#tutorial tracks are so based i love them

[altromarnice]

I draw my and my partner OCs based on tutorial tracks quite often, so… here's something new I can show!!!

[art]

Creator Spotlight: @camberdraws

Hello! My name is Camber (any pronouns), and I’m a mixed media illustrator located in the southwestern United States. I love drawing everything, but I have a special interest in depicting strange creatures and environments, often accompanied by abstract imagery and mark-making. Professionally, I’ve worked creating concept art and 2D assets for museum exhibits, but currently, I am engaged full-time as a software developer and make standalone illustrations in my free time. I’ve been posting art on Tumblr since I was a teenager, and the site has been very welcoming towards my work to this very day!

Check out Camber’s interview below!

Did you originally have a background in art? If not, how did you start?

I’ve had an interest in drawing since I was barely sentient, but at thirteen years old I decided to become “serious” about art. I was all about reading tutorials and doing a ton of studies. I would tote my heavy instructional art books to school every single day (my poor back!) Despite all this, I decided to forgo art school in favor of a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science at my local college. Alongside my major, I received a minor in Art Studio with a specialization in fine art, which totally changed my views on creating artwork and drastically changed my style.

How has your style developed over the years?

As mentioned previously, my style did a 180 after I studied under some very skilled fine art professors! As a kid, my drawings were very realism-heavy and inspired by video game concept art. I mostly worked digitally, too. During college, I was thrown for a loop when we were instructed to do strange things like, for example, make a bunch of marks on paper using pastel, WITHOUT looking, and then turn said marks into a finished piece of art! I quickly and deeply fell in love with abstract work, and especially appreciated images that are not easily parsed by the viewer. Since then, I’ve made it my goal to combine abstract mark-making with more representational subject matter.

What is one habit you find yourself doing a lot as an artist?

Hmmm, one habit I really enjoy as an artist is strictly tracking the amount of time I spend drawing! I currently work a full-time job wholly unrelated to art, so I have to be careful with my time if I want to spend enough hours drawing each week. I created a spreadsheet that allows you to enter the amount of minutes you’ve drawn each day and calculate how much drawing time you still need to reach your weekly goal (I aim for 20 hours a week.) Having such a clear, numbers-based objective keeps me motivated to work like nothing else!

Over the years as an artist, what were your biggest inspirations behind your creativity?

I know this is a common inspiration, but Hayao Miyazaki’s work has been rewiring my neurons since I was a child. Seemingly all of my artistic interests can be summed up by the movie Princess Mononoke: it has strange/abstract creature designs, a strong focus on nature and environmental storytelling, and a mix of dark and hopeful themes. Additionally, I’ve been deeply inspired by video game series such as Zelda, Okami, Pikmin, and Dark Souls. But arguably, none of these have influenced me more than Pokemon! I’ve been drawing Pokemon since I could barely hold a pencil, and I haven’t stopped since! I believe my love of designing creatures originated with my endless deluge of Pokemon fanart during my childhood.

What is a medium that you have always been intrigued by but would never use yourself?

I’ve always been fascinated by 3D mediums and am so tempted to try them out! Whether that’s 3D models created digitally or sculptures made from clay, I profoundly admire artists who have this skill. Oftentimes, it feels like I don’t have time to delve into a totally different artistic paradigm. However, I feel very strongly that learning new skills can enrich your current work. I should take that advice and someday give 3D mediums a shot!

What is a recent creative project that you are proud of?

I am in the process of creating an art book (a dream of mine!) and have been executing smaller drawings of concepts I find interesting from both a visual and storytelling standpoint. A recent drawing for said book is that of a snail made of ink with an ink bottle as a shell, and it went absolutely viral! I’ve never had an experience like this as an artist before and it has been spectacular! I was able to open a shop using my newly acquired art printer and sell many prints of my snail. Creating something original, directly stemming from my interests, and having that resonate with so many people has been unreal. I couldn’t ask for more as an artist!

What advice would you give to younger you about making art that’s personal or truthful to your own experiences?

I would tell my younger self to chill out and experiment more! I was so caught up in the idea that I needed to have a realistic style to be considered “good.” I also believed that technical skill was the only measure of how worthy my art was. That’s not to say technical skill doesn’t matter, but I now firmly believe the creativity and voice of your ideas far outweigh the skill of execution in terms of importance. Technical skills should elevate ideas, not the other way around. Once I began to revel in strange ideas and stories for my work, depicted oftentimes in odd styles or mediums, I truly found my voice as an artist.

Who on Tumblr inspires you and why?

My peers here on Tumblr inspire me more than anything! Sharing my work with contemporaries and giving each other support brings me joy like no other, and keeps me motivated to continue creating. I wouldn’t be where I am today without them! @beetlestench, @theogm-art, @trustyalt, @ratwednesday, @phantom-nisnow, @svltart, @mintsdraws, @mothhh-hh, @jupiterweathers, @thesewispsofsmoke, @picoffee, @fetchiko, @kaisei-ink, and @pine-niidles just to name only a few!

Thanks for stopping by, Camber! If you haven’t seen their Meet the Artist piece, check it out here. For more of Camber’s work, follow their Tumblr, @camberdraws!

[phightingheadcanons]

Boombox headcanons dump! Because I am!!! So normal about him dude!!!!!

- While he definitely has a lot of friends, especially in the music scene (and somehow in places he very much shouldn’t have friends (I’m talking shady alleys and even shadier gangs)), he has none he’d actually consider close

- He’s felt alienated a few more times than he’d like because of this when hanging out with inphernals who are besties (ex: skate and sling), but he always brushes it off quick so he doesn’t bring the vibes down

- Extrovert and people pleaser combo, big part of why he has so many friends

- Knows how to play every single instrument. Don’t ask where he found the time.

^ - Could do a one man band situation if he wanted, much like Pinkie Pie in the parasprites episode or that Aaron Paulsen guy

- EDM’s his favourite genre, but he still loves all the other genres and knows how to compose music for them

- Knows everything music, from its history to all current upcoming artists (and occasionally he’ll know about upcoming things he definitely should not know about considering the amount of nda’s in the entertainment industry)

- Does a LOT of collabs, he’s done more collabs than released solo songs actually

^ - Partially because he’s a massive perfectionist when it comes to his own music, and rarely ever releases his own full songs

- He has an alt account where he posts experiments, wip’s, tutorials and tracks he just decides to leave unfinished. Something about how seeing another’s creative process can be both educational and inspiring

^ - If people beg hard enough on an unfinished track, there’s a high chance he’ll revisit it and actually finish it

- While he seems like a chatty type, he prefers to listen rather than lead the conversation

- Hypeman supreme, he will blast encouragement at you no matter how small or big the challenge may seem

- HATES conflict, and while he’ll try to ease the tension, on the occasion it doesn’t work he’ll just shutdown completely

- Struggles to function without any music playing or some form of constant noise in the background. The quiet unsettles him. Back in Playground, if it was quiet, something was wrong

- Since he always carries his gear around (probably because respawning it takes a lot of energy due to its size), he’s built up some strength and can lift decently heavy loads

^ - This strength has surprised quite a few inphernals, and on the rare occasion, has had its uses in intimidating them out of whatever stupid decision they were going to attempt on him

YEAAAAHHHHHHHHH BOOMBOX THESE ARE SO BASED

full of vibes omg..

[ponett]

ive seen you post about doctor robotnik's ring racers occasionally on twitter and would like to hear your overall thoughts on the game

I'm enjoying it a lot! It plays well, has a ridiculous number of unlockable characters and tracks, and is generally just really polished. This would be impressive even for a paid indie kart racer that cost like $20-$30, but for a freeware fangame that's somehow built off of Doom? It's nuts. So much love and care went into this. I've been having a lot of fun playing through all the Grand Prix cups and clearing out the challenge board, which I've only completed 47% of it even with over 15 hours of playtime logged.

It's absolutely one of the most hardcore kart racers I've ever played, though, and that's gonna turn some people off. While playing solo even easy mode can be difficult, especially thanks to the rival system that gives one CPU buffs over the others. Anything below 150cc is a complete joke for me in Mario Kart, but even playing on the "normal" difficulty in Ring Racers (now renamed "intense" in the 2.2 patch) kicks my ass, and if you place poorly in a Grand Prix race it gives you a game over and makes you redo the race. I can't even imagine touching the higher difficulties at my current skill level.

This is compounded by how technical the game is and how many options are at your disposal. Spin dashing, tricks, fast drops, collecting and spending rings, an item roulette that can be manually stopped, a high risk high reward chargeable melee attack when you have negative rings, the ability to harass and be harassed by other racers while positioning yourself before the start of the race, gates that can only be passed through when you have a high level of boost, lots of items with different quirks that reward skilled play. And of course, perhaps most daunting of all to new players, there's the game's unique slope physics designed to mimic how they work in the 2D Sonic games, which will often require you to either spend rings for a small boost or stop and charge up a spin dash to get up a steep hill.

All of these add a lot of complexity to the game that can be pretty daunting early on, which is why it has an infamously long story-driven tutorial to introduce all of these mechanics. I'm not sure said tutorial actually does the best job introducing how those mechanics will actually be put to use in races, but I can't blame them for thinking the game needed it. (I do have to admit I am annoyed by the game's insistence upon framing everything via Sega Saturn inputs, though. I had to open the settings screen to figure out what buttons the tutorial actually wanted me to press.)

Some of these things have already been addressed in the first couple patches, of course. You can now exit the tutorial way earlier, some unlock requirements have been relaxed, there's an option to let the game automatically use your rings for you, easy mode has been made easier, a handful of problematic courses have been tweaked, etc. And I'm sure they'll continue to refine the game based on player feedback. But it's probably always going to be a fairly hardcore game. It's hard and has a high skill ceiling by design. Nintendo's never gonna make a super technical new Mario Kart for sickos - not on purpose, at least. They need it to be a pick-up-and-play party game that sells 70 million copies. But a freeware fangame not beholden to shareholders can experiment more and try to cater to that more hardcore crowd. Say what you will about Ring Racers, but it absolutely has a specific creative vision of its own beyond "Sonic Mario Kart," and I respect that even if the game sometimes frustrates me

[maryse127]

List of changes I hope to see in Xenoblade X Definitive Edition :)

I am hopeful because last time we got a definitive edition Monolith adressed basically all my issues with the original

LARGER TEXT. For fuck's sake please. I love this game, I would love it even more if I could fucking read!

Better online servers. I have no experience with Nintendo Switch Online but please let the online be more stable. The constant disconnects were so annoying. Especially because the only way to reconnect was going back to the title screen and loading back in. Which took forever with the loading times.

I never got to experience the game during the Miiverse days so I hope they bring the Miiverse features back to some degree just like they did with Splatoon

Change it so that the flight music only kicks in after flying for about 10 seconds instead of the instant you jump. And also the option to turn it off completely. I love the flight theme but it sucks you basically never get to hear the area themes again while travelling once you unlock flying.

Considering they didn't listen to the complaints about the vision reacts music in DE I am Very Skeptical about a flight music toggle tho :(

Hot take but I actually like talking to characters in NLA to put them in your party. However I HATE it when I cannot find them because they are not in their usual spot. Please mark their current locations on the map!!

Rebalance the audio and/or add audio options to the settings because I would love to hear the characters talk over the music

Wild card that won't happen but that I have always wanted: add a fashion boutique to the commercial district where you can buy fashion gear. And add more of it. I love the casual clothes in this game. I just wish it was easier to get specific things than randomly getting it from the basic mission board

Improve follow ball. That thing gets lost and confused when you fly

Better quest tracking for collectibles. Would love to be able to find my quest items without having to consult the wiki where they spawn.

Honestly, add better quest tracking for enemies as well. I have spend way too much time searching for tyrants despite having their basic mission active. Just anything that makes me use the wiki less while playing.

Offline option to gain reward tickets. I love the online but it would be so much better and more fair to all players if you could get the reward tickets offline as well. Being stuck in collection quests or grinding all materials for creating skells amd augments is just so bad without the tickets.

I feel like the map could use a bit more location names and would also really appreciate it if it would show exactly where the landmark/probe is in the sector. Because I have had moments where I warped and ended up being a lot farther away from where I wanted to go than I thought.

Option to change time from the menu instead if having to find a base camp or bench!!!

Better tutorials. Like they have to because the manual is gone. But even with the manual I felt like explanations were lacking at times. Especially when it comes to overdrive.

Not a change rather a very heartfelt request to NOT change how stupidly broken overdrive is. Infinite overdrive strats my beloved.

Option to quit out of a story or affinity mission. I never did get stuck in one. And I know there's an option to lower boss difficulty if you die a few times. But I just never liked the restricted feeling of not being able to give up and retry it later. Especially ones where you need items which can be a Pain without reward tickets.

Game is probably gonna get an easy mode anyway but I would really appreciate the option to quit a mission.

Make the skells easier to control in vehicle mode?? I don't know how this could be achieved. Maybe it's just a skill issue on my part (rather than a skell issue)

Unlikely but please: multiple save files per user. The whole reason I have a second profile on my Switch is Xenoblade 2 (and BotW) not allowing multiple savefiles per profile.

Maybe have inactive party members gain some exp? Like after you unlock overdrive you can basically solo the game anyway but it would be nice to not have a character stuck at level 20 when you are in late game grinding affinity for affinity missions

Somehow make it so that the Prospectors aren't constantly dominating the leaderboards. I too want salvage tickets for my skell :(

[randomalistic]

hi :3 I saw your recent Wreck It Ralph vid (loved it) and seeing your avatar reminded me that I wanted to do something similar for my own vids? I am. Really bad at wording things my question is what size canvas did you use to draw them? And is there anything I need to keep in mind when implementing my own avatar into my YT vid like yt compressing the video or anything? I hope this makes sense like I said I suck at wording things 😭

Ooh okay!! Good question :] also I'm really happy you enjoyed!!

I am an amateur so idk how useful this info is but Here (dumps everything)

The emotes were made in Krita (any art software will work)

The canvas size was around 1000 x 1000 pixels

Starting out, doing a basic emotion sheet works well. Watching other PNGtuber videos helps you organize how many you may need and what emotions are used the most (expect to make 30 or more drawings, which is A LOT at first, and might take a couple weeks, but once you have them you can use them forever!)

Also start your video even if you're still working on emotes! It helps to sorta do everything at once :)

This grid doesn't cover everything I used (it was a very messy process) but it might be useful so here :)

I think its also a good idea to make a "base" and then mess with expressions from there. This one had a lot of usability. (and also a lot of layers)

Later on I found it most useful to listen to the stuff I recorded, and then make a drawing for that moment specifically. You can then apply that "emotion" to other places where it fits

this is probably my favorite example because i based the expression off King Candy LOL. USING REFERENCES IS FUN !!!!!!!!! And I ended up using this one a lot !

Also expect a lot of rejected designs and struggling w drawing expressions because it's Hard. Developing the style you want takes a lot of time!! (I scrapped these 3 i made early on)

//

Exporting and YouTube processing was a little tricky but here’s what worked for me:

- I used Davinci Resolve to export the project. My video was made at 24fps, the same framerate as my footage. (The Movie) Earlier on, I kept noticing my audio was too loud and weird glitchy visual artifacts kept showing up. After trial and error I found these settings worked the best:

Main takeaway, i legit dont understand how any of this works but:

ITU-R BS.1770-4 normalization for audio is Good

Lower your finished audio track to -13.5dB. It will sound quiet, but YouTube likes this and will make it a normal volume (?? I THINK?? Do your own testing, my final video was kind of quiet but nobody commented on it so its fine as long as it's consistent)

YOUTUBE EQUALIZES YOUR AUDIO IT DOESNT MATTER HOW LOUD IT IS IT WILL BE OK

H.265 encoding with .mov format (aka QuickTime) is Good

And that's probably enough infodumping for now. Its okay to feel overwhelmed and unsure where to start but making a video is SO FUN and i encourage it more than anything :))) Take your time and learn at your own pace! There are lots of great tutorials online.

I WOULD BE HAPPY TO ANSWER ANY EXISTING QUESTIONS

[mikimakiboo]

Master post because why not

I wanna keep track of my own stuff lmao

Link to the art masterpost ! (Updated 04/06)

Link to the Headcanon/Shitpost masterpost ! (Updated 28/03)

Link to the Time Travelers AU masterpost ! (Updated 10/06)

AO3 account: Makis_Stories

Latest update: 11/06

| My OCs

● Toxicity

Introduction post to my OC Toxicity !

Pajamas ref

@/sleepy-batz made an amazing fanart of him I'm in love + trick by @/mcnotok + toxiclove art that I adore by @/meloxia

You can find all the art I made of him under the #Toxicity tag !

● Miranda

My Toriel OC, Miranda !

● shipchildren

My Errormare shipchild, Moroz !

And my Driller shipchild, Plamya !

| Incorrect quotes

I'm not not gonna link all of them lol, but you can find them under the "original post" tag or simply the "incorrect quotes" tag with the multiple ones I reblogged

| My AUs

Fanfiction links are in red !

● Disabled AU

The idea for the disabled au comes from @/unknownchoatic, tho this is my own interpretation and headcanons for everyone

Paraplegic Nightmare: first and second post that started everything, + wheels of misfortune

Aphasic Horror

ASD/Blind Killer

Schizophrenic Dust

Schizophrenic Error

● Draz AU

An AU where Nightmare is a dragon shape-shifter ! The dragon is named Lord Noot

A LOT of artworks, search the #Lord Noot tag to see everything !

Crochet tutorial to make a plush ( + Ancha's version )

Main fanfiction: CAVE CANEM DRACONTEM

Bonus chapters: A Toy For A Dragon / Scratching An Itch / Fly, little flightless dragon !

+ Ancha made an adorable drabble for the AU !

● Small Olympus AU

An AU in which Nightmare is a loser (affectionate) and a teen ! The Bad Sanses take care of him like a little brother

Read the notes to see everything !

Nightmare's design

First idea and base of the AU

How Cross got introduced to the group

Adult Nightmare getting a crush on Ccino

+ Drabble by Ancha about Nightmare's meeting with Killer !

| Gifts and Collabs

Fanfiction links are in red !

Every gifts and collabs I did for/with @/ancha-aus ! (the AUs all belong to her)

● Real Age AU

An AU in which Nightmare reverts back to his passive form (who is still six years old) and where the gang now takes care of him like their own child

We have two fanfics:

Muffins

Surprise adoption

And two fanarts here and here !

● Ghost and Medium AU

In this AU you will find: medium Dust, ghost Killer, priest Cross, ghost Horror, demon Nightmare, and god Error

I simply wrote some interpretations of everyone's backstories :) so it's not canon ! (Unless she says so)

Biiiiiig post explaining everything (containing additional links)

+ fic Your meat isn't dead, it's still moving

And two fanarts of Killer and Nightmare ( + post fall Nightmare doodle )

● Double Noot / Noot² AU

An AU in which Corrupt (aka Corrupted Nightmare) gets separated from Nightmare (aka passive Nightmare) who is still a child, turned out Corrupt was holding him without knowing it to give him time to heal

Reblog chain that kinda started it all

Fanfiction: Two for the price of one

● Sansnautica AU

A BSP including Sans, crossover AU with Subnautica (that i don't know anything about lol)

Fanfiction: Learning To Trust, With Love

| My other fanfictions

Aka, the fanfictions outside of the AUs previously mentioned

Just like them (no AU, Nightmare angst)

Tiny Menace - Tiny Steps Forward (Bitty Nightmare AU, related parts)

You will be fine, now (16+) (Bitty Nightmare AU, angst)

Unexpected Visitors (Time Travelers AU, bsp, follow ups linked in the chapters, masterpost linked at the top of this post)

Happier Somewhere Else (no AU, Nightmare angst)

Birthday Cake (short-story, Nightmare's birthday)

A Second Chance (no AU, Nightmare mpreg) - The Favorite Uncle (follow up, Driller)

Heros Always Win (short-story, Dreamtale twins)

First Mermay drabble (the next ones will be linked in the drabbles)

Storm (short-story, Nightmare angst)

| Concepts

A weird crossover au idea inspired by HTTYD, featuring the Dreamtale twins as dragons for one and everyone as dragon-riders for the other

A story concept about the Bad Sanses being kidnapped by the Star Sanses

The Dreamtale twins being compared to the Viking Gods (Idunn, Baldr and Loki) + the twins' design

Nightmare trying very hard to cause negativity but it backfires and he creates positivity instead

Video game concept

Angel AU Dreamtale

| song analysis

Lifeline by Thousand Foot Krutch and Passive Nightmare getting corrupted

Take it out on me by Thousand Foot Krutch and the bad sanses

[fibula-rasa]

Cosplaying Salomé (1922): A How-to

Seeing as my cosplay of Nazimova as Salomé is one of the more ambitious projects I’ve done for the blog, it seems fitting to give you all a little BTS and how-to. Because I didn’t fully document my process, this isn’t necessarily as full a tutorial as my Century of Glamour Ghouls series, but you could definitely recreate this yourself (and learn from my mistakes) as this would make a great Halloween costume!

a full-length shot of my cosplay of Nazimova as Salomé

Part one of “CtC: Nazimova as Salomé” goes into more detail on Nazimova & Rambova’s creative choices for the character and her design, but to be brief about it:

Nazimova’s Salomé is heavily informed by young women and girls of the early 1920s, so there is a dynamic conflict created between the baby-fication of young women and pop-culture sexualization of the same group. So, this first look from the film communicates unsophisticated youth with an impetuous edge. The pearled wig is not only a dazzling visual, but also emphasizes Nazimova’s brazen pantomime—amplifying every flitting gesture. It also gives the character a more childlike silhouette, which Nazimova pairs with an immature, sometimes bratty body language.

my gif of Nazimova in Salomé

The rest of the costume is quite simple: a shimmery/sparkly sleeveless, belted tunic and flat shoes. (Contrasted with Rose Dione’s costuming as Heriodas, flowing and heavily adorned.)

Get the Look!

(below the jump!)

What’s below covers the materials and methods I used, but improvements could definitely be made. I would love to see others take this on!

The Wig

My recreation of the wig in natural light

my gif of a closeup of Nazimova in the wig & gif of my cosplay wig in motion

Materials:

Black wig cap

Black yarn

Springs (I used the plastic ones sold as cat toys)

Black thread

Curved sewing needle

Rug Hook (This is a tool I already had on hand. If you have a small enough crochet hook, that might also work!)

Baubles (maybe: pearlescent paint for the baubles)

Craft glue (I don’t own a hot glue gun, but that would have been better!)

Optional: black bangs/fringe track

The Process

Note: my finished product is scaled up a bit from the wig used in the film largely because I was also working with a mix of items gifted to me from my wishlist and things I already had around the house. The springs were 1 inch in diameter as were the baubles. If you are buying everything new, you might want to try and track down .5-.75 inch materials!

Thankfully, about 10 years ago, the original wig was recovered in a trunk in Georgia, so I had a modern photo to reference for how the wig was constructed. [You can see it here!]

Some of the materials I used to create the wig

I started by wrapping the black yarn around the springs, which I had stretched out slightly. Once a spring was fully covered, I cut the yarn with roughly 3 inches extra length to fasten the spring to the wig cap.

After I had a significant amount of covered springs—I did it in waves of ~20—I used the rug hook to pull the extra yarn through the mesh of the wig cap. Then, I knotted the yarn tightly and pulled the extra yarn back to the topside of the cap using the rug hook, crossed it over the opposite side of the spring and back through the cap to knot it again on the underside of the cap. This way the spring is fastened at two opposite points of its circumference.

Once a wave of springs were loosely attached to the cap, I went in with a curved needle and black thread to sew the springs more tightly in place. This also gave the whole headpiece more stability. (This is important because the baubles will weigh the springs down a little!) I repeated this process in waves until I ran out of materials (and thankfully the cap was covered).

detail shot of the springs, the arrow is indicating the support stitching I added to the backside of each spring

At this point, my springs were a little droopy, so I reinforced them with a little bit of thread from the base to the end. This also allowed me to fine tune where each spring would sit in relation to its surrounding springs to get an even spread.

All the loose yarn inside the wig cap I roughly french braided together so it would sit flat and also add a little extra stability. It’s not a pretty sight, but it’s surprisingly comfortable!

The glass baubles I had on hand were not pearlescent, but multi-colored, so I had to paint them before gluing them to the springs. If you’re buying new, you can try and pick out the finish, size, and material you want.

That’s basically that. I adjusted two of the springs so that their baubles wouldn’t clatter into one another too much, but the wig is finished!

unfiltered cameraphone photo of the cosplay & final edit of the cosplay

I’m fairly certain that in the film Nazimova is wearing fake bangs under the pearl wig, but I just cut my own bangs bluntly and ran some gel mixed with black eyeshadow through them with a spoolie. (I don’t have any special feelings for my hair, so I tend to just cut/trim it whenever I cosplay. I understand this is unusual! You all don’t need to remind me! Thanks!)

my gif of a closeup of Nazimova as Salomé

——— ——— ———

The Tunic

my gif of Nazimova as Salomé & my cosplay recreating the moment above

For the tunic, I chose red sequined velvet. I don’t know what the screen-used fabric was though it certainly wasn’t this! I chose this fabric as it was affordable and I thought it might give off a similar effect in the finished photos. In a happy accident, I think the sequins give off a scaled-up look that matches the wig.

I don’t think the screen costume was black, but something that photographs dark on 1920s black-and-white film stock. That’s why I chose red, though I think a deep purple would also have worked.

Since I’ve followed The Closet Historian’s 1920s One-Hour Dress Tutorial twice before, that method was my baseline for making the Salomé tunic.

Using my hip measurement as the primary guide and adding .5 inch of allowance, I folded the fabric in half and cut it into a long rectangle—the fold being where I would cut the neckline. After I cut the neckline in, I put it on and pinned and tucked the shoulders, bust, and bottom hem to where it would sit right. My body is not rectangular, so the bust/shoulders had to be brought in a bit. Very professional, I know.

Then I sewed the edges of the whole rectangle and the neckline. I only attached the front to the back on one side, from bottom hem to hip, as that appears to be how the tunic was sewn in the film. (When I wear this out as a costume, I will likely sew up both sides!)

my cosplay with the belt featured over my left hip

I used scrap fabric to sew together the belt and some velcro (repurposed from an old ribbon) and fastened it to a plastic ring (repurposed from the last new scarf I bought). I then hung some beaded necklaces that I already owned to finish it (tho it wouldn’t be a great expense to buy some cheap strings of faux pearls if you want it to look closer to what’s on screen).

The slippers weren’t a match for the film, but I already owned them and thought they fit the vibe. What Nazimova seems to be wearing in the film are some simple light/white satin-ish flats.

——— ——— ———

The Makeup

unfiltered cosplay cameraphone photo & finished cosplay photo

Since this is such a high-contrast look, I personally opted not to use contouring for this cosplay. Also, I didn’t use any kind of blush because if you are photographing in black-and-white or for B&W editing, blush and warm colors register darker than they look in color.

For the base, I mixed a lighter pigment into my foundation to achieve a mask-like quality and set it with the lightest powder I own. (I think if you are “Portland Tan” like me, you could legit use white face paint for this and it would look pretty cool!)

my gif of a closeup of Nazimova as Salomé

For the brows, Nazimova’s are rounded but elongated, so I drew mine in a slightly rounder shape than they naturally grow.

For the eyeshadow, I used the old garage-door strategy with a purple-y taupe shadow from my lashline to the browbone with a small gap between the end of that shade and the brow. As it’s done in the movie, the shadow covers the inner corner all the way out to the end of the liner wing and all the way up to the browbone.

For the eyeliner, Nazimova’s eyes are fully rimmed in black, but with a flatter shape along the bottom. I drew a line straight back from the lowest point of my lower lid, drew a line down from my upper lid to that first line, then filled in the triangle made at the outer corner. I used black eyeshadow with a wet brush to both fill in my eyebrows and draw on the eyeliner. I also tightlined my eyes, though if your eyes aren’t quite as round you might want to skip the tightline! I finished it off with a plain black mascara, false lashes are not really a necessity for this look.

For the lips, I covered the outside edges of my lips with my base makeup to get Nazimova’s pout. Then I used a dark pink lipstick and a lip brush to paint on the pouty shape (that Nazimova was born with) making sure to overemphasize the top lip. (I didn’t overline my top lip, because that looks a bit extreme on my face, but it might suit you really well!) I then went in with a slightly darker shade of lipstick at the center of my lips to further emphasize the pout.

Here are some photos from my Irena Dubrovna/Cat People cosplay tutorial that illustrate the difference tightlining makes and what lip re-shaping looks like before blending and adding lipstick:

Irena process photo showing the effect of tightlining & unblended lip re-shaping

If you’re only accustomed to 2020s makeup, keep in mind that this is a 1920s makeup look. If it looks too blended, too sharp, too smooth, it’s just not going to look authentic. (Which is perfectly fine if you’re not going for authenticity but rather a 2020s reimagining!)

——— ——— ———

Bonus: The “Backdrop”

This isn’t necessarily useful for putting together a Halloween costume, but I thought it might be a fun curiosity to share how I made my “backdrops.” Basically, I wanted a black background as the film’s terrace set has a void-like quality, so I roughly brushed black paint over black 12x9in construction paper.

natural light photos of my drawings of the gate, the moon, and the black backdrop

Using the same size construction paper, I drew the decorative metal fencing from the film with colored pencils on yellow paper and used a black felt tip marker to fill in the gaps. Likewise, I drew out the clouds and moon on construction paper in yellow, blue, and purple—as I knew how those colors would register in B&W—and cut them out. I then attached them to clear plastic to photograph them with directional lighting similar to what I used for the cosplays.

I cleaned up the drawings digitally and then composited the elements with my cosplay photos.

cosplay photos composited with the moon, the gate, and the black "backdrop"

Conclusion

Thank you all for reading, following along, and supporting my work! If you decide to use this guide or any of my previous how-tos this Halloween, please share. I’ve loved seeing your Asta Nielsen Hamlets over the past few years!

Stay Tuned for Postscript to Cosplay the Classics: Salomé and Orientalism! For now, check out Part One: The Importance of Being Peter and Part Two: Artists United?

——— ——— ———

☕Appreciate my work? Buy me a coffee! ☕

——— ——— ———

Other Costume/Cosplay How-Tos:

Theda Bara | Pola Negri in The Wildcat (1921) | Asta Nielsen in Hamlet (1921) | Musidora in Les Vampires (1915) | Conrad Veidt in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) | Gloria Holden in Dracula’s Daughter (1936) | Simone Simon in Cat People (1942) | Vampira in Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) | Yvonne Monlaur in Brides of Dracula (1960) | Daria Nicolodi in Deep Red (1975) | Amanda Bearse in Fright Night (1985) | Fairuza Balk in The Craft (1996) | Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve (1941) | Barbra Streisand in The Way We Were (1973)

[cloudy-caspirations]

Hey cas!! I wanted to ask you how to make the most out of notions (cuz its kinda complex app) + how to make notes omg im struggling w this YELPP😭😭

Hi !! I started using notion last year to try and organize my school life and still haven’t completely figured it all out, so I get what you mean with it being a little confusing 😭. I’ve been mostly using it as a planner, but just started writing notes on it over this summer break and am kind of loving it. I’ll include screenshots and stuff under the cut, but if you need more specific details or a tutorial for a database or something feel free to send another ask or dm!

My Notion Setup ⬇️⬇️

(Sorry if the formatting for pictures is weird, I’m still trying to figure out how to use this app 😵‍💫)

For Planning:

Here is my notion dashboard! It’s a little barebones compared to others that I’ve seen on Pinterest, but it works for me because if I include anything else my ADHD brain will get overwhelmed and won’t keep up with actually using and updating it.

I have two databases: one being used as an assignment tracker that sorts my assignments into To-Do, Overdue, and Done sections based on dates and the other has pages for my classes for the semester. (I just realized that I forgot the change the heading from Spring 2024 to Fall 2024, so please don’t mind that 😭) Along with the databases I have a simple to do list for things that I need to get done that aren’t assignment related.

You could also add a calendar view to the assignment database if you prefer seeing it in that format, I just choose not to because I use Google Calendar to see it in relation to my other plans for the day.

I don’t use the class pages for much because I preferred writing my notes in either Goodnotes or a physical notebook last semester, but I’ll probably start using them more because I like using notion to keep track of all of my code snippets and stuff along those lines that are easier to type than write out. It was also pretty helpful last semester for creating drafts and outlines for essays.

For Note-taking:

Here are two examples of pages that could go in the classes database if you prefer to take notes digitally. I like to use databases to create pages to take notes in for each chapter/section of the textbook or material for the class.

My favorite way of viewing it is the board view because I like having my progress visualized (and clicking and dragging chapters to the “Done” section is satisfying), but the table view is also nice if you want to include more details such as quiz scores or dates.

Here are some photos of my notes for a single chapter. I use section headers to separate the actual notes from other stuff like chapter-specific exercises or links, and use toggle headers for sub-section notes to make it less cluttered. Other than the formatting it’s nothing too fancy, my typed notes are similar to how you would take notes in any other software like GoogleDocs or Word.

[patricia-taxxon]

at this point i might recommend spirit island horizons over the base box as a first spirit island purchase, its wicked cheap especially for a modern board game, it comes with everything u need to play & the guys in there are just really well rounded. the low complexity spirits in the original base box, the ones the rulebook wants you to play first, all come with misleading noob-traps and don't really reveal the dynamic of the game to you. lightning keeps you from understanding the phase structure, vital strength's innate powers make it seem like a cool bonus you get sometimes rather than something you should be hitting every turn, river just craps out on you if you choose the wrong growth options/presence tracks, and my poor ugly son Shadows was just released in an unfinished state.

the dudes in horizons are balanced in a way where you really can't go wrong with building them, and each one actually prompts you to discover key aspects of the game. Eyes is absolutely my favorite dude in there, like the special rule of just making all defense also act as a single dahan gather is such a cool & thematic gentle push towards the game's parry mechanic. Whirlwind is another favorite, like the control strategy is what made me understand spirit island as possessing far more depth than the firefighting co-ops it initially resembled to me, and now players can be introduced to that concept with a dude who's far more adept at control & doesn't come with an offensive back-strategy like river. plus, all of them have easy to hit innates that reveal the rhythm of playing on-element, so you don't have the vital strength problem of going half the game without ever making use of the elements you play.

i still love base spirit island, but it's for the moderate to high complexity fellas. they kinda fumbled on the "tutorial" spirits and im glad they got to try again.

[i3utterflyeffect]

Could you provide a summary of the Rain World lore, or point to any good videos that do that? I’m interested in the Creatures™️ and want to know more about what you’re basing them off of

I'm so sorry anon i tried to make this short. this is all copypasted from a document. the power of autism killed me

if my frothing is too much here's a video by daszombes that probably summarizes this all

IN MY DEFENSE THO this video is also like, 20 minutes long.

im like. going into game mechanics and going into it in a similar way to how a normal player might be introduced to the game. and doing a bunch of shit abt it.

ANYWAY!!!!!!!! Summary of Rain World. Let's go. For context purposes I will be telling the story of Survivor and then going into lore, other stories, and Downpour. Obviously spoilers for everything Rain World and Downpour.

WARNINGS

Mentions of general death and animal death (duh)

suicide

child death (briefly)

fictional speciecide/genocide

potential existential crisis fuel

let's get started.

Your name is The Survivor. You live with a family of five. A little sibling, a baby sibling, and your two parents.

The reason the game is called Rain World is because of the heavy rains that buffet your land-- somewhat manageable from the place your home is at, but in many cases, lethal-- not only because of the flooding, but also because it rains hard enough to give you blunt force trauma that will kill you.

You escape these floods using shelters, hiding and hibernating at the end of each 'cycle'-- the time between each downpour.

During one rain, you fall down, plunging into the abyss as you are seperated from your family. Your mission is to go home.

You find yourself in a dilapidated urban sprawl-- it's something close to it, anyway. Not a city, but incredibly industrial. The world is overgrown. This little yellow thing shows up-- it's called an observer but we'll call it by the nickname Iggy for now-- and it directs you to food and then shelter during the barebones tutorial.

You'll go a few cycles, and discover some base mechanics.

KARMA: Karma is, essentially, a way to keep track of how you're doing. Every time you survive a cycle, your Karma goes up. Every time you die, it goes down. You start with 5 base symbols, each granting you one level. Karma is required to navigate the world, as each reigon requires a certain level for you to get in. We'll talk about this later: Karma is actually pretty important to the lore.

CYCLES: Mentioned previously.

DEATH: You are never truly dead in Rain World. Each time you die, you return to your last shelter, restarting the cycle-- but Rain World is special because it's not just you who knows. Creatures have a chance of coming back to life at the end of every cycle, and they will remember you. There's a system that coincides with this--

REPUTATION: Every species has its own perspective on you, and your actions will change their perception of you. Killing a lot of lizards of the same color might make them afraid of you. If you don't, and instead treat them well, they might ignore you. You are prey, so balancing reputation is important-- and I can only think of one creature that won't try to kill you if your reputation's bad. Even the fish will personally drown you.

One creature is incredibly dependent on reputation that it can make or break a run: Scavengers. If you're kind and often trade, offer pearls (they love pearls), save them from enemies, etc., they'll treat you well. Get a bad reputation, though, and you're dead within seconds. Some animals are just skittish though-- there's literally personality values determining how creatures will act. I love that so much.

I think that's all the important lore-based stuff.

After a few cycles, Iggy will direct you to where (at the time you assume) your family is, and you'll follow them through the areas, going through a large building, a garbage waste, and eventually reaching a unusual ocean lined with pipes and with a sunken building in the distance. As you get closer, you discover that Iggy was not directing you to your family, but instead asking you to go to this building.

After a lot of swimming (and running in terror as the giant leviathan worms try to crush you with their metal jaws), you'll meet HER. A blue humanoid with wires spilling out, attached to the room by a mechanical arm-- similar to the ones you might find on a train.

You cannot understand her at this time, but her name is Looks To The Moon; We'll come back later.

After assigning you a fetch quest, Iggy drags you all the way back, and I'm not entirely sure what the beginner's route is, but I'm pretty sure it's (unfortunately) Dark Level Spider Hell.

Eventually, you crawl through that pit, run away from the centipedes trying to kill you, encounter giant birds with mouths like scissors that really want to kill you that are very very fast, run from them, and eventually make your way up to the next area.

THE LEG & THE UNDERHANG

The Leg is an alarming change from the semi-natural formations of the ground. This place is industrial. It's a metal beam-column, reaching up into the endless sky. This place is infested with lizards, and a scarier enemy:

Daddy Long Legs, also known as The Rot. These are blind… Biological lumps of… something. They're black and blue, and completely blind. But they have great hearing, and the rot will find you if you're not careful. And it will consume you.

Keep the Rot in mind for later. It's important for the lore-- basically crucial.

If you can escape this hellscape and make your way to the top, you'll find yourself in a building larger than you can comprehend.

FIVE PEBBLES - SUPERSTRUCTURE

This area is simply labeled Five Pebbles. This will make sense later.

There's no gravity here, but there's lots of lights and strange things-- things that look like they'd belong inside of a creature, and little bite-sized rainbow things. These are called Neurons, and you actually need them for the fetch quest.

There's a lot of things going on, but you won't be able to admire it too long-- this place has Rot inside it too, and it's much harder to avoid when you can't control your path due to being weightless. It's pretty terrifying, but in a way, this place is kind of majestic.

You explore the sprawl of access shafts, and you begin to hear music-- the most acclaimed and chilling track in the game-- as you reach the General Systems Bus. The first time I arrived here, I was completely awestruck.

RANDOM GODS

A large room, with a single chamber isolated in the middle. Projected lights surround you, and you have to climb your way towards the top to enter the unusual room.

Inside is another robot, similar to Looks to the Moon, except he's pink, he wears a cloak, and most of all, he seems shocked at your presence, because the gravity in the room returns, and everything falls to the ground-- including you.

He talks for a moment, before seizing you with the power of Gravity™️, and lifting you up. He implants The Mark Of Communication into your brain-- a mark allowing you to understand the language he speaks.

The following dialogue occurs:

. . . ...is this reaching you? A little animal, on the floor of my chamber. I think I know what you are looking for. You're stuck in a cycle, a repeating pattern. You want a way out. Know that this does not make you special - every living thing shares that same frustration. From the microbes in the processing strata to me, who am, if you excuse me, godlike in comparison. The good news first. In a way, I am what you are searching for. Me and my kind have as our purpose to solve that very oscillating claustrophobia in the chests of you and countless others. A strange charity - you the unknowing recipient, I the reluctant gift. The noble benefactors? Gone. The bad news is that no definitive solution has been found. And every moment the equipment erodes to a new state of decay. I can't help you collectively, or individually. I can't even help myself. For you though, there is another way. The old path. Go to the west past the Farm Arrays, and then down into the earth where the land fissures, as deep as you can reach, where the ancients built their temples and danced their silly rituals. The mark I gave you will let you through. Not that it solves anyone's problem but yours.

Turns out, this entire massive superstructure IS this guy; Five Pebbles is his name, and this puppet is merely a more interaction-friendly extension of his larger form. He's also not very happy with you climbing through his structure, and kicks you out onto the surface of the structure.

Now, let's go back to Moon and get some more information. We'll go to the west later.

Moondown

Looks to The Moon greets you much more pleasantly than Five Pebbles:

Hello little creature. What are you? If I had my memories I would know… You must be very brave to have made it all the way here. But I'm sorry to say your journey here is in vain.B As you can see, I have nothing for you. Not even my memories. Or did I say that already? I see that someone has given you the gift of communication. Must have been Five Pebbles, as you don't look like you can travel very far… He's sick, you know. Being corrupted from the inside by his own experiments. Maybe they all are by now, who knows. We weren't designed to transcend and it drives us mad. It is good to have someone to talk to after all this time! The scavengers aren't exactly good listeners. They do bring me things though, occasionally…

After giving her a neuron, she will thank you.

These neurons are essentially their brains. She only has five left. She was previously a superstructure like Pebbles-- Who she calls her little brother-- but she has collapsed. Giving her these neurons can help her regain her memory.

You can also eat them! Don't do that. You will permanently kill her if you eat all of them. Also, she remembers if you've done that and won't talk to you.

Quick summary of the vanilla ending:

You go underground, find some religious stuff by an ancient culture before whatever culture created the upper world, you find a big golden ocean, you swim down, and… uh…

You get grabbed by a big worm that sends you to the ascension realm??

I don't fully know what the ending is. No one does. We call the big worm Jerry though, and he's a Void Worm.

Anyway, let's talk about the real basics. The juicy stuff:

Iterators and Ancients

Looks To The Moon and Five Pebbles are complex machines called Iterators, created by a dead race named the Ancients.

These Ancients have left the cycle by using something called Void Fluid, a corrosive material from the core of the world that cancels out your revival. This is called 'Ascension'. We'll talk about this more in a minute.

The Ancients way of life is structured around the idea of leaving the cycle of reincarnation, and they eventually succeed-- however, they decided that they should leave a gift to the 'lesser life' of this world, and allow them their own escape-- with less risk and an immediate payoff. Remember what Pebbles said?

A strange charity - you the unknowing recipient, I the reluctant gift. The noble benefactors? Gone.

Yep; The Ancients basically desired worldwide extinction, from what we can tell. And they didn't bother to create that solution themselves, instead tasking a bunch of sentient, functionally immortal beings, to throw themselves repeatedly at a proverbial wall trying to create this worldwide cleanse.

Iterators were made for this.

But let's talk some other things real quick before we dive into that mess.

KARMA AND YOU

Karma. These symbols are fun and also important.

You see, the base symbols Survivor starts with are representations of what the Ancient Monks call the 'five natural urges'. These don't change the gameplay at all, but karma is crazy important in lore.

Let's take a look at the base five.

KARMA 1: VIOLENCE

The lowest level of karma, this symbol generally represents anger, hate, and violent acts. The symbol is used in several others-- the ones for 'The Hunter' and 'The Outlaw', gotten by eating only meat for 3 cycles or committing needless bloodshed.

KARMA 2: LUST

Yeah. Lust. I've heard this can also be percieved as a desire for material objects (take that with a grain of salt), but other than that, I don't think I need to say more.

This symbol is used in the passage 'The Mother'.

KARMA 3: COMPANIONSHIP

The desire to form connections with others in general, not just friendships. Frequently found scrawled in areas with scavengers, and also used in 'The Chieftain', 'The Friend', and 'The Mother'.

KARMA 4: GLUTTONY

food… hrng….. Anyway this one is the desire to eat good food I assume????? What else is there to say, really?

It's used in The Hunter passage, as well as the Marytr (starve for several cycles intermittently), and Iggy uses it to point you to food.

KARMA 5: SELF-PRESERVATION/SURVIVAL

The urge to survive. This is why people pretty frequently talk about the ancients having a suicide culture-- not to mention that the others represent signs of depression. It's used in 'The Saint' (survive without using weapons) and 'The Nomad' (pass through 4 regions successfully) and, most notably, it's own passage: 'The Survivor', in which you survive five cycles with this amount of karma. It is the highest karma most slugcats can ascend to without Echoes-- We'll talk about Echoes in a minute.

There's one oddball karma that breaks from the formula, so I'm just going to mention that briefly:

7/7 KARMA: PEACE (O)

For some reason, this Karma is used in some other stuff, and only if it's your current highest Karma. Seen in 'The Monk' and 'The Saint' passages, it basically just means peace. That's all. This one's weird.

Let's get to arguably the most important topic:

ASCENSION AND ECHOES

oh god. where do i start. um.

Okay. So basically. Ascension is a separation from the cycle that keeps you from returning, or 'respawning'.

For ancients, this was simple-- they extract fluid from the core of the world named Void Fluid, and you just… Dive in, I guess?

There was a mass ascension at some point, leaving everything they created behind. But this is all lore for the ANCIENTS. Let's get to the slugcat method.

To ascend, you must reach true max karma (represented the symbol ⊗-- a crossed out circle) and go through the Depths and go into the Void Sea, but you can't get Max Karma yourself. There's two ways:

Visit Five Pebbles and gain the Mark Of Communication

or…

You can visit Echoes.

If someone has many vices, such as being arrogant or egotistical, or other connections to the world, they leave something described as a stain of their ego trapped between reality and ascension.

Ghosts, essentially. That's what they're called in the code as well. They will speak to you if you have the Mark, and a few will reminisce and admit they never even wanted to ascend. Whatever these beings are, they give you extra Karma, elevating you to the next level.

Now that your crash course on that is over, let's talk about the iterators, for realsies.

THE GREAT PROBLEM

Being made for a seemingly impossible task was not easy for them, especially after the ancients, well… 'dipped', I guess you would say.

No one could really get to the solution, despite having many cycles to do so, even before the Ancients left. Previously, the Ancient lived atop them in cities, so it was a very noticeable thing.

Some turned to other things: Art, companionship, creative projects, watching the world outside, talking with friends.

Others balanced between these things, finding something like a job and personal life balance.

And some went insane.

You see, the ancients created a 'Self-Destruction Taboo', which attempts to prevent the iterators from attempting to hurt themselves, only causing more damage as they try to work around it and find their own way out.

This wasn't common at first, but something happened that caused it to spiral out of control:

Sliver Of Straw and the Triple Affirmative.

The triple affirmative is a signal that informs all iterators that the Great Problem-- How to ascend all life-- Has been discovered. Three affirmatives:

Affirmative that a solution has been found.

Affirmative that the solution is portable.

Affirmative that a technical implementation is possible and generally applicable.

Here's the thing: The problem wasn't solved. Moon explains it best:

Do you know Sliver of Straw? She's quite legendary among us. Sliver of Straw is the only one to ever broadcast a specific signal: that the Big Problem we're all working on has been solved. The triple affirmative. […] She's also one of few that has ever been confirmed as exhaustively incapacitated, or dead. We do not die easily. Sliver of Straw sent [The Triple Affirmative] and the ensuing commotion was historically unparalleled, before or after. I still remember it. But… nothing happened - except that Sliver of Straw was apparently dead. When the dust settled we were all still there blinking at each other. Everyone had a theory. Some said that she did have a solution, but that the solution itself was somehow dangerous. These later became known as the Triangulators, who think that a solution should be inferred without being directly discovered. Some said she never had a solution, she just died. And when the systems broke down an erroneous signal was sent. One camp claimed that dying was the solution. Either way, after that these different factions developed, as well as a huge forensic effort to recreate and simulate Sliver of Straw's last moments. Some of the simulations were wrapped in a simulation wrapped in a simulation, in case something dangerous might happen. Nothing much has come from it.

Sliver of Straw also abbreviates to SOS, and their name is similar to needle in a haystack.

We're still not sure what happened: The one fan-theory that pretty much seemed canon due to a challenge level was debunked. SOS remains a mystery. I've got my own thoughts, but we're not talking about that here.

Anyway, after Sliver of Straw died, there soon became more and more self-destructing iterators, with one common method resulting in a term for it's failure: The Rot.

Remember that? Yeah. They slowly destroy an iterator, but it doesn't truly kill them. They're still alive in there, somewhere.

Let's talk about how the Rot works once we get to the point where it begins in the main storyline.

THE COLLAPSE

Looks to the Moon was constructed upon a shoreline, and there was originally no plans to create Five Pebbles.

Almost all Iterators are incredibly far apart, even in their local groups, so it would have seemed preposterous at the time of her creation.

However, her surface became inhospitable some time after her creation, and traversing the ground beneath her would have basically made any attempt at evacuation worthless.

So a solution was proposed-- Two iterators connected by a bridge. They could safely leave her to her own things, and meanwhile, the ancients could spend their remaining time NOT dying.

I'd love to talk about the politics surrounding Five Pebble's creation, but that's unnecessary and this doesn't need to get any longer.

After their creators passed on, Pebbles slowly became despondent and began talking in a private group, using the psuedonym 'Erratic Pulse' to obtain information on how he could circumvent the Self Destruction Taboo..

The local group has 3 others. Two are important, one isn't. (sorry Chasing Wind </3)

Seven Red Suns, or SRS, is our current topic.

They are someone Five Pebbles looks up to, and ended up giving him this info, which they regret.

There's also No Significant Harassment, who is mischievous and good friends with most of the group before everything falls apart.

Here's some in-game dialogue:

[LIVE BROADCAST] - PRIVATE Seven Red Suns, No Significant Harassment SRS: I can't stop dwelling over mistakes that I've made. I could just delete those memories of course, but that feels irresponsible. NSH: Oh? What kind of mistakes are we talking about here? SRS: I once gave someone some... sensitive information... the kind that could be dangerous if acted on. SRS: Yet I should have known they weren't in the right state to use that information responsibly. NSH: I take it you won't tell me the content, or to who. SRS: No, I will not, out of respect. NSH: Look, if you ever want to talk about it I can. We can share this little problem of yours. We were made to solve them after all! NSH: You're worried they're going to get themselves hurt by messing it up? SRS: They already have.

You can find the pearl containing this 'sensitive information' in other campaigns.

Here is Moon's comment on it:

This information is illegal. Someone probably tried to send it by a pearl somehow rather than risking being overheard on broadcast. It's an instruction on how to circumvent the self-destruction taboo. The problem with breaking taboos is that the barriers are encoded into every cell of our organic parts. And there are other taboos strictly regulating our ability to rewrite our own genome. Attempting to circumvent the issue using this process would be extremely risky. That's not to say that there exists any known methods that would avoid putting the user in harm's way. Those barriers are there for a reason. Where exactly did you find this pearl? I imagine you dug it up from somewhere within the surrounding facilities, in which case that wouldn't leave many options as to the recipient. That would explain a lot of things…

Pebbles used this pearl, and because of this, his water intake majorly increased, leaving Moon without any water at all: Iterators need water to function, though, as without it they can't flush out the massive amount of excess materials that is made by their operations. He didn't notice, not until Moon contacted him directly-- And he was angered by this, but not without reason.

Failing the pearl caused him to break the genome reprogramming, causing biological parts to be converted into Rot.

When Moon falls, he shuts out all the other iterators, and goes radio silent.

You're caught up on the backing lore. Now... Campaign time.

TIMELINE: SPEEDRUN EDITION

SPEARMASTER

A messenger made by Seven Red Suns who can make spears outta bone-- a little bit trypophobic but I forgive them it's not their fault. No mouth btw. those spears are how it eats. slurp

Delivered the pearl containing the Taboo bypass, but Seven Red Suns sends you back, with a message of worries regarding his physical and mental health, trying to tell him to open up and talk about his feelings. Pebbles gets mad. He kicks you out, as well as the pearl you were carrying. Did I mention that he rips it out of your chest? That pearl was embedded in you.

Anyway, you can take the pearl to Moon because she's still standing, and she encodes it with a goodbye, telling you about how she's about to collapse. You run to the communication arrays and broadcast that message for her, before returning home to Seven Red Suns.

ARTIFICER

"God Forbid Women Do Anything", Genocidal Revenge edition. Artificer had two babies. Scavengers saw one take one of their precious Porls. Baby is dead. Artificer runs but the other baby gets dragged to hell by leeches and drowns.

Anyway, Artificer returns on a genocidal rampage, locked at Karma One: Violence. You use scavenger corpses to get through Karma gates. The only thing that can sate your hunger is blood and flesh. You are continuously aimbotted by Scavengers but you keep coming back to kill more and more.

You're also explosive, did I mention that? I don't think I mentioned that. She explodes. She's very angry. She can launch herself through the air and maul people.

You can get to Karma 10 through echoes, but you're still denied by the void. It's unclear if she becomes an Echo or not.

You also have another ending! If you go to Five Pebbles, he'll say 'hey, that drone you have is a citizenship drone for my city, scavengers are ripping the city apart, I see that you hate them, and if you kill their chieftain we both benefit'!

If you choose to go that route you can tear through the scavengers, have a boss fight, and get a cool mask. Who cares about being empty inside since you can no longer go on a genocidal murder spree and being forever chained to the mortal realm by your anger and bloodshed when you have a cool mask?

Moon is also dead, she's not there.

Blood and violence. Rip and tear.

Slugcat pup was killed so let their corpses rain from the heavens, etc.

HUNTER

You are rot, rot is you!

Actually, you're a messenger slugcat made by No Significant Harrassment. For some reason this guy ended up giving you the rot for reasons still unclear to us. Unintentionally? Intentionally? Who knows. Your cycle count goes down instead of up.

You have limited cycles to speedrun to Moon and MAYBE ascend if you're lucky.

Go through Pebbles? He gives you extra cycles and wishes you the best of luck. Kind of depressing that you're both condemned to the same fate.

Get to Moon; Deliver a pearl that's a message of well wishes and cares from NSH. More importantly, deliver a slag reset key and restart her. She gets her neurons back. She's alive! And unable to help you.

Now? Run.

Your biological time bomb is ticking, and when you get into negatives, it shows. Not only does it turn permadeath, but you begin to experience collapsing into seizure-like spasms randomly, a growing hunger, and according to the wiki HALLUCINATIONS?

Ascend and you get a happy ending, but if you die you're gonna get a horrific surprise in the next campaign!

Fun fact: original hard mode campaign. Hunter is more skilled than the other vanilla slugs, but their world is harder too.

GOURMAND

Food. That's it. Just food. It's either going to be the easiest slugcat or the hardest one.

You eat your list of foods, maybe visit the iterators, and fuck off back home. You don't even have to complete the list. You can just Fucking Leave.

If you do complete the list tho you get slugpups. I like em. Cute slugs.

you can also CRAFT NUKES btw. did i mention that? Gourmand has crafting mechanics and also can craft nukes if you do it right. Not joking

You can also regurgitate an entire living squid. How? Gourmand.

Also by the way Hunter may or may not have popcorned into a mindless mass of rot if you failed to ascend them. Oopsie.

SURVIVOR

See introduction.

MONK

Survivor but babey mode (affectionate)

Remember Survivor's little siblings? Monk is one of them. They're a vanilla bannana boy and my favorite little guy.

You basically choose a route and if you've already completed it with Survivor there's a happy sibling reunion. Oh, there's two routes now, by the way. Once you complete Gourmand you can go home to the Outer Expanse. No one's there but you're both chilling.

RIVULET

WELCOME TO HELL.

This is probably the one that gave Downpour its title. The rain happens every three minutes, maybe less if you get unlucky. The rain shelters are failing and the world's succumbing to Rot.

Go throw yourself into Moon, and you'll discover Monk has given her two neurons and a dress; thank you Monk :]

You also have the mark of communication from someone (who knows who) and you have a pearl for an iterator system that Moon doesn't have called the lymphatic system. Apparently the rain's bad because Pebbles isn't doing well, but how bad can it be?

…hey, why is the citadel covered in Rot? That's weird and annoying.

Was there always this much in the overhang? It's kind of obnoxious.

Finally, you're at Pebbles, so let's-

Oh.

OH.

THAT'S JUST… THE ROT.

THAT'S WHAT IT'S CALLED NOW. OKAY. FUCK.

Pebbles is so sick he can't even maintain zero gravity, it's going on and off.

Dive into the water of the newly discovered path and RUN.

When you get to him, he asks you to disconnect his only life support-- a Rarefraction Cell-- and deliver it to Moon. A final apology. Leave him to listen to his music pearl in peace, it's the only thing he has left.

Take that cell, run to Moon. She knows exactly where it came from. She doesn't know where her core is anymore, though.

Time for the Submerged Superstructure.

Most of Moon's remains are underwater, now infested with kelp, water lizards, and scavengers. But you can swim down, down, down into the creaking metal, the shrieking waters. Let it swallow you whole.

Eventually, you will reach her Heart. Place the Rarefraction Cell inside, and you're washed away.

You are washed to the top, and descend down to find her where you left her-- but renewed with new life.

She'll contact Pebbles one last time. Happy ending, right?

Not yet.

SAINT

THE TRUE TRIPLE AFFIRMATIVE

Saint may seem peaceful at first-- Fragile and unable to throw spears, fluffy to fight the cold seeping into the world-- but they are arguably the scariest one out there!

The world is ending: Iterators have gone silent, and the world's being blanketed in snow. You're up above it all-- so your first instinct is to go east. To Pebbles.

But he's gone.

Descend, and you'll only find a heap of scrap metal: The Silent Construct. His remains.

You're collecting Echoes.

On the way, you talk to Moon. She tells you about the state of the world. How it's dying. That she might be the only one left.

The world is passing into a new era: one that doesn't need them.

At maximum Karma, Saint becomes something unique.

You gain the ability to ascend anything.

You can go back.

You probably are going to ascend Moon. Only a mercy, right?

Return to the silent superstructure, and find that Pebbles remains. He's still holding that pearl. The music is scratchy. Distorted.

How long has he been here?

However long it was, it was enough to pick off all his neurons. And despite this, he's not even granted the mercy of an ending; he can barely even think or speak. It's cold out here, and you can't imagine it'd be kind to leave him here alone. He has to go, too.

And with that, you descend to the depths.

RUBICON

The Void Sea doesn't have anything for you. In fact, you will only discover yourself in a hellish world where it seems to be flipped upside down, and the remains of the old civilizations that are probably familiar by now are succumbing to the void.

You're burned if you touch the void fluid. You must fly to avoid it.

So you go. You ascend many things that are either trying to kill you or keeping you locked out of other paths.

And finally, at the end, you go up, and ascend.

You swim up. The slugcat tree is here, but it's not what you're looking for.

You drop by a chamber-- one containing the two ascended iterators.

They're free, and finally together. Once you ascend, you can see the future and the past in a cycle.

They look at you, and it's not a circle. It's an endless spiral into entropy. Your future goes on forever.

But you keep ascending.

It's not long before the Void Worm finds you. It offers you ascension, a reprieve.

And you kill it.

You're trapped in the cycle forever. An echo, ever recurring.

And it continues on.

🎉CONGRATS!

you are now a rain world expert. consider yourself lore'd. feel free to look at the critters and beasts on the Miraheze Wiki. (thank you miraheze this is so much better than fandom wikis. we love you)

[dragon-snoots-a-boopin]

I am not 100% if I have done this before so I am going to call this my updated Destiny 2 vs Warframe post. However, before I get into thing, please note that EVERYTHING I SAY IS BASED ON MY OWN EXPERIENCES IN BOTH GAMES and that my experiences may differ from yours and if you can't accept that then just stop reading now and go somewhere else. Now I shall get into my thoughts and opinions on both of these games.

I am going to start with Destiny 2 here and the things that I like about it because, contrary to what one may think, there are things about Destiny 2 that I do like. While doing that I will also make comparisons to those same things in Warframe too.

If there is one thing I can definitely give Bungie credit for is just how good everything looks in Destiny 2. The environments, characters, weapons etc all look really, really good. They definitely have some extremely talented artists over at Bungie and it really shows. Of course, Warframe is also a very good looking game too and is also one reason why I like Warframe but, I think Destiny 2 has a little more going for it in the looks department.

Another thing, and this is something I really enjoy from Destiny, another thing that I really love is the music in Destiny 2. I can sit and listen to all of the soundtracks for Destiny 2 anytime and all day long too. Hell, sometimes I listen to Destiny 2 music when I am playing Warframe. But, on the same note, I recently listened to and downloaded the Warframe soundtracks and they're very good also! Sure, I'm not a fan of the lyrical tracks on the second soundtrack but the rest it and all of the first one are really nice to listen to anytime.

Yes, that is pretty much where things that I like about Destiny 2 ends so, let's get into what I don't like.

First up to bat here is that calling Destiny 2 a free to play game is an utter joke. What can one do as a free to play player in Destiny 2 anyway? Well, there is no base game campaign anymore which was the major reason I even tried Destiny 2 in the first place. You get a tutorial mission in place of that and the first mission of each expansion and that's really all the story content you get. You have a limited number of strikes, I think only three or four of them. You have Gambit which, honestly, I have no idea what this mode is as I've never done it. You have Crucible which is PVP which I imagine is a small amount of maps for F2P players. There's the Dares Of Eternity activity from the 30th Anniversary and then there are two raids and one dungeon. Yeah, as a F2P game, Destiny 2 lacks so much. Once you do these things beyond the first time, you'll see just how boring this game really is. Comparatively, Warframe absolutely EXCELS at being a F2P game, especially with the vast amount of content at ones disposal. You have like seven to eight planets to do all the nodes on, you have Duviri which also has The Circuit and Steel Path, you have the stuff associated with Railjack missions and so on! Best thing too is that a good amount Warframes and weapons can just be obtained from farming assassination missions and don't have to be bought from a store. Warframe has a terrific F2P structure that definitely sets it far above Destiny 2.

Of course, if you don't want to be a F2P player and don't want to sit in an empty well of content, you could always fork over somewhere between $160 and $200 to get all the DLC for the game. Oh yeah, you could also spend additional money on the season pass and in game shop too. What? You don't want to fork over more money for a game that you already paid money for? Yeah, no one wants to do that. This is the area where Warframe excels because it has an actual, sound F2P structure. Now, I've heard some people say that one doesn't have to spend a dime on Warframe and I am sorry, but that isn't true. The difference with Warframe is that one doesn't have to spend much on the game. To me, Warframe having a limited number of inventory slots is a major thing. Initially when starting the game, you have a whopping two Warframe slots and if you get more Warframes, it'll cost you 20 platinum per slot and platinum is something that has to be bought with real money. I myself have spent around $7 on platinum because of this, because I have 11 Warframes with a 12th on the way soon. I find it to be a little but looser when it comes to inventory slots for primary, secondary and melee weapons. But here's the thing, you can EARN more inventory slots by doing the Nightweave dailies so if you want to get more slots slowly, that's the way to do it. Also, yes, of course, like Destiny 2, Warframe has a store where you can buy stuff with you platinum. But, ultimately, Warframe is such a better F2P game that Destiny 2 will ever be. Clarification: It has been brought to my attention that it is actually possible to not spend a dime on Warframe, even on inventory slots for Warframes and weapons. This is possible because one is able to trade their leftover Prime parts for platinum. I myself have been showed this by a friend and I myself find it to be complicated. I just plainly forgot about this method until it was brought to my attention and I thank those who did for reminding me about this.

The next thing is that you basically can't play this game single player. Not only because the matchmaking system will match you with random players regardless of if you want to or not, but also because I found that a lot of things that are NOT those opening story missions for each DLC is just way too hard for a single player to handle. I find that Warframe is only a little bit better in this regard. Early on when doing planet nodes, you can do them my yourself no problem. I found though that once you hit Saturn, Uranus & Neptune, that pretty much goes out the window. But, those early planets are also not completely possible to do single player because the boss fights will require other players, otherwise they're way too difficult.

Kind of coinciding with missions is that I really with they would do away with parts of the mission where they don't allow one to respawn. I mean, even in a group this can be trouble and I don't think it's fair to the players to have be worry about dying and having to restart an entire leg of a mission over again. I am so, so glad that Warframe doesn't do this. However, Warframe only lets one respawn four times but, after that, you can rely upon other player reviving you. But, if you're doing something alone and go through your four respawns, then your fucked. But, Warframe definitely does this better in my opinion.

Events are kind of boring. At the time of making this, it is their Halloween event, The Festival Of The Lost, and the event is kind of boring. The event playlist consists of killing an amount of Headless Ones in an amount of time and then doing a boss. There are like three maps for this playlist and the boss that spawns at the end is always the same too. Yeah, I do it for getting gear and weapons and because I don't have much else to do but yeah, playing the same mode on the same three maps over and over is boring. I've honestly not taken part in any of the events in Warframe so I have no idea how they compare.

The lack of unique weapons is a small thing that bothers me. You could get a super awesome legendary weapon and yeah, it looks like 20 previous weapons that you have already used and the only reason it's even special is because of damage numbers or whatever. You have all these talented artists, surely you can make more cool looking weapons for this game. Warframe definitely excels here as they have completely different and unique weapons that looks very different from each other.

Now, I am going to make this a Part 1 post and am going to do the same thing as I've done here for Warframe in another post.

[sweetmonsooncos]

Polnareff Wig Tutorial

ALRIGHTY, HAPPY NEW YEAR LADS, TIME FOR ANOTHER TUTORIAL 🥳

So I recently gave a glued hairline a go and it was strangely one of the most theraputic things I've done for a cosplay; it definitely can be improved on so please don't follow what I did too closely 😂 So here we go!

So first of all, I purchased two wigs from Mapofbeauty from Amazon in the colour Silver Gray. I picked up two because I wanted to use one wig to be the main base and the second wig would be harvested for wefts. When I made my previous Pol wig, I bought a very expensive lacefront which worked great, but I regretted spending that much money on it considering the styling I did. So I figured this way would be much cheaper for me to do!

I sectioned off the base wig where I wanted the hair to stick up and braided the rest of it to keep it out of the way. I then began teasing the ever loving FUCK out of the top to begin building a sturdy base to work with. I was swamped in silver hair for days...

Eventually, I teased some of the hair up top and sealed it in with the almighty Got2B spray. I left some unstyled to mold around and give a smoother look at the end.

For this wig build, I did something a little different to the first Pol wig; on my first go, I made a solid box which I then glued the hair onto, but I modified my method this time around. I built a little box out of cardboard and 5mm EVA foam, but left holes in the bottom so I could pull the hair through it. You could tell with my first wig that there was a box stuck in it, so this method made it much more subtle and worked out SO much better!

I then pulled some of the hair through and glued the bottom of the box to the wig with contact cement and this meant that I could start making the wig hairs stand up.

With my wig anchored down on my wig head, I went and started building the hair around my base. This took several days and was such a tedious process; I basically started by hot gluing the teased hair on the box base I'd made and building it up from there. When I got to the unteased hair, I would heat it up with my hairdryer, hold them upright in place with some clips, then spray them with Got2B to make them stay up. This took quite a few tries as the hair on the front row was short and looked like a terrible mullet 😂

When I got fed up of battling the wig hairs, I moved onto my second wig and began harvesting the wefts with a seam ripper. This was such a fun thing to do and seeing the wig cap get more bald was really funny because it looked so droopy and sad by the end. I kept around half of the wefts to use for the glued hairline and the other half to fill in the gaps on the base.

I also cut out some fabric to stick underneath the hairline of the wig so I could stick my glued hairline bits on it; I got some scrap fabric and measured it to my hairline so it would match up perfectly.

So doing the glued hairline bits was really easy when I got the hang of it! The steps were as follows:

I would grab a weft and fold it together to get a nice thick piece then cut the tracks off at the top and then cut in the middle.

With the cut piece of hair, I would lay it down on my cutting mat.

I then used Hi Tack All Purpose Glue and a popsicle stick to smooth down the top wefts.

Finally, I'd let them air dry for about 3 hours, but I did also use a heat gun for the times I got very impatient 😂

And I did that over and over again until I had enough hairs to work with, so my cutting mat ended up covered in hairs 🙈

With the other wefts that I had harvested and not cut, I used those to fill up the back and cover the tracks. I used hot glue to stick them on and went as close to the top base as possible. This left it looking so thick and luscious and it was gorgeous!

So when all of the glued wefts were ready, I went ahead and began sticking them on! I did the front of the wig first and used hot glue to pop them on and then some clips to anchor them in place while it dried. I had lots of different lengths of wefts to give the hair a bit of variety when it's styled.

When the wefts were in place, I went in with my pinking shears and very carefully neatened up the ends to make it blend a bit better and I styled the rest of the hairs back as well.

Eventually I was left with this 😂 I used a combination of hot glue, heat and hair gel to get the shorter hairs to stand up and blend in with the other hairs. I also began to trim down the hairs that were standing up to get a flat top; with a combination of my scissors and clippers.

It took quite a bit of chopping to get the length I wanted; I didn't want to fall into the trap of leaving it too long again like last time, but I also didn't want it to be too short either. Eventually, I found a nice middle point which was about an inch above the original box I had made.

And for the final step, I went and used my glued wefts to hide the parting at the back of my hair so it would look more natural.

And that was how I made my second Polnareff wig! I'm so happy with the result of this one and compared to my first wig, I think it's a MASSIVE improvement!

And to finish off, a little comparison between my first wig and my second one ^_^

[thegoopycarbonara]

my decades challenge index

Sul sul!

I have begun two different Decades Challenges, one I played from 1890 to 1960 and the other I didn't make much progress in. In both of these, I realized that I'm too much of a control freak and needed to do more prep before committing to the challenge!

Thus, I've indexed all of my hard work below in case you, too, are looking to control everything like I am :) I will update as I find new mods and items that improve my gameplay

Last Update 7/6/2024

I am using a mix of various rules from different creators.

IllusoryThrall's Decade's Challenge (Hard Mode) for starting money, starting age, and MCCC settings*

MorbidGamer's spreadsheets, death rolls, and aging (I'll be using four sim days per year rather than IllusoryThrall's two sim days per year)

Finally, a mix of IllusoryThrall and cutecoffeegal's Decades Challenge Rules for each decade of active gameplay guidelines

some extra details - I highly recommend MorbidGamer's spreadsheets for keeping track of everything, you can find them linked in the Google Doc for the challenge; I am not starting in 1300, so I deleted all of the cells in my copy until 1890 - I'm making minor changes to IllusoryThrall's rules as far as their gameplay settings, but I am using their holidays - Likewise, I'm making some small changes to cutecoffeegal's standard rules for personal preference towards storytelling, so I might allow an heir to be a woman depending on the story I wish to tell

I have lots of experience with mods, but this challenge requires more tuning than I'm used to. I've tried to lay everything out here for you! If you need it, here's a quick tutorial on how to put mods and custom content in your game

CORE MODS

deaderpool's MC Command Center : I used IllusoryThrall's MCCC Settings for gameplay, you'll need to adjust these settings through a computer on your lot; if you're going to have any mod, I would recommend this above all

roburky's Meaningful Stories : Adds depth to the experiences of my sims

Realistic Gameplay (alphabetized)

adeepindigo's Healthcare Redux : I love adeepindigo's mods, they integrate so well with the game; I'm only using Healthcare Redux for now to simulate realistic sickness and medical care

BrazenLotus's Harvest & Gather, Crafting, and Food & Drink : Another great mod that allows you to farm, craft, preserve, and cook in a more period-appropriate way; it took me a while to get this working how I wanted, but it's so worth it

chingyu's 100 Base Game Traits : The lack of traits in Sims 4 is one of my biggest complaints, so I broke the rules of the challenge a bit to give my sims more interesting, life-impacting traits while keeping close to the decade

ClaudiaSharon's No Autonomous Anything : So my sims stop taking selfies and texting people in 1890

ClaudiaSharon's No Festival Notifications : So I'm not pestered with festivals I can't attend yet

Frankk's Language Barriers : More realism to sims being from different worlds; !!be sure to follow his download instructions very carefully!!

Kuttoe's Enlist in War : For war realism

Kuttoe's Home Regions : To simulate contact only between sims in one world before common travel

Littlbowbub's Ye Olde Cookbook Kit : A great mod that lets you forage, hunt, and cook meals with new oven animations, lifesaving if you're playing with Simple Living

Lumpinou's Mood Pack : This is a required mod for a number of other mods to work that give custom moods and moodlets to your sims; I use it for chingyu's Base Game Traits

LittleMsSam's Auto-Employees : A lot trait you can use to populate vendor stalls on lots you create, a HUGE lifesaver for my Simple Living sims

maplebell More CAS Traits : serves the same purpose as chingyu's mod!

MizoreYukii's Children/Toddlers Can Die of Anything : For realism and death roll compliance

MizoreYukii's Remove Hats Indoors : An item that allows you to set hat and glove rules inside, functions like the shoe sign from Snowy Escape

Pandasama's Childbirth Mod : For realism in childbirth

RVSN's ISO LovePhotos Camera : I use this to take portraits in-game

SimplyAnjuta's No Makeup/Accessories on Randomized Sims : Keeps my townies from looking deranged

SimRealist's Mortem, Sim National Bank, Financial Center ,and Private Practice: I use these mods for realism in dealing with money and sim death as well as building a functioning bank/clinic, it takes some finagling to hide the required computers in the venue, but I really appreciate the structure it gives my game

TURBODRIVER's Wonderful Whims : For realism in relationships, woohooing, and menstruation

The Peridot Project's Shorter University Mod [4 credits] : I use this mod to remain true to the timing of the challenge; 4 credits/2 weeks simulates four years in-game

Triplis's Quit or Join School : In case I need my teens to quit school

Overrides !!I recommend keeping your overrides separate from mods in your game folder!!

pandorasimbox's Timeless Mod surely-sims Invisible Crib kat-simss' Historical Homework Defaults extrellka-chipsa's Fire Extinguisher Replacement MoonSimmers' Victorian Books Override 20thCenturyPlumbob's Map Replacements CowplantSnacks' Historical Replacements (Scouts) Savythatsimmer's Henford River Loading Screen Magnolian Farewell's Take the Lead Leash Replacement motherof70's Bug Spray and Trash Replacements MorbidGamer's Present Override Surely-Sims' 1900s Millinery CAS Backgrounds (I use Lace) xbrilliantsims' Toddler Bathtime Overrides Cepzid Creation's Functional Cottage Living Phonebooth MizoreYukii's Functional Broom JaneSimsten's Parchment Computer

Poses all used with Andrew's Studio Pose Player and scumbumbo's Teleport Any Sim (I also use Twisted Mexi's Searchable Pose Player)

Minty_Mint's Large Farm Family Portrait, Town Family Portrait, and Farm Family Portrait scythesims' Victorian Children Posepack, Part II, and Victorian Family Portraits Posepack EllieMaySims' Pose Pack Old Photos kat_simss' Old Family Picture Posepack lucky-content's Wedding Poses TheRoyalSims' Old Timey Couple Posepack RevolutionSims' Portrait Poses TwentiethCenturySims' Embroidery Posepack

Misc Mods Scumbumbo's XML Injector weerbesu's UI Cheats Extension TwistedMexi's Better Exceptions SrslySims' Simulation Lag Fix

There is too much custom content in my game to possible put it all here, but I am going to list some of my favorite creators and simblrs for you to browse

BatsFromWesteros Vintage Simstress Vintage-Simmer Medieval Sim Tailor & Carpenter retropixels SFS Archive Linzlu & SFS Archive historicalfictionsims ChèreIndolente Moon-Simmers JewishSimming cmoonsims historicalsimslife cringeborg GildedGhosts & SFS Archive peebs pandorasimbox AmeyaSims lonelyboy the-melancholy-maiden joliebean Out of Fashion Cepzid buzzardly28 Saurus lilis-palace (FOLKLORE, INTARSIA, BUDAPEST) plasticbox's Washing Bowl syboulette

Currently Testing... Lot 51's Fashion Authority Mod

Current Game Stats: Arthur & Clara Wright 1890 (Day 1)

World Stats:Windenburg Landgraab Bank and Clinic, Oak Lane Schoolhouse, Windenburg Congregational, Windenburg Town Hall, The Knight's Arms Restaurant, Landgraab Shoppes, H. Licht Fine Photography, Town Centre Tavern

Townies:The Von Windenburg Family [The Von Windenburg Estate] - Byron Von Windenburg, Pearl Von Windenburg, Eugene Von Windenburg, Harmony Von Windenburg, Mabel Von Windenburg, Dahlia Rheinfrank (nanny), Joelle Whitlock (tutor) The Gallagher Family [14 Willow Lane]- George Gallagher, Louise Gallagher, Jerome Gallagher The Parsons Family [6 Oak Lane] - Matthias Parsons, Juliette Parsons

Some more information on MCCC Dresser functions - follow the instructions to save outfits then automate them on age-up for unplayed sims; it's a time suck, but makes your gameplay much more immersive, in my opinion

from IlluoryThrall's Rules

Gameplay Options:Autonomy: Off Disable autonomy for selected sim: off Auto-age played sims: no Auto-age unplayed sims: no Sim Lifespan: Long Maximum sim count: at your discretion Fill empty homes: also at your discretion Show whims: on Build mode items grant gameplay bonuses: on

Environment:8 Day Lunar Cycle Permanent Phase Disabled Disable lunar effects OFF Season Length: 7 Days Rain and thunderstorms Snow and Blizzards Enable temperature effects on Sims: on Enabled Thundersnows: on Enable Icy conditions: on

Pack Settings: Get Famous: disabled until the 1910s Eco Lifestyle: disabled on both options until 1970s Bust the Dust disabled until the 1920s Werewolves must be locked to Moonwood Mill (although deleting them might be useful, as well.) High School Years: Enable both options (Following Teens to school is forbidden until the 1920s or after, at your discretion.) Growing Together: both options enabled

[lookslikethatsallthetimewehave]

l'm no child psychologist, so l'm just guessing here:

The devs probably believe that kids today would just be running around the map, clicking random stuff and not knowing what to do. When they do make progress by doing such, they wouldn't know how to find the next story beat. Then they'd get frustrated at the "boring game" and quit. If they had something to guide them, like a push in the right direction, maybe they would know how to play it.

But Poptropica already does that indirectly. Character dialogue, setup of the map, the story leads you to complete the game. It's especially true for the simpler islands. Overall they don't tell you when you'll complete the island, and imo they shouldn't. That's like doing a word search with the answers already underlined.

It takes patience, a whole lot of patience. I can see some good in a progress bar (keeping track of how much you've completed)... but the map already does that! And they don't spoil the island by turning it into a string of side quests!

Simplifying the puzzles also feels like assuming your audience doesn't have the patience and the willpower to complete them. Yea most popular video games among kids now are straightforward and quick to learn. But the thing is, those games aren't puzzles. Puzzles are meant to be challenging, to encourage problem solving. This was why Poptropica was considered an educational game in the first place!

(Also, we already have a lot of running “easy” islands that new players can complete swiftly. There’s no point to nerf the “hard” islands, the ones known for being difficult, to be “beginner-friendly”)

TL;DR I do get wanting to give everyone a fair chance without having to look up tutorials, but basically (unnecessarily) child-proofing and watering down the game as a whole is... kinda insulting to newcomers.

(Sorry for the long send again)

You hit the nail right on the head. Now the nail hurts.

I mean, I guess I could see why they think kids nowadays need the hand-holding. They use TikTok, they're probably not that smart /hj

But yeah, you're 100% right. The fact that Poptropica is a problem solving game is what made so many people love it. The user got to run around and figure out clues and items that they will deduce for themselves how and where to use them. Kids love being able to figure things out on their own, figuring things out on their own is one of the things that makes games like Poptropica so much fun.

And the fact that there were islands back in the day that offered a real challenge, like Mythology, Skullduggery, Steamworks, etc shows that they respected children's intelligence.

I don't know much about what kids like nowadays (except for toy reviews, weird meme videos and the like, based on what my 10 year old cousin watches), but the least people can do is just... try to give them something that has actual substance XD

Not only that, but the newer islands don't have a lot of room for the user to run around. Some of them only have three areas. And even some of the older islands that only had a few areas, there was still plenty to do.

You wanna know what I think? I think because it takes longer to make islands now, due to Flash being gone and the limited amount of people working at Poptropica due to layoffs and whatnot, that's most likely one of the contributing factors to this new change of pace. I get the feeling that if they had more people and money, things might get better. But that's just my two-cents.

[sapphosremains]

hi! i saw that you use the BCP and i was wondering if you had any resources for it. i recently became episcopal and i've been doing both morning and evening prayer (and sometimes compline) every day using an app, however i would like to learn to use a physical book or even just learn to compile all the readings myself. i've found a couple of tutorials but none of them have really worked for me so i wanted to see if you had any! i'd also love to hear about any faith resources you enjoy in general

god bless you!

hi anon!

super cool that you'd like to move on to a physical bcp - it's definitely a nice reminder you can carry around etc, and there's always something special about using a physical book.

a normal lectionary can be super confusing, so if you want to use the bcp but aren't ready to find the readings from the lectionary, i'd recommmend 'almanac' which compiles all the readings etc for you for both traditional and contemporary services. this is for cofe. this is one for the episcopal church but it seems to only cover sundays and feasts. as far as i can see they're the same so far, so i think you'd be good to use almanac on weekdays. (btw, you can add almanac to whatever digital calendar you use!)

as for the other way round, braving the lectionary! as we've gathered that cofe and episcopal seem the same, and i can't find an episcopal lectionary (although there might be one in your bcp...), i'll use the cofe lectionary as an example. you'll need these two links:

lectionary

lectionary table 2020-2045

it shouldn't be too different a process for a different lectionary, even if the readings etc end up being different.

so, first we go to the second link. let's do it for today, wednesday 21st of august. therefore, 2023-2024 (because this is advent-advent), so for the daily eucharistic lectionary we are picking 2. then let's say we're doing morning prayer in ordinary time, so we're picking OT1 and NT1. we are currently in trinity 12 (you figure this out from easter and then just add one each week, so next monday will be trinity 13), go to the lectionary link, scroll down to trinity 12, find wednesday, OT1, and your old testament reading will be 2 sam 15.1-12, which we can check with our almanac... correct!

we find the NT reading a similar way. scroll to the next page. the weeks aren't labelled here, but we can remember that trinity 12 was the first on the page, and wednesday was the third reading down, we want NT1, which is Acts 9.19b–31, which is also correct!

next, psalm. gets a bit tricky here. my daily prayer app gives me 105 in the morning, while the almanac gives me 110, 111, 112. you can choose whether you follow the psalms based on the lectionary, or the days of the month. both are fine, both can be found in the cofe lectionary, and the lectionary for psalms works slightly differently, as there is a different way it works for ordinary time. how to do this is explained in table 4 of the lectionary pdf, and the alternate psalms based on day of the month (so you're cycling through all the psalms every month) is table 5.

finally, collect. we're nearly there! collects for ordinary time can be found on this link. scroll down to trinity 12 and you've got it!

now, everything changes on a sunday, but it's easier, i promise!

scroll down to trinity 12 on this link, and then find year b (you can find which year it is in the second link above), and there you are! everything is there, much easier. collect is the same for the whole of each week.

once you've done the first one, it gets easier as you can just follow down. maybe if you printed them out, you could cross out each week as you did it, as an easy way to keep track. if you get lost, you can figure it out from easter again, or think back to sunday when they would have said in church what week it was!

important things to remember with the bcp is that it is used by priests, so there will be things in there you're not meant to do or say! it's not a massive deal in private, and He knows what you meant obviously, so don't stress if you read through accidentally, but the idea is that you cannot pronounce things like the absolution, sacraments obviously etc, different blessings for things you do not have authority over (married people can bless each other and their children) with that intent, if that makes sense. different churches have different views on this, so find out what the episcopal church allows laity to say and do. it will also be fairly obvious, saying things like 'the priest will say', and might give alternate things (such as asking God to give blessings, as opposed to giving a blessing like a priest could).

as for other resources, the cofe website is great in general, and i'm sure the episcopal church has similar resources online. i'm afraid no other resources are springing to mind rn, but anything new i find will go on my blog as per, and i'll update this if i think of anything more.

i hope this was helpful, and do let me know if you have any questions.

God bless you and be with you