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Post a Random Thought written May 21, 2020 23:17:21 GMT
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yuhhh get into it
i did not want children before this moment but i have just sent my brother off with my credit card to pick up some chicken dupbap & it may perhaps be pleasant to have a small task force onto which i may delegate various errands
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FIRE✽FLOWER written May 18, 2020 4:16:19 GMT
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yuhhh get into it
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May 17, 2020 21:57:11 GMT said:
whens next update :rolling_eyes:
when your fans harass you :heart_eyes:

in all legitness, it is actually time for another update. let’s talk about the examination process
  • first, a disclaimer: the creators of FIRE✽FLOWER are not Japanese & we understand that we are in no position to act as an authority on Japan & the multifacetedness of Japanese life. our site’s conception is driven by our appreciation for stories as they are depicted in anime, manga, & light novels, & our desire to emulate & create new stories in their most authentic, Japanese context
  • a more thorough disclaimer will feature on the site proper, but the tl;dr is that while we inevitably will get things wrong, we will always & continuously strive for accuracy & respect
  • ANYWAY,
  • Japanese high schools typically feature a mid-year & then a final examination. for simplicity’s sake, the mid-year exams will not be facilitated by the site’s systems. members can decide for themselves how their characters fare
  • the final examinations will be an ooc event which takes place over the ic month of January (with January marking the beginning of the third & final term of the school year). at the outset, members will be presented with a list of prompts which can be fulfilled in threads for points. these prompts will all be related to studying for the exams, & range from your standard “late-night study session” & “tutor a friend” prompts to the zanier “get into an argument with a friend b/c you’re so stressed from studying” & “fall sleep in an inconvenient location b/c you’re so tired from studying” prompts
  • different prompts will be worth different amounts of points. we’re throwing a bone to those who are Ben_Affleck_smoking.jpg about activity-based events — if you’re not a fast threader, you can still place well if you do a few big prompts over several little prompts
  • you can fulfill multiple prompts within a single thread. however, threads must be completed before they can be submitted for points. in addition, points can only be awarded to the characters involved in the threads
  • the number of points a character earns determines where they will place on the Honours List. it may be that 10 points are required in order for your character to place within the Top 200, 15 to place within the Top 100, & 20 to place within the Top 50. (these are not the actual point requirements)
  • we understand that the Top Student™ is a distinction of some clout, & that, at the very least, they are the student who gives the student address during the entrance ceremony. we also understand that it would be impossible to fairly judge who deserves this distinction over the rest. our solution: if your character has fulfilled the point requirement for placing within the Top 50, members have the option to buy for that character the “TOP STUDENT” item from the site store
  • the “TOP STUDENT” item randomly determines the top rankings on the Honours List among all characters for whom the item has been bought. if four students end up having the “TOP STUDENT” item, rankings 1 through 4 will be randomly determined among those four students. yes: this means that if only one “TOP STUDENT” item is bought, that student for whom it was bought will become the top student of that year
  • this system also determines results for individual sports competitions & some arts competitions. it is a little different for team-based sports & other arts competitions (all of which do not occur at the same time as exams), but this update is already getting a little long so I am ending it here

while reading did you think “Jesus fuck that is a horrible idea”? understandable! please flame us in the comments. we take criticism very seriously. otherwise—progress is going very steadily, to the point that I will likely reveal our tentative opening date in the next update! but maybe I won’t. I’m a Gemini you can’t hold me accountable to anything I’m capricious as hell

I leave you w/ the Cardcaptor Sakura’s GROOVY! major Shibukyo vibes

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How did you come up with your username(s)? written May 12, 2020 6:01:31 GMT
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yuhhh get into it
in grade 7 we did a french auditory comprehension exercise and they read aloud a passage this quaint story about a couple and their dog named pompon

& for some reason i thought?? yes????? thats the one???????

pomma tartt loosely based on one of my favourite authors (donna tartt, queen of Darque Academia), the french word for apple, and apple tart

edit: somebody please tell me how to turn off emoticons im going to have a breakdown
last edit on May 12, 2020 6:02:13 GMT by pompon
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Favorite Line from your Last Post written May 12, 2020 5:56:15 GMT
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yuhhh get into it
i know i shout up n down about the virtues of one-liners but sometimes i write a bunch of words at once and im like. i guess u guys can stay. yall little fellers

(but ur ALL on thin fucking ice)

You don’t realize you’ve slipped into survival mode ‘til you’re entrenched in it. It is being dragged out of a two-hour sleep by a four-thirty alarm; it is being exhausted in the golden hour instead of refilled; it is poking your fingers between the pillows of your ratty, stained couch for notes to pay the muggle delivery man for Chinese takeout and being struck — suddenly, dumb — by a blue bolt of clarity that comes in the form of a question: How did you get here?

It is picking out the details of a woman standing beside you at a bus stop and noticing not the svelte curve of her hip, like turning over an apple with your eye, but that her blouse is neatly pressed. It is taking the bus in the first place, because you’ve stopped being able to afford Floo powder. It is going to the grocery store with a buckshot of coins to pay for a single tube of toothpaste. It is making the decision to not replace the bathmat, baby’s breath blue but spotted unnaturally with green and white and grey, like somebody has peeled from behind your eyelids the rubbed-in stars that have nowadays become omnipresent and glued them to the fabric like a shitty kindergarten art project. It is wanting to call your mother, every night, at twenty-seven years old. You don’t, of course, but the wanting of it hammers itself into the slots between your ribs. It is moving without thinking.
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FIRE✽FLOWER written May 8, 2020 6:46:30 GMT
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yuhhh get into it
hello! myself & the rest of the staff are real happy that there seems to be some interest in our idea :sob: a couple of you have even messaged us on discord to let us know that you’re keeping an eye on the site! ty!!! in response, we’ve decided to start giving periodic updates on the site’s development

here’s some info. on how the less economically fortunate students might fit into the site:

  • St. Bickford’s International Collegiate (the city academy) boasts exorbitant tuition rates which effectively bar entry to all but the wealthiest of students. however, they do have a full-ride scholarship program. scholarship students are expected to maintain high academic standing lest they face removal from the program (&, effectively, the school). additionally, only a select number of scholarship students can be enrolled at St. Bickford’s at any given time
  • at Kubomi Gakuen (the mountain academy), the students are split into two academic streams: the regular stream & the advanced stream. as Kubomi has a demanding curriculum, the advanced stream tends to be made up of the wealthier students who have access to the resources which allow them to thrive. however, students who would typically be in the regular stream but have otherwise distinguished themselves as capable in either academics, sports, or the arts may have their applications to the advanced stream mysteriously approved by administration
  • items will be offered in our site's store which allow players to play either a “BICKFORD SCHOLAR” or a “KUBOMI SCHOLAR.” additional requirements include those students placing within the top 50 on the Honours List during the site’s examination periods. (note: a Kubomi student who loses their scholarly distinction will only be moved back to the regular stream instead of being expelled)
  • both schools run regular intercollegiate sports & arts competitions toward the end of the school year. these competitions both determine the fates of sports/arts scholars & are a deciding factor, along with the examinations, in which students are selected for the exchange program

the idea behind making a scholarship student a distinction you pay for is an effort on our part to manifest some of our site’s themes in its systems—it’s not easy to penetrate the world of the wealthy, & it’s even harder to keep your place once you have. the institutions that be do not have much regard for little people. what have they to offer? perhaps you can answer that question

so let us know what you think! maybe you think the scholarship program is a horrible idea :flushed: tell us… we can take it

as always, feel free to ask questions — it helps us flesh out the lore & make the site the best it can be. keep checking the thread for updates!! i wish i could show you the skin mock-ups because im fr gonna act up about them
last edit on May 8, 2020 6:54:15 GMT by pompon
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mens rea | a sci-fi psychological crime thriller written May 8, 2020 0:34:46 GMT
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yuhhh get into it
this is so cool!! tbh, i’ve always wanted to get into sci-fi (i’ve read a lot of great fanfic with sci-fi twists, sampled some sci-fi flavoured games, & a lot of my favourite authors love sci-fi) but i’ve never accomplished it wholesale. that being said, i think sites based on intense politicking & espionage & chess-like maneuvers imposed on a city-wide scale are Dope As Hell

(note i have never played in a setting like this nor even rly done a dnd session? so take everything below with a grain of salt)

i feel like these types of concepts are really good for dnd sessions, & if you want to bring it to an rp site it will probably be heavily reliant on coordination btwn. member plotlines. (tbh they remind me of when ppl. used to try & organize homestuck-based rp sites.) unless you are a behemoth ready to take on the responsibility of every plotline running (or at least prepared to have a finger on every thread), you’re going to have to rely a lot on your members to develop their own plots & make moves which have site-wide effects (& this might require for them, in turn, to have the information they need to create these plots: about the direction of the plot, what elements are potentially working in the shadows without their characters knowledge, & the potential consequences of certain actions, etc.). basically, either you’re prepared to be the dm or you’re prepared to let everybody be a little something of a dm themselves

i’ve never run anything like this nor have i ever seen anything like this, really, so i’m not sure how you would manage this. i have seen at least one site which operates on a sort of timeline maintenance system wherein members submit threads relevant to the site’s plot, with the admin team keeping this record of plot-important threads updated at all times so members can constantly reference it. & even this seems like a big undertaking on its own!

i also feel like a big appeal of this genre is the “aha! gotcha!” moment where one of the characters reveals they were three steps ahead of the protagonist, a la “in fact you are not in a dream but a dream of a dream, hoho ive tricked you real good!!” which takes a lot of energy — either out of you or out of your members — to do well, & these moments may falter if your members expect to just be taken along for the ride. it would require a memberbase that values planning & the careful development of a story

uhhhhhh i feel like i haven’t really contributed BUT these were my thoughts on the subject & i just wanted to let you know that this is a mega cool concept & that at least one person is interested haha