Rock the Silence

Dude's name is Chris, and he's your typically midwestern schlub - friendly, apologizes too much, really likes the Cardinals, maybe a little younger than my parents. Hella nice tho, gets the heater installed quickly, and even offers to fix the floorboards it warped (after nearly tripping over the hump it made in the floor twice). Overall, a stress-free experience.

Then, as he's gathering up his tools - "So, I noticed your, uh, banner. Over your bed."*

*(The closet where my water heater is is located in my bedroom because I live in a mobile home, dude wasn't just wandering creepily into my bedroom)

He's referring to a giant pride flag that's hanging over my bed, with the words "Sounds gay, I'm in"

My anxiety spikes instantaneously, thinking oh christ I'm about to get hatecrimed or at least microaggressioned.

But then he says "Yeah, my daughter is gay, and I was wondering, like...where do you guys, ya know, meet up?"

What.

"Because she met her most recent girlfriend when she was in jail, and I keep asking why she doesn't just find a nice lesbian librarian or something and she said 'dad I know they're out there, I just don't know where'. So...like...where do you?"

So I ended up confessing to this nice man who installed my water heater that I don't know of any real gay culture in our mostly Baptist Missouri town of about 18,000 that routinely freaks out over pride displays in the library (I'm sure it exists but I'm lazy and haven't gone looking for it). My girlfriend lives in an area with a rather bustling gay community (we just did a face painting booth for their pride festival a few weeks ago), so maybe have her go out there with some friends, and also a lot of queers I know play dnd so maybe find a nice group of them and network. I then apologized that I wasn't more helpful in getting his daughter settled with a nice, wholesome dyke.

On the plus side, he was not deterred at all, and seemed to be very interested in the fact dnd was so popular amongst the el gee bee tees. I told him the names of some dms I know and told him to go to town. I do not know if the names will be given to his daughter or hoarded for himself so he can join a group and play like he did when he was a teenager and not be called satanic for it.

Have you always wanted to play Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn but don’t have a couple hundred dollars lying around to shell out for overpriced second-hand copies on ebay? Then boy do I have good news for you!

Normally if a legitimate means for obtaining a game exists, I would suggest going for that first, but since Nintendo has made absolutely no effort whatsoever to make these games more accessible. Screw it. Emulate the damn game, it’s not like they’re making a cent out of second-hand copies being resold anyway. These games are too good to be left collecting dust behind a colossal paywall. 

@shinyv and I have put together this guide on emulating PoR/RD, which covers two different methods, Dolphin Emulator and Wii Homebrew. The former allows you to play the games on your computer, while the latter lets you play it on your Wii just like the disk version. 

Dolphin Emulator

Dolphin is by far the quickest and easiest way to emulate PoR and RD, and has some neat advantages over playing on console. Save states allow you to save anywhere, which can be a godsend if you’ve only played games with casual mode and are still getting the hang of keeping all your units alive. Some other features include taking high quality screenshots and the option to run games in HD, something even consoles can’t do. 

One the downside you do need a fairly decent computer for games to run at an actually playable speed, and Dolphin has a reputation for being a bit crashy. Luckily we’ve prepared an alternative option in case it doesn’t work for you. 

What you’ll need:

an iso file of the game you want to emulate

the latest version of Dolphin for your operating system. The newest versions of Dolphin don’t support 32 bit Windows, so if the this is the OS your system is running you’ll need to download an older version of the emulator here.  

1. Obtain your iso file. I’m not going to tell you where or how. You didn’t hear anything about downloading the game from me. 

2. Download the exe file for the right version of Dolphin for your operating system here and run it. Follow the instructions to install Dolphin on your computer. 

3. Run Dolphin. Click “Open” and select the iso file. The game should run. It’s as simple as that! 

Just configure your controls and the game is ready to play. If you find the game is laggy try following these configurations to speed things up. For optimal performance and fewer bugs, I’d advise using the recommended configurations for PoR. RD doesn’t need a specific setup, but it might be worthwhile reading up on potential bugs in case you run into them.  

If you run into any other problems, check Dolphin’s FAQ page for potential fixes.

Dolphin is a very demanding program, and even with optimal configuration it may not work for everybody. For those people, the good news is there’s an alternative.

Wii Homebrew Channel 

If Dolphin isn’t cutting it, or you just want to play the games on your tv + console the way they were ~*✧meant ✧ *~ to be played, then this option is for you. 

The Homebrew channel is a channel you can install onto your Wii which allows you to run various apps, including ones which allow you to launch games from an SD card or flash drive. 

Modding your Wii can seem daunting at first, but it’s relatively straightforward if you take it step-by-step, and the ModMii wizard we’ll be using streamlines the process and does most of the work for you! 

shinyv has lovingly prepared a full guide on the process here, which covers everything you need from modding your wii to running the game.

brain: let’s play video games

A new Yuri webcomic, Kiss it Goodbye, by Ticcy will launch on Friday May 22. The comic will be released on Webtoon, Tapas, and Tumblr. New episode of Kiss it Goodbye will be updated every week, with early releases on Ticcy’s Patreon.

Kiss it Goodbye is a wlw webcomic following the relationship between two young women, Aruka and Yukimi. Two specials featuring the characters were released by the artist in April 2019 and March 2019. The second special came with the announcement that the shorts would be adapted into a full series.

-1 day!

Kiss it Goodbye: special #2 - Pancakes

I’ve worked on these characters and their story in the past year, and I think I’m ready to finally show them online o/ What is this about? An original wlw love story with these two characters, Aruka and Yukimi! *cheers* I’ve posted a year ago that one ufo catcher comic, and I’m still surprised it got so much attention?? Thank you for validating my dumb gays ♥

So, hope you are excited because I am!! :D

Heya folks, commissions are still here!! Please let me know if you are interested or tell someone who might be interested aswell! Even just a reblog would be great <3 Thank you!

You can see more of my art here.