#the screenshots are much darker than what they looked like in game

[oceanlipgloss]

FILM NOIR

SYLUS.

+ warnings: extremely implicit suggestive themes (in ending), mentions of blood, strong language.

A film noir marred with smears of red. The colour of their hearts, his irises, and fresh blood. At first glance, his world looked like that—black, illegal, corrupt.

They were the two of them not quite the classical example of a pair from one of those atmospheric motion pictures, however. He was not plagued by illusions, and she did not want to lead him to armageddon.

This was a noir much more modern, its basic foundations twisted and rotated so as to become their own.

Sexier dreams are sold in cities, or so they say. Because between the clustered buildings and peeling walls, things differ. There’s the seductive motions, the sweet corruptions, the disruptive temptations.

Murder dripped from his fingertips. Crime trickled down his palms. He was one with his guns. Death couldn’t even kiss his sharp cheek. She saw in him an incarnate of demons.

That, however, began to change later.

The tall haughty man shrunk into a silly little boy sometimes. He was still as annoying as ever, of course, but also quite kind. Even a bit childlike.

As it turned out, his world wasn’t all about crime. Core truths were hidden, away from her sight. He could be...nice.

In his crimson world, he hummed an unknown melody in the kitchen. Hearing musical notes clumsily tiptoe on the octaves of his baritone was both unfamiliar and endearing alike. And in that shady world of his, she turned her fingers into a surprise weapon that poked his side.

The blue galaxy took in her sighs. She was beginning to care about him despite herself, despite all his violence, arrogance, and nonsense.

Was he arrogant, though, or did he merely know himself, with that frightening perception and alluring confidence?

Some time ago, he had bound her wrists with burgundy fog and captured her unwilling fingers.

His was a nauseating existence.

Such a handsome man, such a sickening attitude. Those were her thoughts back then. He was so beautiful, but so vile—always making her heart shrivel with subconscious repulsion.

How harsh. Did it wound his heart?

Well, she had always been defiant. Not her fault. He lived on the dark side. It was only fair, perfectly right.

These days, being near him shot her veins with neon. It flowed inside her, darker than cherries, as irresistible as his power.

Like children, they were always bickering. He threatened stubborn plush toys for her. She scolded his moody crow for being a stalker. Together they took over the arcade, capturing soft soldiers. His teeth marked her hand with the pink crescents of playful bites. ‘Gifts,’ he called them.

He appeared to be the kind of man who would indulge in cinema’s greatest noirs, but he could entertain her childish antics, too. He played along so often.

They were so good together.

Never again did he let his coarse fingers so much as brush her tender skin all of a sudden.

Women had their wiles, but he adored her and only her—so much so that his heartbeat became manic under her small hand on his broad chest.

Nothing and no one could be as cute, his love was pure, and he wasn’t about to be seduced. By anyone else, that is. Perhaps he would give in to her; all he needed now was her sweet acceptance, her absolute consent, so that one day he very much could, with pleasure.

Just what about them was similar to a fucked up couple from a film noir?

+notes: finally, finally, my first Love and Deepspace fic debuts and sees the light of day or that of the moon, 'cause it's late at night rn anyway :P

May I now offer you a short babble on how I died a thousand deaths in order to settle on an idea? I kid you not, I've been quite literally yearning and agonising to write a Sylus fic almost since I saw in-game screenshots/videos of him for the first time, which was quite a while before I even began playing the game. I didn't give in and do that, though, as I didn't have a clear, precise picture of what exactly he's like—and I always study characters down to their cells and bones before I write a fic about them—so I resisted the temptation. Some time later (a little over a week ago, in fact), I installed the game, learned a lot more about him with a lot more to go, and my God...

Listen, I really liked him prior to downloading, but right now? I love him very much :/ how could I not? He likes fishing, but the only thing he's catching on that darn hook is hearts. It's a lame joke to make, but can the truth be denied, for goodness' sake? His personality, his mind, his attitude, his darkness, his sweetness, his humour, his face, his height, his fashion sense, his secrets, his lil' son Mephisto too.

Anyways, the inspiration for this piece came from a mixture of parts and sources: the main story, interactions (i.e. arcade, chats, Destiny Café, etc.), home screen and combat lines, dates, Tender Moments, animations, as well as content I have yet to unlock, of course. Do I also need to mention how I adore MC's dynamic with Sylus? They're so cute and funny together pls lol

Seriously, I was confused out of my mind with indecisiveness, writer's block, and this intense desire to write. I genuinely feel a lust to write fics about him until I combust. A fun and silly fic, an innocent one, a sensual one, a melancholic one, a philosophical one, anything and everything else I can think of/that comes to my mind. May the odds be ever in my favour, for sometimes the brain's mechanisms really suck.

+ MASTERLIST

+ AO3 POST

©𝙤𝙘𝙚𝙖𝙣𝙡𝙞𝙥𝙜𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙨

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Mini Costume Meta

Poker game Eddie!!

I did bucks outfit yesterday and today its the turn of Eddie!!

Again I apologise for the rubbish screenshots, I'll have better ones in my actual costume meta after the episode has aired!!

It's really hard to tell in these screenshots, but Eddie is dressed in a blue tartan suit. When the still dropped and we all went into meltdown, I thought the jacket was blue and a dark green teal, now I've seen it a bit better, I'm pretty sure its actually royal and navy blue - a navy that is almost black!

Ok firstly we have the check theme to contend with and the fact that in 911 verse, check means potential danger and change and that rings true here, I just don't think the check is for physical danger.

We need to look at all the times Eddie has worn a suit to fully appreciate what is going on with the check, so bear with me!

This new suit is the 4th one we've seen Eddie wear. First up is the navy suit (and grey marl tie) we see him wear to his interview and look around Durrand School.

Then we have the black on black suit we see him in when he's suit shopping for Christopher with Ana.

Followed by the blue check suit with black spotty shirt we see him in at Hen and Karens vow renewal.

I hope you can all start to see what is going on here - each suit is connected not only to where Eddie is at mentally, but it is also connected to a person (Shannon, Ana, Eddie himself and then this new one Buck) and a key moment in Eddies story.

I'm not going to really really drill down into all the suits because I don't have the time, but that first navy suit with its white shirt and mismatched tie is very much conveying an Eddie who is both uncomfortable and unsure of who he is - the mismatched nature of the overall outfit is meant to look a bitt off and jarring. The navy of the suit itself is about trust, loyalty and stability - all things very relevant to Eddie in that moment - he is trusting Carla (and by extension Buck), he is trying to provide stability for Chris, and he is still loyal to Shannon.

Its very telling that the only truly odd one out is the black suit - the one connected to Ana! Its also the only suit we know for definite that Eddie didn't pick for himself. The black suit is meant to indicate the concept of the black dog of depression - a black cloud hanging over both Eddie and the relationship with Ana.

The suit Eddie wears to the HenRen vow renewal with its small check pattern and the black shirt with the blue dots is showing us Eddies progress - he's still going through it, the check tells us that - but the fact that we've gone from Eddie having panic attacks in a black suit and we've now got an Eddie in a much brighter blue (still with some black in the shirt as a nod to the previous suit - think of it like the blue overtaking and erasing the black) indicating that he is much calmer and at peace with himself. If you want to read more about this suit, then head over to my pinned post and read the costume meta for 5x18!

Back to the check theme and the new suit jacket - yes this is a darker suit than the previous one, but its still two shades of blue - a combination of the navy of the first suit and a brighter blue which connects to the vow renewal suit. connecting the two suits to this suit is important from a narrative perspective,

for me the use of this tartan check is just the next stage of the very tiny check - its not going to be all smooth sailing for Eddie yet and I think the Pepa meddling is the thing that the check is foreshadowing

White pocket squares - nobility and wealth as well as love and luck - much of these meanings stem from the age of chivalry - ladies pocket squares being given to knights of the joust as a token of luck etc

In modern US parlance, pocket squares are a symbol of anti traditionalist values - by this I mean, you won't find those of a right wing persuasion (Donal Trump and his lot) wearing a pocket square. Pocket squares are and were considered a symbol of sophistication - especially in golden age Hollywood - Cary Grant, Fred Astaire, Clark Gable etc all wore pocket squares in various ways.

The reason I'm giving you all this information is to point out that the fact we have Eddie wearing one here is both interesting and telling. As far as I'm aware this is the first time we've seen one worn on 911 (I don't have any notes of any of the mains wearing one in my costume plots!) so this is tapping into all of the meanings above, Eddie is wearing it as a symbol of wealth (appropriate for a poker game!) but mostly as a nod to old school Hollywood.

The costume department are trying to evoke that era through Eddies costume, the set is also evoking that era and so the two things are working in tandem (Bucks red velvet suit jacket also does the same thing - it mimics a smoking jacket which was a common thing for men to have in their wardrobe and wear to play poker or pool). They're essentially trying to make Eddie look like those leading men because in their films they always got the girl (in Eddies case its indicating he's gonna get the boy!).

Onto the Black turtleneck! Black turtlenecks have such an interesting history, they have very strong links with antiestablishment and activism - often worn as a statement or a symbol of protest. The turtleneck is meant to be non-conformist and set the wearer apart from societal norms. The black panthers wore them as part of their 'protest uniform' in the 50's and 60's making them part of the activist style and cementing them as a garment of protest and dissent.

Steve Jobs very deliberately chose the black turtle neck as part of his uniform - to appear down to earth and casual, but also to set him apart from the shirt and tie wearing Bill Gates - it made Apple seem not only aspirational, but also more user friendly to the everyman over the nerdy suits of the establishment!

We've seen it used for the same purpose in film - think Cary Grant in to catch a thief - wearing both a navy and white striped turtleneck as well as a black one when he's being 'the cat'

Or even Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face - when she's in the jazz club dancing - a scene supposed to show her as different from the traditional models found gracing the pages of 'Quality' the fictional magazine Fred Astaire's Character photographs for.

In the 1920's and 30's, Noel Coward made them popular and as a result they became a symbol of queerness - this is also the origin of the black turtleneck as a piece of clothing representing something non-conformist that all the other iterations stem from.

So Eddie wearing a black turtleneck at this moment in time is such a choice. It is meant to show us an Eddie who is comfortable in his own skin and that that Eddie is non-conformist. This works on a couple of fronts - it is a nod to the fact he has defied his families expectations and choices for him - that he has decided to be better for himself, that he's going to therapy and working on himself. But its also a nod to an Eddie now comfortable enough to break from heteronormativity and embrace his queerness - something which is still considered to be non-conforming!

I've already screamed about Eddies watch (you can see a decent glimpse of it in the still above), so I won't go into it too much here, but I will mention again how important I think it is that this is (likely, as we've not yet seen the episode) the first time we're seeing this new watch. I mentioned previously that the first time we saw the blue faced leather strapped watch was at his coffee date with Ana - a watch very much connected with Christopher and of course that relationship was very much about Eddie following Christophers heart not his own (even though we know Christophers heart will probably be happier with Buck than it ever was with Ana!!!). So this new watch is very much now connected to Buck (and the fact that Buck appears to also be wearing a new and metal watch has me all kinds of feral because if he is it is telling us that Buck and Eddie are both on the same page and that their timing is now in sync - so Buddie cannon here we come!!

[emelinstriker]

I don't know anything about vh au... Can you explain it?

Have more doodles I did of VH!Princess Iron Fan and VH!Yellowtusk earlier today. :D

Aight so, I won't spoiler the story in case any of you wanna experience the game(s) for yourselves, or you wanna see fake screenshots/comics from the AU w/o being just told about it. Though, I can say that MK and his friends are Vault Hunters looking for the Vault on Pandora, meanwhile Sun Wukong/Monkey King is tha main villain and antagonist of the story they'll be in.

But in general- The Vault Hunters AU is, as said in my previous posts, based on the Borderlands franchise, and it'll mostly be tackling BL2 and Tales, with little moments of the other games here and there. (BL2 is the one I recently started playing again, so that's the one where my hyperfixation is on. And most of the characters will be replacing the ones from that game specifically. Some characters like for example Macaque, the Mayor, and Spindrax are replacing characters from Tales though, or recurring characters from other parts of the franchise. And yes, Spindrax is in the AU.)

I probably will have to edit my Disclaimer/Content Warnings post later cuz of the AU adding a lot more dark things as well as dark humor and adult jokes than ESAU ever did, lmao- Like there's one VH!Wukong doodle I have in particular that I haven't posted yet just because of that much darker humor.

If any of you have ever played Borderlands, and especially BL2, you know what I mean by that.

[leeyanyanyaaan]

imposter!sagau but the imposter is your sibling au

26/03/2023

imagine | sagau | imposter au | siblings au

alright now that i've fallen into the sagau rabbit hole behold the results...

imagine sagau but the "imposter" that got isekai'ed was your younger sibling (especially as siblings who often get comments about visual similarities)

if i had the plot and motivation to write a series about this, i would definitely write in both the pov of younger and older sibling so that readers can choose which sibling to read as :)

in my pov so that uh we don't have to experience truck-kun's wrath </3 let's say that another way to get isekai'ed is by saying a particular set of words

it's not an absolute phrase set in stone, but rather if someone says a wish or desire in a definite tone.

for example: younger sibling said to their older sibling in an argument that "i wish you were never my sibling"

and thus causes their isekai :)

now this is where things can really start to play around, but let's say that younger sibling is only a casual player of genshin, or rather, they don't really know or play much of the game in comparison to their older sibling, who plays genshin as if it's their lifeline knowing absolutely everything from lore to builds to rituals. older sibling may also be a fanfic reader writer and is aware of the self aware au.

ahaha... good luck younger sibling

younger sibling wakes up in a completely different land they're used to, dressed in rpg looking clothes, and next to a glowing stone statue next to them.

younger sibling thinks this is one detailed dream and appreciates the scenery... until they hear hostile voices approaching

"there they are, that's the imposter that's appeared! seize them!"

start running

meanwhile back in the real world, older sibling wakes up and wants to check up on younger sibling after their fight the night before, but things seem to be off...

their belongings and/or room are now nonexistent. when asking your parents of their whereabouts they only give you incredulous looks not knowing who you're asking of as if they never existed.

"maybe we should book an appointment with your therapist. i fear you're starting to see and hear things..."

adamant to prove your younger sibling's existence, now concerned about all the anomalies happening, you start digging for whatever evidence you can find. specifically, photographic.

but any photographic evidence you had including them has been altered, your sibling now out of the picture... except for in a very specific video game screenshots, where you played genshin impact with them in co-op.

your heart sinks.

immediately you turn on whatever platform you used to play and log into the game. but even in the starting screen you could already sense and see and hear how unusual everything was, how everything was all glitchy and darker.

you're silently hoping it isn't what you think it is...

and then you log in.

teyvat is no longer what you remembered seeing the night before. you hear chaos and discord and ongoing battle music. the skies are stormier and red, the winds howled violently, the earth now uneven with cracks. what is going on? who in teyvat concurred the archons' wrath?

descending upon liyue, regardless of whatever nation you last left from, you are met with not your usual party of four, but rather the traveller you play as, standing in front of none other than the four currently revealed archons who are all on one knee kneeling before you.

as you approach them, the electro and geo archons brighten up, almost eerily, at the sight of traveller, while the anemo and dendro archons stayed more reserved, keeping their heads bowed down.

there's never been an event scripted like this...

"Your Holiness!" ...they've never addressed traveller like this "What an honour it is to be blessed by your presence at last!" oh no... "We must also thank Traveller for bringing their grace to us safely as the Chosen Vessel."

"You're just in time, Dearest Creator, for we have just caught an imposter. Now you may witness their beheading!"

you gasped and put a hand to your mouth, fighting back sobs as you witness your fears come to life.

and of course, they noticed.

"Oh Your Grace... there's no need to cry. Don't worry, this will all be over soon."

no it won't. this nightmare is far from over.

like in the electro archon's quest, your screen became glitchy and red as you are no longer able to control traveller's actions. no matter what keys you pressed and clicked, you could only keep walking towards the yuehai pavilion. though you could see glimpses of sadness on the traveller's face.

and then your troubled heart finally tips over the edge

at the sight of your younger sibling about to be behead.

what will you do now, C̵̗͈̻̺̹̬͔̼̏͗̾̅̃̀̃͗̀͑͊̕͠͝͝ͅŗ̸̭̱̜̮̫̤̳̂̆̈́̆̈͆͒͊̾͜͝ͅę̷͆̽̈́̑̎̀̑a̷̫̟͍̫̫͓͎͍͆́̀̍̈̚͝ṫ̵̡̛̤̯̯͕̾̾̊̈̎̍̄̏̓͌̊͜͠ͅô̸̮̝̌r̴̺̩͚̹̼̜͐͌̽́̅̓͘Y̸̛͉͒͐̐͛̈́́̓̈̕͝͝ö̴̤̺͇́͊͐́̑̅̅́̿͝͝͠ư̷̦̪̗̖̗͈̰̝͂͐̆̐̀̒̍̄̾̑͊̀̄͝r̴̤̰̒͌͌͐͛̅̈͝͝ͅḢ̸̩̰̫͕͍̎̋͑͐̑́͐̀͂͌̕͝ỏ̴͕͉̽̌l̵̛̠̲̣͚̩͑̐̈́̔̈́̍͜i̵̡̛͓̓͒͐͆̈́̌͆̔͛n̶̛̜̗͇͉͙̦͊͛̿̑̇͂͗̏͜͝ę̷̬̯͙̘̼̱̲͆͝ş̴̝͓̹̰̜͕̮̜̩̯̻̯͎͔̇s̶̢̞̥͈̭̔̽̍̈́̎̇̌̐͊͛̓̿̕Ŗ̵͈̼̬͈̘̀͒̅̄͑̇̄̿͑ę̸̛̠̮̬̝̰͙͖̝͖͉͔̺̼͑͌̓͊̄̏̌͊̄̃͝͝ͅả̶̧͔̳̺͎̬̋̍́͐d̷͖̣̤̻̭̱̫̻̦̘̘̎́͌͋͊͒̈́͜͜e̸̳̤̩͓̫̱͇̣̓́͐̔́̕r̸̢̡͚̪̪̞͍̝̱͕̗̫̜͚̀̏ͅO̶͎̗͙̞̳̻͈͉̔̐͂͛̔̏l̵̼̤͓̉̋̀̇͆̍̂͗̍̔̀͝͝d̴͇̗̭͇̾͑̈́͘e̶̛̛̥͇̳͈͍̱̦̗̜̰̅̐͗̋̔̌̓̀̅̈̚͝ṟ̶̱͍̭̕ͅS̸̢̥̱̣͓͊̒͆i̴̡̧͈̟̻̼̯̩̘̣̓b̸̡̘͙̠̯̙̖͇̙̲͖̪̍͒͝l̸̛̠̣͐̊̆̍̀̿̑̓̾̂͠i̸̡̨̤̭̫͕̣̯̦̼͙̊̅̏̇̈̊̊̇̚͝͝n̷̢̛͔̞͈̳̤̱̱̉̔̎̄̇͌̅̈́̌̈́̑͌̚̚ͅg̵͈̟̻̦͚̼̳͖͑̎?

...

i did NOT mean for this post to be this long, it was only supposed to be a snippet of an imagine omg XD and i even had extra ideas that i couldn't fit in like older sibling making a sagau side acc ask the community and find ways to isekai into genshin, ei empathizing with the siblings, and older sibling showing their wrath to genshin (because i would absolutely wreck havoc in hell should anything happen to my younger siblings) D": oh well oh well maybe another time~ regardless, i hope you enjoyed!

[nyssasims]

Hii! I'm absolutely in love of how good your screenshots are, both in game and in cas, I was wondering is it possible you could make a little tutorial on how you do it? Idk why mine always look like blurry or something idk it's very uninspiring

hi @simsinfinitylt. thank you so much 🥺! and please do not feel discouraged. it really is all trial and error, i promise. it definitely took me a minute myself to find what worked best for me. this is my current editing system:

chapter 1: a pc for me the most important thing is to have a good computer that can play the game on max settings. make sure all your settings are maxed out, with laptop mode and edge smoothing off. i also play the game in 4k resolution (3840 x 2160), the max for my monitor (but it might be different for you).

additionally, i use the graphics overhaul overrider by simp4sims, the 'ultimate quality' preset.

graphic overhaul: graphics rules setters

here are my pc specs...

chapter 2: maybe she's born with it. maybe... it's reshade reshade honestly does most of the work as well as the world lighting mods by @softerhaze. i hope to be able to find time to make my own preset one day, but for now, i use the daisies reshade by @breezytrait. here are my lighting and visual mods...

reshade: daisies (i tweaked the preset a bit, mostly increasing the mxao here) world lighting mods: twinkle toes, shadows for days light replacements: no glow v2, out of the dark, inner glow cloud replacement: studio ghibli clouds

chapter 3: say click. take a pic

i take all of my screenshots in tab mode. i find that it's best to go into tab mode further away than you want the picture, then slowly move the camera forward with the arrow keys to frame the screenshot. this is especially great for really up close photos of sims faces.

i capture all my screenshots with the built in reshade capture function and use the no drift camera mod to keep the tab camera steady

tab mode mods: no drift

chapter 4: call me by your lightroom

now that the screenshots are taken, off to lightroom they go. i honestly don't do much editing in lightroom in terms of color grading. i mainly focus on the details and lights sections. here are my settings...

here are examples, before and after, of what the edits look like on top of the reshade

these are the same settings i use for all my photos. with the exception of the 'contrast' slider which I sometimes bring up for sims with darker skin tones. and the 'shadows' slider i sometimes bring down for night photos.

chapter 5: shout out to picsart. gotta be one of my favorite genders

from lightroom, i'll then import the photos into picarts to finish them off with light leaks and dust particles (as needed). i use the 'detail' brush under 'retouch' to color in sims and objects in the foreground (rocks, plants, bottles, etc.) to make them pop even more.

i also use this app to blur things that the reshade dof couldn't get to. here are some finished examples before and after.

chapter 6: the sons of picsart

for overlay graphics and texts, i use photoshop and phonto. for the psds, i'll import them into photoshop first to make edits then send them off to picsart to add them to my image. i'll use phonto to add texts and sometimes doodles

here are links to some of my favorite psds and other useful resources

photoshop psds: moodlets, promotions, holiday, ui mockups other resources: sims 4 icons, text message

chapter 7: she doesn't even go here

for cas photos, since there is no tab mode, i just take screenshots as is, with the reshade dof from my preset on to blur out most of the background.

i use the cas lighting by @breezytrait to brighten the cas room up.

cas lighting: hard side light

then edit them in lightroom with he same edits as in-game photos (see chapter 4).

chapter 8: the bell doesn't dismiss you, i do

and that is how i typically edit my photos. i hope this helps inspire you for your future content... and was extensive enough. but of course if you have anymore questions feel free to leave them down below. my inbox is always open and i'm happy to help 😊.

[cidthesquid]

More New Features/Update - Style Savvy : Styling Star #02

[Previous Post]              [First Post]              [Next Post] Aaaand we're back! Last time, All we really got to do was the prologue, restocking and setting up our starting outfit, So let's see what comes next:

So first I ended up using mods to edit my character a bit, Inital Design: | New Design:

The most obvious change is the skin tone, I'm not the biggest fan, of how darker skin tones work in the new art style, I would have preferred something in the middle, Or a slight tweak to the lighting, as the color of both can vary quite a bit in various conditions:

But I still think both look good overall, (emulator could be Affecting) So I haven't decided what I'll stick with long term. (I don't really believe that our avatar's need to look like us IRL, so I encourage everyone to try whatever you want, even other skin tones!) I also adjusted the eyes a bit:

I really like the 'cat eye' design from before, but I did not like that it was 'baked' into the eye shape. This really restricted some designs, and make eyelashes look a little weird imo. The lipstick is new for post 2 as well, and I think it's a nice addition, without being too flashy, but I may change it later. Any ways, even after all these blogs, it's still a little uncomfortable talking about physical appearance, even for my own fictional avatar, So I'll even the design choices at that, let's hop back into the game! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Alright, so another new feature for Styling Star is:

They actually announce when new people show up in town! It's another small change, that really helps add to the feeling of the town growing! If only they made it a little easier to find and talk to people, maybe the social aspect was a little over done in fashion forward, But it's a little weird to have a new entries that shows a bunch of people walkign around, with no option to talk to most of them.

It kinda feels like we've reverted back to the first 3ds game where you only have fixed NPC's in specific locations:

...and they only cycle through a small handful of lines. Maybe this will improve overtime, it's not a huge deal though. I also learned that you can change you can change your phone's wallpaper and background picture, that's pretty fun:

Yup, I'm pretty broke again! Time to go to work! And we just had a customer walk in and ask for a full outfit!

I guess that mean's we're near the end of the tutorial, And the dialogue choices even let us Savvy veterans skip the explanation! Again, they really nailed the prologue in this game! It's really good at giving players freedom in how to approach the start, while still keeping them from getting lost. So now it's time to make our first real outfit of the game:

I think it turned out well given out limitations, but maybe the hat as a bit too much,haha. There's also a neat little option to style from any outfit you've saved in your scrapbook. But for some reason, you can't save the outfit you're currently making So you'll have to design them in your apartment first, then you can suggest your custom design for customers. Any way, they were the only customer today, so on to the next... ----- The new girl from the prior day shows up at our shop:

(I guess they wanted to give us a days advance notice, or it overlapped with an event?) Anyway, she asks for a rock skirt, literarily the one item I did not yet buy in that style! XD So I head to the exhibition hall, buy way more than I need, and head back.

I completely forgot what she was wearing, despite having the other screenshot literary showing on my second monitor. (as I write this while playing) But it all turned out ok, as I picked up a really nice match:

And that was it, she bought the skirt, and left. I was expecting this to be more of an 'event' like explaining, if a customer 'really likes' an item, they can ask for a full outfit, but nope. They did have a cute little epilogue though, after they bought the outfit, her normally Stoic boyfriend complements her look:

A bit of an seemly fluffy ending, but kinda directly tied into a comment I made in my bonus post about not really being comfortable delivering complements, especially in regard to one's appearance, (outfit or otherwise) It may seem like a simple thing for some, and I don't really think it's worth going off-topic enough to explain why it's difficult for me, but it is interesting seeing some version of that shown in-game! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The rest of the day was also mostly filled with people asking for a single item, so a bit on the slow side, So I decided to work on a few pre-made (scrapbook) outfits to offer to customers, It was a little weird having to build them all on my avatar, as the hair and makeup don't really match the styles I was going for:

And once there were no more customers to help, I changed back into my standard outfit and decided to turn in for the night:

This game must have been a huge 180 for people playing right after fashion forward. No real time clock is a nice change, but with the limited customers and lack of npc's to talk to, (so far) it really feels like the days have a fixed end point. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ New Day, and a new brand unlocked!

Also, I think I forgot to mention the 'daily results' screen, I believe it's a replacement for the 'happiness gauge' From trendsetters, but improved to show a numerical rank rather than just resting with no trackable progression. This is the last day we'll cover in this post, it both seems like a good stopping point, (And I'm kinda hungry, and my ADHD's hyperfocus is forcing me to finish this haha)

I guess this game has achievements, that's pretty nice! So, I wake up and see another "new person has arrived in town" notification. So, I leave my apartment ready to run into them at my shop, and on the way, I literally run into them:

(Oh hey, an actual event!) They fell over, so after making sure they were okay, I'm introduced to Rosie and We're given the chance to name the city:

Oh, gees, I was not prepared for this, and I probably can't change it later, ahhh.

Sorry, I panicked, and just typed stuff unto Google Translate until something with a nice sound came out. XD Sorry to anyone who's french, I just think your words sound nice. google says "nouvelle vie" means "New Life", that sound like a reasonable enough city name. Anyways we learn she's from out in the country, and a little lost, She complements our clothes and mentions only ever seeing fashionable people on tv. She also mentions that she's interested in getting some new clothes, so we invite here to visit our Boutique! And now we've opened a few new events, But I've just been informed that I have already used up my 30 photos for this post, so I guess the rest will have to wait till next time! <Next Post> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for reading! I had a lot of fun making this, so I hope you had fun reading it as well.

As always, all comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome! (I'm also looking for feedback on this new style, how's the formatting, too many Gifs?)

You literally can't bother me, (unless you go out of your way to be a jerk), so post whatever you need to say!

[saruin]

okay this is kind of stupid but i feel strongly about this so: I put your beautiful sim in my mods folder and checked for any duplicates and deleted the duplicates. then i opened my game, and thought everything was fine until I noticed, halfway through gameplaying, that Kash's skin was much lighter than it's supposed to be.

nothing could have prepared me for the unintentional whitewashing of Kash Monet, and i was horrified. so i rushed to fix it in cas and got something more like the shade she was supposed to have.

But I had already taken a lotta screenshots of stuff that was happening to her, so I tried to edit the photos and make her skin look darker.

(facepalm)

it's not that good.

So i can either showcase these edited screenshots with an explanation of why her skin changes at the end, OR I can keep these edite screenshots to myself, give a backstory of what she went through in the game so far and take some new screenshots with her proper skintone. What would you like me to do?

its not a big deal to me. Do whatever you feel is right

Like I said, she's yours now ❤️

(though if I remember correctly she is using NSW skin tone and if you deleted the one that was in her mods I did make it darker by lowering the slider for it. Though I'm not sure if that's the full reason her skin tone might have changed.)

[8bitsupervillain]

Higurashi When They Cry Hou Ch. 6 Tsumihoroboshi pt. 17

Random question time, do you have a particular song you enjoy from this series? I know I’ve gone on record as saying I didn’t care for some of the clown-ish silly music early on. I also am trying desperately to remember the name of the song that sounded like it belonged in an old Sierra adventure game rather than in a murder mystery. But all the same do you have any tracks you enjoy? I like Ancient Times (Inshie/古), but I’m also pretty fond of Depressive Paranoia. Depressive Paranoia reminds me a bit of some of the more supernatural/surreal music that would play during certain scenes of Twin Peaks.

Now. It works out really well that these screens all happen more or less on dark back grounds because the red text is becoming a darker richer red. I can kind of understand why the log doesn’t keep the color scheme going outside of character names, because I imagine that much red text could be extremely irritating to look at. Also I apologize that this is primarily all screenshots, and I’ll try to refrain from this in the future, but I couldn’t really think of a good point to interject any of my thoughts during the dialogue. At least not without repeating myself from the conspiracy talk with Keiichi anyway. I think this scene with Rena and Ooishi hashing it out what the conspiracy might truly be about is an interesting one because of the somewhat unfavorable light it paints Ooishi in. Not necessarily about how he’s a loose cannon, etc. etc. but more because it shows how, for lack of a better phrase, pathetic Ooishi has become about the investigation.

He’s been on the case about the Oyashiro curse killings for the last five years more or less, but he’s hit such a wall that he is willing to completely buy in to this story about mind control parasites and bioterrorism. Up until this point he had heard nothing about this secret dark history of Hinamizawa outside of some old folk tales that his elderly mother had told him. However, because it is tangentially related to the case over all he just laps up everything Rena has for him about this. Perhaps it’s because of the complete sincerity and seriousness Rena has about the parasites, the conspiracy, everything he buys into it. Later on when other people who weren’t involved in this conversation read about some of the theories Takano put out there they immediately realize what a load of bunk it all is. But a combination of desperation on Ooishi’s part, and utter sincerity on Rena’s, he completely buys into the idea the Irie Clinic is the secret hot bed of parasite activity. When he mentions the burned remains of Takano he’s clearly trying to lighten the mood somewhat over the whole situation, but I think it’s really for his own benefit more than Rena. Or at least that’s the impression I get from the situation at least.

Of course what he doesn’t know is that this is possibly one of the worst things he could say to Rena, because he unwittingly drives her deeper into madness.

I like that even Rena, in these depths of paranoia and madness is aware of the fact that if she tells Keiichi and Ooishi that there are alien doppelgangers running around they would instantly stop believing her. Spoilers by the way. There was a screenshot I skipped where Rena mentions that Takano had a theory that was proven by her death, what it is they don’t say for a while yet, but I don’t feel bad spoiling the fact that the theory is aliens. Also I just find it hilarious that she goes from: “I trust Ooishi” to “I can’t trust anybody, but myself” in three sentences. It really helps to sell her declining mental state you know?

Anyway, feeling that she was on the phone too long she cuts the conversation short and hangs up on Ooishi, pleading with him to find the secret parasite research center.

[eighteenoheight]

Baker Incident Report

I 100% believe this little piece of content in RE Village has massive implications for the next game and also started my main theory for what's going to happen in the future. But also upon rereading I have a lot more questions and I'm just excited about it leave me alone. Probably long so gonna put in the read more thingy.

I numbered all these screenshots but can't exactly remember why they're in that order and structuring stuff has never been my strong suit. I'll work it out as I go and probably do a lot of repeating. Let's get into this bitch. Only got screenshots of stuff that really stuck out to me so it's not everything.

I think this has at least two points of hmm resident evil 9 hints?? First is what's going on with the BSAA and/or other players in this situation which I'll go into later on but I think I'm starting with the second thing, which is Miss Zoe Baker.

My theory/wishful thinking that Zoe will be the next protagonist or at least have a role in RE9 is reinforced by this whole thing and ties in really well with what happened at the end of Village. Chris Redfield and Zoe Baker seem to be on the same page when it comes to the BSAA at this point. I'm pretty sure the corruption of the BSAA will be a big plot point, and perhaps this report is giving us an insight into who will be at the centre of this story.

Maybe I'm looking into this a little too much, but getting details on a character like Zoe who was a supporting character in the previous game is a little strange to me. Should probably dive deeper but RE has a lot of single appearance characters that are never brought up again, so why are we getting this info for a character who was only playable in a short DLC? Whatever, the detail of being a reporter gives me lightbulb moments like playing as a reporter would work so well in a Resident Evil game with gathering files and collectibles. I can imagine a lot of fun gameplay elements like writing information in a notepad or something, maybe more emphasis on finding certain files to progress. Also puzzle solving for someone whose job is investigating all the little details. If she's not the playable protagonist she could have a role similar to Ingrid Hunnigan where she's on call to find out stuff to help the player navigate through whatever nasty shit is going to happen in RE9. Outside of a new character, I could only imagine Zoe being the protagonist for the sake of the survival horror. A civilian with limited combat experience would be better than Chris Redfield who has plenty of experience and resources to fight.

Okay that's that on that for now until another ramble happens. Something I'm super ready to get into is what's the BSAA up to???

Initially I didn't pay much attention to this part, and due to bad reading comprehension I'm still unsure of the meaning. In my mind this is either explaining that the Baker incident was another outbreak to happen. Or... Something potentially darker, is that it was one of many coverups that we don't know about. I'm leaning more towards the latter because the BSAA is widely known for combatting bioterrorism so this would be a useless piece of information, and finding out that the BSAA has other indiscretions lets us know that something fishy is going on and has been going on for a while.

Oh great, back on the ramble. No I'll keep it brief. Another maybe hint that Zoe will lead the next game, she's going to see her investigation through to the end. Okay done.

The main point here is allegedly (don't sue me BSAA) someone doesn't want any of this getting out, and have tried to stop Zoe finding out the full truth. What I want to know is whom. The BSAA isn't the only bitch with something to hide. This could just be referring to them, but I can't help but wonder if The Connections have a hand in trying to cover up everything going on. Also would like to know HOW Zoe's been impeded in her investigation.

So what we can gleam from this report is:

The BSAA has been aware of The Connections for a while

They failed to prevent what happened in Dulvey despite having the opportunity

They covered up the Baker incident in an attempt to avoid responsibility

The biggest thing here is they knew The Connections were up to something in Eastern Europe, which brings us into the next thing, and also a huge red flag.

For added context because putting everything here would be a chore, which I'm glad for because Tumblr is struggling with these screenshots. This is Ethan being interviewed by someone from the BSAA, relocating the Winters' because of what happened in Dulvey.

Now bitch, we know the BSAA was aware of The Connections' activity in Eastern Europe. So WHYYY send the Winters' there for their "protection" when that's almost guaranteed to have negative consequences. That raises some questions, and none of the answers are particularly good. So either the BSAA planned on using Ethan and Mia as pawns to draw out The Connections. The other thing is a little conspiracy theory of me but I just realised what else could be happening. What if they were hoping The Connections would eliminate the Winters' so the BSAA wouldn't have to. It's less likely but it's been established that they are willing to do what it takes to look as clean as possible while getting their hands mega dirty. Something I believe needs to be answered is why this happened. Why send Ethan and Mia to Eastern Europe where you know The Connection are operating?

We already knew but this makes it clear that Chris is not involved in the questionable choices the BSAA is making. And it seems that he is actively disregarding the BSAA at this point. This I think is one reason why I wonder if the previous little conspiracy theory might have some weight. Why are they so concerned that Chris is in Eastern Europe? Is it because they knew he would do what it takes to protect the Winters'? Another little flat-earth moment from me is the one part of harsh language is in regards to Miranda. Keep it professional, especially with someone who basically created the BSAA. Did they already know who Miranda was perhaps? Were they shocked that Chris knew about her? This goes into my theory that The Connections and the BSAA are more... Connected... than we think. Pun not intended because I think it's a stupid one but what other word can I possibly use? I can't help but wonder if the BSAA was infiltrated by The Connections at some point, and that's why they "failed" to get rid of Eveline until she escaped the control of The Connections. In this report was a series of comments by civilians at points, and one did stick out to me. Probably could have added a screenshot of it but hindsight is four years ago. Essentially people knew about the shipwreck, though dismissed as conspiracy theorists. Apparently there were satellite photos of the massive cargo ship. In the three years of it being sat there in the bayou why was it never investigated, unless someone already knew about it and had it covered up... Who else has been involved in concealing the truth to the public? The BSAA. What if they already knew and were monitoring Eveline's evolution? May explain how they arrived so quickly when she turned into that huuuuge mold monster. Again conspiracy theory brain, maybe they were just inept? Maybe it was The Connections hiding this.

Great yet again, this also contributes to my belief that Zoe is going to reappear in the next game. Why else would someone send her a copy of the BSAA letter?

Bigger question for me here is who sent it. The actual answer is probably Chris but I don't really buy it. Especially looking at his actions towards Ethan from Village, he doesn't want innocent civilians getting involved. He would probably know that Zoe is desperate to uncover the truth, so why encourage her in a way that could endanger her life? I think there are plenty of options for who sent the letter. I don't have a clue who. Could venture Ada Wong because that seems like her vibe. Despite popular perception of being a self-serving villainous type, she's always down to help those in need (such as helping Sherry and Jake in 6 just because she could). Also I do believe she will be involved in The Connections plot as she was supposed to be in Village. There are also BSAA agents who may have access to their communications, such as Jill, Barry, Rebecca, a member of the hound squad. Perhaps someone close to Chris who could access his mail like Claire Redfield. Could be someone with an axe to grind with the BSAA, or maybe someone, perhaps a secret company or a counter-terror organisation, who intends on leading Zoe to her death to tie up loose ends......... Spooky stuff.

If anyone does read this I apologise. I've been stuck on stupid thanks to this series and desperately trying to work out what happens next even though I could simply wait until RE9 is announced. It started off as fun and now here were are looking like that meme of Charlie from Always Sunny in front of his conspiracy board. That's me. I already have a whole thought train about Mia Winters and wtf is going on with her. The fixation doesn't have an end in sight.

[neriyon]

Oh right I said something about giving my opinions on the expansion so uh, I guess I should start writing them out now.

Obiviously spoilers for the entirety of Dawntrail MSQ!!!

Tbh I don't know where to start iuefhiuefh.

Uhhh graphical update turned out nice! Out of the 3 of us, me and Shu kinda questioned if the update even happened since Hawu'li and Dre were virtually same as before, and Nana (player) kept mentioning how cute Nana (character) looks now. My only complaint is that Hawu'li's eyes are like one or two shades darker than they used to be, and I'm currently kinda debating if I want to bother using fantasia to fix it.

Enviroments look nice, and while I'm yet to go to many of the old areas (I sent Shu to go look at Il Mheg while me and Nana sat in que and it looked very nice), new areas are gorgeous! All of us literally screamed out loud when we noticed that the grass bends when you touch it haha. I'm also personally fan of the little tilt thing mounts do now if you strafe - it's very satisfying and I keep strafing around just to see my bike or flying mount tilt (❁´◡`❁)

As for story: I'm genuely surprised to see posts that some people didn't like it? I wouldn't call it my favorite expansion, but to me the story was good and the characters enjoyable. Only thing I'd complain about is that the pacing is very funky at times: first few areas are fine, then it slows down to a crawl, then speeds up very quickly to again slow down to almost complete halt before things pick up again. I still fail to care too much about the "cowboy area" - it felt very disconnected from everything else. Kinda same with the moblin area, but at least that place had some connectivity to the competition (+ the kidnap plot).

Meanwhile the "blue area" (sorry about the terms iauefhhu I don't have game open rn and I am chronically incapable of remembering any names) felt rushed: we wander in, no one wants to talk to us, then suddenly the big antagonist up till that point just goes "hey uh our culture's fucked, if you wanna change it I'll help". Imo that could've used some more time. Maybe have the Wuk Lamat instance happen earlier, and have the big lizard man think about things a bit longer, just to make it feel like he didn't change his entire worldview in like, half a quest.

As mentioned, cowboy area felt incredibly boring to me and I honestly don't know why. Catboy tribe was fine - I'd rather go spend more time with them. Their whole thing was pretty rushed, and while I have a small feeling that they'll be part of the patch storylines, I'd liked if we had been given a bit more time with them before things went to hell again.

Heritage found, Solution 9 and all that was better paced and the storytelling there was great! Like seeing one of the npcs forget about the old dead lady within seconds felt very horrifying. Shu and Nana haven't gotten that far yet (I finished the story on my own after returning home), but I remember spamming groupchat with "what the fuuuuuck that's so fucked" and stuff like that lol. Attack on Tuliyollal too, I think I have a few screenshots saved of npcs I noticed crying after dead loved ones on the streets right after it. Devs did great job portraying how scary the entire thing was.

What else uhhhh.... oh right the last area. Absolutely gorgeous again, and I do get the lore reasons, but damn does it suck having the areas go all lifeless if you want to finish story. I was looking forward to taking pictures there in the future :/ I did try and take some quick shots everywhere before going forward, but I'm sure I missed something. Probably have to get new game+ to that point when DT gets added there just for more screenshot locations.

This is already getting long but idc I'm rambling about characters too. Erenville sweet baby boy I am so sorry the entire last half became a personal nightmare for you (┬┬﹏┬┬) But we got to see him smile! Like actually smile not just tiny smirks! (I should have screenshot of that too lol) They better not write him completely out after this, I wanna go on adventures with him - something that doesn't leave him traumatized maybe.

Also pushing every Wuk Lamat disliker out of the way to hang out with her more. She was a very fun character, and I loved the fact that she actually went and did things on her own, not waiting around for WoL to save her every time like many of the npcs tend to do. She and Hawu'li are besties now.

Green G'raha Koana was a positive surprise too! Smart and a bit snobbish catboy who's bad with his feelings, but makes effort to learn and grow for his people and sister. Absolutely loved him getting very angry when Wuk Lamat was in danger - nerdy cat can go little feral, as a treat. Definitely added into Hawu'li's ever growing polycule - not into his bracelet yet, but they defenitely kissed during msq and probably started (casually) going out after.

Sphene... I really like her dress lol. Uhh I personally felt she was very sus from the start, but I feel like Hawu'li would've not picked up on those. Her plan would've come as complete surprise to him, and made him very very sad. Hawu'li's very "there's always a way if we just try hard enough" type of person, and being told that it's either having everyone else in the universe die or having the Endless die would've seriously got him feeling down for some time. Being a WoL means killing people to protect others sometimes, he knows that, but still. Luckily he had people there with him, who will keep supporting him, but he'll most likely need a little vacation after all this. (Luckily the Tuliyollali inn room is perfect for that haha)

Aaaand lastly, some random thoughts all tossed in no particular order since I can't ramble in the tags:

"This old man (Ketenramm) has more HD face than all of us combined D:" - me

*him saying something about being more than a guest to Gulool Ja Ja* -> me, quietly whispering in vc: "old man yaoi..."

Whomst the fuck did Zoraal Ja get his kid with??? There wasn't a single other lizard in Solution Nine, and I don't remember seeing any in Heritage Found either. Hell, none of the Alexandria flashbacks show any lizard people either. Did he just get some random hyur lady off the street? If yes then what happened to her? Did she die in childbirth? Got killed by Zoraal Ja for whatever reason?

Tiny jumpscare when milalla lore started saying stuff about "calamity that froze everything" and "came from somewhere else" and I, for a tiny second, feared they'd give some canon lore regarding Sixth and I'd have to go rewrite bunch of things in my own lore for the place. (luckily saved by msq mentioning the most likely came from source)

Happy that they gave us the alpaca mount for free! It's so adorable.

Sad that I had to use 7,5mil gil to get the purple bike mount 😑 I mean Hawu'li is swimming in money since I rarely buy anything (last "big buy" was that golden sheep), but muh money. At least it's a neat mount

They really went "you feel like you aren't needed healers? say no more, heal checks for everyone!". Last time I had to sweat that much on trial fight was Zeromus - DT made every trial pretty intense to heal.

That last trial holy fuck my brain is NOT big enough for it. I somehow survived with only one death (we wiped within like first 30 seconds lol), but god it was so stressful

Dungeons were generally neat, but I noticed a distinct "fuck mages and anyone with long cast times". So so much movement in almost every fight.

"En Avant saves lives" is true for the whm dash skill too. That skill is the best thing we've gotten in ages, it's saved me so many times when I notice I'm in wrong spot at the very last second.

SCREE BOSS! I was so happy when I save it omg. The boss before that sucked but seeing scree made it all better. (Our party immediately went "scree!" in chat lol)

Haven't seen all dungeon drops yet, but craftable/vendor gear is a bit meh. Happy for people who like those Mad Max bondage sets, but I'm not a fan. 98 gear being recolored Ironworks gear was not on my bingo list, but at least the healer top was nice for the few levels I wore it during leveling.

Login ques haven't been too bad! Idk how it goes on NA servers, but on Lich longest que I've seen after the launch (right after launch we had 2,8k que) is like, 40.

Dungeon ques were nonexistent on whm during msq, but now that I'm trying to level dps I regularily get 40 minute waits. Kinda debating if I should just switch to sch and level summoner with that, then swap back and learn to play it on like last dunegon or something.

Fates seem to give like half a mil exp (exp boosted ones give double iirc), so I've just been doing them while sitting in que.

Yet to try picto or viper but they look fun.

Azem mark on the key thing just before the final fight made me immediately think about Eleos coming to help his lovely little shard again 🥺

Koana has very nice jp voice, but I can't shake the feeling I know it from somewhere. Apparently I managed to get a screenshot of credits where his VAs are shown and *jazz hands* his seiyuu is Kaito Ishikawa. So it's probably his role as Iida (BNHA) that I'm recognizing since I've been watching bnha while eating for past few weeks. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Oh right and since I mentioned that N'jinh would go with Hawu'li this time: I'm slowly putting everything together after MSQ but I think he'll come along right from the start. Tural catboy lore doesn't fit him too well lol.

[peregrinefashion]

Brand Creation Process Notes: Peregrine

Part 1

So I felt for a long time like I was neglecting my main muse just because I didn't have the patterns I needed to meet my Very Specific Vision of a brand, and by the time I'm getting around to making this post I Have Found The Lolita Dresses And Can Die Happy but even so, the rest of her brand is still just. So satisfying to me.

I knew from the start that I wanted to do a something reminiscent of a luxury/girly kei brand, with a stronger, darker color palette. I knew for a while that I wanted navy to be my base color, with cream and maybe gold, but I wasn't sure what to do for an accent color. I eventually settled on two--a jade green and a mulberry color--and while they do look nice together, they're not meant to be used in the same outfit. It's more designed so that you can pick a dominant color--navy or cream or a balance of both--and an accent color--jade or mulberry--and mix and match any of the pieces until you have a cromulent outfit.

I'm describing it a little backwards, because I ended up waiting for patterns before I picked the colors. Even though the site I was using to compare color palettes has HSB, the colors display a little differently in game. The lighter navy is much brighter and feels more saturated in game, and the off-white feels much closer to white than to the cream. The only way to see those differences was to test them on actual patterns in-game, and it wasn't fun for me to test them on patterns I wouldn't be using and exit out.

So, I had to wait for patterns.

As I said above, i really wanted Peregrine's brand to be something between cute and elegant, and evocative of a luxury brand (I say, as someone who has never shopped at a luxury brand in my life). In terms of patterns, I knew I wanted a lot of fluffy knitwear, lace, cute dresses, suits and the depressingly few boy lolita patterns we have in game for the type Bs (mens fashion git gud challenge). But I really wanted the overall image to be fairly fancy and elegant. I wanted to make things that would work well with the lolita dresses when I finally was able to work them in, rather than make things that I was likely to stop using.

It was also really important to me to make a feminine brand that didn't have floral patterns. First of all, this brand is for me first. I hope the rest of you like it, but I came here to make art for me first. And I like floral patterns, but I get frustrated at not being able to find things in patterns that I do like. Thus, Peregrine's brand gets lace and bows patterns, subtle polka dots and pinstripes, plaids, and as many of the star patterns as I can make look classy instead of florals. I might make an exception for one or two of the lolita dresses I've seen around, but the bulk of the florals are going to Murasaki's brand.

Above are almost all the patterns I've collected for use in Peregrine's brand so far. I haven't used all of them yet, and there are a few gacha patterns (the silk skirts, leather ballet flats) that I've used up already. Since Fashion dreamer mixes all your own brands together and i'm making a lot of duplicates for mix-and-matchability, I don't have a very efficient way to screenshot the finished products, but you can see the kind of image I'm going for! I also am trying to pay attention to finishes as well, for example I favor the leather ballet flats from the gacha over the just ballet flats that are in my pattern list, or I favor crew socks with emblem or wool crew socks over plain ones. When possible, I like to grab the versions of shirts or dresses that have necklaces over the ones that don't.

Once I got patterns, i finally got to start creating! I think the first thing I made for Peregrine's brand was the asymmetric knit dress she's wearing in the picture on the left, followed by the silk skirts and pearl-embroidered sweaters I got 50 million of from the gacha. Those items really solidified how I was going to use the colors I chose, interestingly enough. Outerwear has to be done in the darker navy or the cream to show up better over shirts or dresses made with the lighter navy/off-white. Non-lolita shirts are almost always off-white. Any metal on a pattern has to be changed to gold. The pale pink and greens are reserved for gems that look like they should have a high reflectivity. Cream tends to look better as lace than the off-white does.

I know I absolutely favor the green when styling, but I love how the pink looks as well (even if I don't have nearly as many good pictures of it, augh). It's really satisfying to see all my pieces in my inventory, and mix and match them new and different ways.

If you've read this long, thank you! I put a lot of thought into my brand and I'm really proud of it. I'm going to try and take more photos, especially of the pieces that I don't tend to favor while styling.

If you enjoyed any of these looks please visit my showroom/request lookits! You can also DM me if you want something specific. I'm happy to accommodate!

ID: wEkrjAYrkL

In Part 2, I'll talk about vetting Lolita dresses for inclusion in my brand, and also hopefully name the damn thing.

[dreamboundedstar]

Saw This in “The Oeder Games” and Wanted to Share.

At the beginning of the episode, I notice that Zeke's dad was sitting at a table with a lady in a blue blouse, some guy in a blue tie, and Zeke. More than that, the lady was sitting next to Zeke in the longer shots. (who knows where Zeke goes when they get closer though. XD) I notice she's either close to Zeke or Zeke's dad as seen in the images below.

So since Cheryl has no canon face as of this moment, I headcanon that the blue blouse lady is Cheryl. Though, feel free to say I'm wrong and she appears in another episode under another name because I honestly want to know. I don't keep up with all the bg characters of BB so I'm not sure if the lady is in any other episodes or not. I also want to keep an eye out for the guy that's next to Zeke's dad in the first screenshot. I want to say he's Zeke's 44-year-old brother, but I'm not sure if he's already a character with his own lore separate from Zeke's family. The character he looks the most like, at least from what I found so far is Glen. I don't think he's Glen though because Glen has darker brown hair and the hair is not as smooth (also I think Glen has slightly tanner skin). Hopefully, I'll find him outside of this episode one of these days. Also, since Zeke's dad doesn't necessarily look like someone who could have a 44-year-old son, here's my headcanon. Zeke's 44-year-old is the result of teen pregnancy and Zeke's dad is between his late 50s and early 60s. He also dyes his balding hair to make himself feel younger than he is. Back to maybe Cheryl. I suppose there's still a possibility that the lady could be Zeke's bio mom and she just got a bigger redesign compared to Zeke's dad from what he looked like in "The Belchies".

Then again, we still don't know if this lady from "The Belchies" was an early design for Cheryl or not either. Until we get an episode that actually reveals Cheryl or Zeke's bio mom, these two designs are all I have to go off of. So Occam's razor, since Cheryl gets talked about more than his bio mom, I'm going to assume the blue blouse lady is Cheryl and not his bio mom or some random woman until proven otherwise. TLDR, I headcanon the blue shirt lady as Zeke's stepmom but I'm still not sure if she could be just a random bg character with her own thing or even a redesign of Zeke's bio mom (if the woman from "The Belchies" wasn't a proto Cheryl that is). Many questions are left unanswered for now and not much proof to grasp, the nature of many headcanons for brief bg characters.

[zenixromeave]

review of aphmau’s mcd skins/designs! (season 1)

original skin

this one doesn’t really count, given it was just Jess’ usual Minecraft skin and it wasn’t really meant for the world which would be established for MCD, but I’ll talk about it anyways for funsies.

I actually prefer this hairstyle for her. It’s not a big change, but the more side swept fringe she has later is used in basically all of her character designs, so this slightly more blunt hairstyle that covers more of her forehead is a nice change of pace. The shading on her hair has always been weird, but again, it’s a nice difference compared to how many of the female characters have very similar hair.

The colors in the outfit obviously don’t fit the world, but they’re not terrible on their own. The lack of shading is a little bland though, and her shorts are so short they’re practically unrecognizable as clothing on a Minecraft skin. Otherwise, I think these colors go well with her character. They’re colorful and stand out, but they’re also actually pretty unsaturated and let her skin, eyes, and hair stand out.

-

iron armor

Okay, this isn’t even a change in skin, but I think she looks really good in her armor, and she wore it for a long time. Again, the greyer tones of the outfit really let her character pop, and since this is actual iron armor (with small bits of leather), the lack of color or saturation makes perfect sense. I would say that maybe, in a perfect world, her eyes would be hue-shifted to better match the brown in the leather (or vice versa), and her hair would be slightly darker to enhance the contrast, but it makes perfect sense why that couldn’t be done in actuality. The armor is thanks to her texture pack, but it’s really cute and gives a sense of it being hand made, which makes sense for her character. She looks cute in it.

-

diamond armor

She doesn’t start many of her videos by doing an f5 view for this outfit, so it’s less instantly recognizable and iconic to me personally, but it’s actually pretty cute! The clunkiness of it makes her look cute underneath, and gives it a cool, bulky, strong appearance. I can greatly appreciate this texture pack not going the route of making the diamond armor just armor fully made of diamonds, because while it is iconic in the game, it is tacky looking and doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Another props to the texture pack artist for giving different designs to the different sets of armor. The helmet is a little strangely shaped and comes across more like a hat in it’s silhouette, and the gap between the leggings and boots has always been confusing and off-putting. I have never been able to tell if the armor is genuinely supposed to look like that, or if the boots and leggings weren’t designed around each other and the boots cover a large part of the leggings and make what would be normal armor look like iron bootyshorts. Otherwise, I think this looks pretty good, actually.

No comment on the sword that’s the size of her whole body.

-

flower crown dress

I would prefer to use an in-game screenshot rather than a thumbnail, but I couldn’t find one (I didn’t care enough to go into a video and take my own screenshot). The colors between Aphmau’s actual skins and her in the thumbnails seem pretty consistent though, so I don’t think it changes much this time.

I know it has to be purple. I know. But it can’t be. Purple is historically tied to royalty because it used to be incredibly hard to make. Even in Minecraft, purple dye is one of the dyes more difficult to obtain, as it requires blue and red dye to make and isn’t acquired from any flowers. Specifically, during this time in Minecraft, blue dye was lapis lazuli, and therefore was only obtainable through mining or maybe loot chests, so again, it was slightly more difficult to obtain.

As seen here, the end of her dress is certainly not magenta. I wanted to say that maybe we could pretend it was magenta, a dye which is much easier to obtain, at least in Minecraft. However, that’s definitely purple.

Despite the historical/world building inaccuracies, this outfit has some visual flaws, but it isn’t too bad. The most glaringly obvious flaw to me is that the “white part” of her dress at the top is a light purple, while the “white part” at the bottom is perfectly white with no purple undertones. As I understand it, these are meant to be part of the same garment, but if not, it’s still a bit noticable that the ends of her dress are pure white, despite how it reaches the floor and she wears this outfit for a while, going in the dirt and grass plenty of times. Making this part of her dress shorter or more off-white probably would have avoided this, knowing of course she wouldn’t want to edit her skin to have literal dirt at the bottom of it. If it were less white initially, (could have just been the same light purple as the top portion. I don’t like it myself, but I can’t really identify any legitimate problems I have with it. I just don’t like it.) dirt wouldn’t show up quite as much as on the pure white, and therefore it wouldn’t be so weird that it looks so clean.

-

princess (?) disguise

The silhouette is nice, but that’s all I can say positively about this one. There’s no consistent shading, even on her hair, which is usually consistent between her designs. I guess Nicole dyed her hair, but that doesn’t mean she couldn’t have shaded it the same way as usual... This is also the only skin of hers, to my knowledge, where even her eye color is changed. Maybe it’s just because it’s a disguise, and she’s supposed to look different, but it’s weird considering she never changes characters eye colors like that, and it’s not like Nicole gave her colored contacts.

The yellow/gold should have been slightly more orange, and it’s tone is far too similar to her skin, and almost blends in at some points. The purple, too, is too light and doesn’t fit the medieval fantasy world very well at all. It definitely doesn’t give her the appearance of someone who should have been in the mines for weeks(?) at this point (that was a story that was part of her disguise.) Additionally, why the hell would Nicole have had this on hand?

On top of al that, maybe I’m just imagining things, but this outfit is very reminiscent of orientalist belly dancer stereotypes/tropes(?), with its small top, draped sleeves and gold accents. It’s very much giving “recolored princess Jasmine,” who might have been a sincere attempt at good representation, but was really an oversexualized, generalized orientalist caricature.

Don’t like this one.

-

That outfit Dante gave her

This one slays bitch!!! I think it’s adorable. The colors are soft and wintery but don’t take away from her own warm colors. If I’m remembering correctly though, this outfit had a skirt or shorts, which doesn’t make sense for Dante to have had and doesn’t make sense for the occasion in the first place. However, I can’t find a different picture of this one, so take that with a grain of salt. I love this outfit.

-

tailored by Cadenza

Another day another slay!! This outfit doesn’t make PERFECT sense within universe considering the short shorts and purple, but it looks great!! Cadenza is a professional tailor and at this point Aphmau has made her way up in the world pretty significantly, so it’s not a terrible stretch to have this purple color. The dark purple provides a similar color to all the black to make this outfit mostly dark, with a hint of white, and it mixes really well. The white is fully bordered by black (her hair and her sleeves) so it stands out a lot, and the purple is a more subtle pop amidst the black. The color coordination is great. It looks cute. 10/10 I don’t care if it’s not incredibly practical because it slays. What a good note to end the season with! I sure hope the next two seasons can match this quality. (Spoilers, I think it does, actually! With maybe a few exceptions.

[swampgallows]

Im a bit newer to WoW and i could care less about the Dragon Flights but i though Nozdormu always looked like that

he used to be slightly more asian-coded (evidenced by his stereotypical "fu manchu" mustache)—about as much as the old gelkis/magram centaur were, though riddled with negative "marauder" stereotypes.

this, night elves, and "woo ping", are what used to pass for 'asian' in wow. night elves borrow some cultural elements from korean and other east asian cultures, such as pagoda architecture, celebration of lunar new year, food items like kimchi and red bean buns, and clothing items like hanboks. but as far as immediate visual decoding, canon, and fan reception, these cultural influences are rarely featured in the characterization or depiction of night elves.

enter nozdormu's few appearances in the caverns of time dungeons and the dragon soul raid:

sure cata's graphics weren't the best, but nozdormu's custom model was read by much of wow's playerbase as asian, especially when compared to the standard blood elf model and other dragons in the same cinematic.

speaking of limited representation in wow's history, alexstrasza also used to have more of a bronze skin tone, as you can see in the screenshot above, and sometimes nozdormu was drawn this way by fans—he is a bronze dragon, after all! for example, this art of nozdormu fighting murozond, drawn by blizzard-featured chinese fan artist breathing2004, gives nozdormu both darker hair and skin tone:

alexstrasza was also later whitewashed compared to her cataclysm model, both in official artwork and in her debut in heroes of the storm:

here is a fanmade comparison, from left to right: her cataclysm model, a screenshot from the announcement cinematic, and her in-game model/default skin in hots. below is alexstrasza's in-game cataclysm model at the end of dragon soul, versus official artwork in the book Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects:

she has reached a (somewhat) happy medium in dragonflight. her skin maintains a darker undertone and now boasts freckles and makeup highlights, but the overall color is more of a "blink and you'll miss it" general "warm" tone than the distinct darker skintone of her cataclysm model.

here she is in a pre-rendered cinematic in dragonflight (extra warm because she's looking out at the sunset; compare her "darker" skin to the lighting on wrathion's). but hey, at least she's not pink anymore.

to bring it back to nozdormu, in the same cinematic nozdormu's model is markedly different from both the loading screen artwork (right) and in the legacies shorts (bottom). his eye shape suggests possible epicanthic folds, which seem to have been sculpted specifically for nozdormu as they are not the standard for the blood elf model, yet they are absent in the artwork. (there were other elf models with similar eyes in the past, but blizzard rounded them for the player models).

overall i think both nozdormu and alexstrasza stlll "read" as white. it doesnt really help that the "east asian" facial options promised at blizzcon 2019 were never truly delivered; the "asian" eyes as they are in-game (right) look nothing like the concept presented (left):

as a result it may be a while before there is true asian representation in WoW, and nozdormu's ambiguity means those fans are now waiting even longer.

[darkx-the-dragon-kn1ght]

Chapter 14- Part 1

Ah, look at that resolution- yeah, the white bar at the top is a little inconvenient, but it’s a minor thing compared to everything. I know I could crop it out, but I specifically used this new method to minimize the amount of cropping I had to do, so I’m not gonna bother with it. 

Anyways, our newest destination is Jasper Ward, and I remember exactly where we need to go! So let’s get going, back to Peridot Ward!

And there’s the entry tunnel! I didn’t go inside of it back then because…well, the dialogue from the NPCs implied I wouldn’t get very far, so I didn’t see much point in it. But now, we’ve got the plot on our side, so we can go as far as we want!

…Hey, wait- why is Jasper the green-colored ward? Shouldn’t it be more like…red or orange or reddish-orange, like actual jaspers are? The other wards- namely Obsidia, Onyx, and Coral- have color associations that make sense for the minerals they’re named after, so what’s up with this one? Heck- if you really think about it, the colors for Peridot and Jasper Wards would make more sense if they were swapped, since peridots are typically some flavor of green. 

Honestly, if Lapis Ward isn’t associated with blue, I’m gonna be…at least somewhat mildly miffed. Anyways, enough outta me, into the tunnel we go-

Another guard, huh? I hope this one doesn’t try to impede us like the one at Obsidia Ward did- we’ve got Florinia’s permission, so it should be fine, right?

“Kerfuffle” is…definitely one word to use to describe what happened.

Here’s the question I have right now: is it just one PULSE machine doing this, or is it two, one for each ward? Like, how widespread is the range of this particular PULSE? I think it was implied back in Obsidia Park that the Tangrowth PULSE’s reach and power has limitations, but the fact that the PULSE Dex called it “05C” implies there are A and B variants as well, which might be even stronger…

Oh dear, so Team Meteor’s body count is increasing ever higher? Are we gonna see plant-entagled corpses as we explore these wards? Seems like the kinda thing a game advertised as being darker than the canon games might do.

Um- yeah! Of course, officer! Xera’s got two out of eighteen Gym Badges, that makes her qualified to handle this…yeah, definitely…

Ah, shoot- the timing of taking screenshots with this program is a little different from how I was doing it before. Guess I’ll have to get used to it.

Anyways, through the gate and into the light we go…into a new area of devastation!

AH, CHILD JUMPSCARE! Who is she? And…the heck is Corey doing over there? Mm- wait, is this…?

Aha, I do remember Corey mentioning having a daughter a little while ago. So that’s her, huh? Definitely more…pink than I was expecting, I can tell which parent she doesn’t get her looks from.

But like- Corey, my man, Jasper Ward is apparently almost abandoned, if there are any degenerates in this city, they’re not here. Jasper Ward is completely dangerous and unfit for children for entirely different reasons!

I mean, Xera’s hardly a stranger. Corey knows who she is, he knows she’s at least slightly trustworthy- she helped him get his medicine back that one time, and she kept quiet about his business in the Obsidia Slums. That’s gotta count for something, yeah?

Ah, she is stricken with adolescence- something even a doctor like Corey can’t deal with using just medicine.

Next

[galaxygermdraws]

can i ask for that luigi's mansion remake rant? i'm genuinely curious about your thoughts on it!! :0

Okay so I will admit I have not played the remake. So like I'm sure it's a good experience for those who haven't played the original, but just from the visuals I have seen of it, I personally think it's a massive downgrade in the atmosphere department. I am gonna put this under a read more because. It is very long.

My primary example of this is just to show screenshots of the foyer

It's like, fairly obvious they changed the palette, made it brighter, more vibrant, etc. Which doesn't really work when you consider this mansion is based on old timey mansions, its palette shows off its age. Not to mention the lighting. i do not get why they made the lighting yellow. Yellow lighting usually signifies comfort or hominess, as it's associated with stuff like fireplaces or lamps, but white light is a lot more. Discomforting. It's like hospital lighting, you know you're not in immediate danger, but it does not make you comfortable.

Not to mention what they did to King Boo, and I know they did this for continuity and because the 3DS hardware is more limited

But I just don't think he looks as interesting as his original design. The original game had this green overlay to pretty much everything, like the mansion had greenish-brown walls and stuff, and King Boo's model is actually green. It just kinda made him seem more spooky, as he wasn't just pure white, he was an off white. Plus him being green made his crown and eyes stand out more, and because those are some of his defining characteristics, it actually helped define his appearance (I have. an entire rant on King Boo's designs but that's not what this is)

Again I'm sure this game isn't like. Bad. I'm sure it's a good experience if you've never played the original, but as someone who has the original and has played it more times than any other game I own, I don't know why I'd play the remake over it. The remake jus lacks the atmosphere, and I know that's a complaint levied at LM2 and LM3 as well, but it's worse here because this isn't a new game this is a remake of a game that mastered the spooky atmosphere

And I know people say "they cant make it too scary, it's a kid's game" as if the original game was not made for the same audience as every other game in the franchise, since Mario games are made for everybody, not just children. Also that argument doesn't work when you consider there are much darker Mario spinoffs (*coughs in Paper Mario TTYD and Super Paper Mario. Also Mario and Luigi Partners in Time*).

Also I don't know why they added new rankings to the game, but at least it lets you replay boss fights. I also appreciate the Dark Moon control mode, because the Dark Moon controls do have some improvements, most notably the dodge feature and the strolbulb (makes it easier to see the ghosts' hearts, which I know some people struggle with doing in the original). I also like Gooigi's lore in this game, since he was introduced here and this game is canonically an alternate timeline if you really think about it.

(Also anybody who says LM3DS has the PAL Hidden Mansion mode is wrong. no it does not. The LM3DS Hidden Mansion removes like over half the features that make the PAL Hidden Mansion so insanely different. I have watched an entire video about this, I have a lot of thoughts. I wish i had a PAL Gamecube.)