I am finally free. A whole month of playing The Sims 3 again for the first time in literal years. Enjoyed it a lot. But now it's time for me to move on.

The Traveling Witch and The Pioneer of Plumbotics

I'm going to miss them, but I've done everything I've wanted to. For now, I'm just glad I'll have some more space on my computer lol.

Hi!! Your art is so fucking cool! Can I ask what the process looks like for form line? Ex. What do your sketches look like when they are really rough? How do you go from idea -> final product. 💕

Hadih, thanks so much for your question!

Honestly, it's sort of hard to explain? I do have some sketches to sort of give an idea though.

This sketch I posted a couple days ago is a pretty good example of what my initial concept sketches sometimes look like.. As you can see, they're pretty chaotic and very rough, and usually these sketches are more about getting the idea down then actually making the formline itself. There aren't formline shapes just yet, although I do sometimes sketch out elements or shapes like eyes or bodies or paws/hands that will usually have an ovoid in it, because those elements tend to be a focus or centerpiece. The sketch is obviously not final, and things can change along the way to account for space and balance as well as what I'm trying to convey. (These sketches aren't entirely accurate of course because they're for pieces that are meant to be fusions of character illustrations and formline art, but they're the best thing I can find on my pc at the moment)

The rough sketch helps me figure out the flow of the piece, and once I'm satisfied with it I try and get to putting down the shapes and silhouette, and it's here where I try to find the balance with my rough sketch and how the shapes can fit and behave in the piece to the best of their limits while also still conveying the message I want to send. The most common shape I start with is the focus shapes, which are usually ovoids.

This rough of my harbor seal formline which I sent to my aunt for review sort of gives a better Idea of what I mean when I say I try and focus on where the centerpoints will be. Ovoids are usually a focus, so you can see them pop up a lot; in the body, the head, the eyes, the tail, etc. Ovoids are so important and probably the most common shape in formline art, and one of the most common feedback I get from my aunt is to adjust how the ovoid looks in any one of my pieces; she often compared them to a loaf of bread! You don't want your ovoids to look like a loaf of bread! (Her words, not mine). I feel like I've gotten better at drawing ovoids though, because she gives it as feedback less and less nowadays. Ovoids usually also have to have a bit of weight/perspective to them; it's hard to describe but essentially the top of the ovoid should usually be bigger/thicker/have more weight then the bottom.

From ovoids, the next shapes are usually circles, u-shapes and crescents, then usually y-shapes/trigons. It can be difficult, because the key is to make sure the shapes flow together and feel cohesive, as well as to make sure the negative/positive space balance feels right. Also a fun tidbit, trigons are most typically used to essentially fill space; it's always important to make sure that they are binding bigger shapes like u-shapes and ovoids and not stealing all the space and attention.

The lines in this stage tend to be very rough and messy, and I always try to go over the next rough draft with a smoother and cleaner pen.

Once the initial shapes are done, I'll usually send the piece to my aunt (sometimes I send them earlier on, when I'm in the middle of working out the shapes) for feedback! I am still a student in formline work after all; basically all of my teachings come from my aunt, who has a lot more years of work in formline art then me. She'll give me feedback and tips of what she thinks I should fix or experiment with. I adjust and fix and sometimes even completely delete and redo parts of the piece with her guidance. The list of things she tells me to change decreases with each piece, so I like to take that as a sign that I'm improving!

Once the black and white version of the design is done, I move onto coloring. Usually I already have a color scheme in mind when I go into a piece, so I'll mess around and put down colors and see how well they contrast before I color it. Typically, a piece will have about 3 colors; one for the background, one primary color, and one secondary color. I use a clipping layer to color the entire formline piece with the primary color, and then go in with the pen tool and bucket tool to use the secondary color. Adding in the secondary color is tricky but important because it once again falls into balancing positive and negative space/colors and the transitions between the two.

Once coloring is done, the project is basically finished! Unless there are some other plans I have for it, ie using it for an overlay in a bigger piece, colouring is usually the final stage.

And that's about it! I hope this helps you understand a bit; this isn't a perfect explanation as this is just from my own artistic POV and other nations and artists have their own process, but I hope it helps nonetheless!!

Edit: I forgot I posted other WIP formlines here before 😭 here and here!! You can sort of see me figure out the flow and balance of the designs in between the WIP and the finished piece!

OC INTERVIEW

Thanks for tagging me @chevvy-yates! 💚

Decided to do this with one of the OCs for my fic I kind of introduced a while ago. Hopefully will give me some motivation to work further on it. Sadly hadn't have the time do draw her yet (sad noises no PC no mods for me). Regular character creation wasn't even close on how I want her to look. So no piccy yet :(

Really like your idea of letting the oc answer some questions directly. Will do that aswell.

Note: Not all answers don't fit 100% anymore cause I developed her further since I did this Interview

NAME?

"Alyona Petrova."

She actually gets kinda mad if people call her by her full name. She has a difficult relationship with her family and wants to leave everything about them in the past. Therefore she chose a short nickname through which she can identify herself better. Besides, in her business it is better not to mention official names and go with an alias.

_____

NICKNAME?

"Aon. I prefer that."

It's pronounced like A-On.

_____

GENDER?

Cis Female

_____

STAR SIGN?

"I won't tell you my birthday. And all of this astro-shit is a waste of time anyway."

Would say she's a Capricorn? Don't know much about astrology tho :/

_____

HEIGHT?

"1,70 m. Pretty average. Like those questions."

Her size and figure allows her to fit into fairly narrow and tight spaces. Unlike many of her workers, mainly large men with big muscles, she has the advantage in the construction and assembly of complex machines.

_____

ORIENTATION?

Hetero

She and Kurt have thing going on no one else knows about. So never ask her about anything pointing in that direction. Since they don't see each other that often in person things can go... out of hand. And she would be embarrassed if someone knew about that since their friendship can be described as very strong, but is also characterized by a lot of teasing and professional distance if you look at it from the outside.

_____

FAVORITE FRUIT?

"Fruits are plants, right. Tobacco is a plant, too. Does that count? Tzz.. I don't know. I like to put frozen berries in my drink sometimes. So berries then."

She has a smoking problem. Not like chain smoking, but on a regular base. Alcohol, on the other hand, is really more for her to enjoy. Frozen fruits in drinks instead of ice cubes is a life hack tho.

_____

FAVORITE SEASON?

"Doesn't really matter, as long it's not too warm. I can't stand a lot of heat. If possible I'll always sent some of my workers for jobs in the warmer regions. Of course only if they are capable of doing the job."

Most of the work is done in her workshop in Russia anyway, but occasionally it is easier or more efficient to work on site with her clients. If possible, she always tries to avoid this.

_____

FAVORITE FLOWER?

"Pfff.. I don't care. Some of them are pretty, sure. But if you want to impress me, give me something usefull and not some plant that'll die within a few days anyway."

_____

FAVORITE SCENT?

"The scent in my workshop. Thick oil, warm metal, rubbery, a hint of CHOOH2, a little dust in the air. The fresh and cold air outside, after a long day of work is really refreshing, but I wouldn't want to miss that smell."

You know that smell when you enter a car workshop? That.

_____

COFFEE OR TEA?

"Coffee. If I want to drink water I prefer it cold. And without taste. Something stronger would be even better."

_____

AVERAGE HOURS OF SLEEP?

"I try to stick to a good routine. 6-7 hours. My people say I'm even more unbearable when I don't get a good night's sleep. And I can't stand a bad mood at work. Please kill me if I have a jetleg. That's the worst."

She's a very disciplined person.

_____

DOG OR CAT PERSON?

"Cats. Dogs are fucking exhausting. They want your attention all the time and can't handle themselves for longer than a few hours. I had a cat at the workshop once. He catched his own food, he got out of my way, came for a pet now and then. His name was Bill."

She always teases Kurt that cats are so much better than dogs.

_____

DREAM TRIP?

"I have been all around the globe and nothing really sparked that much joy yet. But I don't have time for vacation or silly little trips anyway. I like my home. Why go anywhere else."

There are place she hasn't been too obviously but like she said: she rather stays at home if she has some free time and pursues her interests or just rests.

_____

FAVORITE FICTIONAL CHARACTER?

"Beatrix Kiddo. When I was a child my mother moved in with a man she liked. Different story, won't tell that now. I never liked the capital or big cities in general, but there was a little thrift shop at the corner of the house we lived in. The owner, a really old but really sweet man showed me his age old collection of movies. VHS, DVDs, bet no one these days will remember what those are. I came there once a week and we watched a movie togehter after he closed the store. He was such a big nerd. Tarantinos movies where my favorite. Probably not the kind of stories you should show to a child but I loved it. Kiddo is a badass women and I always wanted to become strong and fierce like her."

Who doesn't like Tarantino?

_____

NUMBER OF BLANKETS YOU SLEEP WITH?

"One...? What kind of stupid question is that?"

_____

RANDOM FACT?

Besides forging knives she recently started getting into distilling her own spirits. She came up with a decent gin and will refine the recipe.

_____

No pressure Tags. If you see this and I didn't tag you feel free to do it anyway if you like.

@cybervesna @cyberholic77 @olath124 @dustymagpie @aggravateddurian @theviridianbunny @bumble-v @pacificaisstillpacifica @wanderingaldecaldo @streetkid-named-desire

The one job takes lots of my time (teachers are teachers 24/7) but I'm very happy here. Children like my classes, other teachers treat me well, and I'm gonna promote the school this Saturday!! I hope I'll find time to play some Sims, too. I found a good version of Sims 2 for PC for folks like me who don't have it on Origi- sorry, EA App.

This particular day was dedicated to Mirage!! Our little robo-nanny decided to go out to the world and do something productive and new. Nobody told him to, he just left in the morning when everyone was asleep. Not that he needed permission, of course; according to him, he can leave wherever he wants, he's just never done it before. I mean, hey, as long as it's not raining...

Ahhh, what a day it was!! Visiting Evergreen Harbor was wonderfully attractive - full of skill-building and treasure hunting. The more skills Mirage has, the better servo he is - and what better way is there to build skills from scratch than this? Extensively learning gardening and getting to know nearly every single plant in the local community garden was a way to go!! Migare loved seeing the plants grow early in the morning, all ready to harvest. Then, he stopped by the maker space to learn a bit of fabricating but that was way harder than he imagined - no screenshots to spare him the embarrassment. (≧ᗜ≦)

His last stop was the market place, but not to sell anything, of course. Everything he succesfully fabricated (everything = one rug and one bedside table) he indends to bring home and gift the children. The marketplace is simply a fantastic place to buy unusual souvenirs like handmade drinks and candles!! Who doesn't love a pretty scented candle in their home? (๑ > ᴗ < ๑)

Mirage was very excited to share his haul at home but it seems that the children aren't very happy. Not that they're not grateful, goodness no. It's just that their robo-nanny being gone the whole day made them fairly bummed about it. I hope nothing unpleasant happened when Mirage was gone. Baltazar is getting crazier by each passing day, no doubt it got worse. (つ﹏⊂)

Your first week in Sandrock: A walkthrough for beginners (fairly long)

If you recently bought My Time at Sandrock and want to avoid stumbling through your first week in the game, here's a guide for you!

First of all, if you've played My Time at Portia, be aware that some things have changed (mostly for the better). There are mid-day saves, using the assembly station is easier, fueling your stations is easier, and you can now upgrade your stations (furnaces, etc), but blueprints for a lot of familiar items have changed. I'll make Portia-specific notes in the text.

Also, I highly suggest going into settings and changing the game speed from 1 to 0.6 (it's the first setting you see when you go into settings). This will give you time to get everything done each day, especially in early game. (I've never slowed down my day in the PC version of Portia but found it's practically a necessity here.)

This guide is current as of the late August/early September 2022 early access version. I don't expect early game to change radically so hopefully this will remain relevant for quite a while!

Day 1: Once you start a new game and create your Builder, you'll have a cutscene of your character on the train going to Sandrock and being greeted by a young woman named Mi-an. You then gain control over your Builder and can follow her to where two men are waiting. One is Yan and the other Mason. You'll have a cutscene where Yan introduces himself and Mason and then instructs you to make a pickhammer. Mi-an wants to check out your workshop.

Follow Mi-an across the railroad tracks and you will be at your new workshop. After a cutscene, you will need to make the pickhammer; this is a tool you will be using extensively to get resources out of rocks and resource piles and is used as a way of teaching you how to use the worktable. The game more or less holds your hand here. There are two piles near your workshop with blue arrows above them. Go to one, dig it out, repeat with the other. Then go into your workshop yard where the third blue arrow is pointing to your worktable. Interact with the worktable (default E on the keyboard or X on controller), which will give you a tutorial on how to use the worktable. It is slightly different from Portia's so Portia players will need to read it over as well.

Once you have followed the instructions and made your pickhammer, you can make a slight detour and pick up a stone ax. You are not required to at this point; you can pick it up later if you forget. Head back to Yan at the Commerce Guild, and he'll have you make a recycler on your assembly station. Head back to your yard.

Pick up the stone ax if you haven't done that. Using your pickhammer, demolish the dilapidated furnace (left mouse button for keyboard and mouse or right bumper on controller). Switch to the ax and chop apart the box in front of your assembly station (the big flat platform with the book in front of it - the arrow points to it). Once you get that done, interact with the assembly station (E on keyboard, X on controller). There will be a tutorial which will show you how to choose a diagram to assemble. You will get a ghostly outline of the recycler that you now need to assemble.

For the recycler, you need three different things. One is wood, which you got from chopping that box. The second and third require you to go and get more materials. Get out of your yard by either going through your gate or using the space bar/A button to jump the nearest fence. Equip your pickhammer and look for round rocks. There are some by the big rocks near the train track. If you stand next to a rock and it says "gravel" it's the right kind of rock. Break the rock with your pickhammer (again, hold down left mouse button on your mouse or the right bumper on your controller). You'll want to make sure you gather 8 stone and 8 dinas before returning to your yard.

Once you get back to your yard, you will need to use your worktable to assemble 1 stone trough and 2 grinding saws. Disassembling the furnace got you the other trough you need for your recycler so all you need to do now is get up on the assembly platform and add the parts. Do so by pressing E (keyboard) or X (controller) for each part that you have. Portia players will be relieved that you no longer have to have the item selected in your hotbar nor do you have to figure out exactly where to stand in order to get the game to let you add an item.

If for some reason you missed one of the steps above and are missing one of the items you need for the recycler, you can cycle past that part by pressing R on your keyboard or using left trigger on your controller. Once you have added all the parts the recycler will sparkle and allow you to pick it up.

Congratulations! You have made your first assembly station item! If you have space in your hotbar (the part of your inventory you can see without actually going into your inventory) you'll be able to select it and put it down where you want (left mouse button/right controller bumper). If it has gone into your full inventory, you'll want to pull it out by going into your inventory (I/start button) and either clicking and dragging (mouse/keyboard) or pressing Y and moving it with your left joystick (controller).

Go back to Yan, see a cutscene, head out to city hall. You'll get a cutscene feturing Pen, who will give you a fighting tutorial. Follow the tutorial. You don't get to keep the weapons in it but you'll end up with some shortly. Once the tutorial is over, you'll find yourself back in front of city hall. Meet Matilda, name your workshop, and you'll get your builder license. Head back to the Commerce Guild. You'll trigger a cutscene involving Rocky, Yan, and Mi-an that will net you a one-week pass to the Eufala Salvage yard, a blueprint, and your very first non-tutorial mission.

If you still have time and energy left (that is, it's not 2am, and your yellow stamina bar is not depleted), you can head to Eufala Salvage and use your pickhammer on the mixed pile to get some scraps for your new recycler. Otherwise, head into your new house and go to bed. Portia players will be pleased to know that you do not have to repair your floor to get a good night's sleep!

(And if you did not get your recycler done on day 1, do not panic! Read below in regards to a day 2 cutscene and then finish up with the rest of day 1.)

Day 2:

Good morning! Time to roll out of bed and head out the door. If you stayed out too late you'll essentially have bags under your eyes but no other penalties. Once you leave your room you'll trigger a cutscene with Jasmine delivering a sample paper. This is not a required mission but you do gain some friendship with Jasmine plus some experience so you might as well go to learn a bit more about the town. This is the game's first timed mission because it expires at midnight day 2.

To complete this optional mission, agree to Jasmine's tour, follow her to the Wandering Y Yakmel ranch (the buildings between the railroad station and the tunnel). She'll talk about the ranch, and then race off to Martle's Oasis (the pond across the railroad tracks from your house). Follow her there. The answer to her question is "Conserve Water!", but you can choose other answers if you want to. Once her talk about Martle's Oasis is done, she'll race off to City Hall (use the first set of stairs and turn left to get to the main street - City Hall is where you registered your workshop). Follow her there and she'll tell you about City Hall before running off to the Church of the Light.

Just take the stairs next to the stable to the top and go around the building to the right until you find her. She'll tell you about the Church of the Light, ask you what you thought about her tour, and leave you there. Just head to the covered bench and you'll bring up the Yakmel Station (Portia players, this is essentially a DeeDee stop, but it does cost a small amount of gols to use), which will bring up a menu to let you fast-travel back to the train station. Or you can just go back the way you came and then go down main street.

You can head to your workshop to start on the crane lift (assuming you've completed everything from day 1), but I suggest taking a detour. Find Yan and speak to him to get a tutorial on the Commission Board (he will either be at the Commerce Guild or nearby listening to Matilda speak). Portia players, there are some slight differences, so read through the tutorial. After the tutorial, go to the shop next to Yan's desk in the Commerce Guild (the cash register with the symbol over it) to buy the blueprint for thick rope, which you need for the crane. You can also buy the feather duster blueprint, though you don't need that yet.

Pay a visit to the Commission board to see if there's anything you can take. Ideally, you want to get the crane done before you run out of your free week of Eufala Salvage access so don't pick up anything really complicated. I suggest sticking to commissions asking for thick rope, thin thread, or stone trough (rope and thread require plant fiber, easily obtained by taking an axe to bushes; rocks you already know how to get). Among other things, this will get you some extra spending money, help you make friends, and if you keep at it, get you rewards at the end of the month and let you take on more commissions per day. (The rewards/more commissions part is your workshop reputation, which is out of the scope of this guide but yes, you want to increase your workshop reputation, trust me.)

You'd be tempted to start on the crane lift, but hold off on that! You'll want to make a different item, a furnace, on your assembly station first. Go to your assembly station and choose the furnace diagram. Portia players, please note that the recipe is different! You'll 2 stone troughs, 2 wooden sticks, and 4 quartz. Rock and quartz you can pick up from the gravel rocks if you don't have enough from your adventures in making the recycler. Wooden sticks are a bit different! Wood is a fairly scarce item in Sandrock and you will get in trouble if you cut down cacti or living trees. Instead, you will be getting it from cutting down bushes, digging wood piles, or using wood scrap in the recycler. To start, you may have some wood scrap you can use in the recycler. Head over to the recycle to use it. You'll get a tutorial on how using machines work. Again, Portia players, it is different from Portia!

When fuelling your recycler, you'll have a choice of how to power it. Even though you start with two power stones, I suggest using dregs to start. They're not as powerful, but until you have an upgraded pickhammer or enough money to splurge on some you'll want to stick to the free stuff. (You can buy them for about 3 gols/dreg from the Eufala Salvage shop if you just can't pick up enough.) Once you've fueled your recycler, set it going on the wood scraps you have in your inventory from chopping up that box the day before.

While that's processing, head up to Eufala Salvage and head into the yard to use your pickhammer on the mixed scrap (to get copper/rubber/mechanical scrap and some dregs), or look around the area for wooden boxes to chop up for wood scrap. You can't chop up the copper or rubber scrap in the area yet so ignore those. If you pick up a data disc, you'll start a non-timed mission to talk to Qi about it. Don't worry about it until you've finished picking up the scrap you want. You should also look for wood piles (there are 2/day near your workshop and Eufala Salvage) to pick up some extra wood.

(If you are done picking up scrap and want to get the data disc mission out of your queue, the best way to reach the Research Center is by going through the tunnel next to the yakmel ranch, veering right, and going through the green door and up the stairs. If Qi is not in the area next to those stairs, go up the next set of stairs to find him. Talk to him to learn about data discs. You'll get some experience, some money, and some workshop reputation.)

Get back to your workshop yard. Hopefully your wood scraps have finished processing. If you're lucky, you'll get a wooden stick; if not, you can make them from 3 wood. Remember to add the stone, quartz, and wood sticks to the outline on the assembly station! Once done, put your new furnance somewhere. Again, use dregs to power the furnace if at all possible. Start making bricks using the furnace.

The Sandrock wiki suggests that you make a processor (Portia players, this is a cutter) to get the copper sticks for the crane but this is not strictly required as you can get the required copper sticks from copper scrap for this one instead of wasting time getting all the discs, giving them to Qi, waiting for the blueprint, and then making the processor.

Now that you've made the furnace, you should go to the assembly station and choose the crane lift blueprint to build. This requires 8 bricks, 5 wooden sticks, 6 thick rope, 4 bearings, and 5 copper sticks. For the thick rope, you'll want to apply an ax to bushes to get plant fiber, for the bricks you may need to pickhammer some more gravel rocks or find the stone piles (these are farther away from your workshop than the wood ones), wood sticks from wood scrap or the worktable, copper sticks from recycling copper scrap, and bearings from recycling mechanical scrap.

Whew! You've probably run out of day at this point. You're not required to finish the crane lift in one day, so don't panic. If it's getting late or you're out of stamina, go to bed. Tomorrow's a new day!

Days 3-7

So, there are no scriped events going on for the rest of the week. You might get a visit from Burgess when you first step out where he gives you some water for your water tank and explains that you need water to cool your machines - without it, they will not run. Your water tank is the thing right next to your house. Press E/X to bring up how much water your machines use and how much you have, and then add the water by pressing E/X again and move the slider that appears to the right. Burgess' water store is off main street pretty much next to the general store if you need more water, or you can follow the path that runs past the back of the Commerce Guild until you reach it, going up several sets of stairs. (You can also make water from 10 dew at your worktable - R on your keyboard or left trigger twice to switch to the "resource" category.)

Continue working on the parts of the crane lift. Load the furnace with more stone if you need more bricks. Add more fuel and scrap to the recycler. Go out and get more stone or scrap if you need it. What you get from the scrap will vary greatly - it took me most of a week to get mine done because I got very unlucky with my mechanical scrap (kept getting old parts instead of bearings). Remember, if you have more than one of a kind of a scrap (for example, 4 wood scrap), you can just set your recycler to process all of that scrap, you don't have to add one in at a time.

Other things that you can do for these days other than getting up more scrap and stone are pick up more commissions (remember, only one a day, and stick to stone trough/thick rope/thin thread) and participating in side missions. In the first week, you'll get invitations from Owen and Heidi (Heidi will tell you about her services and Owen will give you basic tips on the town), there's a cutscene on the railroad tracks near the Civil Corps headquarters that you can see, and there is a mission for Pen that can trigger to make Burgess a replacement sword and shield. (Spoiler: Burgess has not truly lost said sword and shield and so you will get to keep what you made.) You can also wander around town, meet townspeople, and check out the various shops. You might also want to make a mini storage box or two (10 wood each) to place so you can get stuff out of your inventory. (You can also buy inventory slots, which is out of the scope of this guide.)

Once you get the crane done, pick it up and go over to Eufala Salvage. At the edge, you'll get an option to install. Do so, and you'll get a cutscene. Rocky will ask you to use the new lift to go down to the abandoned ruins and get him some copper ore. It's worth doing so because you'll get his ore quickly and you'll get some gols out of it.

There's a good chance you'll get the crane done before day 7. If you do, keep taking commissions for spare money/friendship/reputation as you can. Keep to simple items that can be made on the worktable or through the recycler and keep picking up scrap. You can also prepare for the next major mission by giving discs to Qi to get the processor and grinder. (For Portia players, you can choose what you want Qi to research, it's not random.) I usually also start digging out the abandoned ruins for reasons too complex to go into here but are related to the next mission, but if you are new I suggest waiting (and finding a guide on the abandoned ruins - especially for Portia players as it works much differently from what you're used to.)

Hopefully you got your crane done before day 7! But if you didn't, don't despair. This is not a timed mission, just be aware that if you go past your free week's pass you need to pay 200 gols to get access for another 7 days.

And what do you do past your first week? Well, the next mission will start 2 days after you get a letter from Matilda about Mason's farewell party! But that's a guide for another day….

One day i'll make a character sheets for my PCs but for now lemme just copy paste some shit bc i've saved too much in my drafts and i want to clean it up a bit. So some info about my PCs below more or less organized, probably more on the less side.

THE MENACE

Foxglove (true name [REDACTED]), my actual meowmeow wasn't 100% raised in the orphanage. She was sent there when her mom died at 10. She spent weeks being weird and standoffish and basically just picking fights if anyone tried to get close to her.

One of the few people she never hit was Robin, because Robin was always nice about her personal space. They are friendly and cordial to each other to this day despite everything, but Foxglove doesn't really spend a lot of time with Robin/will not save her ass from Bailey.

Because she was only taken in as an older child, she doesn't respect Bailey half as much as she should.

Her first crush was Winter and her first official girlfriend was Whitney. She was part of Whitney's clique and generally a delinquent and a bully, which made her reputation with teachers quite awful, which pained her a bit since Winter now sees her as a talented troublemaker at best.

Other school LIs like Sydney (when Pure, at least. Corrupt is... a bit different.) and Kylar avoid her like the plague. Kylar has had an embarrassing crush on her that she was mocked relentlessly for and made the poor weeb into Whitney's target for months.

Had a really bad relationship with an unnamed older woman when she was younger that really finished fucking up the fuck up.

Met Avery while dancing at a party, by the way, and not in the usual ways because. Um. Because i wanna. Avery pulled her away from some lecherous partygoers and done fucked up both of their lives forever.

She is legiterally obsessed with Avery and molding herself into a perfect companion for her. This has made her a better student to impress her but estranged her from all of her friends :( She is also way more polite now, though her charisma is natural and she didn't have to work on that as much. This change has pleased Winter! :) She's also a delight to have in parties or in gatherings in general.

She is both a mean sadist and a freaky masochist. As much as she likes bullying the weak, she has this whole thing where she's sure she should be punished and just needs someone to do it for her because she realizes she's too self absorbed to do it herself.

Though she lets Avery push her around and only playfully banters in response, she often has complete meltdowns where she starts telling Avery exactly how much she sucks and how she's never going to be loved and how they will go to hell together hand in unlovable hand. Idk which one of them is crazier for staying together at this point.

She has been a fox since a looooong time. She messes with occult stuff quite oftenly, and as a fun fact has been a suspect in a disappearance case (but police is still useless in this town lol).

Local School Prince

Ronnie (Veronica), my main and most played with PC on the other hand was 100% raised in the orphanage. As a kid she was always protecting the smaller kids from bullies, which included Robin, who is now still her best friend/pseudogirlfriend.

She has an honest to God savior complex. Her life isn't complete if she's not servicing the weak and vulnerable... Especially weak and vulnerable girls. This has somehow made her into a massive player.

Like, it's not like she wants to play with girls' feelings. It's just that she gives them so much love and attention and protection that they fall for her and then what should she do? NOT kiss them? You're being unreasonable :(

She's very oftenly mistaken as a boy. The first time she cut her hair she was made fun of at the orphanage so Robin cut her own hair too. They both have worn it short since and Robin seems to be picking up on way more than just her haircut.

Despite that, for a long time her behavior made Robin think that she should act more ladylike to have Ronnie's attention. This isn't true at all, by the way, and Ronnie thinks Robin never looked hotter when she starts dressing masculine too.

Despite all of that, will likely never admit the romantic nature of her and Robin's relationship. She thinks of Robin as family despite the fact that they're oftenly crossing lines, because she doesn't want to ever lose Robin as a friend since they have both been there for each other's worst moments. Kylar would love to have half as much codependency as they have tbh.

She's dating Kylar officially. It honestly just started with her kissing the poor girl to make her stop getting mocked at a class get-together Kylar was about to run away from in tears, and Kylar remembered this forever but Ronnie forgot about it until she saw Kylar getting bullied again. She has since made it her mission to protect her and maybe raise her reputation a bit if she can convince Kylar to act less like a soaked cat. Maybe brush her hair before coming to school. She desperately wants Kylar to stand on her own legs, but while she can't, Ronnie will gladly support her.

On the point above. She is a bit too proud of Kylar attacking people, honestly. And slowly she's been thinking Kylar is much cooler all of a sudden... It's a strange feeling, and she's not too sure what to make of it. But her drawings and her cringe anime have started to worm their way into Ronnie's heart for real.

Btw she does NOT realize how deranged Kylar is. Has no idea. She doesn't know about the sex doll (which may have had a dick at some point before Kylar realized something very important). She thinks Kylar is just kind of weird but does NOTTT grasp how insane she is.

With Sydney, she had a more distant relationship, but what were jokes to fluster the religious girl became friendly chats and then Ronnie walking her to the temple and helping out with her mom's shop and more and more conversations about sexuality and suddenly Sydney was dying her hair black and showing up to school in pants instead of her long skirt.

(Btw, i think it's be funnier/more in character if i pretend they dyed Syd's hair in a school bathroom after school hours in an event that was a battle between them, the mirror and God.)

Would apologize to Sirris for butchifying her daughter but a. She's not sorry and B. Sirris seems to think it's kinda cool actually

Whitney was probably the hardest relationship to have. They used to beat the shit out of each other, especially when Whitney picked on Robin, Kylar or Syd, but one day Whitney's jokes went a bit too far. Ronnie saved her from the consequences of her own actions but that didn't mean they were friends.

But her and Whitney started to become closer when she found out "Foxglove" (Ronnie thinks that name is cringe. Her real name [Redacted] is much cooler, but Foxglove is a weirdo anyway) had ditched her for Avery. Maybe it was the sympathy of yet another poor soul getting sucked into Avery's bullshit but she started to go softer on Whitney and then suddenly they were fucking because Ronnie is a gay whore‼️

Anyway. Yeah. Avery. Ronnie had dated Avery briefly and it ended horribly. She was just trying to make Avery feel better since she sensed some loneliness in her but she soon learned that misery loves company and that Avery was legitimately too much to deal with. She tried to first make Ronnie into something she wasn't, trying to force her either into a boyfriend role or making her act girlier, and neither pleased Ronnie. Then the fights started because Avery wouldn't accept a "no" and Ronnie wouldn't take shit then Avery started to get physically violent and then they threw hands at a pub and that unfortunately didn't ruin Avery's reputation as much as Ronnie would have hoped.

I think she only really understood what type of evil Avery was when she saw her pick up another orphan girl (not Foxglove, that one she managed to warn).

Her relationship w Foxglove is tense at best. After finding out about some shit however, she keeps her distance and wishes Robin would stop being so nice to her before it bites her in the ass.

Honestly just a puppy fr

Bane is probably the PC i draw/talk about the least because i've only now thought of a name for her LMAO. She's based on one of my first PCs ever who i've made a new save for recently. I have less info on her bc i'm slowly working thru her save.

She used to be a normal, if a little cowardly girl until she got lost in the forest. When Eden found her, she was more wolf than person, but honestly good enough (Eden's standards are low.)

Had honest to God almost forgotten how to speak human words until Eden spoke to her more or less regularly. Eden was surprised she could talk at all after only hearing her bark, growl or yap for a long while.

She has slowly become less of a savage wolf and more of a dog and then somewhat human again.

After spending like, three years or so living with Eden, she has decided to go back to school. Still learning to not solve conflicts through dominance checks and vicious bites, but she's making progress :)

Venting, nothing too interesting here.

TW: depression, eating issues, death (sounds bad, but i'm physically fine)

I am incredibly depressed. My birthday is in what? 5 days? And I can say it's been horrible, I don't know why this year specifically, but I just..... don't want to have a family lunch.

I live with my grandparents, uncle and my mom, for the past 8 years, and I can tell you none of those have been enjoyable. Nothing abuse related, i just hate the living space and a bunch of other stuff I'll talk nore about later.

I used to sleep in a deposit space, barely room enough for my bad and a small side table, had to take tge doors of one of the wardrobes, so the table could fit.

I honestly prefered it to now. After my father died, I had to give that space up, so the person that helped my grandparents could stay. What was I supposed to do? Throw a fit? My father had just died, I couldn't really focus on that.

Since then I've had to share the room with my mother, we sleep on the same bed, I sleep on my dads side..... i hate it. I feel like I'm taking away his space, his memory, that I am erasing his presence. At least I have a table that fits my pc.

I feel like trash about complaining about this, I have a roof over my head, and food....

This is where I talk my food situation. It's.... bad? But not in the usual way. My grandparents are old, pops has alzheimer and he is barely a shell of who he was. My grandma has dementia and she is stubborn to a fault. Both have specif diates they eat, my grandma enjoys bland foods and with a lot of sauces and stuff.

I am the complet oposit, but I don't mind cooking my own food, the issue is that she hates when I use any ingredients, she always says she is gonna use it for something, and that I shouldn't touch her stuff, but she never uses it, so much of the stuff in the pantry is spoiled, and she won't let us throw it away, i open the fridge and so many containers smell bad and spoiled.

I have no pleasure when eating in this house, i swallow because i have too, food goes down and i feel full, but unsatisfied, if that makes sense. I hate the fact that i can only make instant noodles with some eggs most of the time, vedgies and other meets aren't for me to use.

I'm emabressed about the house, it smells bad because of my grandpa, he can't control his bladder and it smells like piss and medicine evrywhere. The house is full of religious images that I don't relate too, i never call anyone over to hangout. No one calls me to hang out either.... mostly bcs most of my friends live in neighborhoods that are quite far, and the depression has stopped me from wanting to leave the room. It's quite bad.

I guess this comes back to my birthday, i have a dinner party with my friends ob the 3rd, and that was fine to plan, chose a fun place and see who is available.

But the family stuff? I can't, I can't chose something that would be easy for me, it needs to be in the house, cuse grandpa wouldn't be able to go then, and if i just go to lunch with my mom, my grandma will throw a fit, claming I don't love her....... I sometimes feel like I don't.

It's been so overwhelming, I can't focus, I don't kbow what I would want to eat, or what to order, i just ended up canceling my birthday. It feels horrible, but it's better then having to plan for it, it didn't even feel like my birthday anymore, it felt like I was planing for everyone else, and I was in the backdrop of it, it made me feel even more depressed kkkkkk.

Pokéchronology, Volume I: Yellow

Day 9

Unfortunately, this was another one of those days where I planned to play more, but didn't get around to it because my brain had other plans. I also had a lot of homework to do.

Getting to the end of the day I've decided to call off any additional playtime. I'll have to continue a couple days from now, unless I manage to get some time in at work tomorrow. Sorry to say, I don't have much to write about for this post.

Does anyone even care about Pokémon Yellow spoilers? Ah, whatever. It's easier to just keep up the habit.

Route 15

So this day was all about implementing new training strategies that I've been thinking about, and I was able to do some of that on Route 15. Before that though, I go to the upper floor of the building separating the route from Fuchsia City (I'm sure there's a name for it but it escapes me at the moment) where I encounter that mystery man Professor Oak's Aide. He says he'll give me the EXP. All, better known as the EXP Share in later games, if I've caught 50 Pokémon. Naturally... I'm one Pokémon short.

Guess I'll pop into Route 15 and try to catch something new then. I've seen all the Pokémon here before, but I hadn't caught Bellsprout or Weepinbell yet. I managed to catch the latter after Mycoboss accidentally OHK'd a Bellsprout beforehand (they've got a pretty beefy Attack stat, so even a weak move like Cut does hella damage), named them OOOOOH. Yeah, I really can't be bothered coming up with names anymore. That'll be fun as I move on to other Pokémon games. Later on I catch a Bellsprout that gets named AYOOOOO.

I get the EXP Share, but I decide I don't want to use it. For one, every time you KO a Pokémon you have to mash through a ton of text just because every single member of your team gets EXP when you do, which is SUPER annoying, and for another it actually makes it more difficult to train specific Pokémon on your team. So into the PC it goes. But this is where I ran into another problem.

Turns out it's not just your inventory space that's limited, but even your storage in Generation I. It maxes out at 50 item slots. Since this was going to continue being a problem if I didn't address it right away, I sold a whole bunch of TMs that I didn't plan on using and a few junk items to free up space.

I must say, I'm a little torn about how Generation I games handle items, and thinking about them in comparison to what I know the modern games are like really makes you aware of how these things were a product of their time. Item storage being limited is to be expected to some extent, as the Gameboy is a very simple console with limited capabilities compared to our modern standards. But I didn't expect it to be quite as limiting as it is.

The inability to acquire certain items multiple times is also an issue. Most TMs aren't sold in the Celadon Department Store, which means you get one shot at using them, after which they're gone forever. Even goner foreverer if you later choose to overwrite the move. While on some level I do like the idea that items are limited and you have to use them wisely, and the game does a good job of discouraging you from being a hoarder, it kinda sucks when you're on a blind playthrough and you realize you've locked yourself out of an option because you didn't know what you were doing.

But this is understandable, isn't it? Pokémon Yellow was released during a time when video games weren't yet designed for mass appeal. Less thought was put into making the game accessible for players of all skill and knowledge levels, because it wasn't needed. Heck, if I didn't have any of the Pokémon resources that have been developed over the years, my experience with this game would likely have been very different.

I probably would have found the game frustrating, looking at it through the lens of a child playing it 20 years ago. As an adult with literally two decades of gaming experience under my belt I'm able to grasp mechanics and intricacies very quickly, and I think this means that I'm able to enjoy a game like Pokémon Yellow more now than I would have at the time it was released.

This is all to say that, despite the numerous and noticeable flaws and limitations, Generation I Pokémon is worth experiencing. In my opinion, at least. Maybe if I had come into the game after experiencing later entries in the series, with their added quality of life features and better balancing, I'd be less enthused. But I'd say my experience so far has been a good sign, as from what I've been told, things only get better from here.

Wow, that was one hell of a tangent, wasn't it? Sorry about that. To tell you the truth, there's really not much to cover as far as the rest of my play time goes today, so I padded the post by waxing lyrical about the Pokémon Yellow experience. I mostly just switched up how I fought enemy Pokémon, favoring Mycoboss for Grass/Poison types instead of Miles or Prinzessin. I brought in BIG RAT whenever I could as well, though those opportunities are few and far between and he is STILL getting destroyed by Fury Attacks that just can't help but crit for some reason. Fuckin' Dodrio, man.

I posted 1,722 times in 2022

That's 1,398 more posts than 2021!

262 posts created (15%)

1,460 posts reblogged (85%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@lizzieonka

@oo-mi-ru-oo

@danelloevee

@echarie

@azapofinspiration

I tagged 1,608 of my posts in 2022

Only 7% of my posts had no tags

#blue lock - 419 posts

#stranger things - 316 posts

#lizzieonka.txt - 263 posts

#byler - 218 posts

#bachira meguru - 117 posts

#mp100 - 114 posts

#bllk - 104 posts

#goncharov - 91 posts

#q - 69 posts

#unreality - 67 posts

Longest Tag: 128 characters

#i mourn for them not being able to have fun because every moment of theirs have to adhere to a schedule on their google calendar

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Really loving how Bachira went from "Hey Rin, do you have a monster inside you too?" to "You're the best, Kaiser. I'll crush you."

82 notes - Posted November 30, 2022

#4

anime!Isagi: *gives Chigiri a pep talk

manga!Isagi:

He's literally trash-talking the guy! Stop making him the good guy!!!! THIS GUY IS EVIL, DON'T BE FOOLED!!!

93 notes - Posted November 14, 2022

#3

Okay Blue Lock fandom, let's standardize this

A lot of Twitter users are coming, and if we don't want the harmonious fandom we have here to turn into a toxic one, let's make use of "anti tags"

What are anti tags?

Basically, anti tags are tags you use when you are against a certain character or ship. For example, if you hate the rinsagi ship for whatever reason, you tag it with #anti rinsagi and NOT #rinsagi. This way, people who actually like the rinsagi ship won't have to see the hate you're spewing about it.

The same goes with characters you don't like. If you don't like Nagi, tag your post with #anti nagi or, better yet, #anti nagi seishirou. Do not tag it with just #nagi seishirou.

By making use of anti tags properly, people can block out hateful content they don't want to see.

NOW PLEASE REBLOG THIS POST SO THAT MORE PEOPLE WILL SEE.

Let's make this fandom a safe space.

Edit: And please, DO NOT CENSOR CHARACTER OR SHIP NAMES in the anti tags. If you censor them, filtering them out will be harder.

130 notes - Posted November 18, 2022

#2

"How long do I have to live like this?!"

ASDFGHJKL he's so dramatic. Chill, dude, they're just studying

202 notes - Posted December 2, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

An Honest Guide to Tumblr for Twitter Refugees (Part 1)

I know there are already tons of guides out there, but my WiFi was down the whole day and I got nothing else to do. Spent the entire morning making gifs, but still no WiFi, and I’m like, fck this let’s make a Tumblr guide.

Now, assuming you’ve already signed up and was able to snatch a fancy url*, here’s what you should do next: Log into Tumblr on desktop. You probably made your account through the app, and that’s cool and all, but for this guide, I’ll be showing some features that are currently only available on desktop Tumblr, so go ahead and get your laptop or PC out. Following this guide will also be easier on desktop.

*url = basically your username/handle on this site. We call them url’s because it what makes your domain name on your blog. More on this later.

Covered in Part 1:

Configuring your Tumblr Settings (filters, community labels, algorithms, etc.)

Customizing your Tumblr (how to avoid being mistaken as a bot**, enabling your Tumblr website, finding a Tumblr theme)

**this wasn’t included when I first made this post but decided to add it coz it’s really important.

Configuring your Tumblr Settings

Filters and Community Labels

Go to tumblr.com/settings/account. Here, you’ll find one of Tumblr’s most important features: filters and community labels. Filters are similar to Twitter’s “mute words” feature, and they come in two types: Tag and Content filters

Unlike Twitter, where tags are part of the post itself, Tumblr has a dedicated section at the bottom of the post to add tags.

Tag filters block out posts that are specifically tagged with #tag, while Content filters block posts containing a certain word within the body of the post itself. Once you have these set, you will never see such posts when using the search feature on Tumblr. It will still show up on your dashboard though, but it will look this and comes with the option to view the post for whenever you’re curious:

As for Community Labels, this should be self-explanatory. Mature content is now allowed on Tumblr, but if you don’t want to see such content, you can always opt-out.

See the full post

261 notes - Posted November 7, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

Day 5 of A/PI Heritage Month featured authors interview! The lovely Parker, everyone!

Parkerlyn, author of The Nameless

A/PI Heritage Month Featured Author

Legend goes when the world was formed, the mortal races, mortalis, were created with the gift of magic. But as time passed their hubris grew, and the sheevra were created to curb their pride.

When it comes to these chaotic and malevolent beings, the lands are full of cautionary tales. Though some would tell you that the stories are just that. To them, names have no power. There are no mysterious deals to fear, and the figure who seduces you into an alley at midnight is certainly no malicious spirit.

Which luckily for you means easy prey.

Author's Ko-fi | Discord

(INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT UNDER THE INTERVIEW!)

Q1: First of all, introduce us to your project! What is it about?

The Nameless is a mishmash of fey stories and a... teetering on apocalyptic setting? The world itself is almost completely covered by desert save for four regions and cities that have maintained life around them. The origins of that desert, the Arids, are said to have been from wars thousands of years ago where there was too much magic siphoned from the world, and the cost was desolation.

The reader enters the story as a sheevra (the fey-based race) who's been taught that all this was the mortal race’s doing in their desire for power. And that the sheevra were created to take that energy back from them via deals and names to slowly restore the world's more verdant state.

If you asked the mortalis though, they'd sing a different tune. To them, the sheevra are the remnants of the entity mainly responsible for the state of the Arids, and they're the reason why the world is stuck like it is.

Where does the truth actually fall? Well…

The game itself kicks off when one of the four sheevra clans in the world goes missing, and you're sent to investigate what happened. Though whether or not you really want to find out remains to be seen.

Q2: If it’s not too spoilery, what are you most excited about your project?

I'm definitely buzzing over some of the reveals behind the Arids and other features of the world, and how things are tied together. The puzzle will start getting filled in towards the end of Book 1 and will culminate in the final major choice of the entire story, and I'm really excited to see how people handle it.

I'm also looking forward to exploring more of the backstories of the romances and various characters, and also for more descriptions of magic-tech and how that's integrated into each of the cities (had a BLAST with this in upcoming content). Just in general, excited to continue bringing the world to life!

Q3: What inspired the current project you’re working on?

The Nameless was initially sparked by a D&D NPC, Oisein's predecessor who was far more bitter and not quite the sarcastic chaos gremlin they are today.

Specifically from Kobold Press' Courts of the Shadow Fey, this NPC was supposed to be just a one sentence rumor. But (of course) my players decided to pursue that route more in depth. Said character that I made up on the spot then ended up being a regular that I eventually made into a PC for another campaign. And...things sort of spiraled and transformed from there as I created their backstory and fell in love with the characters who would then become the four romances of the game.

There's also a theme I've been wanting to write about for a long time which might lend itself to spoilers, that I was finally able to find a home for in the world of The Nameless. So it's a dash of old and new ideas!

Q4: Do you pull from your own identity for inspiration? How has that been reflected in your work?

There's some indulgent, more obvious ones like the city of Han, which is directly named after the Han River in Korea and is, well, the City of Rivers. There's also small references to Korean folklore within the sheevra that will probably continue to show up, and you better believe Korean inspired food and clothing will make an appearance haha.

But below the surface level, I think a lot of the mannerisms and backstories of the characters may unconsciously be affected by my identity. Until someone asked me about modern ethnicities for the love interests, I didn't realize how much I had tied my mixed culture into these characters. But I'm happy to have that little piece intertwined in their personalities, their values, and their attitudes, as a small nod to my own Korean-American background.

This will probably become more evident in the settings too. There's a lot of mixed inspirations and sources in the architecture, environment, and culture of each city that I'm looking forward to expanding on.

So yeah, it's kind of funny to see that manifest in my writing, but hopefully it helps to build up an interesting and unique environment for readers to immerse themselves in!

Q5: What’s been your experience so far? With writing, with the if community...

For writing in general, this is by far the largest project I've ever taken on, and there was and is a learning curve when adjusting for interactive fiction. But I've enjoyed the freedom and variation I've been able to build into this story with this medium, and think it continues to take shape in ways I never initially planned but love to see!

For the IF community, it's definitely been positive! I kind of just chucked this story out there not expecting much from it and figured it would be hard for anyone else to get into. Honestly I thought that maybe just a few people would see it, but that it would mostly be self indulgent.

But the support from other writers and readers and the questions I've received has just been amazing, and I’m glad I dived deeper into the IF community. Especially when the self-doubt inevitably creeps in and you have those moments of "oof this is terrible". The positive words and encouragement mean so much, and I don't think I'll ever be able to express how much it helps. I'm also really happy to have found an overall inclusive community, and hope I can extend that space into this game!

Also the stories and games out there? Talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show-stopping, spectac-

Q6: Do you have any future projects in the works?

None at the moment, my focus is mainly on writing The Nameless and continuing to develop features for the Twine version!

Q7: Finally, what piece of advice would you give to fellow authors?

Don't let yourself get down by comparisons. It's easy to slip into, and I'm definitely guilty of it too! But no one's going to tell your story like you can and the way you want it, so it's up to you to share that with the world!

~ Mass Update ~

Mainly going into future plans and intents alongside ideas below cut.

Ton's of things I've in store this will prove difficult to vent it all out. But here we go... First off rehashing and appropriately learning to tag and organize things better on my blog. Each category will have their own corresponding content, I seek to bring or share. [Tales of Goldbrand] -- I intend this to carry a Compendium of all my writes soon that'll have everything neatly in-order including a glossary, so it'll have highlights of stories that even matter or the best stuff. I've written here for a very, long time, there's been many shifts. I want to make it more accessible. While coloring what matters for people who want to learn Captain or his Crew with less chapters. While also giving choice to find it all easily. This is essentially a step-above master-lists. I'll be doing that after the Saga I have going on, right now is done. [Captain] -- Will provide you strictly with Captain screenshots, gifs, photo-sets. This is still his blog despite the Crew thing's will sort of make this a scuffed Multi-Muse blog. I've few more things to edit and tag fix to get all his stuff though. [The Wild Crew] -- Afterwards this story is done Immortal Age Saga, It's something that I mainly wrote as a passion project within three days to get my warm-up process fixed. It's to allow me to get a feel for all his Crewmates and casts, in combat, in-general, to feel their presences. While also giving a bit of their backstories. At any point, I can go back and polish or tweak things in. They're NPC's but... not entirely. All will have their own 'Dreams' and their own 'Disapproval's' they have their own missions even. These things will factor eventually, they might set seeds, to betray or disagree with something, but that's all angst and more stories to be created, but overall, they'll probably always be Crew, eventually. -- I plan on making character-profile sheets of them and putting them in this Tab, it'll have their screenshots, their likes/dislikes. Some RP partners or people can also be shipped with them, but they'll all be monogamous and originally start off probably Pan. This allows them to figure out what they like on their own stories. I've always been someone who likes organic-flow. Although this one story contain all 16 characters or more, the rest will probably be shortened to a Squad of 4 and dispersed when on adventuring missions. Until I do a War Arc, that's my main goal to build too. [Roster] -- Will contain this Crew in just screen-sets dedicated to them, I'll probably randomly produce those. I've PC players among this Crew too. I may not be done either adding more, but this Crew is mainly built around Quality. Most pirate crew's mainly, have hundreds, thousands. Even Fleets. This Crew has personalities, monsters, people who are living life's that exist with piracy. He's an particular leader that had PC players the same way, he's had split-personality serial killers aboard, tribal chieftains, succubus, all sorts of various people once on a Crew. It's often an outcast style, pirates default are chaotic in nature, so this really isn't any different, it's a Fantasy version of it. There's humanization characters aboard too though, so this cast is really decked, everything and person is vital, they matter because they remind or covet something that others can draw upon. If ever played (Three Houses or Mass Effect / Dragon Age Origins) A lot of things like that are relatable too this structure and format. Which, Is something I want to be able to give when RPing. I want a genuine feel of this new world someone else's muse will be the main-character too. Depending on what's interacting everything they'll be scale appropriately to follow the genre they're in and environment even. [Aesthetics] -- Already explainable what you'll find here. [Asks] -- Same thing. [Prompts] -- Trivial things I was tagged too, I plan on compiling later. [Writing] -- Another alternatively to randomly go-down and it works right now. [Logs] -- Will have more individualistic master-lists and posts there, my poems from Sheik Sphere the Bard, etc.

Things of that nature, I'll probably add still. It's where a lot of my creative writing is summed. [Gems of Hydaelyn] -- My main #tag for other characters and artists, creationist. Lot of amazing people easily to find their zones or follow them optionally if you like. Ton's I intend to support and bolster, be a lot less unspoken. I'm never the type who's been strictly inclusive. But I'll do that when I've time to even explore the dash, I'm always still planning ahead with things and projects. [CKS] My original character-sheet it's outdated on something's but not too terrible. I'll give him polishing someday, I swear? [21+F-List] -- Just purely degenerate stuff of Captain. I'm a pirate blog. I will represent that with openness and furthermore. I'm never projecting you some false-image. I started off a smut-writer by stripping that, I no-longer represent the same aura and identity. But those are strictly his stuff and kinks, I'm effective in executing them but they're not all relatable to me OOC. This blog will always be 18+ containing crude or dark material sometimes, romantic things, this Captain is blunt, will literally put his cock on the table in conversations. Swearing and being censored would be too uncommon and displace most of him, but there's more about him then all this. [Other] -- I pay homage to a lot of characters, I originally am a Concept Designer. Which mean's I make characters and ideas like my addiction. Bad characters / villains or other little things I like to share in designs, I'll put there. Some villains might get little photo-sets, even if they died. Just cause I like their design, or maybe I'll give them an AU, where they won. When I've wrapped up things. [Collabs + Ships] -- Is a new project idea. This isn't going to be something limited too romantic only ships. It'll contain, platonic, romantic, friendships, rivals, frenemies, family, PC Crew, all ships. I am desperately working on improving my gif, screenshot, posing game so I can supply 'Screen Stories' this is not only a way to RP that's accessible with even people who are upon time-crunches from work, It gives visual-representation. To impactful stories shared with others and establish bonds. That are all-valid and impactful matter. Lot of people take a lot of their characters attributes into them and are them dialed up, I work with that and bit more, differently. I'm disconnected from my characters and they'll get hurt and injured and killed by me, that's my duty as their Author to give them conflicts and struggles. I'm their major antagonist, but that doesn't mean at-all, it's always SET that way. The characters I like to make have their own life, they live in this setting and are abide by it, they're often nothing, nobodies, and by the interacting with others, they slowly gradually building, more... Through emotional impacts, they alter, these are REAL people by all their beliefs. Each person they come in-contact with are legitimate and treated like that too. They've always impacted or given them insights to grow, or represent more. Otherwise it'd be criminally disrespectful if I allowed any emotional I felt OOC be the grudge to something IC. Captain in-particular is set on defying me. I cannot have that. ...But I can't stop him. He's met and encountered so many people and lived so many scenarios based on the actions of others, he's giving a chance right now to actually do things a lot further than impossible. The more people he meets and encounters, experiences, the more I lose. These stories are emotionally interactive where everything is a factor and adds to the dice, where the other people are the one who get to roll the dice for him, not me. That's something I want to color in. People range in emotions, they have their down's, ups, their own wholesome-grounding people, spending time with your favorite people, there's nothing more cherishing than that, being in your own comfort-zone or 'safe-space' these are all treasures that we live under, today. Contrary if what people assume of me, I'm not another 'blogger' that's came

before, who's wanting to force a harem, then constantly is bewildered when that falls to pieces cause of selfishness or a lack of communication, or the skeletons they have in their closets and beliefs they hid behind and swindled fooled everyone. I'm not looking to be popular or anything really, I just create stories and want to share in those, and I want to also boost others included, upward with me, especially those who make me. There's no ego in anything I do, this is purely love. I've never cared about being replicated or duplicated, I've had stalkers, I've gone through more then anyone would imagine, I've been used OOC and abused, just for my writing and cold-harshly told, i'd never amount to anything other then that or vice-versa. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Passion. That's all I got and am anymore. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Passion is the hardest thing to keep. It's something that can be stolen, quite effortlessly. Few words of discouragement, a bad negative representation, a lack of confidence, or small amount of time, there's many thing's that can put that flame out. Once you lose it. The difficulty to reattain is hundred-times harder than climbing any mountain for real. I've watched the greatest creators crumble from under the pressure, from beaten down by others. I watched many of them do it to themselves because they put a grand vision of needing validation of another and once lost, felt uncompelling to press onward. But passion also can be given BACK and drawn. It can be shown and encourage others, with a soft-triggering, that pushes them. That motivates, that constantly sticks to it. There are many that fuel me. If I ever quit, I let them down, I spit in the faces of people who're better than me in every-way. Or people who've came and given me their precious Time. That have given their character's or dedication to the abundant stories and community-driven things I've done. There's ONLY things you can do, create, give and provide. It cannot ever come to life without YOU. This is a fact. ...I swear, If you let your creativity soar, you'll be amazed by the heights you get. Constantly polish and learn and hone the best you, challenge yourself day after painstaking day, to draw better improvement on something, no matter how trivial or unfamiliar you are. You'll find a confidence only you can give yourself. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Future Plans --------------------------------------------------------------------- For me, I've got so much more stories to give and also explore, I might be taking up soon some other artists and more skilled people from community and hire them for some of my future writes, to up my game or cause something thing's can't be done in-game cause no background carries it. I also got a lot of-set up things and more angst stuff I want to practice, plus I'm adamantly on that grind to produce screen-sets with the intent's to some sort of improving daily. Additionally more people I'll be reaching out too soon for these collab's ideas and things. I look forward to shaking your hands, giving some hugs, show you my respect and admiration, then creating some enchanting stories and giving plots light. Feel free to reach out to me, I get scattered-brain but I'm working on getting better about it. Eventually will get to you though, my goals, if uninterested just say so when I poke, no bites, unless you kinky. Anyways, cheers hearties.

Jelly! Jelly I can't read your stories as fast as you're sharing them! Stop that! How do you do it?! What else do you do in your spare time?

Really, that's my ask for your 500 followers open question. What do you like to do, watch, etc?

And, do you have a favorite type of story to write? (Do you like angst or fluff better, modern or futuristic, etc.)

And, thank you for giving us reading material 💜

Forgive me! Hahaha I have like four more requests to do in my inbox, but they'll be out over the next two days!

I play video games! I'm a huge gamer on console and pc. I even made my own pc as well and it's so pretty with rainbow lights 🌈 love all games.

Watch wise? YouTubers like Markiplier, jack, gabs, Vanoss, cartoonz etc. Love them. I also watch more movies than TV series. I adore horror. Horror is my favourite movie genre of all time. I love horror so much I run a discord dedicated to all things horror. We tell stories, play horror games and watch horror movies. It's a lot of fun. I do have TV series I follow as well.

I love walking my two dogs. I go all over the place with them. I adore travelling too and used to go all over before covid. I love history and philosophy. I'm lucky the country I live in pushes history. So, I'm often reading up on history or topping up my philosophy as I have a degree in philosophy and ethics.

Genre wise....I don't mind what genre. I love romance, angst, horror etc the AUs are a few things I love most.

I love future fics, like adore them as I'm a massive future and space fan. So much so I have a space tattoo!!!

Knights and royalty fics are a love as well, just adore it so much.

Supernatural ones, so kitsune, wolves, demons or ghosts because I can make up creatures, gods and laws muhahaha

Levi in a detective or military position. I just like the man in a uniform. I'm an addict.

Modern, yes when Levi is a cop, CEO or high power or a celeb. I like modern stuff and putting him in that. I makes modern ones weird and I don't know why .... I am a but weird though.

Of course! You can have all the reading you'd like. I have an original post idea coming soon about Levi and sick or in pain reader. It'll be bullet points of how I think I'll man will be! Also, four more requests chilling in my inbox will be done as well. One is chunky 😁 anymore questions, just ask away.

Gaming ask meme: 1, 5, 10

1. Name a game that is really important to you

I would say Fallout New Vegas but that's not true. I would say Gears of War but that's also not true.

This one is a really good but difficult question for me because if I were to take account of every game I've played on PC and mostly the PS2, with also some emulated games that I want to get back...somehow...(I know how...the question honestly is WHEN... *side eyes brain* >.>)....there's...there's games I've played that were very very important to me that shaped what and who I am today.

But to save the trouble cos I got 2 more questions to answer after this: It's a tie between the Deus Ex franchise and Destiny 2

I'll go more into Destiny 2 for now because that's where I met a lot of good people that I still keep in touch with.

It's a game that I have the most listed accomplishments ever that I can go back to and yeah show off but mainly to recognize that I was able to accomplish SOMETHING in my 30's. My 30's were (and in some ways still are) very very rough, but it's hopefully a decade that I can remember more positively than my 20's and teens.

I've got 2 Triumph Pins and won the 2020 Guardian Games as a hunter. I've completed several raid runs with friends, AND I did 2 Day One raid openings (though sadly I never beat them in Contest Mode).

As much as I complain about the game mode Gambit, it's something I got good at in and with Spite. I won't ever say I'm a top player in Gambit. Far from it actually if I were to look up my stats on Destiny Tracker, but I've gotten good to say that I've put the work in and the experiences made me Good enough to be a reliable teammate.

And I've gotten skilled with a weapon class that honestly more games NEED to get into because there's SO MUCH FUCKING POTENTIAL-- *deep breath*...I am enamored by Bungie's bow mechanics and designs so yes...I'll just leave it at that.

Anywho, maybe one day I'll rb this (if I remember >.>) and go into why I loved the Deus Ex franchise just as much.

5. Name a game that that everyone else didn’t care for that you enjoyed

Hmm.....*thinking*

Dirt 2 and 3

I LOVE rally racing a lot and honestly those two games really showed how much I loved it.

At first it was more like a connection to a childhood time where there was this isometric rally racing arcade game that I couldn't beat for the life of me and spent way too much money on at the time. But really it's because Dirt 2 and 3 were the first time I got to play a racing game that made me understand racing as a whole a lot better than the Need For Speed franchise ever could.

Plus the intensity of each game's era was awesome as hell and it's sad that...well...hmm...I could try to find these two games elsewhere for sure, but again it's sad that the copies I have aren't playable anymore (even offline) =(

So...maybe one day I'll find another copy of each game that works with the PC I have currently :3 >:3c

10. Name a favorite obscure video game

asdffkjlgh omfg so there was this arcade game that was MASSIVE in actual size because it seated 6 players and was a rail space shooter that you literally had to ENTER INTO because it was like...a total simulator of sorts and I fucking forgot the name of it but I beat it on MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator), and it was a game that I was OBSESSED with in my teens...maybe younger than that actually o.o

This arcade game was so cool because it really brought out the cooperative spirit in people. Some groups I played with were silent but would use the games visual cues to signal to the other players. Some groups were very vocal (not swearing really. since I was a kid any adult that played it kept swearing to a bare minimum) and would tell the other players where to shoot and what to fight off. It was so cool because at the time, NO ONE was able to reach the final boss and beat the name. Not even the badass solo players that got really far into the game.

I honestly miss that arcade game so much and tbh if the world (yes world not just the US) EVER brings back arcade emporiums full swing, I want to see game devs do a full from-the-ground-up remake of that arcade game and even put their heart into it so much to make a very awesome and compelling story!

Pipe dream yes but eh...a sweet butch gaymer trans gal can dream right? ^.^

Hey red,

I am sorry for not writing for a while. I haven't been feeling too well + our wifi was out for the past...4 days?? And that really destroyed me.

But it's back now and yesterday my birthday present arrived (very early...by birthday is on the 2nd November) it's a pc and a monitor. I payed for the pc and my parents r going to be giving me back the money I used to pay for the monitor :>>

I also recently changed my artstyle?? I am super happy with it now. I just don't care abt like concepts anymore. I'll just draw what makes me happy.

Anyways I hope u r happy and well. I feel bad for not writing for so long.

Also I need advice: I kinda wanna delete Instagram... it's so toxic and I never liked it ...i only have it cuz I know it's easier to get a following there. But since it's changing to a video platform it's kinda useless for my art too. Is DeviantArt a good option? I had it once when I was 14. I just wanna share my art. On tumblr it's even harder to make ppl find ur art from what I saw.

Okay that's it for now.

I have been shifting a lot while the wifi was out. If u want some info ask away :>

-🃏

Oh my lord, I was just so WORRIED. Don’t ever worry about not writing for a while, I can handle it. Plus, you don’t have to, but when you do I love hearing from you. Are you feeling ok??? Any better??

My LOVE! I wanted to give u space as well, I have a tendency to cling. Didn’t wanna disrespect any boundaries…

I’m so so glad that you’re here now!! How is the girlfriend romance?? And btw so proud! That your art style improved, change is not always bad. Doing what makes u happy overall is always more important, which is why I tend to have a hard time with requests cause it’s harder to do. DevianArt sounds like a great platform, is it just art related or am I capping?

Instagram is very toxic to me so I agree, and if you don’t like it then don’t force yourself to keep it. Don’t delete the acc in case one day you wanna go back but just delete the app. You’re a Scorpio?!! OMHGGGG my friend has a pc, she loves it.

Omg heheheh an opportunity to ask shifting questions… don’t mind if I do… first, how do you feel there?? Since the (slight) drama? You told me about.

you already know what I’m gonna ask- GTRRR WHY am I such a simp!! 🥰😊 tell me why I had 4 days of consecutive breakdowns over Ben 😋 JADLIEKXKKJJJJJJ I hate this personality disorder. Now I’m just dissociating and numb as fuck. Mmmmm…… I dunno what to ask about him. See cause my mind has a tendency to believe people either 1. Abandoned me or 2. Found someone better than me and left me for them 😃😃 I put wayyy too much pressure on things that probably don’t mean as much to others. It’s ok tho!

Give him a hug for me, tell him I love him and that I’m proud of him <3 then give another hug to yourself cause I’m proud of you too!

I adore you dear 💌🤍💌

Training Session

pc: quotev.com

18+||Slight cursing||Oral Sex||Intercourse||Deku x Reader (They/Them pronouns)

Red Book (18+)

It's a week before the UA entry test and you're in the middle of nowhere practicing for the test* (quirk: underground explosion- you can make explosions from anything underground from up to 90,000ft under)

Deku is looking for a place to train outside of his training with All Might. He's in the forest looking for an empty space and sees you training and thing to himself *I wonder what their quirk is*. He stares at you in awe because he wonders if his quirk will be like yours when he gets his. He starts walking up to you to ask what your quirk is but then he sees you get frustrated. "FUCK!! My quirk will never be good enough to get into UA I have to try harder.". you start practicing again. Deku thinks *Well, maybe I should walk away they seem frustrated right now. I heard them say UA maybe I'll see them at the exam* He walks away in hope of seeing you at the exam. *Timeskip* It's the day of the exam and you are about to walk into UA but then you see this really handsome boy walk past and you think *Wow, maybe if I get in I can get to know him better.* but then, you see him walking with a pretty girl with brown hair who says she has a gravity quirk. You think *Damn, they look like boyfriend and girlfriend maybe I won't have a chance" you know that it's not the end of the world though so you head into UA and get to the Exam spot they assigned you. You realize that you aren't in the same exam spot as the handsome boy. The exam starts and it's over before you realize it, the exam is over. They are announcing who got in and you see that the handsome boy made it in. But once they are done they say "Attention, if you did not see your name and picture you did not make it into UA and you may now leave." you get sad and leave. You are at a cafe thinking *FUCK FUCK FUCK I could've done wayyyyy better, I'm gonna march my ass in there and tell them to give me and the other people who didn't get in a retake. NOW!!* as you're getting ready to make your march you bump into the handsome boy. Your face gets red and you start stuttering saying "O- OMG I'm so sorry." you pick up your dropped things and he says "It's fine I've been meaning to talk to you" you guys sit down and you tell him everything. He says "Wow I'm sorry to hear that. But, I don't have anything to do why don't you come train with me?" you answer with no hesitation and say "Of course, thank you for offering. Also, what's your name?" he replies also with no hesitation saying "My name's Izuku Midoriya!" with a big smile you say "Nice! My name's y/n" and you guys go train. *Timeskip* you've been training for about an hour and a half now and you are sweating and you accidentally trigger an explosion under you. Izuku rushes under you and catches you. There you guys are face to face like you are about to kiss then you both let out an awkward chuckle. He says "Maybe that's enough training for today. Why don't you come over to my place tomorrow and we can chat for a little." You say okay, get his number and you guys leave. The next day you show up at his house he lets you in and you guys go up to his room. You can see his very strong All Might obsession but you don't mind it. So you guys are talking learning more about each other. Then you start stuttering and he says "That was cute." and picks up your face by your chin and kisses you. He can see the obvious blush on your face and says "I'm sorry did I make you nervous?" He then picks up both your arms and moves back pinning you on the bed. He says "How about we play a little game? How about we see how long you can last until you finish while I tease every. single. inch of your body" You whimpered as you couldn't hold back the urge of wanting his touch. "Why are you holding back don't you have something you want to say?" you whimper and nod your head no. "Oh, come on you don't have to hold back around me." he says as he traces his finger down your body. He says 'I think I know what you want." then he traces your curves with his hands down to your pants and unbuttons them then he goes "Hmm nevermind I don't think you want

that." he then get off you and you have a look of disappointment on your face realizing he trying to get you to say it. So you say confidently "Please, fuck me" he turns around acting surprised "Oh, is that what you really want?" you nod your head yes and he gets back on you and begins to take your pants off. He then begins to trace circles around your clit with his tongue going slow just to see the look of pleasure on your face. He then goes "Oh, you like that, huh?" He then proceeds to go faster seeing you struggle to hold back. He then puts his tongue inside swirling big circles around. He sees you whimpering and gets back on top and kisses you "You're surprisingly good at this game." he says as he takes his pants off. "Why don't I try a little harder" He's taking his pants off and getting undressed as you think to yourself *Try a little harder?* as you realize this game is about to switch difficulties. He comes back over to you and starts kissing you and then he puts his hand over your mouth as he starts sucking on your breasts. You let out a moan, he smirks saying "Just as I thought you're holding back a lot, aren't you?" you nod your head no being a bratty sub. He says "Oh, no you aren't? Hmm interesting" he smirks as if he's planning something he then proceeds to start fingering you. He fingers you for a while then he suddenly stops and inserts his cock inside of you going deep until he can't anymore. It was so sudden that you let out the biggest moan even you hadn't heard yourself. He says "Oh, I thought you weren't holding back." then he chuckles. After that, he chuckles he starts going harder. faster. deeper. Until you can't take it anymore. You start moaning uncontrollably like your not in control of your body anymore. Then he takes it out flips you over and puts it back in. Whispering "Hmm, let's see how much longer you can hold out" then he proceeds to go faster and faster and faster until finally, you say "This is not a game for one is it?" You force him out of you pin him down and start to ride him as you can see him moaning over the sudden dominance in you. You say "I told you I would be able to hold out" as you start going faster and deeper. With his big rock-hard cock pounding deep deep inside your tight little pussy. You can see him starting to hold back and you say "Hmm, look who's holding back now." you go faster and faster until you both can't take it. You say "How about this why don't we call it a tie if you know what I mean." he nods his head in agreement You go faster and deeper until he cums inside you warm cum dripping all out of you. You put it back in and then you cum after a while. You fall on top of him whispering "Ha, look who held out longer." falling asleep in his arms. He chuckles and takes you to the bathroom to clean you up. You wake up and he's there playing video games and you say "Did I fall asleep?" he nods his head yes. You say "Get off the game let's go train asshole." he chuckles and smirks and says "Ok ok" laughing at your small but effective dominance.

Why you don't need WinRar on Windows 11

Let's find out what analog you can use instead of buying paid WinRar.

Why is it so popular?

It has been long time and a lot of Windows users got used to this application a lot. Since filesharing sites epoch, you know - those that let you upload a file up to 100 mb and then asking for a money to download it in higher speeds. I guess we all are happy that those sites are almost not used now during to clouds and the free space in clouds also has grown up to 50GB on some services and even more!

Though this doesn't mean that you don't need to be able to open archives in different formats nowadays. So, unfortunately, a lot of cloud shared files or old music archives that you probably have somewhere are in RAR format.

Is this format obsolete? Well, yes and no. This archiver is not Free and even if you can use it without any limitations to open files and just ignore the 40 day expired trial warning, it is almost ok, but that means that you actually do illegal thing! So, that means that you should decide if you want to buy WinRar or no after 40 days of usage, and, if you decided not to buy - just uninstall it. This will give you karma.

So, as it goes to the RAR format, it is old but WinRar is always updated and there are new formats available now - RAR4 and RAR5 (RAR5 is actually RAR4, which was old and replaced and renamed to RAR4).

Free analog

And that means that you actually need WinRar... or wait a minute - isn't there a free software to open all these stuff? Well, actually it is and for some reason reason many people don't know about it. It is called 7-zip (seven zip) and can be downloaded on official site.

So, I suggest to download the stable version though if you want to have more format support it is definitely better to download the newest possible.

Look, it even has version for Mac OS X! But it is only console version (on the screenshot). If you want GUI version, you can go ahead with Keka

It is the same 7zip console version that just has beautiful interface.

So, is 7zip better than WinRar? It is actually a difficult question, on the one side we have opensource archiver which will not have any problems with support as any developer can take the source code and compile a new archiver app. But on the other hand we have pros of WinRar - nice icons (custom themes can be downloaded) and the most important - performance. Well, 7zip is effective but slower than WinRar, but does it really matter today, when HDD prices are too low? Probably not, at least if you create backups a lot and open a lot of rar archives. This is not the case of most of the users today.

And about compression, let's perform a test: download the world's largest text file - "Leo Tolstoi - Wolrd and War" and try to archive it.

So, the original file size was 3.6 MB, and default zipped file is 1.4 MB, which is the worst out of the archivers. For 7zip filesize on Ultra comression is 1 MB, so we gain almost 4 times for disk space here. And rar4 and rar size is almost the same, it differs only in few kilobytes and actually the size of 7z is the smallest here, though the difference between 7z and rar4 is just a 70 KB, it is not the main pros for the WinRar - let's say we compress 460 MB of text files with 7zip. It took 1 minute and 08 seconds for me to add text files to archive. Result file was 1.6 MB. But WinRar with rar4 compressed the same directory just in a 3-5 seconds! Blazing fast, and the size was 2.3 MB. Slightly more, but much much faster.

Conclusion

WinRar pros:

Fast

Pretty icons

Everybody get used to it

Opens pretty much every archive formats

WinRar cons:

Not free

No binary for linux/mac

Can't create archives in xz, tar and etc.

7zip pros:

Free (Open Source project)

Opens a lot of formats (including rar)

Can create linux format archives

Available on Linux and Mac (as a p7zip packages for each distro)

High compression rate

7zip cons:

Can't create rar archive

Slower compression/decompression speeds

Summary: WinRar is good when you use it a lot for purpose (creation of archives). But if you are just a casual computer user and surfing internet it is better to use 7zip because it is free and powerful.

P.S:

Not all the files are compressed equally well. The best compression is done for text files, but if you will try to compress a docx file - the size of result will be the same because docx is actually a zip archive (really, just open it with 7zip). Also, video, audio and pictures (jpg) also have their own compression applied already, so adding them to a rar/7zip archive will do nothing for them. Though, for example, TIFF files can be well compressed to rar/7z with lossless quality (it is good for high resolution scans - saving space and not losing quality).

P.S.S:

And for experiment purpose I'll write here my configuration: Ryzen 5900x (stock) with DRAM 2666mHz (stock) and all the actions were done in a ramdisk, so we don't have a disk bottleneck in this experiment and also I created the archive 2 times. When Windows reads a file for the first time and if there is some room in RAM, the file will be COPIED to RAM and the second read of the same file will be done directly from RAM. That means that you DO really use all of your PC ram, so more ram is always better.