#but this is something which more or less needs to be taken IRL now to be dealt with

[scarvain]

✶ surprise — hamzahthefantastic x reader

SUMMARY: hamzah attempts to surprise you on your birthday

A/N: an irl gave this idea after they told me they surprised their partner this way and i thought it was the cutest ever

your birthday hasn't been something you planned on celebrating each year. you thought it wasn't as big of a deal to consider each year as a milestone in your life and for you, it was also a waste of money and time planning a party, and sending invites, and overall it was just tiring.

but this year, your boyfriend, hamzah wanted that to change.

he was currently in your shared apartment, a baking video in the background while he had all the ingredients out with an apron tied around his body.

"hamzah, how many of these do you need?" martin asks as he pumps air into the balloon.

he thinks for a while, opening the cake mix's box. "maybe... about 8 or 10?"

after a while, martin had 5 balloons with air, and all that was left were the strings and the cake. hamzah on the other hand had replayed the video three times already with only the cake mix in his bowl, afraid to mess up the cake he was making for you.

"how many times are you gonna repeat this bro?" his friend teased as he tied the end of the balloon.

hamzah just rolled his eyes before cracking the eggs and pouring them into the bowl.

you'd be coming home soon and he was trying to rush the process of making the cake, the powdered batter scattering everywhere as he quickly mixed.

"fuck," he muttered to himself but still proceeded with baking the cake.

when martin finished with the balloon — even tying ribbons at where he tied them, hamzah was still mixing the cake batter.

"hamzah," martin called out for the curly-haired boy who was adding ingredients to the bowl. "i'm gonna go now, have to fetch mandy from work." he nodded at him.

"thanks for the help dude, seriously thank you." hamzah said with a genuine smile. when his friend left, he mixed the batter more before transferring it to a pan.

as soon as the cake was finished baking, he immediately took out the tray from the oven but with the temperature still being high, he burnt himself although he was wearing mittens.

he thought decorating the cake was going to be the easy part, considering the fact that he was just meant to spread icing and pour sprinkles but he still thought of writing a short note on the cake but as he was getting to the third letter, your keys were already jammed into the keyhole, opening the door to your apartment.

the counter was still messy with the spillage from earlier and the bowls and utensils he used, were scattered all over.

"shit, shit, shit!" he said as tried to tidy up the place but you've already stepped inside.

"hamzah is something," your head turns to where he was standing after you've taken off your shoes. your eyes fall on the cake that's on the counter and the piping bag in his hands. "oh my god." you try to hide your smile but with your boyfriend standing in front of you, with a horrified expression and a messy apron, you couldn't help it.

it was an image you wish you could've taken a photo off. he places the piping bag down the counter and tries his best to hide the cake by walking closer to you.

"okay, i know you hate birthdays but i wanted to surprise you this year. we've been together for uh... 3 years now? and take it as a gesture of love, please." he pleaded, eyes looking deeply into yours.

you step closer to him and place a hand on his cheek before pecking his lips. there's a smile on your face when you pull away which makes him less nervous. "this might just be the best birthday ever, hamzah." you tell him and his eyes widen in excitement.

you untie his apron, throwing it on the counter before wrapping your arms around him. the two of you hold each other for a while before he places a kiss on your temple and then speaks again.

"you also have balloons, martin blew them for me oh and, your cake only has the letters h and b because you arrived when i was starting on d."

✶ taglist — @cdbabymp3 @noturbabe22 @dabuggh3 @kingvioleta @tumb1rgir1z @mfcherry @ldrvinyl @certainfestivalnerdshepherd @seasidelily @jisyng @brucewaynegfreal LMK IF U WANNA BE ADDEDDD!!!

#savi's works ✶ #hamzahthefantastic #hamzahthefantastic x reader #hamzah x reader #hamzah fanfic #slushy noobz

[meraki-yao]

RWRB Movie Analysis: The Kensington Confrontation, on life, love and patience

Some things happened in my personal life and I had an epiphany on certain stuff, and subsequently, I started to see this scene in a different, clearer light.

“My life is the crown, and yours is politics, and I will not trade one prison for another.”

From Henry’s point of view, there is no changing, no escaping the life he’s in. He has his family, and the country’s adoration (considering he’s called the prince of England’s hearts, he might be the most popular royal in universe), and that’s all he knows, that’s all his has. He can’t straight up come out, the country will reject him, the king will berate him, he’ll be left with everything he had and knows taken away from him, he’ll be left with nothing, and he knows love can’t solve everything. If he comes out, gets more or less banished by his country and stay with Alex, with Alex’s ambitions of becoming a politician who has to be frequently judged and scrutinized by the public, as his partner he will be subjected to that too, which he doesn’t want, especially in such a case that he’s not even trained for.

To him, at that moment, there is literally, no possibility of him being true and happy. There is no way out.

“We can figure out a way to love each other on our own terms, no one else’s.”

Alex doesn’t see this as a binary choice. Henry doesn’t have to come out now. They can wait, and love each other while waiting. They can find a balance. Henry can push for smaller changes, like choosing to do charity projects on LGBT+ communities to test the water on how the public might react to a royal getting involved in the community as well as make the crown’s image more LGBT friendly so if he comes out later, there’s at least a portion of the public that will be supportive. (I am completely confused about how the royal family in RWRB works, but for the irl primary royal family members, besides some mandatory monarchy stuff, they can choose which topics to focus on, like Kate Middleton with early childhood development and Prince William with environmental conservation) Alex can find his footing in the political scene in the US and gain his own relatively stable standing before coming out, and with already established political work that hopefully will gain him a supporter base, later revealing his relationship won’t be as big as a hit.

Either way, in Alex’s perspective, and honestly, in reality, they don’t need to make a decision between two definitive choices. If the pre-set road doesn’t work, they’ll carve their own way out.

It’s just, that will be hard, and scary because that means breaking out of the space Henry’s in now. That space doesn’t suit him, and he’s fairly miserable stuck in that space, but it’s also all he knows. In that space, he knows what to do, he can predict outcomes, because that’s all he’s ever known.

Breaking out, carving a new path, means doing something no one’s done before. He’ll be alone in navigating the new life, he can’t predict outcomes, and there will be no one to guide him. (Alex will of course, still love and support him, but support and guidance are two very different things.) He might risk everything and only end in a big mistake.

“That is simply not possible, and you know it.”

That sentence isn’t true. But Henry is so fully-encompassed by the life he has now that he doesn’t dare to even think about a potential alternative.

“Fine. I’ll leave. And you can live in your tower and protect your heart for the rest of your life and nothing will ever happen to you.”

“But Henry.”

“Nothing will ever happen to you.”

I, without fail, always tear up at this line, and just sob through the rest of the scene.

Here’s the line in the book:

“Tell me you’re done with me. I’ll get back on the plane. That’s it. And you can live here in your tower and be miserable forever, write a whole book of sad fucking poems about it. Whatever. Just say it.”

Honestly, I kind of like the movie line better for two main reasons: 1, using the same line with distinctly, painfully different meanings is such clever dialogue writing, 2, just like the book line, it’s insinuating what Henry would be losing, but the first time Alex says it, it also insinuates what Henry thinks he’ll be saving, and the contrast between the two makes the lost more evident and painful.

The first “Nothing will ever happen to you” is about what Henry’s keeping by giving up his relationship and Alex. You can live in your tower like Rapunzel, stay in your cage like a trapped bird, you can maintain the status quo, the royal life you’ve been living for so long. You can protect your heart for the rest of your life because if you never allow yourself to fall in love, if you never give your heart away, no one will lose it, and no one will break it. Nothing will change from the life you’re living, for better or for worse. Nothing will change. Nothing bad, nothing dangerous, nothing new will ever happen to you.

The second “Nothing will ever happen to you”, is all the things Henry will be giving up by staying where he is, staying in the same space that the crown drew for him. Never changing, never breaking out, living day by day on orders and demands, never taking initiative. You don’t have the burdens and pressures of making choices, but you don’t get the freedom to make the choices you want either.

Most devastatingly, never getting to be honest about your sexuality, about your personality and thoughts. Never getting to date, laugh, kiss, have sex, fall in love with a man who truly loves and cherishes you, the man standing right behind you, who flew across an ocean and stormed a fucking castle to tell you he loves you.

All the unbridled joy you felt when you were with Alex, you will never get that again.

Yes, you might never get your heart broken again afterwards.

But you’ll also never get your heart to beat as wildly, as happily and as loudly as it did when you were with him, ever again.

Nothing will change.

Nothing new will ever happen to you.

But by refusing to change, nothing good will ever happen to you either, darling.

Nothing truly good, truly happy will ever happen to you either.

You will never, be truly happy again.

And hearing Alex’s ultimatum, makes Henry actually think.

Alex leaves, and he keeps this life. Never truly getting his heart broken after tonight, no soul-deep agony, but a constant heartache and discomfort he will carry for the rest of his life.

This exchange isn’t worth it.

There are a bunch of details that Henry hasn’t worked out, and is still scared to work out, but first and foremost, giving up the love of his life in exchange for a life that doesn’t suit him, it doesn’t feel like it’s worth it.

I originally thought the transition from the Kensington confrontation to going to the V&A was a bit too sharp and sudden, but I have another understanding of it now.

Henry needs to think. He also needs reassurance that if he chooses to do something, Alex will stay. He needs to be sure that Alex is it for him. That Alex is worth him taking risks, worth him upturning and changing his whole life.

Henry said it himself; he’s been dreaming about dancing with his love in V&A since he was young, this is what he imagined the peak of his own brand of romance would be. When he allows himself to dream of love, this is what he dreams of.

If he takes Alex to the V&A, and whatever happens there is everything he’s ever dreamt of, then this is it for him. Alex is it for him. He can’t let Alex go anymore.

And Alex, sweet, loving Alex, does fulfil his dreams of dancing with him, and it’s everything he’s ever dreamt of and more, and Henry has his primary answer.

I want him.

I want to keep being with him.

I love him.

He’s worth it.

They need to figure out what it means to keep being together and committed with the life they have. Henry is still scared about carving his own path in life for the first time. He needs time. He needs patience. He needs to be brave.

So he says:

“Please be patient with me, and I promise I will try and be brave for us.”

And of course, Alex, says yes.

“I love you.”

“I’ll be as patient as you need.”

#rwrb #red white and royal blue #rwrb movie #firstprince #alex claremont diaz #henry hanover stuart fox #henry fox mountchristen windsor #rwrb thoughts #rwrb movie analysis #rwrb meta #i originally only planned on writing about the nothing will ever happen to you line #then i got carried away #and ended writing the entire conflict climax and resolution #i think this is my longest meta so far #applause to Alex being the best bf

[musette22]

I’m sorry Minnie, this is a long one but I need to discuss with someone my thoughts about Seb’s latest casting as Trump.

The only way I’m seeing this work out is if they lean heavily into the comedy aspect of a dramatic comedy. I don’t know if you’ve seen Taika W’s Jojo Rabbit, but they make Hitler seem completely ridiculous.

If they don’t, I think it’s a serious ( & potentially dangerous mistake). Because no matter how many bad things they show the character doing, he will still seem aspirational to some & sympathetic to most. Look at movies like The wolf of Wall Street where Leo DiCaprio played Jordan Belfort - a categorically awful person- but you come away from watching that movie thinking what a badass or feeling sympathy for him. Look at Pam&Tommy, Sebastian himself made a sexist, wife beater with anger issues seem likeable, yes he’s troubled & clearly has issues, but you don’t hate him. But at least Tommy & Jordan are currently out of the spotlight aren’t politicians.

Imagine if they announced that Ryan Gosling was playing young Putin, we’d all be rightly horrified. It’s the same thing, you shouldn’t be giving unnecessary attention to current political figures. Trumps running for president ffs

If this is anything but a straight satire then I really hope as a fandom we can put our love of Seb aside and not give this narcissistic man a spotlight . I can just see Trump at rallies bragging that he’s getting a movie made about him and they’ve hired a good looking young actor to play him. It makes me feel ill.

Hi there, anon. Thanks for your ask. I'll be honest: I share your concerns. I'm not thrilled about this casting news at all. I heard some rumours to this effect on Tuesday but I still hoped it might not be about Sebastian's project, but apparently it is.

Fortunately, all signs point to this movie being critical of Trump, and not at all in support of him, but even if that's the case, the concerns you raise are still valid. However sure I am that Sebastian would never have any part in any Trump propaganda, and that he sees this as an opportunity to work with people he admires and tell a good story, which additionally criticises Trump, I still wish he hadn't taken this part. I personally agree that the less attention given to that cretin the better. Trump does NOT need any more publicity, good or bad. And the timing of this project is worrying too, imo.

I personally have no desire to see a movie about Trump - I already know everything I need to know about him as well as how I feel about him - and I have no desire to see Sebastian play Trump and forever associate the two. Even though I'm sure they'll 'uglify' him for this part, Sebastian is still Sebastian (i.e. charming and likeable irl), which I think is an issue in this case.

So as things stand now, I don't think I'll be seeing this movie when it comes out. We'll have to wait and see if perhaps it might turn out to be heavily satirical or something, but I'm not sure it will be. Only time will tell, I guess. Let's hope Sebastian knows what he's doing with this one, for all of our sakes, but for his own as well.

#i'll answer some more asks about this after work i think #but this is by and large my own opinion #sebastian stan #the apprentice movie #minnie answers

[alcorian]

Not sure if you still want headcanons or ideas for OpBee (and sorry about your father) but here are some stuff I guess?:

Let's assume those are like mix of continuities

•Since Bee is in special forces and well a spy I feel like he would be very good at hiding his emotions, at least more better then what people give him credit for. OP is also very good at it but he also has his tells that Bee probably noticed over the centuries. Probably like his movement of his OP dials or mini expressions around his eyes like when they widen in surprise or crease in amusement or worry.

• I feel like Bee would rather scrub the whole ark with human toothbrush rather then confess, like at all. He is good bad at hiding his emotions about Optimus and he feels comfortable he yearns to be in this limbo of not knowing. He tends to fall fast and usually it ends up in heartbreak or painful rejection and hey we speaking of Optimus prime here.

•Optimus would fall slower but harder. He is used to not showing his true feelings so maybe he mistakes the slowly growing romantic affection for something else? Depends if we wanna ANGSTY route or fun route so inma go for ambiguous one.

•The first time Bee gets injured (like extended med stay injured) under Optimus command, he thinks he made a mistake allowing Bee out in the battle BC (insert angsty reason) untill he finds out the only reason bee was injured was because his cover was blown as he rescued a comrade from certain doom.

•From that a lot of feelings started to grow, constant worry over Bee health in particular which makes Optimus feel guilty BC he has a whole army to think about, not just Bee. But there is also pride whenever Bee manages to accomplish something great like obtaining crucial information or managing to twart decepticon plans. There is also frustration whenever Bee gets Infront of unnecessary danger like taking a shot for him that he could have easily take on.

•Different love languages!!! I feel like whilst Optimus love language would be acts of service Bee would be verbal. Optimus can't just act like he blatantly favorites Bee so he finds different ways to show his love like spending his short free time with bee or even doing paperwork in the same room. Leaving small gifts that Bee offhandedly mentioned or doing what he can to make Bee happy.

Bee on the other hand would find words be just a tad more meaningful. For me it's like, he is a spy he needs to be showed he is loved through action but he feels that if he tried reciprocate it would came as less genuine. So he speaks and speaks and finds words to say Optimus about what he loves how he loves. He lets himself be himself in those moments.

If he looses his voice around this time it would be even more devastating as he lost his main way to show love. Sure he can give gifts and show his love in different ways but his main way was taken away from him. He still grieves it.

•They probably share quality time as shared loved language.

I'm not sure about character limit in asks so inma end it here and hope those helps in any way!!! I'm more then happy to send some more :D

sorry for spelling mistakes I tried to catch them but screen be blurry dbdhdh

-@);-- R anon

thank you so much!! its good to keep my mind off my family situation right now. and i loooove all these headcanons.

i love bee and optimus slowly learning to read each other better than most of their peers... slowly picking up on each others feelings.

i also think bee could really easily view himself as "not worthy" because, i mean, its a prime. he might view his crush on op as something that would be insulting or even blasphemous if optimus were to find out.

meanwhile, optimus thinks his feelings are wrong because of the power he holds as a prime--he thinks that if he confesses, bee will say yes just to please him. so he keeps those feelings very close to his spark. he also probably worries about responsibility and impartiality as a commanding officer. (irl, in the military, your commanding officer often cannot be your partner due to the bias it can cause in decision-making)

such good angst ideas in here, i am eating it up.

#askbox #Anonymous #opbee #optimus prime #bumblebee #transformers

[thebroccolination]

Is it bad to ship couples irl?! As I reallly ship boun and prem even though they’re most likely not together but the things they do for each other is perfect!!

Hi, Anon! You're gonna get a long answer to this, because I think the subject of shipping real people is one that deserves more nuance than just "it's bad" or "it's fine"! This is something I've wanted to write about for a long time, so I apologize for using your ask as a jumping-off point!

So, okay, I think there are two main conversations to have: 1) whether shipping real people itself is moral, and 2) how one should publicly conduct oneself when engaging in shipping culture in Thai fandom.

Is It Moral?

I think the most important thing to consider when shipping real people is what those people themselves feel about it. If they've expressed or showed discomfort with being shipped, then at that point, I'd scale back completely. Part of the fun of shipping for most people is the "oooh" mystery factor, and if someone straight-up goes, "Knowing that people are envisioning me engaging romantically with another person makes my skin crawl," then I simply wouldn't enjoy it anymore. Shipping people who don't want to be shipped just isn't my thing.

Now, if they seem cool with it, then the five main things I'd consider are: how old they are, how experienced they are in their industry, whether their place of work (agency/studio/etc.) has a history of exploiting its artists, whether one person looks less comfortable than the other, and whether or not they seem to fully understand and consent to the implications of shipping culture.

For BounPrem specifically, they're both in their mid-late twenties. They've been in the industry for over five years at this point, so they're adults who are well-versed in the industry and know full well what shipping culture is and its implications. They're also both regularly and demonstrably comfortable with fans shipping them. (For example: Prem in this entire video, Boun asking fans to write BounPrem fic for Valentine's Day, taking part in the joke about people "asking for" Prem, etc.)

On the structural side of things, Prem left his agency last autumn (on amicable terms) and has been independent since, so he's very much operating on his own terms right now. Boun is under Wabi Sabi, which is a small agency whose CEO, New Siwaj, is openly queer and fiercely protective of his artists' boundaries and reputations. New has gone on record multiple times saying he doesn't require or prod anyone working for him to do fanservice if they don't want to. New has also hired legal representation to combat the consistent homophobic hate speech against his artists (including Boun, who is far and away their artist with the largest following). New and his company have repeatedly proved they prioritize and respect their artists.

However! BounPrem do have boundaries, and they've been clear about them. When asked if they're dating, their most common answer is that if they do date, they'll neither confirm nor deny. ("We won't make it public, but we won't hide it either.") They're not the only ones to say this, and I think it's the smart route to take as far as marketing and protecting their privacy if they ever do date.

Certain interviewers seem to have crossed BounPrem's boundaries in the past, and fans have teased Boun for being possessive or jealous because he won't let anyone touch Prem. However, and this is purely speculation on my part, Boun recently commented that Prem hasn't always spoken up when he encounters problems, so he's been taken advantage of, so I think Boun has often taken it upon himself to stand up for Prem. Especially if he senses that someone is using Prem's quiet nature to their benefit and touching him in a way he knows Prem wouldn't consent to.

Essentially, Prem might not say something, but Boun absolutely will. He has a sharp tongue when he needs to use it, and he's not shy about reasserting boundaries where he himself or Prem is involved.

All that aside, we're human, and humans are curious. People like love, and they like people they care about to find love. So, y'know, shipping culture, when done respectfully, can be fun and doesn't have to be invasive.

Okay, So How to Not Be Invasive About It?

I'm not actually very useful here because I prefer to employ generous use of the fourth wall. It's just more fun for me to enjoy shipping among friends, so I don't really engage publicly.

However! For conduct in Thai BL fandom, I'd defer to the advice of Southeast Asian fans. It's their fandom, and shipping is part of their fandom culture. From what I've seen and heard, shipping is meant to be lighthearted fun, and using the worst examples of stalking and poor behavior isn't especially cool of anyone. Basically, Western fans swinging in on an Indiana Jones rope to lecture Asian fans for engaging in shipping culture are disrespecting a fandom in which they're guests and detracting from the overall experience for others.

Now, of course, if one's brand of shipping involves digging into the artists' personal lives, stalking their families or loved ones, feeling entitled in any way to literally anything other than what they're freely offering up, making the pair such a part of your personality that finding out one of them is dating someone else or just flat-out uninterested in their partner will ruin your mental health, then that's a hard no. In those cases, I'd sincerely examine what Missing Aspect of one's life shipping has become a toxic substitute for. There's absolutely no shame in self-reflection, mitigating the harm that can be mitigated, and moving forward with more respect.

So, like:

• "o no, @.bb0un hasn't seen @.prem_space in two hours, someone better send him photos to remind him what prem looks like" O

(Obvious teasing tones are common both among fans and the artists themselves. BounPrem are famous for being ridiculous, so it fits the mood they themselves have established.)

• "Giant*, do you miss your parents? #bb0un #prem_space #bounprem" O *Boun's dog

(Again, BounPrem themselves have played into the co-parenting-our-pets thing, so playing along is fine.)

• "@.bb0un @.prem_space are you gay" X

(Asking anyone their sexuality is not okay, not even when they're famous. It's none of your business, full stop. Don't. Do not. Stop. Desist.)

• "i spotted bounprem together outside work in their private time and took this very creepy video of them from underneath a parked car using a telescope lens that i bought specifically for my recreational stalking hobby dm me for higher resolution videos!" X

(I feel like I could have made this a little heavier-handed for fun but you get the gist.)

In conclusion, it's my firm belief that if shipping hurts any real people, not just the pair at the center, then it's an immediate cease and desist for me. But if it's mutual and respectful fun in which everyone knows it's nothing more than a wink-wink game to spice up promotional activities, go (reasonably) wild (within reason)!

Whether BounPrem are actually dating is their business, but they've regularly and enthusiastically embraced shipping culture done on their own terms, so as long as people keep it light and fun and respect their privacy and the privacy of their loved ones, I think you're good!

Have (respectful) fun!

(I just like this photo of them. They got matching Pride nails last year! They're Very Good and regularly politically active in protecting and promoting the rights of queer people. Deep respect. <3)

#kiranokira answers #bounprem #premboun #real person shipping #rpf #fandom talk

[manonamora-if]

April Check-In

HI! I AM NOT DEAD I PROMISE, ANON!

Just... Ugh... It's been a stressful end of the month. I have not kept up with the weekly devlogs at all, partly because I had little to share each week, but also IRL was just too much. Head seems out of the water for now. Though I will be MIA for the rest of the week.

Onto the usual index:

Recap of last month’s progress

IF Events in the Next Month

Plan for the next month

Still long post under the break. If you want a mini version, head on over to itch.io as usual!

March Progress

From last month, what did we do:

Complete my French Comp entry. ✅ Not only did I write it all in less than two weeks (and it was full of typo that was so embarrassing), I also managed to...

Complete my SpringThing entry. ✅ Because that's the same game but in English.

Play more games! ✅Obviously having finished playing the Smoochie Jam AND all the French Comp game (quite a few good ones, voting was so hard), but also the SeedComp! and the Revival Jam (maybe?). The harvest of games for this month was bountiful!

Finish the Code Ch5 ❌ of Harcourt and edit Ch6 ✅

Finish fixing The Roads Not Taken. ❌

Things, it turns out... No, really...

Yay! Still managed to make a decent chunk of stuff.

Let's start with the bummer: still haven't fixed the borked games. Yeah... I really should sit down at some point and get down to it. BUT I did get some feedback for the Egg-game, and got extra code to fix the container issue. So... I just need to get to it.

Still haven't worked on coding on Harcourt, though I finished my part of the edits of Chapter 6. The file, full of comments, is back on his desk which... Well. Herm. MelS's computer just 💥(not like fire everywhere, but sudden forever black screen), corrupting about half of his data... which included his progress on that chapter and the endings. We've been working on getting his data back (tbh this project is the least of his worries, more important stuff is still gone), so hopefully we can get him back to editing and writing by next month (best case scenario). YEAH...

But before that happened, I managed to finish Les lettres du Docteur Jeangille for the French Comp, at the last possible minute yet again. I had the idea for month, but didn't start working on it until I was truly done with Teatime with a Vampire. It still managed to write over 15k words in 18-19th century French style (and full of typo because, only two weeks...) in essentially 1 and 1/2 week. EPISTOLARY STYLE game :D

After that was done, I got to play the Smoochie Jam and the French Comp games (it's on the IFDB), and started with the SeedComp entries (it's hidden because I'm the organiser). Lots of fun little game, some very sweet and humorous, some VERY DARK, some suuuper hot, and some that required a bit of noggins.

And halfway through the month, I sneaked a mini-parser game for the Revival Jam. I wanted to try my hand out with the old-style Speed-IF jams, that ran all the way back at the start of the century, which were just 2h long. TWO HOURS! No preparation, just you starting to code and stopping after 2hs. I tried my hand at Inform but... didn't have time to learn a whole new program and make my mini puzzle work in time. So I switched back to Adventuron, and managed to make something... in just over 2hs... I ended up Reviving old versions of the EctoComp instead (3h limit). Still it was fun to try to make a parser game in such short amount of time. It's called FIA: The Vacuum Cleaner, it will take you maybe 5min to play. And... it was so fun I kind of want to make basic micro-parser in that little universe. Some sort of multi-episode series where you have a small puzzle in front of you to solve. Like an intro to parser type of thing. Maybe in different parser programs? We will see. I might end up popping up here and there as tiny little games.

When THAT was done, I went back to work on the English translation of Jeangille, cutting it so close for the SpringThing deadline I thought I would not make it (for real, my files were sent at 23:58! I honestly don't think this was my bestest translation. It probably would have needed a few more rounds of polish and maybe some beta-readers but... :/ the computer explosion happened in the middle of all this so. I guess it was enough... I hope it was enough... But yay! I made it! No bug! Probably just typos! I didn't manage to make the cool animation tho...

AND I updated my website to add all of these juicy thingies!

AND AND! I was interviewed by the Rosebush Magazine last week!

So that was my month. We did good, we did bad, we are exhausted.

What’s happening in April?

Oh wow, already April. WHAT DO WE HAVE HAPPENING? So much, we have so much happening.

First off, we have competitions looking for voters:

Vous pouvez lire le français ? Venez jouer et voter pour les entrées du Concours de FI Francophone ! La date limite est le 4 avril.

Also on the 4th of April, is the deadline to vote for the SeedComp! (@seedcomp-if) games! You can find the forms here. We really really need voters!

The Spring Thing just released a new harvest of games (including meee :P ), and will open voting in a bit less than 2 weeks. Come play!

Looking to create some games instead?

The next @neointeractives jam just opened for submission! Come participate in the Dialogue Jam!

Looking to attempt creating a parser that is easy enough for beginners? Come check the Text Adventure Literacy Jam! You need a tutorial and 5 puzzles to solve!

If you want a deadline to finish your project, maybe check out : Finish Your Project Jam 2024

And for lovers: Amare Games Festival 2024

On the shorter side, and in May: Narrative Design Awards 2024 (ranked), 🔥 Fuck Capitalism Jam 2024 🔥 (unranked)

Interested in other IF events?

April 1st is Source Code Amnesty. Come share the code of your creations! (I've added a bunch of mine on Github today)

You can now register to attend the 2024 Edition of the Narrascope! IRL or Virtual, there are a lot of great talks this year!

We had so far 10 actual entries for the Interactive Fiction Showcase 2024 ! If you made something in 2024, consider showcasing it there too!

Note: @neointeractives will have jams all year long. One a month/or so. And the next Planting Round of @seedcomp-if will start as soon as the results are dropped.

The PLANtm for April

I, erm... should take it easy this month. But also, actually finish stuff, because the more I start, the more I have to fix/finish and it's becoming A LOT...

Play more games: I haven't covered the Revival Jam yet (I'm getting on it!) and the SpringThing has just started. So I have a lot of new treaties just for me! (And also that 2nd Rank is so close I can taste it!).

Finish the Code of Ch5 of Harcourt and edit the Ending Chapter: the latter should be easy since it is pretty short. The former... I just need to bite my tong and get to it! It should probably take me a day to code those last passages...

Finish fixing The Roads Not Taken. Or An Eggcellent Preparation. Maybe the other parser too (it just needs a smidge of polish).

Complete the TALJ entry. The deadline is at the end of the month. I already have the basic structure. I need: a tutorial, commands to actually make the game work. And words. So many words. (Did I mention here I'm making a maze?)

I think that's good. I'm trying REALLY HARD not to tack on another Neo-Interactives entry (we're doing dialogues and I LOVE THOSE). But I WILL TRY MY BEST TO KEEP IT FOCUSED ON THE CURRENT PROJECTS!

~

The 2024 To-Do List:

LOL, I've only done the website! :D

The hopefully maybe easy to handle To-Do:

fix the bugs in EDOC + overall the French version to match (waiting for Adventuron to get the French language)

fix the bugs of TRNT + find a way to add the missing pieces (giving up on the translation)

fixing the interface of LPM and the popups + check animal interactions

figure out the One-Button JavaScrip/jQuery issue...

edit the loading screens of the completed tiny games to include the program/format logo at least.

The 'Need a Bunch of Content to update but it's planned!' To-Do:

Update my website (bunch new title - also I don't think the logo clicky thing work...) + redo my itch page

Finish TTATEH (MelS dependent - this year should be it - for real)

Finish Exquisite Cadaver (half-way mark by this summer - manif)

Finish P-Rix - Space Trucker (main path at least)

Update CRWL (it's been almost two years... I'm getting ashamed)

The Unlikely But it Would be Dope To-Do

Finish The Dinner as it was planned (and translate)

Finish In the Blink of an Eye as it was planned (and retranslate)

Finish The Rye in the Dark City

Fixing TTTT (at least fixing, maybe try adding some storylets)

And finally The 'It's impossible, but one can wish' TO-DO:

Remaster SPS IH (if I managed to start this after completing the rest... I'm going to eat a whole sheet cake).

Start the IFComp project (2025? Might end up being a ST?)

#progress #update #interactive fiction #check in #monthly check in #Ok yall #I'm going on a break until next week! #Hope yall have a lovely month #(and maybe try my new stuf??)

[gobblinhours]

Thin Line Commentary

I've never done this before, but @alchemicallymoon made one for their Agent 32 fic, (which can be read here) so what the hell, seems like an interesting idea!

And fun fact, the whole idea for this fic was spawned because I cannot smile, I just press my lips together into a Thin Line (title drop)

Biggest thing to note: How long it took to write. I thought that it would be around 5000 words and I could get it out by Thanksgiving.

This was not the case. The original roadmap was Eight & Four -> Eight & Three, with a one-day time skip in the middle. But then I had an idea to make it less abrupt, so I integrated Off the Hook into it, before realizing I was leaning into Eight's relationship with Pearl, at the cost of Marina, so I had to make another scene with Eight and Marina to even things out. (leading to this post) Then I figured I should throw in a little bit of positive interaction between Pearl and Marina, which luckily was easily able to be adapted into something subtly referencing Pearlina at the end.

Then I realized that someone had to stay back to commentate over the radio, and if Three and Eight were going to go into a kettle together like I planned, someone else would have to be in the story. I'm not confident in writing Cuttlefish or Sheldon for extended periods, and I already utilized Marie for a joke, so Callie was the most viable option.

And she worked surprisingly well! She and Eight bounced off of each other as if they had been friends for years, even though at this point in time this was the first time Eight had spent any time 1-on-1 with Callie, and she was a great foil to Three, with both examples leading to slapdash photoshop jobs. I had them run through a kettle, (24, for obvious reasons.), and fun fact: That was written as I played through it with a charger, albeit with two people and an increase in skill.

After that, I finally was able to get Three and Eight together, although by that point I was already over my estimate and had to cut out a plot point to save time and energy. (Three and Eight get sushi together during the evening with a Three name drop!) Luckily that was at the very end of the fic, so that fact, combined with the fact that I had no idea how to bridge the time gap except for a shopping montage, which seemed like too much of a cut for me, so I chopped it down to lunch, turf war, and video games. In the end, the roadmap ended up more like Eight & Four -> Eight & Pearl -> Eight & Marina -> Eight with Pearlina in the background -> Eight & Callie -> Eight & Three.

The biggest time loss besides IRL business was finding ways to connect the scenes together organically, as I didn't want to overutilize line breaks. I spent days unable to think of a way to connect them, (the kettle run and lunch being especially egregious) to the point where the once-liberal Thanksgiving estimate was now a speck in the rear-view mirror. The second biggest issue was writing a turf war, as I realized that fight scenes (specifically choreography) were not my specialty. (Also why you don't get to see Eight play generic-brand DDR) I can visualize it in my mind, but I can't put it into words. Hopefully with practice that can be fixed.

Overall, this is the second fic I've written that I was 100% proud of upon release, possibly due to the anxiety that came from accidentally posting it early drowned out any perceived issues, which happened with my first fic, which is the other one I was satisfied with. (my one complaint is that I couldn't come up with a good name for Callie to use in a chatroom, because agentFUN was already taken and I couldn't come up with anything else.)

Overall, I'm surprisingly happy with the quality of this, and I doubt that I'll write anything close to this length and quality, at least for a while. And while I know that I did say that I would write another Agent 24 fic next, this has drained me of any motivation to write anything focused on this ship, and I need time to recover. But I have plenty of non-24 related ideas, and motivation still flows within me. The most anyone should expect for a bit is occasional updates to my microfic dump, but that by no means means that I am not going to write anything big again, just taking a break from more time-consuming projects, as I spent over a month on this, and the added pressure of having people vote on this didn't help at all, so from now on I probably won't do that.

But even though it was absolute hell to write, it was oddly satisfying to work on, and it feels weird not having to think about what to write next.

#splatoon #agent 24 #agent 3 #agent 8

[aikoiya]

Arcane HC - Thoughts on Piltover

Honestly? I feel like Silco has the wrong impression of Piltover.

At least, the common Piltovans.

Like, I actually don't think that most Topsiders actually know about what actually goes on in the Undercity. They don't know about the mistreatment & extremely high death rates or anything. All they know is what they're told by the people in charge.

If they did, I think that the Counsel would have a lot more trouble on their hands because Piltovans are... just people.

And, in my personal experience, people generally try to be good. Like, it takes a very hurt person to not want to try.

What if the general populous of Piltover actually believes that the Zaunites are being taken care of? What if there are food drives & clothes drives & charities to provide money & medicine & to send resources to the Lanes & they're actually very successful because everyone figures 'hey, we don't need these things as much as they do, they'll go to waste anyway if we don't, so why not give it to them', but something happens to them? Like, maybe it's all being sent to the frontlines to help with this war we hear about in the show? Or some group of Anti-Zaun assholes takes it all? Or whatever.

Like, drives & charities happen in real life, so why wouldn't they take place here? It's just that... the idea that there wouldn't be pro-Zaun activists & Zaunite rights activists or Zaun charities is extremely unusual to me & even seems very unrealistic. Like, look at the U.S.! Slaves had supporters in the form of a Union & there was even a civil war over it! One that split an entire country in half! And it was the people who had the most to gain from the status quo who did it! The Republican party exists because people thought that slavery was immoral! There have to be people who want to do right by their fellow man or it's much too cynical!

Like, be as pessimistic as you want, but the simple fact that slavery is no longer as widespread as it was proves that people care more for their fellow man than some would have us to believe.

Sure, maybe there was a hidden agenda behind it. We don't know, but at the end of the day, people who were once considered 'less than' now have more freedoms because of it.

I bet there's an entire lab in the biology department of the Academy dedicated to phytoremediation, which is a study of hybridizing plants with the express purpose of detoxifying the environment. As well as a club to study subterranean flora, fauna, & fungi.

Or what if Viktor has a project in mind to create an artificial sun in order to build greenhouses down there?

All with the intent of purifying Zaun to make it able to grow it's own crops. This would allow the Undercity to be more independent of Piltover.

It'd be one small part of something I call the Zaunite Vitalization Effort, or ZVE.

I bet there's a section of the Underground that's been set aside with the hopes of turning it into a sort of farming district. I'd call it the Duskmeadows.

I just... think about it! I say these things from personal experience because as a member of the middle class, myself, my family donates food & money ourselves because why wouldn't we? There's also missionaries to underprivileged societies & Christians donate their money with the expectation that it's going to provide supplies for those who need it literally every Sunday.

It'd be unrealistic & nihilistic for it not to be the same with Piltover.

Hell, there are even a handful of rich people irl who actually use there money for genuinely good things to actually help people! Look at Mr. Beast! He payed for a lifechanging surgery to cure the blindness of a thousand complete strangers! There are really, genuinely good people out there of every class! Even if he did it for the clout, it's still a very, very good thing he did that legitimately helped people!

And, imagine if it were true that there were charities & drives & all this other stuff with the idea of providing things for the Undercity & all those resources weren't going to their intended destination & the Pilties learned of this.

I imagine that there'd be riots in the streets!

What if all it ever took to establish the nation of Zaun... was spreading awareness of the situation throughout the Piltovan middle & lower classes? Even the higher classes to a degree!

Hell, what if we ended up with a reenactment of the French Revolution & the invention of the guillotine? What if it was started by Piltover citizens themselves?

And if this were true, how would the Zaunites react to this??

How would Vi, Jinx, Vander, & Silco react?

I mean, it'd basically fly in the face of everything they believed!

---

Now, I'm a baby fan. Brand new to the fandom, so my apologies if I'm wrong, but this is just my perspective.

Most of my knowledge of League comes from watching Arcane & I have little to no knowledge of the League of Legends game.

So, please keep this fact in mind.

Arcane Masterlist

#arcane #league of legends #piltover #silco #aikoiya hc #writing prompt

[pheita]

Beginning of the Year Update

Here we are, a brand new year, and hopefully better than 2022. Last year took a huge toll on me, mostly because IRL I had to deal with the never-ending paperwork and shit that came with the sudden death of my mother in December 2021 and the office in the city hall that shall help with the financial burden keeping on screwing me over and over for the past year, obviously making origami animals with the documents I send in. There is no other way why they keep on losing the documents for months now. Anyway, as you can guess, only little energy is left for creative stuff, and it only goes into writing. For those who didn't notice, I switched WIPs in July 2021 and revived and renamed an old WIP that now goes by "Flowers of Fire" Flowers of Fire is a modern fantasy/erotica mix. The erotica part comes from the sexual themes connected to how the mystical beings in this setting get the energy to fuel their powers, so yeah, there will be sex scenes, but erotica is the secondary genre, so it is still mostly a modern fantasy story and therefore has a serious plot. (Oh no, porn with plot lol) It also features a polycule of five, all of them mystical beings, that slowly builds up throughout the story while they also have to figure out who threatens their whole community. If I caught your interest now, this is the WIP intro and this the masterpost with everything I posted for it so far. Just a few days ago, I considered making it actually a more serialized thing and not a book. Which leads me to my plans for this year. With some changes regarding welfare in Germany, making money became less of a bureaucratic nightmare and I actually can keep more of the money I earn, so now it kinda becomes an option for me with my limited energy. I had a Ko-Fi for years, but never really advertised it *cough* And I seriously need to get better with this and marketing myself and my writing, but the plan for this year is, to maybe start using Ko-Fi to earn some money with my writing. If you already want to help me out, you will find a link to my Ko-Fi on my page if you're in browser. Or you just follow this path to tip me a coffee. Like I said, I need to come up with a good plan for all this first. So, I will continue with Flowers of Fire, and the little backstory series for Tali and Constantine. I got inspired to write some more backstory series for other characters that are important for the WIP like Swea, the old dragoness who is an important side character and lived a long eventful life. To get back into touch with everyone, I want to start some reoccurring thing to share other writblrs WIPs (and also get into touch with new WIPs), so everyone feel free to send me your WIP intro as submission, or an ask with a blurb, or an ask with the link, however you like to do it. And spread this around.

Like always, I keep taglists, and if you like to be tagged in something, let me know, also if you like to be taken off, no reason needed. I know sometimes things can become overwhelming. @abalonetea @pen-for-sword @kainablue @bloodlessheirbyjacques @catharticallysarcastic @contes-de-rheio @bookishdiplodocus @incandescent-creativity @ettawritesnstudies @raevenlywrites @jaimistoryteller @magic-is-something-we-create @queerlilchinchin @zmwrites @avalonsaesthetic @violetcancerian @weaver-of-fantasies-and-fables @poore-choice-of-words @ashen-crest @eternalwritingstudent

#writblr #writing #pheita talks #writing update

[aronarchy]

What’s your opinion on the “irredeemable media” discourse overall?

recordings of real-life people experiencing real abuse/victimization should be immediately & completely removed from existence upon request

some grayer area for i.e. recording police brutality & publishing to a large audience bc records currently needed for political reasons. but generally as rule of thumb avoid when not like that, or esp when it’s less public/more private/personal

all of the media recording sexual abuse, exploitation, and rape of actors/actresses currently still circulating/in existence, including the more popular/well-known films, especially those which their victims have fought to have taken down/no longer watched but failed, needs to be removed from existence asap. this media is irredeemable regardless of any other contexts shitty capitalists try to put them in for flimsy excuses

all abuse recordings such as those videos p*rents share showing them hitting their kids or yelling at & insulting their kids bragging about abusing them being circulated on social media need to be wiped from the internet. general abusive/exploitative imagery and other media recordings of that variety, i.e. revenge porn, CSEM, needs to be wiped too. if socmed platforms won’t do it then we find a way to do it. cops are very inefficient at doing so, of course. this media is irredeemable

get rid of abusive/exploitative imagery and other media recording other sentient beings as well. i.e. the irl nonhuman animal abuse imagery being circulated right now for some people’s enjoyment

watching vs contributing to tangible harm doesn’t necessarily correlate 1:1 all the time but would highly recommend not getting a viewing habit of abuse content of any sort. esp. seeking out without meaningfully using that to get rid of it asap. cops barely do shit and should not be “the only ones trusted to have large stashes of CSEM to view & share around” either, they exploit that. get their files burnt too. irredeemable media, should not exist.

regarding fiction which does not require the abuse/exploitation/victimization of real-life sentient beings to produce:

no feelings, or other intangible expressions, are moral/immoral. there is no ethical value or de-value for feeling enjoyment upon seeing something, or lacking a feeling of disgust upon seeing something, etc.

viewing fiction by bigots or abusers in a way which contributes to their revenue, fame, or other things which they are tangibly and on significant scale using to harm others isn’t necessarily wrong in a “you are personally causing the death of the planet by using one plastic straw” way, more like “do you really Need to be eating a sandwich at chick-fil-a right now?”

piracy is good. if you pirate personally some bigot thing that people are boycotting for good reason, barring bizarre unlikely edge cases such as “the piracy site records download counts and donates to bigots based on that” there’s not much tangible harm that can result from that. though bragging about you pirating instead of streaming, or touting your piracy in public a lot, probably isn’t the best idea either (as it often adds to the “hype” of the media and people who intend to stream it if they know it exists and start wanting to, so to speak). best to just not talk about it much, and enjoy on your own.

however, regarding fanfiction and other non-profit transformative works done for fandoms of previous media like the above, I have yet to find a good enough argument against doing fanfiction/fanart etc of the above

author is dead? no more proceeds going to fund their bigotry? go wild (within reasonable bounds ofc)

historical examples of bigoted fiction should not be wiped from existence. it is not unethical to view it. there are various reasons why one would want to, i.e. records, learning, but with a critical eye (and it’s perfectly possible to view any fiction with a critical eye, humans aren’t robots/sponges). would prefer distributors to tack on disclaimers if possible & helpful

I don’t understand people who put “people who enjoy [X] irredeemable media” on their DNIs, and those spaces where that is common tend to be extremely toxic to each other and outsiders

I obviously don’t give a single fuck about depictions of fictional abuse regardless of how “glorified” or “romanticized” or “eroticized,” do whatever, have fun, such media is great and deserves to exist and in fact should exist even more and its creators do not deserve to be harassed or have blanket condescending/demonizing assumptions projected onto them, focus your anti-abuse efforts on discourse spheres discussing actual IRL abuse ethics, + meaningful direct action against capital/the state

#ask #anon #ficcourse #fiction discourse #FAQ #irredeemable media #proship #profiction #pro fiction

[daemon-404]

"Crossbreeding" in Hyrule

Alright, so, this has been bothering me for a while. It's not a new topic, I know, but I figured I might as well put my spin on it. A lot of this is based on vibes alone, but I put as much justification in as I could. Hope this makes sense!

Here's a basic chart for the overview:

Ok, now for specifics (under the cut of course). Apologies in advance if this is offensive to any people who actually study biology as my knowledge is... unreliable (even though I'm very interested in it).

The Easy

Hylian/Sheikah

Hylians and Sheikah are pretty much the definition of "cut from the same cloth."

According to Skyward Sword, the Sheikah are "Hylia's chosen guardians;" they were created alongside Hylians as the sort of "favorite races" of the gods, unlike other species that popped up around the time (Goron, Parella, etc). With the inclusion of the other games, it's clear that they're not minor gods (like dragons or Great Fairies) either, since they appear as and are referred to as a race of people, whereas minor gods are more like magical individuals than a species.

Besides that, they look and behave almost exactly like Hylians, with the only biological difference being that Sheikah can live for an incredibly long time. In SS it might be a little bit encouraged by divine intervention, but with BotW we know for sure it's at least over a century, probably around 200-250 years average. Even that gets more nuanced with, for example, Niko showing up in both The Wind Waker and Spirit Tracks (something of a century later) suggesting that Hylians might be able to live up to around 120 years.

Basically, I don't think it's too bold to assume Hylians and Sheikah are completely compatible and probably biologically function more or less exactly the same way.

Gerudo I

Gerudo appeared significantly later in the timeline, with their first chronological appearance being Ocarina of Time. (I think it's been said that they sailed to Hyrule...?)

In any case, with only one male born every century, they rely on reproducing with other races. This is mentioned in OoT ("They say that Gerudo sometimes come to Hyrule Castle Town to look for boyfriends," Gossip Stone) and made canon in BotW, with the marriage of Rhondson and Hudson of Tarrey Town.

Additionally, their children are always 100% Gerudo (source).

This means they're not hybrid species. They just.. for lack of better way to explain, need to be fertilized to have their children. Generally that comes from Hylians, and thus probably Sheikah as well- which would make sense, seeing as all three of them are almost exactly the same in appearance- but maybe not limited to them. I'll get back to this later.

Basically, all of the the human-like species can have kids with each other.

Cool! But that's almost definitely not what anyone was wondering about.

-

The Less Easy

Zora

Here we are, the most "vibes-based" speculations I have for this post.

Zora... fish people, right? Wrong. What the hell are these things.

Scales, eggs, mammary glands (are they just fatty deposits???), both fish and sea mammal type tails and builds, even in the same family (Sidon is a shark but Mipha's a dolphin????)... not to mention that apparently, at one point, on the official zelda.com, it was said that they're not mammals.

Biological nightmares, that's what they are.

After a lot of consideration, they (specifically the Sea Zora, like in BotW, OoT and TP) are scaled, egg-laying mammals (both are technically possible IRL although not at once), due to most Sea Zora having mammal type head-tails. The difference in anatomy, patterns and resemblance to other species is just... something that happens. Maybe it's due to magic. Really, it's just a character design, video game thing. This isn't the 100% science based dragon game after all and I can't exactly hold them to evolutionary logic.

As you can probably tell, I'm leaning heavily on the "not mammals" thing being taken out of their description. After all, it was apparently over 10 years ago and things (namely: BotW coming out) have been changed. The devs change things after the fact a lot, so I don't think it's out of the question.

(I totally agree with this post by the way- I've just adjusted some things so that they're now specifically mammals and my speculations make a little more sense, even though it doesn't exactly make sense for their evolution. Call it a product of divine intervention... again).

Okay. Now that we've gotten that out of the way... Zora (and, consequentially, Rito) technically being mammals (dear Hylia that physically hurt to type) justifies a little bit more crossbreeding.

Due to vibes again, I think Hylians and Zora are male -> female compatible. Something how female Zora just won't give up on wanting to marry certain Hylians...

I think Zora have most if not all the Zora-specific traits in the egg itself, and Hylian sperm just happens to be compatible to kick off the fertilization.

However, male Zora -> female Hylian doesn't strike me as particularly possible, since I think the Zora part might contain Zora-specific features that just won't translate well.

For example (due to vibes of course), I like to think the head-tail is in the male part, making Hylian/Zora hybrid children tailless and Zora/Hylian children a little bit impossible.

insp 1 insp 2

Rito

Unlike the rest of the Hyrulean races, the Rito have an evolution we can track! They first show up- in the middle of their evolution, no less- in The Wind Waker.

They are a race of people that evolved- with the help of severe divine intervention, only a century in by WW's time- from the Zora.

Their evolution looks something like this, by the time of BotW:

During that middle period, I believe they'd be extra compatible with Hylians, fertile offspring and all. Their god-based evolution seems to have done a complete 180, so for the middle of that process where they have Hylian-like builds I think this makes sense. I mean... just look at them. That's a Hylian with a beak.

Now for the bird part. Notably, in Twilight Princess, a mural in Castle Town shows the Rito with an appearance much more similar to BotW:

And in the OoT manga, there's a short depicting a Rito-like race, the Watarara, who migrate through Hyrule sometimes but don't settle there. They have a much more bird-like appearance than WW's Rito.

I believe the "Rito" in TP are actually the Watarara from a different country, who are developing ties to Hyrule at the time, but don't yet majorly live there. Then, since they're probably around even in WW's timeline, once the Rito of that Hyrule evolve to the point of being slightly more bird-like they become compatible and breed resulting in the Watarara-like Rito of BotW and fully breaking off mutual compatibility they had with the Zora.

HOWEVER-!

While I don't believe a Rito can fertilize the offspring of a Zora, (here's another vibes bit), I do think somehow that there's a male -> female compatibility between the Zora and the Rito.

(I think it's much the same as Hylian/Zora, but the head-tail gene is simply discarded and the rest functions).

Gerudo II

Unisexual reproduction is when a species doesn't need its own males to reproduce, in which the species has haploid eggs (only one set of chromosomes), so the male's genome is discarded, but the sperm is still necessary to develop the embryo (source).

This would explain how every Gerudo child is 100% Gerudo, even with different species as parents.

Now, due to fantasy and magic, I'm going to say the Zora, Rito, Hylian and Sheikah races all have compatible sperm.

This is slightly backed up by in-game Gerudo travelers, like Laroba, stating that a man from any race could be suitable to be her partner. Even if she's talking about romance rather than sex, maybe being able to mate with every other race backs it up a little. She does include Gorons too, though, so that might be unreliable. I'm just throwing it in here.

One more thing- there is a type of unisexuality in which parts of the male genome "leak" into those of the children. I assume this is more or less why Gerudo have pointed ears in BotW and not OoT.

inspiration

-

The Easiest

Gorons are (most likely) asexual reproducers.

There are no "female" Gorons in the series. Even the ones in Gerudo Town seem to identify as male ("I thought men weren't allowed in this town... Why did they let me in?" Lyndae; "I made it all the way to Gerudo Town! But I'm not sure why they let me in..." Strade).

And, conclusively in my opinion, OoT presents a young Goron- Link, son of Darunia. Being that Darunia and Link (the Hylian) are friends, and Link (the Goron) is even named after the Hylian Link, you'd think we'd get an introduction to or even a mention of some kind of mother, or find a "wife"/"girlfriend" of Darunia somewhere, but there's nothing of the sort (equally, the same can be said about Yunobo, who's directly descended from Daruk- the former having no mention of a mate and the latter having no mention of a mother).

I believe that Gorons are genderless, and the use of "he/him" and the male identity has to do with working with Hylians (source).

I tend to imagine that Goron offspring somehow originate from the rocks on the Gorons' backs, therefore being directly related to them (it makes more sense for Yunobo to have Daruk's special power that way).

-

Bonus: The Deku Group

"The Deku group" is something completely different I could talk about, but basically boils down to Deku trees, Deku scrubs, Skull Kids and the Koroks/Kokiri; they're (mostly) all plant-based spirits of the Lost Woods.

In short, Deku trees are something of a minor god/species cross and kind of radiate magic, Deku scrubs are an offshoot of this magic and can and do breed as a very specific and unique case of being a race of spirits, Skull Kids are just kids who got lost and died in the Lost Woods and turned into spirits, and Korok/Kokiri are a mix of fairy and Deku, being both "the children of the forest/Deku tree" and referred to as "fairies" multiple times, so with that combination it's honestly likely that they're just made out of magic à la UNDERTALE.

-

And that's a wrap! For now!

As a bonus for sticking with me this far, here's another chart.

Not only is he probably just... magically fertile, but I think if Gerudo are compatible with every major race of Hyrule (save for the Gorons of course), Ganondorf himself would be able to... show that compatibility a lot more easily. So, technically, if we're rolling with this assumption, the Gerudo and the rest are mutually compatible.

#hyruleculture #zelda theory #long post

[luthienebonyx]

🐌🍄🌈

Thanks for the ask! ❤️

🐌 What is one of your smallest writing goals?

Simply to write at least a sentence every day that I am able to sit down and think-then-write for a few minutes.

2023 was an incredibly busy and stressful year irl, and I wound up often not being well enough/having no energy/having no motivation for anything creative. Now that a lot of those stress factors have settled down, and I've remembered how much I enjoy writing after writing my Yuletide fics, I would really like to keep the momentum going and get the words flowing properly again. And a little bit at a time, consistently, works best for me as a starting point.

🍄 Are there any fandoms you've never written for but want to try?

There are ALWAYS more fandoms. There is a book I read last year that doesn't have any sort of fandom, so if I were to write anything for it it would be a fandom of one. But it keeps gnawing at me, so maybe I will write for it anyway!

Also, the TV show Slow Horses, and the Slough House series of novels it's based on, seem to have taken hold of me and won't let go, so I may have to write something for them, too.

🌈 What research do you plan on doing for your writing?

Probably quite a bit! I have two original novels in mind, and I still don't know which one is going to be the one that wants to be written first. One is set in a historical period that I know very well, but in a location I know less well, while the other is set in a historical period I really need to read up on, but in a place I know very, very well. So either way, there is going to be research about everything from clothing - always crucial - to railway lines to major historical events and anything else that comes up.

And apart from that, just about any story needs some sort of research, even if it's just to check some details about a location. If I write in a new fandom, there's bound to be some googling going on.

Writer Goal Ask List for a New Year 🎉

#memes #feel free #writing

[torturecave]

it seems that a lot of your ships have shifted to top/dom boys mostly, bottoms/subs girls mostly. its interesting, i feel like its reflective of your relationship with avvy and such... its sweet, to see you two grow into yourselves and others like that !! but i wonder if you have any feelings for dom poppy at all ? if yes, what are they... if NO, why do you think it doesnt appeal to you anymore :o ?? i love dynamics n hearing peoples opinions on them

[personal sex-life talk so, a read more as a courtesy for you guys 😅]

Haha, so much has changed over time due to our relationship (and us) growing together... I can't help the way I do ships now — I need to connect to it and see it as 'us' in some essential way. The gender skew isn't necessarily always boy/girl (though it often is) ; more importantly, we define things by being 'Birds or Avvys'. And Bird is the seme while Avvy is the uke, such is the way we are built. We didn't always do this though, and so you had a middlezone where we both sort of related to characters... like I think Branch was a kind of 'shared' form of expression for us. It's funny to look back on now, but also cute, we were still playing together...❤

This is why I say, even if I feel embarrassed about some old stuff, I have to understand that it embodies what I felt at the time, and there's unique euphoria in the past. [scratches nose] Especially considering that once we were getting more 'serious' than a couple hook ups, I became Avvy's sub. (Though I was still like, in the role of fingering / humping etc., that's just always been the preference lol.) Even if that changed eventually, the early parts of our dynamic was reliant on Avvy taking charge and moving us forward.

Back then, I wasn't confident to be in the position of dom, as around when I met Avvy I was in quite a low place with my self-esteem and mental health. In a state of recovery, as I was still coming out of some bad times.. I needed a lot of caretaking and encouragement, which I would say isn't so dissimilar to what our 'bb branch AU' was focused on — being taken under a cool older girl's wing haha, helped from depression and isolation, kissed better. <- Not to get too fiddly with details, but this art actually came before my subbing... wait, maybe before we ever had sex kfkfjhg so... I wasn't self-aware how much I was expressing my desires at the time.

That being said, it means when I made that art, I lacked a lot of tangible experience, so I didn't really know what my preferences would be. A lot was 'hypothetical'... I knew I liked things, nebulously, but maybe not sure whether I'd prefer to be on the receiving end or not. [glances...] And when you're a soft-spoken, passive, people-pleasing guy IRL, it feels like the most logical conclusion would to being dominated or something? Sure, I will be good boy, bark bark.

The funny thing is HISTORICALLY... I've actually been a dom in past relationships, and Avvy's been a sub — so I think we headed towards our natural conclusions, over time. As I recovered and became more confident, and had someone to figure myself out with, a lot clicked. Things became less 'maybe I would be into that? idk' and more defined by, this is something I'm absolutely into. In fact I'm so into it, I want to do this, and nothing else...

ALL THAT TO SAY!! I can't get into a dom Poppy, as that is no longer what I want to see from her. Part of the 'why' would be that it's not something I can inhabit? Which is key in shipping and art for me, I need to connect to it, as I mentioned. It's almost like... if I saw a depiction of a dom Poppy nowadays, I'd be like 'eh I don't see it'... Genuinely just can't grock it.

But I want to clarify, I'm still attracted to all her playful rowdy traits, I like the way she pushes Branch's buttons, all that good stuff. She's wonderful, she's forward, she still overwhelms and steamrolls, she's a whirlwind of energy. I think it's all essential aspects of Poppy still. It's just that the 'conclusion' I see for those behaviors has shifted.

Basically I feel like, a girl can be all those things, and subsequently be a manic excitable sub. Which is fun to think about!! In fact, it's quite enticing to get a girl like that on her knees. Reduce her, have her bent over and whining... [Sorry to take you into my basic straight guy brain.]

She can still give Branch a run for his money, like yank his chain around a bit, that's fun. That's like the core of their chemistry you know, Branch needs to be challenged... It's good for him lol. But I suppose I see it now as being baited almost, spurred to be forward in response. My wife vibes the term sasoi uke and I'm often like [nods stoically.] It's.......... fun to be tempted, you know? lol...

Anyways that's enough rambling, hope this was an interesting read. 😷

[elis-corner]

To anyone who isn’t on Xisuma’s mailing list (yes that’s a thing, on his website there is a box where you can sign up)...

This week he said the “project” that he had been talking about a while back on stream still isn’t ready to be revealed, and that he’s “trying to forge a new path as a creator” (also mentioning challenging himself with ambitions he’s wanted to pursue for some time). He says he won’t say much yet, but as it becomes more complete he will shed some light on it, except he says that by then it will be obvious.

Email and thoughts under the cut ⬇️

Of course as a grammar freak my first thought is how he could better use punctuation, and that he needs to check his ‘to, two, too’.

But aside from that, I really want to hear everyone’s opinions as to what it might be. I’m certainly not the best theorist, and it’d be nice to hear the thoughts of people less and more involved in his fandom.

I myself have looked at the hints he’s given over time, and I remember one stream a few months ago he said (paraphrasing) “if you looked around a bit on the Xisumatwo channel you’d probably find something”. This lead me to believe he may be making an Xisumavoid guitar, as it is something he’d said he’d never gotten around to doing, as well as him having talked about it a bit. Another thought of mine is a new Let’s Play or SMP he’ll be doing on top of Hermitcraft, or that he might create a new map (as in a game like he did Rush, which is now Bedwars). The other thing that came to mind is a stretch, but maybe he’s thinking of something grand as a face reveal. It’s most likely not this, but it would all tie in. The Hermits could do an IRL meetup somewhere for the Hermitcraft 10th anniversary (which is what he’s organising and planning, but it’s taken so long that it’ll have to be later in the year), therefore meaning his face would be revealed at last, and that he’d be able to meet the Hermits IRL like they sometimes do due to Minecon and similar things instead of having to be a literal Minecraft head for Tango to hold in the air like a trophy. And in my time of knowing Xisuma, the only times he’s posted himself doing things is guitar covers and the occasional biking video, but suddenly he’s posting photos of an arcade he went to, and him with the creator summit hat and mug; the sudden increase in IRL photos seems to be hinting at it, surely?

Those are my probably wrong ideas, but I’d love to hear some of yours!

#xisumavoid #xisuma #x #theory

[hidingoutbackstage]

Okay aside from my hatred for how it treated Eveline, the DLC also just, wasn't great? And didn't matter? Spoilers below the cut

Okay so getting big thing out of the way: The DLC takes place before the 8 epilogue of Rose at Ethan's grave. Meaning that everything we see doesn’t matter. Rose was never going to lose her powers, she was always going to escape the mold mind palace (btw I’m gonna call it “mold mind palace” this whole time) and it just felt cheap to have the ENTIRE epilogue shown at the end. Like just show her on the bus, we know this scene. I kept waiting throughout the scene to see if they would show us anything new or different, but they didn't. That ending was pointless.

K was also such a nothing character. I speculated that it could be John, since the two characters' faces are similar, but it wasn't. Rose calls him K. John's HWS name is Lobo. If it were Dion she was meeting, that nickname might make sense (K9. There's actually a file in 8 that refers to Canine with that shortened nickname so it would've been possible) but Dion obviously doesn't look like this guy. Not to mention the reveal that he was never there doesn't do anything for us. We knew nothing about this guy, had no attachment to him, so Miranda tricking Rose the entire time means nothing to us. If it had been an actual former HWS member, or, hell, CHRIS then we might have felt something.

Also just the insinuations that 1) Chris is STILL leading HWS 16 years later 2) they're inviting more people to be part of HWS 3) HWS hasn't been shut down yet despite them having been a rogue team when we saw them operating in 8 and they went straight to BSAA HQ, meaning they probably would've received some consequences for going rogue and 4) they've asked Rose, a 16-year-old, to join their team, are all absurd

The DLC is also just really lazy. They recycle ideas, like Miranda using illusions to trick someone into seeing a person that wasn't even there, they recycle models, like seriously Evie looks exactly how she did in RE7, and her model there wasn't great and was still super clunky here and she wasn't proportioned like a child, and they reuse her tantrum animations from 7, they recycle locations just making things more messy or adding the new bloody mold goop to indicate this is the mind palace and not irl. They're lazy with Miranda's motivation too, like there's no reason for her to need Rose as a vessel for Eva anymore. If Eva's consciousness was truly in the mold like Miranda believed, then great! You're in the mold now, Miranda! Go find her! Why are you wasting time with Rose?

The "Michael" mystery was stupid. There was no real reason for him to not reveal himself to Rose right away. It wouldn't "complicate" anything, in fact she'd be more likely to trust you. He kept telling her to turn back, meaning if she had listened, they never would have gotten to speak, which is kind of what Ethan wanted. He wanted her out of the mind palace, safe, even if it meant he never saw her again. She probably could've taken solace in speaking to her dad, even if it wasn't face to face. Also the wording of "Not an enemy" was sooo dumb. Say you're a friend! Say you're family! "Not an enemy" makes her even less likely to trust you, because you aren't being anything reassuring to her right now

The game also tries way too hard to tug on the heart strings, and it doesn't work. I'm gonna bring up Evie here a bit although I'll do my best not to. I do not feel bad for Rose. As a long time fan and player of most games in this series, I can name more characters who have been through worse shit than Rose has than I can count on my fingers. Actually I will, this is my post, fuck it, feel free to skip the list

Sherry was orphaned at 12 and was infected with a virus that nearly killed her, then was held captive in a strange man's house for eleven years, that's 5 years of her adult life still in captivity, before gaining a false semblance of freedom by being forced to become an agent, on one of her missions was kidnapped and tortured for 6 months, and oh yeah her body stopped aging at 20

Manuela was infected with a disease that should have killed her, lost her mother at 5 years old, nearly died several times during DC, became an orphan at 16, and was locked up after being rescued because she still had powers and was still infected. Despite controlling her powers, she was not given any freedom, because the government was cautious (KEEP THIS IN MIND FOR LATER)

Claire, Chris, and Leon are all orphans, Leon definitely when he was a child, Chris and Claire it's up to speculation. The three of them went through the horrors of the early games as young adults, Claire only being 19.

Jill was kidnapped, brainwashed, and forced to become a murderous slave for a genocidal maniac who she sacrificed her life to try to kill

Ashley was kidnapped multiple times, infected, and had her body taken control of by another person against her will

Natalia was an orphan (WHO WATCHED HER PARENTS DIE BTW) who was isolated from her peers, kidnapped, tormented for months by Alex, experienced hallucinations, had an adult woman try to take control of her body, and despite having seemed safe, apparently is still suffering ptsd or worse from what Alex did to her. She was adopted by a normal family and treated like a normal child, but she was still safely monitored and there's no indication she had a normal social life (KEEP THIS IN MIND FOR LATER)

Lisa Trevor was kidnapped at age 14, became an orphan when her parents were killed and she was infected with a virus, and went mad as she was continually tortured and experimented on until her death at 35 years old

Alexia and Alfred Ashford were given a life of comfort, but were still an experimental vanity project that their father enacted because he was in love with one of his ancestors, which they learned of at only 12 years old. Alexia willingly infected herself at age 12, Alfred was forced large political power at that age, and went insane without his sister there to support him, and when Alexia woke up from cryo sleep, the first thing she saw was her brother's dead body

Eveline was created to be a bioweapon. She was never given a choice as to if she had these powers. She was younger than her ten-year-old physical appearance, because she was aged up artificially, she was tortured, abused, forced to kill people with powers she couldn't control, and denied any source of comfort despite having the wants and needs of a child, and she was murdered by a man who called her a little bitch as she cried and lamented why the world seemed to hate her.

Now. What struggles does Rose have? Why, her dad is dead and kids at school call her a freak, of course! Now Isn't that sad? Don't you feel terrible for her and can't wait for her to pick off Eveline, who was taunting her, like a bitter child would?

Also yes you read that right, kids at school. Rosemary Winters, who shows physical proof in public that she is an actively infected person who cannot control her abilities, is allowed to attend public school and receive childish bullying. Un-fucking-realistic. Such bullshit.

Like I said, they lay on the pathos thick. There is an entire section, with no real gameplay, as you walk around the house from the beginning of 8 as you get to hear Ethan's voice and Rose's commentary on things her dad said because wahhh isn't it sad that Ethan died? They tell you how Rose feels through dialogue instead of allowing the character to feel for the obviously forced pathos. The letter was also written way too on the nose to try and tug at some heart strings. The ending where Rose talks to Ethan (while still HILARIOUSLY obstructing his face) goes on for too long and not a single line isn't something sad/sweet/sappy to try and get in the audience's feelings. (Also Rose bringing a physical object of Ethan's ring out of a MOLD MIND PALACE makes no sense but w/e)

Okay but is the gameplay at least good? Nah not that either. You get two weapons, a handgun and a shotgun, the occasional pipe bomb, and Rose's freezing powers. Now I know that this is a DLC and of course there doesn't have to be a lot of content, but this was pathetic. There are only two real puzzles either. The playthrough I watched was 3 hours long. The only part I thought was really scary was running from the Mia mannequins, but gameplay-wise they're like super easy to defeat.

The story jumps forward 16 years for no real reason. We don't get any insight into this new world Rose is living in, 16 years from the current furthest point in the timeline, we meet no new characters except for K who we can't really assume told us anything real since he was an illusion. This story was unnecessary, a mess, none of the gameplay was spectacular, and it went out of its way to torture and villainize a character who had already suffered in life, not even giving her peace in death. Really shitty DLC, really bad time.

#sid rants #sid bitches #shadows of rose

[anotherghoul666]

Could I, maybe also, ask a question? The vibe check was interesting, and now I'm curious. I need to look for a new job. How might that search go?

Of course darling, anything you want you may ask!

Well you are obviously at the start of that job searching process. With the Fool right there as a first card, it's either you're still at your old job, you've decided you need to find a new one, but you're contemplating how to go about it; or you recently lost your old job or quit, and you're on the verge of starting the search. I don't think there's been any big, concrete action taken yet towards that goal, and you need to get going.

Now, the good part first: you are 100% capable of finding this new job, and finding something that will suit you better than the previous one. You find it difficult to abide by social norms / neurotypical expectations and ways of life. You gotta find something that suits your excentricity next, a space where you'll be comfortable being fully yourself. It's about time, you deserve your job to be a safe space for once. You have literally an unlimited amount of doors to check out / open in front of you, especially in today's employment climate. It's the employers that have the short end of the stick right now, so take advantage of that. Your options and opportunites will be near limitless. Approach change with optimisn and open arms. Change is good, we're aiming for a change in the established structures here, renewal and fresh air. You have everything you need within to make this happen. You have the willpower to take the necessary steps, you're conscientious enough to make intelligent choices, you're logical. Think outside of the box, maybe be more creative or wild in your search. Look for stuff you wouldn't typically look for. Try out for jobs that interest you but you don't have the qualifications for. Take wild guesses. There is unlimited potential when you channel your authentic self into a task, so use your experience and knowledge to reach for something wild and cool that inspires you.

Now for the less good part: dude, honestly, this job search experience is likely gonna suck. People are gonna waste your time. You're gonna go for ads that say one thing and once you've gone through the effort of interviewing, you'll find out something like the salary or the position isn't what was advertised. You'll get cancellations. You'll get no replies when you were owned some. You'll interview three times to never hear back from the company. You'll feel isolated and alone through the experience. Don't let that win. Break the isolation. Vent to people. Your family, be it blood family or found family, irl or online, will support you through it, but only if you reach out. You gotta rant and be pissed off freely to make this bearable. Don't do this alone.

Now, I don't like to give strict time periods for any "predictions" because that's not how I read, but! I cannot ignore that those three cards give the exact same time frame. That's too cheeky to not mention. Spring, 88 days which covers spring almost perfectly from now and before july which, guess what, is basically spring. I feel before midsummer you'll be set somewhere new. Take that with a grain of salt though because I do not read for future predictions or precise timelines at all.

#asks #AnotherGhoul's tarot booth