eff_ess_oe

So this is the first time I’m gonna be doing an “explainer”/extended author’s note/commentary type thing for fics I write. Might do more of these in the future if I feel like the fic is dense enough, had enough thought put into it, or has a lot of refs that people might not be able to recognize. Most of it’s gonna be the latter for this round. Gonna take it roughly chapter-by-chapter, so hit the relevant section cut if you wanna skip to a particular one.

( AU BACKGROUND INFO )


( CH1 )

( Ch2 )

( CH3 )


( CH4 )


( CH5 )


( CH6 )


( CH7 )


( CH8 )

( CH9 )


( CH10 )

So YouTube announced they're gonna be pulling some bullshit. Basically, they're gonna comb through people's watch history and use an AI to guess if they're underage, and hit people they deem "underage" with a bunch of restrictions. And the only way to correct the algorithm is to either upload ID, credit card info, or a picture of your face. All of which have MASSIVE privacy issues associated with them.

I cannot imagine this going well at all. I figure a decent amount of people are going to get falsely hit with the underage restrictions just because they have interests in adulthood that aren't taxes and war history or whatever the hell normie adults watch. And I don't know if the backlash will be enough to set YouTube on the right path again. (Although then again, they haven't been on the "right path" for a hot fuckin minute. Not since Google bought them out in '13 or whatever.)

So as a result of all this bullshit, I'm once again considering YT alternatives for when I upload fannish video material. However, all of them have some sort of barrier keeping me from joining:

- Vimeo/Dailymotion/etc.: nobody seems to upload the type of stuff i actually watch on YouTube; it's mostly independent film material that I don't really watch

- Odysee/Bitchute/etc.: full of alt-right whackjobs

- NicoNico/Bilibili/etc.: language barrier, feeling like I'm "invading" spaces intended for people whose native language isn't English

- Glomble: the most "tolerable" option I've seen so far, but I just don't like the vibe. Feels too much like most of the people on there would skin me alive for looking at certain pairings the "wrong" way.

- PeerTube: another "tolerable" option, but I don't know if there's any fandom-specific instances, and I don't really wanna go off-brand for pre-existing instances

IDK, man. I figure if I get minor-coded (pun semi-intended) by the YouTube age verification AI, I'm gonna upload my jinrikis to NicoNico and everything else to Vimeo, Glomble, or PeerTube. But if not, then I might stay there? Idk. If I do stay, I'm probably just gonna put all my shit on unlisted so only you guys can have access to it. We'll just have to see how shit goes.

This is where I'd put my recount of CitrusCon... IF I REMEMBERED TO PREREG BEFORE CLOSING!! Yeah. Stupid me thought they'd preregistered months in advance, only to be told otherwise by both Eventbrite and the event mods when I emailed them. So yeah, I didn't make it. I fully understand why the no-same-day-prereg thing is in effect, but it kinda stings. Blehh.

But whatevs. I had a ton of time on my hands, so I decided to do a lot of shit around the house. I did a decent amount of outdoor work, weeding in the cracks in our firepit/patio area and helping my mom put up curtains for the gazebo on our deck. Also did a lot of cleaning/reorganizing of my desk drawers, makeup supplies, and jewellery. Alsoalso did a ton of laundry. And finally, I painted over a box that I'd been keeping my charger cords in, so I could sticker it up easier and not have it aesthetically clash with the original design that was on the box.

(and I also filled out orders for merch from two of the artists doing CitrusCon despite not actually going. I love copium~~~)

...because the devs announced a new (and very definitely final) entry in the series. After over 7 years since the last one. And judging from the demo footage I stayed up till midnight last night watching, it looks like it's gonna be bigger and better in scope than the last ones.

...it's Five Nights at Fuckboy's. Five Nights at Fuckboy's is getting a new entry. The cracky, 2010s-humor-laden, sex-joke-and-swear-word-laden debauchery-fest made in RPG Maker is getting a new entry in the year of our Lord 2025. Although once again judging from the demo, it looks like the devs have updated their sense of humor somewhat? Or at least gone a little lighter on it, considering the bigger scope of the game. Or maybe they've matured over the years. And it's probably the latter, because going thru their Gamejolt page, I found a really well-written piece of meta about the design philosophy behind golden-age RPG Maker games, kusoge, and the indie landscape in general during the early to mid 2010's.

So anyway, I'm adding Q.E.D. to my to-play list once it hits. And in the meantime, I'm gonna have to get cracking on the backlog of Stuff I Already Have Installed. Which is only one game for now... but one with three constantly-updating routes. Hoo boy.

(Edit 09/15/25: well. Never mind, then. Apparently the game got cancelled because people are trying to suck the lead dev into some kind of drama, and they decided the best course of action was to leave the Internet entirely. Which sucks because I was genuinely excited for this game, but I suppose people's personal safety comes first. Ah well. Wherever they end up, I wish them the best.)

> be me
> finish 8-hr. long video essay on beloved childhood TV show that got memory-holed away for the most part
> antag's "main" subordinate starts taking over as my archblorbo (as well as the yaoi ship bw him and his partner)
> start trawling the interwebs for stuff with him
> look on Xcancel to see what folks on twt have posted abt him
> hm... someone made an AI voice of him (and other unrelated charas)
> disgust sets in, yet curiosity about how much it'll suck takes over
> click
> it is indeed scuffed, but at least the song's catchy
> end up looking up the song on yt
> it's AI generated all the way down. vocals, back track, lyrics, everything
> facepalm.png

So a few days ago, I was replaying some RPG Maker shit on my ancient Windows 7 clunker, and noticed that I could only spend so many minutes at a time (not even hours -- MINUTES) playing games made in RPG Maker MV before the game crashes when years ago, I could have spent longer on them. After checking in Task Manager when having the game on at the same time, I found out it's because the game eats up a LOT of physical memeory. So I take to the interwebs, trying to find out how to be more efficient with physical memory without buying a fresh RAM that I don't know how to put in, and one of the solutions was to clean out the inside of your computer. Or something along those lines, I don't think that was the exact solution.

So with a couple of Wikihow and YouTube tutorials to guide me, I eventually figure out how to open up Clunker-chan and take some compressed air to the dusty shit. It was surprisingly less dusty than I anticipated, although I did manage to get a decent amount out. But then when I qent to screw the case back in, I ran into a problem... I misjudged the size of one of the screw holes, and end up screwing something in at a very dubious angle. And if I tried to unscrew it, it'd just spin in place, the edge of hole likely keeping it from coming out.

So after a bit of fretting over what to do, I ended up biting the bullet and calling a computer repair place. I'm gonna take it in after work and let the pros handle the unscrewing process. I'm pretty optimistic about it, because judging from where the bum screw is, the only thing I won't be able to do if things fail is use a docking station on it... Which I don't have and don't see myself needing in the future. But I'm still holding out for them to get the screw undone, just in case something more crucial gets fucked up.

(Also found out that this ordeal might've been all for nothing, because I found out somebody'd ported the RPGMMV game I was gonna play to MacOS, so I could play it on my main laptop with no problems. :P Can't believe I may have gone through all this trouble just to end up playing Five Nights At Fuckboy's Complete Collection on my main Macbook... Ah well. I've made worse decisions in life.)

(Alsoalso fun fact: the game I was testing out on Clunker-chan might be lost media now? Or something similar? It's a relatively short RPGM horror title called "Chelsea", and there's no official download links anywhere I can find. There is a YouTube playthrough and a TVTropes page for it, though, so I didn't hallucinate the game out of nowhere.)

The video I'm about to show y'all is something I've been looking for for a long time. I watched it almost obsessively in early high school, but when I tried to find it one day, I found out it was deleted...

except it wasn't. It must have been privated or something, because when I looked up OP's name on DuckDuckGo, I came across his official site, which led to a video gallery where some of his more "serious"/"artistic" videos were embedded... which led me back to his YT channel, where I found out the vid I was looking for came back! Huzzah!

So here it is. Brings back a lot of nostalgia for me. (However, I will warn you that some of the imagery might be a bit unsettling... But that's no problem. We're all on the freak site for freaks, right?)

(also more serious CW for flashing lights/colors, nudity, loud noises at the end)

But you wanna know what I do care about?



HAPPY ENSNARED TURNABOUT DAY BITCHES!!