#same goes for individual speech bubbles

[hatchetmode]

Silly Hotel Pod oc time

[tpwrtrmnky]

Tetra has unwanted purple syndrome to be clear (their name is based off of tetrachromacy which is when you have 4 cones in your eyes so you're, theoretically, able to see a wider spectrum of colors {most only have three})

I hope my image id is good enough, it's difficult for me to do because it confuses me.

Image ID: a comic with four panels, the top left panel goes as follows a purple stick figure stands still while listening to the green stick figure speak, saying "But how can you be every color and no color at once?" Then the green stick figure continues, saying "That doesn't even make sense!"

The second, top right, panel has only the purple stick figure with a speech bubble that reads "Color is a vast spectrum of which I encompass all and yet none. This is both a philosophical and physical standing of which most can understand but not know how it actually works. I am the physical concept of color, itself. Infrared and ultraviolet can show you the invisible parts but you won't get any true context from picking one color of my many to identify me with. " The text and speech bubble being multicolored in a random way.

The third, bottom left, panel has the purple stick figure and the green stick figure standing in silence with the green stick figure having a speech bubble with 3 dots to indicate that they're thinking.

The fourth, bottom right, and final panel has the green stick figure speaking again, their speech bubbles reading, "But it's impossible to be both of those at the same time!" and "You're just trying to make the transchromatic community look bad!" The purple stick figure is shown to be face palming while text on their face reads [Insert FacePalm Here] in multicolored text.

"Clearly it's individuals in the community making us look bad, and not a deliberate propaganda effort by the far right" - Someone with no historical awareness, evidently

[partyhorn]

Have u ever posted your comic or animation workflow anywhere? Im super curious on how you tackle the process, especially not using a drawing tablet. I know you have a very simple (and adorable) style so that probably helps in terms of workflow -- Im just curious about the steps you take.

Thank you! With both comics and animation my key thing is to not spend too much time on any particular thing, just draw loose and fast. Honestly the only downside to drawing with a mouse is that I can tell my arm has extremely specific muscle memory regarding it- if my mouse breaks and I get a new one I have to spend a good month or so just letting my hand get used to it again lol. Same with if my setup gets readjusted too much- right now my setup is my mouse on one of those padded mousepads, on top of 2 books, with my elbow resting on my 3DS case (I'll get an actual pillow or something for it eventually lol). But luckily thanks to this I suffer very minimal wrist pain 👍

(...Okay I started to go really in depth in my process here, so sorry if this is way more than what you were asking. Putting it under a readmore just to save space lol)

With MFM in particular, I start by writing out the entire script for the next story arc, which really is just all of the dialogue and vague notes about any important actions. Then I do the paneling with very loose stick-figure like sketches of where the characters are and what they're doing. I prefer having very little planning when it comes to character poses and panel shapes, coming up with those on the fly makes things much more exciting and faster to make. But it's the opposite with dialogue... it needs to be 100% FINAL before I draw a single line lol.

That's part of my script for my most recent chapter, as well as what my extremely loose goofy thumbnail sketching is like. I write the script as one big thing and don't separate it into pages until I actually start drawing- then I go and color change it just to keep track of what dialogue goes on each page

After that, I go back and do the ACTUAL sketch, as well as the lettering (I don't believe this is how it's done professionally. I used to do lettering as the very last step in the process... but then found it hard to cram speech bubbles in the right places lmao.) After that is lineart, coloring, background flat colors, then shading/rendering for all of it. I do each step in batches, as in I sketch out ALL pages of a chapter before moving to lineart, I line ALL pages before starting coloring, etc. I find it way easier to be productive when it's broken up like that, though when I first started the comic I used to draw each page to completion before starting the next (but also, the comic's style was DRASTICALLY simpler back then haha)

(Unfortunately I merged some of the shading to the background flat colors so it's not entirely accurate... oops) FireAlpaca has a sand texture feature that I only found out about last year- adding that to the backgrounds makes them look 10x better with WAY less effort.

With animation, it depends on the project. For simple 5-10 second animation I make for fun, there's very little planning lol. I skip some steps in the process- I'll sketch out the keyframes (and maybe any difficult inbetweens if necessary), line those, then go straight into making linework inbetweens. I'm not a cleanup artist and have no experience in that, so I always find trying to line my rough animation makes everything jittery and wobbly. If I do it with a clean line from the start then I can avoid that and save a lot of time 👍

For my bigger projects (such as the Parvey cartoon and the MFM Kickstarter trailer), I do the whole animatic with final audio first and foremost, with the animatic being almost like the keyframes. I split them up into individual shots, .mp4 files anywhere between 1-30 seconds usually, and animate those one at a time. I'm a huge fan of free to use programs and try to use them as much as I possibly can, here's a list of the ones I use:

FireAlpaca- for the actual drawing part itself (storyboarding/animating/etc). FireAlpaca has a feature that lets you export every frame as it's own drawing, as well as an onion skin mode

Windows Movie Maker- for compiling all of those frames into video format, creating individual shots. If you upload all of your frames and set them to around 0.08 seconds, it equals about 12fps (I usually animate at 0.10 seconds/10fps, its a bit slower but looks nice)

Onlinesequencer.net- for making music. It's the place I've made all of my songs on, like the timeloop song, hyperworkaholic, and the background music for the MFM Kickstarter trailer.

Audacity- for editing audio/music. Also great for recording things directly from your desktop

DaVinci Resolve- for editing and putting together all of the shots into one big video. Can get kind of intensive on the computer during rendering, so watch out.

YouCut (app)- also for editing and compiling shots, I used this one a lot a couple years back but I'm not sure how well it holds up. Doesn't need much phone storage to download but needs a lot to render videos.

MS Paint (yes really)- for typing up text. FireAlpaca has a text option but I don't like it as much as Paint's.

...The only thing I genuinely can't do alone is voice acting. Luckily there's a big voice acting community on Twitter and they're all amazing to work with!

This got... way more in depth than I planned for it to be, so sorry if this is way more than what you were asking lol. But that's my general process when it comes to my art 👍

[niuniente]

I'm loving all these side stories exploring the DHD universe! Each one so far has been pretty great. I love alrick and his story very much, but it's fun to get to see and focus on these other characters too. Pearl was entertaining and I'm excited to see what's up with Plague

Your art is also always such a treat. I was just thinking to myself today that I kind of wanted to study the way you use background art. The grayscale filtered photos spaced out between white space without feeling empty is really hard to pull off, but I think you do so very well.

While Alrick is the main protagonist, you are right that we need to see other characters, too. It avoids stories being repetitive and gives readers a chance to mirror characters against each other; when character X is like this, and character Y is the opposite, they underline each character's traits. Whether it's their values, looks, age, gender, sex, job, living situation, dreams, fears, past, future etc. We learn about ourselves in relation to others so this same goes to characters, too.

Characters being surrounded by other characters also reveal new things from each other. Miranda can't really talk about how being a Death-Head's girlfriend affects her and the relationship with her coworkers but she can speak about it with Alrick. Joon is very lively and Miranda is super supportive of Joon, but only Alrick will understand how it is to work as a Death-Head. Plague is an ass for everyone but doesn't speak back to Kahamet (so he knows his place). Alrick is considering others but through Dio we see what happens when Alrick (or anyone) considers others above the Death-Head rules.

Also, the easiest way to expand the world or theme is to see it from other character's perspective, from their neighborhood so to say. Alrick doesn't seem to be working as a Death-Head to collect payments but Grimm does and uses this right of his without hesitation or remorse. Ama and Awa view Death-Head work as a luxury service whereas Dio does his dirty job and doesn't view the job as anything to do with luxury. Grimm enjoys being a faction leader, Plague doesn't want it. Lou-Lou is horrified with Death-Heads, Miranda lives and sleeps with one. Society views Death-Heads and their deals as something horrific, but for Pearl meeting Grimm via her deal was a lottery win. Mr. Singer loses his teeth as a payment, Cure loses her life. Rena doesn't make deals but Grimm does and can only do it because Algoth busts his ass off to give Grimm room for deals.

..

If you ever come up with something with studying my art, please, let me know! We're blind to our own work, can't see them the same way as outsiders too. I think one reason why the space doesn't feel so empty is the colored speech bubbles, which are connected to each character. I think the result would be more hollow if all speech bubbles where just blank white. The characters take more space with their colored speech bubbles. (I originally started this as I hated drawing speech lines to right character. If they are individually character color coded, then it's a lot easier to do speech bubbles!)

Why I went to comics without background was due two things. First, I didn't want to draw them. I don't enjoy them. I hate it. I don't enjoy at all thinking about compositions, perspectives, hues or values, nor about panel placements. Been there, done that, hated every minute of it. I don't want to spend my precious limited free time and limited resources on things I hate. My emphasis is on the characters and the comic is drawn in a way that it doesn't have to put emphasis on the things I hate, like panel placements and directing viewers gaze.

Second thing is that rules in art are human made. Sure, some things do make the viewing more pleasant and carry your story - I went to an art school - but many of the rules you don't need. If you are famous, you're even praised for breaking them!

I had that almost rioting epiphany when I was in the art school. I happened to see from TV news how in the modern art museums, there was a new exhibition by an American painter. He was famous for painting portraits and hanging them upside down. The curator of the exhibition was explaining with shining eyes how amazing this method is! How amazing it is that this painter challenges the viewer by hanging the paintings upside down! How revolutionary!

I thought "He gets praised for hanging paintings upside down, but if I did the same anywhere, even in the art school, I would be scolded for a cheap trick or be even called downright an idiot. So, why it is allowed to him and not for me?"

As I hate injustice like this, I've made my mind to fuck around and find out when it comes to my own art, and remember; if what I do was done by someone famous, it would be praised as something exceptional. If it's allowed to someone, then damned I be, I'm going to take that right for myself, too!

[my-autism-adhd-blog]

Hi there! My friend is going to be opening a toddler / child “play place” and she wants to develop a sensory room to help give a safe space to autistic or other neurodivergent children. She’s enlisted my help, but since I was diagnosed in my early 20’s, I really am not sure what would help autistic children. Not to mention the wide variation of symptoms!

So now, I’m gathering information. I know it’ll never be a “one-size-fits-all” type of thing, but we want to get as close and as inclusive as possible. Do you have experience with places like this? Or, would you have any suggestions? Thanks in advanced <3

Hi there,

I found an article talking about how to build a sensory room. According to this article:

How do you set up a sensory room?

Before designing the room it is important to consider:

1. The individual needs of the clients who will use the room. What are the ages, abilities, and needs of the individuals who will use the room?

2. How many individuals will need to use the room at the same time?

3. How the room will be used. Will the room be a calming area? Will it be used for therapy sessions including occupational therapy, speech, sensory integration therapy, or one on one instruction? 

4. Keep in mind the long term use of the room. If all of your equipment is static, students can become bored. A good goal is to create a flexible space that allows you to create different scenes or moods depending on the emotional, cognitive, and physical needs of the students. How will the room be adapted to meet changing needs and keep it interesting?

Common Components of a Sensory Room

* Bubble tube

* Fiber optic sprays, or lighting

* Beanbag chairs

* Interactive Wall Boards

* Rocking chairs 

* Stereo or MP3 Player with Headphones

* Therapy balls

* Lighting/projector that can display various colors & patterns

* Weighted blankets or weighted lap pads

* A flowing water fountain

* Bins with assorted sensory activities

* Aromatherapy diffuser kit

The full article will be linked below, as it goes into more detail:

I also found another article on what items to include in a sensory room:

What Items To Include in Your Sensory Room

Large crash pillows or mats

Bean bag chair

Body sock

A net swing or therapy sensory swing

Fidget items that allow for a repetitive moment

Weighted blankets or vests – the blankets and vests I linked to here are handmade by a fellow Occupational Therapy Assistant with a small business on Etsy.

Tunnel

Therapy balls

Sensory break cards

Books to read

A stuffed animal or favorite toy – the Soothing Sammy dog and program is a great option for preschool and kindergarten-aged children

Calming, alerting, and organizing activities for kids – free printable included to hang in your sensory room

The article will also be below if you want to read it too.

I hope these help. Thank you for the inbox. I hope you have a wonderful day/night. ❤️

[noxxha]

Uchiha Madara personality (Chapter 624 - 625) part 3

As mentioned in part 2, Madara goes to battle with Hashirama.

While this is headcanon territory, it would not surprise me if Madara was pretty much suicidal at that point in time. The loss of Izuna, his clan in shambles and his dreams meaningless, would make it a rather plausible option.

He is a resilient individual (growing up in war, losing three brothers) but Izuna “meant the world to him”.

*Note: the following scans are fan translated, not the official ones as I only own the german version in physical format.

I honestly love the translation here tbh, it really gets across just how important Izuna was to Madara.

Madara and Hashirama clash. Take note of Hashirama’s expression there to the left - it’s chilling.

Madara loses the battle after a whole day of fighting and seems to quietly accept Tobirama’s judgement, before Hashirama intervenes.

This indicates that Madara was held in high regard as leader for the clan (but whether it was before or after Izuna’s death is up for debate, and if that view persisted if it was after Izuna’s passing) Madara at least seems very sure on the fact that no one “views me with such regard”

While this is a fan translation, I actually prefer it to the official translation when it comes to Madara’s words at the bottom left corner. “You know…that’s no longer possible…” actually suggests quite a few things about Madara, namely how he has given up so entirely on the possibility of their “wishful thinking” ever becoming reality.

In the german version Madara says “Das geht nicht…wir sind…” (“that won’t work…we are…”) in the first speech bubble.

But is it truly too late for them to turn around? Madara’s thinking here is rigid, absolute and “black and white” in its certainty that, yes, it’s not possible for them to achieve their dreams. Not after so much war and death.

The tough guy act from Hashirama is another interesting comment tbh. It can be something that was just said in this moment, and is more of a throwaway line than holding any significance, but it could also suggest something about Madara’s character (if maybe skewed as this is from Hashirama’s eyes and they have been fighting for over a decade since the river confrontation).

Madara offers Hashirama his ultimatum in an attempt - spiteful and cruel as it is - to once more trust the Senju clan.

What is interesting here is Madara’s expression. He watches Hashirama with a calculating and cruel gaze (probably aware of the choice Hashirama will make) that translates easily into “so you are willing to go this far eh? Well then…show me”

While I would like to talk about Hashirama here, I won’t at this point in time (that is for a separate post about Hashirama’s character).

Although, “speech bubble wise” Hashirama is no longer the unsure child/teenager back at the river confrontation, gotta give credit where credit is due.

Judging from Madara’s expression he looks tired, his earlier gaze of contempt has softened slightly when seeing Hashirama so easily agree to his condition to trust…him (as in Hashirama, not the Senju themselves)

It is made clear that Madara said what he did out of pain and grief. He does not want Hashirama to kill himself (Tobirama might be another story, but at the same time…he does not want anyone to go through the pain he had to go through with his beloved brother dying)

I’m sorry but no, this is not noble…ultimatum or no. This is a post about Madara, but I just have to say that Hashirama is…naïve and selfish is what I want to say. (They all are selfish, but Hashirama is not thinking twice about the fact that he is endangering his clan in this moment). Honestly, would Madara and Tobirama not been at each other’s throats had Hashirama succeeded with this stunt? Tobirama killed what was most dear to Madara.

The anime version below really captures Tobirama’s horror at having to watch his elder brother kill himself in front of him!

As much as they disagree with one another, they are still brothers and they do obviously care for one another…

And Madara goes back on his ultimatum when seeing that yes, Hashirama is willing to go through with killing himself to spare himself the pain of killing Tobirama (while hurting Tobirama in the process…)

Madara’s words indicate clearly that his words were a test, spoken out of grief and hurt, in the end. This indicates that Madara, despite everything, is compassionate and (paradoxically) kind at heart.

Maybe its here that Madara contemplates a world without suffering?

Their dream is made a reality at long last!

But tensions do not end there…

Part 1

Part 2

Part 4

[canmom]

The Witch Hunt/Umineko-Project's translation of Umineko is pretty much a sentence-by-sentence one. Individual sentences generally sound natural, but there's a 1:1 mapping between Japanese and English sentences, which lends the whole work a particular cadence. I think it probably makes it longer in general, since in Japanese you can drop a lot of elements of a sentence, which is less permissible in English.

Final Fantasy XIV's translation, now I've played through 2.x with JP voices turned on, is a lot looser. Not exactly as a localisation to modern English though - Koji Fox's approach is to adopt a kind of ren-faire English full of phrases like 'must needs' instead of 'must'/'needs to' or 'mine' instead of 'my', although this oldschool flavour gradually diminishes and becomes more like modern English as the game goes on. But also, the information in a cutscene is often significantly rearranged, so often you notice a short speech bubble in Japanese gets turned into a much longer one in English, and vice versa. e.g. the Japanese might just launch into it while the English has a brief greeting first. My Japanese listening isn't really good enough yet to pick up on a lot of specifics.

There is still a restriction in this 'mapping': I believe the total number of voiced lines, and probably dialogue boxes as a whole, likely has to be the same, since you can change the voices out.

Generally speaking the story is the same at the scene level (you learn the same information about the same characters and places at the same time, you do the same things for the same reasons) and since the cutscene animations don't change beyond lipflaps, fairly close on a cinematography level. The tone of the game is pretty staid early on, so it's usually possible to make rearrangements without affecting the emotional flow of the scene. I'll be curious to see how it changes in the later expansions.

One of the things that I've seen discussed in translation is how an original text that's full of idioms and figures of speech often gets translated in a way that is very plain and literal. So you have to be a little inventive if you want your new prose or dialogue to have some character. (This is, like absolutely everything, a matter of elaborate controversy in fansubbing, the 'keikaku means plan' - 'memesub' - 'jelly donuts' continuum.)

There are some differences of process too. The Witch Hunt were acknowledged in-game and given the blessing of Ryuukishi07, but like most fan translators and even official translators, they received each chapter of the work when it was complete in Japanese. Koji Fox is meanwhile part of the FFXIV writing team, creator of the dragon language conlang and generally a total lore nerd with access to behind the scenes information.

Sometimes Koji's team made fairly large changes to the story, like the tragic loss of horny Haurchefant, although it seems that was only early on, since I haven't really heard similar complaints about the localisation of the expansions.

Though that said, one thing that surprised me to learn is that the Dark Night quests - one of the most popular (if controversially so!) quest lines among English players - got some quite extreme rewrites. The basic thrust of the story is the same, but the characterisation of Fray is quite different, and there's some small changes that seem to just be edgy for edge's sake lol. In general it's also a good example of the sorts of idioms added by the FFXIV localisation.

It's a surprise to me, since I've gone around telling people that if they like the Dark Knight quest, they should look forward to the Steppe in Stormblood, and the whole of Shadowbringers and Endwalker, all of which were written by Natsuko Ishikawa. But it turns out the version of the story I got was pretty far from what Ishikawa wrote.

Anyway, I am writing all this in a pretty neutral way because I'm honestly not sure what is 'better'. I think Koji's weird dialogue actually adds a lot of fun character to FFXIV-in-English that a plainer translation wouldn't, but for a game like Umineko in a Japanese setting that hinges on points of language (particularly in the riddle), Witch Hunt's approach seems to work best - and moreover I get to learn a bit about Japan here and there without the barrier of entry of learning the entire language.

Especially in a visual novel which proceeds at a pace set by the player, I would much rather interrupt the story have a cultural note explaining, say, the Glico running man that I can follow up on and learn something, rather than see it swapped out for a local 'equivalent'. There's a dogma in translation that you should try to recreate the experience of reading the work in original language as much as possible, but that's not always exactly what I want. A work of fiction can be a window into a very distant context, and that could be more important than replicating a 'natural' flow as if it was an English work.

I think it's likely that whichever version of a work I encounter first has an outsized effect - the VA differences of Drakenier don't bother me much, but probably would feel more jarring if I'd played it with JP voices first. But it's mostly interesting to see the possibility space, since translation creative problem about choosing what's most important to preserve, when not everything can be.

For older works, it's common to make many different translations of the same work, and it's kind of a shame that a side effect of the rise of Crunchyroll is that original fansubs have now become much rarer than repackaging of official subs. Not that like... I really watch the same thing twice with different subs, usually there's an obvious answer to how to translate a line and there's only so much time in the world, but it's cool to get a taste of what translators are grappling with.

[slightly-gay-pogohammer]

Hi! Sorry for bothing you but do you have any tips on making comics? I recently finished scripting one, but i have no idea on how to format the panels or anything like that

HHH OH BOY i hope i can help because despite 3 years spent in academy, i'm not sure myself! :°>

my first hint however is to not overcrowd the page, either with too many panels or too many speech bubbles. of course it can work and there are comics that work much better with many panels, but i generally tend to avoid it. i generally go for 6/7 panels at best, very very VERY rarely reaching the double digits

the second is to remember where to PUT those panels and speech bubbles to make them as readable as possible. remember that normally in western comics it goes left to right, then up to down.

eSIDENOTE: vertical panels are generally used when the ones next to them have moments that are happening at the same time, or to introduce a setting!

remember that the left-right thing works for characters in individual panels, too! especially for shot-reverse-shots, remember to keep the flow of the page by having the characters looking at eachother, or still following the left-to-right rule. a character looking left in a western comic usually "closes" the scene, but by looking right it brings the reader to look at the next panel

about that... play a LOT with the characters' positions. try to never make them vertical, or look to the side or directly at the "camera"! even more fluidity!!!

and if i may give another hint about balloons, since it's yet another mistake i occasionally made... give them their space. not too much, not too little. i generally make them overlap the panel border ONLY if it's a continued conversation, but try to not "cut" them and keep them in their panels!

AND!!!! one last thing! don't write too much in your ballons. trust me, nobody wants a wall of text... BUT they will appreciate a lot if you "divide" the balloon, giving the reader time to breathe!

...so yea fnsdmgm

[polyamproud]

We hear this one a LOT. This take often comes right before or right after the xkcd comic. You know the one. Flags aren’t just a nice way to show affiliation (though they can be)—they’re also a consistent reminder of unity, community, and safety. Adopting a new flag will never negate the meaning of the symbols you already use, but it will introduce a needed, worldwide unity our community has never had. We hope you’ll join us in making it happen! 

~image description below~

[Image Description: A set of 5 square images. All text is in lowercase letters, excluding a small part in the first image.

Image 1: An image with a background made up of a five by five grid of many different polyamorous pride flags at a lower opacity. Among the flags are the pi flag, several striped flags, many infinity heart flags, and a few others. All the text in the image is bold and centered, excluding the text at the bottom middle. At the top of the image is big black text which reads “answering your questions.” In the middle of the image is the black outline of a square. On the inside of the square, near the top middle, is capitilized black text which reads “PART 4″. In the very middle of the image is a black speech bubble with white text inside which reads “shouldn’t polyamory have lots of flags?” At the bottom center of the image is a thin black arrow pointing towards the right. Beneath the arrow is black text with the slightly spaced apart which reads “swipe.” At the bottom right of the image is the “@polyamproud” watermark in gray. Beside the watermark is the polycule symbol in gray.

Image 2: An image with a white background. All text in the image is in bold black letters. At the top left is a light gray circle with the shapes of three people inside of it who each holds a different flag that goes outside of the circle. At the left side of the circle is a person like shape in white holding a gray flag with a white circle on it. At the right side of the circle is a person like shape in gray holding a black flag with a light gray triangle on it. Behind them is a person like shape in black holding a white flag with a black square on it. At the top right is big right-aligned text which reads “yes,”. Beneath it is smaller right-aligned text which reads “we know polyamorists aren’t exactly known for “choosing just one”. Beneath the lgiht gray circle is a curved pink arrow which points towards another circle sitting at the bottom right. The second circle is pink and has the shapes of three people inside of it who each holds the same flag with each flag going outside of the circle. The flags they’re holding are black and have a white star on them. At the left side of the circle is a person like shape in Contessa red. At the right side of the circle is a person like shape in black. Behind them is a person like shape in My Lily pink. Behind the circle is a thin, horizontal line extending from the right side and taking up about 1/4th of the image width. To the left side of the circle is big left-aligned text which reads “but”. Beneath it is smaller left-aligned text which reads “individual desire for variety deos not outweigh the benefits of unified representation.” At the bottom middle of the image is the “@polyamproud” watermark in gray. Beside the watermark is the polycule symbol in gray. At the bottom right of the image is black text which reads “2/5”, indicating the image number.

Image 3: An image with a black background. At the top of the image is big bold, left-aligned white text which reads “keep showing your pride in the best way for you.” Beneath it is smaller bold, left-aligned pink text which reads “adopting a new flag won’t make your favorite symbols meaningless.” In the middle of the image are three big circles with different images in it. At the left side of the image is a pink circle that’s slightly cut off at the left side. In the cirle is the image of a black mug with a white infinity heart symbol on it. Beneath it is centered white text which reads “buy & make stuff that makes you feel proud to be polyam.” Near the left side of the text is a curved white arrow pointing towards the pink circle. Near the bottom middle of the image is a white circle with the black outline of a shirt on it with a pink polycule symbol displayed on the shirt. Above the white circle is centered white text which reads “show off your own style.” Slightly below the text is a curved pink arrow pointing towards the white circle. At the right side is a pink circle that is slightly cut off at the right side. In the circle is a white flag with a black pole and a black pi symbol on the flag itself. Beneath the circle is centered white text which reads “create your own designs & symbols.” To the right of the text is a curved white arrow pointing towards the pink circle.  At the bottom center of the image is the “@polyamproud” watermark with the polycule symbol beside it in pink. At the bottom right is pink text with the letters spaced apart which reads “and.” To the right of the text is a small pink arrow pointing towards the right. At the bottom right of the image is white text which reads “3/5”, indicating the image number.

Image 4: An image with a white background. All text in the image is centered. At both the left and right side is a pattern made up of several person like silhouettes with different clothes, hair styles and colors. The silhouettes visible are in My Lily pink, pink, Mona Lisa pink, Contessa pink, and black. At the top of the image is big black text which reads “...let’s”, directly followed by underlined text which reads “also”, followed by more text which reads “send a single message that unites our diverse community:”. Beneath it is smaller, thin black text which reads “people who carry out intimate, consensual relationships with multiple people concurrently deserve access to the same rights, recognition, treatment, benefits, and protections as those who only want a single partner.” At the bottom center of the image is the “@polyamproud” watermark with the polycule symbol beside it in gray. At the bottom right of the image is black text which reads “4/5”, indicating the image number.

Image 5: An image with a black background. All the text in the image is centered and bold, excluding the watermark. At the top of the image is a pink box with bold white text which reads “follow” with a curved arrow to the left side of the text. Beneath the box is big white text which reads “we are all part of”, directly followed by pink text which reads “one”, followed by more white text which reads “community.” Beneath the text is smaller pink text which reads “if polyamorists can agree on that,” Beneath the text is big white text which reads “we can agree on a flag that fits us.” Near the bottom of the image is smaller pink text which reads “follow @polyamproud to join our effort to establish a new, beloved polyamorous pride flag.” At the bottom middle of the image is a pink polycule symbol. beneath it is the “@polyamproud” watermark in pink.  There is a pink right-angled triangle in the corner of the bottom right, with a pink strip slightly above it, separated by a small space for aesthetic purposes. Inside the pink triangle is white text which reads “5/5”, indicating the image number.

End ID.]

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

I've noticed this ever-growing demand of safe spaces (in regards to everyday triggers) and I can't help but feel it's counterproductive. As someone who is diagnosed with CPTSD, I know that triggers are hurtful, but I've learned that other people do not trigger you. It's always yourself. Also, those of us who have gone through trauma cannot trust our "gut instincts". People may not realize but going with your first impulse is counterproductive to healing. How will you ever become a whole & healthy person if you stay comfortable? Staying comfortable in trauma is terrible. You seek out people who have red flag behaviour because it's comfortable and familiar. I wish people would focus more on self healing and understanding how to re-regulate their mind when it has been triggered, as it's usually a neurological problem. What are your thoughts on this?

This is entirely correct. Actually reinforcing and validating people's fears and trauma is the exact opposite of what you're supposed to be doing in pursuit of mental health.

I wrote extensively about this in the following post:

https://religion-is-a-mental-illness.tumblr.com/post/633326334042669056

There's a great speech by Greg Lukianoff here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj7_nMQ4Amk

He, along with Jonathan Haidt, authored the article "The Coddling of the American Mind" which was then expanded into a book:

The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure

Greg is a lawyer who deals with academic freedom issues in education, working for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, while Jonathan is a social psychologist. So they look into it from a number of angles, including that of mental health, and the deterioration of it among higher education students, including a rise in suicides, as this ideology has taken hold.

This has come up often enough that I have a tag for this:

https://religion-is-a-mental-illness.tumblr.com/tagged/trigger-warnings

==

People threatening or imposing themselves onto you is one thing, but they're external. Fear, anxiety and, at the extreme end, trauma - and, let's be clear, not everything is 'trauma' - goes with you wherever you go.

So, the idea that society can, or should, be bent to accommodate this shadow that you carry around with you, in place of actually doing the work to get rid of or manage it, is completely unrealistic, and astonishingly unhealthy. Not to mention narcissistic, since it makes your stuff central to what everybody else talks about and how they communicate.

As you correctly identify, It's not something someone is doing to you. It's something your mind, your issues, your problems are doing to you. It's not their fault, nor is it yours; the idea that we need to figure out who to blame or assign fault, for fear of blaming the victim, is practically magical thinking, like believers assigning everything to their god or their devil. Except that things can just be something that is because of something that happened. So making your wellbeing someone else's responsibility is profoundly unreasonable.

==

The original intent of a safe space was one without judgement, free enough to take risks. For example, a couple in therapy would agree with the therapist that they could express what they needed to say without the other flying off the handle. It was a space of honesty, where ideas could be explored, truth could be uncovered and if necessary, conflicts resolved through understanding. By agreeing to put offence aside.

Modern "safe spaces," particularly on campus, are the opposite. It came to be corrupted into a place where you expect to be guaranteed not to be offended. In order to achieve that, you have to censor other people, either overtly, or by inducing people to self-censor by stigmatizing individuals or certain topics. Which is to say, a confirmation bubble. The same kind we point out that Xians keep themselves in for fear of disconfirming their god, or that someone might think their way out of religion.

==

There's a saying in the law profession:

“He who represents himself has a fool for a client” - Abraham Lincoln

This is also true of medical and psychological treatment. Some people will say "well, I know myself better than some doctor." No. Not as a human organism you don't. This is like "because I'm the only one who drives it, I know what's wrong with my car and how to fix it better than some mechanic."

If you don't diagnose and treat your own heart condition, kidney disease, cancer or STDs, why would you diagnose and treat your own mental health issues? Anyone who says this doesn't take mental health seriously, and thinks you can just play around with it like a game.

Mental health problems are, by their very nature, even more prone to distortions. Claiming clarity or knowledge about your own mental health concerns is self-contradicting. Get an objective third party who is actually trained in diagnosis and treatment.

The job of a therapist is to have someone tell you that your fears are ridiculous, not to reinforce them. Their job is to remind you that they're irrational and help you overcome them, rather than help you submit yourself, life long, to their control and the limitations they put on you. To re-empower you after a situation that disempowered you.

We don't validate and reinforce a fear of flying, a fear of string, or a fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. Yes, those are real things; I didn't make them up.

There's a principle in psychology which is - somewhat simplistically - expressed as "neurons that fire together wire together." Things that are reinforced, through repetition or affirmation, change the brain, both chemically and physically, to strengthen the bonds associated with that memory, that feeling. Like exercising to strengthen your muscles. This is how confirmation bias occurs.

Couple this with Negativity Bias, the human inclination to ascribe more significance, have a greater psychological impact from negative experiences than from positive ones of equal intensity. It becomes even less healthy to affirm and validate people's bad experiences., and encourage something that happened to them to be adopted as who you are.

==

In the end, one of the core problems I have is that we're sacrificing truth for comfort. These validations are as much comforting lies as "heaven" and "god loves you." Rail against comfort over truth on religious grounds, and applause often follows. Rail against comfort over truth on mental health grounds and you can almost hear people sucking their teeth.

What I find extremely hard to take is this inconsistency. Criticizing religions like Xianity for how they destroy self-esteem - "nothing without god", "nothing but a sinner", "tainted with sin from birth"... you know the drill, we've all heard the song "Amazing Grace” -  is met with enthusiastic endorsement. We recognize that part of the whole religious indoctrination process is to foster validation of someone's life and existence only through the religion and the imaginary god. it's one of the reasons religious recruitment targets the vulnerable.

When you point out that Xianity actively encourages people, particularly children, to be afraid, to live in fear (framed as "respect" or obligated “love”) of an omnipresent mind-reading judge who commands an entire dimension of fire and lava, the reaction - from non-believers at least - is that it sure is shitty, manipulative and unhealthy.

But suggest that trigger warnings are bullshit, or criticize victimhood culture for how unhealthy and flawed it is, and this can be met by tut-tutting about how mean, hurtful and invalidating this criticism is.

And yet, this is the same thing. It's encouraging people to live under the thumb of this omnipresent fear, to live in terror of awakening it and enduring its wrath. It's saying "you cannot overcome this, you're too weak." And instead to placate it with "trigger warnings" as opposed to godly prayers.

The anti-humanity notion that you're broken and incomplete, that it's a virtue to embrace this mindset, and that you can insist on others endorsing and collaborating, otherwise they're being disrespectful or hurtful for wanting better for you.

==

We can, and should, be empathetic. To real trauma, at least, not to fainting-couch therapy-dog, coloring book, "she hurt my feelings" atttention-seekers. But that doesn't mean we need to endorse people surrendering to their problems, or act as enablers, helping people internalize their problems as core to their identity so they'll never be free of them.

Being "nice" to people by endorsing juvenile palliatives such as "trigger warnings" appears to me to be more about the gratification of the enabler. It's a very short-sighted, even narcissistic form of "nice."

"I'm helping!" - Ralph Wiggum

There's such a thing as tough love, and it's no contradiction to care that someone is hurt, but to also tell them what they need to hear, rather than what they might want to hear. To say "I care about you, and that's why I'm not going to pander to you. I will help and support you while you seek help to address this problem, so you can live as fully as possible." To not want people to be crippled by their fear by convincing them that they should be afraid. I've said essentially the same thing to religious believers.

==

I recently watched the show Girls5eva, which flashes back to a time when the big thing was "girl power." Empowerment, overcoming obstacles, not being limited or held back by what you thought or were told you couldn't do, etc. Just as important for guys, of course.

Now we seem to be celebrating disempowerment.

[deadlymodern]

Thank you for tagging me, @herpixels​​! 🌼

I'm not going to tag anyone specific because I literally wanna see everyone's take on this. So, please, if you want to, do it! 

I went a bit overboard, sorry 😗If you actually read it all, I will love you forever.

YOUR WRITING PROCESS 

Show us a part of your script or explain how you write your scenes. Do you write in screenplay format or novel format? Etc, etc.

I love writing in novel format but, for sims storytelling, I feel the need to write a screenplay.

I start by writing all the dialogue along with the action cues and setting descriptions. This helps me visualize how much space I will need for the characters, which and how many props will be necessary etc.

From the simple screenplay, I make a shooting script and a checklist. 

The shooting script is super helpful because it allows me to break my screenplay down into shots so I go in game already knowing exactly what I want from it. 

This will all sound like I think I'm some big shit but honestly... I just get brain farts WAY too often. So having everything kind of ready helps me remember little things like ADDING THE DAMN POSES INTO THE S4S for examples lmao.

SCENE BUILDING 

Show us you in the middle of scene building through pictures, gifs, or a video. Explain what is the best thing about scene building and what is the worst!

Scene/world building is 100% my favourite part of the whole process! 

I use a lot of references from the real world. The small coastal village of Brindleton is based on many places in England, mostly villages/towns in Cornwall and Devon. 

I enjoy looking for inspiration pictures on Pinterest and going on Google Earth tours, really LMAO.

Of course, there is only so much I can do with Sims to make it look realistic, but if you squint your eyes and shift your head, maybe? fjhgdfhjkg

I do the same for my residential lots and interiors. But interiors are a bit more fun for me because, besides not needing to worry about background extras, I can personalize the environment to my characters. 

CC/POSE MAKING 

Do you make your own cc/poses for your scene? If so, what is your process like to create? Do you just go off the top of your head? Do you use reference photos?

Nowadays, I make 98% of my poses. The remaining 2% is just me making some adjustments on pre-existing ones. I can't help it. I absolutely love seeing my visions come to life like this. 

I also enjoy making poses because I like giving my characters some distinguished body language. 

For example, Beth is the only character who slightly puckers her lips to the left. Usually, when she's thinking or when she's upset. It's basically the main part of her face - other than her eyebrows - that will give her true feelings away.

And Mary, on the other hand, is way less emotionally repressed. Any minor inconvenience will make her upper lips twitch upwards. She also pouts a lot more and has more eyebrow movements. 

Yes, I am a loser for paying attention to these things shhhhhhh.

Usually, I don't need anything other than an accessory or two. But lately, I've been LOVING to make recolours and convert objects into pose accessories. Whenever I have my script ready, I take note of what I will need for the scene in my checklist.

You probably don't even notice or care as much as I do, but still! They add much to the narrative imo and I feel like I'm giving depth to the characters by tailoring their accessories and the world around them. It's really fun for me!

GETTING IN THE ZONE

What do you do to get in the zone to work on a scene? Examples include: show us your playlist you use when working on a scene, what’s your go-to scene snack/drink, etc.

I have playlists on my Spotify for the main characters as well as one for the story. Beth and Mary's individual playlists are the ones I listen to the most and they are called Countryside Teacup and European Train Ride respectively because these are the vibes I get from the songs in there dslkfjsklfsd.

I also LOVE listening to instrumental playlists on youtube like this Cottagecore and this Royaltycore ✨massive points to you if you can find my comment on the royalty core video 🌚

I don't really snack while working on my story posts but I drink mate tea like CRAZY or, sometimes, I'll just have a beer to get my creative juices flowing ehe.

SCREENSHOTS FOLDER

Give us a look into your screenshot folder to show us just how much goes into ONE scene for your story. (Scrapped pictures encouraged!!!)

I never take too many screenshots with different angles because of my pre-planning! 

However, I do have, like, 10 to 15 repeated shots because I take some with DOF, some without, some with shadows, some without etc. And I'm always terrified of the screenshot not working, so I press the my hot keys like 5x jddjlkgd.

Here are some scrapped pictures from previous story posts:

CAPTIONS

Are you a caption on the picture kind of storyteller or captions in text box type of storyteller? Why? Do you do both?

I love doing the graphic novel format, with "speech bubbles" sort of. I personally find it immersive. But I also love and crave for the novel format, so I'll write a little "after scene" sometimes in the text box for extra depth ☺️

EDITING

Explain and show us your process editing a scene through a video, gif, or picture. A Before and after will suffice if you aren’t in the middle of editing a scene as you answer this.

Since I've done a few posts telling a bit about my editing - and, truthfully, not much goes into it - here is a before and after!

THROWBACK

Show us an ANCIENT story scene you done in the past and explain how you would do the scene differently today!

Okay, ANYTHING from my early simblr days is cringe worthy. The dialogue isn't good, the lighting is extremely yellow - due to my crappy laptop -, the outfits and the settings are all over the place, I--

I chose this one image because it was one of the first times I was doing a story post instead of just a gameplay update. I don't even have much else to add, just look at it jkljdfklgjdf. 

But I'm going to have plenty of scenes set in the past where I will get the chance to remake the school and dress my teen girls properly and I'm so excited. Like, making slate pose accessory excited fjdigjfido oh, boy.

[monster-noises]

(I liked those OC questions post a while ago and forgot to send some bc I was mobile rip) For your fave OC: 🔫 PISTOL - do they trust people easily? how easily will they turn their back to someone? have they been backstabbed before? will they betray someone if given an ultimatum? Least talked ab OC: 🚆 TRAIN - what is their answer to the trolley problem? and the OC you love to hate: 🌪️ TORNADO - what is the biggest change you’ve ever made to them? how have they changed from their original verse

Oh gosh!! sorry this took me a few days to get to.. I needed time to draw the Images.. it got long again so off under the cut it goes!!

Pistol:

[img description: A speech bubble coming from Lazarus, a gaunt older white man with slicked back hair twirling a golden knife in his hands, reads: "Trust is not to be doled out without discrepancy. It is a thin and tenuous bond between individuals broken by the mildest of human urges with the same effort it takes to snap a small twig between your fingers. Trust can be faked, altered, and fabricated, it's existence is flimsy and unreliable. Equivalent to wrapping yourself in paper to try and protect your body as you tumble down the mountain side. So no. I do not trust easily." A separate speech bubble coming from a cartoon rendition of the artist reads: "Ignore him, he's absolutely full of shit. He's hardened himself over time, sure, but he wants to trust people. That old heart is as soft as the contents of a freshly peeled pudding cup." /end] Of course Lazarus is my favourite! I love my little meat boy so much... You can take his word (and mine) here on how easily he trusts others. lol, but as for the other questions.. When he does establish a trusting/reliable relationship with someone he is not likely to betray them or turn his back on them, he gets very committed to things, including people, and turning on someone he holds close is untenable. Even given a ultimatum he wouldn't dare turn his back on those he's committed to trusting. Everyone else however? fair fucking game. He's definitely been back stabbed before. I don't think Miranda's manipulative capturing of him cooounts so much (I think he thinks of it as a form of betrayal though, given what she promised him and what was delivered), but the fine arts world he came from in a previous life is cold and ruthless and he was definitely pushed around a lot. He hasn't really experienced any betrayal since coming to the village, this can more so be chalked up to his lack of deep authentic relationships than anything else.

Train:

[Img Description: A word bubble from Virgil, a middle aged white man in a cowboy hat with sandy brown hair and a scruffy beard reads: "That ol' chestnut ain't nothin but a heap' a philosophical fuckin' nonsense. I got more practical, and frankly more important science to be doin' than any o' yer damned ~Morals and Ethics~ mumbo-jumbo." A separate speech bubble coming from a cartoon rendition of the artist reads: "Short answer: He doesn't have one!" /end]

Well.. pretty much ALL my OC's are my least-talked about OC's because I don't talk about any of them. So I'll take the chance to re-introduce an older and very much beloved OC of mine; The original Middle Aged Bottle Blonde Disaster Bisexual, The Prodigy Chemist Who Decided To Use His Brain For Personal Gain And Ultimately Evil, Sometimes known as The Coyote sometimes as Braided Snake sometimes as simply 'That Giant Asshole' It's!!!!!!!! VIRGIL ARTHUR WHINCHESTER!!! (yes with an H and I named him that before supernatural entered my life so huSH)

Virgil's a pretty practical guy, likes to keep things physical, tangible, doesn't like to think to much about Implications or Moral Dilemma's. Doesn't mean he won't debate you if you push him (he will. For hours. You will regret your choices. He will be smug about it the Whole time.) but y'know.. when you're in his line of work it pays not to think about these kinds of things too much.

(also he was originally for a furry comic I was making with a friend in high school where he was Actually a coyote, here's a fun bonus sketch of his Original design)

[Img description: A separate portrait of Virgil but this time depicted as an anthropomorphic Coyote with light blonde fur and bright blue eyes. He is still wearing the cowboy hat. /end]

Tornado:

[Img description: Two drawings of Idris, A horned robot made of gold who wears a leather jacket. The drawing to the left is labelled "Old" and shows him with a simpler design. The drawing to the right is labelled "New" and shows him with an upgraded more detailed design, this drawing has a speech bubble that reads: "Brava darling!~ A -subtle- but marked improvement on the already Immaculate! ~<3" A small cartoon rendition of the artist in the bottom right corner is blushing and has a speech bubble that reads: "I just... Kinda made him hotter. Somehow." /end]

and last but not least! the glow up of the (23rd) century! This is Idris, The Golden Boy, criminal ring leader and founder of Smugglers Honour, a cosmos-wide smuggling operation run so tightly and bureaucratically if you didn't know any better you'd think it was a corporation!

.... it's... part of the setting for the sci-fi/cyberpunk ttrpg game I'm GMing right now...

which is exactly why Idris needed the glow up! While his change hasn't been Drastic he was originally conceived in about 2010-2011 for the comic setting that would eventually develop Into Andromadis as a catch-all leader for the criminal underground which was a bit vague even then but was Especially not going to do in the context of a TTRPG where players were going to have to interact with him and his long reaching actions in specific and unpredictable ways, so he kinda needed a new job, or rather a more defined one. So Smugglers Honour was born! A discrete organization he could be in charge of, something a lot less nebulous than his previous title of "Big No.1 Crime Boy" lmao. But with this new title I felt he needed a bit of... polishing up.

I wanted him to Feel the same, keep all the basic ideas, but just.. tighten the screws a bit so he felt a bit cooler and sexier and more mature. And also fix his dumb stupid badly designed head oh my g o d. I uhh, I think I landed it.

[rainyday-deer]

I’ve been playing Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town and I have..... Thoughts™

Some light spoilers.

I can’t call it a bad game, I’m having fun, but it’s not.... Good, either.

The character customization is FANTASTIC, imo. I really like a lot of the options, and the ability to change the color of your individual eyes is pretty neat! I’ve really enjoyed the addition of being able to customize the MC in the newer games, and I’m glad it’s something they’ve kept around (even if the default MCs are rly cute too)

The addition of a moped is neat, though I’ll admit it seems... Superfluous. The horse in previous games was primarily used as a way to get around faster. I understand you have to unlock your moped, but the same goes for the horse, and with the way the game mechanics work, I have my moped back before I have the stable rebuilt, which kind of...Renders the horse moot. Why would I bother to build the stable now and waste fodder/stamina on an animal when I have a moped again?

In terms of the villagers, I can’t say I’m very attached to any of them. I’ve got a small handful that I guess I like but I’m just generally not invested in any of them or their lives.The dialogue is all very samey, and I feel like there’s little variation in what they say to me-- Which is generally a problem in most of the games, but it seems more noticeable here, and almost makes me ache for Save the Homeland’s dialogue style instead.

The voice clips are a nice touch, remind me vaguely of Magical Melody, and I’ll admit it’s a nice little touch. To be frank, the lack of visible talksprites and heart meters being hidden in notes VERY much reminds me of StH or MM, and isn’t necessarily something that bothers me (even if the camera angles get a lil wonky.)

As for how the farm works... I absolutely hate that the makers can only make one item at a time. I hate hate hate that I have several of these damn things lined up on my farm, taking up space, just so I can have the materials I need, and even then I only get ONE AT A TIME! And I need SEVERAL of these items to do anything from upgrading my tools, to expanding my house, to making clothes. In previous games, YES, you had to have certain items to do these things as well, but you (usually) didn’t need to turn ores into ingots first. Lumber was straight up logs that you cut down, and stones were actually useful. But here? HERE?

Cut the tree down. Save the logs. Put 3 logs into a maker. Get one (1) piece of lumber. Repeat ad nauseam.

By the way, there’s at least 5 different types of lumber. And grass. And you need them all for different things! And you need a lot of them for the different things!

There’s 3 mines, which are, frankly, kind of disappointing. The 3rd and largest mine is only 50 floors, and while the addition of the moles make for an... Interesting angle (and fighting off enemies isn’t new at all in certain games) it’s just... Boring. Part of the reason I enjoyed the mines so much in previous games was part of the challenge! It zapped your stamina so easily, and the further down you got, the more exciting it was! But it (personally) feels like there’s no challenge to these mines, and their low variety makes them boring. In reality, you’re only down there to get ores to shove into the ingot makers, so you can progress. (Because remember, these take more than one ore, to make just one (1) ingot!)

Your farm also has various trees and grasses growing over its 3 levels, which is all well and good. However, they crop up and grow VERY fast, including in places you don’t want them to. You have to cover spaces with flooring to stop them from popping up somewhere inconvenient, and even then, they’ll appear where you weren’t ALLOWED to place the flooring. You can’t just sickle the saplings, either. You have to mash those down with a hammer.

Your sickle is ONLY used for cutting the grass, which makes it almost useless in terms of upgrading. You cannot use it on crops, weeds, etc. Just the grass.

There’s also these blue stepping stones across your farm in various places. To my knowledge they cannot be moved or broken, and you cannot till them away, or place anything over them, resulting in wasted space, frankly.

As for the animals, it’s very... Strange? In my opinion. I’m unsure if it’s because of the mode I selected, but the livestock does not NEED to be brushed every day. Rather, when you go to take care of them, the animal will have a small speech bubble over them, indicating what they want at the moment. Your cows and goats will often have a milk icon over their head most days, and only OCCASIONALLY (in my experience) will they want to be brushed. Strangely, you don’t need to buy any tools to do so, either. You interact, they’re milked. You interact, they’re brushed. It’s all very quick, as well.

Also strangely, you have to purchase the ability to breed your chickens, rather than just putting an egg into the incubator.

As for the animal variety... I like it! The goats and the rabbits are very fun additions! And simply finding your animals (and the new varieties) randomly on your farm and then ‘taming’ them is kind of fun, but it does feel like you don’t particularly get a say in if you want to have the new animals in the first place, even if you CAN release animals via the Earth Sprites.

Which, by the way, make me miss the Harvest Sprites, very much. They’re sort of cute, I guess, but ultimately a little boring, if not helpful. Even the Spirit is... Interesting, and beautiful as she is, she’s so. Bland. You can’t really befriend her, just sort of talk to her, but it doesn’t really seem to do much.

I miss you, Harvest Goddess.........

There’s an added museum feature, very similar to animal crossing, but save for the small statues being built of animals you take photos of, it’s just another way to pad out the game, and is very unimpressive to look at.

Crop, meanwhile, are very... Eh, to me. Crops that previously used to be able to be harvested from all season, last 1-3 harvests before disappearing, and then need to be replanted--Including things like tea bushes. Thankfully, the seed makers are a maker that give you 2 seeds out of 1 item-- Though the seed bags only cover 1 tilled square, rather than 9, like in a few previous games.

Your rucksack is also limited in space-- Once again, nothing new, but very frustrating for a game that requires you to have a variety of materials on hold to make XYZ thing. The shipping bin ALSO only holds so many items, and to my knowledge cannot be upgraded. Got 25 items to ship? Sorry! You can only ship 24! Guess you have to wait until tomorrow :)

There’s also only 2 festivals per season, one of which is a mini game, while the other... Is not. It’s kind of a bummer, actually, and I don’t find myself looking forward to them at all.

It’s not all bad, though!

I do enjoy the ability to build sprinklers and let THOSE water your crops for you. It’s very time and stamina saving, and I thoroughly enjoy it.

The variety of crops and wild flowers is nice as well! You can get some crops grown wild, pop those into a seed maker, and then BOOM! You just got strawberries, or melons, or pineapples for free! Nice!

I DO like that your farm has 3 different levels, and unlocking them by fixing bridges is pretty cool, and genuinely feels like it’s been earned when you DO save up enough money (or materials) to unlock them.

The character models look pretty nice, if not a little strange at times. I feel like they can move stiffly in cutscenes, and they have very limited expressions, but they’re still nice to look at. I thoroughly enjoy the happy dance villagers do when you give them a gift they particularly like.

But...

I won’t lie to you guys, but EVERY time I pick up to play (which I’ll admit is a lot, despite my complaints), I find myself wanting to play the older games instead. Now I’ll admit a lot of the newer games could be lacking in particular areas, but there was ALWAYS a lot of enjoyment for me while playing them, so to have this absolute ACHE to dig out my ps2 or my gamecube to play Save the Homeland or Magical Melody INSTEAD is.... Kind of astounding to me.

It’s a fun game to turn your brain off and play, but I don’t think it’s deserving of the price tag-- Even with the new downloadable content on the way (that also costs money, even if you can save some with the expansion pass.). It feels oddly hollow and very... Mobile-game like to me, and while it’s not the WORST game I’ve ever played, it feels like it’s missing a lot of the charm that previous titles have had.

[barnesandco]

AYESHA!! Can I request, "their entire body freezing for a second when their love kisses them?" For any character you feel inspired to write for!

The Pay Off

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader

Warnings: brief mention of therapy and allusions to Bucky’s recovery after Hydra.

A/N: This.. got wildly out of hand.... and really, really wordy. I love these prompts and I want to write all of them while my WIPs stare at me feeling betrayed.

Like sunshine honey, the woman who has been sitting two seats down from Bucky at the library for the past four months, with a smile the ambience of New York dawn aimed unguarded at the book in your lap. He’s spoken a grand total of 37 sentences to you in that time, each one laden with the weight of this new existence he is carving out for himself, softly, a breakfast knife through butter. Every interaction with you -- every stolen glimpse up from his own space magazine -- leaves his throat parched but prickling with that sensitive heat that makes him want to thirst more. Like the tingle of salt after ocean water. 

Wetting his lips, he tries to refocus on the page in front of him. It details the scientific contributions of the Hubble Space Telescope, with a colorful side-box about the Nancy Grace Roman, who pioneered the notions of sending telescopes into space to unearth its secrets. The magazine is one from a neat stack to his right, a treasure of information he gathered to go through when he arrived today, but he isn’t making the amount of progress to finish reading by closing time.

Every Avenger has made a comment on getting a library card, to no avail. Sam’s information, Steve’s offer to do it in Bucky’s stead, Natasha’s suggestions of giving a fake name, and Wanda’s kind offer to come with him if he doesn’t want to do it alone, along with Tony’s centenarian-themed jokes and Shuri’s gift of a Kindle containing every book she could buy, have all been politely refused and tolerated in turn. Initially, it was because he likes it at the library. It’s the quietest place he has, and is coming to claim as another safe space. An escape. Now, however, there is a new variable he does not want to introduce to the team.

The woman who sits two seats down from him. You come her every afternoon, a book bag in one hand and a gigantic tote full of Lord-knows-what in the other, both dumped on the table before you go to find a book. He’s close enough to smell watermelons and strawberries, pink, sweet-summer things, reminders of a blueberry sky and sugary lemonade, memories he doesn’t remember having but can taste in the heavy air between them. It had taken him two weeks to discover that the scents were coming from the markers that he saw peeking out from the tote, stationary behaving the same way certain books do, enabling him to live a life he has never had.

Your life is a mystery to him, but he guesses at it, reading you. A rainbow of stray marker lines litters your hands almost perpetually, coming alive when they move rapidly as you check books, sometimes chuckling softly at a particular sentence. Once, he caught a Cheese Whiz stain on your cable-knit cuff, and at another occasion, saw you. Bucky is often overcome by the feeling of sonder at the realization that the clues he is gluing together make for a complex life, a marvel of an individual. There is guilt too, for his curiosity. But your eyes, even looking down, are captivating, and he is too far gone to stop. 

The idea of asking you out, of engaging in conversation beyond the moments of stranger familiarity, scares him still. Last time you spoke was when you laughed aloud at the set of examples one particular student had given for an assignment on sensory details. Zachary, age 11, had written that cow poop was a smell he did not like, sending his library companion into brilliant, bubbling laughs that you cut off too soon when you remembered where you were. At that point, you had looked around to see if anyone noticed, and spotting him, offered an apology he had rejected, on the condition that you share the joke. And you did.

But initiating the moment takes something more than what he has right now. His hands, mismatched and cold from the table, empty and longing, shut the magazine.

-----

The courage arrives on a Thursday. An ordinary day, by all accounts, only Bucky is on his fourth week of actual therapy, and got to the library through the subway, instead of Steve’s motorbike. Small victories fill his chest.

Only, you aren’t there when he gets in, and he panics. Fear and disappointment wrestle for a spot in his belly, claiming a tie in knots and weights, as he paces through the aisles of shelves in what he hopes is an unsuspicious speed. Giving up hope, he’s returning to his seat, head bowed, dismayed, when something collides against his side.

It’s you. A hurricane of movement with a slushie in one hand, your eyes also on the floor, and you crash against him with a shriek too late to save either of you. The slushie, cold and blue, spills out and lands on both of you, as you tumble, hands on Bucky’s elbows while his are on yours as he pulls you down, and you land in a heap of ice-water and sticky saccharine snow, a warm weight on top of him.

The library goes silent, for a breath, and then, when the shock lifts, two librarians come rushing from around some hidden corners, by which time you and Bucky have composed yourselves enough to stand and start to apologize profusely in cut-off sentences and shaky stutters. The slush is sinking through his clothes but there is a flush in his cheeks, and somehow, looking at your beautiful face, he has never been warmer.

When the slushie has been cleaned up with rags -- his hand is starting to shiver -- he stands with more sorry on his tongue, but you say, with a grin, “I guess you really fell for me, huh?”

The quip is surprising, but he laughs. Looks between your now-blue blouse and his inky t-shirt, and makes the leap. “Maybe I can get you another drink to make up for it.” And the pleased shock on your mouth, lips parted slightly and breath still recovering, is worth every step and fall it took to get to that one line.

-----

It goes well. He won’t call it a date, in spite of everyone else’s juvenile cooing and teasing when he leaves the Compound on a Saturday evening in his car. It’s a 70s Mustang, body the color of his old Commandos coat, and the interior a shiny black lined with golden stitching and accents. Royal and his very own. Turning towards the neighborhood you live in, he recalls the months it took to restore the damn thing, the last weeks of which were spent practically living in the garage, breathing on the anticipation of this monstrous achievement.

Queens is neon lights and family-owned delis, the scent of tacos mingling with that of curries, and there’s a different language in each window front. You said you lived in an apartment a couple of stories above a Vietnamese bar. 

You’re exiting just as he gets out of the car, and it takes a moment to catch his breath. In jeans and a silk shirt, you are the sun, and he cannot wait to get to revel in your warmth for at least one evening. 

-----

It goes well. With the exception of nerves he can’t rid himself of but rather ignores, everything is perfect. You had enjoyed his handmade picnic in Central Park, and his disgruntled commentary on how things used to be when you got stuck in traffic on the way back. His imitations of Steve and Tony had you in stitches, after which you had fed him Doritos from a packet he did not know was in the glove-box. 

Smooth sailing, soft as cream and just as gentle, the night, until you get back. It is late, and the lights are starting to flicker out of shop windows, and you go a little bit quiet, discontinuing the steady stream of chatter you have been maintaining with him. 

Something is in the air. Something sparking with promise. It hushes your voices and tightens his throat and has his hand trembling when he opens his door and then yours to let you own. You stand in the pale glow of the corner streetlamp, and his hands are in his pockets like he’s sixteen again, wanting to kiss a girl but unsure how to go about it.

Fortunately for him, you’re not a girl. You’re a woman. Made from electric fire and whatever strength that holds the cotton clouds in the sky, luminous and wondrous. 

“I know that was a bit more than a drink, so thank you for agreeing to this,” he says, meeting your eyes.

Your finger is tracing the face of your watch absently as you smile at him. “I had a great time.”

“Really?” Bucky blurts out, and then hurries to suspend the disbelief.

The answer you give him has his heart doing somersaults. “Yeah. I’d actually love to do this again if you feel the same.”

“Of course. Yes, obviously.” He puts a brake on his train of speech, explains as he walks a little closer to you, close enough to count your eyelashes. “I’m sorry, I haven’t been on a date in 80 years, and I’m a little rusty, but--”

Like the event that started it all, your first kiss is a crash. You lean up slowly and he has time to stop you but he doesn’t. He lets you kiss him and freezes, from head to toe, upon the feeling of your soft lips. Stopping within seconds, you lean back, sheepish, ready to back away and run, he’s certain. His head clears, he thinks a little straighter. 

“Sorry, will you let me try that again?” He asks, clearing his throat, and you lift your hand to hold his. 

The warmth of your hold envelopes the back of his human hand, and twists your grip so your fingers are intertwined, so much more surface area to gain heat and the motivation to seek further touch from. “If you stop saying sorry, sure.”

He closes his eyes before you do, and this time, the meeting of your lips is soft. A kiss, not a crash, an elegant collision of mouths and shared wants. In a few breaths of movement, as your other hand rises to his hair and his holds your waist, you come closer, and Bucky grows breathless. The kiss lasts for what feels like minutes too long and hours too short at the same exact time, as you break away with a gasp for air that has pride blooming under his sternum. 

Eyes shining, he hopes he’ll get to do that again. As you kiss his cheek and turn to your door, he looks forward to sitting two seats closer to you on Monday.

[prinxlyart]

just any individual toh character hc would SLAP. mebbe ur thoughts on the twins idk this is vague

Nah it’s cool, I can dig it let’s do this

I only put this under a line break cuz it got so long oops lol

Emira:

Defo has a stutter that she went through a lot of intensive and grueling speech therapy sessions for (when she was about 7 years old) that she hated. Amity and Edric both know this and know it’s a sensitive topic for her. They’ll tease her lightly about it, but never in front of anyone else and they know where to draw the line. In my last Vinera post, I mentioned how much Viney adores her stutter. She absolutely loves getting Emira flustered enough to start stuttering. She’s incredibly patient and understanding when it comes to Emira’s stutter and Em’s feelings about her stutter, and she helps Emira learn to be okay with it again. It’s nothing to be ashamed of (and it’s cute).

My girl likes carrots. Like, really likes carrots. As in she’ll eat them straight out of the ground if she’s given a chance to wash it first. She really loves carrots. This is only an issue later on after she and Viney start taking care of beasts together and Emira’s been caught eating their entire stock of carrots that’s meant for the beasts. Viney has to keep the carrots in a secret box away from Emira after that point.

Emira actually really loves beasts/animals but has never been good at handling them. Any time she’d try to approach an animal to pet it, it would try to bite her. She’d get extremely pouty whenever this happens because beasts/animals love Edric. It’s not until after she and Viney start dating that Viney actually starts teaching her how to approach different creatures and her love for creatures reignites.

Emira’s a giant pushover for Amity. Only Edric knows this because he’s also a pushover for her. If Amity ever found out what power she actually holds over them, they’d be in so much trouble. They mask their love for their sister with constant teasing. Yes of course they get annoyed by her, that’s how siblings are, especially when Amity tattles on them, but at the end of the day, they’d help Amity hide the body if she asked. (The few times they witnessed her crying by someone other than their parents, they had gone on a warpath. Nobody hurts Mittens.)

Defo had a brief infatuation with Luz for like 5 minutes before she realized how head-over-heels Amity was. As long as they’re both happy, that’s what matters. She’ll take that secret to her grave though.

L O V E S having her hair played with, but like, only with people she’s super comfortable with. She has so much hair (mostly due to her mother’s wishes) and any time they all have attend some fancy gathering, Emira has to be seen by a stylist in order to get all her hair into whatever wild fancy shape her mom wants for the event. That she hates more than life itself, but whenever she’s upset, Edric or Amity grabs her hair brush and just gently brushes her hair out until she’s chill again. (She absolutely melts when Viney starts playing with her hair). In an act of defiance and because she needed this Change, the moment she and her siblings leave the Blight Manor permanently, she cuts off all of her hair. It’s very reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday. Viney loves it. Everyone loves it actually, but the biggest reactions come from Viney and Luz (they both love running their fingers through the newly cut hair because it’s so soft).

She likes to sing to herself when she’s alone. It’s rare that it ever happens because if she knows there’s other people in the same building as her, she won’t chance it. But when she knows she’s alone and no one will notice if she casts a silence bubble around herself so she can sing at the top of her lungs? You better believe she closes any doors or curtains in the area, locks everything, casts that spell and goes nuts. Her voice isn’t all that great, but it’s lovely when she’s singing quietly to herself while she does homework or something. On especially bad nights, Amity will ask her to sing to her. Emira sang to her once when they were like, 3 and 5 respectively, and it’s been their secret thing ever since for especially rough nights/nightmares.

Edric:

Yknow how James from Pokémon is just super good with Pokémon ?? Like, he knows how to treat them, he knows what they like, he asks them gently if they’d like to join them, etc. That’s exactly how Edric approaches creatures. He’s a natural with them, but he and his sister’s natural affinity for illusion magic kept him from pursuing that track of magic.

He’s always wanted a pet, but every time he brings it up to his parents, he’s met with the same firm No as always. He’s definitely gotten in trouble for trying to sneak wild creatures into the house to keep in his room. Thank Titan for Em’s cool new girlfriend who’s not only a multi-track student, but studying the exact subject he wants to study and is super eager to teach him everything she knows. He learns vicariously through her and helps her study for her tests. At first, Emira is suspicious of them, but she knows her brother wouldn’t be so cruel as to try to steal her girlfriend away from her. He’s just a dork.

My boy’s got a sweet tooth. He loves desserts and sweets and fluffy baked goods and often tries to sneak candies when he thinks no one is looking. Chocolate is a big weakness for him. When Luz introduces him to Human Sweets, he’s practically bouncing off the walls. Cotton candy??????? Flan?????? Dulce de Leche en Tabla??? He nearly passes out when Luz busts out what she calls a “chocolate fountain” and turns it on. Y’all remember that one image of a bird bathing in a chocolate fountain from a million years ago? That’s Edric.

Edric Blight LIVES to see his sisters laugh. He would pull all sorts of silly faces and dumb tricks to make Amity laugh when they were little. He still tries to make her laugh, but usually those have grown from giggles to disgruntled mumbling. He’ll never admit how much it breaks his heart and it’s not until he sees her laughing at something Luz has done that he has hope he may still be able to get her to laugh again (it’s also the first time he’s heard her laugh in years and it makes his heart soar in relief. He was almost certain their parents had stamped any concept of laughter out of her).

My boy Edric is so full of love and passion; actually quite similarly to Luz. What makes them different though is that Edric is Aromantic. He’s never had a crush in his life. He’s happy with his sisters and all of their friends and their family as it grows in the future. He has some best friends that he lives with for a while (after his sisters move in with their respective partners), but for the most part he’s chill. He loves his family, he loves spoiling his sisters’ kids, and he’s content with himself. It takes him a super long time to be content with himself, but he gets there. I will literally never get over the fact that his biggest fear is “being alone forever”. He’s never alone. He will always have his friends and family. And, thanks in large part to Luz, he has his parents back. His parents that actually were excited when he cast his first spell and tucked him in at night when he was a toddler, giving him kisses goodnight and pleasant dreams. Not the parents he’d run away from; those were the cold, uncaring, obsessed with fake concepts of popularity and status people he ran away from with his sisters. It took years, but Luz helped bring his real parents back. He loves getting to know them for who they are now that he’s an adult too.

He and Gus become best friends. Like, dumb buddy cop movie levels of best friends. They get into so much trouble when it’s just the two of them and they have the time of their lives. At first, he and Em just sort of took Gus under their wing because he was a little bit of an outcast in their homeroom for being so much younger than everyone else. But he’s a friend of Luz’s and a friend of Amity’s after a while, which automatically makes him cool in their book. They soon find themselves actually enjoying his company, rather than just protecting him from stray bullies, and they find his ability with illusion magic exciting. They themselves are considered prodigies so having another prodigy to show off practice with is super stimulating for all of them. As the years go on (and Emira spends more time with Viney) Edric starts calling more and more often for “Bro Time” where they go do stupid teenage stuff or test the limits of their magic or even just hang out and talk for hours. It’s actually all this time hanging out with just Gus that Edric discovers he’s aro; somehow it comes out that Gus has developed a crush on Edric and (major age differences aside) Edric realizes he’s never had a crush on anyone before. It’s a conversation that sucks a lot, but they’re besties and they manage to get through it. Gus maybe needs to take a day with his original gal pals to just cry about it, but he gets over it just fine. He also helps Edric understand what it means to be aromantic. Well, with the help of Luz and Willow as well; Luz is a walking dictionary for lgbt terminology and Willow’s super good at helping dissect feelings (when they’re not her own cough’outofsightoutofmind’cough).

I genuinely don’t know what he might pursue for a career. Part of me wants him to be independent and do his own thing, but a much stronger part of me wants him to just be part of Viney as Emira’s business. He loves creatures so much and he loves taking care of them, but I don’t want him to feel like a third wheel around his twin sister either. Maybe he becomes a dual track teacher at Hexside specifically for healing and beast keeping so more students can learn about Service Creatures. He can substitute for the Illusion track homeroom when needed, but he’s super passionate about the Service Creature sub-track he and Viney pitch to Principal Bump.

[argumentl]

The Freedom of Expression - Ep 45, radio version, August 2016 - Dobashi in Brazil, 'Crush the NHK' election broadcast, Shark movies.

Kaoru starts the show by commenting on how suntanned Joe looks. Joe says he attended Fuji Rock and got tanned. He spent three days watching live performances and had a great time. The weather was relatively mild, cool at night, no rain, so Joe says it was quite a 'comfortable' Fuji Rock. Joe asks Kaoru if he's getting a suntan yet. Kaoru says he hasn't got a tan at all. He has been spending all his time indoors song writing.

Kaoru then reminds listeners that its only three more days until the live special will be broadcast, and reads out the title of it again. Joe says its quite a rough sounding title. People will be intrigued by it. Kaoru then says he has recieved a message from Dobashi in Brazil, and proceeds to read it out..The message reads as follows: 'Hi to everyone at TFoE. Are you all well? Are you into 'Hiranabe Go'? (*Kaoru comments, 'We kinda are'*) At the time of this broadcast I am in the Southern hemisphere, in Rio de Janeio, Brazil. There may be people wondering why Tokyo Sports has come here. I've been requested to do Tokyo Sports style reporting here, but nothing dangerous enough to get us into trouble. Some of my articles are already published, so please, fans of Dir en grey, fans of Joe, fans of Kami, and fans of Hiranabe with thier butts out (*Did I get this right?? '平鍋の下半身出たファンの皆さん'...??😳*), please do go and pick up a copy of Tokyo Sports. There will also apparently be a live broadcast of this show on August 9th and I will join it from the other side of the world for just a little while. Security is so bad here, and I may be robbed during the broadcast, but I won't miss it! Everyone please listen'. Kaoru and Joe both say they are looking forward to it. Kaoru reckons it'll be about lunch time in Brazil when Dobashi joins them for the show. Just the kind of time he's likely to be busy with work.

Tasai joins them next, for the Tokyo Sports corner. Tasai goes back to the question of why Tokyo Sports is at the Olympics. He says that overseas, people see the word 'Tokyo' in Tokyo Sports, and often mistakenly assume that it must be the major sports newspaper in Japan (*It isn't actually considered a serious newpaper at all in Japan*). Once, when a Tokyo Sports journalist went overseas to report, a special reserved seat had been set up just for them. Kaoru says he can understand how such a misunderstanding could take place. If they, as Japanese people, heard of a newspaper with 'New York' in the title, they would assume it was pretty major. Tasai calls this, 'Tokyo Sports magic'. They laugh about how the people in Brazil might see Dobashi and think 'Wow, a Tokyo Sports reporter!', they probably assume he's rich.

Tasai's first news is about one of the contenders for the Tokyo Governor position, Tachibana Takashi, who represents the N Koku party (or The Party To Protect The People From The NHK). His election broadcast/pitch was pretty incredible, says Tasai. Joe watched it, so knows all about it, but Kaoru did not. Tachibana was originally an employee of NHK. He quit after leaking info about NHK's financial trouble to a gossip mag. When running for Tokyo Governor, he put out a 6 min televised election pitch, which was actually broadcast on NHK, in which he repeatedly called for the NHK to be destroyed. This has gained both supportive and critcal reactions from the public. NHK employees get a very high annual salary, which is paid for by the NHK fee imposed on the public. Even people with low incomes are hounded for this fee, which Tachibana thinks is questionable. In his pitch, Tachibana also raised the many crimes or wrongdoings which individuals related to NHK have been involved in, including the case of two NHK TV announcers who were having an affair, and were caught having sex in a car. Tachibana claims the NHK is trying to cover up this info. Kaoru wonders if Tachibana is holding some kind of grudge against the NHK.

Joe then mentions the documentary movie 'Candidates/立候補', which deals with the topic of bubble candidates in elections. This movie features Mac Akasaka who is also another bubble candidate in this Tokyo Governor election. Joe explains that a bubble candidate is a candidate who is not expected to recieve many votes (like Tachibana). He adds that in order to run in the election, any wannabe candidates have to first pay a fee of ¥3million. This is to try to avoid joke candidates from running, and to make sure the candidates who do run are doing so seriously. The movie in question deals with the idea of paying the fee whilst knowing you won't win, and the reasons for doing so. Joe says it may obviously just be for a bit of self promotion, but this is also actually a good way to put a message out to the public that would never normally get there through the mass media. At the same time, there is always the risk that you will come across as a joke, despite paying ¥3million. Its a risk you have to take if you run as a bubble candidate. Tasai adds that any candidate that recieves less than ten percent of the vote has to forfeit the money they paid. Joe says that most bubble candidates never clear this post, and they have the added burden of campaign costs. They may get a chance to speak out about what they want, but it costs. Tasai comments that criticizing the NHK publicly is actually a massive tabboo, so ¥3million is perhaps not so expensive if it means being able to say such things publicly. With the tv election pitch which all candidates get, you have 6 mins on national tv to speak the truth exactly as you see it. Tasai's favourite thing about Tachibana's pitch is that at the end of his speech, he proposed a kind of quiz asking viewers to guess how many times he had said, 'Crush the NHK!' during the last 6 mins.

Joe also mentions that the 6 min televised election pitch can also unfortunately be used as a means to deliver hate speech, which was seen in the pitch of candidate Sakurai Makoto, founder of the ultra-nationalist/far-right group Zaitokukai. Allowing candidates to speak thier mind directly comes with this risk. Joe then brings up the legendary election pitch by rock star Uchida Yūya, still available to watch on youtube today. (*Do check this out if you havn't already!*)

Tasai's next news is about the recent hit shark move, 'The Shallows' (Japanese title: Lost Vacation.), starring Blake Lively. The movie had quite a low budget, but has taken in huge amounts at the box office. Tasai asks Joe and Kaoru if they like shark movies. Joe says he knows someone at the Rolling Stone office who is a shark movie mega-fan. Shark movies have evolved a lot since 'Jaws', there are even movies about flying sharks etc out there now. Its proper b-movie territory. These days there is also a lot of shark merchandise, like shark backpacks etc.

Tasai goes on to say that shark movies are particularly popular with young women these days. The younger generations, particularly women, are not that interested in mainstream Japanese movies, but much more into horror etc. Kaoru didn't know that young women actually went out to watch movies much these days. Tasai says they apparently tend go as groups of three or so. Each of the three will then tweet to thier friends, and so popularity spreads. Kaoru comes to the realisation that women also actually like scary stuff. Tasai says (*I think*) that a scary movie is the place to go to find young women this summer, and Kaoru likens this to playing 'Hiranabe Go'.

To finish, Kaoru comes back to talk about the live special which will happen in 3 days. Joe admits a lot of his friends have asked him about it. After the last live boadcast, they all recieved a bit of a bashing. Kaoru doesn't know how it will turn out. Joe says they will look back over the last six months during it, and Kaoru adds that he will play some more of the new jingle entries for the last time. Finally, he plugs the Dum Spiro Spero tour and ends the episode.

Songs - Dir en grey/Lotus, ???/??? (*couldn't make this out*), Dir en grey/Utafumi

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