a late source can be trusted, but seemingly in the context of philosophic structures that found physical equivalents for many of the gods. Eventually, and for perhaps the same reasons, the idea also surfaces in Orphic texts. But the first sure literary identification of Apollo with the sun occurs no earlier than Euripides, in a fragment of his lost Phaethon (fr 781.10-12 N2), and we cannot tell from the text whether the innovation is his or something previously in circulation. Earlier in the century there are admittedly some suspect moments in Aischylos on this point: we have seen that the playwright probably does link the moon with Artemis (fr 170 R), and his Hiketides (212–14) has been thought by some to call the rays of the sun Apollo. In addition, the same poet's lost Bassarides may have contained a reference to the dismemberment of Orpheus by those women, who we are told were sent by Dionysos because Orpheus ignored him and worshipped only Helios, whom he called Apollo (p. 138 R).

I must confess that I am skeptical of most of this evidence: the tale of Orpheus comes from Ps-Eratosthenes, who cites Aischylos for one brief point near the end of the story, suggesting that the rest of the account (including Helios/Apollo) derives from other sources (Katast 24). 37 As for the Hiketides, the link between Apollo and the sun there is achieved largely by emendation of an (admittedly corrupt) text that originally implied just the opposite. 38 And while different plays are entitled to different views, we should note that in the Choephoroi Helios is addressed by Orestes in a way that emphasizes his separation from Apollo (Cho 984-86). Still, there is the reference to Artemis as the moon, if we have read the fragment correctly. Whenever the connection between god and sun was made, it was surely fostered by Apollo's title of Phoibos, used so often by Homer and the Hymn to Apollo (with or without Apollo added), and meaning (or thought to mean) "shining." But on balance we should probably conclude that the myths of the Archaic period (virtually) always made Helios and Apollo two separate figures; they are never confused in early art.”

In the Iliad scholia, the Theomachy from Books 20-21 is interpreted allegorically and Artemis is said to represent the moon (Hera the air, Hermes reason, etc, and possibly Theagenes of Rhegium (6th century BCE) is responsible for this idea. I can't confirm though whether or not he was cited as a source in the scholia, I'll need to look more into this. Artemis is clearly associated with the moon by Greek authors dating from the Roman period (ex. Plutarch), but her identification with the moon goddess Diana most probably explains why.

Personally I don't refer to Artemis as the goddess of the moon or Apollo the god of the sun, let alone as the actual moon or sun.

[jessicalprice]

the two trees

(reposted from Twitter)

Been reading a lot about religious abuse and a lot of people writing about it talk a lot about Eden and the trees, and I'm feeling like it's time for a little thread about the trees. 

So. Everyone knows this story, right? 

Cool. Where was each tree located in the garden?

Here's the text. (Incidentally, "Eden" is the same word, essentially, as "edna", pleasure--when Sarah hears the promise that she will bear a son, she laughs to herself at the idea that she will have "pleasure", eden/edna, again.) 

And here it is in a different translation (Hebrew and English are so different that it’s hard for a single English translation to capture everything about the Hebrew--in this case, while I generally prefer Everett Fox’s translation, it doesn’t capture the link between adam (the human) and adamah (the earth/soil).

They both basically preserve the structure of the Hebrew as far as where the trees are: “the tree of life in the center of the garden... and the tree of knowledge of good and bad.”

So in the center, we have the tree of life.

And... somewhere, there's also the tree of knowledge. (Tov v'ra, "good and bad," is an idiom that means "everything"--the English equivalent would probably be closer to "Knowledge from A-Z”.)

Ok, so, we've got the tree of life called out as being at the center of the garden. And somewhere in the garden is the tree of knowledge. And then we get instructions.

So if you want to read this literally in English, these instructions are given to Adam, because Eve isn't around yet. But as I noted above, adam in Hebrew is also just "human." (adam from the adama, an earthling from the earth, a human from the humus.)

And there's a popular Jewish reading that says that the first human was actually male AND female, and Eve wasn't *created* from Adam--the first human was split into two. So maybe she was around. But if you want to be literal, the text only records this instruction to the man.

Anyhow, we have the tree of life in the center, and the tree of knowledge somewhere, and the man gets told don't eat from the tree of knowledge, and Eve doesn't exist yet (at least as a separate being).

So, Eve gets separated/created, and along comes the serpent, with a question that is already framed incorrectly (a tried and true lawyer technique--people will jump to correct you and accidentally admit things). “Did God really say: You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?”

So, we don't know what Eve has actually been told, or by whom. Did God give her the same instruction God gave Adam? Did Adam have to pass on the instruction to her? Did he do it correctly?

So let's look at her answer:

What’s interesting here is that while the translation inserts the “other” to make it make sense, it’s not there in Hebrew.

What’s even odder is that the first sentence is actually in the singular:

and said the woman to the serpent from the tree-of-the-garden we will eat

is the closest I can get to word-by-word, one-to-one translation. 

It should be in the plural construct form, atzei-, but instead it’s in the singular, etz-.

Then she goes on:

and/but from the fruit of the tree that is inside/in the center of/the essence of the garden, said God do not eat from it and do not touch it lest you die

So, first, let's get something out of the way: she adds to the instruction. The original instruction didn't contain anything about touching.

(And if you're going, eh, so what?, well, the Hebrew here is SUPER-terse. If something gets repeated, it's significant. And if it gets repeated with a change, that change basically has flashing lights over it.)

So either: 

God gave Eve different instructions (Adam wasn't told not to touch; she was). 

Adam relayed the instructions to Eve and added the part about not touching.

Eve added the part about not touching.

If the story wanted us to know that God gave Eve different instructions than God gave Adam, I'm pretty sure we would have gotten a scene with that. 

So either Adam or Eve engaged in the first instance of the rabbinic practice of "building a fence around the law”. The practice of building a fence around the law is, if the Torah says "don't cook a kid in its mother's milk," you don't eat milk and meat together just to be sure. It makes the law stricter. (BTW, for Christians: Jesus was super-into the rabbinic practice of building a fence around the Torah--if the law is "don't murder," he says don't even get angry with someone.)

And the instruction is changed in another way: 

God tells Adam don't eat from the tree of knowledge. 

Eve says we're not supposed to eat from the tree in the center of the garden (which has already been identified as the tree of life in 2:9).

So, the serpent says, you're not going to die, your eyes are going to be opened and you'll be like divine beings, knowing tov v'ra (literally good and bad, but colloquially, everything from A-Z).

And so she eats from... the tree. The tree in the center of the garden? The tree of knowledge? Nope. Just the tree.

Oh, and btw, the text is literally: she took from its fruit and ate and gave also to her husband THERE WITH HER (imah) and he ate. This entire time, the shmuck was standing right there not saying anything. All those stories about her running off to find him and seduce him? Heh.

Funny how the majority of translations just... don't translate that word.

So anyway, God asks them if they ate from the tree God had commanded them not to eat from (God initially identifies the tree of knowledge, Eve identifies the tree in the center of the garden--it's like the text is doing a shell game with the trees.).

There's a lot I could say about how bad the "pangs of childbirth" translation is (it's work, an explicit parallel to Adam's work of tilling the soil). Equal weariness for equal work, but that's a whole different discussion.

But then we get God speaking (unclear to whom, or who can hear), saying "we can't let them also eat from the tree of life" or... they'll live forever. But they were already eating from that tree, no? They had permission to eat from everything except the tree of knowledge.

So what's going on? Midrash goes WILD about the trees. It was two trees with a single root system, it was the same tree, one tree was the root system of the other, etc. I haven't encountered it, but there's probably stuff about the trees switching places somewhere.

Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, goes even WILDER, collapsing space and time. Adam and Eve were originally a single being, and so were Lilith and Samael, and those two in their combined form were the tree of knowledge, they got split when the fruit was plucked, which is why Lilith is so pissed.

But also, the serpent was Samael and the tree was Lilith, there's stuff I can't remember exactly with the tree and the flaming sword of the cherub guarding the way back to the garden being somehow related... Jewish mysticism doesn't always treat time as linear, so.

But I keep coming back to those two instances of:

Eden as paradise.

Sarah laughing to herself at the idea that she will have pleasure (edna) again in her old age. It's a root that doesn't occur all that often, so the link between those two instances rings out.

And you can read the text as God imposing punishment, like a vengeful parent. You can also read it with God as an overprotective parent, who wanted to keep the knowledge of what inevitably awaits adults--toil, exhaustion, and ultimately death--from the kids for a little longer.

But adulthood holds joys kids can't experience, too, like the joy of bringing life into the world. And birth is intimately connected with death. They are inextricably linked, the departure from the garden of Eden into the world of toil and death, and Sarah’s edna at the idea she will have a child. 

As bioethicist Laurie Zoloth observes in Born Again: Faith and Yearning in the Cloning Debate:

Birth, in its messy, uncontrollable tumult, is the closest moment we ever have to facing our own death, of course. The Jewish rabbinic tradition requires women to re-enact this by the ritual immersion and the public recitation of the prayer of rescue, both acknowledgments not only of the obvious risk involved in physical childbirth (a fact rather cheerily forgotten in all of the cloning debates) but also of the fact that the birth of a child re-states the ending of the self. It is the entrance into the room of your life of the he-who-will-hold-you-as-you-lie-dying...

At stake will be how it is to love like that, not the chosen one, not the close-as-can-be replica, but the surprising stranger who will live at your side... The act of parenting is the act of encounter with the other who is both not-you and of-you, your future and your responsibility, your obligation and your joy. In this way, we all learn to have the stranger, not the copy, live by our side as though out of our side.

God is not a human parent, but perhaps the departure from Eden is the moment when humanity becomes the beloved stranger, who is both not-God and of-God, future and responsibility, obligation and joy. 

I think here of one of our readings for Yom Kippur here:

You are our Beacon; 

we are Your burden. 

You are our Enigma; 

we are Your frustration. 

You are our Call to Conscience; 

we are Your critics. 

You are our Touchstone; 

we are Your loyal opposition.

Perhaps as a species, we’re still teenagers. 

What the link between birth and death, expulsion from paradise and the promise of a child, seems to tell us is that they’re the same tree.

Life beyond childhood and knowledge and death are all of a piece. Or, you can read it as both of those concepts--life/innocence and knowledge/death playing peekaboo with you throughout the text. 

But in any case, textually speaking, there is something VERY WEIRD going on with the relationship between those two trees.

And, most importantly, there is NOTHING simple about this story. It can't be read literally, and it's too mysterious to serve as a just-so story about men and women.

Photo credit: Johannes Plenio

[lurkinglurkerwholurks]

Safe House

First posted: September 23, 2018

Focuses on: Jason Todd and Damian Wayne

My favorite bookmark: "This is so soft and feels oddly melancholic"

Tier: Top 20 in terms of hits, kudos, bookmarks, and subscriptions

This is my "behind the scenes" series where I indulge myself horribly by annotating my fics. Link to the fic itself above. Thoughts below the cut.

As I said in the original notes, this story came from yet another conversation with @starknjarvis27 about potential misconceptions about Jason from kids who weren't around to know him before Ethiopia. When their dad won't talk about who he used to be, and who he is now is so different, it's all guesswork. She spun that talk out into This Above All and I made Safe House.

And heyyyy hey hey, hello to my first double meaning title! 🥳

The safe house was supposed to be empty. The last time Damian had surveilled the tiny, one bedroom apartment, it had been neatly neglected—the cupboards fully stocked, the furniture sheeted, the air stale. It had been foolishly lax of him to assume that the apartment would remain untouched for so long, but his options had been limited.

I was very new at writing Damian here, but I enjoy writing in his voice. He's such a fun mix of fastidious old man, snobby teen, and insecure child.

Damian hesitated in the unlit entryway. He could see the light from the living room down the long, narrow hall, and the muffled chords of an acoustic guitar filtered out from a stereo. If he took a step backward, he could open the front door and slip out again before he was noticed.

If I remember correctly, I roughly planned Jason's safe house along the outline of a friend's apartment that I know well. I'm very bad at mentally picturing spaces, so it seemed the safest way to make sure I didn't mess up. Even still, over the years, I think it's shapeshifted a few times.

Todd. Wonderful. Of all the potential occupants.

Damian, it's his apartment. (This does imply, though, that Damian is more comfortable even with Tim than with Jason.)

“Leave your shoes on the mat,” Todd said after a pause. He turned back toward the living room and said over his shoulder, “I just cleaned the floors.”

Clean freak Jason Todd is a headcanon near and dear to my heart.

Damian knew the outline of his mother’s ties to Red Hood’s genesis and had never been able to parse whether the man felt grateful or resentful, nor how those feelings then translated to Damian.

In my universe, Talia/Jason never happened because I don't like it.

Damian realized as he padded down the hall in his socked feet that he had never been alone with Jason Todd before without someone else in the next room. The Manor had never felt so far away.

I bumped up against this line writing a later fic (I don't remember which one) because I wanted to keep this true and consistent, which meant I couldn't just send Damian over to Jason's for whatever I needed him to do.

Damian expected to find the apartment much like he had seen it last, just with a few lights turned on, a few dustcovers pulled back. Instead, as he stepped blinking into the lit heart of the apartment, he found himself in a warm, comfortably appointed living room. The original furniture had been artfully arranged and new furnishings added. The living room now boasted a faded but plush area rug, a few potted plants, and a full bookshelf, none of which had been there before. It wasn’t a full room—the walls were still mostly bare, the furnishings either from IKEA or pulled from a curb—but it was lived in.

All that careful dancing for nothing. If Jason's space is this nicely appointed, then he's pretty well settled, which places him pretty far along the family's timeline in terms of how he's doing with Tim and Dick and Bruce etc. That's the real backbone of how I piece things together, and I don't think Damian could have avoided Jason for that long over there, which means this is probably operating off on its own timeline. Of course this is just me being picky. No one else will notice or care and odds are I'll forget I ever said this by the time it becomes relevant for some other fic, because at almost 100 fics, the details are becoming a little hard to keep track of.

Everything in Todd’s drawers were too big, almost laughably so. Damian scrubbed his hair with a hand towel, then set about rolling up the legs of the sweatpants he had grabbed. He remembered Grayson mentioning once how underfed and—he thought the word was scrawny—Todd had been when he had first come to the Manor. Damian couldn’t believe it. The Todd he’d always known was larger-than-life. Case in point, the Han Solo t-shirt Damian chose to slip on that could double as a parasail.

Firstly important because Jason's physicality helps nod to how much has changed for him, beyond death and resurrection, and how Damian only has access to his recent past. But also I vaguely remember picking Han Solo for a reason, and I can't remember what that reason was now. Maybe just Jason and Han both vibing on "Never tell me the odds."

Todd sat in a wingback chair next to the space heater, his socked feet propped up on a faded purple ottoman. He held a book in his lap and didn’t look up from its pages when Damian entered. “This is my night off, so you better not have brought any crap with you. If I have to punch someone tonight, I’m gonna be ticked,” Todd muttered. He flicked a finger back toward the kitchen. “Tea. Counter.” He had already served himself with a porcelain cup and saucer that looked strangely similar to Alfred’s preferred set at the Manor.

Jason really is one for creature comforts once he allows himself a safe space. It was fun trying to decide what he would want and also what he could afford and where he might get it. But also, Alfred would likely have been his first introduction to tea, so of course he would assume that what Alfred does is the One Correct Way.

“I didn’t know you read,” he blurted out when the strain became too much. Damian fought another grimace. He could almost hear Drake laughing at him.

99% sure that piece of dialogue came directly from my chat with Stark. ("How do you write realistic dialogue?" I mean, it helps when you're physically saying it out loud in conversation.)

Todd did glance up at that, peering up beneath dark brows and through— “I know you’ve been in my room, you snot. What do you mean you didn’t know?” He had been, many times, though Damian wasn’t sure how Todd knew that. He had been careful to leave everything as he found it.

That em-dash was a cheap trick to hold the reveal a few more lines.

Of course Damian is a relentless snoop, especially about someone like Jason, an intriguing and potentially dangerous mystery.

Jason didn't know-know, he's just very good at guessing accurately because he also knows Damian would snoop as a matter of curiosity and survival. Also maybe Damian wasn't quite as careful as he thought.

With the warm, dim lights, settled in his wingback chair with a book, his spectacles, and the softest-looking sweater Damian had ever seen, Todd looked… well, he looked like Father.

My most beloved headcanon, that Jason and Bruce unconsciously mirror each other in so many ways that neither suspect.

Todd settled back in his chair and closed his book. “You sure are chatty tonight, brat.” His tone felt like showing teeth, but with the intention to playfully nip instead of to bite. That was something Damian understood, something that made sense to him even if he didn’t understand the exact why of the playfulness. Damian took another sip of tea.

I was pleased with that phrasing, because I did want to convey that Jason's casual insults usually mean less than how he says them, and framing it in terms of a big dog play-fighting with a puppy seemed both relatively straightforward and a comparison that Damian would instinctively understand and use as his own personal lens.

But also, Damian: "Why is Red Hood acting nice??" Jason: "Look at the baaaabyyyyy."

Todd lifted one shoulder, a half-shrug Damian had seen him do before. “It’s my night off. I could smell a storm coming. No one ever comes here.”

Oh. I forgot about this line. Apparently this is not the safe house that appears most regularly in Mutual Aid etc.

Todd was… He couldn’t say. Grayson insisted that they were brothers, and not merely by law. But Damian knew Grayson. He knew Drake and Cain as well, though they had their own veils of inscrutability. He didn’t know Todd. What scraps of information he had were contradictory and, he suspected, muddled by the emotions of those who conveyed them. Not to mention the contradictory attitudes of Todd himself, who at times seemed to have no regard for anyone at Wayne Manor, but at other times would, well, take Damian in out of a storm and make him tea.

The absolutely irresistible allure of the Much Older Cousin who comes and goes in mystery. Also, as much as Damian is set up to sneer at and look down on Red Hood, they have too much in common, so of course Jason is a tantalizing puzzle.

He hesitated, then added, “Besides, no one talks about you. Not truly.” He peeked up at Todd through his eyelashes and so caught the twisted grimace on the man’s face before he could hide it behind his own teacup. “You mean other than as an object lesson,” Todd said. “Or bogeyman,” Damian admitted, then hastened to add, “Not so much anymore, not now that you’ve stopped killing.” “Have I?” the other man shot back, but Damian only frowned.

That exchange definitely came from my initial conversation with Stark. Also, Jason is such a poser. Dude hasn't killed anyone in AGES.

Damian picked up the book he had been reading. He had expected perhaps one of the pulpy detective novels that Father enjoyed, but instead found himself thumbing through a battered bind-up of The Lord of the Rings. It was a classic, to be sure, but weighty and heavily marked with carefully drawn blocks of yellow, pink, green, and blue. The inside cover had the stamped name of a secondhand shop, but the highlighted lines felt newer.

I can't remember if I absorbed fanon to choose LOTR here or if it just felt right. I know a lot of fics prefer Pride and Prejudice as Jason's book of choice, but the boy needs a distraction from the storm and this felt like a choice Baby Jason and Bruce would have bonded over.

For while the stacks were straightened and neat, the number of books overwhelmed the crooked little construction and made the plywood shelves bow. Damian didn’t recognize all of the titles, but he could pick out 18th century romance novels, 19th century thrillers, translations of ancient poems and epics, modern adventures… the variety was endless. The owner seemed to have no niche focus but instead delighted in everything, though not a single tome looked new.

I looked at my own shelves for this paragraph and then added in bits from more erudite folks of my acquaintance. (I am not a huge fan of the capital Classics.)

“You’re in school?” “Don’t think I’m smart enough?” Todd snapped back. That…wasn’t out of the question, though now that Todd said it aloud, Damian could hear how ridiculous the sentiment was. Of course Todd was smart enough for anything, much less something as stupid as school. Red Hood’s base cunning was part of what made him such a formidable opponent and ally. Damian also couldn’t picture Father choosing to care about a stupid child. Intelligence was important to him. And even the thought of being quasi-related to an idiot pricked Damian’s pride. Todd was a Wayne. Sort of. Therefore, he must be intelligent.

Jason is touchy about his perceived intelligence. Damian isn't an idiot, even though he formerly assigned to Hood one type of intelligence but not another. Also his statement about not being related to stupid people is 10000% me. My relatives are allowed to be fallible. They're not allowed to be stupid.

“I hate school,” he hissed. “You spend your days how you please, you patrol when and where you want. Why would you trade away even a fraction of that freedom for school?” “I loved…” Todd paused, seeming to weigh the truth of his own words before tossing aside what he was going to say. “I didn’t love school either. I could hold my own, but P.S. 81 was an underfunded joke, and going to Gotham Prep was like getting tossed in a shark chum. I liked learning, though. Always have.”

Straight fanon gleaned from a million other fics for Damian, plus my own spin on fanon for Jason, because a blanket statement that he loved school felt off for the reasons mentioned above.

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d heard Todd speak with unvarnished sincerity. 

I love Jason forcing himself to be even slightly vulnerable for a specific reason. He's hungry for it. All the posturing has to be exhausting. But he has to have a reason to lever himself into it. Right now, the lever is the traumatized kid sitting on his floor.

“You breathe a word of this to Bruce and I’ll feed you to Killer Croc.” Todd had leaned forward in his chair to glower at Damian. The soft-spoken confessor was gone, replaced by the gravelly Red Hood. Unfortunately, he had lost his edge with Damian somewhere around his second cup of tea.

I really enjoy Jason losing his edge and being unable to get it back no matter how hard he tries.

At Todd’s quizzical look, Damian rolled his eyes. “I will not subject myself to interrogation in order to fix your petty problems, Todd. I will defend Father’s honor with my life, but his oblique examinations are distasteful.” Todd narrowed his eyes, making Damian roll his own again. “Tt. He wishes to know if you are well. He wishes to know if you seem well-rested, if you seem well-fed, if you seem happy, but will not ask. For a man adept at directness, he can be truly maddening. So you have nothing to fear. I have no wish to subject myself to such foolishness.”

Damian: We are all subjected to interrogation on your state WILL YOU PLEASE JUST TALK TO THE MAN I am tired of writing up reports on your vital statistics.

Damian scowled, but then admitted, “You are not as odious as I first believed.” He didn’t want to speak what had been in the back of his mind for weeks now, but his honor and pride demanded it. “I… understand that you were instrumental in my return. Thank you.” Todd frowned and tugged on the cuffs of his sweater until the sleeves pulled up almost to his knuckles. “I wasn’t given a choice. Probably wouldn’t have helped if I had been.” Even as the words punched Damian in the chest, Todd looked up, blue eyes clear and uncharacteristically unguarded. “But you ended up with a better deal that I got, and I’m glad. So you’re welcome, or whatever.”

And there we go. Damian truly believed and hoped the safe house was empty. He just needed somewhere close by to hide. But before he probably wouldn't have risked it without the proof that Jason did actually care whether he lived or died. Which is why the seeming dismissal hurts so much here. He doesn't have context to know that Jason would have refused for Damian's sake. Better not to come back at all than to come back the way Jason had.

The older man drew in a breath, eyes flitting toward the curtained window, then back to Damian. “What got you tonight? The smell?”

I hate POV terms like "the older man" and would find a way to work around it if writing now. But also I'm decently sure connecting the Pit to the smell of ozone has been used many times in other fics, I didn't come up with that.

Todd either ignored Damian’s shudder or misinterpreted it. He tapped his cup. “Aromatic tea helps. Fills your nose with something else. I like using one of Alfred’s blends. Happier memories.” He tilted his head in the direction of the radio. “Music, for the noise. And distractions.” Classwork abandoned in favor of a retreat into a familiar fantasy.

I like that Jason's finally reached a place where he's healthy enough to comfort himself instead of using his own wounds as further punishment. Good for him.

“I should have warned you.” Todd’s mouth was turned down, but not in anger, or if it were, it was at himself. It was, Damian realized, what Todd looked like when he felt guilty, and he filed away the knowledge for later. “When you came back so different, I didn’t think you’d have the same issues.”

I don't know much at all about Damian's death and resurrection, canonically. I think I heard he came back with temporary powers or something, which is silly, so I ignored that completely. (Best practice for relating my fic to canon is that unless a specific detail is mentioned, it probably didn't happen in my universe.)

“It sucks,” Todd agreed, and for once his forthrightness soothed instead of rubbing Damian raw. “And it may never get completely better. But you’ll learn how to cope.”

Damian desperately needs the safe, soft comfort that someone like Dick can give him as his bedrock. But it also makes sense that Jason's more bare bones approach would be its own comfort, given Damian's upbringing and suspicion.

This was also my first fic that had the honor of being turned into a podfic!

[cheritzteam]

[The Ssum] The Ssum : Forbidden Lab Update (13/4 KST, v1.1.14)

Hello, dear lab participant.

You can now download the new version of <The Ssum : Forbidden Lab>.

Google Play Store (Android) - link

Apple App Store (iOS) - link

This update includes bug fixes, so you will receive 15 Aurora Batteries as Study Support upon accessing the game.

Make sure you access the Lab by the 16th of April 2023 (KST) to get your compensation! *You must collect your reward within 3 days.

-

The following are the details of the update we have received from the Lab.

[Feature Improvements]

> If you want to start your story with a clean slate!

We've added a new feature to wipe your data regarding a chosen special ssum-one. Please be careful when using this feature as it will erase all your memories of chats, calls, photos, private accounts, and Milky Way Calendar history! * Paid items that will be removed: special choices, premium images, and I Can See Your Voice.

> Hey, why did I send this gift?

Have you ever wondered what gifts you sent to other lab participants in the Forbidden Lab and why? Now you can see the recent history of gifts sent from PIU-PIU’s Belly. Please note that if the other lab participant decomposes the gift, the log for it will also be lost!

> Posts that match your taste at a glance!

A title search feature has been added to the Canals of Sensitivity. Find your dream piece with your favorite keywords!

> Of course, tastes differ!

Say goodbye to the days of squinting at posts you don't like! We've added lab participant blocking to Canals of Sensitivity.

> Original PIU-PIU is a doer when it means it!

If you've ever been stuck with a reward that's over the number limit on Planet Pi, PIU-PIU will swallow it for now. However, if PIU-PIU's Belly is already full, please empty it first!

[Bug Fixes]

> The message notifications just won’t go away…

We've fixed a bug that caused the notification dot to stay up when you delete an unread message.

> The number of Frequencies I received from Pi doesn’t immediately populate…

We've fixed an issue where Frequencies received as a reward from Pi were not immediately reflected in your inventory.

> My planet level for Pi seems to be off...

We've fixed an issue where Pi's level information would not display correctly in certain situations.

[Others]

Fixed the issue where the minor feature BGM would carry over to the chat screen.

Minor bugs were fixed.

-

We appreciate your reports and your activities as a part of the Lab.

Thank you.

-Cheritz-

[og-danny-dorito]

[ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ꜱᴏᴍᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴊᴊᴋ ᴄʜᴀʀᴀᴄᴛᴇʀꜱ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ɢᴏ ᴀꜱ ꜰᴏʀ ʜᴀʟʟᴏᴡᴇᴇɴ (ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴘɪᴄꜱ): ᴘᴀʀᴛ 1 ]

ᴀ/ɴ: SPOOKY MONTH BE UPON YE

ᴛᴡ: none

| ɢᴏᴊᴏ

more like goHOE

this absolute slut either goes in the most revealing outfit possible or the stupidest outfit possible. no in between

you know those shitty outfits you find on amazon that are like way too overpriced? yeah he's rich so it doesn't matter

probably goes as either a greek god or a digimon character tbh

either way he looks good and it's infuriating

| ʏᴜᴊɪ

bro 💀💀💀

have mercy on him pls he's kinda stupid

he originally wanted to go as ghostface cause like, he likes horror movies and all that but as soon as he figured out junpei was going as ghostface he decided to ditch the idea (cause he's nice)

instead, he decides that going as sukuna so he could scare the shit out of everyone

also because its easy and all he has to do is put on a kimono

only sukuna is WAY to into the idea

he's so into it that he agrees to behave for the night just so he can get a kick out of people trying to figure out whether it's yuji or sukuna talking

they switch every few hours so that yuji can shovel candy into his mouth tho

(go follow the linked cosplayer on insta, her stuff is really cool!!)

| ᴍᴇɢᴜᴍɪ

ya'll ever seen those aesthetic sheet ghost things on like pinterest n shit?? like with the glases and the skateboard and- yeah yeah you know

he didn't really want to put effort into it because he thought it was stupid, but after getting pressued by gojo to "have fun" and "participate" (🙄) he eventually gave in

he does the absolute bare minimum after a five minute google search and somehow still looks cool

gets a lot of compliments on his costume tho, so he guesses it's worth it

| ɴᴏʙᴀʀᴀ

nothing.

NO LMAO jk shes not a square. she still dresses up and is willing to physically fight anyone that shit talks her for it

kinda basic but she usually just does some variation of a zombie every year

she WAS gonna be a vampire but... you know

ends up going as a pirate because she can't really think of anything else, but looks cool so it's fine

she puts in extra effort to make sure it fits correctly and all that before just deciding to do a closet cosplay, and it ends up looking cooler than the original costume she based it off of

| ᴊᴜɴᴘᴇɪ

you can't tell me this dude doesn't have a full ghostface costume that he wears every year. because you're wrong.

not only does he have the full ghostface costume he actually put EFFORT into it

he's been adding more and more to the costume every year so he can make it seem like it's different (it's not), so it kinda just looks like an elaborate ghostface cosplay by now

it looks cool as fuck though- better than the other ghostface-ers out and about

(its just this but better sorry KDJNFDJ)

| ɴᴀɴᴀᴍɪ

he's a grown man. why would he dress up for halloween.

...gojo made him go to a sorcerer's only halloween party thats why

nanami RELUCTANTLY goes, and ends up going as a ghostbuster because he thinks its amusing

sorcerers are basically ghostbusters, right? it only cost like 20 dollars at target and its the only thing that fits his tall ass well enough to be comfortable, so he just goes with that and calls it a night

| ᴛᴏɢᴇ

mime

basically means he doesn't have to explain to random people why he doesn't talk, and on top of that he thinks the whole vibe is really cool looking

the pic below is only an ounce of what i meant but he looks really cute in the costume so its fine

overall rlly sweet, doesn't have any pre-rehearsed mime acts or anything but does do cool tricks with is curse to entertain kids so its fine

[ravenmist4]

Fic Stats Meme

I'm not used to doing these things so I'm not sure if this will be formatted correctly, wish me luck. I was tagged by @jenseits-der-sterne so I had to do it! Most Hits: Marks Left Unseen This is my longest (and one of the oldest) completed fanfics that I wrote with another writer. I wrote Zelda's POV originally in 2018/2019 and they wrote Link's. The premise is a possible theory for how Zelda's hair was cut alongside a typical near-death scenario that ultimately has a happy ending, which is my personal favourite premise for fanfics (if any of you guys have fic recs of Zelda whump, pleaaase send them to me) 2nd Most Kudos: Forsaken Progeny I binge watched the entirety of TOTK on Youtube the day it came out and emotionally wrote this in the middle of my 3 hour long college lecture. It's basically just a word vomit of all my feelings projected about Zelda's in-game experience. Frankly, I'm not super proud of it, but because it was one of the first fics posted after TOTK was released it got a lot of traction. 3rd Most Comments: Composing Our Future in-character letters written w/ the one and only @jenseits-der-sterne ! I wrote it and asked if anyone wanted to collaborate and she kindly responded and provided the most gorgeous Link reply. We originally planned on adding more chapters, so I have a 2nd Zelda response deep in the trenches of my google drive that I had hoped on posting one day to surprise her (eventually... saying it here because I have NO idea when it'll be) 4th Most Bookmarks: Overly Overbearing A snippet of an angsty arranged marriage AU that I wrote with the same person who I wrote Marks Left Unseen with. Definitely one of the most fun fics to write that unexpectedly got SUPER popular. I'm not sure if we'll ever end up finishing the full long-fic version, though. 5th Most Words: Evocation One of my favourite oneshots that I've written between Link and Zelda, it bounces between pre and post-calamity through Zelda's narration and it's pretty soft. You can tell it's one of my much older fanfics because I refuse to use ANY capitalization (on purpose, as an aesthetic choice that I thankfully no longer subscribe to) Least Words: A Parting Message I believe this is the first fic I wrote for Legend of Zelda as a whole. It's a letter Zelda leaves for Link in the shrine before going to face Ganon, and even though it's been years I still really enjoy it. I think this is another fic I would be totally open to collaboration on, I'd love to see Link's response once he remembers her (,: I'm not sure who to tag that hasn't done this already, so anyone is welcome to do it if they wish!

[danpuff-ao3]

Fanbinding Process 1: Typesetting

Someone asked me to chronicle a fanbinding project a while back and now that I'm in the starting stages I figured "oh yeah I should do that!"

Disclaimer: still new at this. Please don't judge me. And also this is just what I do and really when it comes to some of the smaller details, that's personal choice and stuff you'll decide once you get going and know what you wanna do with it!

Anyway current project: A Choriambic Progression (one of my faves!) (I'm also doing In Between Days at the same time but I'm further along in that one so it's not a good one to really show.)

Step 1: Gotta save the fic! I'll say ahead of time how I do this with AO3 fic, even though A Choriambic Progression isn't on AO3. With that, I go to Download > HTML. I've found that way will copy over all the formatting whereas the other ones didn't for me. Then I open the HTML file and copy paste into Google Docs.

Instead with A Choriambic Progression I just went to the Wayback Machine link and copy/pasted all of that.

Step 2: I do my page setup before fixing the body of the work, so I inserted a few pages above the work. I consulted a few books on hand to decide the layout. Page 1 is a simple title page:

I know when I print, odd numbered pages will show up on the right and even numbers will be on the left. So when I first open the book, the simple title page will be face up.

Step 3.) Which means for Page 2 I do the copyright page:

I temporarily removed my actual location for this, but: I made a name for my bindery. Most I've seen have the location of the publishing company, so I have my location in that section. Most copyright pages vary in the setup and even some information, so I borrowed what I liked! A lot have like "First Printing: Date, Second Printing: Date" so I list where all I've found the work, plus when I'm binding it. Even though it's July right now, I figure most of my work on this will be in August so I put August 2023 for that.

For ISBN I usually will put AO3 ID: and the work ID #. Since this was originally posted to Ink Stained Fingers I used Ink ID instead and it's ID # (which is 21???? Very cool.) Also since this fic is old and not really anywhere else, I had to do my best guessing on the date, which as best as I can figure was sometime 2004? And the print line for funsies! Though I don't think I'll do more than this one printing of it, but who knows!

Step 4.) Images in Canva. Which is just....me creating whatever icons and images I want to use in Canva, which is at least a title image. In Canva I opened an Instagram Post sized template. I threw in the title + artist. I had no idea what sort of art I wanted, so I just typed in "magic" and found this crystal & plant art I liked. I fixed up the font how I liked and then went to Share > Download > check Transparent Background > Select Pages: 19 (to just save page 19) > Download.

I also went into another Canva project for smaller images that i call "icons" to make my bindery icon and also a simple image I want to have at the top of the first page and downloaded both of those.

Step 5.) Back in Google Docs aaaand....I knew I'd need some pages before my title image so on Page 3 I added the "archive information" (which is where I'll normally pull the info from AO3, but I did the same basic idea here.)

Then Step 6.) I inserted another blank page (CTRL + Enter) and on Page 6 I went to Insert > Image > Upload from Computer and added my title image. Below it I added my bindery icon and spent over fiddling with it to get it properly centered. (It never wants to center correctly.) Iirc I went into Format > Align & Indent and played with "center" and "increase/decrease indent" until it behaved itself.

Step 7.) CTRL + Enter for another blank page. Then I make sure the start of the fic is on an odd page (though I can always fix this later in Acrobat.) I inserted my cute lil story icon above the start of the story:

Step 8.) I realized I had a problem in that I did all this setup BEFORE setting my font. So I had to CTRL + A to select it all and set it to Times New Roman 16, which I know will print in a way I like.

Next I'll say, I like to keep the space between paragraphs in an ode to fanfic-y ways. But I also like indented paragraphs. So this is a personal choice, but with everything still selected I went to:

Format > Align & Indent > Indention Options > set Left & Right to 0. Then select Special Indent > First Line > set to .5.

THEN I had to go back and fix my title, copyright, and archive pages, but it's less annoying to do that than it would be to try to highlight over 300 pages to do this for JUST the fic. I later added some extras (such as the poem at the end, the author's note, and some review/recommendations for the fic that I wanted to format differently.)

....Basically just figure out how you want to format it.

Step 9.) CTRL + F. This fic was a NIGHTMARE to fix up, ngl. I did all of this last night but basically...I had to find all the scene breaks by going CTRL + F and searching "***" so I could replace those with a horizontal line (Insert > Horizontal Line.) But a few places had tildes instead so I had to do an extra CTRL + F: "~~~~" That wasn't so bad.

The bad part was realizing how much had to be italicized. Regular italic words had a "*" on either side, while correspondence began and ended with an underscore. So I had to CTRL + F: "_" and then highlight and italicize all the letters. Then CTRL + F: "*" to find all the italicized words of which there were like 200. Very tedious.

Step 10.) File > Download > PDF Document

Step 11.) I opened the PDF in Adobe Acrobat for my final stages. Mostly here I make sure all of the pages are in an order I like and make sure all of my pages that need to end up on the right are odd numbers. And if not, I can go to the sidebar on the right and go to "Organize Pages"...there I can reorganize or add blank pages where needed.

Step 12.) Page Numbers & Headers! Again this is personal preference but I can show you how I did it and you can make your own decisions about how you want to do it.

Close out of Organize Pages. Then from the sidebar I chose "Edit PDF." Then at the top toolbar I click on "Headers & Footers" and select "Add."

For me, I wanted the title as a header, and I wanted to insert page numbers. So in "Header Center" I wrote the title and in "Footer Center" I clicked on "Insert Page Numbers."

Then because I want my page numbering to start on Page 3 (I like to start numbering at the Archive Information page) I click on "Page Range Options" and in "Pages From:" I changed "1" to "3."

Note, if you fiddle with the pages later on and reorganize or add new blank pages, Adobe won't adjust the page numbers for you, which is why I make sure my pages are all in order first.

Step 13.) My least favorite part is REMOVING headers & footers from pages I don't want them on. So on all blank pages I took off the title & page number. I took the title off of the Archive information and the Title Image page. I took the title off of the "Recommendations" pages later on, too. It's not only tedious but Acrobat likes to be difficult about letting me select the page numbers so it takes a few tries of me getting the page just so before I can select and delete the page number.

Anyway at that point it's ready to go so I make sure to save it to my Fanbinding folder and next up I can print! So...we can do printing & page folding and maybe page cutting in Part 2.

You know...if I remember. 😬

[suyooo]

Hello!

I'm creating a GDQ break channel as a coding exercise and I couldn't help but notice your Mega Man one is incredible. I was wondering what, if any, tools you used to work with sprites and 2D animation in general. I'm new to PIXI and animation as code in general so any tips would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Hey, thank you so much! I didn't know much about PIXI before either, so when I started the Mega Man channel, it was mainly just reading the code of the other channels that do something similar to what I did, and seeing how it works there. For me, that channel was Corvimae's T-Rex Runner channel, it's a fairly simple one with a bunch of examples of working with 2D sprites in PIXI!

(For others seeing this post: Here's a link to the channels on the break screens on Games Done Quick streams - they are open-source, and anyone can make their own. If you're up for a small coding project and have a neat idea, and want to contribute to the GDQ stream layout, I highly recommend it, it's a lot of fun!)

For sprite animations using frames, one tool that really helped me is Texture Packer. It allows you to take all your seperate sprite files and put them all together into one atlas, so you can access them via references like mySpritesheetVar.textures.coin instead of having to manage all of the texture objects and offsets yourself. That makes sprite animations a lot easier: To create something like the walk cycle, I just loaded all of the frames as seperate layers in GIMP (or whatever image editor you prefer) and aligned all the layers so they lined up like they should when the animation plays. From there, you can export each layer as a seperate file, with all the empty space still around them. These can then be added to Texture Packer, which will take care of trimming off all of that transparency, but it will also make sure everything is aligned just like you set it once the atlas is loaded! You'll have to manually define the animations in the JSON file after exporting it (which is just an array of the file names of the seperate frames). But after that, you can simply assign the animation to any AnimatedSprite object by using a reference like mySpritesheetVar.animations.walkCycle and PIXI will take care of everything. (Don't forget to call the play() method to actually start the animation - that had me confused at first.)

As for animations involving sprite movement, in most cases, you should be able to keep it simple, and just move objects by a constant amount each frame. It's easy to set up, ensures that everything always lines up correctly, and there's often no need for more complicated approaches (especially for a retro-styled channel, where most things move in straight lines anyway). Most of the objects in the MM channel do something like this, such as the shots moving at a constant speed. There's also no need for proper collision detection for objects like them - taking pickups as an example, I just compare their X coordinate against a constant value to see whether it is close enough to the left side of the screen to be collected (which also helps to make sure the items can never be jumped over).

But since the channels are based on games, one tip I can give is to try out a little bit of physics-based animation - if the movement of your sprite works the same as the one from the original game, you can get good-looking results fairly quickly! Jumps, for example, can be done by setting an upwards vertical speed for the sprite and then applying gravity to it every frame, to get a really nice jump arc. For this kind of movement, since you are trying to replicate a game, there's a lot of similarities to code you would write for games. The main difference is that there's no player input, the jumping is instead controlled by donations and timers. So, looking up platformer physics tutorials might help with implementing these animations - to see how the physics behind the movement work, and how you can apply them to the sprites here!

If any questions come up about how something in the MM channel works, feel free to drop me a chat! Looking forward to seeing your channel :)