#server-side components

[carolamandaus]

Back-End Developer

An IT Services back-end developer, under our brand name, is tasked with constructing and upholding the server-side components of web applications and software.

[codeonedigest]

GraphQL Client Side & Server-Side Components Explained with Examples for API Developers

Full Video Link - https://youtube.com/shorts/nezkbeJlAIk Hi, a new #video on #graphql #mutation published on #codeonedigest #youtube channel. @java @awscloud @AWSCloudIndia @YouTube #youtube @codeonedigest #graphql #graphqlresolver #graphqltutorial

 Let’s understand the GraphQL components and the way they communicate with each other. The entire application components can be categories in to server side and client-side components. Server-side Components – GraphQL server forms the core component on the server side and allows to parse the queries coming from GraphQL client applications. Apollo Server is most commonly used implementation of…

[blueishspace]

Basil/PearlescentB

Components:

BigB/Bigbst4tz2 + Pearl/PearlescentMoon

Notes:

They/Them

Probably one of the first fusions I've ever met. Possibly one of the most stable. (Not THE most stable though, that title goes to another)

First formed during Evo. They fuse quite often, less now that they live in different servers but still often. Limited Life especially had them fuse quite a lot, Wild Life too to an extent.

They have vitiligo, it seems obvious but they are one of the only fusions to have it, it looks cool I must admit.

As for their relationship with me... It's my understanding that after I left Evo they stayed fused for a while. It seems thad now seeing me makes the fusion strangely emotional. They don't do this with Jimmy or Martyn. Nor with anyone else for that matter.

Personality wise they tend to stay on the low energy side of the spectrum, often relaxed, likely to hang around and sip on a milkshake.

... I have no idea where they get the milkshake from, I have seen them with one in the life series multiple times. At this point I'm too afraid to ask.

Don't let them drink caffeine EVER.

Also, be prepared for puns said with the most deadpan face possible to the point you don't know wether it was on purpose or not. It happens a lot or so I hear. Hasn't happened to me but that's because of the already mentioned emotionality when it comes to me specifically.

-Grian's notes on fusion, page 3.

[niechys]

I am hereby exercise my right to use tape in this jenga tower of writings started by @keferon

I made a fanart of this event once, but didn't have all the components. Now we do.

Rescue mission!! everyone is here!!!

Blurr + Swerve section were made as this comic here.

Which happens after this event here

And on TexAid side, after this Shockwave's mindscape endless Tuesday server from here.

it gets long so all under cut!

------------------

"Let's go over the short version again. So..You and your friend are alien that kind of like living robots?" Blurr said as he pilot Swerve to walk along the corridor.

"Pretty much, yeah. Oh, turn right here" Swerve answered, directing Blurr as they go. Trying their best to not be spotted.

"And you met Jazz"

"Yeah"

"I remembered when he disappeared. You guys met him then you came to Earth?" He repeated what the alien-robot-ghost friend of his had explained earlier.

"Yep, then Shockwave captured me and Prowl"

"Right, Prowl..." Blurr repeated the name, murmured it few more times under his breath.

"Now...Prowl is well guarded...We are gonna need help. Do you happened have a phone?"

--------

Deadlock stop when he spotted the form on the big slab which Ratchet told him were their objective. They were suppose to steal this mech away to save him. Ratchet already went ahead and try to free the mech from all the wiring.

"Do I have to save that guy? He's an Autobot. A very high ranking Autobot"

"I don't know what's that about, kid. But we already promise we'd help Jazz and his friend" Ratchet answered as he disconnected wires and restraints. Trying to call to Jazz inside the cockpit.

"I didn't know his friend was an Autobot" Deadlock still wouldn't move from his spot, but already unsupspaced a couple of guns.

"It seems there are some rats in my lab" A voice called out from above, probably from the room's speaker. They looked up, couldn't see anyone, but one of the high window lit up, a silhouette of a man inside.

"Shockwave..." Ratchet scowl.

The wall to the side burst open. A dark mech. almost as tall as the room was high stepped in. Two black blades in hands, dragging on the floor leaving long marks. Visor glowing maliciously red, hovering, staring, unfeeling.

"You human sure make big toys, huh" Deadlock move to shield Ratchet behind him. The mech slowly stalked towards them.

"Why the fuck is Vortex here..." Ratchet mutter under his breath, looking up, still trying to free Prowl from all the wires.

"Thank you for bringing me more subjects. I see there are more of these aliens around" Shockwave's voice echoing from the speaker. Vortex loomed ever closer.

"Don't worry. I will not damage them too much"

Vortex raise his blade, black massive slab of metal with a sharp cutting edge.

"Autobot or not, looks like I have to get pass you first" A smile tucked at the corner of Deadlock's mouth. He didn't expect to fight the big mech, but it definitely seems like fun.

Ratchet backed away as Deadlock pull out his gun and shot a series of bullets at the hand holding the blade, diverting the aim.

Vortex raised the other blade, swinging it at Deadlock. Deadlock was faster, dodging back and shooting at the bigger mech again although not doing much damage with each round. He still had to back out or sidestepped away from the blade swinging down at him, slamming into the ground.

Another mech dashed into the fray, blocking Deadlock's path. It was smaller than Vortex, colored fiery red and gold.

"Hot Rod!?" Deadlock shouted, surprised. But Hot Rod only shoot flame at him.

"Hey! What the hell?!" He yelled while dodging the plume of flame.

There were no response. Hot Rod didn't even seem to recognize them.

"I can't feel his field. Something's wrong!" Deadlock shouted over to Ratchet. "Could someone else be using his mech!?"

"That's unlikely, but possible for Hot Rod. But no one except Felix can pilot Vortex" Ratchet answered, tearing of the last of the wire connected to Prowl.

When Hot Rod's mech aimed the flamethrower towards Ratchet, Deadlock rushed in, slamming his body into the other mech to get him away from the human. Vortex then step in, slashing at Deadlock who narrowly dodged the strike.

"Ratch! They had to be controlled by one person. Their movement are off!" Deadlock yelled as he still dodging and diverting their attacks. Shockwave may have two mechas on him, but he still couldn't catch up with Deadlock. After all, Shockwave was still, one person.

"Correct. I have control of both the pilots and the mechas" His voice sounded from the speaker. Projecting image on the far wall from cameras inside the cockpit, showing both pilots, Hot Rod abd First Aid, with their helmet on, not being able to move.

"The pilots are in there? Shit!" Deadlock spared a glance at the image while backing from their attack. That means if he attack Hot Rod's mechas, there's a big chance he would hurt Hot Rod. Deadlock didn't like that idea. Vortex seems much sturdier, hopefully Ratchet won't be too mad if he didn't hold back.

"If Shockwave still have control of the mechs we won't be able to get the Autobot out!" He yelled, trying to not bring the fight to where Ratchet was.

"Hold them off a little longer, Kid! I have an idea" Ratchet ran toward the console in the corner, avoiding the fighting mechs. He open up the schematics and controls system connecting to the mechas.

"I'm not much of a technician... but this much I can do" The bioengineer muttered, almost holding his breath as he quickly typing on orders to the console.

"The safety protocol, if activated, will release the pilot and stop the mechas movement. And it should be able to override anything else" Ratchet slammed on the enter key, narrowly dodge a stray piece of metal that flew his way.

Both mechas stopped in mid action, steam expelling from their frames. Both their cockpit opened. Hot Rod almost fell out of the cockpit, saved for Deadlock rushing in to break his fall.

"My head...."

"Hot Rod, you alright?" Deadlock gently let him down to the floor. Hot Rod kept one hand on Deadlock's finger to steady himself.

"I couldn't move all of the sudden and...Shockwave. right! Shockwave was controlling me!!" He tried to look around, to look for Shockwave. He was aware of what was happening, but the release happened so fast.

"Ratchet did something to get you out. We're gonna get our of here" Deadlock picked Hot Rod up, turning to see Ratchet rushing back to Prowl. The hatch on is chest was unlocked and open, he helped Jazz up.

"Are you alright?"

"My head hurts...As soon as I connect I couldn't move...." Jazz was holding his head, one eye squeezed shut.

"We got you now"

"Wait, what about Prowl?"

"I'm here. ..You will need to pilot me. I can't seems to move right now. The connection to my body isn't working." Prowl answered, but couldn't seem to move anything other than his mouth to talk.

"Jazz, don't connect to him yet. We don't know what Shockwave might pull again" Ratchet looked over, then up to the window to Shockwave's lab.

---------------

There was no warning. One second he was in the old base with Vortex, in that endless Tuesdays, running around trying to find a way out, a way to wake up.

The next he woke up. Neural link disconnected right away.

"Vortex?" First Aid called, promptly getting off the seat and taking the helmet off just in case the link took him back.

[Get out. I can't move]

Text showed up on screen. At least Vortex was awake.

"Is he still controlling...Whoa... where are we...?" First Aid swayed, still disoriented, he held on to the pilot chair, looking out the vizor that opened up without actual input.

[Near Shockwave's lab. That's the weird mech they brought in]

"What's going on?"

They were in a big, high ceiling room. Maybe an old hangar. There was a black and white mech lying on a big slap, with some wiring around it, looking like they were just torn off. The mech were odd, not of MECHA design. His face like a sculpture with blue glass eyes. Ratchet was beside the mech and right on the cockpit was Jazz.

Hot Rod's mecha was frozen beside them. But Hot Rod was being held in a hand of another mech near by. The mech was similar to the one lying in the center. It has a face almost like human. And the design was definitely not from MECHA.

Above and behind them was Shockwave in his lab over looking at the space below.

[He was using me and the orange one to fight that guy]

"Felix!!" Ratchet shouted from below. First Aid looked down still confused.

"Ratchet!? What's going on?"

"We are--"

Ratchet's voice was cut by Shockwave's voice coming from the speaker.

"Safety protocol... I see you have manage to release the pilots. It matters not. I can also override it. Just the mechas are enough to take care of your alien friend" Shockwave up in the lab was pressing something on his console as he talked. Overriding the safety again to allow the mechas to move by his control.

[Just get out]

Text blinked on the screen beside him. First Aid look at it, run a hand on the edge of the screen and looked up to Shockwave's lab window above.

"I don't know what's going on. But he's gonna control you again, I won't let him. We are getting you out"

First Aid quickly climbed down the escape chute just as Vortex started moving again. It was slow, rather unlike Vortex. He got to the ground and get clear of the mech before a foot stomp on where he was.

"Ratchet! Why are you here? What..?" He ran toward Ratchet first.

"Felix! We are rescuing our friend. It's a long story, let's just say we need to stop Shockwave from controlling the mechas!"

"Friend...?" First Aid tried to make sense of the situation. Looking at both unusual mechs. Especially the one who still cradling Hot Rod in his hand.

"That one. If we can get that guy up, we could make a run for it. At this point, you might as well come along" Ratchet pointed at the mech still lying on the slab, Jazz on his chest, trying to check inside the cockpit.

"No.. I'm not leaving without Vortex" He balled his hands into a fist. Looking up at the window to Shockwave's lab again.

"What?"

But First Aid already took off running. Ratchet wasn't sure where to, that was when his phone rang.

---------------

"They're here already, getting your friend out, Ratchet and the others. But Shockwave is controlling the mechas" Blurr said, phone still in his hand. "If we can get to Shockwave and stop him, they can rescue Prowl and get out"

"Stop Shockwave...." Swerve felt shivers went up his spine- spinal strut. Just the thought of having to face Shockwave made him scared. His fear was probably felt by Blurr as well. Blurr's hand stroke lightly on the control.

"Hey, you are a big mech. Surely we can do something"

Swerve was starting to feel assured. Blurr was piloting him after all. And right now it was just Shockwave in his lab, he was a mech, he can just...just squish him, may be... The thought made him feel sick, so he drop the thought thread and trust Blurr.

A figure in a pilot suit suddenly appeared just as they were about to turn the corner.

"Wahh!" The pilot point an axe at them, looking rather shaken, a trail of dried blood ran from his nose.

"Whoa!! easy there... why do you have an axe?" Swerve blurted out. Blurr pilot him to stop and held the one remaining hand up.

"I got it from the emergency cabinet. Who are you?..I've never seen this mecha model" the pilot still held his axe in front of him. Swerve recognized him after another look.

"First Aid... you're First Aid, right? I'm Swerve...er..you might not remember me. er...." Swerve realized First Aid wouldn't know this form. He was trying to explain when the hatch opened. First Aid's eyes widen. he almost held his breath when the pilot inside removed his helmet.

"Wait...Blurr??..The..Blurr?? Oh my god, your face..."

"Yeah. I'd like to explain too, but we don't have time. We're going to stop Shockwave, if you're going to stop us-"

"Oh! Are you...with Ratchet then?" First Aid was still unsure. But if these people wanted to stop Shockwave, their interests were aligned. And if they are with Ratchet, then he can probably trust them.

"Ratchet..." Blurr repeated. Swerve quickly chimed in.

"Yes! we are! First Aid, please, trust us. We want to get out of here with our friends, too"

"I... I'm also going to stop Shockwave. His lab is this way, right? He's still controlling Vortex"

"Let's go then. We'll explain everything later. I promise" Blurr said, as he put the helmet back on and the cockpit hatch closed.

-----------------

Swerve's mecha body barely fit the entrance to the lab.

"Shockwave!"

"Hm, oh, your are the other alien" Shockwave turned to look at Swerve, barely reacted at all aside from his remark. "How come you look different now?"

"Release the control. Let them go!" Swerve tried to make his voice sounded scary while Blurr moved his remaining arm to rise threateningly.

"What are you going to do if I don't?"

Below, in the hangar, Vortex and Hot Rod's mecha were still moving, attacking Prowl who still couldn't move. Only Deadlock stood between them, deflecting attacks and dragging Prowl out of the way.

"We will...um....."

First Aid walked out from behind them, axe held high in hands.

"We will release them ourselves" He said, voice colder then he would even believe came out of his own mouth.

"Hm...Why don't you just runaway? You could have just run right now, couldn't you?" Shockwave asked, his one yellow lens peered out the window to the fight below. Still controlling Vortex and Hot Rod's mecha.

"I'm taking Vortex with me"

"You want to take that mecha with you?"

"Yes. Let go of Vortex, now"

"And if I don't? If I have to let others go. I rather keep that one. I would also like to keep you" He turned his attentionn slightly to First Aid, cocking his head a little to the side.

First Aid looked at the console

"....the control goes through here isn't it?" He raise the axe. Hands wider on the handle, ready to strike.

"What are you going to do with that? Kill me?"

First Aid swing the axe into the console. Shockwave stared at him. The yellow lens was unreadable, but it might just be in disbelief.

"Regrettable. You were going to be such a good subject" Shockwave was lifting his mechanical arm. Blurr inside Swerve was getting ready to intervene, maybe grab First Aid and blitz out of there.

Black massive blade pierced into the lab, missing Shockwave by only a hair's breath, cutting him off from the rest of the room. They stared at the blade, First Aid moving a little closer to it. The blade retreated, replace by Vortex's massive metal hand in the gaping hole. First Aid widen his eyes a little, before the surprised expression soften into a weak smile.

In the room below, Ratchet and Jazz stared at Vortex in confusion. Jazz then quickly get back inside Prowl's cockpit, while Deadlock transform and Ratchet readily hopped in.

"You are right on time" First Aid climbed on to Vortex's hand to be picked up.

Blurr and Swerve back out of the room at this point, rushing out to go meet with Ratchet down stairs.

When First Aid was back in Vortex's cockpit, the camera was still pointing at Shockwave's lab. Vortex zoomed in on the axe on the console. A text blinked on.

[Why didn't you put that in Shockwave's head?]

"I was thinking about getting you out" First Aid settled into the pilot seat, heaving a sigh.

[Wuss]

"Hey, look, you can move on your own"

[Yeah. Maybe I tried hard enough and finally breakthrough or something]

"That's great, isn't it. Let's go?"

[We're not wrecking the place?]

"Please? Let's go with Ratchet. We can't stay here, Can't let you get captured again" he put a hand on the control stick, stroked it lightly.

[Like I would let them. But fine, only because you asked nicely and it might be fun later]

First Aid giggle, putting the helmet on. Not realizing that Vortex was thinking about the two odd mechs they saw in that room. Especially the one who was defending Ratchet the whole time. What was it, exactly? It doesn't feel like an AI at all.

But that will be for later.

--------------------

Later.

They all sat down, gathered in an old warehouse near Ratchet's workshop. The effect of adrenaline slowly fade and they all reflected on the event that just passed. They had escaped from MECHA base. Using the night to cover them as best they could. It was a miracle in and of itself that they actually got away with slipping Vortex away to hiding with them.

Hot Rod stood beside some machinery near the center, looking around the warehouse and at everyone. His mecha was powered down off to the side. The three Cybertronian in the warehouse could feel a mix of relief and confusion radiating from him.

"okay...Let me get this straight. ...As straight as it can be, I guess." Hot Rod started. He looked over to First Aid, sitting in a small chair, almost underneath Vortex's hunkered down form. One metal hand reaching low, hovering over First Aid's head in a protective, possessive pose. The Cybertronians could also feel a whole lot of malice oozing out from the empty mecha and couldn't help wonder why this one have its own EM field.

"I and First Aid got back from a mission and got taken over by Shockwave. I remember that part, my head's still killing me. Can't move, can't disengage" He continued, massaging his temple.

"Yeah he also locked me in connection with Prowl. I contacted Ratchet for help before that, but when I connected to him, I couldn't do anything" Jazz pitched in from his corner, still checking on Prowl for missing or broken parts.

"I suspect it was probably because Prowl was connected via hard line and Shockwave was breaking into his system. That's why he could also access the pilot. But it didn't do the same to Swerve" Ratchet explained. Although mostly speculation, most guys nodded.

"Then Ratchet get you pilots out of that control, by some protocol thingies. Have to say we could've just make a run for it from there" Deadlock shot them a look from the opposite corner, trying to not pull out a gun and shoot Prowl. Ratchet stood in front of him, facing everyone else.

"I coulda pilot Prowl and get him out, sure. But we had to be sure I wouldn't get controlled again" Jazz shot back, asm crossed his chess.

"Meanwhile I was in the hospital wing when Swerve showed up with his....uh..?" Blurr started, looking from where he sat on Swerve's leg, leaning on his torso, arm crossed over his chest.

"Holo projection" Swerve added for him. He was sitting a bit off to the side. Projecting his own avatar to sitting on his other leg. His real body still leaned away from Vortex as much as he could.

"His holo projection, right. He asked for help. So I get out to find him got taken apart. He scanned my mecha and transform. That's how he got out of all the wires and stuff" Blurr continued.

"Um..I'm sorry but....you lost me at scanned your mecha" First Aid raised a hand, looking confused.

"Our race can turn into other machines after scanning it" Prowl gave an explanation.

"Right. You guys are aliens... aliens that look like robots. Aliens really exist..." First Aid was still dealing with that fact, mumbling to himself. Vortex above turned his camera around, inspecting each alien robot. That spooked the rest of the human in the room.

"Actually First Aid, I have a question" Swerve raised his hand.

"Yes?"

"You went and put an axe in Shockwave's console to release his control on the mechas, right? Which is freacking risky. The control might never be released instead..."

"Yes. And yeah I know that but I don't think we can make Shockwave release it."

"Uh huh... At least things turned out good. Then Vortex broke into the room by stabbing it from the outside so he can pick you up"

"Yes"

"....But you were in the room with us"

".....Yes...."

".....Who controlled Vortex then?"

"Well...about that..."

After First Aid's explanation, Vortex nodded, with rattling metal noise that sounded too much like laughter. Everyone else looked at the biggest mech in the warehouse, expression showing various degrees of disbelief and fear in some case.

"You're telling me, not only the rumors were all true. But Vortex has been piloting himself all this time, which means, GHOST EXIST!!?" Swerve unintentionally raise his voice.

"AND YOU JUST TOLD ME ALIENS EXIST AND ONE OF OUR ENGINEER HAS BEEN AN ALIEN HOLOGRAM ALL THIS TIME!"

"What have I gotten myself into..." Ratchet pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You also hide a Decepticon in your workshop for god knows how long" Swerve mumbles at Ratchet who shot him down with stares.

"Don't worry, he just made me rescue a high ass ranking Autobot, too" Deadlock said through his teeth, still itching to grab a gun from his subspace.

Ratchet's headache had just gotten a lot worse.

-------------------------

I know they kind of escape easily. but it really is getting long.

[the-nox-syndicate]

SysNotes devlog 1

Hiya! We're a web developer by trade and we wanted to build ourselves a web-app to manage our system and to get to know each other better. We thought it would be fun to make a sort of a devlog on this blog to show off the development! The working title of this project is SysNotes (but better ideas are welcome!)

What SysNotes is✅:

A place to store profiles of all of our parts

A tool to figure out who is in front

A way to explore our inner world

A private chat similar to PluralKit

A way to combine info about our system with info about our OCs etc as an all-encompassing "brain-world" management system

A personal and tailor-made tool made for our needs

What SysNotes is not❌:

A fronting tracker (we see no need for it in our system)

A social media where users can interact (but we're open to make it so if people are interested)

A public platform that can be used by others (we don't have much experience actually hosting web-apps, but will consider it if there is enough interest!)

An offline app

So if this sounds interesting to you, you can find the first devlog below the cut (it's a long one!):

(I have used word highlighting and emojis as it helps me read large chunks of text, I hope it's alright with y'all!)

Tech stack & setup (feel free to skip if you don't care!)

The project is set up using:

Database: MySQL 8.4.3

Language: PHP 8.3

Framework: Laravel 10 with Breeze (authentication and user accounts) and Livewire 3 (front end integration)

Styling: Tailwind v4

I tried to set up Laragon to easily run the backend, but I ran into issues so I'm just running "php artisan serve" for now and using Laragon to run the DB. Also I'm compiling styles in real time with "npm run dev". Speaking of the DB, I just migrated the default auth tables for now. I will be making app-related DB tables in the next devlog. The awesome thing about Laravel is its Breeze starter kit, which gives you fully functioning authentication and basic account management out of the box, as well as optional Livewire to integrate server-side processing into HTML in the sexiest way. This means that I could get all the boring stuff out of the way with one terminal command. Win!

Styling and layout (for the UI nerds - you can skip this too!)

I changed the default accent color from purple to orange (personal preference) and used an emoji as a placeholder for the logo. I actually kinda like the emoji AS a logo so I might keep it.

Laravel Breeze came with a basic dashboard page, which I expanded with a few containers for the different sections of the page. I made use of the components that come with Breeze to reuse code for buttons etc throughout the code, and made new components as the need arose. Man, I love clean code 😌

I liked the dotted default Laravel page background, so I added it to the dashboard to create the look of a bullet journal. I like the journal-type visuals for this project as it goes with the theme of a notebook/file. I found the code for it here.

I also added some placeholder menu items for the pages that I would like to have in the app - Profile, (Inner) World, Front Decider, and Chat.

i ran into an issue dynamically building Tailwind classes such as class="bg-{{$activeStatus['color']}}-400" - turns out dynamically-created classes aren't supported, even if they're constructed in the component rather than the blade file. You learn something new every day huh…

Also, coming from Tailwind v3, "ps-*" and "pe-*" were confusing to get used to since my muscle memory is "pl-*" and "pr-*" 😂

Feature 1: Profiles page - proof of concept

This is a page where each alter's profiles will be displayed. You can switch between the profiles by clicking on each person's name. The current profile is highlighted in the list using a pale orange colour.

The logic for the profiles functionality uses a Livewire component called Profiles, which loads profile data and passes it into the blade view to be displayed. It also handles logic such as switching between the profiles and formatting data. Currently, the data is hardcoded into the component using an associative array, but I will be converting it to use the database in the next devlog.

New profile (TBC)

You will be able to create new profiles on the same page (this is yet to be implemented). My vision is that the New Alter form will unfold under the button, and fold back up again once the form has been submitted.

Alter name, pronouns, status

The most interesting component here is the status, which is currently set to a hardcoded list of "active", "dormant", and "unknown". However, I envision this to be a customisable list where I can add new statuses to the list from a settings menu (yet to be implemented).

Alter image

I wanted the folder that contained alter images and other assets to be outside of my Laravel project, in the Pictures folder of my operating system. I wanted to do this so that I can back up the assets folder whenever I back up my Pictures folder lol (not for adding/deleting the files - this all happens through the app to maintain data integrity!). However, I learned that Laravel does not support that and it will not be able to see my files because they are external. I found a workaround by using symbolic links (symlinks) 🔗. Basically, they allow to have one folder of identical contents in more than one place. I ran "mklink /D [external path] [internal path]" to create the symlink between my Pictures folder and Laravel's internal assets folder, so that any files that I add to my Pictures folder automatically copy over to Laravel's folder. I changed a couple lines in filesystems.php to point to the symlinked folder:

And I was also getting a "404 file not found" error - I think the issue was because the port wasn't originally specified. I changed the base app URL to the localhost IP address in .env:

…And after all this messing around, it works!

(My Pictures folder)

(My Laravel storage)

(And here is Alice's photo displayed - dw I DO know Ibuki's actual name)

Alter description and history

The description and history fields support HTML, so I can format these fields however I like, and add custom features like tables and bullet point lists.

This is done by using blade's HTML preservation tags "{!! !!}" as opposed to the plain text tags "{{ }}".

(Here I define Alice's description contents)

(And here I insert them into the template)

Traits, likes, dislikes, front triggers

These are saved as separate lists and rendered as fun badges. These will be used in the Front Decider (anyone has a better name for it?? 🤔) tool to help me identify which alter "I" am as it's a big struggle for us. Front Decider will work similar to FlowCharty.

What next?

There's lots more things I want to do with SysNotes! But I will take it one step at a time - here is the plan for the next devlog:

Setting up database tables for the profile data

Adding the "New Profile" form so I can create alters from within the app

Adding ability to edit each field on the profile

I tried my best to explain my work process in a way that wold somewhat make sense to non-coders - if you have any feedback for the future format of these devlogs, let me know!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Disclaimers:

I have not used AI in the making of this app and I do NOT support the Vibe Coding mind virus that is currently on the loose. Programming is a form of art, and I will defend manual coding until the day I die.

Any alter data found in the screenshots is dummy data that does not represent our actual system.

I will not be making the code publicly available until it is a bit more fleshed out, this so far is just a trial for a concept I had bouncing around my head over the weekend.

We are SYSCOURSE NEUTRAL! Please don't start fights under this post

[saiintvalentiine]

request: for the sake of the holiday spirit, have we considered clonefies first christmas..

and to cap off requests, a Christmas episode! i hope you enjoy Clonefies wondering about the Christmas spirit. . .

Word count: 1,114

“You gotta have a stocking.”

“. . . Like on? Right now?”

Ken's look is scathing.

“No, a Christmas stocking. For Christmas. Smartass.”

“Oh. Sure.”

Ken still looks annoyed, so Wifies puts his book down and turns to face him fully.

“Yes, Ken?”

“Do you even realize that this is gonna be your first Christmas?”

Wifies opens his mouth. Closes it. It's not really— but it is. He has the idea of a memory about. . . something Christmas like. A fireplace while it snows. The suggestion of twinkling colored lights.

“Isn't Christmas this week?” he asks in turn.

“Yes!”

A red and white stocking hits Wifies's face. He spits out a bit of white fur and he pulls it off of his face.

“I've got glitter glue. C'mon.”

Wifies follows and uses Ken's mysteriously acquired box of glitter glue to write his name on one side of the stocking, along with some small wobbly stars and lopsided swirls. This seems to satisfy Ken greatly— at least he doesn't throw anymore hosiery at Wifies after.

He thinks that's the end of it, but then Parrot and him meet up and it comes up again.

“Are you doing anything for Christmas?” Parrot asks, head tilting in such a way that he looks like a perfect impression of real jungle parrots.

“Uh,” Ken will probably want to do something with the stocking, so he says, “Maybe?”

“Oh, do you not celebrate?” Parrot asks. “Sorry man, I didn't realize.”

“No, I just— I don't know what I'll be doing, is all.”

“Alright,” Parrot nods slowly. “Me and some of the other Unstable members are gonna do a party on the 24th if you want to come. I'll send you the details, come if you want.”

“Thanks. I'll. . . let you know.”

It stays on Wifies's mind after that. Should he care more? Does it matter? He doesn't have any warm fuzzy feelings attached to Christmas. He's not sure what to think.

“Wato, is Christmas all that important?” Wifies asks, arms heavy with a box of redstone components.

Wato glances back at him.

“It's a pretty big deal, but only if you want it to be,” Wato says, dropping their own box off into a corner of the room. “Why?”

“Well, Ken seemed to care,” Wifies puts the box down next to Wato’s and dusts his hands off. “And Parrot looked at me funny for not really knowing what I was gonna do for Christmas.”

“You talked to two people who can't control their faces,” Wato snorts. “It matters if you want it to matter.”

“I want to care about the things people I love care about.”

Wato pinches Wifies's ear, all show and no force.

“One day you'll learn to care just for yourself. But if you want to test out the Christmas hype, you should join Ken and me on the 25th and we'll make it fun.”

“Alright, alright, let go of me!”

Wato does and they go back to organizing their cluttered storage room. Wifies turns the suggestion over in his head and makes a plan.

The 24th is cold but the party is warm and loud. Spoke throws himself across Wifies's back as soon as he arrives, muttering and cheering. Minute peels him off with a smile and a greeting. Parrot weaves in and out of the crowd madly. He’s pretty sure Zam and Wemmbu are arm wrestling in the corner, but there's a ring of people around them that he doesn’t want to muscle through. There are so many people stuffed into one place that Wifies is honestly dizzy.

He's been kissed under a dozen different mistletoe doorways by a dozen different people by the time he escapes.

Okay. Well. It wasn't a bad experience, but it wasn't— ideal. He’s not sure if the Christmas spirit was in the room with them, but the eggnog was nice and he likes everyone quite a bit.

He makes his way into Ken and Wato’s server with little fanfare, still in his party clothes and sticky with stolen lipstick marks.

[Wato1876]: Wifies!!!! Come join us at spawn!!!

Before Wifies can start the journey, he feels the tingle of a command teleport and suddenly he’s inside a glittery pink and silver nightmare. There is tinsel on his face within seconds.

“Wifies!” Ken bounds over, giving him a squeezing hug. “You smell like liquor.”

“I went to a Christmas party,” he says, shrugging his coat off and shaking snow out of his hair.

“Dude, you’re covered in lipstick,” Wato says. They’re in the softest looking green sweater Wifies has ever seen.

“I’m really good at standing under mistletoe, I guess.”

“Who took your first mistletoe kiss?!” Ken demands.

Wifies purses his lips and says, “Clown, actually.”

“ClownPierce?!”

“Wow,” Wato says with a whistle. “Good job?”

“Thanks?” Wifies feels sticky. “Actually, can I take a shower here?”

“Yeah, sure, fucking ClownPierce?”

Wifies shoves Ken’s head back and Ken yowls and sputters, baring his sharp teeth at Wifies. Wato barks out a laugh at them and disappears, only to return with a bundle of clothes and a towel, which Wifies takes gratefully. He washes up and discovers there’s an equally soft white sweater in the pile Wato gave him, which he’s thrilled to pull on.

“See?” Ken says when Wifies finds them, sprawled out on a blanket pile in front of a fireplace that definitely wasn’t there a week ago. “I told you it’d fit him fine.”

Ken is wearing a red sweater of the same kind. They all look like matching baubles now, matching just like the three red and white stockings on the fireplace mantle. Wifies sits down next to him on the floor.

“Good! Wifies, do you want hot chocolate?” Wato yells.

“No, thank you. My stomach is actually kind of upset.”

“Did you have eggnog?” Ken asks, tail swaying in a leisurely figure eight.

“I did.”

“That’ll do it.”

Wato comes back with three mugs regardless. They hand one off to Ken, and the smell of chocolate wafts out of it. The one they hand Wifies, however, smells like ginger and peppermint tea.

“For your stomach,” Wato clarifies, sitting down on Wifies’s other side. “That should help. I think.”

“It will. Thank you.”

“We were gossiping before you got here,” Ken informs him as he sits up.

“Christmas gossiping?” Wifies raises his eyebrow. That also doesn’t seem like the Christmas spirit.

“Yes, obviously.”

“Alright, so what’s the good gossip?”

Ken launches into a story that somehow involves half of their shared friends, Wato chiming in occasionally. Wifies still isn't sure that this is the Christmas spirit, but it's not a half bad way to spend the night to get to the 25th.

[talenlee]

Finding Pokemon That Wear Pants

Pokemon are lil guys. They are in many cases, just lil guys. But there are some Pokemon that exist further on the continuum of ‘a weird lil guy’ than other Pokemon. I��ve said in the past that if you found out your server at a fast food store was a Lucario, your reaction wouldn’t be ‘oh gross there’s an animal back there’ but ‘oh hi there lil guy.’

One of the traits of a lil guy versus an animal, though, is that lil guys do things in human ways – tool use, language, cultural practice, but most importantly of course, is wearing pants. Pants are how you represent a character as having some engagement with a greater society at large, which is pretty weird when you consider the nature of pants being gendered. Yes, it is a way in which we accept the Pokemon as being individuals in society, in that they buy into a gendered form of clothing. Wait, where was I?

Clothes! Clothes clothes clothes, fashion, style, these are important things for the identity of Pokemon. After all, Meowth engages in fashion, you Philistine, and Team Rocket’s Meowth is very high on the Lil Guy O Meter. If we assume a Pokemon needs to wear pants to ascend up into Lil Guy Status, then there’s surely a list of ways to investigate that, thanks to the Bulbapedia page of Costumed Pokemon.

(By this metric, Donald Duck isn’t a lil guy.)

Some Pokemon wear ‘stuff’ as part of their normal look. Particularly, Machoke wears a belt and what looks like booty shorts, which is fun because Machoke and Machamp have no gender dimorphism, which suggests that this beast has enough of a sense of modesty to not want something on their crotch exposed, but for all of the Maches, it’s tits out. Similarly, Mandibuzz has a bone in its … hair? Which is either a really weird thing for it to grow naturally or it’s an expression of some kind of aesthetic. Cubone and Marowak wear a skull, according to their pokedex entries (but the skulls of WHOM, we’re never clear on). And what’s more, there are, no doubt, a lot of Pokemon who wear pants in fanart — and whatever’s going on with Lucario is no doubt going to get edited by enthusiastic artists.

(Considering a regional variant of Lucario that has side pockets turning their thighs-that-look-like-shorts into cargos.)

Here is where we find ourselves with a problem about the assumptions of clothes-ness. The assumption for this sake is that unless we see some indication otherwise that the Pokemon’s component elements can be removed or changed, it doesn’t really ‘count’ as clothes because we can’t, for sure, say that it’s not just part of their body. Both Smeargle and Slowking look like they’re wearing hats but we know one of them it’s explicitly a symbiote and the other, we have no reason to believe it’s not part of its body.

Do we have any place where Pokemon wear clothes that are explicitly and obviously actually clothes, not standardised as part of the Pokemon’s design? Well, there’s a few obvious examples, in the form of the cosplay Pikachus from Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire that lets Pikachu take on the form of things like a Luchador or a Rock Star. Pikachu can wear one of a number of hats, as well, and of course, transition her gender. Which is an odd thing to say, but that is literally what it looks like it’s doing. Continuing away from the Pikachu Privilege space, Pokemon Go brings us the Event Pokemon, which includes Squirtles wearing sunglasses, Pikachus wearing hats (god damnit, there they are again), and honestly pretty cute things like Blisseys in flower crowns, but nobody wearing pants. Jigglypuff, Pichu and Pikachu in Smash Bros don some headgear – caps and bandannas and crowns and bows, those are all accessorising. If we’re looking for signs of a Pokemon wearing pants, so far, all thse avenues leave us stuck looking at only Pikachu, and largely, it’s when Pikachu is doing some kind of a costume.

But hang on, what about skirts? The discerning person’s pant? Well, turns out that a whole range of Pokemon wear skirts in the anime! Serena has a Braxien that wears a skirt, and Dawn’s pokemon don skirts not just once, but thrice – and they’re different skirts!

Skirts, clearly, are more important than pants. After all, Pikachu has worn basically one kind of pants, so far and Buneary has worn an ice dancer skirt, a cheerleader skirt, and a maid skirt, which means that Buneary is three times the man Pikachu can be.

Still, the ever expanding leviathan of Pokemon is relentless and in its growth it eventually picked up a MOBA game, which… exists. Pokemon Unite is a game that allows players to buy skins that put ‘holographic’ clothes on their Pokemon, which I find a particularly novel idea because on the one hand, hey, clothes, on the other hand: why are they holograms. The fact they’re holographic clothes kind of underscores the idea that yeah, okay, sure, we’ll put these things in clothes but they’re not going to be clothes clothes. And they’re honestly, pretty sick! They look cool, and they really ramp up the lil guyness of the Pokemon wearing them!

Mostly though?

They don’t add pants.

Obviously at this point I am down a rabbit hole. I started looking into Pokemon clothes because it was interesting and then that led me to ‘pants’ because I thought that Donald Duck joke upstream was pretty good and that then led me here, and now I’m finding myself wondering just why pants are so rare in these kind of character designs. Across all the Pokemon Unite hologram outfits, I tracked about seventy five that I think count as wearing something like ‘pants’ or a skirt. There are some challenging judgement calls here, though; Blissey, Delphox, Hoopa and Tsareena are all built like their design incorporates a skirt, and their outfits don’t change that skirt design, either putting something above or below that, and I don’t know how to make that judgment call.

There are some truly unhinged choices in these designs, though. Originally this started out as a joke to make a sort of spreadsheet of the kinds of things that you can do with a Pokemon’s design but buckle up because now we’re dealing with something truly crackers. I want you to see these things. I want you, the majority of the people in the world who have not and never will play Pokemon Unite that read this blog, to see the way they decided to implement some of these outfits.

Over 378 costumes, about 73 of them introduce something like pants or a skirt to the Pokemon in question. Of those outfits, there are some truly amazing choices, like Absol asking and answering the question ‘if an Absol wore shorts, it would wear them like this.”

Where Pokemon with ‘skirts’ don’t change them with clothes, amazingly, Lucario and Cinderace, who look like they’re wearing shorts, add on extra elements that integrate those shorts, but also have costumes that change the shorts into other kinds of shorts. Which means that this outfit – well, okay, it’s a hologram we know how the outfit does it, but this outfit is basically painting their legs to fit a different aesthetic. Which I guess makes Cinderace a homestuck?

Special shout out here to Greedent, where taking a shirt and applying it to a pokemon that has otherwise entirely benign design of chest fur, somehow makes that fur look like some truly uncontrolled pubes.

I did also find that there’s a point where Mr Mime in Pokemon Unite can wear one outfit that adds shorts, which is somehow more perverse than not wearing them at all.

Alright, what does this tell us?

Absolutely nothing

But in the process I got to show you this picture of a Slowbro wearing gardening clothes, and the Mamoswine sticking its teeth through its hoodie sleeves made for them.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[mltshphq]

BRB... just upgrading Python

CW: nerdy, technical details.

Originally, MLTSHP (well, MLKSHK back then) was developed for Python 2. That was fine for 2010, but 15 years later, and Python 2 is now pretty ancient and unsupported. January 1st, 2020 was the official sunset for Python 2, and 5 years later, we’re still running things with it. It’s served us well, but we have to transition to Python 3.

Well, I bit the bullet and started working on that in earnest in 2023. The end of that work resulted in a working version of MLTSHP on Python 3. So, just ship it, right? Well, the upgrade process basically required upgrading all Python dependencies as well. And some (flyingcow, torndb, in particular) were never really official, public packages, so those had to be adopted into MLTSHP and upgraded as well. With all those changes, it required some special handling. Namely, setting up an additional web server that could be tested against the production database (unit tests can only go so far).

Here’s what that change comprised: 148 files changed, 1923 insertions, 1725 deletions. Most of those changes were part of the first commit for this branch, made on July 9, 2023 (118 files changed).

But by the end of that July, I took a break from this task - I could tell it wasn’t something I could tackle in my spare time at that time.

Time passes…

Fast forward to late 2024, and I take some time to revisit the Python 3 release work. Making a production web server for the new Python 3 instance was another big update, since I wanted the Docker container OS to be on the latest LTS edition of Ubuntu. For 2023, that was 20.04, but in 2025, it’s 24.04. I also wanted others to be able to test the server, which means the CDN layer would have to be updated to direct traffic to the test server (without affecting general traffic); I went with a client-side cookie that could target the Python 3 canary instance.

In addition to these upgrades, there were others to consider — MySQL, for one. We’ve been running MySQL 5, but version 9 is out. We settled on version 8 for now, but could also upgrade to 8.4… 8.0 is just the version you get for Ubuntu 24.04. RabbitMQ was another server component that was getting behind (3.5.7), so upgrading it to 3.12.1 (latest version for Ubuntu 24.04) seemed proper.

One more thing - our datacenter. We’ve been using Linode’s Fremont region since 2017. It’s been fine, but there are some emerging Linode features that I’ve been wanting. VPC support, for one. And object storage (basically the same as Amazon’s S3, but local, so no egress cost to-from Linode servers). Both were unavailable to Fremont, so I decided to go with their Chicago region for the upgrade.

Now we’re talking… this is now not just a “push a button” release, but a full-fleged, build everything up and tear everything down kind of release that might actually have some downtime (while trying to keep it short)!

I built a release plan document and worked through it. The key to the smooth upgrade I want was to make the cutover as seamless as possible. Picture it: once everything is set up for the new service in Chicago - new database host, new web servers and all, what do we need to do to make the switch almost instant? It’s Fastly, our CDN service.

All traffic to our service runs through Fastly. A request to the site comes in, Fastly routes it to the appropriate host, which in turns speaks to the appropriate database. So, to transition from one datacenter to the other, we need to basically change the hosts Fastly speaks to. Those hosts will already be set to talk to the new database. But that’s a key wrinkle - the new database…

The new database needs the data from the old database. And to make for a seamless transition, it needs to be up to the second in step with the old database. To do that, we have take a copy of the production data and get it up and running on the new database. Then, we need to have some process that will copy any new data to it since the last sync. This sounded a lot like replication to me, but the more I looked at doing it that way, I wasn’t confident I could set that up without bringing the production server down. That’s because any replica needs to start in a synchronized state. You can’t really achieve that with a live database. So, instead, I created my own sync process that would copy new data on a periodic basis as it came in.

Beyond this, we need a proper replication going in the new datacenter. In case the database server goes away unexpectedly, a replica of it allows for faster recovery and some peace of mind. Logical backups can be made from the replica and stored in Linode’s object storage if something really disastrous happens (like tables getting deleted by some intruder or a bad data migration).

I wanted better monitoring, too. We’ve been using Linode’s Longview service and that’s okay and free, but it doesn’t act on anything that might be going wrong. I decided to license M/Monit for this. M/Monit is so lightweight and nice, along with Monit running on each server to keep track of each service needed to operate stuff. Monit can be given instructions on how to self-heal certain things, but also provides alerts if something needs manual attention.

And finally, Linode’s Chicago region supports a proper VPC setup, which allows for all the connectivity between our servers to be totally private to their own subnet. It also means that I was able to set up an additional small Linode instance to serve as a bastion host - a server that can be used for a secure connection to reach the other servers on the private subnet. This is a lot more secure than before… we’ve never had a breach (at least, not to my knowledge), and this makes that even less likely going forward. Remote access via SSH is now unavailable without using the bastion server, so we don’t have to expose our servers to potential future ssh vulnerabilities.

So, to summarize: the MLTSHP Python 3 upgrade grew from a code release to a full stack upgrade, involving touching just about every layer of the backend of MLTSHP.

Here’s a before / after picture of some of the bigger software updates applied (apologies for using images for these tables, but Tumblr doesn’t do tables):

And a summary of infrastructure updates:

I’m pretty happy with how this has turned out. And I learned a lot. I’m a full-stack developer, so I’m familiar with a lot of devops concepts, but actually doing that role is newish to me. I got to learn how to set up a proper secure subnet for our set of hosts, making them more secure than before. I learned more about Fastly configuration, about WireGuard, about MySQL replication, and about deploying a large update to a live site with little to no downtime. A lot of that is due to meticulous release planning and careful execution. The secret for that is to think through each and every step - no matter how small. Document it, and consider the side effects of each. And with each step that could affect the public service, consider the rollback process, just in case it’s needed.

At this time, the server migration is complete and things are running smoothly. Hopefully we won’t need to do everything at once again, but we have a recipe if it comes to that.

[tulipscomeinallsortsofcolors]

(Sorry for the back-to-back asks, I was looking through your blog and got distracted by the postman)

I've been trying to find a post I swear I remember you making explaining the rules of Tali, but am coming up empty when I try to search for it on your blog. Can you help me out? All good if not, tumblr do be tumblr. Hope you're having a good day!!

i too suffer from 'cant find my own shit in tumblrs garbage search" disease i had to pull this from the laoft discord server akjsdhaksjdh

Tali, named for the game pieces, which are the talus bones of ruminants.

Each bone has four sides - a broad convex side, worth one, named "Iron," a concave broad side, worth 2, named "Stone," and convex narrow side, worth 3, named "Gold," and a concave narrow side, worth 4, named "Silver." (yes silver and gold are in that order on purpose, humans consider gold more valuable but fae are the other way around)

(when i play these games myself or write them, i just use a d4, but technically talus bones are not equally likely to land on every side. a closer (but still not perfect) analogue vis-a-vis probability would be to use a six-sided die and treat 1 and 2 like Iron, 3 and 4 like Stone, 5 as Gold and 6 as Silver)

you roll four tali - most rolls, you simply add up the total value of the sides, but certain combinations of sides are treated different

First combination roll - 1, 1, 1, 1, or four irons, also called "Cursed Irons." this one varies the most in behavior depending on exactly what game youre playing but its always bad, and usually not worth any points, sometimes worth negative

and there are three categories of trump rolls

Akind (4 of a kind of 2 or 3) which are worth double points,

Doubles (2 pairs), 1122 is lesser doubles (worth 15), 1133 is odd doubles (worth 20), 1144 and 2233 are both middle doubles (worth 25), 2244 is even doubles (worth 30), and 3344 is greater doubles (worth 35)

Finally, Crowns, also called high trump - four 4s, called Silver Crown OR one of each (so 1234), called a jeweled crown

The game Remus and Io play is called "Riches" and is a simple first-to-100 game. the only real odd mechanic is that Cursed irons "robs you" and cuts your points in half.

a variation of Riches called "Iron Riches" has multiple rounds, and is played somewhat in reverse - the first to 100 in each round immediately loses all their points, while the rest keep theirs. at the end of all the rounds, whoever has the fewest points wins.

there are other games you can play but thats the only ones i have real concrete ideas for. "playing blank" means to play without magic, on chance alone. most games can be played in such a way to incorporate some element of gambling, but its not an inherent component of any of them

[writernopal]

forced a few words out for M.O.W and I do mean forced because ive been feeling really disheartened about my writing lately but on the plus side, i got a chance to test drive my new writing server, and i have to say, i feel like ive outdone myself here.

ive basically created my own version of an online based writing tool (GDocs, Dabble, Ellipsus etc), sans a few of the grammar checking and power user features using Obsidian and few other things, but i have multiple OS and device support (including mobile), real time syncing (when on a network), offline mode when im not, different document export capabilities (docx, pdf, etc), automatic nightly backups and, most importantly, data redundancy.

its pretty exciting because its finally at a place where its usable and the peace of mind of knowing where my stuff is at all times is huge. theres a few more components i need to work out (im getting a new laptop soon so i'll need to add that to this ecosystem) but the server itself is done and working!

[muse-matrix]

So... It's been a while since I last logged in here. Longer still since I properly did... much of anything here, outside of a few scattered posts. Part of me had been kinda dreading coming back here but looking at when my activity really dramatically dropped off, I think I understand what happened.

So, way back in february of last year, I was bouncing between a lot of things. I was running around doing a bunch of stuff to try and secure a new job, and I did manage that- A big component of my not being here was just me adjusting to having to work again, after being unemployed for almost an entire year. It was tough to get the right structure going, but I managed it. And despite starting college just a couple weeks ago, I've mostly managed that too so far, I think.

But that isn't... the main reason why. Probably. I think.

You see, what else happened in february, was that I got booted from a community I'd been a part of for years. It encompassed my involvement in a card game I loved, as well as the FF14 free company I'd been part of at the time. Someone who was, at one time, a good friend of mine misinterpreted something, and was so incensed by it, they took some things I said out of context and absolutely slandered me to the mod team of that community. (Yes, it actually is as bad as it sounds. I checked.) As a result, I was privately labeled some pretty nasty things, and shunted from their discord server without so much as a word. None of them would speak to me, none of them would even give me a chance to tell my side of things.

Obviously, that stung. A lot.

It had me pretty dejected about a lot of stuff, for a really long time. Probably why I mostly got off of here- I retreated to a different blog where there was less pressure (self-imposed) and more freedom for me to just, kinda, do whatever I wanted without fear or worry. I needed space and freedom to move myself around how I wanted for a while. And then that led to me feeling bad about not coming back here, which made me put off coming back here even longer... You see where this goes.

But at this point, it's been a year and a half. I'm pretty much over that fiasco, I haven't spoken to any of those people since, and they've evidently been content to leave it alone too, given I haven't had any mobs of angry pitchfork-wielding card game players coming after me.

And recently, Kako came back! She's RPing again and that's fun to see. I know a lot of you I've still been in contact with regardless, her included, so most of you probably are already aware of a lot of this stuff, but writing all this out is part of my process, so bear with it. The important thing is, after a lot of time and thinking about things, and seeing friends return to RPing and watching things happen from afar... God, do I want to get back into it with you all.

I very likely still won't be super active, but I'm going to at least try to be consistent. This is supposed to be my main, after all. I'll probably take the next week or so to clean up the muse list, cut a bunch of stuff, get a bit more focused and the like. Not that I'll actually stop playing any given muse- I'm wont to flip-flop between characters I enjoy, and I'm loathe to let fun interactions pass me by just because a character 'isn't on my muse list', but I ought to give myself a bit of structure, at least.

So... I'll try to be here every day, at least. Even if it's just to check in. This'll be a fresh start for me, I'd say, not that any of my old lore or whatever is getting abandoned. It's just... It's been a long time. It'll take some easing back into things for me, so I'm not even going to worry about whatever asks have been left to rot in my inbox, stuff like that.

Given it's been such a long time, some of you may... have blogs that I'm not currently following, cause I've missed them or what have you. So uh, if that's the case, please shoot me a message so I can correct that.

[planetarysemaphor]

𝔼𝕟𝕕𝕝𝕖𝕤𝕤 𝕞𝕦𝕥𝕖 𝟘𝟙

Slugs are friends.

01.Rigelian Bodyplans

Mmf'tir. A race hailing from the 2nd moon of Rigel. A fairly warm, oceanic world. According to their ships archives, they are a living fossil on their homeworld, one of the last of the Mucorposi kingdom, their survival is thanks to a number of reasons, but most important one of them is their insane adaptability, spawned out of their equally unhinged lifecycle.

_ (fig.1 Rigelian Hydra (Mmf'tir<a>umf'm)) The Rigelians' life starts inside the hydra as a bud. These buds grow into the larval rigelian, and develop internal organs before fully separating from their host.

The Hydra itself is the backbone of rigelian social structure, serving as both a nursery, 3d printer and information server. It's the longest living form of a rigelian, able to survive up to 230 years, however, due to the fact it has no "main" head, it is unable to heptate, and therefore is doomed to expire. This however, does not bother the hydra, as it does not posses any manner of autonomy, it's previously exhibited personality erased entirely.

_ ((fig.2 Rigelian larvae(Mmf'aAr))

The larvae remain in the shallow waters for the better part of 6 years as they grow in both sentience and shape. During this time, they go from animals in need of tending to, to menial workers, able to preform manual labor in specially designed exobodies.

_ (fig.3 Rigelian larvae piloting an Aethlynn exobody)

The Aethlynn was developed long before the first official contact with humans to aid in ambassadorial duties. As you can see, it's nervous system is not integrated into the larvas, allowing for easy separation when need arises.

_ (fig.4 The Aethlynns major structural components) This body is a middle ground between rigelian and human anatomy, created based on the data received by the rigelian ships brain over 192 years prier to it's arrival in the solar system. At that time, the ship had not utilized electronic sequencing interpretation. So from what little it could understand, it sourced that humans had long, dexterous upper appendages and strong, upright standing lower ones. This minuscule amount of info it applied to the basic rigelian body plan, resulting in the aethlynn.

_ (fig.5 Rigelian larvae piloting a golem exobody)

The golem is a unique exobody, a result of collaboration between rigelian colonists and humans. If we remove the opaque exogracii, we can see that the main body is an incredibly dense pod of structural exogracii, making the golem a kind of hardsuit for manual labor.

_ (fig.6 golem exobody with opaque exogracci removed)

These exobodies have become so popular, than there are multiple scientific efforts to create a method to allow for other races to pilot them, sadly, there has yet to be any meaningful development on it.

_ (fig.6 Adult Rigelian(Mmf'tyr))

Also known as "the heirophant" this exobody is unique as it's nervous system fully integrates the larva into itself, allowing not only for more precise control, but also heptation and further evolution. The Rigelian will spent around 30 years in this state, until it heptates, turns into a hydra, or expires of old age.

_ (fig.7 Side by Side size comparison)

Rigelians evolved to be rather large due their amphibious lifestyle, of course, it should be noted, that any exobody can be modified by the hydra to suit the rigelians personality and preferences. The most popular bodypart to grow among the colonists are the sensory lobes on their head, which allow for a better depth channel pickup range.

[trashland-llamas]

I Was a Human

[Written as part of the @mcyt-halloween gift exchange for @kozzax]

Jack remembered the burning inferno that was hell. How the embers had eaten away at his flesh and the smell of brimstone filled his lungs even though he was no longer there. Even now on the surface again, his eyes saw the desert basin with its red and purple sand. It was all still at the forefront of his mind but he couldn’t tell if it was a dream or reality. Clawing his way through the topsoil, he climbed up to his feet. His limbs felt so sluggish, so heavy. Barely able to use his body after months of laying in a tomb. His brain wouldn’t move his leg despite mentally screaming for it to move. It took a few tries before Jack could make his way to the front of the Big Innit hotel. 

Unclear if days or months had passed by. Walking through the doors, he made eye contact with Captain Puffy at the front desk. ‘But you’re supposed to be dead.’ Those words filled his body with a sense of dread. ‘Can I at least take a shower before dealing with all of this?’ Referring to the concept that was socializing. ‘Yea, sure. Take as long as you want.’ Handing over a random key card to an unused room. Not that the hotel had many patrons to begin with.

It annoyingly takes three separate attempts before the key card actually works like it’s supposed to. He didn’t have the energy to kick down the door nor the money to replace the damages that would cause. Sighing, Jack let the door fall shut behind him. The layout of the room is just the same as every hotel room he’d seen in his life. Immediately going to the adjoining en suite, he paused when he came into view with the mirror. Is that really what he looked like? Half of his body seemed to be composed of robotic elements. 

Hissing, he retracted his hand from where it had touched a patchwork of wires and stitches. No wonder Captain Puffy had looked at him with such a shocked expression. The components looked to be melted into the skin somehow. Scar tissue surrounding the edges. ‘How am I still alive?’ Jack asked himself in a low whisper, just now noting the caked dirt and blood under his fingernails. The right half of his body that was still skin, was more bloated and had a waxy consistency to it. Able to see his veins with the pallor, cheek bone extremely pronounced with its hollowness. Turning on the skin, he scrubbed under his fingers, watching as the water turned murky. Once happy, he pulled his upper lip up to see the state of his teeth. Not surprised at the yellowness and slightly irritated gums. 

Debating whether to get in the shower as he was unsure if he’d end up electrocuting himself. He had already died once and had gotten hell that time around. Who was to say he wouldn’t get some other realm the second time? With this ‘fuck it’ type mentality, Jack continued on, turning the facet to a random temperature he guessed to be lukewarm. Emitting a string of cuss words when he felt the water to be frozen cold. Ultimately discovering that he in fact wouldn’t electrocute. The robotic side did explain why his limbs had refused to operate earlier, heavier than his muscles. Asking himself if he’d have to incorporate polishing into his daily or weekly routine.

‘Thought Tommy was running this place, how long has it been since I died?’ Jack asked, now sitting across from Captain Puffy, wearing what clothes she could find from the lost and found that would fit him. ‘Tommy asked me to fill in for him today. Temporary thing. But it’s been…6 months since you died.’ Filling the cups in front of them with tea.

‘...6 months?’ Jack echoes, his mouth suddenly dry. He had been gone for half a year now, roughly 182 days. Yet the server had seemed unchanged. ‘Did–was I given a funeral? Did anyone mourn?’ His voice was hoarse from disuse, the phrasing stilted. If Captain Puffy didn’t know any better, she would describe his tone as angry. ‘No. You weren’t given a funeral, not an official one, but Ponk did write you a death certificate. Death by sinkhole, I believe.’

‘So no one?’ The question was a defeated one. He had gone through all that pain and suffering for what? To come back, barely half a man? ‘Jack, I’m merely one person. I can only give you my perspective. No one on this server keeps track of everyone, always involved in their own stuff. Ask around, there has to have been someone,’ Puffy sternly responded. While she was done being the server’s therapist, she wasn’t going to watch Jack run himself into the ground when he had done the impossible. When he had somehow managed to acquire his three lives back. ‘At least ask around. Give this living thing another shot. You used to be as thick as thieves with Niki.’ Giving him a vague starting direction. 

‘What if I can’t find a purpose?’ Jack asks. All that was left of the tea was the leaves at the bottom. Seeing a butterfly in the graininess as his finger ran around the cup’s rim. ‘You’ll find something. It’s only your first day back. You’re bound to rebuild,’ Puffy then tells him to sleep on it, cement the memories of the 6 months he spent in that hellscape. To Jack, it didn’t feel like 6 months. In fact, it had felt exponentially longer. Trapped in a purgatory where nothing looked recognizable. Where all he heard for miles were screams. And now he was dropped in a different state of limbo.

The rest was well needed as it made Jack realize what he had to do to gain some semblance of peace. The brain fog lifted and once he had spent enough time getting used to his new body, he left the hotel in search of Niki. Assuming she might feel the same, having been dealt a similar card by those in power thus far. They didn’t care who or what was lost when they played house, the presidential, special edition version. Noticing two people had been at the center of each and every conflict; Tommy and Dream. No one knew where to find Dream with his aloof nature, thus he’d have to go after the former. There’d have to be some consequences for treating others’ lives so carelessly. In itself, it was its own form of cruelty.

Alas, the journey ahead filled Jack with a fiery, bottled up rage that made it clear he’d only stop once he saw this endeavor to the end.

[songbirdsanctuary]

A Tango Tek and ImpulseSV fic

This takes place in season 7. I wrote this about a month ago.

Warnings: Self-harm(No blood, very brief)

Word count: 703

-A Tango Tek and ImpulseSV Fic-

Tango Tek always prided himself on his dedication to his projects. Whether it was tackling colossal builds or fine-tuning intricate redstone contraptions, he poured his heart and soul into every endeavor on the Hermitcraft server. Season seven had been particularly exciting, with the introduction of Decked Out and the relentless expansion of his base. But lately, something felt off.

As the days wore on, Tango found himself increasingly overwhelmed. The weight of his responsibilities pressed down on him like a heavy blanket, suffocating and relentless. His once boundless energy waned, replaced by a gnawing fatigue that seemed to seep into his bones.

It began subtly at first. A missed redstone signal here, a misplaced block there. Small errors that were easily rectified. But then, the mistakes grew more frequent, more glaring. Tango's meticulous designs faltered, crumbling like sandcastles beneath an encroaching tide.

His mind became a whirlwind of chaos, thoughts spiraling out of control like unruly vines. Doubt crept in, insidious and unrelenting. Was he not good enough? Was he failing his fellow Hermits? Was he losing his touch?

Tango tried to bury his insecurities beneath layers of determination, to drown out the cacophony of self-doubt with the steady hum of redstone. But the harder he worked, the louder the doubts grew until they consumed him entirely.

One particularly tumultuous night, Tango found himself standing amidst the ruins of yet another failed project, his hands trembling with frustration. Tears pricked at the corners of his eyes, threatening to spill over as he fought to regain control.

That's when ImpulseSV found him.

The gentle hum of redstone echoed through the dimly lit corridors of Tango's base as Impulse made his way toward the source of the commotion. He found Tango standing amidst a sea of scattered redstone components, his shoulders slumped and his expression haunted.

"Tango?" Impulse's voice was soft, laced with concern as he approached his friend. Tango turned to face him, his eyes hollow and weary.

"Impulse..." Tango's voice cracked, betraying the turmoil raging within him. "I don't know what's happening to me. Everything feels like it's falling apart."

Impulse stepped forward, enveloping Tango in a warm embrace. "Hey, it's okay," he murmured soothingly, his words a comforting balm against Tango's frayed nerves.

Tears spilled freely down Tango's cheeks as he clung to Impulse, his emotions threatening to overwhelm him. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, he allowed himself to let go, to relinquish the facade of strength he had been clinging to so desperately.

Impulse held him steady, a steadfast anchor amidst the storm. He listened as Tango poured out his fears and frustrations, offering words of encouragement and support in return. And slowly, as the night wore on, the weight that had been bearing down on Tango's shoulders began to lift, replaced by a sense of solace.

In the quiet hours before dawn, Tango and Impulse sat side by side, their laughter mingling with the gentle hum of redstone. And as the first rays of sunlight bathed the world in golden hues, Tango knew that no matter how dark the shadows may grow, he would always find light in the unwavering friendship of those who stood by his side. They soon both fell asleep.

Tango woke after only a few minutes, and looked at Impulse who was still asleep. Tango felt a bit better however, as dawn approached, a lingering sense of frustration and anger still gripped Tango's heart. In a moment of overwhelming emotion, he clenched his fists and, with a primal roar, unleashed his fury upon the nearest wall. The sound of his knuckles meeting solid stone reverberated through the corridor, a stark reminder of the turmoil brewing within him.

Impulse woke will a stardled shout and watched in concern as Tango's hand throbbed with pain. Without hesitation, Impulse reached out, gently grasping Tango's injured hand in his own.

"Tango, you don't have to bear this burden alone," Impulse said softly, his voice was soothing, and his eyes already tearing up "Please.. We're here for you, always."

And in that moment, as the warmth of Impulse's touch seeped into his bones, Tango felt a glimmer of hope amidst the darkness. He would be ok.

[lyinginbedmon]

I know full well that I've got an uphill struggle when it comes to marketing Various Types, because it's 2024 and everyone already uses Origins and thinks it's the bee's knees (and to their credit, Origins is a good mod), so you'll forgive me for harking on about VT but I do earnestly believe that it is more than viable as a competitor of the aging popular mod.

All this was true as well back when what is now Various Types was part of Various Oddities (which itself enjoyed some considerable popularity whilst Origins didn't share space in the same modloader), but I'll try and break it down a bit to drive home why I think it's worth giving a look:

First, it doesn't work like Origins. In Origins, you choose (or are randomly selected) a "origin", of varying levels of "impact" usually between 0 and 3. Depending on server config, you might get another one after dying, but that's it. This means the range of gameplay is only as diverse as the datapack in use, because each player is locked into just one component.

Various Types, in stark contrast, actually presents the player with a full-blown character creation system. You choose a species, which is similar to an origin, and are then able to choose templates that modify it. Moreover, those templates can be stacked on top of each-other, in different orders and with different results. So whilst the range of gameplay is still limited by datapack, it is roughly combinatorially massive. The default species and templates that presently ship in the alpha, by itself, theoretically offer up to 286 builds (template conditions permitting). The server has a "power" setting that helps to constrain how drastically overpowered characters can be, but the variations possible without even breaking 5 power are staggering against the dozen or so origins that Origins ships with even today.

This ultimately means that players are always able to be at least a little different to one-another. Even if they share the same species as the foundation of their character, an Insectile player is quite distinct to an Aquatic one.

Even among the less-impactful templates, a Gravekin Orkin (essentially a still-intelligent zombified piglin) has some stark distinction from a Reptilian Orkin (roughly a lizardman). Though personally, I'd rather not get on the bad side of either one of them, especially if they just heard me call them piglins...

Secondly, and by absolutely no means least, the core component of the mod (the character sheet) has intentionally been constructed such that it is incredibly easy for others to expand beyond its current and original confines.

Want to build a magic mod and need to track what spells people have and how much mana? All you need to do is register a couple things to the right registries, and it'll work just fine. Want to build a class system on top of it and player an Othall Ranger or Muckie Druid? Same thing, same ease.

In essence, and with no shred of hyperbole, Various Types has the capacity to be the foundational element of any conceivable per-player customisation mod. Just as long as people give it a chance.

Thirdly, the laborious devotion to clean visual aesthetics. I'm not gonna give Origins much sheet for this one, it's very much a product of its age from when Minecraft didn't really support anything that wasn't a texture rendered on a repeating dirt background.

But Various Types really fits in with the more recent era of Minecraft UI. The character creator screen alone really deserves a look. Each species can be given a distinct background to complement its lore or function, such as the Crioch species being from the End and therefore having an End City as their background, versus the sunny green forest background used by the Overworld-native Linn species.

Every species, template, type, or ability can even be given custom lore text. All of them. The sheer volume of options for RP alone are staggering.

Oh, and did I mention that your avatar is visible in the creator screen? As well as the character sheet display screen?

Which doesn't sound like much on its face, you can see your skin in your inventory screen all the time after all. Except that's not actually a player being rendered in either screen.

It's a custom entity. With a custom model. That can play animations.

Every time you open that screen, your avatar will wave at you to say hi. Stick around on it long enough, and you'll even see them strike a pose right out of a fighting game or casually sit down for a moment.

You can even see what your build will look like in full on the character sheet screen before you finalise it.

And that screen is itself no slouch. It prioritises clean minimalism whilst still giving access to every detail of a given build.

Which is great, but especially so because Various Types has four favourite ability keys (which you can assign activated abilities to quickly and easily from the ability menu, from which you can also just click on any ability to activate it) and absolutely no limit on how many abilities you can have. Passive OR activated.

It's really more comparable to the UI screens of Minecraft Dungeons or Legends than anything on offer by any other mod in the same niche.

Seriously, go check this mod out. It's in alpha right now, but more or less the only thing missing from it is just more abilities, and I've got a list as long as my arm of those to implement.