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letomills · 8 months

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Download skins: SFS / Mega

A set of 22 geneticized & townified skins, including defaults for S1-S2-S3-S4 and the alien skin. Credit for the original skins goes to @whysim, Nat / @theboldandthebeautifulsims, @pooklet and Tea Leaf, thank you so much to them!

I did however make substantial tweaks and additions to all skins: • everyone TU-EU has the appropriate fat, normal and fit states (for the alien textures to show up as they should, please use Argon's alien and zombie fitness fix) • all elders have wrinkles, except on the alien skin (I used @simnopke's subtle wrinkles) • all toddlers have the cute toddler teeth and babies have no teeth, • teeth from Nat's, Pooklet's and Tea Leaf's skins were replaced either with ones from the Whysim skins or the ones used on @serabiet's Those Darn Skins, just because they're less bright and I like that better • all skins are compatible with sexyfeet (I just had to cover up a watermark on one of them iirc) • lowered the color temperature on Whysim BuffyHP Tan Skinblend TG (S2).

Complete previews of AU-EU faces and uncensored bodies (fat, normal and fit) are included in the download, which is why it's such a large archive (the skins themselves aren't particularly heavy, don't worry). Teens get the same textures as adults; children, toddler and babies have their own.

More details below.

Skins and links to the originals:

Whysim Misc Skin Blend 32TG - Whysim Tifa 57 Edit TG

Default S1: Whysim Misc Skin Blend 30TG - Whysim Misc Skin Blend 40TG

Whysim Misc Skin Blend 37TG - Whysim Misc Skin Blend 31TG

Default S2: Whysim BuffyHP Tan Skinblend TG (my edit: more pink, less orange) - Whysim Ashleydoll Blend Edit TG

Nat Bambi Expanded 7 - Whysim Misc Skin Blend 19TG

Whysim BuffyHP Dark TG - Default S3: Whysim Misc Skin Blend 29TG

Whysim Misc Skin Blend 7TG - Nat Bambi Expanded 10

Nat Bambi Expanded 12 - Pooklet My Poor Lover 06

Nat Bambi Expanded 14 - Pooklet Mouseyblue Dusk Skin 03

Default S4: Pooklet My Poor Lover 07 - Nat Bambi Expanded 18

Pooklet My Poor Lover 08 - Default alien: Tea Leaf Stargazer MPL Zoen Blend

These skins are townified, meaning that new townies and NPCs that spawn can get them. They are also geneticized, meaning that they have genetic values that inform which skintones will be given to babies born in game. Basically babies will always get skintones that fall in between or on the skintones that their biological parents have, as is the case for the four default skintones.

You can see the genetic value that I assigned to a skin at the end its file name. Example: "1_Whysim_MiscSkinBlend32TG_0.05.package" → this skin has a genetic value of 0.05. The skins that are S1-S4 default replacements have respective genetic values of 0.1, 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9. For more info on that and to learn how to change a custom skin's genetic value, see Rikkulidea's tutorial.

If you don't want all 22 skins but just a selection, feel free to pick and choose and it won't disrupt anything when it comes to genetics (if you want to mix them with other skins however, you may want to make sure that all the genetic values really are in a sequence from lightest to darkest). If on the other hand you think 22 skins isn't enough, check you @esotheria-sims's 97 geneticized skins 💖

Please let me know if you encounter any issues or have any questions.

✨Future plans for body shapes: these here skins are regular skins linked to the standard Maxis body shapes. I will be working on showerproof skins for custom body shapes that will be repo'd to these skins, starting with Momma Lisa/Melodie9 fat male (edit: it's here!). It may take a while but in the end all 22 skins will come in showerproof versions for as many body shapes as I have the mental fortitude to do (making showerproof skins is an excruciating mix of requiring focus and discipline while being extremely tedious).

The F hair used on the titlecard is @fakebloood's SClub Haruki in dynamite - the M hair below the cut is AlmightyHat's Shorn in dynamite - the eyes in all previews are from this set by @serabiet - the eyebrows are defaults by Cavernosims.

#sims 2 #download #skins #sims 2 cc #sims 2 download #ts2cc #s2cc

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neomedievalist · 2 months

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hey chat. I did a deep (medium) dive into gamescent to figure out what the fuck they meant by any of that

first of all, the price tag, holy shit. second of all, AT PAX EAST? it took me a second to realize implication of this being at pax east. this is going to be an INVOLUNTARY EXPERIENCE for some people LOL. THE STINKY BOOTH AT PAX EAST.

The first thing I wanted to know is how the fuck does this use ai? i conjured a beautiful world where we could actually experience ai-generated scents but no, obviously it's just a buzzword used to drive investors. it uses ai to analyze the sound in your game to dispense the appropriate scent, which sounds bad.

Brief interlude i love this ai generated image they use on their "blog" section on their website, me and my little car i use for gaming

the first thing you'll find with this article and the website is that they are downright ADDICTED to pretending smell-o-vision was a good thing.

AHEAD OF ITS TIME? I WOULDN'T GO THAT FAR.

GEOFF, I DON'T THINK THE INSUFFICIENT TECHNOLOGY WAS THE ISSUE HERE.

The ONLY benefit of using AI they can come up with is the timing of the release of the scent lolll

ANIME SCENT

I'm personally obsessed with them calling it DLC because I have no idea how this is supposed to be downloadable lmao i couldn't find anything on their website using this terminology. Geoff Keighley what did you mean by this. You wouldn't download a scent.

to the eager anticipation of all ultrakill fans/sex freaks the BLOOD scent DLC will be coming soon.

there's a giveaway section for data harvesting and apparently 11,000 entries which i somehow doubt

I really love the vague wording here "will not be responsible for any outcome" ANY OUTCOME?

I forgot to say of course they have an app lmao. and i love how every physical item you buy is now just a license to use that item now. Surely they wont shut down service for this making your 200 CAD scent box useless laughing crying emoji

Literally what the fuck is this what does this product have to do with fitness. i can't find ANYTHING correlating this. i had a sneaking suspicion that most of this writing was ai generated but this might just confirm it lol

What is this tweet

tldr im not looking at this anymore when are they releasing the gabriel ultrakill armpit sweat dlc scent

#data

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idrellegames · 10 months

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How do you maintain love in your playerbase knowing that some of the people there are the same selfish people who are leaking or trying to leak/pirate the hard work of indie devs and writers? Ngl my project was nowhere near as big and popular as yours but something like that happened to me and I slowly lost interest in my project. I still keep up with IFs I like but can't ever seem to manifest the interest and love I used to have for my work after it happened the first time. People say things like giving up is just "letting them win" or that we should just be happy that someone out there enjoys our game and hearing "reasons" like that make me realize it's hopeless to get any respect for my work

First of all, I'm really sorry your project got leaked. It is an unfortunate side of being a creator - especially an online one. Regardless of the form, regardless of whether you're an hobbyist or a professional, art is a hot commodity. People want high quality entertainment, but they don't want to pay for it.

I've been avoiding addressing the IF leaks outside of this post because I don't think it's productive to throw any more attention on the situation. Leaks happen, they are always going to happen--if someone wants something and they can't afford it or don't want to pay for it and they want it badly enough, they will find a loophole. At the end of the day, it's a very small community of people who are pirating and shoving them into the spotlight is only going to draw more people who were maybe on the fence about downloading pirated content into doing it.

I am pretty steeled when it comes to this topic now. IF isn't the only place where I have experienced my work being leaked. I come from a theatre background and it is very easy for your original work to get produced without you even knowing about it.

A show I worked on in 2012 has its script available online as part of the library of the university where it was produced. My co-writer and I don't collect royalties from it; the intention is for it to remain free to produce for amateur and university companies. However, because of the political and sensitive nature of the script, my co-writer is very adamant about directors contacting her for permission to produce it and to follow certain guidelines before putting it on. Learning about a production in Australia months after the show closed didn't feel great. It wasn't about money, it was about ethics.

With the IF leaks specifically, I think there's a bit of a disconnect happening here between the people who want to play the games and how they view the indie creator who made them. They see paying a Patreon sub as the same as paying a big company for a product, and if they can't afford to pay it or if they don't want to, then no harm is done by pirating it.

But that's not what the relationship is.

Patreon is not paying for a product, it is supporting the creator's livelihood. I am extremely grateful for my patrons. A game the size of Wayfarer is not something that can feasibly be done in the spare moments between day jobs. But capitalism stops for no one and to make this game, I need to be able to afford rent and groceries. A living wage, as some would say.

Are leaks disheartening? Yes. But I also think that people who play pirated content were never going to sub to Patreon in the first place. And, as mentioned earlier, the number of people involved is relatively small. Thankfully, I'm not that much at risk of leaks actually affecting my income at the moment. But I would be concerned and would take a firmer stance if you Googled Wayfarer and the first search result was a pirated copy (and then I would probably follow the appropriate steps to have that result taken down from the search results).

I think the worst thing you can do as a creator is confront leakers directly. That is only going to blow back on you and put more of a spotlight on the fact that your work is getting leaked. I much would rather focus my time and energy on encouraging my community not to pirate my content than chasing down leakers and making PSAs about it.

For the folks who can't afford a Patreon sub or to anyone considering pirating my content, I would encourage you to apply to be playtesters when applications are open. If you bug test for me, then you can play the alpha content for free.

Outside of that, I take measures to protect my work as much as I can. It's not a perfect system (I don't think it's possible to make your work 100% pirating proof - if people want it badly enough, they will find a way to get it), but I know I've done as much as I can and I am content with that. I don't let it bother me. I have more important things to do with my time.

And for the people who do pirate my work - Bravo! Congratulations! It's very entertaining how petty you are.

#wayfarer #wayfarer if #answered

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nocturnalazure · 3 months

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How Noctie chooses her poses

Following a conversation in the comments with @greenplumbboblover and @kimmiessimmies, here is an overview of how I have sorted out all the TS3 poses that I've gathered in the past 12+ years. This has been super useful for me to find the exact pose that I need.

I never use the list from the Pose Player for a very good reason: I have THOUSANDS of poses. It's simply not feasible to wait for the list to load and scroll through it endlessly with its tiny thumbnails.

So instead, I use Photoshop Lightroom (🏴‍☠️) to neatly sort out all the poses previews. I currently have 7,471 previews. Most of them show more than one pose, so I'd say that I roughly have at least 50,000 different poses in my library. Hence the need for efficiency.

(My version of Lightroom is in French.) I have added tags to each of those pics. You can see them in the upper right corner. For example, "calling, lying, phone, sitting on sofa" for the selected pic.

When I need a pose, I type the tag that I'm looking for in the text box above.

In this example, I typed "worried". I'll get a selection of 204 pictures, to go through, and select those that are the most appropriate for my scene.

Those that I think I could use, I put in a quick collection. I will use that collection throughout the whole scene, so the collection is a temporary mishmash of poses, depending on what I have in mind and how the characters should move. I delete everything from the collection once I'm done shooting the scene.

I often do this process of choosing the poses before launching the game (or while it's loading), so that I don't have to waste too much time once I'm in-game. When I'm actually shooting, I go through my collection to select the appropriate pose (sometimes, I even sort them out in the order in which I'm supposed to use them). When the code is written on the pic itself, I just memorize it and simply type it back in game.

Sometimes the pose name is not on the pic itself, and so I have to look it up inside the .package file. It's an additional step, but it comes with a benefit: I can just copy/paste the code from the file. So for example, I don't know the code for the pose below, it's not shown on the pic. But the picture name can be seen at the bottom ("Red Mechanics Of Emotions Melancholy").

So I quickly go to my poses folder via a shortcut in my file explorer, and look it up. That requires for the .package file and the picture to have the same name. This is something that I make sure of doing every time I download a new pose.

I open the .package file with s3pe, look for the thumbnail of the pose I need (that sometimes takes some time...). Last one in this case.

Then finally look up and copy/paste the code from the XML. (and then paste it back in game, as you'd have guessed)

I also do it that way when the pose code is overly complicated and my brain refuses to memorize it.

Voilà!

(and yes, I do that for every single pose that I use in my story)

I'm sure there are more efficient ways to do things. I'm just sharing my process in case it could help some people and also for @greenplumbboblover to understand why I don't use the Pose Player list. I chose to do that because my poor brain couldn't keep up with all the poses I had. I ended up always using the same ones, as well as wasted a lot of time going through all of them.

There is a prerequisite to my process however, and that is to take the time to properly tag ALL of my gazillions of pics. That took me months, no kidding. But it was also extremely rewarding once it was done. Now, I make sure to tag every new picture I import into Lightroom, and it only takes 2 minutes.

Another thing that I do is that I save tags, not only in Lightroom, but also in the pic metadata. (again, the example is in French, but it basically says "save metadata in the file")

That means that even if I ever use a different software, or if I have to reinstall Lightroom or whatever, the tags are saved in the file properties.

It only works for JPGs though. It doesn't work on PNGs, which is a bit of a bummer. I should take the time to convert all the PNGs to JPGs, but I haven't gotten around to do it yet.

Please note that some of the poses that I have are no longer available. I don't know which ones exactly, I've had some for over 12 years and can't even remember where I downloaded them initially. :/

Anyway, this is it! Sorry about the long post!

I hope this is useful to someone. :)

#ts3 #sims 3 #TS3 pose player #random #text post

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themanwhomadeamonster · 18 days

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prefacing this by saying i love dd2's soundtrack and i have some of it downloaded on my phone already. but i recognise that it gets a lot of criticism (for good reason too imo) and i am going to explore why that is without trying to sound like a hater 😭 also slight spoilers because i talk about the end credits theme

tl;dr: main title screen theme fucks up perception of the rest of the soundtrack because it's so musically disconnected from everything else

i think the problem with dd2's soundtrack "lacking a (recognisable) leitmotif" isn't that there lacks a leitmotif because there's actually two main ones, both of which stem from the end credits song. this generally isn't a bad thing, though just one is usually standard, there are sets out there where more than one leitmotif is used. the thing is though, in dd2 most of the in-game soundtracks use variations of the chorus melody (cyclops, griffin, some story cinematics, etc.) and quite recognisably too imo which makes sense!, but the (main) title screen uses the melody from the verses.

(side note: before anyone argues that even the chorus leitmotif isn't present in the generic combat soundtracks either, that wasn't the case for dd1/da either (except for the low intensity dd1 combat track) so i think dd2 can be excused on that front. i also think it's good that they didn't use it everywhere in either game because it would get annoying very quickly)

nobody remembers the theme of the dd2 title screen (don't lie, i don't either and i had to crank my brain to recall it when writing this) because you barely hear its leitmotif in-game until the very end during a handful of cinematic cutscenes. i think even the trailer music uses the chorus melody. so you have two competing leitmotifs, and on top of that, the one which SHOULD be memorable because it's the title screen theme is actually very rarely heard in-game. you wouldn't piece this together until the end of the game, AND that's if you even stick around for the credits to let it play!

in ddda, the title screen theme already plays in the first cassardis cinematic AT THE BEGINNING OF THE GAME, in a scene that was emotionally significant early on. those who hand down the story as an ending medley works because it's of two already strongly established themes (cassardis + eternal return). this didn't work with dd2's end credits theme because the two leitmotifs were not established as cohesively by that point. dd2's chosen leitmotifs should've recurred more regularly and in emotionally significant points in the game - even melve by itself and not anywhere else until the end would've been a good opportunity to use the verse motif because it's at the start of the game to hook the player + let them be able to connect it to the main theme, and it also lines up with the end credit's verse's lyrics

so musically i think the dd2 soundtrack is fine. catchy enough and imo memorable that it's an earworm. though i miss the rock/jazz/flamenco elements from the first game, the theme of dd2 as being very high fantasy instead of classic medieval low makes the folk/orchestra/occasional dungeon synth hybrid an appropriate choice to me, and this proves itself as a strength imo in its ambience. the lowkey ethereal dungeon synth of seafloor shrine and ancient battleground soundtracks + post-game ambience is atmospherically amazing. on top of that, i think its identity this time around lies more strongly in the folk instruments style for both vermundian/battahli ambience/combat music, which establishes the high fantasy folk vibe strongly.

unfortunately, the title theme does not reflect this at all LOL being a purely orchestral arrangement only - no folk instruments. into free was weirdly jpop but at least the rock elements did have some place in the soundtrack. as a COHESIVE soundtrack, it sounds very confused with its direction and that in itself is understandably more than enough to fundamentally turn off fans despite the positives. ultimately i think its musical identity would be stronger if the main title theme was changed tbh 😐 (and it did later, but by then it's too late + it only matches post-game vibes not the other 90% of the game). there's a thematic disconnect (conflicting theme/leitmotif until the end credits) as well as stylistic one (in-game folk music vs classic orchestra) which skews expectations of the rest of the soundtrack

additionally, i think due to the wack difficulty scaling - somehow worse than dd1 RIP, the side effect is that we end up hearing the low intensity soundtracks for most of the game and further ng+'s which of course are meant to sound less complex in comparison, which further perpetuates the weak soundtrack perception

#i do appreciate the variations on the eternal return leitmotif in the vermund and cave ambience tracks that's a nice easter egg #i wrote this at 5am sorry if im not clear ahdjsndn #but yeah....... oof the music in this game is so ?¿?¿?¿#dragon's dogma #dragon's dogma 2 #dd2 #dd2 spoilers

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separatist-apologist · 1 year

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rank acotar characters by how long you could stand to be in a car with them? important factor: they decide what music is playing

Ranking ACOTAR characters based on an 8 hour roadtrip where they control the aux. Don't forget that I alone have the only right opinions in the fandom and therefore will be taking 0 feedback.

17. Beron- AM talk radio the WHOLE way with the most HEINOUS opinions a person can have. Loudly agrees and at times is arguing back with the guest through the speakers. Is he aware they can't HEAR HIM?

16. Amren- Doesn't like music. No road games, please.

15. Jurian- Dad rock. There is only so much Every Rose Has It's Thorns we can hear before its time to drive this car off a bridge. Pour exactly NO sugar on me, I am afraid of ants.

14. Gwyn- I'm SORRY, but she's giving very strong show tunes vibes. Spends the whole time singing, and yeah her voice. is beautiful but this is not American's Got Talent. This road trip is about classic jams, not showing off.

13. Nesta- Gruesome murder podcasts. Listens without flinching as the night grows darker. Thinks we should turn down that dark road as a short cut. Why is she cutting cheese with a hunting knife?

12. Tamlin- Country music, but it's like, pop-country and not country with feeling or country for murdering men. Barefoot blue jean night? Sir we're in New Jersey.

11. Eris Vanserra- Listens to The History Of Rome podcast the whole way. Jesus Christ man can we choose another point in history? NO. We will hear of these ancient battle tactics and we will be grateful. Only upside is Mike Duncan is a great story teller. Definitely asks for a sexual favor half way through, like I'm not DRIVING HELLO SIR?

10. Azriel- 2004 best of emo jams. Its a playlist he made himself, with all the classics. Become increasingly concerned when MCR's Helena comes on and he turns it up to belt with clear, obvious feeling. You okay, bro? Want to pull over for a taquito?

9. Vassa- Whatever is on the radio, like this isn't cornfield country. There is NOTHING but the sound of me mooing at the window ("cow") or the static as she flips station to station. Occasionally finds the most banger radio station filled with songs you forgot about, only for it to vanish right at the climax of a song you're both belting. Still, the spontaneity is fun

8. Rhys- NPR podcast. God it's informative and yeah it's interesting and the conversation it opens up keeps you both busy for hours so it's hard to completely complain. Spends a lot of time staring at his phone and fact-checking guests

7. Tarquin- Apple Music? I mean...I GUESS. He did his best, but his best is questionable. It's his own playlists and his taste in music if fun, if not eclectic. No one vibe- and he brought snacks.

6. Mor- Nothing but gossip. How does she know so much? Terrified to tell her about personal life, but have to admit hearing what disasters everyone else is really fills the time.

5. Emerie- PREPARED. Downloaded a mix of playlists AND podcasts, rotates them when the mood starts to flag. Never lets her finger off the phone, but also does not take requests, so stop asking. You get what you get.

4. Elain- It's pure pop and nothing else. Bouncy and upbeat, she came to have a good time with nothing in between. Outdoes Tarquin in snacks, and has a list of road games ready to go for when everyone is burned out with music.

3. Lucien- A playlist for every mood. Oh it's raining? It's sunny? Everyone is hungover and needs quiet? He's got you covered. The vibe never drags and is always appropriate, reading the room before you even know the tone has shifted.

2. Cassian- King of the excursion. Roadside America memorized, Cassian knows where every biggest wind chime, ball of yarn, and rocking chair is located. Somehow manages to keep everyone mostly on time. Stops for snacks instead of bringing his own because everyone knows the best food is at a rural gas station. Ranking jerky flavors for fun, and in between, keeps it easy with a steady jam of road trip faves.

1. Feyre Archeron- High Lady of the Road Trip herself. Turn off that podcast, turn up the music. Feet on the dash, gossip ready to GO. Can tell a story for HOURS, knows all the deets on everyone's messy lives. Planned ahead and found a hotel with a pool AND a bar. Playlist absolute perfection, based on the friends in the car.

#acotar rankings #remember if you disagree its you who is wrong and not me #my opinion is immaculate #AND objective

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laurenkmyers · 7 months

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i'm heading to thailand in a few weeks and it's my first time so i was wondering if you have any tips for a first time traveller? i also want to try and see some of the bl actors - how did you manage to see so many? help?

First of all can I just say how incredibly envious I am you're going to Thailand soon. I'd give literally everything I have to be back there. I hope you have the best time. Because it was a fucking dream holiday for me.

I do have a few basic tips for you:

1.) Download the Grab app (Thailand's version of Uber). Trust me when I say it's going to be your best fucking friend. @bestillmyslashyheart and I had every intention of using public transport when we were there but the Grab app was so fucking cheap and it was generally the easiest/quickest option to get to all our intended destinations.

If you're a solo traveller I recommend the Grab Bikes, they're your best option for beating the truly HORRENDOUS Bangkok traffic at peak times and they barely cost more than 150 baht for journeys no longer than an hour (if you're from the UK that's about £3.50 per journey- truly wild)

Also, another note on travel, if its raining or between the hours of 3pm-8pm and grab tells you it will be a 40 minute journey, double it, Bangkok traffic is no fucking joke. Gridlock city centre.

You should also download the BKK app if you do plan to use public transport.

2.) Always carry cash on you. Most places in the city take credit/debit cards but there is usually a fee and having cash if you're in the more rural areas of Thailand is a must. We learnt that the hard way.

3.) Learn basic thai phrases. I made a list before we went and they came in so handy. If you want my list feel free to ask but here is a few we used a lot. Sawadee ka/krub (polite hello) Kop khun ka/krub (polite thank you) Kor tord ka/krub (polite sorry) Hong naam? (bathroom?) If you can't handle spice, like my white ass, you might want to learn the phrase for "no chilli" which is: Mai Sai Preek or "not spicy" which is: Mai Ped

4.) 7-Eleven will be your saving grace. There is a 7-Eleven on every fucking street. No word of a lie. They're everywhere. And they're so fucking cheap. You need a quick snack to keep you going before lunch? Go to 7-Eleven. 10/10 recommend their toasties. Also a great place to stock up on water. 6 baht (13p) for their branded water. Also, if you're a BL fan they have a lot of the BL branded items from the shows in there. It's where I found the Kinnporsche sex bread, the kp helicopter bj nose inhaler, the between us green tea drink, the bad buddy seaweed snack etc.

5.) If you're planning to visit the temples you need to be super respectful of their culture. The main thing to be aware of is wearing the appropriate clothing. It's really important to be respectful and cover yourself when you're visiting these sacred places. Also most temples you have to take your shoes off before you enter, so I suggest wearing easily slip on/off shoes for your temple days. My crocs were a godsend.

6. Icon Siam is a very fucking overwhelming place. If you don't do well in crowds or you struggle to navigate, I'd say avoid Icon Siam. It's Bangkok's biggest and busiest mall for a fucking reason. And trying to get a pick up from any of the malls is a literal nightmare. The smaller but no less impressive malls I recommend are Siam Paragon and Central World (only 5 mins walk from each other).

7.) If you go during rainy season (which you are) always have an umbrella or poncho to hand and wear weather appropriate shoes. because let me tell you when that rain hits, it hits hard and it hits fast, and those streets are flooded within minutes.

I think that's all for the basics. But I can go into more depth if you have any specific questions. My dms are always open.

For the BL specific events, you should absolutely be following all of the big production companies on either insta (where I got most of my info from), facebook, or twitter. Most of them post the artists schedules a week or two in advance so keep your eyes peeled for those updates and check your availablity- lots of the events happen in the malls.

I would also personally recommend getting to the event a few hours beforehand to scope out the best area to place yourself. The main trick is to follow the obvious fanclubs. They're always posting about where they are and always have light up signs of the actors name on them. And if people are sitting in groups by barriers, that is where you need to place yourself. Most of the events are very well organised and will have barriers already in place fo the best views.

Don't be afraid to ask. Some of the fans won't speak English, but a large majority do. There's no harm in asking if you're in the right place.

And also on that note, if you see girls running in one particular direction- follow them. They're usually headed to the event you're headed to and they know the way better than you do. It'll save so much time and you'll end up with a much better spot.

I think that's everything! Hope this helps! Let me know, and please come back and share your experiences! I'd love to hear all about it!!

#thailand #thai bl #tips for thailand #travel tips #travel guide #thai bl actors #thai bl series

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singularscissor · 9 months

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i've been playing the pale court mod for hollow knight. its EXTREMELY impressive but also very hard. it feels almost exactly like a full real dlc.

so far i've defeated dryya, isma, and ze'mer. i think my favorite was dryya, probably because many of the attacks are familiar.

isma would be my favorite if it weren't for two things:

the invincible ceiling gulkas in part two of the fight. screw them. they are annoying and i think i should be able to kill them if i want

that one attack where she throws acid. she doesn't use it often enough to allow practice dodging it, and the tell looks SO MUCH like the other attack where she shoots vines at you i almost always got hit. also, it is extremely primal aspid-like behavior and nobody needs more of that in their life

with ze'mer, i don't feel like i actually got good at it. it feels more like i only got lucky :/ (skill issue, not design issue)

for all three i used something along the lines of weaversong + grubsong + sprintmaster + shaman stone

i tried hegemol and the abyss parkour but i am having a lot of trouble with them (i don't really like parkour in this game much anyway)

the creators really went above and beyond with the music! lots of appropriate thematic callbacks. each arena also has an entire separate full track that only plays during the ~10 secs it takes to walk up to the boss before you fight them.

the art also matches base game really well. i particularly appreciated ze'mer's sprites, what with all the fully animated flips and jumps she does

TLDR: go download pale court if you like hollow knight and want a challenge

#hollow knight #hollow knight mods #pale court #pale court mod #singularscissor

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communist-ojou-sama · 7 months

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hello ojou-sama! I’m really interested in your language journey and i would love more posts about it! Also, for all the languages you are learning/already learnt: what were your fav resources, app-wise? (i remember you use duolingo and clozemaster) i’m asking about apps only bc i feel listing books and other stuff would be too much hassle.

Ty for your time ❤️

ooh it's no problem! As far as apps I'm an old-head so what I used to use a lot is memrise but that's gone to shit since the changes a couple years ago. What I'd recommend now in its place is anki, though the out-of the box experience isn't as good and you need to do work to set up the experience you want from it; that said i think customizeability is always preferable to ease of experience out the gate as for resources, well:

for Russian I always found the simply-titled Russian Podcast to be a good resource, with dialogues performed first slow, and then fast, entirely in russian, including vocab explanations. For grammar I remember using AlphaDictionary's Interactive Online Russian Reference Grammar, which is very thorough if a bit dry. For Persian, while the site layout has changed quite a bit since I first used it in like 2015, PersianLanguageOnline has been a very simple and straightforward resource for especially the early steps of learning, while Jahanshiri has served as an indispensible reference resource.

For the fact that I'm now very fluent in Japanese I actually don't have much in the way of specific recommendations for Japanese learning outside of Tae Kim's Grammar Guide. Other than that I can mostly give the advice that you should not tell yourself that you don't need to learn kanji at first. Start learning kanji right away when you start learning and you'll thank yourself later. Also contrary to the bizarre narratives floating around, unless you only watch shonen anime, japanese popular entertainment is perfectly adequate input for someone learning to learn the language, so long as you pay attention to what contexts what language is being used in, and develop a sense then for what is and isn't appropriate where.

For Korean I owe a lot to HowToStudyKorean, both for the grammar explanations on the site, and for the accompanying Memrise courses, while TalkToMeInKorean has a very nice podcast that's a nice supplement to it. For Chinese I actually have used very little formal resources, though back in the early days I did download the texbook Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar somewhere off the internet, though most of my language practice has consisted of reading chinese yuri manhuas alongside their translations if I'm gonna be honest with you.

And that's all I can think of off the top of my head. Hope this helps! :)

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sunlitmiracle · 12 days

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smashes my current interest together with my old interest (aka yet another "what Dungeon Meshi but Gamers?" AU)

Once when I was a child I had a complete crying meltdown over Creatures, because the manual insisted that the complicated AI of the Norns made them truly alive and 10-year-old me was freaked out at the idea of being solely responsible for making sure these real animals wouldn't die. The funny part was that this was the Playstation version of Creatures, which has no biochemistry and very basic AI compared to the PC/Mac games where players actually were debating whether or not it was true artificial life. A PSX manual gave me existential dread and it wasn't even telling the truth.

Anyway, kid!Marcille would also have a meltdown over the Creatures series, especially if she had the computer games and got to see how vastly different some breeds' lifespans are. Like in C2 where you have Norns that live for around 5 hours and Norns that live for 10, both of which are vastly more than Ettins who don't even live for 1.5 hours (and usually less due to radiation or starvation).

Lucky for her, having the computer version means she could download modified genomes made by other players that make creatures live longer or even outright remove certain death triggers. However I think she'd have more fun learning to read and edit the genomes herself, to get a better understanding of how the game works and how to change it to suit her own tastes. And because she could pretend she's one of the mysterious ancient Shee who created the Norns, Grendels, and Ettins and then vanished, leaving behind relics of their old society.

(Speaking of Grendels, she would unfortunately dislike them because they're the Designated Evil Species and she'd hate how they harass and attack her Norns. I think she'd also pity them though, because they get sick a lot and have short lifespans. Likely she'd just end up downloading/creating a genome without the aggression towards Norns. Ettins she'd like except for in C3 when they dismantle her meticulously-placed gadget setups, so she might mod out their hoarding compulsions too. Both of them would of course also live for however long her Norns would live.)

Also. While standard creatures' lifespans are counted in hours, if you modify the half-lives in the genome editor you can increase it to centuries. Or even just over a millennium if you set the half-lives to their max length (assuming you also leave the old age death trigger at its vanilla value).

and I like to think that elven Creatures players would pass around copies of what they consider a template genome that's appropriate to their own lifespans. Something that would make their creatures live for weeks or months of continuous play. I also like to think the Creatures DS Warp is still active in this AU because of the hilarious frustration when these long-lived Norns travel to worlds run by short-lived players whose Norns have vanilla lifespans, and vice versa.

(Most of the time in Creatures, offspring of parents with different lifespans will just have one or the other, but there's a chance the genes cross over right in the middle of the various age triggers and cause unstable aging rates. Like a Norn that goes through the childhood stages in hours but then has a very extended adulthood. Or a days-long childhood followed by suddenly dropping dead of old age once the vanilla adulthood genes kick in. Or, if the child has one parent's half-life decay rate and the other parent's age triggers, all sorts of odd things could happen. I once had hybrid Norns who lived for 20 hours and would die of organ failure before reaching the old age threshold!)

(Now that I think of it, Marcille would absolutely hate fast-agers. The first time she watches a creature hatch, turn old, and die in just one brief minute of life, she would be sobbing for days. One of the first things she'd learn to mod out would be mutations that cause the Ageing/Life chemical to decrease unusually fast.)

On a lighter note, while I don't know what her favorite designs would be I think she'd love choosing cute breeds to use in her world. Once she figured out how to give her creatures the comfortable life she wants them to have I can see her redirecting all her gene-editing efforts into changing color expressions. She might even learn to sprite or model her own custom designs.

#creatures #creatures games #dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #dungeon meshi spoilers #delicious in dungeon spoilers #(not directly but the Implications are there)#(later tags will be more direct about spoilers)#anyway all the PC Creatures games are on Steam and Docking Station is free #Caveat One: Creatures 2 does not run well on modern systems (though the Steam release is trying to fix that)#Caveat Two: The Creatures series was made during the 'spanking is acceptable' era so uh.#No sugarcoating it: Physical abuse is used as discipline.#(unless it's Creatures Village where they replaced slapping with a water spray)#I made a mod for C3/DS that just uses buttons instead of the hand; it was released for the CCSF 2023 community event but #I should re-release it here too someday. I should also revisit my slap-disabler mod and see if I can make it easy to install.#but that's a task for Future Me and not Present Me #anyway Sissel/Thistle is also a Creatures player but he cares more about micromanaging his population than caring for them #he removes not just their death triggers but also their drive to eat and sleep. they're permanently happy zombies basically #he doesn't make peace with Grendels and Ettins he just puts them in the airlock #he gets involved in the Creatures Abuse discourse and somehow makes everyone mad #however he is also a very prolific modder who has made all sorts of interesting animals and metarooms; ppl in the fandom respect his skills #and he does truly care about his vision of a utopian world for his favorite Norns #idk if any other dunmeshi character would play Creatures. Milsiril might like it?#Kabru wouldn't play but he'd get a kick out of reading the many ethical debates and drama between fans #everyone else I feel might be put off by the game's very slow pace or by the complexities of raising creatures #anyway hey I haven't posted on tumblr for months; I am sorry and this WILL happen again #Eventually i will remember how to Create Things #that is also a task for Future Me

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pudding-parade · 1 year

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No? Well, I'm sharing one anyway. So there! :)

I just haven't seen many (or any, really) monotone presets out there, and I thought maybe someone besides me might want to make their game look like a sci-fi movie from the 1940s from time to time. Here's more pics, not Photoshopped at all except for cropping/resizing, all taken in Oasis Landing which, in monotone, looks like something out of a 1940s-era sci-fi movie, anyway, so it's appropriate.

It's a warm brown monotone, grainy, a bit bloomy, and it's sharpened to within an inch of its frickin' life. It's fine for gameplay, I think. At least, on my machine the game runs at around 30-40 fps with it running alongside all the other resource-eating crap I habitually run. The UI is readable, too, like so:

These are the four shaders it uses, which you'll need, but don't ask me where I got them because I haven't the foggiest clue.

Do note that my game's ambient occlusion and antialiasing is controlled via NVIDIA control panel settings, not Reshade, so if you do that via Reshade you might need to add those kinds of shaders to this preset to make it look good. Or not. Honestly, I have no clue what I'm doing with Reshade.

But if you want to download it, it's right here. Feel free to mess around with it as you like, share edits of it, whatever. I ain't fussy.

#sims 3 #reshade presets #dl:reshade

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sidewalkchemistry · 2 years

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Authority (Inner Guidance) in Human Design

(also available to read for free on Patreon: here)

The mind likes games. The mind can turn against you. The mind is constantly being distorted by outside influences. The mind doesn't even know the difference between a real and imagined threat. And with all this going on...the entire reality of the individual is shaped by the mind.

That's why in Human Design we are taught to seek the authority of another source. For long enough in our world, the mind has been accoladed and thought to be the powerhouse of the human being. We say it's why we are better than any other animal out there. We say that's why we have been able to construct this world we live in. But isn't it also reason we are so foolish and have made a mess of the world? Human Design takes this more nuanced perspective of the mind.

The mind is not our enemy, but it is not our saving grace either.

So, what is an authority exactly?

An authority is the trustworthy tool for making decisions that are soul-aligned. It helps give us guidance in addressing our body, its needs, and our strategy (= how one best navigates life according to HD).

There are 7 kinds of authorities in Human Design (check your chart to determine which is your authority: learn how to find & read your chart here). The authorities work in tandem with your aura and strategy (read more here):

1) Sacral Authority:

WHAT ITS LANGUAGE IS: guttural responses, gut feelings, butterflies in stomach, sinking/uneasy feelings in stomach, feelings of being turned on/off, a spark or deadening of energy, an energetic pull towards/away from a situation

HOW TO GET MORE FLUENT IN IT: allow yourself to express yourself in less verbal methods - pay attention when you want to say “uh-huh,” “nah,” "uh-uh," “meh,” "hmm," “uhh,” "yeah," "yep," "yuck" - make obvious your feelings through groaning, humming, sighing, whimpering, and other immediate utterances - notice how annoyances vs obligations vs passions make you feel (emotionally & in a bodily sense)

WHEN TO RESPOND: in the present moment, as the sacral authority responds immediately to yes/no questions and situations in the Now

2) Emotional Authority:

WHAT ITS LANGUAGE IS: emotional highs, lows, and in-betweens; emotional reactivity; the full spectrum of emotions; an emotional wave that eventually settles

HOW TO GET MORE FLUENT IN IT: accept and observe your emotions with non-judgment & also the recognition that they hold wisdom for decision-making (provided you respond in the right time period) - step away from needing to logically analyze your emotions - don't feel pressured to make immediate decisions and create the space to take the time to make sound decisions ("I'll have to think a bit longer") - remember that life can't pass you by; experiences and opportunities are a fact of life

WHEN TO RESPOND: in the appropriate space of time, as the emotional authority may tempt you to make decisions with low clarity in the height of an emotional wave spike. Be sure to check you aren't deciding from intense fear, grief, joy, or anger, because in the next moment, you may entirely disagree with the choice you made. As you start becoming more familiar with your emotional patterns, you will learn when your emotions are mellowed enough to make what will be an aligned decision.

3) Splenic Authority:

WHAT ITS LANGUAGE IS: intuitive hits, downloads, alert perceptions, instinctual/survival impulses

HOW TO GET MORE FLUENT IN IT: cultivate a keen awareness of the body, as the voices of the mind and emotions may seem to drown out this quieter voice of the spleen - work on nervous system regulation (to avoid fear and overarousal clouding your awareness of this authority) - remain in a state of deep listening and do not only look for logically validated guidance or wait for your impulses to "make sense" before making decisions - accept more spontaneity and flow in your life

WHEN TO RESPOND: in the very moment, as the splenic authority provides spontaneous and instantaneous guidance that can easily be forgotten if ignored or not given the proper attention

4) Ego Authority:

WHAT ITS LANGUAGE IS: verbalization in [near] solitude (until it is determined if you have the energy and will to perform a certain task); surges or pitfalls of energy/willpower

HOW TO GET MORE FLUENT IN IT: talk aloud to yourself with the utmost honesty (if needed, use another person as a listening ear provided they will not distort your verbalizations) - learn how it sounds and feels when you speak your truth - respect when you simply do not have the energy, will, or desire to engage in something

WHEN TO RESPOND: once you realize your energy levels for said task, as the ego authority has a knowledge of your stores of energy and desires

5) G/Self-Projected Authority:

WHAT ITS LANGUAGE IS: verbalization in [near] solitude (until you get a sense of your true inner voice and ideas on a topic); sense of being pulled by your heart/along the golden thread

HOW TO GET MORE FLUENT IN IT: talk through things alone, in a mirror, or with a distanced person (eg. over a phone call; provided they will not distort your verbalizations) - learn how it sounds and feels when you speak your truth vs regurgitated opinions - remember that you have a unique opinion (just like everyone else)

WHEN TO RESPOND: once you realize that you are speaking from your authentic voice (following your inner truth), as the G/self-projected authority guides you towards the direction of your true self

6) No Inner Authority:

WHAT ITS LANGUAGE IS: emergent epiphanies from 1-on-1 conversations

HOW TO GET MORE FLUENT IN IT: determine a handful of people with whom you can count on to be non-judgmental listeners and engage in open-ended conversation - practice present in conversations and reflect intently on them (journaling may be useful) - notice when your personal voice and impressions are being expressed

WHEN TO RESPOND: once you feel you've had enough conversations and gained enough clarity, as the lack of an inner authority requires reflective and cumulative observation of yourself under varied environmental, planetary, and human influences

7) Lunar Authority:

WHAT ITS LANGUAGE IS: thoughts, feelings, and impressions that shift over the period of a 28-day lunar cycle* (equivalent to the completion of passing through all 64 gates of the human design chart)

HOW TO GET MORE FLUENT IN IT: cultivate an observatory practice that aligns with the lunar cycle - remember that life can't pass you by; experiences and opportunities are a fact of life - try to move slow and maintain a reflective sort of life so that you can balance observation of yourself and the world around you - notice when your personal voice and impressions are being expressed

WHEN TO RESPOND: once the lunar cycle has ended*, as a lack of closed energy centers allows you to continuously extract the wisdom of all that is around you (the exterior world, according to HD, can be said to have a cyclical pattern of influences that repeats every recurs every 28-days)

*this full cycle of time is used mostly for major decisions. Once you become familiar with the cyclical influence of the moon & gates, waiting the entire 28/29-day period may not always be necessary.

next time, we'll be talking about the not-self and what that means, so that we can get into discussion of the energy centers!

stay tuned

xoxo

#txt #human design #astrology #self transformation #inner work #holistic healing #holistic health #mindfulness #slow living #soft living #leveling up #kabbalah #chakras #self discovery #spirituality #hd: authority #loa #manifestation

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ladymelisande · 11 months

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What do you think of Bridgerton books in general? Most people agree that it's very bad, but I think it's ok ? For me, the most problematic books are volume 1, 3 and 4, the rest honestly goes very well and its rather funny ? (Although every time the author talks about the tearing hymen, or one of the guys being tough as a rock I want to roll my eyes. Although I think she's gotten better over time as books) My favorite is book 6. My second favorite is book 2, although the scene where Anthony talks about consummating the marriage as his right and Kate mentally vindicating him makes me uneasy. I had no idea that Philippe is so hated ?! It's a lamb in front of Benedict and Colin ?! Honestly, volume 4 gave me bad vibes about Colin and his super violent impulses that nobody EVER talks to him about ?! Wtf ?! Then Benedict and his behavior bordering on harassment... Although the whole final scene in prison with mom Violet was great. As for the rape that Daphne committed on Simon... I think we all want to tear our hair out over this. But at least (will we say) to change it's the girl who is problematic.

I'm afraid that To Sir Phillip With Love is the only one I am touching for now, nonny. But I might download Anthony's and Francesca's books later. Daphne's book... Nah. Honestly, even if it didn't have the rape there, I just don't vibe with the fake dating plot.

In some things I have to be fair with the author: some of the things that make us uncomfortable might just be intentional. After all, we are talking about historical fiction, not contemporary. And I am a firm believer that sanitising every uncomfortable aspect of a historical period..., or in the other extreme, making them worse to the point of ridiculousness to make our modern time look better and perfect, is just bad writing. Plain and simple. There has to be balance.

Yeah, I don't know why Phillip gets this much hate, but I saw posts and shorts on Youtube acting as if Eloise had married the devil or some shit. There is that situation during his marriage with Marina according to some spoilers I picked, but considering he feels awful about it, it was probably not done with any maliciousness. Which is more than we got from Daphne. I'm only a few chapters in but yeah, compared with the other guys, he is a puppy. I guess he is hated because the stupid show erased Eloise's more-period appropriate personality and transformed her into yet another girlboss caricature that hates marriage and children. And also because the show hyped Marina and she became Shonda's Creator's Pet.

And for the language that Julia Quinn uses in her writing..., I'm afraid that's just normal for the genre, nonny. Lol, believe me that I have read a lot worse. When I was a kid I always went around picking the raunchiest books that I could find and just asked my innocent dad to buy them. Some sex scenes in books were really... something. Look up Robin Schone, she had some language that you either like or despise.

#may answers #bridgerton #to sir phillip with love #tw: rape mention

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apocalypticavolition · 1 year

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Let's (re)Read the Hobbit! Chapter 5

Well, I suppose it’s time to get into the chapter that received the most attention from Tolkien. As The Hobbit was originally written with the intent of being a fairy tale for his kids, and only got turned into a significant aspect of the Legendarium as he began writing the sequel, quite a few aspects of the One Ring needed to be changed. Thus, there are two versions of this chapter, and as I’ve never read the original before I did so and will point out the differences as we go.

When Bilbo opened his eyes, he wondered if he had; for it was just as dark as with them shut. No one was anywhere near him. Just imagine his fright! I don't have to too much. I've been spelunking and when you can't see shit it's awful. Kinda surprised my mom still likes this book so much considering that when she was a girl in Iceland she fell down a hole spelunking. He guessed as well as he could, and crawled along for a good way, till suddenly his hand met what felt like a tiny ring of cold metal lying on the floor of the tunnel. It was a turning point in his career, but he did not know it. He put the ring in his pocket almost without thinking; certainly it did not seem of any particular use at the moment. You might think Bilbo’s coming into his own as a burglar here, but this is dark magic. Very corrupting influence already that ring. Most rings would at least have you think about how they came to be there. He thought of himself frying bacon and eggs in his own kitchen at home—for he could feel inside that it was high time for some meal or other; but that only made him miserabler. First time in awhile we aren't told it wouldn't be the last time Bilbo thinks of home so I guess this is the last? “So it is an elvish blade, too,” he thought; “and goblins are not very near, and yet not far enough.” It's a shame he didn't think to show it off to Elrond in Rivendell. It would have been cool to hear him tell its story, if it had one. Some of these caves, too, go back in their beginnings to ages before the goblins, who only widened them and joined them up with passages, and the original owners are still there in odd corners, slinking and nosing about. Honestly this whole sequence is a beautiful bit of environmental description that makes this cave feel truly unsettling and unpleasant in ways that thankfully real life caves avoid. I’d quote it all but I think illegally downloading 1600+ ebooks in a week is as much copyright infringement as I should risk right now. Deep down here by the dark water lived old Gollum, a small slimy creature. I don’t know where he came from, nor who or what he was. So that's a lie. Gollum got into his boat and shot off from the island, while Bilbo was sitting on the brink altogether flummoxed and at the end of his way and his wits. Bruh. You saw all those other passages. I get that going forward feels good, but you're in a cave. No reason not to think that the path to safety might not end up curving around.

And when he said gollum he made a horrible swallowing noise in his throat. That is how he got his name, though he always called himself ‘my precious’. I feel like there's a great joke here about how people who don't respect His Precious's chosen name and use the derogatory one are bad allies or something, but I can't quite get it in a way that doesn't feel low key shitty when I just want to be silly so consider this your chance to come up with an appropriate one for me! Winner of this contest will receive laughter! (Also, who gave Gollum his name? The goblins don't survive encounters with him. Did Bilbo do it because of this encounter? Dick move, Bilbo.)

“A sword, a blade which came out of Gondolin!” “Sssss” said Gollum, and became quite polite. Kinda cool that Gollum knew what Gondolin was. Hobbits a few hundred years back must have had better stories. Maybe because Gollum's family wasn't in the Shire but east of the Misty Mountains. Riddles were all he could think of. Asking them, and sometimes guessing them, had been the only game he had ever played with other funny creatures sitting in their holes in the long, long ago, before he lost all his friends and was driven away, alone, and crept down, down, into the dark under the mountains. They're called hobbits buddy. ��Does it guess easy? It must have a competition with us, my preciouss! If precious asks, and it doesn’t answer, we eats it, my preciousss. If it asks us, and we doesn’t answer, then we does what it wants, eh? We shows it the way out, yes!” In the OG version of the text, Gollum offers to give Bilbo a present, which explains why Bilbo is very blithe about the offer going forward because it's nowhere near as nice a promise as taking him to safety. Doesn’t explain why he’s so chill about being eaten but let’s say “shock”. That was all he could think of to ask—the idea of eating was rather on his mind. It was rather an old one, too, and Gollum knew the answer as well as you do. Sadly I'm not much of a riddle guy, Tolkien. Gollum would be eating the shit out of me if I were in Bilbo's place and I know how the story goes! But just as Bilbo was beginning to hope that the wretch would not be able to answer, Gollum brought up memories of ages and ages and ages before, when he lived with his grandmother in a hole in a bank by a river... In the OG version Bilbo starts wondering about the present at this point. I am definitely going with “shock” to explain why he’s not so focused on the being eaten thing.

“Well,” said Bilbo after giving him a long chance, “what about your guess?” In the OG, he asks about the present at this point. I am rapidly moving toward “affluenza” being Bilbo is being such a spoiled little rich kid. [Gollum] also in his turn thought this was a dreadfully easy one, because he was always thinking of the answer. There's a good lesson here about how different environments train people for very different things and provide drastically different expectations of normal. Should you ever find yoursely in a riddle-game with a cave beast, keep this in mind.

I wish I had more to say about the riddles themselves except that they’re all pretty well-written. I wonder if Tolkien made up any himself or if he got them all from somewhere. Bilbo was saved by pure luck. Twice he was saved by luck at this point. Twice he’s getting answers by pure luck, which is a bit disappointing even though of course as a Wooster-esque figure we can't expect Bilbo to know much of anything. Or maybe even in the “final” text he’s still lying through his teeth so elves and dwarves will think he’s a punk at riddle games and then he can smoke their asses and get 1/14th of their estates. “What have I got in my pocket?” And of course, if getting answers by pure luck is unfair, getting the questions this way seems even worse, especially when it's such poor form! I'm rooting for His Precious now. [Gollum] tried to think what other people kept in their pockets.“Knife!” he said at last. Let's be real here Smeagol, knives are totally something you kept in your pocket, you creepy murderer you. But he felt he could not trust this slimy thing to keep any promise at a pinch. Any excuse would do for him to slide out of it. And after all that last question had not been a genuine riddle according to the ancient laws. In the OG version (yes we're back to the differences now and no I'm not going to stop giving it the stupidest title possible), the text says that Bilbo need not have worried because Gollum was on the up-and-up. No wonder Gandalf didn’t fall for it for more than the two seconds it took him to remember that “Hobbits cannot write down lies,” was only a hobbit fact he told dwarves. “Well?” [Bilbo] said. “What about your promise? I want to go. You must show me the way.” In the OG version, Bilbo asks about the present which he feels he "won fairly", which is so incredibly bullshit that maybe it disoriented Gandalf and made him unable to focus on anything else in the text. That's some Zapp Brannigan tier delusions there BB. But who knows how Gollum came by that present, ages ago in the old days when such rings were still at large in the world? Perhaps even the Master who ruled them could not have said. I can. Gollum recovered the ring about five centuries earlier. Thank goodness Bilbo only kept it to 111. It would have been horrible if he'd just skulked about Bag-End for centuries, eating fish and throwing spoons at the Sackville-Bagginses at night. Gollum was cursing and wailing away in the gloom, not very far off by the sound of it. He was on his island, scrabbling here and there, searching and seeking in vain. Literally everything between my last OG note and this one is entirely new and a bit of an expansion. In Bilbo's text, Gollum simply sails acros the lake to get the present as promised and can't find it.

The new version’s still amazingly atmospheric too. Tolkien was great with all of his landscapes, but he does caves so well that I kinda have to wonder when he went spelunking and what horrible monsters he must have found down there to write about Gollum’s hunting. “Losst it is, my precious, lost, lost! Curse us and crush us, my precious is lost!” Gollum is originally upset because not only does he not have the present to honor the game but he doesn't have it for himself either. “What has it got in its pocketses? Tell us that. It must tell first.” Instead of all this misery and cajoling culminating in Gollum demanding the answer to the riddle, Gollum just comes back, tail between his legs, really upset about not being able to honor his deal. He also tells Bilbo about the ring, that he got it as a birthday present and that it makes you invisible. But now the light in Gollum’s eyes had become a green fire, and it was coming swiftly nearer. Frankly this is only an improvement over the original, as it was quite unbelievable that Bilbo could threaten a so much as a paralyzed child with a sword, let alone successfully intimidate a semi-monster. Dude needs to spend more time in danger. He put his left hand in his pocket. The ring felt very cold as it quietly slipped on to his groping forefinger. This is not a convenient deus ex machina because of course he's corrupted to hell and back by the ring, which claimed the soul of a dandy like him in about fifteen seconds. No clue how Frodo pulled it off. Terrified he tried to run faster, but suddenly he struck his toes on a snag in the floor, and fell flat with his little sword under him. Normally I'd say it was a miracle he didn't stab himself, but as we're talking about Bilbo I think it's fair to say that not being able to stab anything under any conditions is entirely in character for him. Suddenly Gollum sat down and began to weep, a whistling and gurgling sound horrible to listen to. Frankly I just feel a bit bad for the guy. Like yeah he's a creepy cave cannibal but he's been a plaything of the ring for five centuries so it's hard to hold much of any of it against him – even the initial murder is a part of that. Poor Gollum. “Then let’s stop talking, precious, and make haste. If the Baggins has gone that way, we must go quick and see. Go! Not far now. Make haste!” Please do stop talking. This little monologue stretches on a bit long, it feels much more reflective of LotR's epic style than it does the Hobbit's plain fairy tale, and really could have been trimmed a little bit. Still there it was: Gollum with his bright eyes had passed him by, only a yard to one side. In the Bilbo variant, boy just gets escorted up and away. He puts on the ring briefly to try it out but takes it back off to be visible around Gollum for obvious reasons. “Seven right, yes. Six left, yes!” Intriguingly to pedants, originally it was six right, four left – one wonders why Bilbo lied about that little detail in universe or how Frodo could correct him. Also, obviously Gollum just takes him up quickly instead of crying at any point. There was Gollum sitting humped up right in the opening, and his eyes gleamed cold in his head, as he swayed it from side to side between his knees. You could try stabbing him, Bilbo. He can't see you. Good thing Bilbo didn't of course. Not because of the sequel. Just because, as I observed earlier, dude can't even manage to stab himself.

No, not a fair fight. He was invisible now. Gollum had no sword. Gollum had not actually threatened to kill him, or tried to yet. I pity Gollum too Bilbo, but he DID threaten to kill you way back at the beginning of this whole exchange. Did you just mishear him? Is that why you’re so chill about all this? Straight over Gollum’s head he jumped, seven feet forward and three in the air; indeed, had he known it, he only just missed cracking his skull on the low arch of the passage. Literally the only reason he could do this is that the DM- I mean, Eru Iluvatar- didn't want him to kill Gollum yet. If it were not for the literal grace of God Bilbo wouldn't have leapt half so high and still would have managed to bash his skull in somehow.

“If goblins are so near that he smelt them,” he thought, “then they’ll have heard his shrieking and cursing. Careful now, or this way will lead you to worse things.” In the lying version of the text, Gollum just refuses to go further and goes back to the lake. Bilbo listens to make sure of that before going on, but nothing comes of it. The passage was low and roughly made. It was not too difficult for the hobbit, except when, in spite of all care, he stubbed his poor toes again, several times, on nasty jagged stones in the floor. “A bit low for goblins, at least for the big ones,” thought Bilbo, not knowing that even the big ones, the orcs of the mountains, go along at a great speed stooping low with their hands almost on the ground. Half of this paragraph, in interspersed chunks, is different in the new version, but not in any significant way. The word "orc" not being used is the closest big change I see. They saw him sooner than he saw them. Yes, they saw him. Whether it was an accident, or a last trick of the ring before it took a new master, it was not on his finger. Fucking asshole ring. I think it just likes doing this. Probably jumped off of Sauron right before Isildur struck him down for the lols. A pang of fear and loss, like an echo of Gollum’s misery, smote Bilbo, and forgetting even to draw his sword he struck his hands into his pockets. I don’t wanna hear anyone say that my claims of Bilbo already being thoroughly claimed by the ring are just my usual hyperbolic, reductionist nonsense for comedic purposes. He’s had it for like an hour and he’s already echoing Gollum.

They yelled twice as loud as before, but not so delightedly.

By the by, these paragraphs are also a little different, mostly tightened up and written more strongly, so that's nice. At this point, the two texts converge again. It was still ajar, but a goblin had pushed it nearly to. Bilbo struggled but he could not move it. He tried to squeeze through the crack. He squeezed and squeezed, and he stuck! Imagine how awful it would have been if the goblins had tried shutting the door then. Also: thank goodness he’s been on such a restricted diet lately or he wouldn’t have even gotten this far! He was through, with a torn coat and waistcoat, leaping down the steps like a goat, while bewildered goblins were still picking up his nice brass buttons on the doorstep. “That creepy fish creature in the lake must have found a new toy!”

Bilbo had escaped. And so we end another chapter. Bilbo is alone in the wilderness! How will he fare with his slow wits, physical failings, and near-complete ignorance of the outdoors now that his entire party is-

*checks the next page*

Four paragraphs away?

Not much of a cliffhanger I guess, sorry.

#the hobbit #j r r tolkien #bilbo baggins #gollum #smeagol #let's read

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