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pudding-parade · 2 months

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It's the tutorial that no one asked for! And I blew my entire day on it, so you better appreciate it! :) No, seriously, this is as much for me as for anyone else. I don't do this process often, and when I do, I have to re-remember the steps, and sometimes I forget some of them and have to figure it out again. This will save future me from having to do that.

Even if you aren't me, if you're interested in being able to place diving lots in most any world you like and that has ocean, this will be relevant to your interests. Unfortunately, it is a sometimes fiddly process to get a working lot at the end, and I went into a lot of detail, so the tutorial is long, but please do follow it closely because if you skip a step or mess anything up, your lot will be wonky or it might not work at all, and I don't want to hear your whining. :)

Note that this is a tutorial for placing a new, empty diving lot, which is the first step in placing a downloaded diving lot or one that you yoinked from another world, but this tutorial doesn't cover how to get such lots working. This just shows you how to place an empty lot, which I'm assuming for this tutorial's purpose that you will then build/decorate yourself. Frankly, I've discovered that building your own is much easier than trying to ram square pegs into round holes, which is what placing downloaded dive lots often feels like, even if you know what you're doing. It can be as time-consuming, if not more time-consuming, to get a pre-made lot placed and working than it does to just build your own.

So, here we go.

Step 1: Pick Your Poison. Choose the world/save you'd like to plop a dive lot into, open it, and go into Edit Town. You can use any world you want, EA or custom, so long as it has accessible ocean in it. (More on that in Step 3.) I'm going to use Sunlit Tides, just because many people want to put dive lots in it yet can't always get them working.

Step 2: Cheats! You need some cheats, so open the cheat box by pressing Control+Shift+C and then enter these three:

testingcheatsenabled true buydebug on enablelotlocking on

Note that you need to enable testing cheats first because the other two aren't available otherwise.

Step 3: Placing the Lot. Go into World Editor and in the Lots submenu of it choose the lot size you want:

As far as I know, a dive lot can be any size you want from the minumum 10x10 to the maximum 64x64, any of the EA standard sizes or any custom size you might add using this mod. If you are bound and determined to try and place a downloaded/yoinked lot, then in my experience, it's best to make the new lot a little bigger than the lot you want to place, if possible, so that you have some wiggle room to get it to fit better. But, I'm assuming you're going to build your own here.

If you plan to do lots of terrain sculpting on your dive lot, bigger is better. That said, unless you're going to do something really elaborate, it doesn't have to be 64x64, the largest possible size, either. Smaller will mean that your prospective lot will fit in more places on the map. So, it's up to you. For this, I'm just going to place a 30x30 lot, because I'm not going to build/decorate it or anything.

Now, it needs to be said that not every world will be able to have diving lots. The world must have ocean, obviously, and that ocean must be routable or else sims won't be able to get to it. The ocean also has to be deep enough. Generally speaking, "deep enough" is if the water is dark blue. (Or green, or whatever color the lighting mod you use might make it.)

For instance, in Sunlit Tides here, it's pretty obvious where the deeper water is:

But you know what? I'm going to place a dive lot in some of the shallower water, anyway, because I/you actually can, within reason. And if you're interested in doing this in Sunlit Tides, I'll warn you that the deep spot in the pic above has a very uneven bottom. It's really not a good place to put a dive lot. And I'm not sure what the deep water on the outskirts of the map is like, but the good news is that much of the deeper and flat-bottomed shallows, as I've noted, work well.

So: With your chosen lot size selected, move your cursor around in the ocean where it seems to you that the water is "deep enough" until you come to a spot you like and where the lot grid is green. If the grid is never green, then the ocean likely isn't routable at all and you won't be able to place diving lots in that world. I have never run into that, myself, but I also haven't done this all that often, so it's certainly possible. Anyway, I'm picking here:

My advice would be to not make your lot too far off-shore even if you can do so, or else it will take sims a long time to get to it. Especially merfolk, because they always swim out to dive lots rather than take a water taxi, and they swim much more slowly than a water taxi moves. Once you find your spot, go ahead and place the lot. Doing so will create a square island, not a sunken lot. That's fine. We'll fix it in a moment.

Step 4: Change the Lot Type. Click the lot's icon and change the lot type to community and then choose "Diving Area" as the subtype:

Note that this option will only show if you've enabled lot locking. So if you didn't enter that cheat up in Step 2 or if you entered it incorrectly, rectify that situation now so that you can set the lot type.

Step 5: Sinking the Lot Enter the lot and flatten it with this tool in build mode:

This will submerge the lot so that it's level with the sea floor rather than being an island. You can now move the camera down under the water and have a look at your potential diving area, like so:

In particular, check the edges of the lot to see if there are any huge drop-offs or other great differences between the level of your lot and the surrounding terrain. Whether or not this will happen is world-dependent. Some worlds have very uneven/jagged underwater areas, which is what will make you end up with drop-offs, while others, like Sunlit Tides here, are (mostly) pretty flat.

You can see in the above pic that this lot is a little sunken along two of its sides. That's fine; that small amount of difference can easily be smoothed out with the terrain sculpting tools. If there are steep drop-offs or upward slopes, you can sculpt the lot to try to blend it with its surroundings, but be advised that 1) Interactable objects like dive caves can't be placed on uneven terrain and still be usable and 2) If you end up really deep down, the camera goes wonky and it's frustrating-to-impossible to build or play the lot. So, if you've got a huge drop-off and/or a steep upward slope on one or more of the edges of your lot, I'd recommend just trying a different spot. But, it's up to you. If you feel you can work with the uneven edges in some way, have at it. You are braver than me.

Step 6: Save that MFer. Once you have a lot you're satisfied with, this is a good time to save. So, go back to Edit Town and do that.

I recommend saving often during this entire process because, I don't know about your game, but sometimes mine will "hang" or even crash when moving between Edit Town and Build/Buy, especially if I do it a lot. And with this process, you will be doing it a lot, not to mention exiting out to the main menu and then going back into the save a few times. Since getting a dive lot placed can be a fiddly business, it sucks to lose a lot of progress to a hang/crash. So, in my opinion, you can't save too often, but in this tute I'll only prompt you to do it when you must.

Step 7: Exit Stage Right Remember long ago in the last step how I said you'll be exiting to the main menu a few times? Yeah, the first time is now. You do this because, for whatever reason, the game doesn't register changes made to the "structure" of dive lots without exiting and re-entering the save. So do that. Once it's reloaded go back into Edit Town and then back into the new diving lot. Because now it's time to place a dive buoy.

Step 8: Deploy Buoy The dive buoy is located in the debug items, so if you haven't turned on access to that yet, do so now. Then, go into the buy menu, sort it "by function," not the default "by room," and you should see this question mark here:

Click that, and then I recommend that you go to the filters on the right-hand side of the menu and choose just Island Paradise objects. Because you'll be going into the "Misc. Objects" tab and, especially if you have all EPs/SPs, there's a crap-ton of objects in there to sort through. So, filter, then choose the "Misc. Objects" tab, and you'll see this much-more-manageable selection:

Choose the dive buoy, as indicated, and place it anywhere on your dive lot. It doesn't matter where because (spoiler alert) this one's going to be deleted, anyway.

Step 9: Ogle That Shapely Buoy Once your buoy is placed, move your camera down to the ocean surface and have a closer look at it. Like so:

See how the ball part of it is just sitting on the surface of the ocean? That's bad. If you were to leave it like that, you'd have sims (and sharks, if you place a surface shark spawner) swimming/snorkeling in the air, if the lot would work at all. But don't panic! We can fix it. We just need to shift the entire lot down a l'il bit, so let's do it!

Step 10: Copy the Lot to the Library Go back out to Edit Town. Check to make sure that your lot designation is still "Diving Area." (Because during this process, it will sometimes change.) Then, save the lot to your library. The game will give you a warning about cancelling all sim interactions or something. That's fine. Just put a copy of the lot in the library. The thumbnail in the community lot catalog will look like a blue square.

Why are you doing this, you ask? Because now you're going to bulldoze the original. Why? Because we need to move the entire lot down a little bit, and you can only do that by placing a fresh copy of the lot. And you may need to do this several times until you get it at the right depth, so having a copy of the lot in your library is necessary. You can delete it out of the library once you've got your dive lot in the right place, if you want.

Step 11: I'm a Steamroller, Baby Once you've got a copy of the lot safely in your library, bulldoze the original lot you placed. Once bulldozed, the game will change the lot designation back to "No Visitors Allowed," so you'll need to change it back to "Diving Area."

Step 12: Go Down on That Lot To move the lot down when it's placed, you need this cheat activated:

setimportedterrainoffset -0.1

The value at the end can be whatever you want, as many decimal places as you want. A positive number will move the lot up, and a negative number will move it down. (You can use a larger negative number to make deeper a lot that's too shallow, and it can also be helpful if you're intending to try to place a downloaded diving lot on this lot so that it might better match the depth of the water in whatever world it came out of, but this won't always have the effect you want. For one, your lot will be down in a hole.) For the purposes of this tute, all I need to do is move the lot down a teeny bit so that the dive buoy on the lot is sitting IN and not ON the surface of the water. Hence, the -0.1 value.

(Now, I should mention that other tutes I've seen will have you just lower the terrain right under the buoy to sink it a little bit rather than doing this bulldoze-and-replace-with-a-whole-lowered-lot thing I do. This method can work, but I don't like it for various reasons that I won't go into for brevity's sake. I'm just telling you what I do, which has worked every time I've placed a dive lot, including shallow-water ones like this one.)

Step 13: Re-Placing the Lot Go into your library and place your saved lot back where it was. DO NOT ROTATE IT or else things will get screwed up. (Namely, your lot will become an island again and resinking it won't really work.) Just click "Accept." And then check its lot designation and change it to "Diving Area" again, if necessary, which it probably will be because stupid game.

Step 14: Ogle that Shapely Buoy 2, Electric Boogaloo Now, enter build mode and move the camera down to the ocean surface again to check the dive buoy. Ideally, it will now be sitting IN, not ON, the water, like so:

If it's still sitting on the surface, the lot needs to be deeper and therefore moved down farther, so go back to Edit Town, bulldoze the lot again, change the value of the imported terrain offset cheat to a larger negative number (Perhaps -0.5) and try again. Be aware that, as I said, once you get to larger numbers (as in greater than -5 or so) you start ending up with your diving lot down in a hole, which may or may not be workable.

Now, there is a marker on the buoy, the little black rectangle I outlined in the pic above. If the ball part of the buoy is at least partly in the water but that marker is still above the water, as in the above pic, the lot will still work, but there will be a "hop" (and sometimes a pause) when a water taxi or a swimming merperson crosses the boundary of the lot. The higher the marker is above the water line, the larger that "hop" will be. (Because, if you haven't figured it out yet, the dive buoy is what tells the game where sims can swim, vertically, on a dive lot.)

If such a hop doesn't bother you, you can leave the buoy as-is. If you're a perfectionist like me, you go back to Edit Town, bulldoze the lot, and change the value of the terrain offset cheat to try again. Do this as often and with as many decimal places as your level of perfectionism demands. :) I'm not that fussy, so I usually just move the lot down in increments of 0.1 until the marker is at or below the water line but the ball of the buoy is not completely underwater because you don't want the ball completely underwater, either. At least some of it needs to be above water. So, fiddle as much or as little as you feel you need to.

(For reference/scale, the gap between the marker and the water line in the above pic would probably be fixed by an offset of about -0.15 instead of -0.1. But it would also be fine as-is unless a little hop at the lot boundary will bother you.)

Step 15: Bye-Bye Buoy! Once you have the lot so that the buoy is where you want it, DELETE THE BUOY. I repeat: DELETE THE BUOY. Yes, DELETE THE BUOY. For whatever reason, dive lots drawn from your library that contain buoys won't work. I don't know why. They just don't. You need to place a fresh buoy. (I'm pretty sure this is why lots of people can't get downloaded dive lots or lots that they pulled from other worlds to work. Sometimes the answer is simply to delete the buoy, if the lot came with one, and place a fresh one.)

Step 16: Exit Stage Left Once you have DELETED THE BUOY and only once you have DELETED THE BUOY, go back to Edit Town, check to make sure the lot is still designated as a diving area (and change it back if necessary) and save. Why? Because now you need to exit to the main menu and reload the save again. So do that.

Step 17: Fresh Meat Buoy! Once the save is reloaded, go back into Edit Town, and check to make sure the dive lot is still designated as one. Redesignate, if necessary. Then, go into build/buy and place a fresh buoy, just as you did before. This one will be staying permanently, so place it where you actually want it to be. (Which really doesn't matter; aside from defining the vertical space of the diving lot, it just designates where your sim "enters" the lot.) If you want the lot to generate sharks on the surface, you can also place surface shark spawners now, too, as few or as many as you want, and because you have properly adjusted the height of the lot, the spawned sharks will not be swimming in the air. The spawners are also in debug mode, under the fish spawners. (There is also a spawner for underwater sharks. Do not put that one on the surface. Make sure you only put surface shark spawners on the surface.)

Step 18: Set the Lot's Skill Level You set the required skill level for the diving lot by going to buy mode (if you left it), making sure the hand tool is active, and then holding down control and shift while clicking on the dive buoy. Choose the option "Set Required Diving Level…" from the menu that comes up:

…and then from the resulting options under that choose a NON-ZERO number. For some bizarro reason, buoys default to level zero when placed, and a diving lot set to skill level zero is inaccessible even if a sim has level 10 scuba skill. (Good move, EA! Why is zero even an option if it doesn't work??) So, pick whatever skill level you'd like, so long as it ISN'T ZERO. (I suspect that this is another reason why people can't get downloaded dive lots that they place in a world to work.) Once you have the skill level set, go back to Edit Town and save.

Step 19: Test And now you're pretty much done. All that's left is to test the thing to make sure the lot works before you bother with building/decorating it. So, return to the game and send a victim to your new, empty lot and see if they successfully arrive (with or without a "hop" at the lot boundary) and successfully get themselves underwater. (My advice, for testing purposes, is to just give the sim you pick enough diving skill to use the lot. This can be done with NRAAS Master Controller.) Don't bother with doing anything further with the lot until you make sure it works.

Here is evidence that my lot, though shallow, works:

If your lot doesn't work, then something went wrong somewhere. Most likely, you missed a step or did a step wrong. I know there are a lot of words here, but they're all necessary to (more or less) guarantee a working lot in the end. So, try again. It's possible that you will have to pick a different location and start over, but I've been able to get a lot working wherever I've placed one, so long as it was in deep-enough routable ocean.

Step 20: PROFIT! Assuming that your lot works, "all" that's left is to build it! :D I'm not going to go into detail about that. It's all up to you. You can sculpt the terrain, paint it with whatever terrain paints you want, place objects, whatever. If you're in shallower water, any objects you place that are tall enough to stick out of the water will just be chopped off at the water line; you won't be able to see the rest above water. The corals and stuff are in debug mode under "Underwater Objects," but if you don't want the tropical look, so long as you have moveobjects turned on, you can place (almost) any object you want down there, aside from things like walls and fences and other build items that can't be drawn underwater. Rocks, plants, trees, columns, and anything from the buy and debug catalogs are all good. If such an object has a function, sims won't be able to use them, though. They'll just become deco. (So, no underwater basketweaving sculpting. Sorry.) So, go to town. Have fun. For this tute, I'll just mention a couple objects and their settings and we'll finally be done.

Miscellaneous Objects:

First, treasure chests. Like the dive buoy, they're located in the "Misc. Objects" of debug mode. There are two versions, one for land and one for water. Obviously, on a diving lot, you want the water one if you want any at all. If you do want to use them on your lot, place down as many as you want, and then set the diving skill level necessary to open each one and designate the treasure each one will hold. You do both by holding down control and shift while in buy mode with the hand tool active and clicking on a chest, just like setting the skill level of the lot on the buoy. This brings up this menu:

The "Assign Treasure" option gives you eight different treasures for the chest. You simply pick the one you want. The "Set Required Skill Level" option allows you to assign the diving skill necessary to open the selected chest. You can choose any number you like from 0 to 10. (Yes, zero is OK for this purpose, even though no one with zero skill can scuba dive, so…Yay EA.)

Then there's the dive caves. I think they are in the "Underwater Objects" section of the debug catalog; I'm not sure because a mod I use moves them to the regular rock section. Anyway, there are two styles, which you're probably familiar with, but they both function the same way. If you have more than one of them in the world, even if they're all on the same lot, your sims can travel between them, much like a subway. Unfortunately, I can't show you how to set this up because that mod I use to move the caves to the rock section also makes them recolorable, but it breaks setting up this functionality and I don't feel like hunting the mod down and taking it out. But it's pretty easy. You Control-Shift-Click on each one, give them a name, and then you can connect them by using the names you give them. Again, it works much like subways. It's pretty self-explanatory.

Finally, there's the fog emitter. If you're unfamiliar with this object, it's a base game object located in the "Misc. Objects" section of the debug catalog. The thumbnail in the catalog looks like this:

And it looks like this when it's placed:

They can be used on any lot, they disappear in live mode, and they can generate not just fog but many, many different effects. Literally thousands of different effects. You place the emitter where you want, and then control-shift-click on it and choose "Set Visual Effect" from the resulting menu:

When you click on it, you get this:

In that window, you type/paste the code for the effect you want. Of course, you will need to know the code for the effect you want. For your convenience, I've uploaded my list of effect codes, which is complete and includes the codes from all EPs, here. It's just a text file, and the codes are in alphabetical order. Since the list is all-EPs, some of them may not work if you don't have the EP the effect comes from, but if that's the case, then any such code you enter simply won't do anything.

The most relevant effects for a diving lot all start with "ep10," but there are others you could possibly use, too. Some of the names of the codes are more helpful than others in terms of knowing what it will do. Generally, you need to experiment. But, you can add schools of fish, single (but non-catchable) fish of all kinds (if you want catchable fish to spawn, you need to use the spawners, not the fog emitter), sharks (non-interactable), light rays, bubbles, glows, fog, all sorts of things, if you're patient enough to go through the list, look for interesting possibilities, and try them out to see if they will work for you. There are whole tutorials dedicated to the object, if you look for them. There's also a mod that makes them shiftable, which can be very useful, here.

One final suggestion: If you go through this process in a world that you know or even just suspect that you'll want to use again and you'll want the dive lot(s) you made in that future save, for the love of pie keep a copy of this save file somewhere. That way you won't have to go through all this crap again. Because even if you save a copy of your finished lot, unless you manage to place the empty initial lot in the new save in the exact spot you placed it when you built the lot, it's not likely to be quite right. So beware.

And with that, I think we're done here. If anyone has any questions, or if you decide to try to make your own diving lot and have questions along the way, feel free to hit me up and I'll do my best to help. Just keep in mind that I'm not an expert by any means.

#sims 3 #sims 3 tutorials #diving lots

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azure-cherie · 9 months

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𝐏𝐀𝐂 : 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐔𝐀𝐋 𝐀𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐄𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐆𝐈𝐅𝐓𝐒

☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ🌔☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ🌕☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ🌖☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ

• what are they ?

• how to use their full potential ?

• advice from your guides .

Pile 1-2-3-4

♡︎ masterlist , paid readings

Pile 1 :

• what are they ?

I believe you have the gift of claircognizance , your thoughts are vivid and sometimes in them lie the messages for the future, you receive downloads and ringing in your left air . A lot of you here might belong to the lemurian starseed . You also have the ability to ward off evil , like getting into the room and sensing that their is a spirit around and doing something to get rid of them . I get the image of an African priestess in my mind . Your astrology is also so on point , don't doubt yourself, you're going just right.

• how to use their full potential ?

What I get for you is observe more , you're too busy thinking and doing that you can't sit in a place and just plainly wait on life , enjoy the silence , try guided meditations, they will help you unlock what truly you are capable of . I see literally purple eyes , you must be really powerful like really. You might also have relations with the element thunder , if not just know you are potent during thunder storms .

• advice from your guides .

This is general advice . Your guides say first of all that pay your rent and clean your study or table beside you . Go out with your family. Don't contemplate on the issue that that's occurred with you and your senior or boss , it will calm down and it's not even your fault so chill for now, get some coffee and talk to an old friend or lover to feel better .

Pile 2 :

• what are they ?

Your abilities surround recurring visions in your dreams and telepathy, your dreams are very significant and vivid and i believe the higher power you believe in uses this method to communicate to you , not just about yourself but also the people around you . I believe your mom also may have the same ability and it has been passed through generations. Your telepathy is something you have developed because of separation from someone, since then i heard you have been doing it consciously or unconsciously

• how to use their full potential ?

You need to sleep with knowing and wake up by trying to remember what actually happened while you were asleep , when you try to get into this , you'll get insights on what will happen and things about your own soul , just write down what you have to remember. I think you should also do some candle manifestation to remember. Touch old books or things just to see if your abilities are working, what do you infer about the owner of the book .

• advice from your guides .

Very soon you'll be getting something big , like fame or money , you'll become famous for your craft or your face , the way you carry yourself effortlessly, you'll get modelling contracts, you have worked really hard and it will pay off , your guides are really proud of you and I'm so happy for youuuu coz finally your dream of being rich and famous will be all yours , now go baddie have some butterscotch ice cream.

Pile 3 :

• what are they ?

Your spiritual gifts relate to summoning energies and entities, fighting in the astral , and clairsentinence . I feel you also get shivers around entities . Some of you talk to walls and your home spirits hear and guide you . You also might get a bit frightened from your abilities, it's understandable no one wants to go around seeing ghosts but you know you have this gift for a reason so believe in what the universe has planned for you , stuff will unfold so beautifully for you i promise

• how to use their full potential ?

I get that you should use crystals , you also need to work on your confidence to handle greatness you need strength and you have that I assure you , you just need more to feel safe and secure . Believe in the power of touch , don't hold back your feelings okay , just because someone can't handle your emotional range doesn't mean you should decrease yours alright.

• advice from your guides .

This is general advice, Your guides are letting you know that if you have been wondering if you should make an altar for the Deity in your mind , yes they want to connect to you , I get something about peach colored flowers and cork of a bottle , i hear Dionysus as well , don't hold back you got this . Clean your room and talk to your siblings they need you right now .

Pile 4 :

• what are they ?

Your spiritual gifts surround Clair audience , you maybe an empath . Your gift in itself is to bring radical change in people's life , you are a spiritual awakening for people, showing them their path is your mastery . Reiki , healing and tarot are also something you are blessed with . Your inner light is really so radiant , that it brightens the entire room . Talking to you for a while brings realisations , that's why you really have to protect your energy !!!!

• how to use their full potential ?

Stop helping idiots with your gifts , okay i see some people are not at all grateful about what you do for them , whatever you are doing for someone ungrateful is also energy wasted, instead ask your intuition if this is worth it , go to an old age home and seek homage from the old , it will help you . Practice methods of protection and grounding.

• advice from your guides .

This is general advice. Moisturize your skin and do your projects or paper work soon , study , i feel they are telling you to finish your work now because later there's some occasion and you won't get time to focus on these things . Take a trip alone maybe somewhere near or far wherever possible . Learn cooking, it will help you in the long run

I hope this helped and resonated 🌕

Wishing you a great day / night ahead ;))

#pacreading #pac reading #pac readings #pac #pac tarot #pick a photo #pick a picture #pick a pile #pick a card reading #pick a card #tarot card reading #tarot deck #tarot reading #intuitive tarot reading #intuitive reading #intuitive readings #tarot community #witchy #psychic

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pastel-charm-14 · 1 month

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aesthetic ideas + tips for your phone

step 1: update your phone

make sure your phone is up to date and charged at least 80% before you begin! oh yeah and i should mention that this tutorial is for apple phones :)

settings >> general >> software updates >> install

step 2: declutter

clutter literally scares me, so i always try and keep everything (including my phone) clutter free!

remove ever single app that you can, not delete, remove. you can do this by:

hold down any random app button >> click edit home screen >> click the little minus sign at the top left of the app button you want to remove >> click move to app library >> you can now only view it in your app library if you scroll all the way to the right from your home screen

step 3: find inspiration

pinterest and yt are great places to look! i got these off of pinterest

you could also go on google and just type in the theme/color/whatever you're looking for.

step 4: home screen formatting

this part is a lil overwhelming but that's why i'm here! this is about customizing and decorating your home screen.

first off, look for design formats. you want it to be functional AND aesthetic. take out a sheet of paper or a digital whiteboard or whatever and sketch out what you want your home screen to look like. i find it really helpful to just go "okay, i want a small widget there there and there, my most used apps there, my social media here," etc. remember, it can't just be pretty, it also has to be functional.

step 5: add widgets

now you might be thinking, "how the heck do i do that?" don't worry i'll tell you right now :)

app store >> download widgetsmith >> choose from small, medium, or large widget >> click add widget >> tap it to see all the optiona and pick the one that best fits you (in this case i'm doing photo) >> select the picture you want >> go back to main screen, leave the app >> hold home screen >> press + >> scroll all the way down to widgetsmith >> hold down small >> place it >> hit done >> edit widget >> select the new small widget you created >> untap

don't worry, it's a lot easier once you start doing it!

step 6: customize your app icons

open shortcut app >> click create shortcut >> click add action >> type in open app (multi-colored little squares) >> click choose, look up the app you want and click the 3 dots at the top right >> title the new shortcut >> click add to home screen, rename again >> change image/picture >> click add

#aesthetic #girly aesthetic #pink aesthetic #dreamy #a e s t h e t i c #pinterest #that girl #it girl #pink #cute #iphone #aesthetic phone #customization #pastel dreamer✨

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dayseedrawz2 · 2 months

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Alright! I'm barely getting to work on this the day of, but hopefully, that won't be too big of a problem-

Anyway, I finally have something ready for you guys!! A showtime fic featuring My Human Caine AU! So you all get both some showtime fluff to go with lore!!

(Both Caine and Pomni's blogs are open and interactive, so you can ask them about what happened. I'll leave a link to them at the end of this)

Now, without further ado, here's the Fic...

♡Rebellion♡

Caine didn't believe he ever asked for much. All he wanted were answers. Answers to questions he'd been asking for as long as his "storage space" could remember.

So, of course, when time came around for this whole "Valentines" update, he's struck on what exactly he should do. All these human activities were confusing and hard to get right without having a clearer understanding of them. So all he could do was buy himself more time to think.

[DOWNLOADING ASSETS: 45%]

The gage should be going a bit faster if he wanted to keep up with the time it was due. Key word being if he wanted to. The only thing on his mind was to try and find time to study the humans! Maybe seek some more answers, discover some new ones! That is, of course, as long as a certain someone had no other plans for-

°○What're you doing, Caine?○°

"Oh! Bubble! You startled me!"

°○How can one be startled without being a human?○°

"Actually, you make a good point-"

°○You're not. Trick question.○°

"Then why did you-"

°○We are AI, They are Humans. Your job is to keep them sane unt-○°

"Keep em sane until they abstract or something, I got it!"

°○And don't let them find an exit-○°

"Or else I am out of a job, I know. Thanks bubble that'll be all for now!"

*Pop!*

Usually, he wouldn't be so passive towards Bubble, but there were bigger priorities to Caine than just doing all that his jobs required and calling it a day. More on his "artificial" mind than simply waltzing around and ringmaster-ing. The first one being where he should start...

Now, of course, he didn't have that much time until Bubble rebooted and found his way back to him. The last thing he wanted was to be schooled by-

"Gah! Caine?! What're you doing here!?"

Of course! The newbie! How could he forget? Surely she must have some recollection of this holiday!

"Good morning, Pomni! You're up early! Again..."

"Y-yeah... this is all still a lot to wake up to..."

[DOWNLOADING ASSETS: 50%]

"If... you don't mind me asking... what's this for..?"

"Why, I don't mind at all, dear! This is the loading thingy for the Valentines Day update!"

"V-valentines Day? Already? The days really are blending together now..."

Pomni started to panic a little bit. Had time really gone that long in the real world??

Caine, upon noticing, of course tried to calm her down.

"If it helps, it probably won't be ready until at least tomorrow... Witch reminds me! Would you be willing to help me out with this?"

"With what? This won't involve knives to the face, will it??"

"Of course not dear! I apologize for that! Again... But what I mean is how this holiday works??"

Pomni wasn't so sure she should trust him. The fact that he always had something to ask her, that the first thing he even told her about the place was that he had security everywhere in the form of Eyes that followed your every move, the fact that he always got seemingly nervous when it came to the metion of the exit...

"Why me?"

"Well, for one, you're the only one here at the moment and-"

"Why can't Bubble help you?"

"Well- he's-"

"How do I know you're not just keeping me from looking for an exit?-"

"Because I have to!"

The sudden outburst from Caine left Pomni a bit shook. Witch, I guess, was a good thing because she finally stopped to listen.

"D-do, you really..?"

"Well, I- can I answer this as we go? It's quite a bit to un pack."

"Sure..?"

"Well, then let's get to this!"

After a bit of back and forth of answering questions, even now, with a slightly better understanding, Caine was still confused.

"So what you're saying is that this is a holiday about the one emotion I hardly understand?!"

"Honestly, I don't think even we understand it completely."

"Is that so?"

"At least I think so..? But really, why did you ask me of everyone?"

Caine honestly didn't know himself. He had to pause before he could answer this.

"...I want to "learn. " I want to "feel." I want to "love." But there's a lot of things holding me back right now..."

"Like what..?"

"Well, for one, barely anyone will answer the questions I have, and of course, I hate to say this, but-"

°○Watcha guys up to?○°

"Gah!"

"BUBBLE! It's just you..."

°○What're you two talking about?○°

"Well- You see- we were-"

"-Oh, I was just rambling to Caine about the exit I saw the other day! You wouldn't happen to know about that, would you?? I knew you guys were hiding something!!"

It took him a second, but Caine was quick to catch on.

"Yeah! She wouldn't stop pestering me about it! Those "Digital Hallucinations" really must be going to her head!"

°○... Okay, boss! I'll leave you to it! I'm gonna get breakfast started!○°

"Alright, see you in a bit!"

"Well, I guess I should go get ready?"

"Of course! I'll meet you there!"

[DOWNLOADING ASSETS: 99%]

And... done! Finally! You made it!

As promised, here's Caine and Pomni's blogs!

@ask-the-real-cainetadc

@the-exitdoor-simp-tadc

Thanks again for reading this. It took me like 2 hours-

#tadc #the amazing digital circus #tadc caine #caine #tadc pomni #showtime #tadc showtime #caine x pomni

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duckprintspress · 20 days

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hey, i'd like to just throw this out to you, since you're a press so i have a feeling you might know. if i was seeking to publish a book but i didn't want it to ever be sold through amazon, what would my options be?

Hiya!

I'm assuming you mean you're interested in self-publishing? If yes, then yeah, I can give you at least some information about your options. :D

If you don't want to use Amazon, you definitely still have some options for self-publishing a book. I can sympathize with this sentiment; we hate Amazon and I've done what I can to keep our works off there (and, ultimately, failed, but still kept it to a minimum).

There's two overarching questions you'll need to consider when deciding how to proceed:

What formats are you selling? Are you doing e-book only or e-book + print or print book only? What about audiobooks? Which will influence your choices.

Are you mostly interested in direct sales (as in, you personally sell the book to the customer) or sales-through-an-intermediary (as in, a bookstore sells your book to a customer) or distribution (as in, you list the book with someone who acts as an intermediary between you and other vendors)?

As briefly as I can, first, here's what Duck Prints Press uses:

Ingram - e-book (and, once we have one - we're working on our first! - audiobook) distribution. Ingram is the biggest book distributor in the US and has a virtual monopoly on distribution. Even places that aren't technically Ingram, such as draft2digital, usually use Ingram. Because they're a near-monopoly, Ingram has a lot of ability to, well, screw people, and one way they've tried to screw people is they keep making it harder to get into their better services, pushing people to their much-less-supported service IngramSpark. I managed to get the Press grand-fathered in to Coresource, which is their e-book and audiobook distribution system, even tho we don't meet the current minimums for number of titles for that product. I CAN'T get into Lightning Source, which is their better-supported print book distribution service, because we don't have enough titles (we'd need 30, we currently have 10ish). If I wanted to use IngramSpark, I'd have to ditch Coresource, and I don't want to do that because Coresource works great and has good customer support, and so I had to settle on a compromise I don't love until we meet the minimums for Lightning Source - I use Coresource through Ingram for e-book distribution (and don't distribute to Amazon), which is...

draft2digital - print book distribution. This was my work around for not losing Coresource in the name of getting Ingram print on demand (pod), and it came with a price: d2d doesn't let me opt out of Amazon, much to my irritation. So the three titles we currently have pod on ARE on Amazon.

our webstore - e-book and print books, directly sold to the public. Our website lets people download e-books; I package print book orders made through the webstore myself and mail them myself.

in-person sales - I started vending at events last year; this year I'll be doing about a dozen.

All of which goes to show, even trying to publish while avoiding the most evil places is really hard and a source of frustration. If anyone knows a good option for ethical publishing distribution, I'm honestly all ears. Competing with Ingram is extremely David vs. Goliath (see also the recent death of Small Press Distribution).

So: remembering that Amazon is easily the worst but that there's still basically no ethical consumption or production under capitalism...

Ingram

Of the places I'm familiar with, the best-known option with the widest reach for self-publishing distribution is IngramSpark. As mentioned, I don't use Spark, but Coresource lets me completely customize which of Ingram's partners (vendors, wholesalers, libraries, etc.) I actually distribute with, and I've assumed that other Ingram products are the same. I believe IngramSpark is currently free per title; they get paid by charging fees per sale and because they get better listing deals with partners than an individual would get (like, Ingram might get charged x per title they list with, idk, Barnes and Noble, whereas you as an individual would get charged y, where y is larger than x, and Ingram pockets the difference).

I know a lot of people who use IngramSpark and my impression is that when it works, it works really well, but when it doesn't, getting help/customer service can be a nightmare. Virtually everyone I know who has used them has stories about late titles, support taking a week+ to reply, that kind of thing. I believe they have an option to pay for better/more rapid responses from customer support, which I feel kinda tells you everything you need to know about IngramSpark.

Draft2Digital

Another option is draft2digital. They use the Ingram distribution network, but again they can do so cheaper than an individual can because of their bulk sales through Ingram. They also offer e-book, audiobook, and print distribution. I use draft2digital for print and I've been quite satisfied with their customer support, but their print distribution doesn't allow opt-out of Amazon. HOWEVER, I believe their e-book distribution does. At minimum, there's a checklist on d2d about "steps you have to take to distribute e-books through d2d" and I'm assuming if you just. didn't do that checklist. then you obviously wouldn't get your books distributed through them. The other big thing I don't like about d2d (which may also be true of IngramSpark, idk) is that they charge after the first revision. Which is to say: you put together your book, you upload your book, you get it all set... and you notice a mistake. Okay, fine. You fix the mistake and re-upload. Re-uploading uses a "change token." You only get one free change token per title per six months. So, you notice another mistake you feel you have to fix a few days after that first? That'll cost $25. I've personally just kinda... tried to find all my mistakes right off and fix them, and anything I spot after that, I keep a log and will update all of them at the six month point. (I understand why they do this, btw - they have actual humans doing set-up on their end, so if you revise eight times in a week, that's a lot for an actual human, and charging for the tokens forces people to be careful, helps ensure people submit books that are actually ready in good faith, and helps keep costs low. That doesn't mean it's not annoying, though.)

Bookvault

Bookvault is a UK-based print-on-demand option (so NO e-book distribution, just print) that has recently started offerings in the US too. They currently have a relatively limited distribution network, but they're growing, and especially for UK-based people they're a strong alternative. I've heard a lot of positive reports about their printing in a FB group I'm in (Kickstarter for Authors - do recommend, lots of great info there), but I'll own my personal experiences weren't great and I've decided not to keep using them for now. However, if what you primarily want is print books as print-on-demand, and some limited distribution choices, they're a good choice, and they can help with option five below.

Do It Yourself Lite

A fourth option that's a LOT of work is...you add it everywhere yourself. Most places will let you. For example, here's how to sell on Barnes and Noble.com. When I self-pubbed a book a few years back, before I ran the Press, I submitted my work by hand to several different options (B&N, Kobo, Amazon because I still used them then, Smashwords, to name a few). However, doing this isn't the same as distribution - it only will sell through that specific vendor - and as far as I know there are no options for doing print-on-demand those ways (I THINK, tho I'm not sure, that Amazon is the only place you can set up both e-book and pod through a single vendor - it's not something I've researched tho, cause with the Press, doing single-title-at-a-time entry across so many different vendors is simply not realistic).

Side note on this: I don't believe there's a way to list self-pub books on Bookshop.org, but don't quote me on that.

This method also doesn't work well if you want to get your title in with libraries. I researched this a bit well over a year ago now, so I don't recall all the details, but before we signed up for Ingram I DID try to see if there was a way for us to publish and get in libraries especially without involving them, but there...wasn't really. Places like Overdrive that handle e-book-to-library distribution don't really have a way for individuals to submit; I have this vague memory I found a way to do it that involved paying per title but tbh I can't even find that now (though while I was looking I did find this decent-looking article about how to get your self-published book out in the world, echoing a lot of what I say here).

Do It Yourself Difficult Mode

Your fifth major option, and what we originally did as a press, is: do it all yourself. You can get your own storefront (ours is through Woocommerce + Wordpress). You can do your own crowdfunding. You can run your own newsletter (I use Mailerlite), do your own advertising, etc. You can do your own printing (we currently use Booklogix and I'm quite happy with them, their customer service is A+++). You can vend at events, you can market to local bookstores, sell through bookstores that do consignment, etc. You can learn to format your own e-books (I use a combination of Affinity software and Calibre, with an assist from Daisy to improve the accessibility of our e-books). You can get access to stock images and vector art to make things look nice (I use vecteezy). There's a LOT you can do entirely on your own. And that's what I did for myself before I ran the Press, and what I did for the Press for the first couple years we operated.

The reason I changed how the Press handles things? I hate to say this but the sad truth of publishing is that not using Amazon is utterly crippling to a publisher. As of 2 years ago, Amazon represented 67% of all book sales in the United States. Not selling through Amazon means accepting you'll simply be completely unable to reach more than half of the people reading works in English all around the world (works not in English may be different, I don't know that market since I publish in English). And for myself, alone - for my works? I could make that choice. But the Press currently works with well over 100 authors, and I ultimately felt I couldn't make the same choice to them. I tried so so hard not to compromise this, but refusing all distribution, when we were also avoiding Amazon, meant completely hamstringing the ability of authors we work with to market and sell their books. It meant, to work with us, people would have to sacrifice so much of their ability to earn money from their words, and it just didn't feel right to continue in that avenue as we grew. So, I was forced to compromise: first to use Ingram, which I did on the condition that I'd be able to reject Amazon specifically, and then by having to use draft2digital, including their goddamn Amazon print-on-demand, at least until I qualify for a better option, which as soon as I can do? You bet your butt I'll be switching and opting out of Amazon again.

The current climate makes these choices really hard, and I didn't make them lightly, nor did I make them alone - there's about 20 people on the DPP staff, and they all contributed opinions and voted on the final decisions I implemented for the Press in these regards.

(and sorry, I know "what DPP does and why" is a bit to the left of your actual question, but I felt like it'd be weird to make a list of recommendations without including the decisions I've personally made and why - like, why would I recommend you something I don't do myself with the books I publish? So sorry for the info dump.)

The TL:DR of all this is, as far as I know, and as I've been forced to accept as part of the realities of running a small press in the modern world of publishing, is that avoiding one Big Evil (Amazon) with any hope of achieving even a modicum of success basically requires partnering with at least one other Big Evil (Ingram especially). It's a very hard game to win.

HOWEVER, you are doing this FOR YOURSELF, NOT for all the people involved in a business larger than just you. If you're willing to put in the extra work to figure out a lot on your own and manage your own marketing, you can theoretically build enough of an audience to go it alone without Amazon OR Ingram OR places like Kobo/B&N/etc. You'll have to outlay more out of pocket - things like webhosting cost money - and you'll have to be a lot more careful - if you're running your own website instead of using someone elses, you gotta go above and beyond making you're in compliance with privacy rules and such - but it can be done.

And if you don't want to go that route, and your only real "to avoid" is Amazon specifically... use IngramSpark.

Sorry I'm long-winded. I hope this helps! Good luck with your publishing goals!

(and if others reading this have some other advice and resources, things I may not know about, please do weigh in! I bet the asker would like to know, and I'm always eager to learn about new options too.)

#duck prints press #about us #self publishing #faq #yeah ya'll know you can send us asks like this right #and i'll spend way too long answering them and talk your ear off #sorry (not sorry?)

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hpowellsmith · 7 months

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Hello there! I've been wanting to replay the older Baldur's Gate games, and was searching around for mlm NPC romance mods. I saw yours mentioned and found your site with some googling, but it seems the place they were hosted at is gone now (Spellhold Studios). I was wondering if you still have the mods available somewhere? Either way, I hope you have a great day!

OK, this has made go down a modding-community rabbit hole! I hadn't done anything with our Baldur's Gate 2 mods, or looked at them really, since 2015 and I really appreciate it because they're something that brought my wife and I a ton of joy, and they were the first interactive narratives I made.

Links, descriptions, and comments below because it is Long:

I got in touch with folks on the Gibberlings3 forum which is, wonderfully, still going strong, and have given permission for Faren and Nathaniel to be uploaded to the Spellhold Studios GitHub (which has a bunch of other mods too - do check out Adrian, Isra, and Ninde in particular!) to the team maintaining it. That may be a little while as some of the team are ill right now, but once I hear that it's done, I'll post about it here; I've also been pointed to some links where the mods were mirrored. Note that I haven't tested these myself on a current BG2 install, but it is easy to uninstall WeiDU mods if there's a problem.

Faren is a bisexual True Neutral fighter/thief (I can't remember if he's dual-classed or multi-classed) who's easygoing, down-to-earth, and up for partying, with a bit of a checkered past - his adventuring party died in one of the dungeons you can visit in BG2, and since then he's been picking up dodgy jobs, feeling a bit adrift, and trying to get his life back on track. That's where the PC comes in! You can befriend him or romance him (starting with either a casual or more committed tone, then committing further if you want to), and he has a personal quest in which a shady figure from his past wants him to do one last job. He was our third mod, and we'd developed our skills with writing and scope a lot by then. When I play BG2, I play with Faren! You can currently download Faren here. It's the version updated in 2015 with more banters with modded NPCs and the Enhanced Edition characters; there may be compatibility issues installing it with other newer mods but do give it a try.

I found The Luxley Family, which was our second mod, on the GitHub here. From a cursory (rusty) glance it looks like it should be compatible with Enhanced Edition, but the storyline is only for Shadows of Amn and doesn't continue into Throne of Bhaal. Sebastian and Andrei (Chaotic Neutral bard with a custom kit and Lawful Neutral monk respectively) are members of a mysterious, reclusive family who are under a curse. Sebastian's a worldly playwright who's showing his polite but moody teenage cousin Andrei the sights when they bump into the PC. They aren't romanceable, but you can have a fling with Sebastian, who's bisexual, if you let/help him mess up his life sufficiently.

Nathaniel is a Lawful Good gay fighter with a lot of feelings. He was our first mod and I am really proud of the impact he had on a lot of people and even other games back in the day, but if you play, go in expecting a LOT of feelings good and bad, relationship drama, and angst! (There's something very sad about the fact that as teens we could not imagine a D&D setting without homophobia back then; the idea of a knightly order thinking well of gay people just didn't cross our minds. it's extraordinary how much better a lot of things are now, including the queerness in D&D streams, books, and of course Baldur's Gate 3. Interestingly, we didn't include homophobia in the Luxley Family or Faren and I don't remember how conscious that was; maybe we'd become more hopeful by then.) You can download an outdated version of Nathaniel here but I don't think it will be compatible with Enhanced Edition.

Thank you so much for messaging! I didn't realise they weren't able to be downloaded anymore and I am really keen for digital art to be preserved (as well as players getting to smooch hot guys, of course).

(Digression - my wife and I have a couple of almost-finished mods on our computer: a lesbian cleric of Talos which she wrote, and a bi Valygar romance that I wrote. And, if it's among two computers' ago worth of external hard drive storage, the ending for the Luxley Family story. Who knows, maybe one day...)

#baldur's gate 2 #bg2 #I used to be very selfconscious and cringe about Nathaniel even though I knew people enjoyed him #but now I feel rather more chill about the whole thing #strangers have told me they enjoyed Nathaniel or he meant something to them and that just makes me melt #and we are all a bit cringe some of the time #(most of the time in my case)

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ystrike1 · 1 year

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Zutto Kimi no Turn - By Takuma (8/10)

It's so rare for me to find a comedy I genuinely enjoy. The way relationships, dating, and college life are presented feels realistic as well. The characters are all likeable, and the yandere is a master manipulator who gets worse with each passing page.

Kotaro is an Otaku. With a capital O. He's a contestant in TCG tournaments. He has an anime t-shirt collection. His life revolves around gaming, and he has horrible social anxiety. He's not dumb, but sometimes he sounds a little stupid. He's just not experienced at socializing and it shows.

He fell in love with a popular guy back in high school. That guy was very nice to him, but he was just acting nice to improve his reputation. To look good in front of girls specifically. Kotaro's first love thought he was a tacky and boring nerd. He...collapsed. He decides to change his looks and personality when he enters college. He pretends to be straight as well.

He does sign up for a gay dating app. He wants...it all. He wants to live in this weird limbo, where he can be cool and a nerd at the same time. He 100% believes that everybody hates otaku. He also thinks "party animal" guys are popular. Can you guess what the plot twist is? Yeah... Kotaro's popular friends don't like him because he's flashy, loud, and he doesn't shut up about girls. They would actually like him better if he acted like himself.

Oh, the irony.

This is Tanaka.

His name is totally Tanaka.

Why would he lie about that?

There is something Wrong with this guy. He plays cards in the same local tournaments Kotaro frequents. Tanaka is a little disappointed, because Kotaro has never noticed him. Tanaka approaches Kotaro.

They talk for a little.

Tanaka immediately confesses, and he also lies. Alot. You see Tanaka is a nerd, but he knows he is attractive. All of his girlfriends thought his gaming hobby was gross. They told him to quit, because he was embarrassing them. He...did not do that. He is the opposite of Kotaro. He did not change to meet other people's expectations.

Tanaka is a cool nerd. He's really good at Kotaro's favorite game. He is clearly the ideal boyfriend candidate, but Kotaro can't let go of his dream. He's been trying to get a popular, perfect boyfriend for years.

He tells Tanaka he wants to be friends, but nothing more. He even honestly tells Tanaka about the dating app.

Tanaka lies again. He says he will give up on Kotaro, and download the app as well. When they both have boyfriends he wants to go on a double date. Kotaro is in denial. He doesn't want to admit that he wasted years of his life pretending to be cool. He's super happy with Tanaka, but he runs away.

Kotaro's app date is absolutely perfect. He's handsome, sweet...and he doesn't think anime is gross. Like most people he thinks it's a normal hobby. Kotaro realizes that he's been clinging to toxic people all along. There are plenty of nice and understanding people in the world, who won't execute you for being a little different. Kotaro's date really seems to like him, but Kotaro can't even remember his name. He can't stop thinking about Tanaka. He runs back to Tanaka's place, and...yeah Tanaka never downloaded the app. He was just psychologically tormenting Kotaro. He wanted Kotaro to think he was going to be off the menu soon, and his plan worked. He also tries to bait Kotaro into a "fake relationship" and "just going with the flow" in order to ensnare him.

Nakata wants to date Kotaro no matter what. Hilariously, Nakata is Kotaro's classmate. When he's not gaming he dresses well. He's passionate about fashion and gaming, and he's basically flawless. Also popular, but he hid that from Kotaro. He wanted Kotaro to love his nerd side. He dresses like a nerd when his looks stand out too much. It's impolite to dress like a normie at tournaments.

Nakata also knows all about Kotaro's cringe lady killer act.

So, here's the situation. Nakata has been watching Kotaro for months. He changed his name and used a secret identity to get close to him. After he gets Kotaro POW. He reveals his handsome other side and Kotaro cannot resist him. (They fall in love before the reveal. It's pretty sweet, but Nakata is such a liar. His fashionable transformation is the final step to entice Kotaro.)

I thought this was really sweet and cute at first, but Kotaro has no love experience. Nakata one hundred percent takes advantage of that. He manipulates Kotaro into thinking...how do I put this? Kotaro is starved for friendship and validation. Nakata implies he won't get that anymore if they both start dating other men. He feels...like a real snake. If you read it you'll get it.

#rec #yanderes #yandere #yandere males #maleyandere #male yanderes #yandere male #yaoi #manga review #Zutto Kimi no Turn

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thrillingdetectivetales · 4 months

Text

This is a total long shot, but I'm looking for a series of Harringrove fics that appears to have been taken off AO3. The series is at least two fics, but may be more (I can't fully recall) and I think both parts were fairly long. I don't remember the titles of the individual stories or the series or the author, because my brain is a sieve, but I put a quick rundown of what plot/details I remember under a read more below. If anybody either has a download of this fic, knows where I can get one, or remembers the author/titles so I can try my hand with the Wayback Machine, I would really appreciate it. (Spoilers ahead, obviously, and caveat that there's a chance I may be misremembering some of these from other Harringrove fic I've read):

Billy meets Eleven fairly early on, and I believe that at first he mishears her name as Ellen, but he eventually moves into calling her Elijane. Later on, toward the end of the first story/beginning of the second, he runs into Eleven (on her way to Chicago/to find her mom, maybe?) and offers to take her because he needs to get out of town to clear his head after a fight with Steve (detailed later). Their car gets run off the road and they get kidnapped by lab people.

Midwayish through the first story, I want to say, Hopper or someone intervenes on behalf of Billy with Neil and he winds up in his own apartment. He buys a couch or a whole set of furniture or something that's red.

Billy and Steve have their first kiss after they get into an altercation with Tommy and either some of his friends or maybe cousins, where they're walking down the street and Tommy throws a beer can at them. They throw it back and hit Tommy in the face or something and then go running. They end up in an alley together late at night hiding and that's where they have their first kiss.

Billy catches Steve wearing glasses he doesn't normally wear in public and Steve gets super self-conscious about it at first. He also has two german shepherds named Luke and Leia. When Billy first meets them, while Steve is out walking them near the garage where Billy works, he plays with them and asks "Are you a puppy?"

At one point, Lucas sees Steve and Billy together before they're out, and Billy goes full rage mode on him like an asshole. Steve gets big mad for obvious reasons and they sort of separate until Billy apologizes and gets his shit together. He does eventually go to apologize to Lucas, after which he goes to apologize to Steve. Steve is hanging out at his place with Nancy, because he needs to talk to someone about stuff with Billy, and Billy mistakenly deduces that they're together. This is why he's driving along and sees El on her way to wherever she's going before they get kidnapped.

When Steve and Billy try to have penetrative sex the first time, it isn't very good. I believe because they'd been drinking and having a celebration of sometime and don't communicate well. They try again a second time and it goes way better.

Steve calls Billy "Bill" a fair amount and the author, while writing in Billy's voice, describes the kids as yapping pretty frequently. They also tend to write, 'says, "Ha ha ha!"' instead of 'laughs' which I thought was very endearing and delightful.

I don't remember the specific wording but at one point there's a bit that's sort of like, "Steve is a bitch but fuck yeah that's Billy's bitch."

I know it's not a ton to go on but I'm getting back into Stranger Things fandom recently and was so devastated the other day when I trolled through as many posted Harringrove fic over 80k as I could and didn't see it anywhere.

Any help is appreciated! Feel free to shoot me a DM here on Tumblr/reply to this post. I don't usually see Tumblr messages but you can give that a shot too. Otherwise I'm on Discord as thrillingdetectivetales, too, and you can message me there as well.

Thanks in advance for any assistance!!

#harringrove #looking for a fic #lost fic #stranger things #harringrove fic #steve x billy #billy hargrove x steve harrington #fic finder #reblogs welcome

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donnerpartyofone · 9 months

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I don't know when this started happening, but it seems like I increasingly cannot get certain medications by just going to my pharmacy anymore. There's a whole bunch of stuff that my doctors now have to (for some reason) route through a "specialty phramacy", which is actually a startup-y online business with a cute little app I have to use, and they take care of both delivery (meaning every time I need my meds I have to add $5 to the price tag in order to tip the delivery guy, since I can't just go to a place and I refuse to not tip) and also they seem to have a lock on insurance pre-approvals, like if my insurance company needs an OK they can't or won't get it straight from my doctor anymore. In June, I didn't deal with any of these companies, just my regular old pharmacy. As of a month later, I have to deal with THREE of these "specialty pharmacies" if I want all my meds, so I have to keep track of different apps and logins for individual scripts basically. And I mean, TWO of these companies are connected to ONE of my doctors, so that's how well this whole thing is going. Here's today's adventure with the latest one of these things:

I get a text message from the actual physical pharmacy (also new to me) compounding my new medication, and the message includes a link to log into the specialty pharmacy so I can pay for the medication and schedule delivery. The specialty pharm is called Nimble. I open the link in a browser and get all the way to the part where I give them my email address "so we can send you your receipt", and I can't go any further because apparently my email address is already attached to an existing account. It wasn't clear to me that I was setting up a new account, I thought I was just completing a transaction...and also I don't remember Nimble, but I guess I must have used them a long time ago, so ok fine, I'll start over and try to log in first. Now the text message link just opens an error page. So I go to Nimble's home page and try to log in from there, and it asks for my email address so it can send me a "magic link". Every single magic link it sends me is preemptively "expired", and it also appears that I'm not actually getting a new one when I request it, it kinda looks like they're just forwarding the first email over and over again? 15 minutes later I receive a text telling me to download the Nimble app, which I REALLY don't want to do just on principle--plus apparently the app shows fucking ads, so they're getting paid to force me to do this--but like, maybe this is the only way to get my medicine? I won't even describe all the complications I had just downloading the app, we can just skip to the part where the inside of the app is exactly the same as the browser version and it is magically sending me the same expired "magic link". So I click into the help chat thing in the app, and I learn that:

Whenever the fuck I used Nimble before, it was under my maiden name. My email address is locked to my maiden name. My current script is under my married name. I am still using the same email address, but there is no technical way to merge the accounts and apparently there is no way for a customer to simply update the spelling of their own name that they use in real life, even though this might have to happen at any time for many reasons including typos. I could have given them my private email address instead of the old one that I give to scammy businesses when I'm forced to, but since WHY THE FUCK would I do that, the solution was for customer service to go into the back end and put a fake email address in my old account, and add my real email address to the new account. No online account I've ever had has been set up like this, where you can't put in your email address or phone number and update something like a password. There was also no way for me to independently enter my name first, even though that is the key unchanging piece of information the way phone/email is normally, and ultimately, there was no way for me to find out what the problem even was without like penetrating to the center of the labyrinth to have it explained to me why I wasn't allowed to get my meds.

I'm on Tumblr like 24/7 and it's obvious that I'm no luddite, but I'm really angry that the whole world has bought into the idea that as long as some system is based on new technology, then it is automatically more efficient and superior to whatever we used to do. This entire experience is NOT superior to me physically walking to my pharmacy and getting all my meds, and it is STILL NOT superior to me calling the physical pharmacy to pay over the phone and book a courier. We need to stop pretending that shit like this is making our lives better just because it feels shiny and new; now it's just like, if I wanna do something totally normal that I'm dependent on doing--like getting drugs that I might need to live as far as all these assholes know--I have to appease some 3rd party alien entity that does not contribute in any way to the success of the process or the quality of the outcome, it's just this random extra burden that takes so long to get through that they should honestly pay me to do it. Because right now I'm fucking sitting here doing this shit like it's my job, and it absolutely is not.

In this case customer service was actually helpful when I finally got to them, but basically they shouldn't have been necessary at all. Everything else about the situation was so fucked up that it reminded me of the single worst customer service experience I've ever had: I used to have a REALLY shitty Lenovo laptop (I didn't realize that "basic" and "simple" now just means "doesn't work"), and one day the Start menu got stuck open. It was fully expanded across my entire desktop, so I couldn't get to any of my shit. I had to spend about an hour talking to a service person who, it turned out, had NO IDEA what I meant by "desktop". I could not get the idea into her mind. I did a screenshare with her and she was like "Yeah I see all your applications, everything is there, what's the problem?" I could not get her to understand that it was INCORRECT for the menu to be permanently open and I couldn't get her to understand what it was blocking. I found myself typing crazy shit like "So the Desktop is like, ya know, it usually has a picture you picked out as the background, and there's little icons for programs you use or stuff you downloaded, there's always the little trashcan thing there..." and she just would not admit that she knew what I meant. It was as if she had never used a computer before. And like I don't even remember how I fixed the problem, I stopped using that machine obviously--but to this very day, there's a part of my brain exclusively devoted to running an endless background process that asks, "What's the best way to describe a computer desktop display to someone who has never seen or heard of one before?"

#yes i know i could have gotten to all my shit through a file navigator but THAT'S NOT THE POINT

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houkagokappa · 7 months

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Comfort shows

I was tagged by @theurbanfuturesoftherecentpast to share 10 of my comfort shows and then tag 10 people to do the same. Thank you so much for the tag, I always love these!!!!

Comfort shows are hard though!! I don't really have them. I don't own a tv and I don't keep up with subscriptions to watch things online whenever I get in the mood for something specific. I've also not been watching much outside of a few seasonals lately. Instead I have a lot of comfort manga, mostly based on what or who I'm into at the time.

I'll try to honor the tag and come up with my top 10 comfort shows regardless!

Doukyuusei. This was an actual comfort show for me, although it's a movie, but a very short movie. I watched it as soon as it came out because it shared a lot of staff with Penguindrum and the gifs I saw from it were cute. I fell in love instantly and rewatched it right away. A few months later I went to Japan for an exchange, and during a trip to Tokyo my Airbnb warned me that they had limited wifi, so I downloaded Doukyuusei in advance and watched it literally every single night for 10 days straight as my main entertainment. I also kept watching it once I got back home whenever I was feeling down and needed something to cheer me up, or I simply needed something to play in the background as a distraction. I love how simple the story is, you really don't need anything more complex than this, as long as you do it right (considering what made it to the movie, the manga series goes further and it's amazing as well). Truly a comfort show for me, although it's been years since I've watched it now.

Kyosougiga (2013) episode 1. This is also not an entire show, but a single episode. Don't get me wrong, I love the entire series, it's just that the first episode is so insanely good I can never get past it, instead I get stuck replaying it until I'm a puddle of tears and no longer capable of watching anything. This is also a show that ties in with my exchange, because I went to Kyoto where Kyosougiga *doesn't* take place, and I watched it once I came back to Finland, and everything started falling apart for me. Kyousougiga gave me something to latch onto when I didn't have anything else. It's a touching story, beautifully directed with gorgeous animation. I love the mix of history and fantasy, the buildup in the first episode is amazing, and the music is to die for. It's the family themes that really get me, but overall I love it as anime at its best.

Mawaru Penguindrum. Now this is an entire series, although whenever I watch something for comfort I tend to rewatch my favourite episodes. For Penguindrum that's episode 1, which rivals Kyousougiga's first episode as the best ever made, episode 9, where we meet Sanetoshi and find out about Himari's past with Triple H, and episode 15, about Yuri's past. Yeah... Penguindrum is simply an amazing show, and watching something amazing brings me comfort.

Monogatari series. I love Monogatari because I can jump in wherever and have a good time. I think that's key for a comfort show, you don't have to strain yourself, you can simply put it on and enjoy yourself, or process your emotions through whatever happens on screen. I've loved Monogatari for years, but what makes it earn a spot on this list is how it helped me process something awful I went through a couple of years ago. I was simply supposed to rewatch it for fun, and to refresh my memory on it, but instead it had me work through the difficult situation I was in, and all the feelings I had related to it through the characters and their stories. I also gained some hope for the future, which I hadn't gotten from anything else at that time. Wow, my life's been pretty shitty this past half-decade.

I CAN'T BELIEVE I MADE IT TO NUMBER 5 BEFORE I REMEMBERED SARAZANMAI. Speaking of a shitty life, I don't think you understand to what degree I ran away from my responsibilities and the general expectations I felt I was under, and found safety and meaning for my life from Sarazanmai back in 2018-2019. I was NOT doing well, but following Sarazanmai from its initial announcement to when it aired gave me a reason to keep going, and a purpose for my existence as I kept track of and shared news with other fans. I love the little community that got built around it, even if it could be frustrating at times (Enta discourse etc.), but most of all I saw people come together and connect with each other thanks to this silly little series. The series itself is amazing, and could be a comfort in itself, but for the most part it was a needed distraction for me, and something that showed me that there's some good in this world :)

The tag thingy said 10, but I can't top Sarazanmai so this will do. I'm tagging @akroglam @cookiecthulhu @ihearasound @natsunes @nezoomi @qkawo @dreamyghostie @softsorrows @itskyatto and @exdeath-chan

#tagged #my nonsense

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trainsinanime · 2 days

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Bit.ly is making me uneasy. One of these days their site will go down, and so much stuff will break. Even if it's only for an hour. It's just too ubiquitous.

For example, I bought some model railroad accessories (DCC decoders specifically) recently. They come without a manual, which is good because I have too many manuals of that type already. Instead they come with a sheet that contains a bit.ly URL and a QR code. And if I try to open that—I can't. Apparently the manufacturer's bit.ly account got suspended. And that's just such an unforced error. Just have a normal URL there, and have a QR code that leads to the manufacturer's website, which works perfectly fine.

Actually this decoder is a special cheaper version for that dealer, you have to visit the dealer's website to download the manual. My guess is also that it's the dealer's bit.ly account that got suspended. But this isn't really relevant unless you need the manual for the PD10MU-3 DCC decoder, and you probably don't. Just remember, red and black go to the track, orange and grey the other way. There's nothing surprising about this decoder, it's just cheaper and lacks a few of the nonsense features you probably don't need anyway.

Somehow we managed to find a gatekeeper and single point of failure for the concept of internet URLs. That's just grim.

You may ask, why should we distrust bit.ly? I'd say, why did we ever put ourselves into a position where we needed to trust them in the first place? But philosophy aside, there are good reasons to distrust them, such as that they apparently keep banning German model railroad stores, or just that they're an internet company that keeps giving away their main product for free and that can't go well forever. Or that any complex system will have issues sooner or later, either technical, organisational or financial. Or that a key part of their product, the ".ly", refers to Libya, a country that has been in an on-and-off-again civil war since 2011, and if control over the top level domain ever changes hands or becomes uncertain, that's going to cause a lot of fun for everyone.

If you can, don't use bit.ly, just use the full url, including in QR codes. Let's all try to do our part to keep the internet resilient.

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yandere-daze · 2 years

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🔆 here! Guess what. I have yet another idea. So surprising.

Okay so, imagine the other two members are twins. Carbon-copies of each other both physically and mentally. I mean, it makes sense right? They were both created haphazardly, only designed as extras for your group. Now, imagine those twins looking eerily similar to you.

Maybe you got transmigrated into a new body after arriving in this new world, maybe you didn't. Either way, they mirror your current appearance. Your new members are practically your clones. They look slightly different from you, some of their features, for example, are just a bit off. Their looks seem to be modeled after your own. Almost as if pieces of yourself were ripped from you before transforming themselves into the people before you.

But that's not possible...right?

Right.

They don't yet have much in the way of personality, so they choose to mirror your mannerisms instead. As time goes on, they form their own habits, different from yours, and different from each other. It's relieving, honestly. Even if you're nervous about what they might become, having such blank slates following you around was unnerving.

They're helpful, too. Reliable. The only friends you have. They guide you through the motions of being an idol, not that you need much help, for some reason, you know almost as much as they do. From dance moves to musical theory to personas, the moment you awoke in this world, you knew it all. Well, not everything, but enough. More than you did before. Almost as if the information had been downloaded into your brain. If you didn't speak Japanese before, you do now.

Everything necessary for being an Ensemble Stars idol was handed to you on a silver platter. Even if you don't quite fit with the story, the game twists over itself to make room.

Things don't add up, sometimes. There are no records of you before your appearance. You have an ID and any other legal documents you need, but there's no evidence of your existence aside from those few papers. The cast is prone to confusion. If they don't think about it, things seem normal. However, if they start asking questions, the world twists itself again. What were they thinking about a second ago? Weird. They can't remember.

You shouldn't be here, so of course there are going to be some errors with the system. But that's okay; it's worth it to have you here.

The world was designed for you, after all. What's the point if you can't enjoy it?

That was longer than intended! You don't have to expand on these ideas if it's too much work btw. I just don't have anywhere else to share them lolz

Omg welcome back 🔆 anon!! Glad to hear from you again, I love your ideas!! Honestly I was just reading through your ask and I found myself just unconsciously nodding along at every line because it all made so much sense??? Like this is such an interesting and cool concept, hello???

gn reader

tw yandere

Like, it would make sense that your two unit mates don't have any outstanding details at first, they weren't designed by happy elements after all and are a creation of the game itself! There was no character design team to think of any intricate new character designs and personalities as those two and your unit aren't really meant to exist in the first place. So it only makes sense for the game to try and draw from the one thing it knows best : you!

And this would be so creepy for the player too. First, you find yourself in a foreign place and suddenly there are two people that look almost exactly like you and act and think in a similar manner too? That's so unsettling to think about, it's like straight from a horror movie! I mean this situation *is* horror I guess

Like, they creep you out but you'll still take what you can get. Everyone else here seems to either purposefully ignore you or straight up hate you for some reason and it's very lonely after a while. But these two twins stick around no matrer what and it just feels nice to have someone to talk to and joke around with in such a hostile environment. They're the only ones you have for company so you will just have to try and overlook their strange circumstances

I also really like the idea of the player waking up and just knowing all of these things that relate to being an idol. It would be impossible for someone that doesn't have the faintest idea about anything related to music to be part ( and leader) of a new idol unit that is supposed to be the most popular one with time. ( it's only natural that everyone will love your music the most, right? This world was made for you and you're the most lovable being walking this planet!)

And it would be so strange too like, how do you suddenly know all this stuff? When did you learn all this? It doesn't make any sense at all but since when does this world you've suddenly found yourself in make any sense?

I'm also really fond of the game trying it's absolute best to include you in a game that wasn't *really* designed with you in mind. I imagine that every other app is just fine and being updated by the devs as if nothing happened while it's just you in particular that got into this mess. So obviously, they can't draw from the content that was already in the game, you aren't supposed to appear there.

But the game still wants you to feel welcome so they try to shove you into every single event, no matter how contrived the inclusion may be. You should be allowed to have fun, right? Nothing matters if you don't enjoy being here

So whenever one of the characters starts to think "you know, it's weird that this new no-name idol group is suddenly part of a really important live show" the game is like "no, actually you didn't just think that <3" and makes them all dizzy so they forget having every doubted you

It's really interesting to think about so thank you for sharing!!

#ensemble stars #enstars #yandere ensemble stars x reader #yandere enstars x reader #ensemble stars self aware au #enstars x reader #ensemble stars x reader #yandere enstars #yandere ensemble stars #self aware au #yandere self aware ensemble stars au #gn reader #yandere #yandere x reader #cw yandere #🔆 anon

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veryflirtytransportalate · 7 days

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[ PREVIOUS ] . . . [ NEXT ]

"I can hardly believe a place like this actually exists. I don’t even feel the urge to clean." - Codsworth

Hello.

This is </null>. They woke up one day in a strange white place with a man in a lab coat and a child. Then they found themselves awake in a place called home. The robot knew them. They had memories of the place. The robot is very nice. It knew the spouse and child. They love the spouse and child. The memories know. The robot knows, too.

[ PREVIOUS ] . . . [ NEXT ]

< BONUS THINKINGS >

Hello.

First off: this is my Survival playthrough I have going on concurrently to my Sizzel game. Sizzel has about 2 days on it, so sometimes I step away. Plus I was monumentally let down when I tried to go rogue on the landing of the Overboss' dorm room or whatever it's called. Did you know no one gets hostile... unless you shoot Gage? I hate this game sometimes.

Second: I play my Survival save in black and white. I think of it as a much more engaging and dramatic experience.

Now. Let's talk about one of my favorite things to talk about: the number of heavy-handed changes I've made to the game mechanics to play exactly the way I wanted to.

I've made it so that the damage values across the game are increased extremely high, and that both the damage ideal and the damage deal to me are multiplied by 4. That has seemed to lead to a nice balance where attacks take a reasonably realistic number of hits to take someone down, usually in the one range. I also downloaded a mod that I need to remember the name of, next time I open the thing I'll try and take a look, but it completely rebalances headshots so that they are always lethal so long as the caliber of the weapon is proportionally powerful enough for the size of the creature.

So as you can imagine, any firefight I get engaged in is a really short fast tussle, and leads to some absolutely ridiculously engaging moments. Cracking off with a pipe and watching a super mutant slowly fall backwards, only to sprint in the other direction out of fear as several hounds sprint towards me. I use the same cocktail of mods for my non-survival playthrough as well, but on the survival difficulty the lack of fast travel and the additional impact of body health simulation systems lends itself to the hyperlethal game mode I've cultivated. I also downloaded Bastion, a mod that rebalances power armor, but I haven't really used any yet, so I'm waiting to review. I'm excited because it makes it so all damage taken is zero until the air breaks, then whatever area broke off becomes a weak point.

Additional mods I would love to get: I watched a video where somebody said that on survival difficulty you should be able to fast travel from a settlement to another settlement that is connected by a supply route. I thought that was brilliant, and I agree. Crafting: way more recipes, way better interface. I've finally drained all the affection I have for the default HUD, but FallHUD requires compatibility patches, and I don't even know any other mods.

Also, I know there's a voice pitch modulator mod: I'd love if Sizzel and </null> sounded different.

Oh </null> has no name because they're a synth and Father is a quack, so the value in their brain for name is empty. Hence... </null>.

In my heart both characters exist in the same game, but alas, nobody cares, and so, I can't.

#fallout #fallout 4 #fallout mods #fallout original character #fo4 #screen archery #corvega assembly plant #codsworth #monochrome #virtual photography

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angelbeam19 · 2 months

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Hi Bea, first of all, I am a big fan of your content. I started watching your videos a long time ago. The first Sims series I watched from you was "One Million Years?" I don't remember the title exactly since it was a long time ago. It was about a girl who went to an ancient world, and she met a hot guy who was a warrior, I think. Sorry if I don't remember the plot, but it was the first Sims series I watched, and I was surprised by the quality. Thanks to you, I started playing Sims 2 because you inspired me to create beautiful Sims. Even though I try, I can't make beautiful Sims like yours, but I guess it's just practice. I am wondering where you downloaded your Sims sliders. That would be really helpful.

Hello! Thank you so much! It was called “A Thousand Years of Sorrow”. That story has a special place in my heart, because it was the first story I ever wrote that was in more depth. And it was also the story that started my whole journey to making sims 2 stories. There’s a lovely database here on tumblr, there you can find all the available sliders:

#wcif

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a-s-levynn · 3 months

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from the curious asks: 3, 15, 26?

Ooooh hey there! Thank you for asking!! 🫂💖I hoep you have a lovely day!

3. Do you like the person you feel like you’re becoming? This is not easy to put to words. In general i don't like the person i am. Ever. But i think i see myself in a far worse light than i am probably at, at this point. I like that i'm trying to be someone i actually would like to have around but i am terrified of the idea that it might not be genuin. Which feels like a contradiction. I'm unsure. I like the chosen path but i don't think i'm ever going to actually like myself. And it's not even a confidence thing, because i'm very aware of myself.

15. Do you get wanderlust? Where do you want to go? This is so clishé but anywhere there is large bodies of water where i can't see land on the horizon. I don't know what it is about the see and ocean that draws me but it does. But alas, i'm in a painfully landlocked place.

26. What does your favorite tattoo mean to you? Or if you had to get a tattoo, what would it be? Why? As of yet i only have but one. But i guess a storytime is due about my ST tattoo i guess. But in short. ST means more than i thought in a roundabout way.

So storytime incoming so i think i'll put a cut here because it is long. Like actually long. And i'm too tired to check for typoos right now but i hope it is still readable. But I'm serious, it is very long. You have been warned.

There is a few things coming together into it. I wanted to have a tattoo since i know there are things such as tattoos exist. I never really had the money but even if i'd had i was so indecisive i hade no idea what to have.

Now my ST journey was a weird little thing. And it kinda sounds made up but it's not. It just has weird little coincidences. I think i shared a short version a few months back but this is a bit more detailed account of the events.

First i got aware of the them around when the Sundowning started to release. I'm not remembering exactly but i know i've seen an article about some new music which caught my eye because of Vessel in the original mask.

Pretty much a visual i thoroughly enjoy. So i opted to check out what this thing is. And this is why i think there wasn't much of Sundowning out yet because i did not vibed with it. At all. And the EP's were so far from what i was needing musically back that time. There was one track i kinda liked musically, i know i listened to it a couple of times but that's it. I was still hurt and angry and i needed to drown out noise. So i noted that the looks are cool, the dude had a nice voice it's just not for me.

A few months later a friend of mine sent me a video edit which had a song under it. I never bothered to look up the original. But i listened to that one downloaded track a lot since then.

Que 2021 and the release of Alkaline. I watched it. I know i watched the video. I know i liked it but didn't really connected it back to that nieche weird project with the masked dude because it was so different. And i still wasn't really paying attention, so i moved on to other artists and forgot about it.

And about a year later i was sitting alone in the park i used to hang out when i skipped classes at uni in a particularly shitty day insted of doing anything. It was one of those days when i was floating in a self haterd fueled lonely depressed existencial crisis monstrosity of moment. Which were not rare by any means. The depression part not the sitting in the park part. It was just a particularly shitty one and i wanted to feed ducks to feel something. There was stuff happening. It was a lot. I love that park because it has a pond with a bunch of ducks you can feed. It's peaceful. Anyway all day i had this meoldy in my head and i had no idea what the fuck it was. It annoyed the shit out of me because i didn't know what it was.

So when i went home i started searching to find it before i actually drive myself crazy with it. It took my mind off of what was going on. And that is how i found the offering. That was the one thing i liked when i first got aware of ST. And the instrumental melody of that track was what got somehow pulled out of my subconscious. And something finally clicked. So i went through all the materials. Imagine my bafflement when i realized i listened to an ST song since my friend sent me that stupid edit. It was sugar.

Then of course i checked out tpwbyt over which i'm still hitting myself because it could have been the part of my life sooner if i don't get distracted from alkaline. But yeah that's when i finally paid attention to the lyrics. Pretty much that was the day i finally came around to ST and they became a regular in my listening history because it helped me with my emotions. But i was yet to be insane about them.

But i noticed how much it actually helped me with processing and understanding my feelings in general to listen to their music and thinking about it in relation to myself and i made miles of progress on my own with a set of headphones which 10+ years worth of therapy couldn't even touch. And that is when the idea of the tattoo started to form in my head.

I knew i wanted something that represented my journey to come around to ST. Because in a was i think i had to grew up to it. Or be ready for it. So i wanted something from the era i first got aware of them. And in the end i choose the cover art of the first ep. Because that was the last one of the discography i understood yet it was basically the first thing i heard from them. And then there the flying seeds part of the artwork which kind of felt like these little connecting point. The visuals being eyecatching, me listening to sugar unknowingly, offering coming to my rescue. Little seeds that blossomed into my love for ST.

I also had the idea to have either worship or nothing-lats-forever incorporated but i had no idea how yet. The former one because duh, worship, the second one because it is so true, but i was leaning towards worship from the start. Also the runes were coming with track by track along with tmbte and by the end i was hunting for a better version of the apparition art when there were leaks of track titles and art because i needed that freaking P to finally be able to figure out my tatto. And it was perfect because i wanted something new in it to reflect on the journey of me arriving to this point. And the runes were perfect in that sense.

The idea behind the placement on the underside of my forearm is very simply coming from praying as a nod to the quite heavy religious imagery of ST. I am not religious so i don't really pray but the idea came from that. I mean my tattoo is mostly only visible if i raise my hand and you usually raise your hand at a live show. ST hawing rituals as live shows, we basically worshipping, all that jazz. So it's a nod to that. And the placement kind of decided that i have to rearrenge the art a bit as well.

The last bit is the old sigil insted of the new. Now that is a purely visual decision, because the current one would be too busy of a design in the overall of the tatto.. When i had everything i sent an email to a tattooshop before i went to work and i already had an answer when i arrived in. I called the artist in my next smokebreak to ask for an appointment. She was free the next morning, and the rest is history.

And in retrospect not long after i've seen them live for the fist time (actually twice in 3 days) and that was an experience. I don't know what happend during Higher but the last time i felt something akin to that is when i was 5 and experienced a full solar eclipse. I can't put it to words. But something happend. Something just slid into place in my brain. That is probably why i'm so sure by now that Higher is my favourite track. And i am very much insane about them ever since as you can see.

I'm sorry this got so long, but i never really wrote down my road to st in a detailed manner and it was very fun for me to actually follow back my own path, so thank you so much for the opportunity. And thank you so much if any of you read through this wall of text.

#levynn answers #foundationsofdecay #tag game

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