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cjoatprehn · 5 years

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BaxTale: Chapter 2-Part 2

Bax sihs as she walked through the void. Where would she go now? Underswap was very...nerve wracking. Then again she hasn’t come across the original Undertale yet. She has been to surprisingly the more known worlds like Horrortale. She’d like to have fun for a chance and not be running for her life or being sick after witness something grotesque. To just because she was exposed in one world, other worlds miiight not know about her yet. She then got to thinking to herself. What would be the most...safest yet fun route to go through?

She cast a sonar throughout the void. Scanning the terrain for any signs of enemies, lost souls, or even any worlds nearby if she was lucky. But of course she was greeted with Error’s signal, an alternative route already calculated, and a Lost Soul nearby that was snuffed out by Error. She winced. “I guess I was too late to save that one...why is it everytime I enter a world, a Lost Soul dies...just after I leave!” She kicks the ground out of frustration. She follows the route calculated by the sonar. Opposite of Error’s antivoid. She hummed a particular tune to herself as she walked through the white for a couple of hours. Could have been more but she did not care at that point.

Her stomach had started to growl, she stopped for a moment to rest and eat one of the many lunches that Blueberry had made her for her travels. One bite of the supposedly badly made lunch, she immediately savors the meal. “I honestly don’t understand why everyone says that the cooking is terrible. This is the best thing that I have eaten in awhile.” She smiles soon finishing the meal, and resting for awhile. Hearing a distant melody faintly from the west.

She didn’t pay much attention to it before, however, she would later wish she did. She packed up her resting camp and kept moving, hopefully reaching another world before she fell asleep. She continues to walk before the void then splits itself into 3 different portals. She looked at each of them and hen thought for a moment. She smelled something sweet from one, dancing music from another, and smelled the scent of dust from the third. She immediately made her choice.

Of course she ran through the center portal headfirst, already feeling her theme song change within her. Feeling the strong need to make a bold statement. To change their way of thinking. To dance like no one was watching.

UnderSwap —> DanceTale

She makes it into a world called Dancetale. She falls flat on her face in the middle of an alleyway. She felt the intense heat surrounding her. She groaned and got up, rubbing her poor tusks, that saved the rest of her face from hitting the ground. She sighs and peeks out of the alleyway, and immediately noticing dancers, varying styles, dancing in the town square. 2 squaring off against each other, with a crowd cheering for them.

She goes back into the alley. She immediately starts to sweat, not from the heat either. She was shy, nervous, and fearful. She didn’t know which dance style to start with. She couldn’t just...do anything. Something random...This was the land of heat and passion. What the heck was she going to do for her first dance. She couldn’t do something extravagant like Mettaton...nor something as daring as Grillby’s fire-dance...No. If she was going to go out there to make a statement...she was gong to have to do something simple. Contemporary? What’s the craziest matchup she could do...Something with grace....yet...she snapped her fingers. Perfect. If she was going to do this...she needed a theme song.

She then ran out into the public, wearing a strange outfit. It was graceful, simple, yet made for breaking. Everyone saw her run through the dance circle to the stage. Mettaton’s stage. She went to the band on the stage and whispered something in the singers’ ear. They seemed to like the idea. The crowd was shouting in outrage at their dance circle being disturbed.

“Eh, what’s the big idea?!” A monster shouted in the crowd, along with many other insults. A hush ran over the crowd as with a flourish of her hand, rose colored sparkles fell over her and the crowd, creating a sort of veil. Appearing in the center of the crowd, them backing up to make room, The drummer counted up to three. Before the music began, as Bax started in first position.

She moved her hands in a graceful position ready to break into fast paced dancing. She impressed the crowd with maturity, breaking boundaries that shouldn’t be broken, while maintaining grace. She then does a flip as she then makes it sort of tribal, the crowd becoming in beat with the song, soon a few monsters joined in, as the slower part of the song entered, back to contemporary. They enacted a part of war and symbolism as she ready to break the sound barriers again, she never stop maintaining her steps, sweat beaded off her brow, she then stopped with an ending pose. Roses fell from the sky. She panted as the backup monsters went back into the crowd. She was showered with gold and soon became showered in presents as the veil soon disappeared, her along with it. When Mettaton went out into the crowd, demanding answers and the dancer who had stolen the spotlight, no monster had seen where they had gone. Of course, Mettaton promptly pulled Burgerpants with him back to Mettaton HQ, saying, “we have work to do.”

Of course, Bax was trying to stifle her laughter in the alleyway where she had started from. She was blushing as well, thinks “That statement was a little bigger than I thought...” She felt hot, and her scales were sweating out of their minds. She panted, she needed to get out of there. Hotland is a dangerous place for her, due to the nature and rarity of her scales. There was no water anywhere and knowing Hotland, it was probably overpriced.

Bax chuckled to herself, seeing a steamed Mettaton pass by with BurgerPants. She made a fluid motion with her rose colored magic, making another veil before the veil disappeared from Hotland, and her ending up in Waterfall. The rain on her scales made steaming noises as they touched her hot skin and scales. She honestly needed a bath...to get cleaned up before her next dance. She went to a nearby river, and she took off the sweaty outfit she had on, and dove into the water, a cloud of steam filling the air as her hot body contacts the water. She surfaced and sighed with absolute relief, her scales cooled by the colder temperature of the water. Not too cold, not too hot. She scrubbed herself clean, grooming her scales with her claws, getting the grime from underneath them. Cleaning the gunk from her tusks from Hotland. She heard a strange laughter from the shore, before she dove under again.

Swimming around, she noticed the glowing stones at the river bed. She smiles, picking them up, Knowing that she could craft them into something, after an afterthought. THough Rose colored magic is she hoped magic for the emotions and due to her monster nature, it tends to flare when passionate or strong emotions are felt. To learn to use them in the form of normal attacking, it would drain her substantially, if used too much, could put her in a sick state, in rare cases, death.

She swam back and forth from the shore, placing the rocks at the shore. After doing so, she stood completely out of the water, surrounded in a veil of rose magic. When she had come out of the magic, she had been transformed into a red outfit with a black layerable skirt and heels. The outfit was thin and allowed her to freely move. It also exposed her purple scales and some of her fins.

“Well! What do we have here?” Bax whipped around and she saw a golden flower staring at her.

Her expression darkened as growled and bared her tusks, “Don’t you know it’s rude to stare at someone bathing?” Bax chastised him for his perverted means of trying to interacting with her. Flower or not, it’s no excuse.

The flower grinned, “Guess what, I do not care,” earning himself a scoffin growl from Bax. “You’re new here, right?”

Bax refused to let her body stiffen at that question. “What’s it to you?”

“Just checking out who was in Mettaton’s current news broadcast about a strange ‘Show-stopping dance performance’ before Mettaton’s Headquarters.” The flower seemed tos shrug and then creepily smile. “Seems like things are going to get interesting.” The flower laughed until he heard someone heading their way.

“Oops, Got to go! Wouldn’t want to disturb your next moves.” He grinned before entering the ground once more.

She heard two pairs of footsteps. She stood just out of the path’s sight, and questioned the footsteps she heard, trying to determine who was coming, a skill she learned in Dust!tale. Know your enemy. Know who’s coming. Be repaired for the knife aiming for your back.

Undyne and Alphys came to the path, walking together, giggling and talking happily. Bax smiled happily. She always liked the two of them together. They balanced each other out. POlar oppposites, but they get along so well.

In and out a breath of air came, as Bax took a step into the Echo Flowers. Her gaze down, standing in the way of two of them. Undyne placed a hand in front of a Alphys, detecting her presence. It was a presence that didn’t seem from here, she had every reason to be on guard. She seemed to scan Bax up and down, trying to check for any stats.

When barely any answers came, Undyne scowled and aimed a spear at Bax, much to the protest of the lizard standing beside her. “Who are you? Don’t look like anyone I have seen before.” She aimed the spear directly where she thought Bax’s soul would be.

Bax lifted her gaze, revealing her face. Her pure white eye, a cloth covering her tusk. She inhaled and said, “Who am I? I am a shadow that observes and listens.” Knowing and learning. However...today is a different task.” Bax started to challenge them in a dance pose that Alphys seemed to recognized. Bax’s arms flowed into position, her fins now flaring and apparent. “My task today, is t make a statement.”

She danced in a animated hip-hop style, seemingly to the appeal of Alphys, as a challenge. Her hands glowed as a field appeared below them. Undyne started to growl before Alphys placed a hand on Undyne’s spear arm, lowering it. “Let me challenge you.” Her axe not leaving Bax’s. K-Pop/Hip Hop was her dance style, she wasn’t going to allow some wannabe anime fan try to show off.

Undyne started to protest, but a look from Alphys shut Undyne up in shock. Undyne stood to the side, and Alphys stepped onto the dance floor. Alphys stepped into her starting position.

A counter appeared above the two of them, showing their stats, energy and stamina levels, and their souls.

“Dancers ready!!” A few monsters came to watch the dance off, but Bax and Alphys focused their gaze on each other. A fiery passion behind their eyes. The fire of competition. “I won’t lose.” Alphys says, shocking Undyne into a grin. “Kick their ass, Alphys!”

The echo flowers turned to face the two dancers, almost by nature. The ground beneath both of their feet began to glow.

“3!

DANCE!”

THe echo flowers boomed their song choices. Alphys made her first move, shaky at first, but then become more smooth as she goes on. Each step she made the ground filled with light and glowed. Alphys grinned, Ashe had only practiced with no one else except Undyne. And her favorite anime. This will be nothing to her. Alphy posed and her turn ended, her stats responding to the effort of her first turn. Her soul started to glow and beat with anticipation.

Bax waited for her cue and she grinned as she started her upbeat dance, with a somewhat dark side, starting simple before becoming passionate, the ground glowing with each step, she grinned as she increased her speed. She laughed before spinning and taunting a little. End pose.

Alphys growled, “Okay they’re good. Let me step up my game.”

“DANCE SKILL INITIATED! ALPHYS.” Undyne joined the dance floor looking at Alphys, “Just like she practiced.” Undyne grinned before they posed they same.

Their style changed, darker and intense, while still remaining upbeat. They did stunts as Undyne backed up Alphys, adding to their resonating souls. They grinned.

Bax spun and taunted again, Alphys and Undyne retaliating with a strong stomp, generating a magical beam of light to glow to the sky. Undyne growls as they competitively took the dance floor.

Bax’s soul resonated strongly with the couple. Acknowledging their strength. Lost vs Found, who would win? Alphys’s timer soon ran out for her skill, and Undyne flipped off the floor.

Alphys danced like no one was watchhhing as Bax sassily fought back, before both sides, ran out of energy and stamina, before making their ending pose. Both of them panting hard and their souls beating in their ears.

“Dance End!”

“Winner is Alphys!”

Undyne and Alphys squeal as Undyne runs and picks up the stout lizard with joy, both of them laughing. “I told you you could do it! YA CREAMED THEM, BABE!” Undyne yells as they both laugh, Alphys still in disbelief. “Did I?” Alphys wondered.

Bax laughed and clapped her hands, the floor disappearing and the echo flowers returning to normal. The small crowd cheered before heading back off to do their business,

“Here’s your reward, Alphys.” Bax tossed Alphys the latest copy of Mew Mew Kissy Cutie. Alphys barely caught it as her eyes went big behind her glasses.

“h-How did you...?”

“Like I said. Observation.” Bax waved a farewell before jumping into the trees and escaping before they looked up again.

https://bax-the-hooman.tumblr.com/post/186987353650/baxtale-chapter-3-part-1

#dance floor #dancetale #alphys #undyne #haha yes #dance off

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odoroussavourssweet · 5 years

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Estee Lauder Knowing

Notes: aldehydes, mimosa, tuberose, rose, plum, melon; patchouli, laurel, iris; oakmoss, sandalwood, civet, vetiver

The opening is weird-fruity -- plum and rose combine into this momentarily overripe thing -- and then it settles into a good bitter-stink groove, oakmoss/patchouli/civet, much like Aromatics Elixir.

There’s a “rose” on top, but the type you see in sandalwood or oud perfumes that doesn’t smell very rosey at all, sharp and dignified and a nice balance to the chypre-animalic classy-funk base.

The drydown is quite long-lasting (still going strong 12 hours later) and took me a while to figure out because it’s so complex.

There’s a “clean, soapy” pale-blue floral note that might be the mimosa, which is the first to appear; then there’s the bay-patchouli-oakmoss-civet bitter/stinky aura, which is all green-gold-brown loden earth tones; and then there’s the damasconey, ruby-red rose. And I miiight be able to smell a coppery spice glow bridging between the rose and all the brown stuff.

This is good. Really fucking good. One of my all-time favorites. Every time I put it on I breathe a sigh of relief when the dark, deep patchouli-and-oakmoss hits me, and feel awe when the rose starts to glow.

It has sort of an earnest, sincere quality, like an attentive student; the mimosa says “nice and well-behaved”, the rose says “cares a lot”, the chypre base has a sort of “scruffy, focused bluestocking” appeal. Think Hermione Granger. Knowing is the lovable young heroine who grows up to be Aromatics Elixir, maybe.

#estee lauder #perfume #fragrance

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some-flyleaves · 6 years

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Impromptu media thoughts of the day, two for the price of one: graphic novels by Alan Moore, Watchmen and V for Vendetta. Major spoilers ahead, if people need spoiler alerts for graphic novels from the 80s.

People have written really deep and long essays about both, but here’s my discombobulated twenty cents (in bullet point format because I fucking love bullet point infodumping):

Read Watchmen first, for a variety of reasons included but not limited to:

First heard about it ages ago as if not an influence then for major parallels to The Incredibles, which is one of my favorite movies. I think I was aware of Watchmen's presence at my local library for a good while, but flipping open to a random page and seeing a technicolor old-style comic kinda lost me right off the bat. (I’m still not super partial to the art style in either graphic novel, actually, but they’ve grown on me.)

More recently I watched the 2000 X-Men movie, and not gonna lie, it was actually pretty good. Not stellar enough to warrant a post-movie thoughtdump like this, and granted I don’t go into superhero films with high expectations on the rare occasions I watch at all, but y’know. If I remember correctly this was also an influence on The Incredibles and it sure as hell shows. Also, Rogue deserved better.

You’d think that this means I picked up Watchmen because of an Incredibles kick, right? (Saw that too recently, was good but not as much as the original & with post-movie hype having died down it miiight not stand up to rewatch, I’ll see.) That... might’ve been a factor, sure.

Mostly I just noticed it in the recent return pile along with a note on the back about it being a MUST-READ for graphic novel fans, and since I’m interested in the comic medium and all, why not. Also, work was slow. Funny how stuff works out.

ANYWAY point is I read that one comic with the bloody smiley face on the cover, and you know what? It took about two days and three reading sessions (short one at work, shorter one at home, then a long dedicated few hours within the week) and I was fucking wrecked. You know, the “just read a damn good book/watched a damn good movie/consumed some good fucking media, what do you mean I gotta continue with life as normal” buzz? That, but with a graphic novel.

I’ve mentioned before that I have a weird habit of spoiling myself before I even get into something, whether it means reading the Wikipedia plot summary or reading a sentence in the middle of a book, even skipping to the end of a book and skimming the last paragraph if the middle sentence hooked me. For Watchmen this translated to knowing right off the bat that some big weird scifi thing was involved, and there was a Moment between two characters right before then that packed a punch even without context. It took the longest time for either of these to become clear as I read proper, and once I realized who those two characters were... oh. O u c h.

Somehow I managed to not do this with V for Vendetta. I kinda wish it’d been the other way around, in retrospect, but oh well. Both were solid reads, though I liked Watchmen more.

okay personal anecdotes/context aside NOW for the actual review-y thoughts

Despite the Incredibles comparisons, I didn’t actually find Watchmen very similar, nor would I call Incredibles a retelling. In Watchmen, “superheroes” are outlawed and all, but there’s like... two characters with actual powers. One of them is just “I am really smart (and have remarkable reflexes, but then so does Vendetta guy and there’s no supernatural influence in that story).” Instead it’s an alternate history where something something Vietnam and Nixon and it’s the 80s, and jesus christ was the Cold War “we could literally blow up any day now” atmosphere palpable.

There were definitely a few moments where I’d read a scene and be like, “shit, was this really what the 80s were like?” both because A) hey, we almost DID blow up the goddamn planet, and B) general fraught “everything’s fucked, world is ending” atmosphere still rings too goddamn true today. The ending also leaves me with a distinct sense of dread, like that’s the shit that’ll need to happen for us to get our shit together, if only for a little while.

It’s not a happy story, no. Having read a few of the aforementioned scholarly articles on Watchmen, I guess this kicked off the current generation of gritty superhero comics--even though when Watchmen came out, it was revolutionary in NOT being a technicolor happy-go-lucky hero-always-wins moral romp. (Again, superhero comics ain’t my forte.) That said, Watchmen is clearly not being dismal and cynical just for the heck of it. It conveys this with the subtlety of a sledgehammer at times, but an overarching narrative judgment is thankfully absent, leaving readers to draw their own conclusions. Love me some moral ambiguity.

On that note, characters are well-drawn (both in terms of psychological profiles and actual illustration), and while I wasn’t inspired to get too deep into any of their motivations or the like, Rorschach was... something. His identity reveal was a little anticlimactic (as were... lots of the backstory exposition sections, in retrospect), but necessary. Twenty bucks says he’s autistic. I feel like there’s something to be said about Irish-American discrimination and Rorscach but that is by no means my area of expertise, so just throwin’ the thought out there.

Between this and V for Vendetta, Moore really likes social rejects turned masked vigilantes, huh? Vendetta frames V (Guy Fawkes mask dude) as more a symbol than a character; he has a backstory too, but not once is his face shown, and it works.

That said, I just found something kinda... lacking, about Vendetta. Maybe it’s the fact I couldn’t tell half the characters apart and spent most sections not focused on V and Evey wanting to get back to them. Like Watchmen, Vendetta is set in an alternate history (or, er, near-future given when the comic was actually written/published), but whereas Watchmen scatters historical details throughout the narrative via character development and intriguing tie-in snippets, Vendetta kinda just dumps them unceremoniously when needed. It’s... meh.

Well, at least I can say I know what the Guy Fawkes mask as a revolutionary/counterculture symbol originated from. And I did like the little identity twist at the end, much as I saw it coming. (By the way, is that “reports of my death were exaggerated” line from a different piece of media? I could’ve sworn I heard it before but heck if I know where; Google suggests Mark Twain but that doesn’t ring a bell.)

Also, while it could be total coincidence, I kinda wouldn’t be surprised if this influenced Naoki Urasawa’s Monster somehow. (Monster spoilers ahead.) For one thing my first impression of Evey was “fuck, that’s Nina Fortner in dystopian Britain,“ but both stories are set on a backdrop of genocide and feature a character who went through extensive... examination & later broke out in a plot that encompassed the deaths of nearly everyone involved. Said character also has a fucked up relationship with Nina/Evey that involves psychologically screwing with her in an attempt to make her see things his way. (Or, uh, I think that’s what Johann was up to? It’s been a while.) Fun stuff!

Watchmen ends with a very, VERY bittersweet reflection of humanity, and Vendetta draws the curtain on the spark of revolution. Both are impactful in their own rights but the first seems much more relevant today, at least to me as a contemporary American. Also, I can kinda see why Anonymous picked up the Guy Fawkes mask even though vigilante justice isn’t quite what V was going for.

Art-wise, though, Vendetta wins. Rather than cleanly outline everything it makes copious use of negative space and bold inks, foregoing outlines where color contrast will do, and I might mess around with a mimcry some time because got dang does it get that dramatic, noir-esque mood cross. (Watchmen does too at times, but not throughout the whole book. It’s also a matter of clean flats vs semi-blotchy watercolors.)

They are both firmly on my hypothetical list of stories to revisit a few years down the road, because why not, but even if I never get around to that I’m glad I read ‘em at least once.

I end this bulletpoint text wall by saying you should check both graphic novels out if you have a few hours to spare and are game for some challenging psychological thrillers; they earned notoriety for a reason.

Watchmen will take your faith in humanity and hold it over a pit of rabid dogs, but it’s up to you whether or not it drops. It has its gentler moments, but you’ll probably be reading for the themes and mystery above all else. Also, comic people take note--there are some great choices in the imagery and paneling. It probably is worth reading just for the visual storytelling.

V for Vendetta is almost more of a superhero story than Watchmen, hooking you on the identity of its central character but leaving on a universal political moral. Don’t let the smiley mask fool you--this one might not challenge your goodwill as much, but it will throw demoralizing events at you one after the other, for a payoff that holds greater meaning in the bigger picture than anywhere. Again, wasn’t my favorite, but you too can finally understand why Guy Fawkes masks seem to be a symbol of Chaotic Neutral (or Good or Evil, depending on political leaning).

Anyway, what do you think of my desktop?

#nothin like having tumblr open fullscreen to say I Am Procrastinating #as usual there's not a Thesis to this or anything just -dumps everything onto keyboard and publishes it without editing-#.rtf #also scratch what I said about readmores a while back #turns out scrolling through my own darn blog is a bit of a pain :V

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nyrator · 7 years

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So, now I want to make an Effect, but oh my god RPG Maker 2003′s Event Systems are so intimidating, how do I start? A Yume Nikki fangame reference

WELL, you’ve come to the wrong right A place.

Now this tutorial’s gonna require a liiittle bit of familiarity with RPG Maker’s mechanics, but you can brute force your way through it and learn along the way (that’s what I did~) I’m going to be using the Not-Steam version of RPG Maker, because it’s a lot more condensed (and because I don’t want to port Yume Nikki to the Steam version)

Now, of course, the best way to learn how to make a fangame in general, is to see how Yume Nikki itself works. Feel free to explore the game, both inside AND... deeper... inside. Yeah. Go through the maps, see how things are made, and ohhh man if only they weren’t all Japanese-oh wait, that’s what I’m for.

(I’ll also be releasing an English version of Yume Nikki’s coding eventually, I was going to release it with this but decided to wait and see how much I can clean it up)

So if we look at this page, in Database > Items, we see all the list of Effects.

So, it’s as simple as just writing a name here and pixelling up a CharSet for it, right?

Haha... ha... ha...

Well, first thing’s first. You should notice that the Effects are each listed twice. Why is that? What’s different about the two? Well, the only real difference is that one is marked for FIELD activation (aka, can be used on the overworld map of the RPG), while the other isn’t able to be activated at all. Why would you want that?

Because in Yume Nikki, there’s Dream, and there’s Reality. In Dream, you go into bed and can use your wonderful effects on the Field. In Reality, you’re stuck in your Bedroom and your Veranda. However, if you pause and check, you still can see all your Effects, but you can’t activate them whatsoever. So, that’s why. Dream is activate-able, Reality isn’t.

But, what does that other stuff mean, anyway? Why should I have it like that?

Name and Description are simple, they’re the name, and the description of the item. Simple. I’m gonna name mine “Ball”. There’s number of uses (you’ll want to keep it Unlimited, unless you want some kind of durability or consumable or something). Price means nothing, unless there’s a shop in your game, in which case, that’s the price you have to buy the Item for.

There’s also the Type, which for an Effect, you’ll want to keep as a Switch (no, you can’t make a Knife and call it a Weapon, unless you’re actually messing with the RPG side in which case more power to you). Most of those elements are for, as I said, the actual battle system in RPG Maker, which who needs when we just want to explore a dream and/or dream-like area?

Now, what’s a Switch, you ask?

Well, a Switch is currently the latest system created by Nintendo, in which the system can be considered a hybrid by combining TV and handheld play...

A Switch is like... an On/Off Switch. It’s a huuuge part of your game. Like, seriously. Switches and Variables will make up the bulk of your scripting, so you’ll have to learn them.

So in this scenario, using the Item turns the Switch On. But we have to choose which Switch it’ll turn on, in the “Turn on Switch” tab. Here will give a list of all the Switches that are or will be in your game. For clarity, you might want to plan ahead of time where you want your Items to go, because you’re going to need a lot of Switches and organization can be tiring. So, we just turn on the “Ball” switch, yes? Name the Switch “Ball”, turn it on, and we have an Effect?

But wait... if we look at Yume Nikki’s Switch list...

There’s at least five sets of Effects!

Why is that? Well, each one has a purpose. It’s own little job to in the grand scheme of Effects. In order of how Kikiyama places them:

Finding the Effect - How to get the Item

The Effect is in your Possession (for Egg)

Equipping the Effect - How to turn your sprite into the Effect

The Effect is Active - What happens when the Effect is on

Removing the Effect (as an Egg)

There’s also a few of these for certain Effects

[A]ction Switches - Secondary abilities for Effects

Depending on how you want to go about doing this, not all of these may be needed (the Egg ones). There’s also three sets of Common Events, dedicated to the meat of the Effects

[E] How the Effect gets Equipped

[X] How the Effect turns into an Egg

[A] How you can perform Actions

but we’ll talk about those later. Let’s step back from the Item Menu for now, and explore each one in order and see how it works...

FINDING THE EFFECT...

These Switches determine whether or not you have found the Effect. Say, you just started, you have zero Effects. You find the “Ball” out in the wild, interact with it, and now “You Got Ball appears!” And now the Switch is on.

Why is it important to do that? Well, let me interact with the “Ball” again. Oh boy, I got another one! ... And another one, and another one... oh wait, now I have twelve Balls when each one has an unlimited use anyway. Uhh.

That’s why we have the Switch to tell the engine we already got it, and we don’t need another one. But you also need to tell the Game “Look, when this Switch is on, that means I don’t want any more of your “Ball”s, got it?”. For that, you’ll need a Conditional Branch, another thing you’ll be using a lot of in your game. Let’s take a look at the steps for the Frog Effect for a nice visual representation.

Okay, so, the Branch is like a “what if” scenario-izer. Do you meet the conditions of the branch? Then it branches. If not, you can make something ELSE happen, or you could just not do anything (instead of putting Else statements without anything in there~). In this scenario, we have one thing to figure out- whether or not we found the Effect.

So, make a Branch if we DON’T have this Effect. In other words, if the Switch isn’t ON. This means something will happen if we don’t have the Effect. And here we have all the little details:

Sound Effects, Animations, the Message Box, the Message Text saying the item you picked up, erasing the Message Box once you’re done reading the Text... And then turning the FIND BALL Switch ON, so next time it tries to read that Branch, it’ll skip right over all this code stuff, as well as the POSSESSION BALL Switch ON, since you now have it in your Possession. There’s also the Level Up command (which Kikiyama uses to keep track of the Number of Effects you have), as well as, well, giving you the Item itself. The Field/Dream one, specifically. How do you get the Reality one?

Kikiyama just swaps the items (depending on whether or not you already own said item). The Branch checks for the Dream Switch, and the Else Handler checks for when you’re not dreaming (aka, Reality). So this is a case where the Else Handler comes in handy.

Simple? No? Welllll, you’ll get the hang of it! Maybe!

Fun thing to note: Kikiyama uses Call Events for several things. They call on certain Common Events since, well, they’re Common. Things like, “Oh hey, I play this same Sound Effect every time I get an Effect, let’s save all the settings of that sound in this Common Event”. That way if you wanted to, say change a graphic, or replace the sound effect, you don’t have to do that in every single instance of that graphic/sound.

Speaking of...

COMMON EVENTS...

Now, what are Common Events? Well, in short, they’re Events that you can use at any time. They have a Name, a Number (which is how they keep track of it since you can change the name at any time- Changing the NUMBER will require you to go in and change said number for any time you use that Common Event, so pick your numbers wisely).

There’s also the Trigger. That’s how you, well, trigger the Event to occur in the first place. There are three ways you can Trigger a Common Event:

Call, where the Event is simply off hidden away, doing nothing, until you call it over and say like “yo buddy let’s hang out at my Event”, which, as it has nothing better to do, usually will come right over.

Auto Start, where the Event will start as soon as it can. It’ll stop everything else that’s going on and jump right in and take center stage, it’s all about this Common Event. So you miiight want to pull on the reigns a bit, and give it a Trigger Switch. This means that it won’t start the moment you boot up the game, it’ll start whenever the Switch of your choice is ON. Then, it’s all about that Event again~ ... of course, if it’s all about that Event, then nothing else will happen BESIDES that Event. So, You gotta make sure to turn that Trigger Switch to OFF within the Event Page once you’re done doing everything you want the Auto Start to do.

Auto Starts are useful, as they stop everything else going on around them, but you have to make sure to specify when they start and when they end.

Last is the Parallel Process, aka the “I’m always here, running alongside you, never getting in the way... except when I do. Sorry about that”. They start automatically, but they don’t interrupt anything directly- The player can do whatever they want while it sits in the background. That sounds good, but you can easily clash with it by doing something that conflicts with the idea “oh, you want to move left while I say to always move right? We have a problem”. In general, Move Events and Parallel Processes never get along, so be wary about that.

Parallel Processes are good for when you want to passively wait for some kind of Input or something. Like, it can do variable operations like determine your current location, count your steps, weird things like that that I won’t get into detail about right now. For Effects, they’re good for Key Inputs, where “okay, the Effect is on, so that means whenever they press a button, this thing will happen”.

It’s a bit tricky to get the hang of at first, which is why you’ll have to experiment a lot with the three different types and see how they work for you.

Of course, to make things even more complicated for you, let me point out something: The three sets of Common Events dedicated to Effects! We’ll label them something simple, the [E]quip Event, the [X]/Removal Event, and the [A]ction Event.

So what do these do? It’s a little more simple (to keep track of, at least) than the Five Switches, and the names give a good idea.

[E] events are the ones used from the Item Menu. It does the transformation sequence, it sets your move speed, turns on any Switches it needs to depending on the Effect, stuff like that.

[X] events are tied to the Egg Removal Events, which will talk about soon.

[A] events are related to the actions you can do with an Effect. Each one of these is different, and some Effects have multiple [A] events. They’re really complicated to explain, but it’s mostly related to Key Inputs, which allow you to bind certain events/actions to whatever Key you push.

So now, time for the thing you’ve allll been waiting for.....

[E]QUIPPING THE EFFECTS...

Remember the whole Item Switch? Yeah. That’s this Switch. The Switch to say “Hey, I wanna hold a Ball and use it.”

Okay, so we turned the Switch on, but what do we have it turn on to tell the game to do all the Effect things, like the animation, changing your sprite, etc etc?

That’s where the Common Event comes in. These babies are what define what the Effects do, and so the Trigger Switch will be the switch the Item turns on- the Equip Switch.

We’re also going to need the Active Switch as well for this Common Event. The Equip Switch is like lighting the pilot or something, while the Active Switch is like, the car engine running, or some other simile that makes more sense.

Because this is a direct, one-time action, we want to make the Trigger an Auto Start. Now it’ll stop everything else that’s going on, and focus solely on our Magical Girl transformation sequence.

Let’s break down what’s going on in this page. There’s a Branch with an Else Handler. First, it wants to know if the Effect is already OFF. Of course, we’re turning it on right now, so it’s OFF at the moment. It may be hard to keep track of all the branches and Else statements, just know that clicking on the source shows you the entire area it covers, and to keep an eye out for the connecting Else statement (the Steam version also color codes everything but it’s also much bigger and thus a lot less on the screen at once!)

So yeah, the Active Switch is OFF. So, since it’s off, we want to turn it on. But we also want to make sure that anything that might conflict with it are off, which Kikiyama has in a Call Event. Once that’s done, you can turn ON the Active Switch.

There’s also the other details, like when you first grabbed it. Tint screen, turning on a Switch that says “Effect is currently in use, please wait your turn”. Kikiyama also has a Branch for the FC worlds, so that it changes the aesthetics appropriately. You only need to worry about this if your character’s graphics change at all depending on the World.

In that Else Handler, there’s the thing we want to see: Change Sprite Association, which changes your character’s sprite to whatever you choose. Kikiyama also has an Animation for each individual Effect, though most look the same to me. Animations are tricky business, usually used for particle effects, and something you can experiment with in your own time in the Animation tab.

Now, it does another Branch immediately after that one, checking to see if the Removed Switch is OFF. Since it is, you’ll also change the Face graphic (aka, the preview graphic of the Effect in the menu). More on the Removed Switch later, but it’s pretty much there for when you turn an Effect into an Egg.

There’s a Wait Command, Wait Commands are good for timing based things, and as shown here, a 0.0 second wait command helps let everything above it finish up so things don’t all happen at once. Like catching a breath, except with no actual pause. And because Kikiyama’s checking the same Switch twice, he wants to pause so he doesn’t confuse the game. And with this next Branch, he has a Switch to turn off Blocked button inputs. This is something I like, but can be confusing to newer people, it’s pretty much a bug-proofing thing (so that you can’t say keep pressing the Sit button while transforming into an Effect and glitch them together somehow).

Now the confusing thing is, why check those two things separate, and why does the Egg being dropped have anything to do with it? That, honestly, I’m not sure. There may be a reason, it might just be superfluous, who knows, I’m sure I’ll eventually understand.

But finally, he caps off the whole thing by turning the Equip Switch OFF. Why turn it off right away? Because, it’s an Auto Start. That Switch was meant to start that event, and turning it off gives the player reigns again.

Of course, there’s always the original Else Handler from way-back-when. If, say, it WASN’T off, then that means it must be ON. Aka, you have that Effect equipped kiddo. So we want it so that using the Item again would automatically revert to the Hero’s default state. Kikiyama has the whole thing saved to a Call Event, where it pretty much reverts any changes the Effects have done, and turns off any Switches they might have turned on. The only other Switches he needs are something to turn the Active Event OFF (since it’s different for every Effect), and to turn the Equip Switch OFF, because, again, y’know, Auto Start.

And there you have it! An overtly indepth look at how these Event pages work.

Important to note: That’s only a generic Effect. Some Effects have special passive quirks about them when they turn on that you’ll want to add. Take a look at Kikiyama’s pages to get a good idea. Umbrella creates Rain., turns off a Snow Switch, and turns on a Rain Switch for Events that only work in certain Weather to understand (like Lightning from the Demon).

Some also Increase or Decrease the Hero’s Move Speed. Move Events can be tricky to keep track of, it’s a series of adding and subtracting depending on what Effect is used. There’s only six Speeds, but you can’t set them specifically by number or anything (Frequency is something completely different), what Kikiyama does is have a Normal Move Speed Event to Call from, where he Decreases the move speed to the absolute lowest it can go, then Increases it by Two. And also an alternative one for when the player is in Water that slows them down

and even then Kikiyama still has the Bedroom Chair glitch, thus never allowing the Speed to revert, aka infinite Speedddd

AND THAT’S A DETAILED LOOK AT HOW TO MAKE AN EVENT.

There’s a looot of checks to make sure nothing clashes, more than you know. But for a good tl;dr:

Conditional Branch to make sure you’re not already using the Effect (if you are, it’ll revert you back to normal in the Else Statement).

Turn on the Active Switch saying you’re currently using this Effect

Do whatever you want to make it fancy with animations and tints and whatnot

Change your CharSet and your FaceSet

Turn off your Auto Start Equipped Switch

Okay, so that’s the main thing people like to see. But y’know, that’s not all there is to an Effect. Some, maybe, but not all.

[A]CTIONS OF THE EFFECT...

We’re gonna skip the [X] section for now, and focus on the [A]s.

This here is what the Effects do besides look pretty or slow you down. These are the things you need to press a button to say, “yes, do this when I press a button”.

Some Effects have them, some don’t. Some even have more than one!

Now, this is when you need to really learn RPG Maker to make what you want happen, because Effects can be anything the program can create for you. They have a variety of Triggers and a Trigger Switches. Most are a Parallel Process, triggered by the Active Switch. Some have a secondary function, and are usually an Auto Start, triggered by a sixth Switch, the [A]ction Switch.

Now, like I said, there’s a variety of things you can do with the Effects. But let’s focus on some core details for these [A]ction Events.

This is probably the simplest of the [A]ction Events.

The first thing we notice in the Commands, is the Key Input Processing. This nifty tool lets you activate a Switch with the press of a button

... Well, kinda. For a more technical definition, it allows you store a number in a Variable. Oh boy, Variables. I haven’t gotten into depth about them yet, but they’re kinda like a Switch... except instead of an ON/OFF feature, they deal with numbers. So like a dial, kinda. When the dial is set to the right number, the thing you want happens. You can set things to a certain range of numbers, or if things hit a value higher or lower than a specific amount- Variables are super useful guys.

So, anyway, the Key Input.

whoa

Don’t worry, it’s not so bad.

First, you want to choose the Variable to act as your “Button Input number”. The numerical value of the key you press will be saved here. Aka, if I press SHIFT, Shift equals 7. So that variable is now 7.

The Options are a bit trickier to understand. Wait Until Key Pressed means that your Command list won’t continue until a Key is actually pressed. I thiiink. It’s best to leave it checked for now. The Store Amount of Time it Takes to Press Key, meanwhile, I believe is meant for holding down the button. It times how long you took to press the button, and records the number in another Variable. You can mess with it if you want, but I wouldn’t worry about it for now.

Keys to Process means what keys you want to be read. I’m not sure why Kikiyama has every key read for the Bicycle, other than he probably copy-pasted it for every Event (or maybe that’s the default state, I forget). Either way, the important one here is Number Keys 0-9. That’s the Numpad on the right.

Kikiyama likes to have the actions be bound to the 1 Key on the Numpad. So, that’s considered equal to 11. So if you made a Conditional Branch for a Variable, and have it branch if its equal to 11...

Well, first it does a check (is the “I’m not supposed to let you put in button inputs” Switch on?), and then it does the action- which is play a sound effect.

A nice little bicycle bell.

There’s also the Wait 0.0 here again, which I imagine is so that you don’t press the button so fast that it equals 22 or 33 (or press say 5 and 6 at the same time and have it equal 11). Though, I highly doubt that would happen, since the variable wants to be set equal to the ONE key you pressed, so it’s probably just some kind of spam prevention thing, because Parallel Processes are weird. 0.0 waits are nice to have on them.

But yeah, there’s a LOT you can do...

One more thing to note, is that there are also certain Effects that affect NPCs. The Cat and the Knife come to mind. If you look at an NPC’s event page, they have pages dedicated to certain Effects. If you use the Cat Effect, you can turn on a Switch that makes NPCs walk toward you. If you use a Knife, just having it on with the Active Switch will make NPCs walk away from you.

And of course, you can even stab someone if need be.

...

wait is Seccom Masada like legit a reference to Michael Jackson I thought that was just a fan interpretation

So yes, from there on it’s a lot of effort and hard work and trial and error. The best way to learn from here is to browse the in-game files (which again I will be releasing an easier-to-read English version eventually unless someone already beat me to it without me realizing it)

I think you have all you need to know about making an Effect. I’m proud of you. You did it, you. You read through this entire thing that I typed in a day. You did it. The power...

is yours

Or maybe you just skimmed your way down here, I dunno.

... ohhh right.

One more bonus thing about Effects.

[X] REMOVING THE EFFECT... for EGGS

As I mentioned earlier, you turn a Switch on to say you have an Item in your Possession. But, doesn’t the Find Switch kind of cover for that? Both are saying you own the item, the Find Switch just stops you from getting more of that item.

So what does the Possession Switch do? Well, you may not even need it. But the reason Kikiyama uses it is specifically for the Eggs. Let’s go take a look at one in the Door Room, shall we?

It’s simply more of what the first Switch did, except now it’s using Event Pages. The first page is blank, for all intents and purposes, it’s a nothing space. You wouldn’t even know it existed. And this only exists when the Possession Switch is on. But wouldn’t it not exist even if the Possession Switch wasn’t on?

Well, yeah. But then we realize there’s a Page 2

(ooo, aaaa)

So what happens on Page 2? This one only appears if the REMOVAL SWITCH is ON. So why does it exist? Well, if the Possession Switch is OFF, then you don’t own the Effect anymore. But you can’t just go back to the same NPC or whatever and pick it up again, otherwise you’d just use the FIND Switch. So, when the Possession Switch is off, it allows you to pick up the Effect from the Egg, just like when you first got it from an NPC (or whatever). And so it’s back in your Possession, the Possession Switch is turned ON, the Removal Switch is turned OFF, and so the Egg disappears once again into the Page 1 void.

Pages are funny. They’ll always go to the latest page (in this case, Page 2). If you turned off the Removal Switch, well, it’ll still be there. You need to force it to remember Page 1, by going back with the Possession Switch again. It’s weird, I know, but trust me it works somehow.

So, to see where that Removal Switch comes from, let’s take a look at the [X] Common Events...

For the most part, they all look like this. A few add things like movespeed adjustments and the like, but for the most part this is it.

Now, these are Parallel Processes. They’re passively waiting for you to do whatever. In this case, they’re only active when you have the Active Switch on. The first thing they check with a Conditional Branch is, “are you in the Door Room?”

If so, then it adds a new Key Input Process (with a different variable than the Action ones). Then, to be safe or to get the input to work (I think), Kikiyama does another Branch exactly the same. And then another Branch, where if this Key Input Variable equals 15 (aka, 5 on the Numpad), it will lead to one MORE Branch, just to make sure you aren’t doing anything weird that would interrupt the Egg Dropping process (like trying to sit down or something). Again, these little things are a pain to find but they’re great to have in a game and make a game seem so much more polished (at least to someone like me, who goes out of their way to break RPG Maker games as much as possible when I play them)

And after ALL THOSE BRANCHES, finally, you do your little animation. You block the player from going to the menu, you turn on the Removal Switch (thus the things that happen earlier with the Possession Switch happen), change items, memorize the location and change the hidden Egg Event to said location (so that the Egg will always stay in the spot you put it in), move the player out of the way, some Call Events, you get the picture. And of course, the Active Switch turns OFF.

And there you have it! My browser’s about to explode, but that’s a lot of words I typed and tumblr I swear to god if you fail to upload this I will flip

I lost the Ball Effect analogy somewhere down the line, and also had to deal with a very very needy cat (that I am allergic to) stepping on my keyboard every ten minutes as I typed this because he misses my mother and has not stopped stepping on my keyboard every ten minutes all day every day in almost a week

For a summary of what these Switches do:

FIND SWITCH: Turned ON by the Event that gives you the Effect, so you can’t get the Effect a second time

POSSESSION SWITCH: Turned ON by the Event that gives you the Effect, used in conjunction with the REMOVAL SWITCH to say whether or not an Egg will appear

EQUIP SWITCH: Turned ON by using the Item in your inventory, triggers the [E] Common Event

ACTIVE SWITCH: Turned ON by the [E] Common Event, used in general whenever you need to know if this Effect is active (like when trying to switch to another Effect, trying to Wake up, or Effect-specific things, like being able to speed up in water as a Frog), as well as triggers some [A] Common Events and the [X] Common Events

REMOVAL SWITCH: Turned ON in the [X] Common Event, used in conjunction with the POSSESSION SWITCH to say whether or not the Egg will appear

Have fun, and happy fangame-ing!

Additional Material:

How I learned to recolor a sprite and called it a fangame protagonist- A Yume Nikki fangame reference

#yume nikki #yume nikki fangame #yume nikki fangames #rpg maker 2003 #rm2k3 #rpg maker #how to fangame #tutorial #reference #I WROTE 26K+ WORDS... IN JUST OVER 24 HOURS...#AND BY WORDS I MEAN CHARACTERS SHUT UP

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nawafithme · 5 years

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A Week In Austin, TX, On A $99,000 Joint Salary

Welcome toMoney Diaries , where we’re tackling what might be the last taboo facing modern working women: money. We’re asking millennials how they spend their hard-earned money during a seven-day period — and we’re tracking every last dollar.

Calling all entrepreneurs: We want to hear from you! If you’re a freelancer or self-employed, we’d love to feature your Money Diary. Submit here.

Today: an executive assistant working in manufacturing who makes $59,000 per year ($99,000 when combined with her husband) and spends some of her money this week on Cherry Coke Zero. We previously published a diary from this OP back in December 2017.

Occupation: Executive Assistant Industry: Manufacturing Age: 29 Location: Austin, TX My Salary: $59,000 My Husband’s Salary: $40,000 My Paycheck Amount (Biweekly): $1,660 (not including quarterly bonus) My Husband’s Paycheck Amount (Biweekly): $1,300

Monthly Expenses Mortgage: $1,550 (This includes property taxes and insurance.) Loans: $990 for two cars and one motorcycle and $100 for solar panels Electricity: $20 Gas: $15 Netflix: $12 (I share this with my BFF, and she shares her Hulu account with me.) Cell Phones: $100 Vivint Home Monitoring: $90 Car Insurance: $195 (Mine is $75, and my husband’s is $120.) Health Insurance: $32 (Through my work; covers me and my husband, plus a $20/paycheck contribution to HSA. My company puts $1,000/year in our HSA as well.) Husband’s Pension: This is awful but I don’t actually know how much they take from his check. He’s a firefighter and has no say in what gets taken out. I don’t contribute to my company’s 401(k) anymore. I previously did, but once my husband became a firefighter and gained the pension, I stopped. Savings: We have ~$20,000 in direct savings and ~$350,000 invested. The investment money came directly from an inheritance I received.

8:15 a.m. — Got to sleep in this morning because I have a doctor’s appointment. Normally I am onsite at work from 8 to 5, so I’ve low-key enjoyed having morning appointments during my pregnancy because I’ve gotten to sleep in. My husband hasn’t attended the majority of my appointments, but after a bit of arguing, he’s requested I schedule them when he isn’t working. So we get up and let the dogs out, I make myself a small breakfast of two turkey sausage links and a Babybel cheese, and then we head out. We drive separately because my doctor’s office is just down the road from my work.

9:30 a.m. — I check in at the doctor, and they ask if I’d like to make a payment. I know our HSA is basically empty since my company contribution has not yet hit, so I decide to just pay $125 today out of pocket. I know the $1,000 my company contributes to my HSA won’t cover these last two months of my pregnancy or the birth, so it makes no real difference if we pay out of pocket now or later. Luckily, my insurance has a $3,000 deductible and a $6,000 max out of pocket. So no matter what, these visits and the birth will be cheaper than my gallbladder surgery a few years ago. (I had horrific insurance then.) $125

10:30 a.m. — All done! This doctor is a MFM (Maternal Fetal Medicine) specialist, because I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes at 23 weeks. My husband had never even been to her office yet, so this was a first for him. They do a full ultrasound every visit, and he very much enjoyed getting a glimpse of our baby girl. I’m 31 weeks as of today, so there was a lot to see compared to the last scan he saw at 20 weeks.

11 a.m. — I arrive at work just in time for lunch. I get to my desk, check to make sure I don’t have any urgent emails or IMs, and then head to the cafeteria. My company gives us $30 for lunch per month and then matches an additional $30, so my lunch doesn’t cost me anything. I haven’t had to pay $30 yet this month because last month was so full of catering that I had a significant amount of rollover. Today, the options are carbs, carbs, and more carbs. So, bunless burger and side salad for me. People have a ton of different opinions and advice on how to manage gestational diabetes. My specialist told me that if the only way I can manage during the day without meds is to eat minimal carbs, I should do that. As long as I’m eating and getting nutrients, the baby and I will be fine. I find my body can handle certain carbs (rice, corn, potatoes) way better than bread or pasta. If I have any bread, my levels are through the roof. ($5.75 expensed)

12:15 p.m. — I finally waddle my way back to my desk. I’ve started waddling over the last week or so, and it’s made me move even slower. My office is almost a quarter mile from the cafeteria. It’s good exercise for me and baby girl, but also UGH, I’m exhausted. I plop down in my chair, turn on my heater because pregnant me is always cold, and start checking my email.

5 p.m. — I’M OUT! I used to spend a lot of money randomly online shopping, but ever since I got pregnant, I haven’t had much to stuff to buy. We don’t want to buy too much before our shower next month.

5:30 p.m. — I need gas. I absolutely hate getting gas. I’m one of those people who is literally zero miles from empty before filling up. I’m almost home and want to just get gas in the morning, but I also don’t want to be out of gas and pregnant at 7 a.m. when my husband is an hour away at work. So I opt to not push my luck. $32.18

9 p.m. — After getting home, cooking dinner (carnitas in the Instant Pot), and watching a couple episodes of The Magicians with my husband, we start our bedtime routine. I got bangs a while back so I can no longer wash my hair at night, so I opt for just a body shower to make tomorrow morning go faster, wash my face with an H-E-B makeup remover wipe, and then slap on some random moisturizer. My skin is wicked dry always, so I’m currently using some random lotion from LUSH on my face. It was a gift, and all I know is my face isn’t super flakey. Luckily I haven’t had to deal with any hormonal acne *knock on wood*. Lights are out by 9:30.

Daily Total: $157.18

5:15 a.m. — My husband’s alarm goes off. Since my last Money Diary, he went through the Fire Academy and became a firefighter/EMT in a city about an hour away. I’m incredibly proud of him, but his schedule has been tough to get used to. He works 24 hours and then has 48 hours off. He has to be at the station by 6:45, which means he is always there no later than 6:35. He gets up and tries his best to get ready quietly, but I always wake up to give him a hug and a kiss and to say I love you and to tell him to be safe. He’s been working on shift for seven months and hasn’t seen a fire yet, but I always want him to stay safe out there. The problem is I can never fall asleep after he leaves. I used to, but this far along in pregnancy, as soon as I wake up I become harshly aware of all the pain in my hips and just lie there snuggling the dog until 6 when I get up and get ready.

8:15 a.m. — Nothing I had at home for breakfast sounded good, so I waddle over to the cafeteria for breakfast. I opt for a scoop of eggs, a sausage patty, and a Cherry Coke Zero. People have lots of opinions on diet soda to begin with, and it gets super extra if you’re pregnant. Step off world, pregnancy is hard enough as it is. ($2.75 expensed)

11 a.m. — Lunchtime. I waddle over to the cafeteria. Taco Tuesday, FTW! I get mine in a bowl with rice, chicken, pico, pickled red onions, and sour cream. Delicious. ($7.52 expensed)

2 p.m. — My baby shower is coming up, and I would ideally like to wear a new dress. I browse the internet’s pathetic selection of maternity clothes and find a dress that miiight work. $14.12

5:45 p.m. — Get home and let the dogs out. We have two rescue dogs, and they are our everything. They used to spend every day in their crates, but since my husband’s schedule has him home quite a bit, they only spend a max of two days a week in their crates. They are both crate-trained and have no issues in them — they are loved, spoiled, and very content with their lives.

8 p.m. — I let the dogs out, clean up from my dinner (meatballs and marinara), and within five minutes they’re both at the door like MOM IT’S BEDTIME LET’S GOOOO. We all head upstairs. I turn on the TV in our room, do some general cleaning, and then crawl in bed by 8:45. I call my husband to tell him goodnight, and we are all one big snuggle puddle all night long.

Daily Total: $14.12

6:30 a.m. — I get up, get ready, and let the dogs out. Then I heat up the last of the low-carb pumpkin muffins I made last week for breakfast. I let the dogs in and let them roam instead of putting them in their crates, since my husband will be home by 8 a.m. This is mostly because it’s still so early for them that they will just go upstairs and get back in bed. They can’t be trusted alone for more than about 45 minutes, though.

11 a.m. — My morning flies by. Out CEO is coming in a few days, and this morning my boss asked me to create some slides for a presentation for him. It’s kind of wild to know that you’re creating something that will be shown to the CEO. It is also a great confidence booster that he trusts me to create this content. I finish by lunchtime and then waddle over to the cafeteria. Options look bleh, so I just do salad bar. Spring mix, mushrooms, hard-boiled egg, and ranch. It’s fine. ($4.18 expensed)

5 p.m. — I try to not take the toll road very often because I discovered the hard way how much the bill can add up. But I miss my husband and want to get home ASAP, so here I come toll road and 80 mph speed limit. $2.07

5:25 p.m. — I get home in 25 minutes, and my husband immediately asks if I took the toll because I’m so early. He then asks what’s for dinner, because he’s been hungry for the last hour but didn’t want to ruin dinner by snacking. Dinner is chicken thighs stuffed with cheese and bacon, plus Brussels sprouts for me and broccoli cheddar pasta for him. It’s easy, and he helps make it all, so I don’t have to stand for 30 minutes. I normally do 95% of the cooking, because when we met, his philosophy about food was that he only cooked things that took less time to cook than to eat. He’s a big fan of Chef Mic(rowave).

9 p.m. — BEDTIME! Yes, even when neither of us has to get up before 6:30, we go to bed at 9 p.m. I don’t function well on less than eight hours of sleep. Having a newborn is gonna be awesome.

Daily Total: $2.07

7:30 a.m. — Sausage links and a Cherry Coke Zero on the drive to work this morning. There’s a ton of fog, and it takes longer than normal to get to work. Feeling grateful no one actually cares/notices if I’m 10 minutes late.

9:30 a.m. — Breakfast did not cut it this morning, and I’m desperate for a snack. I grab a mini Kind bar.

11 a.m. — Y’all know what time it is. Waddle over. Beef and broccoli it is. I want another Coke Zero, but I opt for water. I normally drink four bottles (20 ounces) of water a day at work plus random amounts at home, but I’ve found this hasn’t been enough and need to start drinking more. Have I mentioned I’m pregnant, and that it’s a pure joy? Ugh. ($6.86 expensed)

2 p.m. — The baby has decided to stretch in a way that genuinely feels like her tiny hand might pop out down there. This is wildly uncomfortable as you might imagine, so I get up and waddle around the office hoping she changes positions. It works, kind of. She moves but only to a mildly less uncomfortable position. I try to stretch a little, and my boss notices. He asks how I’m doing and asks if there’s anything I need to help make working less of a pain. He’s a nice guy.

5 p.m. — Headed home. I don’t have to cook tonight because we are having steak, the one thing I trust my husband to cook completely with no supervision. I get home, love on dogs, love on husband, and plop my ass on the couch. He lets me know when they’re almost done so I can get up and prep my salad. I have a steak Caesar, and it hits the spot. It’s also low enough in carbs and sugar and all that so I can have a spoonful of peanut butter for "dessert." In case you were wondering, one of my Christmas gifts was literally a full cheesecake that is waiting patiently in my freezer for my return from giving birth.

9 p.m. — Bedtime routine. Husband works tomorrow, and I feel like I’ve barely seen him. I get pouty and hormonal and proceed to cry in bed for a bit. It’s unproductive since there’s literally nothing we can do about it, but he snuggles me until I fall asleep.

Daily Total: $0

7:30 a.m. — TGIF! Drive to work, settle in, check email, and do general admin work things.

11 a.m. — Waddle waddle. Pork loin, salad, green beans for lunch. ($7.35 expensed)

3:30 p.m. — My husband is off all weekend, which is GREAT and only happens like once a month, so I order groceries online for curbside pickup tomorrow because I don’t want to spend an hour shopping. I’d rather spend the time doing something together. I order chicken thighs, breakfast sausage, eggs, milk, cheese, produce, soda, chips, etc. It adds up to almost $90 somehow, but our soft grocery budget is $125/week, so whatever. I fight my impulse to add stuff I want but don’t need since I’m under budget. I remind myself that as soon as I can drink again, these savings will come in handy. $87.35

5 p.m. — My best friend is coming over for dinner and works closer to my house than I do, so I take the toll road home so I can beat her there. We eat pesto chicken and stuffed mushrooms, chat about nothing, and lounge around. She’s that awesome friend who is happy to come over and do nothing with me. She’s also that friend who understands that taking off your pants definitely means you aren’t leaving the house again. My husband texts that he’s jealous he’s missing out because even though he’s generally not very social, he really likes my best friend because she’s entertaining AF and always has stories to tell. $2.07

8:45 p.m. — I guess I yawned one too many times, and my friend insists on going home so I can go to bed. I keep saying I’m not tired, but I’m not fooling anyone. Say goodbye, let dogs out, and crawl in bed.

Daily Total: $89.42

7:58 a.m. — Our girl dog can hear my husband’s car when it enters the neighborhood, and she immediately jumps up in excitement. DAD’S HOME! He comes in, comes upstairs, and crawls in bed with me. We proceed to sleep for another hour or so.

9:30 a.m. — We finally get out of bed and decide since it’s nice out we’ll take the dogs for a walk instead of just letting them run in the backyard. We don’t walk them much because our yard is very large, and they get plenty of exercise. Also, one of them has severe anxiety and walks can be super fun until they are super not. We take the small loop around the neighborhood. It’s about a half mile and about all I can handle. Pups don’t encounter any other pups or people, so anxiety stays at bay.

1 p.m. — Neither of us feel like cooking, so when I suggest Chipotle my husband is super down. We get in the car and drive over there. My husband inhales his burrito in three minutes. $19.45

2:30 p.m. — I drag my husband to Target after we eat because we need new bedding. Well, we don’t actually NEED it, but I hate what we have and want all-white bedding because I can bleach it if the dogs make a mess and my husband agrees. Of course, one cannot simply go to Target and get only what one came for, so we leave with new sheets, new slippers, a bath mat, a dog toy, and a super cute onesie for baby girl. $185.22

5 p.m. — After a few hours doing absolutely nothing, I decide to start dinner. Lemon chicken in the Instant Pot. My mom got me an Instant Pot for Christmas. I didn’t ask for it, but she thought it would come in handy when the baby comes, and she was right. This thing is awesome, and I love it. Thanks, Mom! You da best.

9 p.m. — We take bedtime super seriously in my house. And by we, I mean me and the dogs. 9 p.m. rolls around and to bed we go. My husband is playing computer games and says he will join us after one more. I throw a fit because apparently that’s who I am now. I cry and cry about how I go to bed alone when he works and I don’t want to do it if I don’t have to. I surprise myself with valid points, but he apologizes and admits he didn’t even think about that. He crawls in bed for snuggles and that’s that.

Daily Total: $204.67

9:30 a.m. — And we’re up. I let the dogs out and start cleaning. When my husband has Sundays off, we have a group of friends over to play Dungeons & Dragons. I’m not that nerdy and was never interested, but after my husband asked me for literally years to give it a shot, I finally said yes. It’s fun. I don’t love it the way he does, but I enjoy it enough to spend my Sunday playing it. We literally play all day. Everyone brings their own lunch usually and then we provide dinner for the group.

8:30 p.m. — Everyone has left for the evening. It was a fun day — we recently added my sister-in-law’s husband to our group, and he’s proven to be an awesome addition. My husband and I do our bedtime routine and discuss how the game went today. Lights out by 9:30.

Daily Total: $0

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