u/larevacholerie

This is going to sound strange. Nothing I am doing is recommended practice nor a good solution to any problem, I'm sure. But I'd still like to ask, in case anyone knows a way to accomplish this:

I have a font in TTF/OTF formats that I'm using. This font doesn't have an italics variant, and I need one for my current project. The program I'm working in doesn't support faux italics in-engine, which has proved to be a problem considering I need this text to be both editable as well as intermingled with non-italic text.

I would like to create an "alternate" TTF/OTF file for this font, wherein I essentially just skew all of the glyphs by around 7-8 degrees. No other editing needs to be done, and having this be a separate TTF/OTF file will allow me to use it like a regular font as intended.

Is there an easy way to accomplish this, perhaps with some Python scripting or something of the like?

I'm not sure if anyone has made this connection or posited this theory before, apologies if they have. We probably could've come up with this all the way back when Chapter 3 released but I only thought of it now.

There's a few prerequisites that we have to accept as fact for this theory to work:

• Dess and Kris had a close, sibling-like relationship
  • This is evident through a lot of little tidbits throughout the story, I don't think there should be much dispute to this.
• Dess and Kris experienced the Dark Worlds together when Kris was a young child
  • There's recurring evidence through the story that other Lightners have been to Dark Worlds before the present day, and some clues that indicate Kris may have prior knowledge of them unlike Susie. We also know, thanks to Chapter 5, that Dess's disappearance directly involved a Dark World. While we don't know that Dess and Kris had Dark World adventures together, I think there's enough indicators in this direction that making this claim isn't much of a stretch.
• Dess wrote Raise Up Your Bat
  • This is based pretty much exclusively on circumstantial evidence, but the fanbase generally seems to accept it as the truth, so I think I'm okay to move forward with this.

I notice a lot of similarities in the lyrics of Don't Forget and Raise Up Your Bat that seem to be more than coincidental. I'll break down the relevant lines so I can compare them:

Don't Forget

1. When the light is running low
2. And the shadows start to grow
3. And the places that you know
4. Seem like fantasy
5. There's a light inside your soul
6. That’s still shining in the cold
7. With the truth
8. The promise in our hearts
9. Don't forget
10. I'm with you in the dark

Raise Up Your Bat

1. Come follow me into the dark
2. With your heart as the ark
3. Which shall shine you the way
4. Because I'm with you in the dark
5. With your hеart as my mark
6. Which shall guide you the way, through the wavеs

Both of these songs convey similar concepts in their lyrics:

• You & I are in a dark place/Dark World
  • DF 1,2,3,4; RUYB 1,4
• You & I are going together
  • DF 10; RUYB 4
• Your soul emits light (figuratively or literally)
  • DF 5,6; RUYB 2,3

While the exact context of the song is a bit different (DF is about the vocalist following you, RUYB is about you following the vocalist) I think they're similar enough otherwise that to say these two sets of lyrics were written by the same person isn't that much of a stretch.

I think that Dess wrote Don't Forget for Kris, as a sort of comforting lullaby, before she disappeared. Considering the backing instrument of the song is a lone piano, it may have even been a special song they performed together.

The song's lyrics are informed by Dess's understanding of Dark Worlds and the Soul, and the crux of the song is about reassuring Kris that they're special and that the two of them can journey through the Dark Worlds together irregardless of Kris's apprehensions.

For a fandom that spawned the 47 Citations, who absolutely gangs up on people who misgender Kris, who are extremely aware and supportive of UT/DR's diverse queer cast, we are really having some trouble when it comes to discussions about Ralsei's gender.

I am not going to imply that one perspective is more or less correct than the other, because I really want this post to just be a wake-up call for us to have better ways to talk about this whole concept at large.

It would be wrong to say Ralsei has, up to Chapter 5, not been a boy. He has certainly been the Prince from the Dark this entire time, gone by he/him in nearly all cases, and generally performed in a (albeit feminine) male identity. However, it would also be willfully ignorant to ignore that Ralsei's character is clearly dancing among some interesting ideas surrounding his gender and presentation. Some could argue his character has always been dancing around those ideas, considering his feminine nature from the start.

Whether you like it or not, femboys, feminine men, etc. exist. They have always existed, and they will continue to exist. Similarly, trans women, pre-transition trans women, and "eggs" have also always existed and will exist forever. As a trans woman myself, I've seen my fair share of both of these identities. Regardless of what kind of discourse you engage in, both of these identities are held dearly and deeply by real, honest, good people who deserve respect.

Nonbinary people exist, have always existed, and will always exist. This is something I know this fandom is very aware of, our main character is nonbinary! They go by they/them strictly, are refered to with gender-neutral language, and are neither a boy or a girl. These terms are absolute, and this fanbase has had no issue adapting to that.

I think this is where we're all struggling with Ralsei. Regardless of how you refer to Ralsei or what you believe his identity to be, there's no question that the rules surrounding his identity are much less strict than Kris's. He's a boy, but called himself/is called "princess" sometimes. His pronouns are he/him, until that one moment when they were they/them. He wears feminine outfits, except for when he wears masculine ones. The specificities of Ralsei's identity are flux. They're not absolute and they're not easy to pinpoint.

This is not strange. It's not a mistake, it's not an oversight, it's not poor writing. People like this exist, they have always existed, and they will continue to exist. People's identities do not always fit into neat little boxes the way Kris's does. Ralsei is clearly one of those people. And those people, like all people, deserve respect.

We simply don't have enough information right now to make objective calls about what Ralsei is or will be, in finality. Maybe he's a trans woman who hasn't realized it yet. Maybe he's nonbinary. Maybe he's just a feminine boy. Maybe he's some fluid mix of everything.

What's important is that we learn to recognize and respect what Ralsei is, without trying to "prove" what box he fits into. We need to be able to talk about this without starting fistfights in comment sections and attacking femboys and trans women and nonbinary people inadvertently.

Everyone has an identity that's important to them, and so do these characters. Let's all try to respect each other more when it comes to discussions like this! We are all friends here and we can all be better together.

EDIT: I would really, really enjoy if these comments didn't devolve into discussions about why you hate when people don't refer to Ralsei as she/her or why you hate that people can't accept Ralsei is a feminine man. Please, guys. This entire post is about how we need to stop trying to fit Ralsei into a box and we're already starting fights about how Ralsei fits in X or Y box.

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I'm really good at cup games and the animation they use for the cup swapping is really slow, so I was pleased that I was able to pick it out in the middle cup on my first try. Of course, that failed, and he revealed it was in the left one.

I figured that this was based on real cup scams, where the player uses sleight-of-hand to pocket the object until you choose a cup, where they then deposit it into a different one after you answer. And I realized, oh! That's what my x-ray watch is for! And I got ready for Bond to catch this guy out on his scam in dramatic fashion.

But no, it's in the middle cup. It never moves. This guy makes no attempt to protect his $30,000 gemstone with tricks or scams. It's literally just in the cup the whole time, and the game forces you to use the x-ray or it won't give it to you.

That feels... unrewarding? If I guessed correctly, wouldn't that be indicative of Bond's skill? It seems like a weird choice.