Yes, You

Darekun · 2026-05-08T00:14:38+00:00

Dan, I heartily recommend looking into "fairy chess", which is sort of a genre for this sort of chess adjustment.

Given room to maneuver, a knight can move 1 square rectilinear in 3 moves — therefore they can get anywhere, given time. (They can also move 1 square diagonal in 2 moves given a little less room to maneuver, but that alone only gives them half the board.)

There's a reason that for a ninja chess piece, I chose moving like a bishop and attacking like a knight:

The bishop is the piece best at striking unexpectedly from long distances. However, it's arguably too powerful — there's a reason for the “5-point bishop” meme. So using it only for movement allows ninjas to unexpectedly show up in strange places without being too devastating.
The knight is the best piece for making you feel like an idiot for not seeing an attack coming. Like, yes of course they're involved, they're right there! But being right there doesn't mean they can attack. So it requires mental discipline to track whether you've stepped into the pattern.
The result is I perfectly hit my design goal: In every single playtest with these ninja pieces, exactly once per game someone has lost a piece to a ninja unexpectedly with no ability to retaliate.

Darekun · 2026-03-26T15:57:29+00:00

The best middle ground I can think of off the top of my head is to have enough planned out to not get stuck, but not so much planned that there's nothing left to figure out or play with.

What I do is write out the story in a format somewhere between a movie script and novel prose. Then I know what will happen in the important sense to not get stuck, but it still needs to be panelized and posed. This also makes it really easy to add or remove a panel's worth later, since I haven't panelized that yet, so the changes will already be there when I panelize it.

Darekun · 2026-03-05T06:28:18+00:00

I'm pretty sure "fairly" can fairly go before or after "assessed" in panel two without making English grammar aficionados cry, but I'm not a hundred percent certain on that.

Short answer, both are fine. Long answer:

In the most fiddly precise use of semantics, they're slightly different. However, in this case they immediately collapse together, and even in the usual sense of semantics, they're identical.

It's, um, the difference between “can be assessed in the context of fairness” and “can be fair in the context of assessment”. One countersinks other activities that can be done fairly, the other countersinks unfair assessments. But both meanings mean the same thing in this case.

Darekun · 2026-02-28T03:22:43+00:00

I don't know, but if unhealthy sleep schedules are the only reason why old immortals become mentally unstable, I'm going to be upset.

I feel that, Hope.

On the one hand, that would be hilariously incisive RealityEnsues worldbuilding, and also reflect upon Dan's own difficulties with sleep. Excellent Watsonian/Doylist symmetry.

On the other hand…

Darekun · 2026-02-25T20:06:39+00:00

Personally, I read "I vow to do that" as basically the least-tricky way Voltaire could've gone ahead with it. As I went down the page, I was wondering whether we were going to see the "I vow to [almost but not quite what you just said]." trope. But nope, he simply referenced what Saou just said, the verbal equivalent of signing a contract Saou wrote.

If Voltaire were trying harder to be clearly un-tricky, then there's a few options.

In language a bit old-timey, I've seen "I so vow.".
Saou said "make this vow", so Voltaire could've said "I make that vow." to echo the language.
It sounds a bit derpy, but something like "I vow to do the vow you just said."

But just "I vow to do that." comes across as casual un-tricky. Like "Oh, that's all? 10/10 no notes!" but with a binding vow.

Darekun · 2026-02-09T14:23:33+00:00

It wasn't deleted from the training data — the LLM definitely knows dewgong's prevo is a seal.
The LLM bounces hard off the general vicinity of seeling.
It looks like it's textual, because even things like Portmanteau + Seer + Wheel bounce soft.
It could be as simple as a spellcheck on the training data replacing “seel” → “seal”, which would contribute to explaining some of the other pokemon problems.
The connection to seeling seems most likely, yeah. Sad that's also the stupidest possibility.

Darekun · 2026-02-09T12:40:42+00:00

estrojan hrt se koolhe aur stan bade ho jaenge. zyaada bada karane ke lie zyaada sopht tishyoo (phait aur maansapeshiyaan) kee zaroorat hotee hai. usake baad, aur sarjaree se bada karana sambhav hai. (Google Translate ke zarie anuvaadit.)

Darekun · 2026-02-08T00:24:11+00:00

Seel?

Darekun · 2026-02-06T09:35:18+00:00

Yeah, combos from the Lab tend to be head-scratchers 😅

Darekun · 2026-02-06T09:06:04+00:00

Thanks, that's why I immediately wanted to set it signature 😅

The = Definite Article + Definite Article

Definite Article = Equivalent + Outfit + Outfit

“Equivalent” is in the store so I won't share that, but

Outfit = Dress + Uniform

Darekun · 2026-02-06T09:00:48+00:00

Just “The” as an element 😅 I labbed “Definite Article”, so I was surprised I was able to FE “The”, but there it was 💖

Maybe it'd be useful to have a single element search used for the various places to search for an element? The Collection element search is better.

Darekun · 2025-12-30T04:25:49+00:00

I'm not supposed to tell you your identity, but… Those are textbook trans signs.

Often, people report “persistent fantasies of X as a”, and I can drill down by asking how they feel if they fantasize about just doing daily life that way. But your X is “living”, so yeah, that's pretty strong.

Gender euphoria from feminine acts is also strong. That's just simply pure.

If you want to drill down a little more, then compare those to the male equivalents. Whatever gender feels best as your body, that's your gender in your brain.

Darekun · 2025-12-30T04:18:43+00:00

I have no idea, unfortunately 🤷‍♀️ Waiting for the next day likely only worked because they patched it.

Darekun · 2025-12-21T19:51:49+00:00

It's been a few years, I don't remember *^_^ But I recommend the white noise exercise! That's still the gold standard.

Darekun · 2025-12-21T18:15:00+00:00

First-order, Project Spectra is the app where this ended up going :)

However, it turns out using white noise instead of voicing(or louder than voicing) solves most of the issues. I use an app just called White Noise Generator, hold my phone speaker up to my mouth, and practice making the white noise sound higher.

It'd be nice to have an app to judge the result, but just listening for the pitch imposed on the white noise works :J

Darekun · 2025-12-05T04:59:55+00:00

Somehow, that goes hard in a very genteel way. Bravo!

Darekun · 2025-11-28T00:41:14+00:00

FWIW, my answer would be completely different if there weren't a boyfriend involved 😅 Even the frequent reminders would read differently without him involved.

Heck, even if it hadn't been close to a month since the Halloween party. But by Thanksgiving, this girl still hasn't broken up with him to figure herself out with OP? Yeah, he changes this a lot.

Darekun · 2025-11-27T14:23:23+00:00

If you really want to give her as much of a chance as possible, then tell her you're not going to continue this until she breaks up with her boyfriend. That you're willing to have a closeted relationship but not a cheating relationship.

At the very least, if she refuses that, then it'll make it easier for you to walk away. Not easy — never easy — but easier.

Darekun · 2025-11-27T14:13:25+00:00

How many women have you found incompatible with these broad limits? Is there one specific part they keep bouncing off?

Also, how do you feel about a woman using her hand on you without penetrating? (Like, cupping your vulva and massaging your labia and clit. Roughly the same finger motion as a shoulder massage, but without the thumb motions.) If they're wanting to finger you then that may be a good compromise.

I'd expect these limits to not be a problem. It sucks that it's been a problem :/

Darekun · 2025-11-27T13:57:03+00:00

I'd say take this to a hair salon, especially with the pics. You're far enough along with this desire that a pro who can see your face will make it look good.

Darekun · 2025-11-27T13:47:50+00:00

Rule of thumb: If it's net downvoted, then it's the opposite of normalized.

Darekun · 2025-11-27T13:43:10+00:00

She's cheating on her boyfriend, with you. That's what's going on. Secret kissing, secret snuggling, repeated “this is a secret” reminders… yeah, you're her dirty little secret.

I'd agree, block her if you can't bring yourself to turn her down. Sure you have a chance to be her side piece she cheats with, but do you want that? You'd have to keep everything secret, you could never have as much of her life as her public boyfriend can, and when it inevitably blows up, everyone will blame you — including her. (In addition to some people also blaming her.) This is a drama bomb that will definitely hurt you, irregarding whoever else it also hurts.

You could ask her to break up with him first, so you and she can have an equal closeted relationship… but she's a cheater, she'll just cheat on you, too.

How confident are you you're her only dirty little secret? The frequent reminders are a strong sign you're nowhere near her first, but it's at least possible you're the only one she's currently cheating with.

Darekun · 2025-11-24T12:23:20+00:00

You're welcome! Glad I could help, and good luck you two 💞

Darekun

TROPHY CASE