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theinstagrahame · 4 months

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It's been a wild few months here at theInstaGrahame HQ, but what never fails to make me happy is the rad games I get from the mail. I'm getting over a cold, so I'mma work on this instead of anything productive I could be doing!

Here's my month of RPG mail calls, and why I'm hyped!

Coriolis: The Last Cyclade: I've been curious about Coriolis' Middle Eastern-themed sci-fi vibes for a while, so I put this on a Secret Santa wishlist; and this is what I got! Excited to dive in.

Curios: Albrecht Manor and Jasper Park: Good Luck Press is one of those game design teams I'll try anything from, and the pitch for this is really unique. It's not an RPG per se, as much as a collection of books, papers, maps, and other materials that point toward a mystery you get to figure out. Playing it is just... looking through stuff.

Salvage Union: I am a big fan of post-apocalyptic media, and a fan of the mecha genre. So, yeah, this was an easy sell. It's built on the Quest system, which I've been meaning to get more into anyway, and it looks like a mech repair manual!

The Zone (which I apparently thought people would just recognize): This game is available for free online, but the box set is gorgeous, and features some designers I love. Trying to set up an online session soon, but I do really want to play it in person.

Deimos Academy: Honestly, I picked it up because of the creative team, but also the pitch is great. I skipped my high school reunion, but if there was a chance to go back and face a monster? I might've thought about going.

Brindlewood Bay + Nephews in Peril: I was originally just going to get the super popular Elderly Detectives Solve Eldritch Crimes RPG, but the title of the expansion/mystery book was just too perfect.

Rebels f the Outlaw Wastes: I've already mentioned I like post-apocalyptica? Well, this took a neat approach to achievements/leveling that I was super intrigued by, and I just dig the fun vibe. The reason I like post-apocalyptic media is that it's hopeful, and this feels moreso than a lot of other stuff.

Skyrealms Almanac and Creatures and Folks: I've been into setting guides this past year. And like, this one is also a coloring book? Hell yeah.

Stoneburner: I've been following the creator on Twitter and elsewhere for a while, so I was curious about this title. But definitely sold when they talked about some of the inspiration being the original Starcraft games.

Forgery: Again, picked it up because I really like Banana Chan's work, but this is a paint-by-numbers solo RPG about forging a demonic painting. So like, yeah. That's rad.

Vast Grimm: Space Cruisers: Vast Grimm is Mork Borg in Space, but I'm also a big fan of ship catalogs, so I really wanted to check this one out.

.Dungeon: Everything Snow makes is beautiful, queer, and nostalgic, so when they mentioned a re-release of .Dungeon was coming, I really wanted to check it out. I have a lot of nostalgia for the

Cloud Empress (everything, including a patch!): I mean, you say Nausicaa and I'm listening. This has some roots in that world, but also does some really interesting things with the Mothership game engine. I'm especially intrigued by the notion of replacing racial traits with age traits, and having a series of pretty mundane jobs as the classes.

Layers of Unreality: The first of this month's Zine Club deliveries! I keep hearing about Liminal Horror, and this particular module I've heard nothing but incredible things about. So I'm really hyped to check out what happens in these backrooms.

Fear the Taste of Blood: My second Zine Club book this month! Kayla Dice is one of those really rad creators who I think deserves more attention than she gets, so I'm really hyped to dive into this take on classic movie monsters.

I also got this from my partner's family's Secret Santa.

Okami is one of those games that sticks with me, and has ever since I first saw images from it, and played it. It's a genuinely beautiful experience, and while it's maybe not a game everyone will like, it's one that I really enjoy, and the art is a big part of that.

It stands out as an example of what you can do with a video game that's nearly impossible with most other art forms, and also a reason that I don't think the Arms Race for More Photorealistic Graphics in video game consoles is worth the effort.

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gingertumericlemon · 3 months

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When Last We Met

@pearlypairings sent along a sweet little prompt for "crashing the party" and here we are. A stupid little bonbon for the Hellcheer crowd❤️

The captain’s quarters looked empty but by now she knew that meant nothing. Instead of rushing inside, she took her time to peer intently around the room.

The walls were lined with hide-bound books and maps to skies she did not recognize. The few spaces on the shelves not packed with texts showcased arcane curios and dazzling artifacts–few she recognized; but their intricacy and value was apparent to even those who had not traversed the Holy Seas and the Nine and Twenty sky channels besides. In stark contrast to these trophies of taste and sophistication were the instruments of murder mounted on the wall–blades and rifles frugal in design, the easier for claiming lives. Their simplicity spoke of their danger. Her starry, lavender gaze landed on the bay window framed by cobalt velvet curtains behind the wide desk (strewn about with telescopes and astrolabes and a cinnabar opium pipe) through which nothing but clouds could be seen. If she looked through, she’d see nothing but clouds until the faintest smudge of earth some 15,000 feet below. A beautiful emerald-green bird with elegant curling tailfeathers sat contentedly on a perch beside the desk, looking at her with a curious expression. Beneath her feet was a persistent but not unpleasant hum–the tell-tale sign of the pumping pistons and firing steam engines which kept this magnificent, mysterious vessel afloat above the unwitting citizens of Faerun.

Cosette raised her wrist to her flushed lips and whispered into the little topaz token embossed with her party’s totem. “The coast is clear.” Then she tugged her blouse up. It somehow kept riding down beneath her corset.

Luthandriel entered first, his radiant broadsword at attention as he scanned his flank for more pirates beyond those they’d already left gutted in the galley. Dumas followed, his halfling form obscured at first to Cosette by a massive globe depicting a far-off celestial landscape. He whistled in admiration as he absently strummed his zither, trailing silver sparks of enchanted music behind him. “Good taste for a barbarian,” he muttered as he pocketed an hourglass of fine dwarvish make. My’thias came last, his massive golden wings barely squeezing through the door such that he had to kind of half turn-out and scooch sideways to fit. He wiped pirate blood from his snout with a scaly claw. “Is it here? The codex?”

The Beggar’s Mercy spread out and began to search. All except Cosette who was made to stand by the door and keep watch because she. Well. Because they all told her she was the best at it, she guessed!

She shrugged her shoulders (pale, shimmering like quartz in the light) and sighed. Somehow the top of her bodice had gotten all pulled down again amongst the hooks and stays of her corset which was brocade and the color of a new dawn. You could almost see her nipples for um Tyr’s sake! She turned her gaze downward for just a moment to adjust herself and froze. There was something cool and violent positioned at the nape of her neck.

“You would do well,” a voice like charred and honeyed meat dripping with fat murmured into her ear, “To leave your garments as I fancy them.”

She did not move. There was the subtle but unmistakable click of a flintlock pistol. “Should have been more thorough in your search, pet,” the voice continued. A hand–huge and calloused and covered in rings–seized her by the waist….

Weakly, Cosette bleated, “Um, guys….” Luthandriel, Dumas, and My’thias turned and groaned.

“Did you investigate the room?” Dumas didn’t sound angry. Just deflated. Cosette blushed. “I did, I mean–I thought I did–”

My’thias flapped his wings in draconian agitation. “Passive perception isn’t the same thing, we TOLD YOU–” but Luthandriel cut him off. “The lady is new to our land and new to our laws,” he said in a lofty voice. “You would do well to extend her grace and courtesy.”

Against her neck, Cosette could feel the captain smirk. She squirmed in his incredible mighty powerful grip but no matter how hard she fought she couldn’t break free! “Your paladin speaks sense. I’d pay him mind. Now. Let us be reasonable. We’re all men of business here.”

“You’re no businessman! You’re a murderous sky-pirate!!!!” Cosette thought that sounded pretty good!!!

Into his fist My’thias could be heard to mutter, “Sky-pirates aren’t even high fantasy, they’re steampunk,” and dodged a caltrop aimed at his eye by the captain in return for his insolence.

“All men have their price. What’s a pretty rogue like this trade for on terra firma these days?” The captain punctuated his query with a hot swipe of his tongue along the side of Cosette’s face. She liquidated and swooned in his grasp. The party stared in flat-eyed disbelief.

Luthandriel whispered, “Nasty.”

Then the halfling, the paladin, and the dragonguy thing went into a huddle.

As they conferred, the captain rumbled in her ear, “Love the corset.” Cosette frowned. “I messed up the–the spying.” He laughed and rubbed his–no she wasn’t gonna say that part!!!!!!!–himself against her. “Little one, that’s half the fun.”

The huddle ended and Dumas stepped forward. He had an unconcerned expression on his face, like, he was actually pretending to clean his fingernails!!!

“What use have we for such a silly rogue? She brings us nothing but misery and ill-fortune. Take her. Have your way with her. All we ask is safe passage from your quarters and use of a lifeboat.”

Cosette gasped. “You…you little WORMS!!!” She stamped her foot! What the FUCK! She’d barely even gotten to DO ANYTHING!

The captain threw his head back and laughed, drawing Cosette ever closer against him. Her nipples were basically entirely exposed at this point, like there was some force outside her control drawing them out as if with a magnet. “I have her already within my power, halfling! You presume you have leverage? You’re lucky I don’t slit her throat where she stands.” Which, like–no. But also, like—hmmm!

Dumas sighed. “I thought you might say that. To sweeten the deal, we’ll throw in this.” He reached into the pocket where he’d stashed the stolen hourglass except now it looked like a freaking enormous diamond which twinkled and shone just like that one in The Rescuers! Cosette gasped. There was a pause. She could feel the captain settle and consider as he stared at the diamond. She wriggled a little against him, just once, just in case he like. Forgot his hostage!! Or something!

The captain tilted his head which she knew because the plume from his hat tickled her face. “That’s a fine stone, halfling. What’s to stop me from taking it from your cold fingers right now?”

Dumas tried to stand a little taller. “It’s four against one, Dreadnought.” Cosette felt a pink sweet thing uncurl in her chest at being included as one of the four. She should have known! Good old Dumas! The captain made a faux-thoughtful noise. “You’re right. Seems hardly fair.” And he snapped his fingers and three sky-pirates rushed into the room!

Foul and heartless they were, these pirates, with not one wink of compassion gleaming in their dull and greedy eyes. These were no mercenaries, who might be bargained with for a higher salary. These were bloodthirsty men, hardly men at all, expelled from the earth’s warm soil to the cold and bitter reaches of the heavens to better indulge their lawless appetites for treasure, ale, flesh, and murder! Their leader of sorts headed up the pack with a cutlass in his hand–in his horrible grin, the party could glimpse he had razors for teeth (ew!) which flashed with malice in the candlelight of the quarters. His companions each boasted pistols which they aimed at the party.

The Beggar’s Mercy sort of jockeyed for position amongst themselves, and Cosette took advantage of the distraction to wrest herself free from the pirate captain’s grip! Yeah!!! She heard him grunt once in surprise and maybe something else, oh my GOSH ANYWAY she was free. Then she reached to her belt (oooh it was pale deerskin from a market in Neverwinter and studded with silver coins from her finest heists!) and withdrew Shiver by her ebony handle. She steadied her hand and remembered her extremely tragical backstory in the dew-drenched woods of Collum’s Close. Then she took aim and threw Shiver directly into the heart of the farthest pirate! It was a deadeye hit! Her best shot ever!!!! Luthandriel and Dumas cheered. The pirate made a noise like “AURGH!” (everybody always kind of sounded the same when they died…..) and slumped to the floor. Viscous black blood began to drain from his lifeless body.

Dumas’s eyes went wide with glee. “Does that mean he’s–”

“He’s not undead,” the captain interrupted. Cosette could see his face now and it was VERY handsome :) “For the last time. These are not fucking undead pirates. Black blood is just cool.”

Dumas played a pissy little riff on his zither and pouted. “I think undead pirates are pretty cool too but what do I know….”

“She doesn’t have a bonus action,” My’thias said.

Everybody was like, um.

“She used her whole–”

Dreadnought popped one fearsome eyebrow. My’thias went sort of pale around the edges of his scales and corrected herself.

“She used all her strength to escape from you. She can’t–it doesn’t seem NARRATIVELY PLAUSIBLE–” and here Captain Dreadnaught nodded like you may proceed, “That she could do both things at once.”

The dead pirate’s head lifted off the ground by a half-inch, with one eye cautiously open. The other two lackeys exchanged a look.

Cosette knew who she was attacking the next chance she got.

Sheepishly, Shiver withdrew herself from the chest of the pirate with a noise like schlorp, shook off the black blood like a wet dog, and floated back to Cosette’s hand. The rent flesh and shattered bone at the center of the no-longer-dead pirate’s chest knit themselves neatly back together and he scrambled to his feet. Cosette caught Dreadnought’s black and wild eyes and mouthed sorry.

“Nothing to apologize for,” the emerald-colored bird squawked from the perch.

“Happens all the time,” flapped an ancient open caster’s tome with dry pages.

“It’s called a learning curve!!!” Three pewter goblets with lids of horn chorused from the captain’s shelves.

“ENOUGH OF THIS NONSENSE!” My’thias snarled. Smoke poured from his nostrils and tongues of flame flickered along the edge of his snout. “GIVE US THE CODEX OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES!”

Dreadnought laughed. “You know, our galley’s amateur theatrical society is looking for someone to play Faithful Madeline in MY WANDR’ING TIEFLING’S HEART. If you’re auditioning.”

“Oi’m playin’ Sweet William,” offered the pirate with razors for teeth.

More smoke–dark and sulfurous–leaked into the room. “I GROW WEARY OF YOUR GAMES!” My’thias’s snarl grew to a full-throated roar. His scales began to glow white-gold. “I CAST–”

“Do not even THINK ABOUT IT–” Luthandriel shouted at the same time that Dumas groaned, “Are you fucking kidding me dude–!!” but all this was drowned out by My’thias’s screech of, “FIREBALL!!!!!”

In the split-second before the explosion, Cosette saw the faintest glimmer of a smirk pass over Dreadnought’s face. He made a complicated little sigil with his fingers. She braced for her own incineration, but instead there was an enormous shattering of glass and a feeling like whiplash as suddenly she was jerked towards the bay window at the end of the quarters, which was no longer a bay window at all but a massive, gaping hole in the ship’s side. There was a horrible roaring, whooshing noise, loud enough to deafen all other sounds. Then a terrible pounding in her ears as she desperately clung to a chair which luckily seemed to be bolted to the floor. The air was freezing and wild, yanking her without mercy towards the yawning chasm of clouds. She tried to breathe but could not–the air was sucked from her lungs by the change in pressure. Her yards of lilac hair were ripped from their extremely adorable braided buns festooned with ribbons and charms, and now whipped painfully behind her as she clung with a weakening grip to the armrest. She turned towards Dreadnought, silently pleading, her lips were turning blue–!!

And suddenly she fell to the floor. It was still. It was warm. Strong hands, calloused hands, drew her up gently from the ground. “Steady there, little one,” Dreadnought murmured. “Take your time. Find your breath.” She looked up into his eyes and felt her heart shimmer. He had a scar running from his right eyelid to his Cupid’s bow. Oh wow. Like. Haha! WOW! He held her aloft as she breathed for a moment.

Then she looked down. Her tits were completely out.

The captain shrugged. “Call it my savior’s fee.” The beautiful bird had somehow found sanctuary too. It was perched on his shoulder. “SAVIOR’S FEE, SQUAWK!” it echoed. It did not sound very much like a bird at all, actually.

WHATEVER. She looked over her shoulder and saw there was a thick veil of golden mist sealing her, the captain, and the rest of the ship from the charred ruin which was once his quarters. There was no sign of Dumas–he must have been instantly sucked into the sky. Poor dear Dumas! He never was very strong. Luthandriel was holding on with what little constitution he had left to another bolted-down chair, as My’thias twisted his claws into the splintering wood for grip. “THIS IS PUNITIVE!” he screamed, but it was muffled as if shouted through a thick sweater. “YOU ARE RAILROADING–”

A ballast beam ripped from the side of the ship and hit him in the face.

“But Captain Dreadnought, what of all your fine treasures?” Cosette trembled as the beast advanced hungrily upon her.

“IF YOU SAY SHE’S ALL THE TREASURE YOU NEED I’LL–”

BONK. Another beam.

“You heard the dragonguy thing,” Dreadnought pushed a lavender curl behind one of her lovely, slender, pointed ears which had two diamond earrings and a couple really sweet silver hoops pierced through it too! “The time has come for me to claim my bounty.” When he kissed her he tasted like caramel rum. (This part was private too but when he pressed her body to his her nipples rubbed against the rough flax of his unlaced shirt and it was like ooooooh it was so NICE!!!!!)

Just before My’thias lost his hold entirely and vanished into the void, Captain Dreadnought broke away from Cosette’s warm and tender (aw!) embrace. “By the way, lads,” he mentioned. “The bird was the codex.”

“AWK! I contain the key to all mythologies!” the bird said. “Ok, that’s pretty cool–” Luthandriel tried to add but was lost to the sky. “I HATE STEAMPUNK, I HATE IT SO MUCH!!!” My’thias screamed, but then he was lost to the sky too.

“Now, little one,” the captain whispered in Cosette’s ear. “Have you ever heard of an acrobatics check?”

“Oh my GOD–I mean TYR–” Cosette tried to roll her eyes but then he was kissing her once again so she had to check if she got a bonus on splits or anything like that.

It turns out she did and everybody except them got mad about it!!!

#edward “eddie” munson #christine “chrissy” cunningham #chrissy x eddie #hellcheer #i am very good at dungeons and dragons actually and know exactly how to play it with no mistakes and a high score #your honor i'm stupid but extremely cute

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indierpgnewsletter · 10 months

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Roundup: Itch Games from June and July!

(This was first published on the Indie RPG Newsletter!)

Welcome to the bimonthly round-up of interesting games released on itch.io. I find these games through the form linked below (where readers can submit their own games) or I just stumble across on twitter or while browsing itch (which I do, purely for this issue).

My usual disclaimer that I haven’t read or played these games. Usually, I have only seen their store page. But they look cool and sound interesting and they might be something you want to buy. Or you might give the creator a follow on itch. Go wild!

In no particular order:

The Fool’s Journey: One page game of imaginary cards, secrets, dramatic irony, a witch, and a wretch. Designed by anna anthropy, a game design scholar.

The Lost Bay: A horror game steeped in weird, 90s nostalgia. A mash-up of Cairn and Lumen, according to the description. Happy that Iko and the Lost Bay Studio have released their titular game (or the first look at least!)

Dolorine: A dark fantasy, solo journaling RPG about defeating death. According to the creator, it “turns pain into power and invites you to face suffering with purpose.” Designed by Sarah Goda of Open Story Games.

Curios: Albrecht Manor: “Part solo RPG, part mystery package experience.” This is a game where you read letters, compile documents, and uncover the fate of a creepy manor. Designed by Seb Pines/Good Luck Press.

Avatar of Gaia: Another addition to WH Arthur’s Superhero Cinematic Universe. This is one about playing a superhero that is trying to save the natural world.

Monsters and Maths: A one page game for high school kids about solving math problems to defeat the monsters. Can’t find any info about the designer except their handle, sapphictiefling (PWYW).

Nexalis: Cezar Capacle’s new optimistic fantasy game about exploring islands and discovering the secrets of a mysterious world. It’s got some neat, inventive mechanics that are Cezar’s trademark.

#indie rpg #ttrpg #ttrpg community #ttrpg design #ttrpgsolidarity

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picturesofthegoneworlds · 6 months

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Thank you everyone who sent in prompts - I make no promises as to when I will make my way through them, but the intention is there. If you will allow me, I had a couple or so relating to the warmth statement from last episode, as well as one that involved that along with some specific logistics, which both call back somewhat to something I wrote back in October of 2022, so I'm going to post a segment of that in the meanwhile whilst I work on the next chapter of Intertwined and these requests. Thanks for reading and participating. ***

Unable to say if it was intentional or not, Imogen releases an audible sigh.

“What's on your mind?”

“Bein’ in the Heartmoor Hamlet…” she finishes what she meant to say before, what she’d proclaimed to Laudna when they were there, but she hadn’t heard, and then Imogen second-guessed.

“…it felt nice. Peaceful. Somewhere people have to make an effort to get to - so it keeps the crowds at bay…” She turns onto her side and reclines further into the mattress. Still holding Laudna’s hand, her finger traces each tendon that divides the flat plane. “…and you got your shop for bric-a-brac and curios that’d keep ya occupied with findin’ parts or things t’fix up and assemble, could probably even get a deal goin’ with the lady who owned the place and sell your own creations there too-”

“Sounds like you’ve got it all planned out”

Imogen blushes.

“I – it doesn’t have to be there, necessarily-”

Laudna squeezes her hand.

“I think we would suit living in a house on stilts. Would be interesting to see what the planting options are in the wetlands…a lot of reeds…water lilies…” her face scrunches as she rests her index finger across her lower lip, thumb pinching it into its length, visibly thinking.

“…oh! Frogs!” Her eyes shine and she drops Imogen’s hand in excitement as she cuts her own into the air. “Can you imagine? Stepping stones to the front door and your last paces home serenaded by a chorus of frogs?!”

Imogen can imagine it. Has imagined it. Laudna a few bounds ahead of her, straw basket swinging in the crook of an elbow, a cornucopia full of a bounty of fruits from the allotment. A sickle-smile splitting over her shoulder as she hops from one flagstone to another, reeds whistling up to her arms cut off before they can form an arched pathway, and clearings on the water’s surface full of white and pink lilies and beady eyed emerald frogs and fat warted brown toads sat croaking on the flat and buoyant leaves.

In dreams. Does she dare?

“Imagine them keepin’ us up all night when they won’t shut up.” She playfully rolls her eyes as she dramatically throws her head back against the pillow, giggling, all gap tooth and freckles and dimples.

“They’ll keep the flies at bay; a lot of them would want to hang around, what with all the stagnant water. Mosquitos too. Not that they would bother me. Will there be enough flies left for the spiders?” Laudna pauses her hands and mouth - still sat up in the bed, looks down over at Imogen as if she has the answer-

“I’m sure there’ll be plenty for the spiders too. If not, I’m sure a frog or two can be utilised for spell components.”

-she does.

Laudna blinks.

“Imogen”

“What?”

Laudna turns more fully towards Imogen, pivoting around the anchor point of an anaemic hand on a crumpling bed sheet and she stills, torso half-way between horizontal with Imogen’s and fully upright.

A silence stretches.

Imogen acknowledges her eyes scanning her, even in the lower light and with the absence of an obvious pupil and a lack of white.

The silence feels as though a gentle nudge of Laudna in her head, like a light tapping of knuckle on door to a beat shared between the two of them as if a secret language, always welcome but never assuming.

Imogen lets her in.

Of course I want that too…but everything I have here...

She sees herself as she is now, through Laudna’s eyes; lilac hair let out of its casual half-up do and fanning out and covering the pillow in curls, dressed in her white pleated night shirt, emphasizing the bronzing of her skin and the darker freckles that constellate her shoulders and the tops of her breasts, candlelight bathing her in dancing gold.

Warm, warm, warm. Warmer than any hearth. Light to my eyes, honey to my ears, softness to my touch, heat to my tongue-

Her thick thighs; spread slightly on the bed and her shirt barely covering half-way down them. A thought that overlaps perceived reality manifests; of Laudna’s fingers dimpling the tanned surface as her tongue laps at her-

Imogen flushes and her breathing shallows, spine arching her chest off the straw mattress as she sits up, mouth parting-

“Laudna, you’re starin’-”

(you can read the rest here)

#Imodna #Imogen Temult #Laudna #Fanfic #Emma writes #Link is to an E-rated fic

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rebrandedbard · 2 years

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Suggested Settings for Witcher Fics

Because this post is making the rounds, I thought I’d throw out some ideas for places people might explore in the world of the witcher if they like:

Ancient elvish ruins from before the conjunction

Caverns and mines, abandoned or active

Fairgrounds, but for Serious Witcher / Mage / Bard Business

Carnivals and festivals with unusual themes + Ye Olde Rides

An labyrinthine archive or library

A curio shop full of fake monster / magic souvenirs

World equivalent to Largest Ball of Yarn

A fort built by kids

A complex tree fort built by the same kids

A much too large burrow for god knows what animal

A dried up river full of interesting things

A frozen river or fjord

Tunnels under a frozen sea where the tide pulled away

An orchard or farm full of experimental foods

A tea house

The docks, the ships, and the cargo bay back rooms

A laundry house, vineyard and brewery, fashion boutique, etc.

The desert cliffs and the infinite sands

A ranch (as a treat for Horse Girl Geralt)

There’s GOTTA be a private collection as big as a museum in some rich guy’s house somewhere I promise it’ll be fun

Workshops! Cultural exhibitions!

A travelling caravan / a thespian troupe

A tournament: archery, jousting, fencing, wrestling, magic, etc

The deep parts of a mountain full of hot springs and lava flows / lava tubes

A shrine

A shrine that only appears at a certain time of year ooo~ mysterious~

Ciri can like hop dimensions and stuff right? Go to the future and past. Have fun with it. Pull a heist. Anytime Geralt loses his swords, Ciri has to go museum hopping to find them and bring them back. It’s just easier that way, you know?

Just for fun. Hit me up if you come up with something cool!

#ideas

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fatehbaz · 10 months

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Oz Rock bands were big in Brazil in the 1990s. Australian surfers know its breaks. [...] [I]n the past decade [2005-2015] Brazil has had the second fastest rate of migration to Australia [...].

Australia’s connection with Brazil began in 1787 with the First Fleet voyage. This was thanks to the port of Rio’s location in the South Atlantic and a centuries-long British-Portuguese alliance – unique among European powers in the Age of Empires. The First Fleet had three layovers on its relatively cautious eight month voyage from Britain: a week in the Spanish colony of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, a month at Rio in the Portuguese colony of Brazil and a month at the Dutch East India Company’s Cape colony in South Africa. Fleet commander Arthur Phillip had not intended to rest and resupply at Rio but sailing conditions made it prudent to do so. And Phillip’s former service in the Portuguese navy ensured a cordial welcome from Rio’s colonial authorities.

At this time, as Bruno Carvalho writes in Porous City: A Cultural History of Rio de Janeiro (2013), Rio enjoyed rising status within the Portuguese Empire. In 1763 it had been named the new capital of Brazil. In 1808 Portuguese royals fled to Rio to escape Napoleon and remained there at the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. As a consequence, Rio could boast of being the only American city to serve as a centre of European power.

One First Fleet official lamented how little the British knew of Rio. This came to be addressed, as Luciana Martins notes in A Bay to be Dreamed Of: British Visions of Rio de Janeiro (2006), as increasing numbers of British visitors ventured there during the 19th century. Visitors included New South Wales Governor Lachlan Macquarie, and later Charles Darwin – along with thousands of convict and free migrants on board ships calling at the port of Rio.

Writing in Connected Worlds: History in Transnational Perspective (2005), Emma Christopher observed that in Australian history books, travel from Britain to Australia seemed to have been “covered as if in the blink of an eye”.

This inspired her to write of the “watery non-places” of the journey not as voids, but rather as places where much transnational history was lived [...].

[J]ournals by intending Australian colonists such as Macquarie’s wife Elizabeth allow glimpses of colonial Rio through colonial Australian eyes. Elizabeth Macquarie assessed Rio with keen intelligence and, more challengingly – as Jane McDermid has argued in recent research on histories of the British abroad – a callously casual racism.

First Fleet journals tell us that, in 1787, convicts confined to ship at Rio witnessed enslaved West Africans rowing Portuguese fruit sellers around the anchored Fleet transports in decoratively festooned boats.

Convicts overheard and exchanged stories from officials permitted shore leave: stories of the songs of captive West Africans awaiting sale at the port marketplace; of colourful Portuguese Catholic institutions and festivities that were exotic to straight-laced British Protestants. Stories of being forbidden, on pain of death, to venture to hinterland jewel mines. Onshore at Rio, colonial migrants bound for Australia befriended Portuguese colonists, despite the language barrier. They purchased curios. They passed judgement – glowing and harsh – on the people of the Portuguese colony, its natural and built environment, just as Brazilians in turn scrutinised them.

---

Text by: Julie McIntyre. “I Go to Rio: Australia’s forgotten history with Brazil.” The Conversation. 16 September 2015. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

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raph-a-roni · 1 year

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Yo, the boss has chosen to enter this social media realm to keep his family at bay...

They're all empty shellheads anyway.

I'll probably be a bit quiet on here, leaning back & enjoy the shitshow, I guess.

Who knows?

Feel free to drop by, ask or talk, I won't bite.

Maybe.

My family's blogs:

Mikey: @angelo-the-doctor-of-feelings

Leon: @neonleonsmessymindpalace

Donnie: @donniesexceptionalmind

April: @turtle-sister-april

My friend's blogs:

Space Lizard Xino: @spaceacexino

Aqua Dragon Girly Vee: @veeswims

Casey: @future-boy-casey

Curio: @curious-anon-yippee

Mighty Dragons: @dragonsmindramblings

Em: @emerson-the-psycho

Ninja Samurai Bun' Yuichi: @yuichiiusagii

❗️IMPORTANT ❗️

Hate in any form will not be tolerated, as well as NSFW, other nasty stuff & proshipping.

Ya know, Imma very nice fella, but if ya get on Raph's bad side... Raph wouldn't wanna be you...

// Yooo, mun's blog is @cassiopeias-creepy-corner 🤙🏾//

#raph a roni blog #rise of the ninja turtles #mikeys world of feelings #rise raph #tmnt fandom #rottmmt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt raph #raphael hamato #tmnt raphael #tmnt roleplay #rise raphael roleplay #donnies exceptional mind #roleplay #neon leons messy mind palace #turtle net #tmnt writing #rottmnt writing #rapheal

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quillofspirit · 3 months

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Eryn Galen Terrain Inspo

As requested by @sotwk, I hope I did it justice! I tried to choose young forests and trees, to distinguish it from Mirkwood (coming tomorrow!).

Additionally, this is the first terrain inspo I couldn't find most pictures from New Zealand, but I'll put some inspiration I couldn't find pictures for ☺️

From Top to Bottom, Left to Right

Path through the forest by Degleex Ganzorig

Tall forest by Lukasz Szmigiel

Own Photo from Parc National de la Mauricie

Fallen Timber by Jeff Finley

New Forest by Michael Krahn

Forest Cascades by Pascal M.

Own Photo from Ruiwaka Resurgence

Places in New-Zealand that I think would represent Mirkwood well; Te Hoiere, Curio Bay Living Forest and Yarndley's Hole

#Eryn Galen #lotr #lord of the rings #terrain study

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tortoisesshells · 2 months

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1, 3 and 4 for the writing excerpt meme? :D

1. ... that makes me smile:

Customs doesn't usually have much for anyone to smile about, and they're five minutes away from an extraordinarily loaded conversation about justice, but for now, Nellie thinks Ursa Minor looks like a goose:

“Well, your education was likely significantly more comprehensive on this score than mine, Commodore.” “Undoubtedly. But Nellie, I really cannot see a goose.” She sighed, and glanced up at him. “If you are determined to laugh at me –” “I am not laughing –” “James.” “I am not laughing now,” he amended, “I am curious. What you see is what you see. I cannot tell you that you are wrong there.” “If you promise,” she said, and raised a hand to gesture at the sky, again. “There, the North Star. That’s the head. Those little stars arcing behind it are the long neck. The little box – the one with the other bright star in the lot, I don’t know it’s name but you see it, there? – that’s the body of the thing. I suppose I’ve been imagining that its wings are folded in – that it’s paddling about on some mill pond in the sky.” When described in this way, it did resemble a goose peering into the shallows for food. James said so, and Nellie, limited by the darkness as his perception of her was, fairly preened.

3. ... that encompasses my style:

Answered here, but: I don't usually do kid/adolescent narrators, but this passage from had you not better make One of us does have my usual belaboring of historical detail for characterization, and a character playing chicken and losing with their own emotions and memory. Also, I do think this one of my better attempts at Elizabeth from POTC at any age:

She frowned at this – why on earth would a man not want to travel? Instead of being stuck in a great dreary northern place which (Elizabeth glanced over at her father’s prized globe, finding this Massachusetts Bay by the great ungainly sweep of a cape that always put her in mind of a prize-fighter’s arm) probably had bears and snow. She had not seen the latter in some two years, and did not miss it at all – she had never seen a bear, though, since Papa had a weak constitution and tended to faint at the sight of blood, which meant for all her pleading she’d never seen the baiting-pits in Paris Garden in London – or anywhere else, besides. She had seen a bear skull once, in one of her father’s friend’s curio-cabinets, between curious-looking coins of long-dead Roman emperors and rocks that man had (in a superior tone which immediately made Elizabeth lose interest) called glossopetrae. Someone later told her that those hand-sized rocks they were ancient shark-teeth, which had set her to staring at the inscrutable waves with fear and fascination. But she was ignoring the conversation, which she ought not to do – she was something like the lady of the house, even though she was too young for the position she’d inherited when Mama had – “Then your family is in Massachusetts Bay?” she asked quickly, to stem the unwelcome thoughts she’d just had.

4. ... with dialogue I'm proud of:

Answered here, but! Love a character who says outrageous things with a smile. From another shoreline, in another life:

Roger snorted. “It’s the fire for us, Vicki. You might as well find your comfort where you can.” She glanced at him, chewing at her lip for a half-moment. “Ought I to – take one of the other rooms?” “Don’t be ridiculous. Take advantage of the foresight of our ancestors and stay by the stove.” “I’d like to lie down.” He looked at her, unsure at first, and then – entertained. “And you would rather a door be between us? You are taking this journey into the past very seriously. It’s not 1866.” Vicki demurred, feeling as though she had to explain herself, but not finding the words for what she meant to say. She was his sister’s employee – his son’s tutor – she’d need another job after this one, whenever that was. None of it was very articulate, and she watched miserably as Roger add another log to the stove. “If it distresses you that much,” he said, looking over his shoulder at her, with an expression she could not have parsed even in the frank light of day, “I will take one of the other rooms. Though – I’m not enough of a gentleman not to ask for your coat.”

send me a number and I'll share an excerpt of my writing!

#thank you for the ask kind friend!#ask meme #polkaknox talks

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