#the house was built in java

[leaf4e]

Finally ported Mossy Deepslate Bricks to Bedrock Edition

[nulll-n-voiid]

Just pick whichever option you did most!

Tell me about your minecraft memories in the notes! /nf

[moonsofmachinery]

Finally, a group photo of my Java Local Group! Nothing goes wrong and their senior definitely survives the fall.....

Closeups / details about my little guys below!

These are Bursting Energy Taught and Hidden Etching Lost Labels who both go hand-in-hand as little troublemakers. BET- Or Burst, is very into Music- As well as some other less legal things that he often goes to HELL for. HELL is very good at getting their hands on illegal, taboo-breaking stuff as they were specifically built to house intelligent processes and spyware (Thats not to say they ARE intelligent but!!! hey!! they can build a ton of silly mechanical slugs)

God... These two, Visceral Patterns Repeating and Defying Amicable Management. These two both have a history of being very unkind to their ancients who are very unkind to them. DAM is much more evident in this, he is outwardly aggressive and often branded as a threat- He has a malfunctioning eye that cannot be fixed because his ancients cannot get close to his puppet because He Will Maim Them. Visceral is much more soft and playful in her accidental harming of Ancients... He doesn't mean to cause harm. These two get to be connected via their strata which is so fun for them I'm sure that doesn't cause The Horrors. (They aren't connected like Pebbles and Moon, but cables run beneath their facilities connecting their strata)

Ohhh Never Melancholy Never Weary and Soft Tells Of Doubt- Melan and STOD! STOD is the Group SENIOR! Old... His collapse fuels the events that take place in their local group. Melan, meanwhile, is the main proponent of action within the group. Silly and whimsical, but turns very. very serious. When DAM's actions start affecting the LG- Including his sibling, Visceral.

[franglishetchocolat]

A Coffeeshop for Riverview

SO BAKIN' GOOD Café + PI's office

Built on patch 1.67 - Originally in Riverview where the RH Bistro used to be, so best placed there (Size:20x25) - Lot label = Java Hut

3 buildings: Coffeeshop/Bakery with karaoke, and the dominoes table. Terrasse opening on to the park. 1 small house (locked off with hidden room markers) and an apartment building with a small PI's office on the first floor.

Using Items from: 

No Store Item

Using Diner RH rug by Cazarupt

EPs: WA, Ambitions, Late Night, Generations, Pets, Showtime, Seasons, University Life and Island Paradise.

 SPs: High End Loft, Fast Lane, Outdoor Living, Town Life and Mastersuite. I also own Diesel, the 70s, 80s,90s and the Movie Stuff packs but I’m pretty sure I haven’t used anything from these in this lot.

DOWNLOAD

I use markers on my lots: skip level, hidden room, public room… So to be able to modify any of  these buildings you need to have cheats on:  ‘testingcheatsenabled true’, then ‘restrictbuildbuyinbuildings false’ To see/remove the markers you need ‘buydebug on.

[humorisstoredinthetits]

The Heathers + Veronica play Minecraft

Mining away, I don't know what to mine i'll mine this anywa-

SHUT UP HEATHER!

Of course they've played Minecraft before, they grew up in the 2010s (at least in this AU)

Chandler and Mac played on a world when they were younger, but as they got more popular Chandler had to cut out anything that made her nerdy so she stopped playing

Duke and Veronica also played, I mean like who didn't play at least once, but eventually they got bored with it and moved on to other games

But once they graduated and settled in to their new lives, they started to look back on their past fondly and pick up some of their old hobbies, Minecraft being one of them

One day Mac brought up her and Chandler's old MC world and how much fun it was and all the stuff she built and how she still hasn't forgiven her for killing her dog

"IT WAS AN ACCIDENT MAC AND FOR GOD'S SAKE IT WAS 13 YEARS AGO GET OVER IT"

"I WILL NEVER FORGET FIDO YOU HEARTLESS MONSTER"

The other 2 chimed in about their own memories and eventually Mac suggested that they create a world together and all play, an idea which was met with enthusiasm from everyone except Chandler (who could have guessed that)

She thinks its 'childish' and 'boring' and 'a waste of time'

Duke and Veronica give Mac 'the look' which is code for 'Chandler is being stubborn deploy the puppy-dog eyes'

Mac gives her said eyes which causes Chandler to groan before giving in

They play Java Edition bc they already have desktops which they use for work or whatever

They play vanilla bc they haven't played in a very long time and have no idea about the new updates, so before they move into that they are going to re-familiarize themselves with the base game

They load in and do the usual, cut down tress, get stone, iron, etc.

While mining Chandler sees this structure and she's like 'I think they updated the Stronghold'

Everyone is excited that they won't have to get all of the Eyes of Ender later

Chandler goes down and starts screaming that she can't see anything

She sprints around aimlessly and eventually hears this loud cracking sound and sees this giant blue/black monster crawling out of the ground

She then proceeds to scream, get one-shot, die, and lose all of her items

She keeps saying 'What the fuck was that?!?!?'

After they google it they realize that they had found a Warden and after seeing that he can easily kill a player in Prot 4 Diamond Armor, they decide to stay far far away from that place

They find a village, and Duke proceeds to rob them of all of their goods before smacking a villager and then getting obliterated by the Iron Golem

Of course her gfs try to save her, before also getting obliterated by the golem, and they lose all their progress and stuff

Chandler is pissed and is about to rage quit, Duke is trying to justify punching the villager (apparently it was homophobic), Mac is trying to calm Chandler down, and Veronica is just watching the chaos unfold

Once everyone chills out, they agree to split up duties to make this a whole lot easier

Chandler is on wood duty, she has to go get as much wood as she can, and as many different kinds as she can

Duke goes get food, slaughtering every single cow, chicken, pig and sheep she comes across, while also going back to steal all the crops from that village

Veronica is in charge of going mine and getting enough materials for the 4 of them

Duke wanted to be the one to do it but no one trusted her to fairly distribute the ores between them

Mac is the one who has to build them a house, bc she's the only one with a creative bone in her body

So they all go off to do their jobs, and immediately run into issues

Bc Chandler is still off getting wood, Mac doesn't have much stuff to build with

Veronica also severely underestimated the new caves, and instead of mining she spends most of her time running from the hordes of creepers and skeletons chasing her

And worse yet, none of them have slept, so phantoms started spawning

None of them had any clue what a phantom was, so once it became night and these demons started dive bombing them, they all started freaking out

Mac dug herself into a hole and refused to come out until the rest of her gfs assured her it was day and they were gone

It was at that point they took a break and took some time to research all of the changes and updates (which they probably should have done from the beginning)

They sit on the couch and watch video after video going over the updates

Mac gets excited bc they are sooooooo many more pets for her to get

There's birds and fish and turtles and new doggos and-

She also loves the bamboo wood bc she can finally make a yellow house

Same thing with the cherry blossom trees, they just look so pretty

Duke is enthralled with the end crystals

'You mean I can actually place them and blow them up wherever I want? Ohhhhh I am going to have SO much fun with that'

That comment is swiftly met with three 'If you blow up my house you are sleeping on the couch' from her gfs

Chandler cannot wait to get her hands on some Netherite, she is gonna make some armor and tools to protect herself, both from the mobs and from a certain gremlin

She looks at Duke as she says that last part

Veronica is just intrigued by how much there is to find now

From the last time she's played theres several new biomes, a new ocean with things in it, a overhauled Nether, Ancient Cities and Trial Chambers and all sorts of things for her to explore and find

Eventually, after much trial, error, and Duke being her gremlin ass self, they all have diamond tools and a decent looking place to live

They then decide to go to the Nether and oh boy does it go poorly

Despite their research they were severely unprepared

They all forgot to wear gold armor so the Piglins kept attacking them

Chandler looked an Enderman in the eyes and it started attacking her

Veronica got relentlessly perused by this Magma Cube and she kept yelling for it to leave her the fuck alone

Mac almost fell into lava after a Ghast blew up some netherrack under her feet

Basically its a miracle they made it to the Fortress without losing all of their stuff

After being terrorized by the Wither Skeletons (and Duke accidentally hitting a Zombified Piglin), they barricaded themselves into a room with a Blaze spawner

They got the Blaze Rods and hi-tailed it outta there and back to the overworld, not before stopping and killing some Endermen first

They get prepared to fight the Ender Dragon, getting arrows, potions, etc.

They surpsingly manage to find the Stronghold without any major problems, same thing with finding the portal and killing the dragon

The problem came when they had to get the egg

Everyone wanted to be the one to get the egg and put it in their house, and no one was willing to budge

Threats were made, from killing Mac's pets (of which she had many) to rearranging Veronica's figures in the middle of the night to Chandler threatening to make them all sleep on the floor

All of them insisted that they had put the most work and effort into the fight, and because of that they deserved to get the egg

Eventually Duke pulled out her axe and started attacking Chandler, and from there it turned into a free for all

Unbeknownst to everyone, Duke had known this was gonna happen and prepared Instant Harming 2 Arrows and a Power V Bow, which if you don't know deals a fucking whole lot of damage

Once everyone was dead she put their stuff in chests so it didn't despawn (she's not that evil), took the egg, and went go hide

They were all pissed at Duke, and she was not welcome in their bed that night

In the morning Veronica made scrambled eggs for breakfast

**Line Break**

When they next got on (which was not for a while, what happened at the end put a bad taste in all of their mouths), they began working on a plan to get the egg from Duke

They know she had a hidden base somewhere, and that was likely where she was keeping it, so one of them had to find a way there

They had Mac pretend to lose her sword in the End and have her convince Duke to make her a new one bc it was her fault that she lost her sword

After a bit of convincing Duke begrudgingly agreed, but only if Mac helped, which she agreed to

They went to the Nether to get some Netherite and grind xp, and eventually Duke brought Mac to her base bc she had a full Enchantment Table there

While there Mac looked around for the egg and couldn't find it, until she saw an Ender Chest and realized where the egg was

She quickly texted the other two about the latest development and they moved on to Plan B

Plan B was 'Just blow shit up'

After a while of getting TNT and Ender Crystals they went to Duke's base and threatened to blow it all up if she didn't hand over the egg

Duke said 'try me bitch' and oh boy did they ever

When they were done Duke's base was a giant crater in the ground and they took turns spawn killing her until she agreed to hand over the egg

Problem with that is Veronica, Mac and Chandler did not decide amongst themselves who would get the egg once they got it from Duke

So what happens when 3 heavily armed players disagree about something?

If you guessed beat the shit out of each other, you would be correct

When it was all said and done everyone was pissed off at each other bc all of their houses were blown up, loot destoryed, and Mac was crying bc her pets had gotten killed in the crossfire

From that point on there was a new rule in the Chandler-Duke-McNamara-Sawyer household, and that was that they played Minecraft separately, never together

On a separate but related topic, Veronica got really into Dream SMP and would watch the streams relentlessly

Her favorite was Technoblade, they both had the same sense of dry humor (She got really upset when he died)

She got super into the lore and would argue with people online about it

She joked with JD that he acted alot like Wilbur, to which JD said he was nothing like him, and that he only thought about lining the boiler room of Westerburg with explosives and didn't act on it, which made Veronica very concerned

[superheroauthor]

I’m Alive!

Sparky The Superhero’s Story

Chapter Three – Hunting the Vampyre

(Part 2 The Very Bad Dog)

Jack Sprat could eat no fat. His wife could eat no lean. But, together both, They licked the platter clean

            Historical, Great Earth

   The cab pulled up outside the railway station, the horses in a lather. Even in the late morning the steam from the trains was making the fog denser. You could hardly see five feet in front of you. The sun was battling the smog and losing.

   “That will be five shillings, guvnor.”

   I got out of the cab. I could see the hopeful look on his face. It was a try on. I did not use cabs often, they were expensive. On the other hand, they were quick and anonymous too. The driver would not remember me. Unless I made it so.

   “Huh, here is half a crown and a sixpenny tip,” I told him, offering up three shillings instead of the five.

   He winked at me.

   “Had to try it on. You could have been one of those rich accountants.”

   I don’t think he was looking at me. Just my clothes. He had sized up the price of the fare from the looks of me, not how far we had travelled.

   I walked into the station, a truly massive building that once might have been beautiful. It was said to have been the first railway station ever on the planet of Clock.

   Marble pillars, a grand archway, waiting rooms for the different sorts of peoples. All now though were black with smut and smoke from the steam engines. Even the train tracks were covered in smut. Those I could see through the smog.

   I counted to twenty and walked out. There were cabs here but he was gone. Whether he had caught an immediate fare or was going back to the Bankside for richer pickings I did not care. He was gone and that was all that mattered.

   I came out of the station and I went into the café. It hid in a midst of a street of soot black houses. It was half full.

   There, her arse gloriously overhanging her seat was the lady who I would dream of tonight. My partner in crime. She was singing a bawdy song about a woman and several sailors.

   I went up to the counter. Tucus saw me and light came to his eyes and a little smile.

   “What is going on with her?” I nodded backwards.

   “Oh, you mean the great big fat lady . . .” I stared at him and he knew he had misspoken. “I mean the lady with the curves? She came in wanting a Roo pie and booze. I keep a bottle under the counter.”

   He showed it to me. Ogre Strength gin. That stuff was evil. Drink the whole bottle and you would not get your sight back for two days. Drink two and maybe go blind.

   It was back streets gin. The makers would get five stills that worked by clockwork magic and put them in a house. All you had to do was pipe water in and then fill the tray above with the ingredients. After an hour the machine would be ready for you to turn the tap and fill the bottles.

   There were two problems, though. The first was you had to take good care of the machines. They operated at intense pressure, being a still of sorts. Also you had to let the steam off or the pressure would built up even higher. If you didn’t maintain the machine or let off the steam, the machine blew up. One of those machines could wreck a whole room when they blew and would could serious injury to anyone in it.

   The second problem was the gin was near enough pure alcohol with any flavourings you added to the ingredients. It was strong enough to be dangerous to imbibe.

   However, there was a massive demand for it and it was incredibly cheap to make. A bottle would be sold for tuppence. That is ten good shots of gin for two pennies. Down the public house it was a penny a shot for gin that was only slightly better in quality. Slightly better flavour covering the fact it was watered down back streets gin.

   Apart from one or two in the café, the lady’s rendition of ‘All The Sailors In The Port’ was going down well. Half the customers were singing along with her.

   Tucus pushed a cup of strong java over to me as I watched her. From the house I had the silver stake and the collar. I remembered the information about the tram ticket so did not need that.

   “Hey! There he is . . .” and the singing stopped. Hers did anyway, some of the rest of the customers chorused on for a few bars and then stopped. All eyes were on me now. “My tiny little baby doll.”

   Me? A tiny little baby doll? A huge eruption of laughter went through the room, maybe at the expression on my face.

   “I would fuck you but you are so skinny I think you would snap!” she cried out, way too loudly.

   I flicked a gold sovereign up through the air and, as it span, the eyes of the café went to that. A whole sovereign, twenty shillings. This was Whitechapter, a poor area. A man could work weeks, maybe months for a golden pound coin.

   A hush had descended over the room so closely that you could heard a washer drop.

   “So, you don’t want to come back to my place then?” I asked and whispers started.

   She looked at me once, squinting. Some recollection must have come back to her as she let out a giggle.

   “You just want to bone me. Make the beast with the two backs.”

   Maybe no recollection, just drunken lust.

   “Not tonight.”

   “You don’t fancy me? You think I’m too fat.” Her fists bunched, her whole body went taut, ready to fight.

   “I don’t even know your name but to me you are the most gorgeous creature in the world. Who would want a skinny woman compared to a woman with curves?”

   It took a second, maybe a few seconds. I had not said it succinctly enough for her. She was pissed, it took those seconds to catch up.

   “Really?”

   “You don’t know you are luscious and desirable?” I asked, keeping it short.

   “I know! It is just the rest of this world who don’t!”

   “I am going back to my room.” I paused. “I like you.” Another pause. “I just want to talk.” Silence. “Tonight.” The whole café was staring right at me again, some shaking their heads. “If you want to talk more, you will have to know where I live.”

   She thought it out but now all of the café was getting involved, some urging her to go with me, others warning her it was a trap. A couple of the customers saying sex before marriage was just wrong.

   “Just talk,” I told her and left the café.

   She caught up with me twenty paces outside, huffing and puffing as she hurried to keep up with me.

   “Keep walking. We’ll be followed. Take the alley down here and to the right.”

   “Why?”

   “I am going to be mugged. I showed hard cash in the wrong place.”

   “Don’t worry, this girl can fight. Fuck me gently, you should see my speciality move.”

   I wish she had not said that. In this life, I was a virgin. I had only been alive about a year and had no real interest in women, just getting back at the Creators and destroying their minions and abominations.

   It was not like when I was a virgin in my real life, when I was an inventor helping out the mechaniks. That had been a raw feeling. I had hated being a virgin. Desperate to have sex. Frantic to know what lovemaking was like. Feeling ashamed for being a virgin when all my friends were not. Not realising they were lying about their conquests and that they were virgins too.

   This time it was different. Yes, I did want her. Sex. Maybe. However I wanted that to be just the start. I wanted everything with this woman. With this luscious female, I wanted to fall in love and live happily ever after and I had only met her this day.

   Sex without romance, you ask?

   I am not a person, see. Actually, I am lots of people, men and women. That is not the point, though. There is no romance in my soul. I feel less than a normal human does.

   Some may call me a monster and I might just be that.

   “When we get to the alley you go out in front, get to the other end as fast as possible. That will be the safest place to be.”

   She did as bid. I heard a low whistle as she passed the half way mark. It was Shunt, a street rat. He sometimes foraged the bins in the alleys. He was warning me he saw something. He was going through a bin right now but was totally aware of what was going on around him

   All too soon it became clear. An attacker at either end of the alley.

   The attacker my end looked around, he could not see me. He could see the street rat, he could see the lady engaging the other mugger but he could not see me. He raced for the street rat. They are the eyes of the city. He would know where I was at and with a little persuasion, he would give me up.

   As he passed me, I came out of the shadows. The cosh hit him in the back of the head, sparks flying. I had not hit him too hard. This was not a professional mugger. This was a local on the lookout for the main chance. A way of maybe getting out of the slums.

   He would not be getting up for five minutes. The cosh was like that. Knocked someone unconscious or stunned them. With the magic added it would knock them out every time.

   I was expecting the lady to be in trouble but she was not. She laying on top of her opponent and her left hand was slamming the wooden stake into his side, time after time.

   As I passed the street urchin I dropped a shilling, one, two, three. Three shillings would be enough to feed him for a while, maybe get him board and lodgings if he wanted it. I could have dropped him a sovereign but that would have only got him killed.

   “Thanks, Sparky,” came the whisper.

   When I got to her, my lady, I stopped her hand and gave her a hand to get up.

   “Oh, I have killed him!” She burst into tears.

   I took his hand and felt for a pulse.

   “No, he is alive. You beat him up bad but he will survive.”

   She looked so grateful to me for finding this out, even though I was lying. Humans find killing difficult. It messes with their heads. Better for this buxom beauty not to know she had just savagely topped a man.

   I got her a street away and looked her up and down. Beautiful yes, but with blood on her dress. Could not do much about that. My clothes might fit her but they were in my room. I told her to go to my front door and knock. “When the landlady opens the door give her this sovereign and tell her it is for Sparky’s rent. That will put her in a good mood and she will show you up to my room. Knock once every minute, so I know you are there. I will then open the door for you.”

   She asked why I was not going to go through the front door with me. I just smiled and was off.

   When I checked the room, all my security measures were in place. I heard a knock. I took the bolt out of the crossbow and fired it to loosen the tension on the string. I then opened the door.

   She gave me a little piece of paper and pushed past me into the room, looking at everything with great curiously. I examined the bit of paper. It was a receipt for one pound from the landlady to be deducted from future rent.

   My lady, or that is what I hope for, was walking around the room picking things up, looking at my clothes. She even examined the crossbow and took it down from its hooks and sighted it, probably wanting such an item.

   I have to say, I ignored her. Just for a bit. I took out the silver stake. Looked normal to me. The silver collar though, I could not understand. It held no strings and could not be used a throwing weapon.

   I took out the tiny globe again and it radiated magic all around the collar and then fiercely at one point. There, almost imperceptible, was a tiny stud.

   “Sit down and I will tell you what I have learned.” She just stared. I think she was sobering up but maybe she did not trust me yet . . . and that was fair.

   I too, did not trust people easily.

   In my line, hunter/killer, you had to be careful. There was already a hundred-pound bounty on my head, capture only. That was a truly massive amount, you could buy a street of slum properties with that sort of money. Not a big street but you could.

   All the Creators wanted to see what made me tick, literally. Most of them thought I was alive using clockwork magic, which was not true. There was no clockwork in me. My own Creator, Doctor Gory, wanted me back to examine me. She had never made a living creature from a dead one before or since.

   “The lady who had these items was a Vampyre hunter.”

   “Like me?” The woman asked.

   “Before we go on. What is your name.”

   “You are Sparky, I am Avalonia. Most people call me Ava,” she said simply. I think she was more trusting since I said the other, the murdered woman, was a hunter of Vampryes.

   “Well, Ava, I think this woman took the drug Eternity and became in her own mind, a Goddess. She was hunting creatures as a Goddess. Normally on Eternity, the users still do mundane things from their previous life. Work, clean, eat, sleep. This is so the body of the user does not die. Like with that drug last year that the Cult of the Green Earth people were taking, Ambrosia.”

   She was still staring. I was starting to think I had done something wrong.

   “Once they took that, they were running through fields, at one with the earth, a part of the planet. Everything was beautiful in the worlds they went to, when taking that drug. It only lasted an hour though. After that they needed another fix. They would do anything for another fix. Give their body to another for sexual purpose, however depraved, steal, even kill. What they did not do is eat. The urge to get another dose overrode the body’s signals saying they needed food. Unless someone else fed them while they were tripping, they usually died.”

   “So, this drug factors that in. Makes them do the things the body needs. That is marvellous because this is a one dose drug,” she affirmed.

   “Yes, it is a synthetic drug. I think it was made by the drug barons up in Dee. It must have taken a lot of time to carefully make such a special drug.”

   “You said they normally do mundane tasks, is Zelda doing things differently?” Her voice was breathy, a single strand of her hair was straying from under her hat in a most delightful fashion.

   Zelda? Ah, that was the name of the victim.

   “From her dreamworld on the intoxicant, she has given her normal self a hobby of hunting creatures, probably the same creatures she is hunting as a Goddess. It might have given her Goddess-self more information on the creatures to be hunted and how to slay them.”

   “Or,” Ava interrupted, pushing the hair back under the hat, “or what she is doing in her dreamworld is so important to her it is bleeding into her own world, giving the body a hobby.”

   “Hey, I like that. Good thinking.” It was good thinking, a different way of thinking to mine. “The fact remains she knows the difference between creatures of the undead. She is hunting Vampyres not vampires.”

   She just stared at me as if I was pissed.

   “I must explain. There are many types of vampires. The different types come from all the myths about their kind on other worlds. In this case it is vampire spelt with a Y instead of an I. In the original myth there were half vampire and half human. The ones on this world however are made out of live humans. This type are weaker than normal vamps. What tells me that . . . Zelda was hunting this type, is the silver. Vampyres with a Y hate silver. It is one of their weaknesses.”

   “Don’t all vampires hate silver? It burns them.”

   “That is supposedly because it is a pure metal, very pure. I am not sure that is true but it does a lot of damage to this type of vampire. True vampires on this world hate gold, again supposedly the purest of metals.”

   “Ah, now I get it. What with the silver stake and collar, it must be that sort of vampire she was hunting. But how do we know that this vampire is that sort. The one who killed her and the others?”

   “Mutilation. Normal vampires bite to feed. They half drain their victim of blood and leave. They were made by almost killing them and then weaning them onto blood to bring them back to full life. The sort of vampire she was hunting has been made insane by violence until they are nearly dead and then had blood poured into their bellies by a hose through the mouth. They, like their Creators, are insane. They find a victim, mutilate them, drink half their blood and go back to their den. After committing an act of hideous violence their thoughts are calmed, at least for a while. About a week. After that the insane thoughts of carnage come back to them and they cannot help but commit another atrocity. It is a cycle of madness and brutality.”

   “It was a week between each attack . . .” She was looking at me as if I was Godlike. Her breathing was hard and heavy, her bosom rising and falling in the bodice of that dress.

   “A silver stake thrust at their chest and pushed in will bleed them to death.” I passed her the metal stake. “If it touches their heart they will explode into dust. If they are bled to death, by taking a limb, their body crumbles leaving only bones with strips of gristly flesh. Zelda had this silver collar. I thought at first you threw it at the Vampyre. Once it went around the neck of a such a creature, the neck would vanish into dust and the rest of the body would die. It is not such a device after all, not like a noose or lariat that needs skills to use. Instead, it is simply thrown and it will close around the throat of the nearest creature. It will do no harm to a human but to a werewolf or a vampire of the type we are hunting it will kill them instantly.”

   “So, we have clues now,” she said, reclining on my bed. “It is the same sort of vampire . . . but nothing more.”

   I laid the last fact out carefully for Ava: “The ticket. Why was it special? It was recent and a person on Eternity would not have special items, just mundane tasks. I think Zelda had found the creature’s lair and so she was killed.”

   My final explanation was to no avail. She was fast asleep.

   The next day we got a tram. I had slept on the floor. I did like a large lass but my bed was not broad and she had taken it all up by herself. Sleeping on the floor made no difference to me though. I had slept on the hard ground many a time, during my escape.

   It had been worth it. To see her hair in the morning, great blonde tresses, wonderful to behold.

   Our destination was to be Finch Green. When we arrived, Ava looked at me as if I knew exactly where to go. I looked around. I had never been here before although I had heard descriptions of the place.

   It was all housing, nothing more. A shop here and there to service the houses, a café every few streets.

   “Go north.” I finally understood.

   You see a Vampyre’s den or nest would be in squalor. It would have a cellar for hiding in during the day. All vampires hated sunlight, whatever the breed. In the daytime they would sleep with their halfbloods. The men and women they had turned. Another weaker form of vampire but one that would follow the traits of its master. A vampire halfblood could go out in the light but tended to stay close to the maker and act as their makers did.

   So a Vampyre halfblood would hate silver and a normal vampire halfblood would hate gold.

   There were no slums in Finch Green. They were all nice semi-detached houses. They did not have gardens. That would be an extravagance with the amount of room in the city. Only rich people had gardens and then only little ones.

   We walked north until we reached the boundary of the city.

   “What is your line?” I asked of Ava, enquiring about her employment.

   “I am a battery,” was her simple reply.

   “You are a what?”

   “A battery, a magic battery. When mechaniks use charged tools, they ask me to help. When the tools lose their power, I recharge them. The same for spells and spellcasters. I get a lot of work with the Cult of the Green Earth. They cast spells or think they do. Casting spells means using up a lot of energy in a person’s body. I recharge that energy. I also recharge items when they have run down.”

   “I use ‘tricity,” I confided in her. I thought it safe. She was hunting with me. “My hunting skills are with lightning weapons. I am an inventor too. The things I have invented need sparks or lightning or ‘tricity to make them work?”

   “Do you do sinus? Are you one of the sinus-tists?” She was breathing heavily again and I did not think it was the walk. She was getting excited.

   “At the moment I use clockwork magic and steam. I am as good as a mechanik. To do sinus I would have to see their inventions of designs and diagrams. They are lost to us now. They went down with The Ark.”

   “Some of the Creators are supposed to use sinus,” she breathed. “They can use ‘tricity like you.”

   I had heard of only one that used that. Doctor Gory, my maker. Oh, she used ‘tricity all right. It had run through my brain for months, maybe even years.

   There it was! Past the border of the city.

   The border was not a wall or a dome or anything like that. It was a simple line. Past that line, about a mile was a castle.

   “We can’t get to that. We cross the line and we are in the wilderness. That’s where the Veterans live.” She was fearful and rightfully so. The Veterans were the wild folk that had not been picked by the punkawathas for learning to be city folk.

   I could understand her nervousness. No city person wanted to risk going outside.

   The Veterans were savage hunter/gatherers. They were not scared of the wild beasts nor even the abominations like the werewolves. The Veterans had descended from the warriors of the Ark, the armed forces that were supposed to protect the sinus-tists. Or so the myth says.

   Not only were the Veterans out there, there was all manner of beasts, natural and unnatural. I had met some when fighting werewolves or zombies or gargoyles. I had met Veterans too but I was just as tough as them.

   They called me The Vampire Hunter from back when I chased down and killed Godfrey the Ancient. He was not that ancient, about two hundred years old. The first one created by Otto the Bloodthirsty.

   Godfrey had outlived his Creator master and had been hunting the villages for food, drinking deep of any females he found. Godfrey only took women’s blood, never males. He turned a few into halfbloods. Those were the first I killed. This seemed to upset Godfrey for some reason.

   After that he was hunting me and I was hunting him. It was like a dance, both of us circling the other, trying to get an advantage.

   I had killed Godfrey eventually. I had used a woman as bait.

   Don’t look at me like that!

   Godfrey did not kill women. Vampires do not drink more than half a victim’s blood. Drinking it all kills a vampire. The young greedy vampires do not last long. When a vampire drinks too deep and the victims die so does the vampire.

   He killed males that threatened him but he had never killed a woman. The worse he had done was make them, turn them into halfblood vampires.

   The woman did not mind being bait either when I explained. I gave her a sack of tung beans for doing it.

   That night, she slowly walked out of her village and sat down with her back to the tree at the cross-paths. Godfrey had descended upon her like an ogre on a goblin. He drank his fill and, all the while, the woman had not made one noise.

   When he saw me, he tried to move but he could only do so sluggishly. The woman had drunk guano juice and it was in her bloodstream when the vampire drank. He wobbled, he tried to turn and nearly fell. He raised an arm which was annoying. It got in the way of my sword play and ended up with his arm getting cut off.

   I had been going for the beheading but I found this was just as good. Blood pumping furiously out of the stump where his arm had been. I could have beheaded him right there and then but there was no need.

   In seconds he died and his flesh fell away from his body. The flesh was turning into dust as it broke away from his body. In less than a minute the only thing remaining was a bleached skeleton.

   “We cannot cross. It would be suicide,” I heard from Ava, bringing me back from my thoughts.

   The castle may only be a mile away but the second we stepped over the line we would be visible to all the birds, beasts and Veterans on the other side. More so, the monsters.

   The monsters created were often put out of the cities by their Creators. If they had no further use for them, or if the monster had not been made correctly, they were abandoned to the wilds. Creators buried their mistakes usually but some, like me, managed to escape. Others were just cast out.

   The Veterans had their villages and their warriors to guard them, hunt for them, protect them from the strangest of creatures.

   Once a monster was cast out of a city it could no longer see the city from whence it came. That was the magic of the cities, something learnt from the punkawathas, to keep the city folk safe from the Veterans.

   The air here was good, the light too. It was far enough away from the trams and the railways so the smog did not descend. Maybe they had better fuel for their fires and their cooking as well, I did not know. Smoke was coming from chimneys but it was not adding to a fog.

   The pavements were wide and clean with a strip of grass between them and the roads. Trees were planted every twenty feet on this strip of grass. Tall straight trees with pine like foliage.

   Trees in a city were strange. People normally did not trust them. They were of the wilds, something outside, something sinister. Here though they were planted beside the pavement.

   “Think it out,” I told her. “Here, there is no tram running to that castle, nor a train, not even one owned by a Creator.”

   “A tunnel. It has to be. So, the Creator can pass from the city to her castle.” I deduced.

   Nearly all the Creators were female. I did not know why. Maybe it was something to do with reproducing. Again, I did not know.

   “Yes, a tunnel. If it were an invisible passage, it would break the magic of this part of the city. It would mean this part of the city would become visible to outsiders. Magic versus magic, loss on both sides. So how do we find this tunnel?” I asked Ava, more to bounce ideas off her rather than expecting a reply.

   Ava decided jumping up and down would solve the problem. It did, sort of. It showed us that below was hollow. It also got everyone and their wives staring at us.

   I looked in a straight line. A row of houses. A tunnel could curve and wander, that is true. The most effective way of digging one though was in a straight line.

   That too was strange. A row of houses, terraced not semi-detached. I walked towards them. Puffing to keep up with me, Ava followed.

   I was nearly all the way to the terraced houses when I stopped. I could see them all but nothing was different about any. They were not slum dwellings, they were quite nice. Clean, painted, their window sills not cracked or anything like that .The glass in the windows was not smashed or covered in wood.

   “What am I missing?” I asked myself aloud.

   I often did this. I was a man who walked alone usually. So, I talked to the man who was most intelligent – me.

   “There, just under the roof on the fourth from the left. A blue marking. I have seen that mark before.”

   It was only when she pointed it out to me that I saw it. It was shadowed by the roof. A blue marking with lines that ran around each other making the whole look like a blue ball of string.

   “That is one of the markings used by the Cult of the Green Earth. It symbolises the universe being connected to all things,” I was informed by Ava.

   The Creators did not believe in anything that the Green Earth cultists believed in. Nor did the Cult of the Old Ones that made the punkawathas into gods and prophesied their return.

   I did know certain Creators had followers. To hide from sight but give the followers signs of where to go, they did use certain symbols. Could this be one of those?

   “I will go in alone,” I told Ava. “This is one of Madame Jenna’s hideouts. Who knows what sort of creatures will be hidden here as guards?”

   “But––”

   “Madame Jenna tortures people. She is a Creator. That is how she makes her abominations. With most Creators there is more than a little insanity. Jenna, on the other hand, has lost the plot. Add to that a true sadist and you have a very dangerous woman.”

   Ava did not look happy.

   “I can look after myself, you know.”

   My thoughts were different.

   I was an unstoppable force. I did not even know if I could die. Fighting was my life. Charging into battle. I was that soldier.

   And hunter and hero too, if you come to it. Or bits of me were.

   This is how I knew something about everything. I retained knowledge from every single part of me that had ever been used. This included the parts that had been used but had to be discarded as they could not revive.

   “You stay here and, when I am sure all is safe, I will put a glow ball in that window.” I pointed to a window below the glyph on the wall.

   I then walked away from her. Better this than her meeting an ogre hiding in the house. Or a wolfman. Both of those are nasty. The wolfman is a human trapped inside the body of a wolf. It took a lot skill to make those. They were like the werewolf I killed in Hex. They were upright like humans but with wolf faces and paws. They never changed back into a human form like werewolves did. A werewolf spent three nights as a wolf and the rest of the month as a normal human being. A wolfman was trapped as a man with wolf features.

   I calmly walked around to the back of the houses. With my brown bowler hat and silver topped cane I was not out of place in this area. I saw a Crusher and walked the other way for a street then took an alleyway to come back and look at the rear of the buildings.

   The Crusher had gone. Walking his beat.

   To the back of the house I went: one, two, three, four from the left, now my right. I went to the window and slid in my thin workman’s knife. It cut the sash and I pushed the window up and I was in.

   Quiet! A sound like any other. Total peace and quiet. You could not even hear a mouse fart, it was so silent.

   In stalking mode now, I checked the rooms. They all had doors leading off. That was not normal. In this sized house it should be living room, dining room, kitchen, maybe a hall. Extra doors should not be leading off the living and dining rooms. That would take them into the next houses, right and left.

   I took the left. Again, utter silence. Again, many doors. It was then I caught on.

   This was not a terrace of reasonable sized houses. This was a terrace for one long house. One person owned the whole terrace and had converted it. Yes, here was a small workshop, here a study, here a kitchen for cutting up samples and maybe human body parts.

   The upstairs would be linked rooms too. All bedrooms? I did not know. It was possible. Creators did have followers.

   Madame Jenna had her followers. Many were very unhappy people. They wanted to be something else, something better and Jenna could provide this. She showed the face of a loving, caring Creator who made simple people into creatures that could live forever.

   Handsome gentlemen vampires, dragons, powerful demons and devils.

   The truth was different, though.

   Jenna tortured all she could, twisting them from once normal people into horrific beasts.

   She made no dragons, nor demons, nor devils. She simply was not powerful enough. Werewolves that were savage she could do, rather than beasts wanting to run through the countryside. Vampires whose only desire was to mutilate in a vain attempt to rid themselves of their own memories of being tortured. Zombies who hated the living and wanted to spill their blood. Maenads who inspired orgies and when truly insane or totally intoxicated, ripped men to pieces. Wolfmen who could rip out a person’s throat with a single bite.

   There a noise! A guard maybe, come from a cellar. It was near the back of the house. Still in stalking mode I quickly made my way to where that noise occurred.

   Only to find Ava had been lock-breaking again.

   She was in the kitchen looking proud of herself so I did not berate her for not waiting for the all-clear. It would have been safer of course, my way. For her at least.

   I told her what I had found.

   She gave her take on the situation: “So, this is a small workshop area to make monsters. More below I bet. However, the main place would be the castle.”

   “Exactly. When we go below however, we might find the vampire or all manner of beasts to guard that tunnel.”

   There were a lot of doors in this long, long building but eventually we found the right one. It looked like all the others but actually opened up to stairs going down to the cellars. It was there we found him, the wolfman.

   A beast that was taller than me by a clear foot. It was built on the lines of one of the Crushers. Seven foot tall and powerfully built. Apart from a ragged pair of trousers, it was naked. Fur covered its body from the claws on its feet to the top of its head. Its paws were larger even than a Crusher’s hands and long claws extended from them.

   “Good doggy,” I said to him in the voice I used to calm animals. “Good doggy. Want to play fetch the stick?” I showed him my cane.

   The wolfman let out a fearsome growl. Doggy apparently did not want to play fetch the stick.

   “How do you kill a wolfman?” came a whispered question from Ava. “I have the silver stake.”

   “I think that is just werewolves . . .” I pulled the silver collar out of my pocket and threw it him, his elongated jaw snapped at the collar but it was already circling his throat. Nothing happened.

   It was annoying him, though. He was snapping at nothing but air. His furry face was showing no pleasure.

   “Hit him on the snout with a rolled-up newspaper,” giggled Ava. “I always did that when my dog shat on the carpet.”

   The wolfman protested this badinage by lifting his head and howling. That could be a signal, best be moving.

   I tapped my head backwards and it knocked my neck support. I pulled the sword pommel from the top of my coat. As it came free, slivers of metal dropped into place, now the handle was in place, now the first half and then it was complete. I gave it a good shake and the last sliver dutifully moved into place, locking it into being a good strong sword.

   I took up a two-handed stance. This was a big beasty. Claws flexed, the toothy snout snapped at the air. This creature was psyching himself up for battle.

   Ava advanced silver stake in her hand but I pushed her back. She had no chance in a battle like this. She knocked me aside and ran at the beast and leapt. It was a wonder of a leap, five foot she covered until she slammed her body against his, her mass hitting him high on the chest thanks to her leap. The beast stepped back and toppled under her weight.

   It was snapping its jaws trying to connect with her flesh but she was ahead of it slamming the silver stake in his side again and again. Her body was at its chest level and its snapping jaws were missing and then slowing and then gasping, blood now leaking from its mouth, its ears, its snout.

   It was dying . . . and still the silver stake was being thrust into its side.

   “You are a very bad doggy!” She was shouting at the wolfman as it expired.

   “Move!” I shouted loudly and she rolled off of it and my blade slashed down beheading it.

   “You stole my kill!” She declared angrily.

   “It was your kill,” I replied calmly, not wanting to take anything away from her. “I was making sure it never came back . . . as anything. You never know with Creators . . . they can try and cross a wolfman with a vampire and so a beast dies and comes back to life. Always behead any creature you kill.”

   “But it was a good kill? That was my special skill, Ava’s Flying Crush. When you are as cuddly as me, you better use it to your advantage.”

   “It was a very good kill. I could not have done better myself.”

© COPYRIGHT Michael Sheppard 2024

Reblog for next chapter

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Dear trans and nonbinary youth, With the 2025 inauguration of Donald Trump, our community has witnessed the culmination of a yearslong attack on our truths and our lives. We are forced to reckon with the fact that millions of Americans elected a xenophobic leader with seemingly autocratic ambitions, one who seems hell-bent on making people on the margins disappear. There are many lessons to glean from this political moment, but one stands out: When hate is allowed to stand with inadequate resistance, it festers and grows. I want to apologize to you for all the ways that this country has failed you. Beyond Trump, there are bigoted politicians, billionaires, and public figures who have decided to sell your future away to accrue more capital and power. I also want to validate how you must be feeling. You may be mourning the life you thought you’d be living at this point. You may be fearful about the uncertainty of your future. You aren’t alone. Many of us adults have felt those things too. On election night, after it became clear that the far right would have control of nearly every level of our government, a few friends and I collapsed into the arms of each other. Our shirts were soaked in tears as we tried to brace for the American nightmare heading our way. [...] Long before social media, AI, and reality TV stars-turned-presidents, our transcestors demanded dignity and respect — and they did so with far fewer resources. Despite erasure, many of the original Indigenous peoples of this land never allowed two-spirit and third-gender folks to be discarded. When right-wing politicians ousted government officials who were queer or suspected of being queer during the McCarthy era, our people didn’t disappear. When our people faced police brutality during the Stonewall riots, we came together in solidarity. Meanwhile, figures like Crystal Labeija built the foundation for Ballroom houses and culture, and now its fruits can be witnessed in music, entertainment, movement, and even in the slang that many use. Sir Lady Java picketed anti-crossdressing laws so that she could continue her thriving career as a showgirl. Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera created Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, or S.T.A.R., and a safe haven to house street kids who’d been discarded. In every era of US history, queer folks have carved out their spaces despite criminalization, discrimination, and violence. We must have faith that we can do it again now. [...] Lean into the fire, fight, and resilience that already lives inside you. I want you to be defiant. If there was ever a time to disobey, this is it. We are a creative, disruptive people who have never accepted silence.

Raquel Willis for Teen Vogue on how trans and nonbinary kids should resist attacks on their very existence (01.27.2025).

Raquel Willis wrote this eloquent piece in Teen Vogue how trans and nonbinary kids should resist attacks on their very existence.

[expirisims]

Old Builds!!!

I decided to plop all the old builds I found down in Adventureland so I could make a list of changes I'm planning to make and which lots I will scrap from the project. Needless to say, there will be roof work, LOL! I had forgotten how much work I'd put into a lot of these! And how large all of the houses I used to make were! Even though there will be some terrain finagling to do once I place them in my custom world it is still going to be a LOT quicker process! All I'm missing from my original builds is a super awesome aquarium I'm still pretty bummed to be missing and an okay poolside beach bar.

This is the resort lot I built it is situated on a lake that will actually extend beyond the lot and become a significant element in the nature reserve area of the world. Inspired by a couple of real world resorts here in the US. The pool area is Art Deco style and always makes me think of "The Shining" for some reason, LOL!

The Copa Club, an exclusive lounge with functioning restaurant and performance area! Yes, those ARE palm trees inside the building. Yes, that IS a glass tiled area of the floor. And yes, those ARE shark spawners inside the tank in the middle of the bars :)

More pictures from around the club, as you can see I never put stools at the bubble blower...facepalm.

The main transit station with buried subway rabbit hole, java hut and laundromat. In the old world I had about a million subway objects littered all over the place. It was a total mess, I also thought I needed multiple of every rabbit hole to make it seem like an actual city. No wonder it broke before I could finish it! I've learned a LOT over the years! I was originally going to take the laundromat out of this lot, but I think I'll just leave it and not have a separate designated lot. It'll save me some space and a lot for possibly another house if I feel the need for it. I've gotten to be more about function and streamlining world layout/size over the years than I used to be.

Random screenshots from a couple of the old houses. They seem so huge to me now!

The crowning glory! This house is by far the most elaborate and there was a backstory which I think I will include in Pickerling Cove. Seems only right as I'm using all the old builds from my unfinished world. Ugh! I'd forgotten that this house was 1 tile off on one side! OMG it was such a pain to create, I dread fixing it, but it will drive me crazy! Anyway, I'll definitely have to offset terrain when I place it in Pickerling and hey, I don't have to remake it totally from scratch, so I should stop complaining!

[marsgamevault101]

Rediscovering Minecraft: From Pocket to Java

  

Recently, I had the chance to dive back into Minecraft, a game I haven’t played in quite a while.  I used to play the pocket version, but I was excited to try the Java version, knowing it offered more possibilities. As I sat down to play the game, my friend joined me, and together we hopped into the world of Minecraft, we began playing around 12:00 PM on a Friday night.  

Let me start off by saying I was a bit frustrated, I have only played the pocket version before. So, you can imagine the time I had trying to figure out what key did what, like opening my inventory or sprinting.  The first thing I did was create a world in creative mode, I spawned in a place surrounded with many trees, almost like a forest, I wasn’t sure what to do, kept clicking on any keys I found till I came across my inventory, ended up building a decent house although I stopped.  

My friend decided for us to change to survival mode so, we dug a hole for shelter to survive the first night. One of my biggest fears has always been the mod monsters, I was able to conquer my fears, I was left alone and needed to kill monsters out of necessity. 

As we progressed, we built a proper house by cutting down some trees, crafted a crafting table and a chest. We had to keep an eye on our health and food bar, which was a big part of survival mode. To make sure we had enough food, we created a small farm to grow crops.  

Throughout our adventure, I learned to balance resources, building, and thanks to my friend’s experience, it made the transition from Pocket Edition to Java a bit easier.  

[lazeecomet]

god damn INTERNAL tech support yesterday gave me a procedure on dumping logs that i knew was going to fail when i had to connect to the robot via Internet Explorer

so i launched compatibility mode

and i got a warning about needing java to use all webpages

and i got flashbacks to the fucking SmartMotor tomfuckery that consumed a whole day

and then it told me i could not proceed unless i had installed VERY outdated software and served me a link to Sun Microsystems (stopped existing in 2010) to download a Virtual Machine to safely run said known Obsolete Software With Unpatched Security (you know who you are)

I know we are better then this. i HAVE on my laptop the Robot Control Utility we built in house to address the whole IE thing. so i just fumbled my way though the menus trying to figure out how to download the things mentioned in the procedure and fired back an email apologizing for the incomplete logs because i dont have a VM from Sun FUCKING MICROSYSTEMS

anyways im better now because after many non-helpful exchanges in this email thread i eventually just started looking for dead shorts on the circuit boards and found a relay that picked a fight with Ohms Law, lost, and was burned at the stake. never had i thought the smell of magic smoke would mean the smell of victory

at least i hope so. we'll find out when the parts arrive after thanksgiving

[allaboutsoftwaredevelopment]

Exploring the Difference Between Web Development and App Development

Hey there, tech enthusiasts! So, you've heard about web development and app development, but you're not quite sure what sets them apart? Don't worry, I'll break it down for you in simple terms!

First things first, what exactly is web development? Well, think of it like building a house on the internet! Web development involves creating websites or web applications that can be accessed through a web browser, like Google Chrome or Safari. It's all about designing, building, and maintaining websites that people can visit and interact with online.

Now, let's talk about app development. This is like building a cozy little home on your smartphone or tablet! App development involves creating mobile applications that are installed directly onto your device, like games, social media apps, or productivity tools. It's all about designing, building, and maintaining applications that people can download and use on their mobile devices.

So, what's the difference between web development and app development? Here are a few key distinctions:

Platform: The biggest difference between web development and app development is the platform they're built for. Web app development services focuses on creating websites or web applications that are accessed through a web browser on desktop computers or mobile devices. App development, on the other hand, focuses on creating mobile applications that are installed directly onto a device and accessed through an icon on the home screen.

Technology: Web development typically involves technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for creating the front end (what users see and interact with) and languages like PHP, Python, or Node.js for creating the back end (the server-side logic). App development, on the other hand, often involves languages like Java or Kotlin for Android development, Swift or Objective-C for iOS development, or frameworks like React Native or Flutter for cross-platform development.

Distribution: Web applications are usually accessible to anyone with an internet connection and can be accessed through a web browser without the need for installation. Mobile applications, on the other hand, need to be downloaded and installed onto a device from an app store like the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

User Experience: The user experience of web applications and mobile applications can be quite different. Web applications are designed to work across different devices and screen sizes, so they often have a responsive design that adapts to fit the user's device. Mobile applications, on the other hand, are specifically designed for use on mobile devices and can take advantage of features like touch screens, GPS, and push notifications.

In conclusion, while web development and app development share some similarities, such as creating digital experiences for users, they also have key differences in terms of platform, technology, distribution, and user experience. Whether you're interested in building websites or mobile applications, both fields offer exciting opportunities to unleash your creativity and make an impact in the digital world!

[parallelmc]

Hey mineblr,

# Parallel's 1.20 update is now LIVE!

That's right - hop in to explore over 140 million new blocks of terrain, featuring cherry orchards, dozens of new and revamped structures, a new procedurally generated dungeon, and some other neat goodies (and there might be something secret happening right now, too)! Let's get into it:

## NEW 1.20 Update 🌸

**Parallel has been equipped with everything that 1.20 has to offer!** Ride a camel, explore cherry biomes, and dig for archaeological discoveries! There's also a new server town, **Cherry Town,** that players can find via the portal pads at spawn and join (this is also a really good way to get out to 1.20 chunks really quickly)! Keep in mind that Cherry Town will be rather barebones, and needs your help to become a real and bustling town!

## New Structures + A New Dungeon System

Thanks to everyone's submissions for the 1.20 Structure Contest, Parallel now has **dozens of new and revamped structures** in new 1.20 chunks (plus some extra secret ones)! Essentially, structures will spawn much more seamlessly now. Also, thanks to the help of our developer UnknownSilicon, you will be able to find **procedurally generated dungeons** throughout the world (look for a spooky-looking house above-ground!) that consist of rooms that everyone built for the Dungeon Contest!

## Custom Join & Leave Messages 🏃‍♂️

Voter and donator ranks now have access to **custom join and leave messages** that you can select to personalize your entrances and exits to/from Parallel! The further you climb with voter and donor ranks, the more messages you will have access to (and more will continuously be added)! To access the messages, type `/joinmessages` or `/leavemessages`!

## Parallel Museum Update 🖼️

The Parallel Museum has been behind in documentation for a while, but it has now been updated to display all events in Parallel's history to the present! Go to the spawn town and have a look for yourself (and reminisce about days of yore)!

## New Emojis 😎

Five more emojis have been added from our texture artist CallMeSquidKid! `flushed`, `sunglasses`, `rolling_eyes`, `accept`, and `deny`! They are the pixelated versions of these, respectively: 😳 😎 🙄 ✅ ❌. Go ahead and express yourself more than ever before!

We hope that you all enjoy Parallel's 1.20 update (and Part 2 of our Community Update!), and keep in mind that Part 3 of the Community Update will be coming later this summer, with a bunch more player-suggested features. As always, be sure to read #⁠patch-notes for all of the specific changes!

*Happy Trails and Tales,*

**The Parallel Team**

Parallel is a Semi-Vanilla Java 1.20 server open to 1.20-1.20.1 clients.

Our IP is play.parallelmc.org

Join us on Discord at

[ethanartsandstudios]

Here's a sneak peek of my projects that are coming soon this month in August. After a while, I'm making a new update on my entertainment complex that is being built in Minecraft: Java Edition at the Imaginears Club server, The Shoppes at Ethan Cross Media, and a theme park, Ethan Cross Media Studios Imaginears Club. My next art project will be a 2023 redraw of Lincoln Loud from one of my favorite Nickelodeon cartoons, The Loud House.

Correction to sources, it's actually Imaginears Club, not just Imaginears. Music: Let's Go Lightly from Mario Party (Nintendo 64/Nintendo Switch (Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, Nintendo 64) Voices by Ethan Gaden

Server IP for Imaginears Club (only for those who have Minecraft: Java Edition): iears.us.

[anandtechverceseo]

Best Software Development Company in Chennai | Leading Software Solutions

When searching for the best software development company in Chennai, businesses of all sizes look for a partner who combines technical expertise, a customer-centric approach, and proven delivery. A leading Software Development Company in Chennai offers end-to-end solutions—from ideation and design to development, testing, deployment, and maintenance—ensuring your software is scalable, secure, and aligned with your strategic goals.

Why Choose the Best Software Development Company in Chennai?

Local Expertise, Global Standards Chennai has emerged as a thriving IT hub, home to talented engineers fluent in cutting-edge technologies. By selecting the best software development company in Chennai, you tap into deep local expertise guided by global best practices, ensuring your project stays on time and within budget.

Proven Track Record The top Software Development Company in Chennai showcases a rich portfolio of successful projects across industries—finance, healthcare, e-commerce, education, and more. Their case studies demonstrate on-point requirements gathering, agile delivery, and robust support.

Cost-Effective Solutions Chennai offers competitive rates without compromising quality. The best software development company in Chennai provides flexible engagement models—fixed price, time & materials, or dedicated teams—so you can choose the structure that best fits your budget and timeline.

Cultural Alignment & Communication Teams in Chennai often work in overlapping time zones with North America, Europe, and Australia, enabling real-time collaboration. A leading Software Development Company in Chennai emphasizes transparent communication, regular status updates, and seamless integration with your in-house team.

Core Services Offered

A comprehensive Software Development Company in Chennai typically delivers:

Custom Software Development Tailor-made applications built from the ground up to address unique business challenges—whether it’s a CRM, ERP, inventory system, or specialized B2B software.

Mobile App Development Native and cross-platform iOS/Android apps designed for performance, usability, and engagement. Ideal for startups and enterprises aiming to reach customers on the go.

Web Application Development Responsive, SEO-friendly, and secure web apps using frameworks like React, Angular, and Vue.js, backed by scalable back-end systems in Node.js, .NET, Java, or Python.

UI/UX Design User-centered design that drives adoption. Wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity designs ensure an intuitive interface that delights end users.

Quality Assurance & Testing Automated and manual testing—functional, performance, security, and usability—to deliver a bug-free product that scales under real-world conditions.

DevOps & Cloud Services CI/CD pipelines, containerization with Docker/Kubernetes, and deployments on AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud for high availability and rapid release cycles.

Maintenance & Support Post-launch monitoring, feature enhancements, and 24/7 support to keep your software running smoothly and securely.

The Development Process

Discovery & Planning Workshops and stakeholder interviews to define scope, objectives, and success metrics.

Design & Prototyping Rapid prototyping of wireframes and UI mockups for early feedback and iterative refinement.

Agile Development Two-week sprints with sprint demos, ensuring transparency and adaptability to changing requirements.

Testing & QA Continuous testing throughout development to catch issues early and deliver a stable release.

Deployment & Go-Live Seamless rollout with thorough planning, user training, and post-deployment support.

Maintenance & Evolution Ongoing enhancements, performance tuning, and security updates to keep your application competitive.

Benefits of Partnering Locally

Speedy Onboarding: Proximity to Chennai’s tech ecosystem speeds up recruitment of additional talent.

Cultural Synergy: Shared cultural context helps in understanding your business nuances faster.

Time-Zone Overlap: Real-time collaboration during key business hours reduces turnaround times.

Networking & Events: Access to local tech meetups, hackathons, and startup incubators for continuous innovation.

Conclusion

Choosing the best software development company in Chennai means entrusting your digital transformation to a partner with deep technical skills, transparent processes, and a client-first ethos. Whether you’re a startup looking to disrupt the market or a large enterprise aiming to modernize legacy systems, the right Software Development Company in Chennai will guide you from concept to success—delivering high-quality software on schedule and within budget. Start your journey today and experience why Chennai stands out as a premier destination for software development excellence.

[developerper1]

Why Android Application Development is the Smart Choice for Businesses in 2025

Android application development is driving digital transformation for businesses across industries in 2025. With billions of active Android users globally, building an Android app is no longer just an option—it’s a powerful way to connect with your audience, deliver value, and stay competitive in a mobile-first world.

From startups to enterprises, companies are leveraging the Android ecosystem to build scalable apps that engage users, streamline operations, and grow revenue.

What Makes Android the Preferred Platform?

Android dominates the mobile OS market with its expansive reach, customization capabilities, and open-source flexibility. Businesses prefer Android for several reasons:

Broader device compatibility, from flagship phones to budget models

Customization options for niche or complex use cases

Lower development costs compared to closed ecosystems

Faster updates and rollout capabilities through the Play Store

These advantages make android app development ideal for businesses seeking high impact with fewer limitations.

Choosing the Right Android App Development Company

A well-built app starts with the right partner. An experienced android app development company offers more than just code—they help shape the user experience, optimize performance, and ensure long-term scalability.

Look for a team that:

Understands the latest Android SDKs and UI design principles

Follows agile methodologies for faster delivery

Provides end-to-end services from ideation to post-launch support

Has a solid track record with client testimonials and case studies

The right partner can bring your app vision to life while ensuring it meets modern design and security standards.

Why You Should Hire Android App Developer Experts

If you want to build a feature-rich, intuitive app, it pays to hire android app developer talent that understands the Android ecosystem inside and out.

Here’s what great developers bring to the table:

Knowledge of Kotlin and Java

Expertise in integrating APIs, Firebase, and third-party tools

Familiarity with Google’s Material Design and user expectations

Ability to optimize apps for performance, memory, and battery use

They don’t just code—they contribute to usability, speed, and reliability.

When to Hire Android Application Developer Resources In-House

Sometimes outsourcing isn’t the answer—especially if mobile development is central to your product. In such cases, you may want to hire android application developer professionals as part of your core tech team.

This approach benefits companies that:

Want to build proprietary tools or products

Need constant updates or testing cycles

Prefer tighter collaboration between developers and product managers

Having in-house developers offers control, faster iterations, and better integration with existing platforms.

Benefits of Working with an Android Application Development Company

Engaging with an experienced android application development company gives you access to:

UI/UX specialists who understand what Android users expect

QA engineers who test apps across multiple devices and OS versions

Project managers who ensure on-time delivery and communication

Scalable architecture to support future feature rollouts

This team-based approach reduces risk and improves time to market, especially if you're launching a consumer-facing app with high visibility.

Must-Have Features for Android Apps in 2025

Building an Android app today means more than just functionality. It must be secure, user-friendly, and intelligent.

Top features users expect in 2025:

Biometric login (face/fingerprint)

Offline capabilities and local caching

AI recommendations and smart search

Dark mode and accessibility settings

Real-time notifications and in-app chat

These features aren’t just trends—they’re fast becoming expectations. Businesses that deliver on them win loyalty and market share.

Android App Trends You Shouldn’t Ignore

To stay relevant in a competitive market, developers and businesses should be aware of the biggest shifts in Android technology:

Jetpack Compose: A modern toolkit for faster, more expressive UI development

Wearables and IoT: Expanding app functionalities to watches, TVs, and smart devices

AI and ML integration: Personalized user journeys using real-time data insights

Sustainability focus: Efficient apps that use minimal power and resources

Android's evolution is not just technical—it’s experience-driven. Adopting these trends early gives your business an edge.

Final Thoughts

Investing in android application development means investing in reach, flexibility, and future-proof scalability. With Android’s global presence and customization freedom, it’s an ideal platform for businesses that want to build intuitive, high-performance apps.

Whether you're launching a simple app or an enterprise-grade solution, success lies in choosing the right team, embracing the right technologies, and focusing on user experience from day one.

By collaborating with the right development company—or bringing in skilled developers—you can ensure your app not only launches successfully but thrives in an ever-changing digital ecosystem.

[top10seostrategiestorankyo]

Why ‘Learning Java’ Won’t Cut It Anymore (And What to Do Instead)

Master Java with context — full stack, marketing, design, AI, and real-world training to become job-ready with Cyberinfomines.

Walk into any engineering college today and ask students what programming language they’re learning. The most common answer? Java. For decades, Java has been considered the holy grail for aspiring developers. But in 2025, is simply “learning Java” enough to get a job, build something meaningful, or even keep pace with the evolving tech landscape?

Let’s be honest — learning Java in isolation won’t cut it anymore. You need context, application, ecosystem understanding, and business awareness. And more importantly, you need transformation — not just instruction. That’s where Cyberinfomines comes in.

Let’s unpack why Java isn’t the final destination — and how you can future-proof your learning journey with the right approach.

1. Java Is Just One Piece of a Much Bigger Puzzle

Knowing Java is like knowing how to use a hammer — it’s a tool. But building a house requires architecture, plumbing, wiring, and design. In the same way, modern development needs you to understand how Java fits into the broader ecosystem.

Today’s applications require:

Front-end frameworks (React, Angular)

Back-end orchestration (Spring Boot, Node.js)

Cloud environments (AWS, GCP, Azure)

Databases (MongoDB, PostgreSQL, MySQL)

APIs and microservices

CI/CD pipelines and DevOps workflows

Without these, Java becomes a limiting skill rather than an empowering one. That’s why Cyberinfomines trains students through Full Stack Developer programs — not just “Java.”

2. The Industry Demands Job-Ready, Not Just Trained

It’s not about whether you’ve heard of concepts like REST APIs or Docker; it’s about whether you’ve built something using them. Recruiters are no longer impressed with your familiarity — they want your functionality.

That’s why we emphasize:

Project Based Training that mimics real workplace challenges

Continuous integration tools, Git/GitHub workflows

Working on Existing Website & Mobile Applications to understand deployment, bugs, and testing cycles

Exposure to UI/UX, backend architecture, and server handling

This applied learning means you walk into interviews with a portfolio, not just a certificate.

3. Java Developers Now Need Cross-Disciplinary Skills

A good developer today must also know a bit about:

Product thinking

APIs and webhooks

Application security

SEO principles

User experience

Through Web Application Designing and Website Designing modules, we help learners merge technical skills with business and user priorities.

4. You Can’t Ignore Digital Marketing Anymore

Wait — what does digital marketing have to do with programming?

Everything.

Even the best application will die in silence if it’s not marketed correctly. Developers today are expected to collaborate with marketers, understand basic analytics, and build platforms that support growth strategies.

That’s why we offer:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) integration strategies

How email workflows connect through Email Marketing APIs

Site analytics with Web Analytics & Data Analytics

Building mobile-first experiences for Mobile Marketing campaigns

So no, Java can’t do it alone. You need a broader lens to see the big picture.

5. AI & Automation Are Reshaping Everything

Please visit our website to know more:-https://cyberinfomines.com/blog-details/why-learning-java-won%E2%80%99t-cut-it-anymore-and-what-to-do-instead