#ticktockstuck

[alexabraixen]

[ticktockstuck]

Hello, everyone, and Happy 10th Anniversary to TickTockStuck! The actual anniversary might've been on Wednesday but we couldn't let the occasion pass us by without a little... showmanship.

This is the first time we've properly shown off our Marvus design! I wanted one of our designs-in-waiting to show themselves off for the big double-digits, and it was either Marvus, Lanque, or Roxy but ultimately I felt only the Midnight Melpomene's tertiary ringmaster suited the pomp and circumstance needed for something as momentous as hitting a decade.

( Art was a collaboration between me and my partner of-almost-a-decade, who didn't wish to be credited directly here. )

[ticktockstuck-ezodiac]

TTSEZ: The EndStart-of-the-Year Review

This blog opened up shop in August of last year, and in the few months since then we’ve put out a current total of 263 signs! A good chunk of those are borrowed from the canon Extended Zodiac, or from real-world constellations, but the majority are all-originals and we’ve got plenty more of them coming to you in 2020!

A highlight reel of some our notable uploads in 2019:

Half of a jade quartet themed around compass directions, with the northeast-pointing [Virpent] and the southwest-pointing [Vircules].

[A full quartet of seasonal signs] based on real-world alchemical symbols.

Six different trios of signs all designed to link together into various vehicles.

A week of twin signs, with four pairs of signs in [honey], [emerald], [pastel blue], and [lilac].

We added two signs of dubious canonicity; the gold [Gemsa] and the rust [Artrix]! Artrix’s dream moon and aspect were decided upon in our first (but hopefully not our last) viewer poll!

Under the cut we have plans for the future and some stat-keeping for numbers nerds like me. For everyone else: the TTSEZ comes back at full steam on the 13th, so see you again real soon!

In 2019 we had an erratic upload schedule, part of which can be blamed on some unforeseen circumstances. Nevertheless, one of the goals moving forward into 2020 is getting us onto a more consistent schedule. While we’re going to start the year off basically like we ended last year (with a flexible per-day posting), once we get into spring the blog’ll be moving to a mostly one-sign-a-day format (exceptions made for real-world constellation or otherwise canon signs, since I feel I’d be cheating you out of a day’s slot otherwise).

The need for more consistency is one half of why we’re slowing down, but the other half is that maintaining the faster upload rate was starting to detract from main-blog TickTockStuck work. Which it very much was not supposed to be doing. Moving to once-a-day is not something I especially enjoy since it’s going to create some more distance between signs of the same type, but it’s going to let me prepare weeks in advance much easier and let me better focus on the actual AU this blog is based on.

With that out of the way, some stats! Our current goal is to have each caste and aspect have 7 representatives each (and any sitting at 7 aren’t getting more until everybody else catches up). Here’s where each of those categories is sitting:

Castes

7: Berry, Chocolate, Cyan, Gold, Lilac, Onyx, Plum, Steel, Stone

6: Cream, Honey, Lapis, Lepus, Moss, Peach, Plasma, Ruby, Sapphire, Verdigris

5: The Andromeda and Auriga castes, Amethyst, Azure, Emerald, Garnet, Indigo, Jasper, Lime, Mint, Peridot, Sugilite, Topaz, Turquoise, Wine

4: Crimson, Ivory, Malachite, Mauve, Mustard, Olive, Purple, Rust, Silver

3: The Cetus and Chamaeleon Castes, Bronze, Cerulean, Fuchsia, Jade, Rose, Teal, Violet

2: The Sculptor Caste

Aspects

7: Glut, Life, Lust, Mind, Mood, Speed, Strife, Void, Woe, Wrath

6: Breath, Greed, Jest, Shade, Sky, Sleep, Space, Wealth, Word, and the Ophiuchus Aspect

5: Blood, Chains, Heat, Hope, Lies, Null, Time, Vim

4: Doom, Glam, Grace, Grief, Heart, Land, Light, Pride, Rage, Rot, Sea, Sloth, Tricks, Tune, Want, Why, Will, and the Dorado and Orion aspects

3: Beast, Keys, Quest, and the Centaurus and Tucana aspects

2: Scorn

For clarity, Artrix was not a planned addition to the lineup coming into this phase of operations, so eventually these numbers are going to have Rust and Will at 8s. Gemsa was, though, so no golds until the rest of the castes catch up to it.

[element-jester]

Alright I’m back with my usual setup so continuing from that ask last night, here’s all the TickTockStuck godtier titles as of the most recent record I have.

The pattern I was using for these was Prospit Dreamers got new titles where their aspect was swapped out for deadly sins or vices close to them (like Acedia -> Sorrow), Derse Dreamers got their titles swapped out for tarot card titles, and all the human players got unique titles so that they didn’t share titles or aspects with the trolls.

Kids:

John (Heir of Wrath)

Jane (Maid of Pride)

Rose (World of Light)

Roxy (Juggler of Void) (I know it sounds awkward but it had to be distinct from Magician)

Dave (Fool of Time)

Dirk (Star of Heart)

Jade (Witch of Envy)

Jake (Page of Sorrow)

Trolls:

Aradia (Tower of Time)

Damara (Empress of Time)

Tavros (Page of Spite)

Rufioh (Rogue of Spite)

Sollux (Wheel of Doom)

Mituna (Moon of Doom)

Karkat (Knight of Gluttony)

Kankri (Seer of Gluttony)

Nepeta (Magician of Heart)

Meulin (Wheel of Heart)

Kanaya (Sylph of Vanity)

Porrim (Maid of Vanity)

Terezi (Seer of Lust)

Latula (Knight of Lust)

Vriska (Thief of Sloth)

Aranea (Sylph of Sloth)

Equius (Chariot of Void)

Horuss (Hermit of Void)

Gamzee (Bard of Greed)

Kurloz (Prince of Greed)

Eridan (Sun of Hope)

Cronus (Throne of Hope)

Feferi (Empress of Life)

Meenah (Lover of Life)

Within TTS, godtiers are something that pretty much always end in some form of apocalypse and/or great catastrophe, and a lot of them tend to play into the local mythology of each player’s planet.

[ticktockstuck]

We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties

Hi folks.

I wish I was here with a better update but, as you can probably tell from the title of this post, we've got some somber news for today.

Here's the short version: My Mac, where I do most of my work and where tons of documentation and organization for TickTockStuck is kept, has experienced some sudden and unexpected drive issues. At the time of writing I have no way of reliably accessing any of the files on there, which means I'll have to put a halt to any further work on TTS and the TTS Extended Zodiac for the time being.

The good news is that I've been able to confirm all the files are still safe and uncorrupted. I can't access them but they should be able to sit still until I can get the data out and get the Mac repaired.

The bad news is that those repairs will wipe the system memory, so I need to get my files out first. While I've found a place that can help with data recovery it's not going to be a cheap service, and I don't have an estimate for how long it's going to be until I can afford to get the repairs done.

A few things I want to stress at this time:

I'm not opening up donations at this time. Aside from TTS' low foot traffic making me lack confidence in that route, I'm not in such dire financial straits that this whole process should take more than a few months. By the time TickTockStuck hits in 11th Anniversary in July we should be back up and running.

While I'm going to have to put a full stop to the TickTockStuck Extended Zodiac for this period, I don't intend for this main blog to linger idly. I'll be doing what I can to put out content during these troubles, to the extent that I'm able to without access to my usual documentation.

I'm not opening donations but I am interested in possibly opening up commissions at some point in the future. I won't speak to what shape that'll look like if I decide to pursue that route - whether it's TickTockStuck-related work or otherwise - but it's something I've been meaning to try for a very long time.

I'll keep you all updated as this situation develops.

As always, thank you all for sticking around with us through everything. This is your faithful showrunner signing off for now.

[ticktockstuck]

TTS Aspect Palette Post

Listed color names are the names of these hues in-universe, and may not accurately reflect how the same terms are used outside of TickTockStuck. I’m using this format to show how the colors look next to each other because I don’t have all of the aspect symbols done yet and I didn’t want to go half-and-half with some having the symbol and others not.

Prime Aspects

This section is a bit moot since these are the canon ones and you’ve got some resource to get these colors for yourselves, I’m still including it so you have a good reference for the specific colors I’m using.

Blood: Scar Brown background (#391806), Blood Red foreground (#AB2822)

Breath: True Blue background (#5077DF), Zephyr Blue foreground (#76DCF5)

Doom: Plague Green background (#3E661A), Black foreground (#000000)

Heart: Heartbeet background (#4E192A), Aortic Pink foreground (#AD2C63)

Hope: Heaven’s Gold background (#FADF6D), off-White foreground (#FDFDFD)

Life: Sand background (#A29789), Growing Green foreground (#92E857)

Light: Citrus Orange background (#E28A34), Solar Yellow foreground (#F7FA6E)

Mind: Decision Green background (#408F47), Synapse foreground (#75FBCC)

Rage: Dark Whine background (#4B135D), Deep Lavender foreground (#9251A8)

Space: Black background (#000000), White foreground (#FFFFFF)

Time: Scarlet background (#A8261D), Ruby foreground (#EA3D26)

Void: Lapis Lazuli background (#244D9C), Navy Blue foreground (#061953)

Vice Aspects

Glam: Velvet Violet background (#460879), Diamond Blue foreground (#98FCFF)

Glut: Roast Brown background (#CC6A28), Wormskin foreground (#FAF3D9)

Greed: Dollar Green background (#11560A), Gold foreground (#F7D60E)

Grief: Black background (#000000), Mourning Glory foreground (#14553F)

Lies: Freezing Blue background (#92F0FD), White foreground (#FFFFFF)

Lust: Amaranth background (#DF003E), Hot Peach foreground (#F9B1BD)

Pride: Blackberry background (#37282E), Plum foreground (#8865DA)

Scorn: Quicksand Tan background (#B78F4E), Mud foreground (#503119)

Sloth: Light Gray background (#B0B0B0), Stone Gray foreground (#585858)

Want: Envy Emerald background (#4CA830), Greeneye foreground (#6FDC43)

Woe: Sorrow Blue background (#1D3970), Black foreground (#000000)

Wrath: Amber background (#EDAA00), Inferno Orange foreground (#DA3C0F)

Virtue Aspects

Beast: Savannah Tan background (#FBF096), Fur Brown foreground (#744B18)

Chains: Bruise Maroon background (#71192F), Heated Gray foreground (#C8B6B6)

Grace: Meadow Green background (#BAFF5B), Light Lime foreground (#67B00F)

Heat: Cinnamon background (#861C10), Warm Orange foreground (#F09140)

Jest: Citrine background (#E4CF44), Joker’s Violet foreground (#791542)

Quest: Parchment background (#F4EFC4), Wax Red (#8A241E)

Rot: Miasma background (#5D00AA), Moss Green foreground (#84BB00)

Speed: Deep Blue background (#18049D), Impact Orange foreground (#E4A83F)

Tricks: Storm Blue background (#0D1D47), Electric Yellow foreground (#E7ED4D)

Tune: White background (#FFFFFF), Conductor’s Brown foreground (#5B3C36)

Vim: Violent Violet background (#3A065B), Artery Red foreground (#EA332B)

Word: Inkjet background (#273943), Manila foreground (#F3EEE5)

Free Aspects

Craft: Leather Brown background (#8B502A), Steel Gray foreground (#99A1A1)

Eyes: Redeye background (#B83A1F), White foreground (#FFFFFF)

Mood: Bubbly Blue background (#81D3F1), Masquerade foreground (#4225A7)

One: Off-White background (#FFFFFE), Cerulean foreground (#0191AB)

Shade: Eclipse Blue background (#05013B), Prism Blue foreground (#6FEDE0)

Sleep: Nightshade background (#5931C6), Dreamy Pink foreground (#FBCBE4)

Strife: Silver background (#C3CCD7), Rust Brown foreground (#7E362A)

Wealth: Dust Gold background (#EEC500), Treasure Yellow foreground (#FCFF90)

Why: Dark Fuchsia background (#7E1890), Fuchsia foreground (#E230C6)

Will: Midnight Green background (#27392D), Phantom Green foreground (#25E7AD)

Aspects of the Macrocosm

Ash: Crimson background (#B91B31), Charcoal Black foreground (#171624)

Depth: Abyssal Blue background (#232C47), Seance foreground (#8128C1)

Land: Dirt Brown background (#694225), Pine Green foreground (#669C58)

Locks: Toffee background (#494040), Old Copper foreground (#DABA5F)

Sky: Dawn Pink background (#D58CF1), Cloud White foreground (#FCFCE2)

Tide: Dull Turquoise background (#59C3BB), Ocean Blue foreground (#31679F)

The non-aspect of Null is a concept created by the Dolls as part of their contributions to the Alternian Extended Zodiac. It is not an aspect in the proper sense, being named specifically in reference of that fact. Its color palette uses Black (#000000) as its background color and its foreground color is a shade of orange (#D65625) that Dolls have simply named “Ember”.

[ticktockstuck]

Happy Wednesday, everyone! The good news today is that (inhales)

🎉 TICKTOCKSTUCK IS TEN YEARS OLD TODAY! 🎉

That's right! A whole decade! A lot of the horrorstucks we were born in the midst of have died out and faded away but we're still kicking!

We've definitely had some rough years in those ten, and a lot more dead air than I'd like, but in spite of all of that we've been slowly chipping away and filling out the TickTockStuck universe one piece at a time.

We're not planning on stopping any time soon, either! We might have to do it at our usual pace but there's a lot still in the works for TTS. Frankly, there's more in mind than I can squeeze into one post (and more than I should probably show off before it's ready). If there's one thing I want to say right now, it's this:

We're not going to be going through the weeds of backstory and lore and background information forever. Eventually, we're going to get closer to the actual story of TickTockStuck. I've always had a grand overarching narrative in mind with this universe, and I won't be satisfied until I've told you all at least a little about it. It's not going to be right away - maybe not even in this next year - but it's something I've always been working towards.

I know we aren't the most exciting AU to keep eyes on, so let me say one more thing to everybody who's stuck with us for this long: Thank you all for your patience. We wouldn't have kept going for as long as we have if it wasn't for your continued support.

And, y'know, hopefully in the next ten years we accomplish everything we want to get done because if we don't...well we'll figure that out when we get there. Happy 712, everyone!

[ticktockstuck]

Happy 7/12, everyone! TickTockStuck is officially nine years old today, and while my schedule didn’t permit me to get anything special done for the occasion myself, my partner* wanted to make something nice, so we worked together so she could make this wonderful Polypa for us!

TickTockStuck is in a bit of development limbo right now thanks to some...ongoing real-world difficulties I don’t want to get to (and probably shouldn’t) so I’ll just leave today by thanking all of you for sticking with TTS through our quiet days, and by saying that your continued support is what helps keep us going in spite of troubling times.

🥂 Here’s to the next year, and to whatever good it might bring with it.