#It's in 1:18 scale it's SO TINY

[deep-sea-thunderstorm]

I'm currently making a Magnus Archives book nook and it's consuming my life 👁️

#I haven't even gotten to the spooky details yet #It's in 1:18 scale it's SO TINY #thank god my partner owns a 3d-printer #tma #the magnus archives #fanart #miniature #dollhouse #book nook

[brains4brawn]

Journalled

It was a small thing, tucked away in the corner of the thrift shop. Victor had pulled it out, but the book was locked and bound in gold and wouldn't open. His mind piqued, Victor bought the book and took it home. Over the next week He tried everything to undo the clasp but nothing worked. When he had just lost hope a tiny but audible Click could be heard, Victor rushed back to find the clasp undone and the bindings slightly ajar.

Victor carefully opened the ancient tome only to find that the pages were stuck. it was like they had been glued! Only the last page remained free. Written towards the top if fancy handwriting

"Write it down so i can enact Be-warned Though, What is written I can not retract!"

Under neath that was 5 evenly spaced lines. and another message at the bottom,

"I only remain open for this 1 day Until 5 complete Earth circle's will I open again"

Looking at the the 3 blank lines, And thinking this must be a joke he wrote

I will graduate from college

My older brother will never pick on me again

Over the next 20 years I will gain 150lbs

As Victor finished the book slammed shut and relocked itself. Scared Victor threw the book into his closet and ran down stairs.

That night his family recieved word that Victor's older brother was in a bad car crash. He was alive but in the ICU and had lost his legs. Certainly the taller brother would never pick on the shorter Victor again.

The crash had been the fault of the manufacturer so the family received and huge settlement. This money paid for Victor's choice of college.

Two years later, when Victor was home from college for the summer and his mother commented that he was finally starting to get bigger.

The 20 Year old checked the scale and sure enough he weighed 140, 15lbs heaver then when he was 18. Victor knew it had to be the book.

Victor: 22, 155lbs

The College graduate was now 23 and moving all of his stuff from his half of the bedroom to his first apartment when he stumbled across the book. Looking at the date on the wall Victor realized it was exactly 5 years since he had last seen the cursed object. As if it had a mind of its own the book opened to the last page, now with three new empty lines waiting to be filled.

Victor hesitated, he had imagined for the last 5 years what he'd do if he had this chance again. He could fix everything!

My older brother James develops a prosthesis so he can walk and run again.

My younger sisters will grow into smart talented women who will want for nothing.

Looking at his tiny 15 year old brother Bastion asleep on the bed Victor writes:

Bastion will grow up to be the popular jock just like his older brother.

Satisfied, the book shuts itself and prepares to grant Victor's wish.

Victor 24, 170lbs

For the most part the Wishes went like Victor planned. Well except for Bastion's. In the proceeding months after writing those words Victor found himself becoming more popular and Jock-like. Words like Bro or Bruh, dude, man, had taken over. He joined a gym and from there joined some local sports teams. When he wasn't busy at work or working out Victor could be found screwing every chick he could find. No girl was immune to his baby faced charms and his Gym sculpted body.

Victor 26 185lbs

Victor 28 200lbs

Victor practically lives in the Gym now. His gains speak for themselves his body is a temple and he loves for chicks to worship him. His younger sisters call him a man whore, while Bastion is turning out just like him.

His girlfriend of 6 months broke up with him cause she caught him in bed with her mother.

Looking in his closet he stumbles over the Book, open and waiting for him to write something down.

In his jealousy of those gay guys who can sleep with anyone he wrote:

I'm like 100% gay, no chicks only dicks.

I wont get any STD's from sex.

Sex with me will change anyone's life.

Again the book closes and gets to work.

Victor 30, 215lbs

Vic the dick had been out for 2 years now, the book took the man whore and turned him into a man slut. Everyone wanted a piece of him and at least Vic was smart enough to charge them for his services. Every option on the table is open he'd do any guy and make them feel like his number1. Every guy he slept with changed, most upped their stamina but some hunked out into gay sluts just like Vic.

Hell even Bastion had come out and if the rumors are true he's slept with every guy at his college.

Vic 32 230lbs

Vic was becoming something of a local celebrity in the gay community. His looks had caught the eye of a movie producer and now he was staring in low budget action movies as the gay savior. He had been so busy that he wasn't home for his 33rd birthday. Some how the book found him on location in the bottom of his travel bag.

Vic watched as it opened up to the last page with 3 empty spaces.

He took his time and pondered over what he should write.

I want to find true love

I want to be content

I want to be smart again

The book seemed to close with a sigh. None of these were worth the trouble of granting. But a deal is a deal.

Vic 34, 245lbs

Vic, 38, 275lbs

Finally after 20 years, Vic had stopped growing. Life had settled down for the Gay icon, nowadays, he owned a successful chain of LGBTQIA Gyms that catered towards the community needs. He organized Pride events and helped with protests when needed. He looked at the open book on his desk. It was tempting but Vic no longer wanted to change anything about his life. Even though he had never found a lifelong partner.

He decided he had held on to the magic for to long, so he summoned his newest intern Jack and gave the book to him then let him leave so he could explore this newest acquisition.

*bright flash of Light*

The intercom beeps and Vic pushes the button.

"Sir your husband just arrived to collect you. He wants to remind you that you still have to pick up the kids and get changed for tonights ceremony"

Before he could even answer the door burst open and Vic's husband of 7 years strolled in. Vic was already out of his chair and giving Jack a pec on the cheek while grabbing his toned ass.

On his way out Vic glanced at the family photo on his desk and gave a silent thanks to the book.

#age progression #reality change #male transformation #male muscle growth #tf #nerdtojock #personality change #straight to gay

[bonefall]

looking at the nutrition guide posts again, and you say that the clans' territories are bigger than one might think.... how big do you imagine they might be? the book maps always make them seem smaller than they probably actually are due to art scaling

There is no way to give a perfect number, because productivity of land depends a lot more on what's on it rather than raw size. An old-growth oak forest will have more squirrels in an acre than a sitka spruce plantation will in miles.

But this is an aerial photo of Peng Chau island, which is a landform notable for being almost EXACTLY 1 square kilometer.

That's 10 million square feet, for those of us burdened by imperial, and 247 acres, for... farmers idk. Or, 100 hecatares for those who are aware that most UK nature reserves measure their land in hecs.

(does this seem big? it's not. this is merely two 18-hole golf courses. or maybe we should destroy all golf courses. who knows :P)

According to the John Muir Trust, which researches red deer density and conversation, 1 square kilometer can sustainably support 5 red deer; more deer than that and they will begin to damage the environment. Britain is so ecologically devastated that the deer density is more like 10 to 1, but this is what apex predators like boars, lynxes, and wolves are SUPPOSED to be for.

(Remember: the ratio of 5:1 is still an average. The TYPE of land is going to matter A LOT MORE than the raw size.)

So if you're asking me, who has ruled that the White Hart/Forest Territory has an entire herd of red deer which hunters come to shoot at, I'd say the area was at least 3 square kilometers. Enough for a sustainable herd of 15 deer.

(But I imagine the Windovers sometimes toss hay out at them, to sustain a pretty sizeable herd. The map names the WindClan territory the "Windover Moor" so I imagine they actually own the majority of the area. I also write the entire White Hart being MUCH larger than the minimum 3 sKM, more like 10 sKM counting all the territories put together. BUT I don't think about it too much-- I just know it's not a tiny little backyard area.)

(Also Sanctuary Lake is even larger.)

#Clan culture #Apparently some people think I named the White Hart and Sanctuary Lake! I actually didn't!! #Those are canon names #I would have made a much better name for Sanctuary Lake lmao #British people will name a pond Scumdiddle Pip and call it a day #Like im just saying. ''Sanctuary'' Lake belongs in NEW york not OLD york. #It sounds like an american lake

[exhausted-archivist]

The Deep Roads are Complicated, and I am in too Deep...

I've been working on and off at mapping the Deep Roads for a while now and after writing 4 pages explaining my methodology of why I think it is mapped the way I put it and then moving on to orienting the ttrpg thaig map, I realized something while taking notes on the directions mentioned and cross-referencing it to the description of Horrors of Hormak thaig description.

You can't map the Deep Roads from a top-down perspective because sometimes the roads change directions and aren't actually going in a straight line.

They need an orthographic map. Or a map that essentially bisects the mountain. The literal map in the corner of both the Origins and ttrpg maps. The maps... that have increments of depth.

Now, I knew that the deep roads had to change elevation, especially considering how they're described and the way they're supposedly below sea level for most thaigs.

But somehow, despite knowing that, I never considered that thaigs and the roads themselves would essentially be stacked on top of each other. Don't know why that never crossed my mind up until I was checking my notes and the passages of the ttrpg and Horrors of Hormak to confirm directions. To which it finally clicked as they both explain how there are galleries/antechambers and staircases/pathways that change directions.

How do we get to the thaig? This tunnel leads to a series of galleries. Think of them as interconnecting wide flights of stairs linked together and occasionally switching direction. We head down these for a few hours and we’ll be on the outskirts of the thaig.

-- Dragon Age Tabletop RPG, Buried Pasts p. 18

Beside him, Lesha muttered a word and her staff began to glow. She pushed it inside the entrance to the hole, giving light to the darkness within. The edges of the circle cast by Lesha’s spell revealed a small staircase that descended into an antechamber slightly larger than the clearing above, carved with a skill and delicacy that rivaled the works of Orzammar, or even Kal-Sharok. At the other end of the chamber, a doorway and a second staircase beyond that which spiraled into the darkness, the entire space lit by the glow of lyrium. And above the entrance, written in dwarven runes, a single word—Hormok.

-- Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights, Horrors of Hormak (p. 86)

Which then gave me pause and had me rereading and looking back at the map. Because the maps looked like they were straight and didn't initially give the impression of any verticality to them. Until you look in the corner. That's when it clicked for me and the mountains suddenly made more sense.

And now I'm screaming about it here. Because both maps are depicting a small chunk of mountain(s) in the Frostbacks. Which, for reference, my wip of the Deep Roads looked like this.

If you follow BioWare's scale of 1 square = 15 miles / 24 km - if the Deep Roads were in working order the journey to the anvil would only be roughly around 2.5-3 days journey. However, we know to get to the anvil and back to Orzammar is a month-long trip. So, with the darkspawn and collapsed tunnels it becomes a 2-week journey there and 2 weeks back. Which is quite a large jump in travel times.

I have a personal scale based on population size, megafauna, and the fact that it is supposed to take over a week to get to the Circle from Orzammar on the surface, among other travel time increments. Which makes each square 38 mi / 61 km. A 4-5 day journey from the anvil to the void when functioning.

Now, I think this map still holds up in terms of placement considering that mountains can have a wide footprint and the map on the Origins Deep Roads has at least two major peaks and a plateau, whereas the ttrpg just has one major peak and a couple of smaller ones. The ttrpg map also speaks of ravines and such so it fits the geography.

But yeah, long story short I need to revise some of my methodology; and maybe rescale the map, so things aren't super tiny.

#dragon age #dragon age maps #deep roads #dwarves #thaigs #dragon age origins #dragon age tabletop #dao #da ttrpg #long post #no cut because if I'm here you're here lost in the deep roads with me #archi is yelling

[clumsiestgiantess]

Writing Master Post!

I’ll continue adding to this as I put out more stuff.

Alexis & Erica’s story, the Other-world Universe.  In the midst of a thunderstorm, Alexis falls into another world entirely too small for herself.  Misconceptions and hijinks ensue:

Chapter 1 - [They were trees]

Chapter 2 - [Walking is difficult when you can't see your own feet]

Chapter 3 - [Two figures, one dark alley]

Chapter 4 - [The power of a pile of free cash]

Chapter 5 - [From everything to nothing]

— — — — — — — —

Erica pov Chapter 5 - [When you think you’re alone, someone’s watching]

— — — — — — — —

Chapter 6 - [The truth comes out]

Chapter 7 - [Progress is progress, I guess]

Chapter 8 - [A little rain never hurt anyone]

Chapter 9 - [Hangover? I hardly know her]

— — — — — — — —

Erica pov Chapter 9 - [Invisible friends and flying cars]

— — — — — — — —

Chapter 10 - [What Could Go Wrong?]

Chapter 11 - [Deer don’t carry phones]

— End of arc one —

Chapter 12 - [Who all this was for]

Chapter 13 - [Is Stealing Still Illegal?]

Chapter 14 - [Is now a bad time to say I told you so?]

Chapter 15 - [Throw caution to the wind]

Chapter 16 - [The Smallest Sensations]

— — — — — — — —

Erica pov Chapter 16 - [A love larger than life]

— — — — — — — —

Chapter 17 - [Round One: Fight!]

Chapter 18 - [Sympathy, Speed, and Safety all start with S]

Chapter 19 - [Inspiration Strikes]

Chapter 20 - [Testing the Waters]

Chapter 21 - [Calm Before the Storm]

Chapter 22 - [Round Two: Knockout]

Chapter 23 - [Welcome to the Real World]

— AUs —

List of potential AUs

Soul Shard/Smolmates AU (part 1) - An AU where soulmates split into a tiny version of themselves that is meant to stay with the other person; Alexis giant pov.

Soul Shard/Smolmates AU (part 2) - An AU where soulmates split into a tiny version of themselves that is meant to stay with the other person; Alexis tiny pov.

Fallen Erica AU - Erica falls into Alexis’ universe instead of Alexis falling into hers.

Roommates AU - Alexis and Erica share an apartment together! What can possibly go wrong now that they’re both the same height?

Ruler of Everything AU - Alexis decides to start controlling more people than just Erica. After so many other-worldians under her control, she comes out of hiding…

*bonus stuff*

THE GIRLS THE GIRLS THE GIRLS - A silly little animation that I love <3

What happened to the people who were abducted? - Bad stuff, that’s why I left it out of the main story.

Alexis’ abilities explained - (this is for later; there are things y’all don’t need to know yet)

Stolen Story Lore - Lore taken right off the desk of a character in the story.

The poor soul who fell into the normal-world (aka Alexis’ and our world) - Unfortunately, falling into strange worlds goes both ways.

Refs - The main three for now (I will add more refs later)

Refs pt 2 - canon heights in the other-world universe (my hand for scale)

A&E’s relationship - A bit about their love languages and how they connect

A&E’s insecurities - Every character has their flaws. (Might add more characters as they’re introduced)

Shrinking Cabin series:

Shrinking Cabin - Daniella inherits a cabin from her late uncle.  Little does she know the cabin has a much smaller connecting counterpart.

Shrinking Cabin pt 2 - Living in a cabin that can be peered into at any moment isn’t very fun. Daniella tries to get her point across, but now things are so much worse.

Shrinking Cabin pt3 - How long will Daniella be stuck here? Things would be so much better with a friend around.

Shrinking Cabin pt4 (finale) - After one problem finally gets solved, Daniella can focus on the several other problems that aren’t.

Disappearing Cabin series:

Disappearing Cabin pt1 - Back to where it all began. Can Daniella reverse the affects of the cabin, or will she be stuck small?

Disappearing Cabin pt2 - (preview)

Winter’s Everlasting:

Winter’s Everlasting - A freezing world where wolves can talk, fairies and dragons exist, and- oh! The circus is in town!

Winter’s Everlasting Creature Index

Language barrier g/t:

Takeover Scenario - A dying Earth meets a slightly better (and bigger) version of itself.

Takeover Scenario pt2 - Learning what works between worlds.

little bonus snippet

Takeover Scenario Future - A different story that takes place after Survivors become the norm.

Takeover Scenario Future (part two) - Ritchie decides to take home a survivor, but is the little human willing to stay?

DNAliens stories:

List of everything - Covers the heights, mutations, living spaces, and a bit of backstory of the DNAliens that live/have lived on Earth

Tserem - A young woman is sentenced to sacrificial death by a mysterious monster rumored to be a half-human snake. The monster isn’t quite what she expected him to be.

Tselani (backstory) - It’s rather peaceful being the patron deity of a small village, until your disappearing ex makes a sudden reappearance.

Tselani (present day) - The viewpoint of Tselani’s human friend.

Aethra - The story of how she got her first human pet (of many)

Promptober/Inktober 2023: Month-long list - A conglomerate of DNAliens, Other-world Universe, and free-standing content.

Fantasy/Reality:

Plot Map - A long story I’ll never fully write, so take the bulleted list of plot points.

Promptober short - A snippet of events that happen after the story.

The Walls Won’t Be There Forever:

The Walls Won’t Be There Forever (1st half) - A pet borrower accidentally reveals her sentience to her captor. She expects the human to hurt her, or even send her off to a lab, but they’re.. apologizing?

Bonus oneshot - Takes place in the same world as the main story, but has no correlation with it.

What if half the population just.. shrank? (aka Thanos Snap Doomsday Crisis Scenario):

main story - (eventually…)

Bonus Scenario 1 - Tinies don’t tend to last that long when they’re barely big enough to see…

Bonus Scenario 2 - Can the universe postpone the upheaval of everything as we know it until after the first date, please?

Poll story:

Master list of all parts

CREATURE LORE - Some info on Ralyr’s species and its kin.

Creature Concept Pages

Random Prompts:

g/t brainrot - Something short I posted on a whim.

Role reversal - This time giant is scared of tiny.

Dad bros bonding prompt - Pretty much what the prompt says. A human and a borrower finding some common ground.

You Get What You Wish For - It’s not fun being cursed to live as a doll, especially when it’s you who cursed yourself (and your family, but they don’t know that).

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Tall boi gets smol - What if I create a dude who’s 6’4? What if I have him drink something weird once that makes him shrink smaller and smaller in intervals in front of his fiancé? What if little dude finally stops shrinking at 1 & 1/2 centimeters tall? What if I put him into some situations?

pt 2, another situation - Not only has he lost his only way of communication, he HIMSELF got lost. Here’s hoping he makes it back in one piece.

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Giant as unlimited resource prompt - Would you like to be an unwilling supplier of a new self-sufficient nutritional meat product for the rest of the world? Trick question, it doesn’t matter! You’ve been selected!

Landfill Apocalypse - Inspired by a post about tinies living isolated from humans.

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Freezing Weather prompt - A borrower ends up stuck in a freezing car. His only way out? The car’s human owner.

Freezing Weather prompt (part 2) - Wow, Alice seems really stressed out. Surely it’s not the tiny man who ran away into her walls that’s causing all that stress, right? It’s exam week, after all; everyone’s stressed.

Freezing Weather prompt (part 3) - Finally, with Alice knowing the truth about him, Fen can rest. Or can he…?

Freezing Weather prompt (part 4) - Time for Alice’s pov! A recap of the first two episodes, but experienced from the ‘giant’s’ perspective.

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

“You too” - Something I felt compelled to write after seeing a silly comic strip.

Uncanny Valley - Quick drabble about the idea of an uncanny valley giant.

Alien Abduction horror (but make it g/t) - Two guys chillin in a rental house in the middle of a desert known for ufo sightings. What could possibly go wrong?

A couple g/t dreams - Some dreams that had pretty decent story plots that I quickly wrote down, then expanded on.

Tinies as figurines - The story of a beautiful music box (inspired by the one in this music video)

#writing stuff #g/t writing

[papermonkeyism]

I got a teeny tiny raptor as a tax returns present for myself!

It's a Beasts of The Mesozoic Dromaeosaurus in the 1/18 scale, so in the same scale as my old kickstarter Einiosaurus of the series. I now have a scale reference for Bug from my dinosaur project thingy when compared to the cows!

Too bad they don't have an adult Troodon/Stenonychosaurus in the same scale for the Singing People, but hey! This is still very excellent thing to have! I can now draw the good boy dinosaur in the correct size, and with a correct head shape! How to handle the eyebrows in different angles has always been a tripping point, but now I can just look.

#dinosaur headworld #the herd #The tiniest of good boys

[soylent-crocodile]

Negator (Monster)

(Phyrexian Negator by John Zeleznik)

CR16 NE Medium Aberration (Phyrexian)

(The negator is another iconic creature, although one whose card is simply not up to snuff nowadays- the balance of power has tipped so that its astronomical drawback is not worth the creature you get. Still, the obliterator is clearly a riff on it- and got its own, incredibly aesthetically boring riff later- and even then it's simply too fabulous a design not to use. Can you say "xenomorph"?

Lorewise, these explicitly saw most usage in the leadup to full invasion- perhaps, in a hypothetical Phyrexia campaign, this could be the final boss of the second act, before the REAL invasion force finally arrives.)

Negators are perfected assassins of Phyrexia, designed to eliminate key targets with compleat efficiency. They are singleminded in this pursuit- one infamous document stated simply "It exists to cease." Indeed, a negator's heart is terribly stilled- they are not known to experience any emotion but the satisfaction of a job well done and the desire to achieve so.

Negators, being stealth operatives and assassins, are rarely used once a full-scale invasion begins, although they are often deployed just in the leadup to it. Each negator is given all Phyrexia knows of its target, and is simply placed as close as Phyrexia can get it without garnering attention and sent to kill. Negators are surprisingly skilled at stealth and disguise, able to walk as a hunched figure through whatever streets it may need to to reach its target, and are surprisingly eloquent and skilled actors when they need to lie. Once it makes its kill, however, a negator rarely makes time for stealth. Such negators will begin a return to Phyrexia (such that they might possibly be reset, reprogrammed, and reused), but generally lack the precautions of one who has yet to make a kill. These assassinations are its purpose; it seems some higher part of it shuts off once it is done.

This wicked creature stands humanoid, with razor sharp claws and a smooth nubby head lined with tiny triangular teeth. Its body is dotted with glasslike hemispheres and wires arcing between body parts.

Misc- CR16 NE Medium Aberration (Phyrexian) HD24 Init:+11 Senses: Blindsight 120ft Perception: +26, Detect Magic, Detect Good Stats- Str:27(+8) Dex:33(+11) Con:20(+5) Int:30(+10) Wis:8(-1) Cha:24(+6) BAB:+18/+13/+8/+3 Space:5ft Reach:5ft Defense- HP:228(24d8+120) AC:30(+11 Dex, +4 Armor, +5 Natural) Fort:+14 Ref:+19 Will:+15 (+4 Racial bonus vs Emotion) CMD:47 Resist: Cold 20, Fire 20, Electricity 20 Immunity: Acid, Fear, Curse, Polymorph, Petrification, Death effects, Disease, Poison Weakness: Special Defenses: Evasion, Negative Energy Affinity, DR10/Adamantine, SR27, Uncanny Dodge, Mycosynth Flesh Offense- Bite +24(1d6+8), 2 Claw +25(2d6+8/19-20x2) or Negation +29(90ft ranged, 10d8 plus Negation) CMB:+26 Speed:40ft Special Attacks: Coronous Ambush, Sneak Attack +5d6 Feats- Iron Will, Multiattack, Power Attack (-5/+10), Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, Wind Stance, Vital Strike, Improved Vital Strike, Improved Iron Will, Quicken Spell-Like Ability (Bestow Curse), Weapon Focus (Claw) Skills- Acrobatics +38, Bluff +31, Climb +29, Disable Device +35, Disguise +31, Escape Artist +38, Knowledge (Arcana, Planes, Religion) +34, Knowledge (Dungeoneering)* +37, Linguistics +15, Perception +26, Sense Motive +23, Spellcraft +17, Stealth +38, Survival +26, Swim +29, Use Magic Device +31 Spell-like Abilities-  Detect Magic, Detect Good, Mage Armor, Deathwatch /constant Bestow Curse (DC19), Fog Cloud, Silence (DC18) /at-will Quickened Bestow Curse (DC19) 3/day Special Qualities- Compression Ecology- Environment- Any Languages- Necril, Draconic, Elven, Aklo, Abyssal, Infernal Organization- Solitary Treasure- Incidental Special Abilities- Coronous Ambush (Ex)- A negator’s erratic, jerky movements and mastery of anatomy give it the opening to strike at its enemies weakest points. A negator may make a sneak attack against any creature vulnerable to precision damage as long as it has moved at least 10ft since the end of its last turn. Negation (Su)- As a standard action, a negator can fire a beam of oblivion energy. This is a 90ft ranged attack that deals 10d8 untyped damage. Additionally, a negator may immediately make a dispel check as with the spell Greater Dispel Magic at +18 against all magical effects the target is under.

#soylent original #monsters and races #homebrew #pathfinder #phyrexia project #old phyrexia #urza #oldwalkers #magic: the gathering #mtg

[somediyprojects]

DIY Paper Allium

Project by Kate Alarcón:

Alliums have always seemed a little bit magical to me. In a garden, the long, smooth stems blend in with the other greenery, and the big globes of tiny periwinkle flowers almost seem to float in mid-air. I imagine them growing in a fairytale garden, alongside foxgloves and moon flowers.

When I set out to design a paper version, I wanted to capture that enchanted, ethereal quality. I chose a very lightweight crepe for the petals, and constructed it so that each floret radiates out from a central ball on a long wire. This design gives each petal room to stand out from its little floret, uncompressed by the florets around it. I also scaled it up to be about the size of a large cantaloupe. The end result is a big, magical globe of delicate blue flowers that is almost a bouquet in its own right.

I wanted the flower to feel free-spirited, so I cut my petals freehand, which creates little variations between florets. Once you’ve cut several sets of petals, you’ll probably find that you don’t need the template anymore, either.

This allium isn’t especially difficult to make, but producing enough florets to complete the globe is a big undertaking. I suggest making them a few at a time over a couple of weeks while watching Netflix. You can insert them into the center ball as you go — it’s the safest place for them, and it’s motivating to watch your flower fill out.

If you run out of steam before finishing, don’t despair! My assistant Emma and I noticed that a partially covered flower looks a lot like a dandelion that’s been blown and wished on. And if that doesn’t do it for you, I’ve got just one of these guys up in my shop. —Kate

Photography by Desiree Swanson

Styling assistance by Emma Swanson

Supplies

allium templates here

Aleene’s Original Tacky Glue

fine crepe in “French Violet” from Rose Mille

heavy crepe in “Eggplant” and fine crepe in “Olive Green” from Castle in the Air

18 inch lengths of 18 and 20 gauge stem wire

paper scissors

wire snips

small awl

0ptional: millinery stamens that coordinate with your paper color (Rose Mille or 32° North for similar)

0ne 1.5” polystyrene ball (I buy mine at Michaels)

one 18″ length of vinyl tubing 3/8” outer diameter, ¼” inner diameter. (Home Depot and Lowe’s both carry it in the plumbing department)

A note about crepe paper grain:

The grain of the crepe paper runs parallel to the roll or fold. Crepe paper stretches horizontally, but not vertically, so you will almost always cut petals with the grain, placing the template so that the tiny wrinkles in the paper run up and down the template, not across. Cutting with the grain means that you cut in the same direction the crinkles are running; cutting across the grain means that you cut perpendicular to these crinkles.

For the stem:

Cut a 15” length of tubing at a very sharp angle. This pointy end will be the top of your stem, and you’ll insert the point into the polystyrene ball to help anchor the stem. Cut three of the 18 gauge wires so that they’re 16” long. Insert the wires into the length of tubing to hold your stem fairly straight while you wrap it.

Cut a long ¼” wide strip of the olive fine crepe across the grain. Dot glue at 1 cm intervals along the strip.  Just below the top edge of your tubing, below the sharp angle you cut, begin wrapping the strip around the tubing, holding it at about a 45-degree angle to the tubing, so that it spirals down as you wrap. For a smooth finish, hold the paper taught and slightly stretch it as you wrap.

If you need to add strips, just glue the end of one strip in place, and begin wrapping the next strip about ½” above where the previous one ends.

For the flower center:

Using template A, cut a small oval from the purple heavy crepe. Dot one side of the oval with glue, and then place it on the polystyrene ball. Stretch the oval around the ball, and hold it in place a few seconds to allow the glue to set.

On the opposite end of the polystyrene ball from the center of the oval you just applied, pierce the ball with your awl. Use your awl to widen the top of this hole by holding it at a 45-degree angle to the surface of the ball and moving it all the way around the stem hole.

Cut one template B from the purple heavy crepe. Make sure the grain runs up and down the template.  (The top edge should be zigzagged.)

Dot glue all over the purple crepe, including the points. Place the polystyrene ball about 2” from the bottom of the purple crepe piece. The points and the end of the ball covered by the purple oval should face up. Wrap the crepe around the ball, stretching it so that it molds to the ball.

Press and smooth the points down against the top of the ball. If there are any slight gaps between the smoothed down points, they will be camouflaged by your purple oval, and no white should show through.

Inserting the stem:

Pull the three 18 gauge wires out about four inches from the pointy end of the wrapped tubing. Insert these wires about 1” into the hole in your polystyrene ball. Slide the pointy end of your tubing up the wires, and pierce the hole with the pointy tip. You don’t need to insert the tubing very far; it just helps to have the tip anchored in the ball.

Gather the crepe “skirt” beneath the ball tightly around the stem and scrunch it to allow the glue to set around the stem. Dot a long ¼” strip of olive fine crepe with glue and cover this purple crepe skirt by wrapping the stem beneath the bottom of the covered polystyrene ball, until you meet up with the section of the stem already wrapped in olive crepe.

Floret center:

Snip your 20 gauge wire into 3.75” lengths. Cut a 1″ tall strip of the heavy purple crepe and stretch it all the way out as shown above. Cut this strip into sections that are wider than your template C. You can use the template C to cut this little fringe piece, or just freehand a similarly sized rectangle with three or four irregular points along the top edge. Dot glue along the bottom three quarters of this little piece. If you’re using double-headed millinery stamens, fold two of these stamens in half and place them on top of the jagged purple rectangle to make a little cluster of four stamens. Place the stamens on top of the little purple piece, so that the folded point on the stamens lies slightly below the middle of the rectangle. Place your short wire on top of the stamens, so that the tip of the wire lies slightly above the middle of the rectangle.

Wrap the rest of the rectangle loosely around your wire and scrunch the bottom to set the glue.

For the petals:

Cut a 2.25” x 3.75” rectangle of French violet fine crepe. The longer edge should run across the grain. Accordion or fan fold the strip (fold over, under, over, under) so that you have five layers of paper. Use the box around template D as a guide for how widely to space the folds (about ¾”). The fold lines should run with the grain and need to line up fairly precisely.

You should have a little folded packet of fine crepe about the size of the box around template D on the template sheet. Place template D on the packet, aligning the bottom of the template with the bottom edge of the packet.

The bottom right and left edges of the template D are marked with a dotted line that indicates that this section should not be cut, but rather aligned with the fold lines on your petal packet. Leaving this section intact on both sides will ensure that you have a continuous strip of petals.

In the photo, I’ve opened up my packet of petals to show what a continuous strip will look like, but you won’t actually open your packet yet. First, gently twist the bottom of the unopened petal packet. This will create evenly spaced crinkles that will make it easier to gather the bottom of the petal strip.

Untwist and open the petal packet. Make sure that each petal is facing the same direction and that none are twisted. Lay them side by side, very close together but not overlapping, across your forefinger, and then lay down your thmb to hold them in place. Pinch the width of the bottom of the petal strip to gather it. Dot glue on this pinched section and place your floret centers so that the top of the glue line is just above the bottom of the little piece of heavy crepe you wrapped around the tip of the wire.

Loosely wrap the gathered petal strip around the stamen wire. Adjust until the petals seem evenly spaced around the wire, and then scrunch the glued section of the strip around the stem.

Cut a ¼” wide by 4” long strip of purple heavy crepe across the grain, and dot it with glue. Beginning just under the petals, wrap the wire to about half an inch from the end of the wire, leaving a section exposed to help pierce the ball.

Push the petals back so that they lie perpendicular to the floret wire.

You’ll need between 80 and 100 florets depending on how densely you pack them into your allium.

Inserting the florets:

Beginning at the very top of the flower center, use your awl to pierce a hole in the covered polystyrene ball.

For extra security, you can dip the exposed wire on the end of your floret in glue before inserting it. (I usually don’t do this because it makes it hard to reposition the florets without tearing the paper covering the ball, but if your florets are falling out of the ball, then it’s probably worth it.)

Add a little circle of florets all around this first floret, spacing your holes about 1/8” apart. I don’t worry about being too precise with my hole spacing and just eyeball it, making sure that, overall, the florets look evenly distributed. Continue working downward, adding florets around the ball toward the stem.

The trickiest part of this project is adding the final florets around the base of the ball where you’ve inserted the stem, because you can’t push against the top of the flower to hold it in place while you insert the wires in the bottom. Instead, you can hold the stem firmly to anchor the ball while you insert the last florets up around the bottom of the ball.

#diy #crafts #paper #x

[echoing-gravity]

Double Legacy Sally Jackson Au

Okay. This has been my head Canon for like, years, imma try to explain the best I can.

So basically Sally is a 4th Generation legacy of the Norse God Loki (25%) and a 6th Generation Legacy of the Roman goddess Venus.

Making Percy not only 50% Greek sea demigod, but also:

20% Norse Trickster/lying/MISDIRECTION 5th gen

and 15% love/pretty as fuck Roman. 7th gen.

His Im/mortality blood split is more like 85/15.

Her parents (Percy's grandparents) died in that airplane crash when she was 5 because Sally's mom was a 3rd gen Loki and was unaware(cuz like apparently Norse demigods don't smell until AFTER they die) and Thor was all like, "heck no get the FUCK out of the sky" and Zappos hammered them to death.

(Percy has a Times 2 weakness to electric types. You think he's scared of ur lighting bolt? When he has to worry about a fucking lightning HAMMER? the answer is yes. To both. But like hammer>spear-bolt)

Sally found out about her heritage like maybe 2 months after her parents died(she inherited these cool norse pirate dagger/half-swords(I swear I can't remember what their called rn UGH), from HER great-grandparent. Percy's great-great grandparent ei: the Loki demigod. Loki gave them to her, and told her what's up.) and then she being the badass hardcore survivor she is, learned everything she ever could about Norse/roman(but also Greek) mythos by the time she's 12.

She meets Poseidon when she's 16.

Then Percy happens when she's 17 almost 18. And she learned from his father while she was carrying, that he would attract monsters.

Since she's related to Loki she has his whole "avoidance/dodge/misdirection can't be caught" thing. (As well as the shape shifting, but she can really only change her gender. But this is not relevant)

Sally, has been alone all her life, she is a SURVIVOR, so she buys an RV/tiny-home on wheels, and covers it absolutely completely buries it in a mix Norse and Egyptian magic-y misdirection runes to hide Percy's scent. She figures if she uses multiple mythos, it will be harder for Them to find her baby.

so there is no Gabe. Percy grows up even more of a mamas boy than canon.

She teaches Percy all about all the mythos, but like she does it in a very avoidance way that he knows NONE of their names like "the Greek sun god did this" or "the Roman sun god did that" and teaches him never to think their names "so they can't here you"

The changes in Percy's powers:

1: Since he's still Poseidon's kid but also now son of a legacy of the SHAPESHIFTER he can shapeshift, but only into a merperson, and only when he's wet. (Also he's genderfluid)

Sally teaches him to keep himself dry, he HATES it but understands that he needs to be sneaky, this first happens when he's like 7. And it doesn't happen during the full moon cuz like "the moon controls the tides" and what not. Yes, he is bioluminescent. Blueish/green aquamarine glowy mermaid fins!! His scales are either black or so dark indigo that they Look black.

2: Since he's a legacy of Venus, 7th gen notwithstanding cuz he has the 50% from the sea to make him stronger, he can do the charmspeaking, well... CharmSinging like a siren. When he was like 5 there was this really close call cuz when he sings one of two things happen. Either A: the default of "everyone in hearing range that isn't related to aphro/Venus is suddenly attracted to him, or b: people fall asleep. option a is the one that happened, he has to focus to get people to sleep. Sally is a smart cookie, she realized what was happening and decked the guy in the face before he could do anything to the baby 5 year old Percy. Sally then bans Percy from singing (at least around other ppl)

He HATES it. He loves to sing! but he understands enough to understand that sing around ppl is dangeours. This also happened when he was seven, but before the tail thing.

Sally, trying to hide Percy's heritage, and getting inspired from the Avatar the last airbender cartoon, trys to teach percy to only attack with "ice-bending" as to misdirect suspicions.

She tells him to "try and make the water stiff and cold"

He hates it. And how it feels "The sea doesn't like to be restricted" and what not, but like he trusts his mom, she's super cool and smart so he goes along with it, and OMG he gets cool water powers??? Like Katara?! From his favorite cartoon??? Best 10th birthday ever!

Ugh I can't remember if I'm forgetting anything, oh wait right. He can sense when people are trying to trick him. It's like a little itch I the back of his head. His mom can too, so they end up having these conversations where neither one is TECHNICALLY Lying, but like not telling the whole truth and shenanigans. Ei: "your father is lost at sea" does not ping his built in lie detector. So he's really REALLY Good at lying without lying. (Like what fae so in fairytales)

Because of this Percy thinks his dad is a mermaid. Percy is unaware that he is a demigod, he ony thinks his mom is a history-mythos nut. And that his mom is hiding him due to the myth of "if u cut out a mermaids eye and eat it you become immortal"

ugh thats all I can remember rn I'll edit it later.

Oh wait I just remembered since Percy's blood split is 85/15 he kinda can't really be referred to as a Half-blood. That is waaay more than half. Since like Frank blood split is 49/51 he can still be described as half. In other words,

IN THIS AU NICO IS ONE OF THE SEVEN.

and I also ship percico.

All of this is to say it leads to a dramatic scene outside of the doors of death where nico is like nico: "you have to go your one of the seven!"

And Percy is like

Percy: "nope I'm not 50/50 I'm 85/15 that's waaay more than half.....blood"

Nico: "but I can't leave u here"

it's more dramatic in my head and they are not dating by this point, But it's like mutual pining. Percy then kisses him and then pushes him into the elevator in his shock. Tells him to use his wish when he saves the world to use Persephone keyblade to get him and Bob out of Tartarus.

Then since this Percy is op and has seen alta, he blood bends all the rivers in the ground into spikey ice shards cutting the actual Tartarus(not his mortal plain body that Bob and friendly giant guy is fighting while Percy holds the button, but like the actual ground.) into 1000 pieces. And kills him. Like the sky primordial. He also killed poison lady. Btw. I'm so tired ugh what else. They are now stuck in Hell: frozen over.

Percy's logic for cutting up Tartarus with his own insides was as follows:

70% of the mortal human Body is made of Water.

70% of the earth is covered in a Body of Water.

The earth is Gaea, a primordial.

Mortal humans were based on gods.

And gods are descendants of primordials.

It takes a mortal and a god to kill a giant.

it took multiple titans (and a primordial to trick) to kill the sky primordial. His body was cut into 1000 pieces.

Ei: saltwater is Gaea's blood. And so are the rivers. I mean their called Bloodstreams for a reason.

A mortal a titan and a giant kill Tartarus.

Gaea was right about one thing Percy will admit.

If u want to to rid your garden of weeds, you have to rip out the roots.

#pjo #percy jackson #sally jackson #double legacy Sally Jackson Au #nico di angelo #i am sally jacksons son

[mocha-tapioca]

my genshin oc that i made back in january got the reboot she deserved <3333 utc is a bunch of info abt her!!! likes n rbs r appreciated n i hope u enjoy my little scrimblo ^^ sumeru deserves a hijabi chara

combat, talents, abilities

-        hydro staff (polearm + orb catalyst fusion) called “oasis”; other characters with this weapon primarily use it as a polearm, and only certain sumeru scholars know how to infuse the catalyst part into it to inflict the wet status

-        ^ base atk 43 at lvl 1/passive increases crit dmg by 22%. ability is called “deserted dream”: user’s elemental res. doubles (chances are 35%; increases with refinement rank), also increasing it for other party members by 75% (if 35% fails, this is guaranteed for the user; otherwise, this just applies to the other party members) for 20s. cooldown is 30s.

-        physical dps + enabling

-        charged attack has her stick the staff in the ground, jump up, and literally swing around it via the staff’s orb while physically kicking people; cause yk, why not?

-        normal attack has her (1) forward lunge (2) swipe arm, whacking w/ floating catalyst (3) spin in a 315 or smth, again whacking w catalyst (4) hold polearm upside down and use floating catalyst to vault upwards (5) bada bing bada boom use the staff as a hammer

-        holding the charged attack for over three seconds has her doing a plunging attack, using up abt 50% of her stamina but dealing 150% dmg

       wouldn’t it be funny if she rolled around on her staff while using it as a scooter

-        her skill “rainlight” summons small stars to fall down on opponents, dealing AoE hydro dmg and applying the wet status as the catalyst on amika’s staff glows to life. hp restored from the stars scales off amika’s elemental resonance. if combined with opponents affected by cryo or pyro, stars deal an additional 20% dmg at lvl 1 (70% when talent is maxed out), while electro opponents share damage taken every 2s. skill lasts for 15s/cd is 20s.

-        her burst “no longer luminous” has amika unlocking the catalyst from her staff, throwing it up in the air, and whacking it with her polearm baseball-style, summoning a giant black hole that pulls in nearby opponents and renders them immobile, dealing physical dmg over time. those that aren’t pulled in are affected by massive AoE hydro dmg, and any other elements that combine with the black hole deal an additional 25% in elemental dmg. requires 70 energy/cd is 18s.

-        her passive “all by myself!” reduces expedition time by 25%

-        constellation: stella stilanus

-        special dish is from jelebis: she turns them into heart and star shapes, adds powdered sugar at random, and puts a few tiny multicolored roshmalai around the plate. now restores 34% hp and an additional 700 hp every 5s!

lore

-        amika was the granddaughter of great sage azar. his prodigious son had died and his daughter-in-law had disappeared, leaving him with a little girl at the gates of the akademiya. instead of treating her like an actual child, he had tried to raise her as the future great sage to take over his job after he died.

-        ... unfortunately for him, amika hated sitting still and kept breaking her akasha earpiece. seeing as her mother was from aaru village, azar had determined that this was why she was so... unruly. he'd have to quench that in order for her to truly take over his great work.

-        and in amika's opinion, it was as if she'd been damned to eternity. look, she TRIED enrolling in the akademiya, okay? it was just so... suffocating. nobody tried reaching out for help unless they wanted to be seen as weak. nobody attempted to get close to her with good intentions. nobody wanted to rebel against the ridiculous hierarchy based on pure nonsense. anyone that tried releasing themselves from this barrier would be exiled. amika wondered if she, too, would become as unloving as the scholars were. not that she loved anything, but living out of spite wasn't nice.

-        for a bunch of smart folks, the scholars at the akademiya sure were stupid.

-        she tried bringing it up with her grandfather with limited success, if any at all. he decided that instead of promoting her to great sage, he'd denounce her on the day of the jnagarbah. it was a solid punishment for the traitor he'd failed at raising.

-        amika overheard him talking about this plan with the other sages. she should have figured this would happen eventually. with a heavy heart and days of secretly packing and planning, jnagarbah day came.

-        the second azar came into her room to "crown her as the next sage", she'd already escaped. she carried a large bag on her person, the only contents being an orb and a boatload of sunsettias. quite a terrible pick, honestly, but she was a bit short on time.

-        with that, the ex-next sage had left sumeru city.

-        amika ran to the desert. knowing those dumb sages, they wouldn't dare set foot outside of sumeru city or even port ormos. it seemed like the perfect plan. she'd be all alone.

-        ... oh. she was alone.

-        this was a problem.

-        after three days of walking aimlessly and rationing her food to the best of her ability, she sat in the sand and weighed her options. should she go back and endure the sage's puppetry just like always? should she be left to die here? which would be less punishing? wouldn't it be embarrassing if someone found her dead in the sand?

-        before she could reach a conclusion to her whirlwind of thoughts, a foot nudged her knee. she looked up to see a blond man with elaborate clothing, who reached out a hand to her and scowled.

-        "you look like you're going to die out here. come on, i've got food."

-        it did seem like a good deal (especially considering how bad a newborn adventurer is at rationing). with only a nod, she accepted his offer. they went back to his camp and amika resolved to only stay there for the night. she wouldn't want to be a bother after all.

-        the blond man's name was kaveh. he'd been taking a break from studying in the akademiya in order to pursue his own interests, craft, trade, the works. amika found him being in the middle of the desert to be quite strange, but she figured to each their own. despite her self-promise to stay the night, she'd end up sticking around for over half a year as she learned the joy of having something to love. sketching.

-        she'd draw on the back of maps, within scrapped architectural designs, between the page margins of textbooks. every surface she could find would be covered in doodles, whether simple smiley faces or intricate patterns. it became a habit of kaveh's to lend her any design he was having trouble with to see what she could add to his half-baked ideas.

-        being a master blacksmith (his words, not hers) and possessing a vision, he also taught amika to fight. first with the orb catalyst she'd brought with her, then with a long steel beam he'd forged a polearm out of. as reward for mastering both, he'd fused her catalyst and polearm together, turning it into a staff that doubled as what the modern age would call a slingshot-shaped baseball bat. she adored it, carving both of their names into the staff with a sharp rock she'd found nearby. kaveh may have called it defamation, but she'd keep it as a memory for years to come.

-        when kaveh announced that his research was done and that he'd start heading back to the akademiya, amika was noticeably taken aback at first. "why go back?" she had asked, her eyes narrowed. "it's nothing more than a land doomed by the god that left them."

-        kaveh sighed. "like i said, my research is done. plus," he added with a smile, "i'd say you're just about ready." with that, he left in the morning.

-        a month after he'd left for sumeru city, amika had adjusted well to living on her own. she could ration her supplies like a seasoned adventurer, hunt and forage for food easily, and even set up a camp and cook. in her opinion, she may as well have been a veteran with how skilled she had become.

-        that didn't mean it stopped being lonely, though.

-        with kaveh gone, amika had gone back to being quieter. she didn't want to go back to sumeru city, that'd only cause bad memories to resurface. her problem out here was that there wasn't anyone to talk to in particular aside from the wind. not like it'd say anything back. she had a hydro vision, not an anemo one. from the stories she'd heard about their archon, he seemed like a fun guy to hang around. perhaps he'd be a nice companion. yet with each new day passing by of being around nobody whatsoever, it was definitely starting to take a toll on her.

-        and so, she asked the wind. whether out of desperation, exasperation, or the sheer lack of having affection, she'd never be able to tell. either way, the wind decided it was going to kick up a breeze, carry the petals of a sumeru rose with it and send the girl chasing after the petals.

-        sumeru roses were rare around here... that had to be a sign, right?

-        laying her staff orb-down,she kicked it and planted her foot onto the side of the staff, steering the uniscooter through the desert and turning the sand she was riding on into dust. for periods of time, she'd switch between riding her staff and slinging it over her shoulder, running after the wind for a glimpse of something, anything, really.

-        nightfall came before she managed to catch up to the petals in a secluded tropical grove of sorts. hopping off her staff, she reached for the petals and grabbed a fistful of them, save for a single vibrant violet one that waltzed in the air before landing softly on the head of a boy seeming to be around her age slumbering against the base of a tree.

-        he looked like a porcelain doll. amika thought he was almost ethereal for a guy that looked totally out of place in a land like sumeru. sharp eyes, delicate facial features, dark hair that looked as soft as feathers. his clothes were of silk and another material amika couldn't recognize. next to him was a large disk with intricate details, almost brand new. she wondered if the dollface used it as a weapon. if it wasn't for his chest moving up and down rhythmically, she would have cursed the wind for leading her to a fragile corpse still frozen in time.

-        she approached hesitantly, crouching down as quietly as possible. extending a hand towards the boy, she plucked the petal from his head and sighed in relief... but as she turned to go back, a cold hand grabbed her wrist with lightning speed. her eyes darted back to the boy, whose eyelashes fluttered awake as his eyebrows furrowed.

-        "and what, may i ask," his voice was low, but clearly ticked off, "do you think you're doing?" the boy's eyes were almost like glass with how glazed over they seemed. a dull gray clouded them, almost lifeless.

-        she winced, but showed him the petal between her fingers. "easy there, dollface, i'm just grabbing a stray ingredient," she replied. "i'm making fish rolls for us." (she wasn't going to at first, but telling a stranger that she ran after a bunch of petals in the wind seemed really weird.)

-        "us?" he scoffed, but loosened his grip. amika pulled her hand back, rubbing at her now-red wrist. "you don't know me and i don't know you. how do i know you aren't here to kill me like everyone else?"

-        "i dunno who 'everyone else' is supposed to be, but to be quite frank with you, i'm just hungry." she stood up and scanned the landscape, her gaze landing upon an abandoned campsite. grinning, she rubbed her hands together and looked back at the boy at the tree, extending a hand out to him. "now get on your feet. you're going to help me cook over there."

-        "is that an order?"

-        "what am i, a god?" amika sighed, placing her other hand on her hip. "you're all skin and bones. i'm not letting you die of starvation out here."

-        he bit his lip, grumbling. "i don't need your pity--" he managed to get out before his stomach grumbled. after a beat or two, his shoulders slumped and he grabbed her wrist, letting her pull him up. "fine. your pity will be accepted just this once."

-        "it's not pity, pretty boy, it's just what feels right. plus," she added with a smirk, "any resistance will be met with the big circle thing over there turning into a plate." her smile widened at the look of abject horror on his face.

-        leading him to the campsite, she laid out their ingredients and started a fire underneath the pot. "what's your name, anyway?" she asked as she started chopping up the fish.

-        the boy, who had been put in charge of the rose petals, hummed softly. "i don't have one," he mumbled, his fingers brushing against the soft petals. "i'm just... a wanderer, i guess. they don't tend to have names."

-        "huh." a moment passed by. "i'm gonna call you 'dera'."

-        his gaze shifted to her, the wanderer's expression shifting to that of confusion. "you could have chosen anything else," he said, "and you land on that?"

-        she snickered in response. "okay, 'wandy'," she retorted.

-        "... on second thought, dera might be better."

-        within a half hour, they had made enough fish rolls to snack on. laying back against the tree, they sat in silence, the only sound coming from the gale breeze through the flora and the crunching of the rolls. swallowing one down, amika started to fiddle with the ribbons intertwining on her arm.

-        "so," she asked, "what are you doing here in the middle of nowhere?"

-        dera tilted his head, dull gray eyes locking with her own violet ones. "i could ask you the same thing," he said. despite there being nobody else around, he kept his voice quiet, soft. "you did ruin my nap, after all."

-        "please, you're just a light sleeper," amika retorted. "and like i said before, i lost the flower in the wind and had to get it back. then it led me to you." more fiddling, this time with the cuffs on her wrist. "your turn."

-        "like i said before, i'm a wanderer." he pinched the bridge of his nose at her blank expression. "hello? i'm a wanderer. i wander."

-        "ohhhh, that explains it."

-        he nodded, going back to staring at the landscape in front of him. "and via that wandering, i ended up here." his eyes closed, his blunt bangs shifting in the wind. "nobody around but me."

-        "and you've never, like..." the girl made some vague sort of gesture with her hands. "felt lonely or anything?"

-        the gray in his eyes darkened. "i don't experience useless emotions like that." he paused, resting a hand in the grass and grabbing a cluster in his hand. "rather," he added as an afterthought, "i'm not supposed to."

-        "it's okay if you do." she pulled a leg up to rest her head on her knee. "who said you couldn't?"

-        he looked away, but his grip on the grass cluster tightened. "that's not something for you to know."

-        ah, so there actually was someone. maybe someones. amika huffed, her fist balling up as her nails dug into her palm. "then they're as stupid and brain-dead as the akademiya scholars and sages."

-        "you don't seem to like them very much," dera remarked, the corner of his mouth quirking up in a half-amused, half-curious grin of sorts. letting go of the grass, he rested his hand on his thigh and started drumming his fingers absentmindedly.

-        she shrugged and sighed. "yeah, well..." her eyes lowered, her smile now bittersweet. "sometimes you're both not enough and too much at the same time for everyone you meet, y'know?"

-        dera's expression changed. "yeah," he breathed, "i do." without a word, he reached out and gently patted amika's shoulder, soothing both her and himself to an extent he'd rather not talk about. they stayed like that for a few minutes before he pulled the hood of her cloak over her face.

-        "get some rest," he muttered. "i'll gather the supplies. we leave in the morning."

-        "we?" a groggy amika raised her cloak hood just enough to make out his chin. "does this mean we're friends now?"

-        his nose scrunched up. "we aren't friends," he replied curtly. "we'll only travel together."

-        "this isn't a command, is it?"

-        a quick exhale from the wanderer. amika vaguely recognized it as some sort of laughter. "what am i, a god?" he said, then paused. he shook his head and raised the cloak's hood up just enough for her to see his face. his eyes looked more silver than gray. "it's an offer. one that an impulsive flower chaser like you will accept." he poked a finger into her forehead, eliciting her to suddenly tense from the lack of warmth.

-        "you don't know that," she grumbled, then added a "but you're not wrong" as she brushed his hand away, her scowl breaking into a smile as she pulled the hood back over her eyes. "goodnight, wanderer."

-        "goodnight, flower chaser."

-        and despite the wanderer's many vices against anyone he'd surrounded himself with before, he did have to admit it felt a little less lonely now.

-        maybe they could be less lonely together, at least.

voicelines

-        hello / hey, i'm amika. let's see what sort of adventure we can find ourselves today. don't worry, you have me with you.

-        chat: sketching / oh, this? it's just a hobby of mine, nothing more. even so... i do enjoy it a lot, haha. it gave me something to do, even if i sort of overdid it. maybe someday i'll be able to share my littles scribbles and doodles with the world. i'd like that.

-        chat: oasis staff / when kaveh first made me this, i didn't expect it to be as useful as it really is. see, if you turn it upside down and nudge the orb a fair bit, just step onto the sides here and use the pole here as a way to steer... voila! a transportation... thingy!

-        when it rains / the pitter-patter noise is so calming to listen to... ah, no, i can't fall asleep!-        after it rains / oh, great. mud. this is fine. i'm not hating this.

-        when it snows / oh, this is definitely gonna blind me when it starts getting sunny later.

-        when the wind is blowing / oh, this breeze feels so nice! a sandstorm might kick up soon, though, so let's find shelter.

-        good morning / up and at 'em, huh? that's the spirit! let's head out.

-        good afternoon / how long do you think it would take to glide from the tallest cliff in the desert all the way to the bottom? ...don't be silly, people don't die from gliding for too long! i think.

-        good evening / the sky looks so pretty... i hope i get to see thousands of sunsets for as long as i'm alive.

-        good night / you did well today. make sure you don't stay up for too long, alright? get some rest.

-        about wanderer… / i'm proud to say that he and i are best buds! the longer you spend time with him, the more you come to realize that his snark and teasing are all with good intentions, even if he'll try to cover it up with some lame excuse. what a softie.

-        about kaveh… / kaveh's a pro at what he does. i have to thank him for taking me in and teaching me a bunch of stuff, like architecture and fighting and all that stuff. i wonder if he'll accept some padisarahs as a thank-you gift.

-        about al-haitham… / he doesn't look like it, but he's caused a fair bit of trouble for the sages. i envy his annoyance skills. when kaveh talks about him, he always talks like he's al-haitham's bitter housewife, haha.

-        about lisa… / the mondstadt mage, right? i caught a glimpse of her in an old photo when i was a kid. you could tell she still had a spark of something still left in her unlike the sages that are around today. maybe that's why she left.

-        about cyno… / the general mahamatra--wait, no, i think it's former--anyways, he interests me. i was always told the children of the desert were people to be avoided, but... i don't know if that applies to him. bad guys aren't punny.

-        about kazuha… / a lone samurai wandering through the islands of the land of thunder, with nothing but the animals, the water, and the breeze to accompany him. that's what a former scholar of the akademiya described him as. it paints such a vivid image in my head... for some reason, dera comes to mind, too. in a way, they seem a bit similar. i can't quite explain the connection, though.

- about tighnari... / despite his calm demeanor, he can get quite flustered if you touch his tail or ears, which is always why he tends to avoid it unless completely necessary... wait, he offered to lend you his tail?! when i did that, he scolded me for ages... man, i'm so jealous.

-        about us: camping / beyond anything else, an adventurer should know how to set up camp! it says so in the little handbook i got from miss katheryne!

-        about us: aranara / i've heard of the little lettuce hat creatures, but i've never been able to see them in person. the only visual source of information i trust is the picture books about them. if i squeezed one, would it squeak?

-        about the vision / from what i know about the visions, certain visions are assigned to those who embody the trait criteria that the archons stand for. the hydro archon is all about justice, which should mean i have some sort of sense of justice. i don't think my spite qualifies as justice, though. her reasoning will always remain unknown to me.

-        something to share / sometimes, i think about whether the great sage really saw me as a child or not. maybe i never meant anything more to him than a means to achieve immortality in spirit. does he regret his actions? i don't know and i don't intend on ever knowing. he's only my grandfather in blood.

-        interesting things: dreaming / most people in sumeru don't dream, save for the few that have faint flashes of them. ever since i broke my akasha terminal when i was six, i've been able to dream vividly, remembering everything that happens in them. some are good, some are bad, some are mundane little things. i try to enjoy every little one i can.

-        interesting things: dunyarzad / whenever i went on errands, i'd always see a beautiful girl gaze out her window. if neither of us were being monitored, we'd wave to each other and even have a quick conversation when we had the time. may she find happiness wherever she goes.

-        more about amika: I / i heard from someone still in sumeru city that after i ditched the sages, wanted posters were put up on the boards of port ormos and sumeru city. there wasn't a reward though, which might be why i haven't ran into someone interested in a reward.

-        more about amika: II / the sages are all corrupted beyond relief. their pursuit of knowledge caused the akademiya hierarchy to be born, which gave people with "more intellectual capability" enough leeway to straight-up harass others they don't deem as prodigious as them. people like that disgust me.

-        more about amika: III / the akademiya is a privilege nobody deserves. scholars should be encouraging towards their peers, not belittling them at any chance they get. i just wanted the opportunity to be recognized for my own achievements without someone else tying it to the sages, and yet... perhaps the dendro archon just doesn't favor me as much as the others.

-        more about amika: IV / if there's anything that always bothered me, it was how the scholars treated the desert people. condescendingly and mockingly, like they were idiots. i found out from the great sage that my mother had been from the desert as well. he spoke of her with nothing but venom in his voice. had the scholars found out i'm half-desertrian, would the harsh treatment and isolation i faced in the akademiya have changed?

-        more about amika: V / i think wandering with dera has really given me peace of mind. you know that feeling you get when someone you seem to have nothing in common with ends up sharing the pain you have, even if how that pain affects them isn't the same as you? it's like that with us, which might be why we're such good friends. i'm not enough and too much and perfect the way i am. i hope you find someone that lets you feel like that, too. take your time, traveller.

-        amika’s hobbies / i make a note to sketch anything i think i won't remember. i'd like to keep a memory as accurate as possible, but i'm not interested in being close to a perfectionist. besides, the whole point of a hobby is to be able to enjoy it.

-        amika’s troubles / hey, traveller, have you been to sumeru recently? has it changed at all since i left? i've been wanting to go back, but everytime i even think about, i end up panicking and my entire mind and body just shuts down on me. it's like i'm sick or something and i just... hate it, i hate it so much. i'm supposed to be okay, but it's like all my senses get so overwhelmed that i'm paralyzed... whatever this is, i hope it stops soon.

-        favourite food / the more flavor food has, the better it tastes. not to an overwhelming point, of course. it's best when the flavors balance each other out well enough so that you're able to enjoy each and every difference.

-        least favourite food / bland food is the worst taste ever, if mainly for the fact that there is no taste to begin with. rice is a prime example of this, since it's only tasty if you add something like curry or soup to it. what's the point in enjoying food if there's nothing to enjoy?

-        receiving a gift: I / everything's melting in my mouth... i could die happy!

-        receiving a gift: II / ooh, this isn't bad! i've gotta have this more often.

-        receiving a gift: III / oh, you shouldn't have... really, haha...

-        birthday / hey, hey, happy birthday! as a gift, i've prepared a special art piece of you. despite how ordinary it may look, there's a catch: it's made entirely out of flower petals! pretty amazing, huh? let's make sure next year's birthday is even better than this one, alright? only the best for the birthday traveller!

-        feelings about ascension: intro / i'm getting a major adrenaline rush!

-        feelings about ascension: building up / ooh, it's all tingly and stuff. like chills, but in a good way.

-        feelings about ascension: climax / if i jumped off a cliff before, i'd die immediately. but now... well, i'd probably still die, but the chances of me surviving are there now!

-        feelings about ascension: conclusion / maybe this is the closest i'll ever get to perfection. for once, i don't really mind it. if i can use this strength for something good, i'm willing to stay like this.

#❣️ai arts #i prefer this design a lot more than the original #it looks less hydro-ey but the background is a lit simpler and i actually know what im doing w the design #hyv give us hijabis now pretty please #BTW THIS IS NOT SCARAMOUCHE/WANDERER X OC. THEYRE JUST BESTIES #okok tag time <3 <- dying miserably #genshin #genshin impact #genshin impact art #genshin oc #genshin ocs #genshin impact oc #genshin impact original character #genshin original character #oc art #oc #art #my art #digital art #artwork #drawing #illustration #hijab #sumeru #sumeru genshin #sumeru genshin impact #genshin sumeru #sumeru oc #if anyone could rb an alt description that would b appreciated!!! ive never done one b4 n it would b nice to learn how to do them well #scaramouche

[doorbloggr]

The Pikmin Series

Thursday 23/2/23

Media Recommendations #45

I've been in a really compulsive mood lately. I'm pretty sure I have some form of mild ADHD, but lack the initiative to actual go and confirm this. To me, this means joy in the completion of small tasks, and a low attention span. And although I've been waiting almost a decade for the next game, I feel the series that best scratches this itch is Pikmin.

Pikmin is one of my favourite series of all time, and lately, news of Pikmin 4 has me more hyped than news of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. So in today's article, I wanna discuss what I love about Pikmin, and also just compare the different games in the series.

The Pitch

The Pikmin Games are classified as Real Time Strategy Games, but comparing them to other RTS's like Age of Empires is folly. Instead of large scale conflict on a huge scale, the Pikmin Games have you follow one guy with an army behind him, and while you can have several groups doing tasks at a time, you must physically approach each soldier to interact with them.

You control a space Captain of a tiny alien species who has landed on PNF-404, a planet of lush greens, and strange monsters. Each game has different reasons for your protagonist to be there, but essentially you are tasked with collecting things and bringing them back to your ship in order to leave the planet and go home. But you cannot do this alone. Amongst the various scary creatures that dwarf the player character, there are the Pikmin, small plant/animal hybrids that follow your every command. It is up to you to direct the Pikmin into defeating enemies and carrying your quarry home, while avoiding all the obstacles that get in your way.

The Gameplay Loop

Your Pikmin army is a fragile, but determined species that can easily die but also easily multiply. Defeated enemies or resources called Pellets can be carried by the Pikmin to their mothership, a structure called the onion, and when it absorbs nutrients, it spits out new Pikmin. Having more Pikmin is crucial because bigger items require more Pikmin to carry.

As an example, Pellets have numbers on their top that indicate how many Pikmin require to carry them. A "1" Pellet can be carried by 1 Pikmin, but a 5 Pellet requires 5 Pikmin. Small enemies might require 3 Pikmin, most larger intimidating enemies require at least 10, and if you defeat a boss, that could require at least 20. But the more Pikmin you have, the more they can carry, and this will produce more Pikmin. It is a positive feedback loop. But there is a cap. All Pikmin games allow no more than 100 Pikmin in the field at a time, but spare Pikmin can rest in the Onion, and be summoned to strengthen your ranks if others die.

In Pikmin, there is only so much you can do in a day, and this is typically between 13 and 18 minutes depending on the game and difficulty. At the start of each day, you will have to summon Pikmin from their onion to start work, and at the end of the day, you must bring them back to home base. Any Pikmin idle in the field when the day ends are left to die. Due to the ferocity of nocturnal life, the protagonist and the Pikmin's Onion leave the Earth's surface during night and take refuge in low orbit. So you must make sure you finish any tasks well before the final countdown, or risk losing tens of Pikmin who are not accounted for.

Each game has a different limit to the number of days you have to finish the game, but I will get into these differences later in this post. Depending on the state of your Pikmin army, some days may be more productive in terms of working on your main objective, while others might be spend just building up your army after a major loss. It is a balancing act.

The World

As a lover of Scifi, particularly Speculative Biology, the Pikmin series really tickles my fancy. The game's setting, PNF-404, is in fact planet Earth in the far off future. The continents have changed positions, and the climate is overall more lush and moist. But we only ever see the world at a micro-scale. This provides a unique take on speculative evolution.

When we think of how animals will evolve into the future, most popular culture focuses on megafauna, but when your player character is 2 centimetres tall, the most common type of threat will be creepycrawlies. There's quite a deep taxonomic web of genetic families with high biodiversity and adaptation radiation. The Bulborb or "Grubdog" family has about 10 unique subspecies in Pikmin 2 alone.

Starting in Pikmin 2, the Captains document each species of enemy in the Piklopedia, giving each a binomial scientific name and a general description. I've spent many hours just reading through these entries and observing the critters.

Beyond what has become of the world, we can also explore what used to be of the world. Leftovers from human civilisation, such as bricks, garden beds, and ceramic tiles form obstacles to exploration. Recognisable earthly fruit such as cherries, strawberries, and watermelons litter the forest floor. Knick knacks and junk such as AAA batteries, bottle caps, and NES cartridges can be dug up and collected. This is a world that was once lived in by humans, and like fossils, their impact is left to be found by future explorers.

Comparison of Games in the Series

At the time of writing, there are 3 main Pikmin games, with a fourth coming out later this year (thank goodness, it's been sooo long). Despite the same world and gameplay loop; grow pikmin, defeat enemies to grow more pikmin, collect thing to get to new areas and get new pikmin; each game tasks the player with a vastly different objective and restrictions on game time. Therefore, there can arise disagreements in which game provides the best experience.

In Pikmin 1, Olimar's ship accidentally crashes down to Earth and smashes to pieces. He cannot breath Earth's atmosphere, and his suit will only keep him alive for 30 days. He must spend these 30 days collecting as many parts of his ship as he can, so he has the capacity to leave Earth's orbit and warp back home. There are 30 ship parts to collect, but careful planning means you can easily get multiple pieces a day, and only 25 pieces are required. This game can feel very stressful with this looming time limit, but it is very unachievable to complete the game a few days early.

Pikmin 2 has Olimar and coworker Louie returning to PNF-404 on a treasure hunting mission. Their freight company is almost bankrupt, but junk from Earth can be sold on their home planet, Hocotate, for a fortune. There is no limit on how many days you need to spend on the distant planet, and you reach the first ending when you pay off the 10'000 poko debt. In addition, this is the only game in the series to feature Caves, underground sublevels of exploration. No time passes between entering and exiting a dungeon, but you can not go back to recruit more pikmin until you leave. Most of the game's treasure is found in dungeons.

In Pikmin 3, you take control of three spacemen from the planet Koppai, Alph, Brittany, and Charlie. Their planet is running out of food, and in their journey to find food on other planets, the three land on Earth. The three are tasked with collecting fruit, taking the seeds to grow back on Koppai, and the juice from the fruit are converted into rations for the three to continue their stay. There are 66 fruit to collect, and a few different endings depending on how many are collected.

In my opinion, Pikmin 3 achieves the best balance of time limit to challenge. Unlike Pikmin 1, there is not a hard deadline. 1 jar of juice means one day's rations. Different fruit will fill different amounts of juice; 20 grapes are needed to fill a jar, a cherry might only fill half a jar, while a watermelon can fill 3 jars on its own. Since there is a limited amount of fruit in the game, you can run out of new ones to find, but this gives the player upward of 50 days to beat the game. So unlike Pikmin 2, the time limit is not infinite, but actively pursuing the objective gives you more time.

Caves are an interesting way to pump extra challenge and content into a limited overworld, but since each floor is randomly generated, they are less deliberately complex and interesting than they could be. Pikmin 2 does offer the most main story content, and although I would like Dungeons in the next Pikmin game, I would like them better designed.

Conclusion

I am carefully optimistic for the next Pikmin game. These games scratch a mental itch no other series I've played can, and although I'm not a fan of games blatantly ripping unique concepts, it really sucks there's no "Pikmin-likes", because I would really love more of this type of game.

If you read this far, thankyou so much, this was really long. If you know any games that come close to replicating Pikmin's gameplay loop, please let me know in the notes. Also tell me what you want from Pikmin 4, I'm pretty damn excited for it.

#blog #blogpost #media recommendations #pikmin #pikmin 2 #pikmin 3 #videogame recommendations

[ronsenthal]

Hello!! I hope you’re doing well! 1, 5, 18, 24, and 30 for the ask game please ☺️❤️

Hey baby I'm good, love to see you here and thank you for asking <3

1. what are 3 things you’d say shaped you into who you are?

Indiana Jones, Football and Queen (the band) those things altered my brain chemistry and are still a big part of my life so I guess that's would be it

5. what made you start your blog?

So I first made a blog on tumblr back in 2012 after the football euros because I found that people love football around here but then life happened and I was away for a long time, but then one day in 2021 I realized that I was missing the fandom life and came back so I've made this account, firstly I would do edits for twitter (rip) like headers and icons but then I get fed up and started to blog about things I love

18. do you believe in ghosts and/or aliens?

Listen, there is no fucking way we are the only kind of life out there, there is so much we don't understand and so much to learn about space life in general, like we don't even have a clue about what goes on at our fucking oceans that are so tiny compared to the outer space scale???? like please!!!!! And ghosts I don't really know, I've experienced some spooky stuff

24. what’s one thing you’re proud of yourself for?

I've been able to recognize some nice stuff that I have done that makes me so proud, like considering all things I'm in such a good place mentally, phisically and professionally speaking. Growing up I was so scared that I would end up being a shitty person like my parents, or that I would never get a job on the field that I loved BUT GUESS WHAT!!!!!! HERE I AM!!!! I DID IT!!!

30. what’s one thing that never fails to make you happy/happier?

my cats!!!! they are little devils but I love them so much, they are the light of my life, my babies and I would die and kill for them

questions I think would be fun to be asked

#ask games #a little bit of jessica #asks

[tash-in-situ]

Big Fat Fear

When I was 17, I lost 17kgs in a 3-month span by consuming only 800 calories a day and striving to keeping my body in ketosis.

Going over old photos filled me with horror. I would use them for comparison making sure I was smaller than before. Every morning I would step on the scales and if the numbers hadn't dropped I was filled with disappointment. The compliments I received only made me want to become smaller and smaller, as it was obvious to me that being tiny meant I was worthy of praise and of love.

As a child, I was constantly reminded of my weight, teased at school and forced into exercise by family all while being fed the extra’s from their plates. Recently when I called my grandparents, my grandpa asked me if I had done anything to slim down, I felt he believed being overweight to be a flaw and a failure to my family.

I should be able to enjoy my body in any shape or size, however, the difficulty is how I am seen because of my body. As a fat person I am considered maternal, cuddly and a source of comfort (I never linked myself to the concept of youth) or I'm seen as a fetish and asked to smother guys on tinder.

By changing my diet and finding delight in physical activities to improve my health, I am scared that the result might be weight loss, which will start a cycle of self-dislike. I am aware that my insecurities will wane, yet the fact is that these insecurities only exist because I have been taught to be insecure about them.

My double chin, back rolls, wide thighs and tummy - I cherish and appreciate them as part of myself and equally wish they didn’t exist. I'm trying to be kind to the part of me that believes I should shed the extra weight to be deemed more attractive. This has been a struggle for me for over 18 years.

Throughout this period, my body has been through many stages all the while my main fear being that I wouldn’t be loved. If I could have a fresh start I would erase the idea that thinness equates, respect and good health, and that to be deemed unhealthy is sinful and amoral.

My aim is to prosper. I desire vitality. I want to be kind to myself. I don't want an external standard to determine my self-image or how I live my life. I want to be liberated from fear.I want to keep looking in the reflection and behold all of my Self, not only my physical form. Because I and all people are much more than just our bodies, more than flesh and muscle wrapped around bone.

Of course don't have to be constantly in love with your body, all the time. I find the Body Positive movement has become superficial and generic, pushing a message of 'You can also be attractive!' (As if beauty somehow makes you more of a valid human, rightful in your existence) when it's not even about that. Fat Liberationist theory states 'I deserve to be treated with respect, I EXIST, I am worthy of proper medical care, I am meaningful a part of society’

Instead of attempting to overlook and push away my insecure parts, I am now endeavoring to be kind to them and explore the reasons why they exist and why they cause me so much suffering. Most of the time, these insecurities are the result of a system that seeks to marginalize, degrade, and shame EVERY body. In doing this I can recognise my own programming and comprehend that I have been conforming to an ideal which is incompatible with my own values.

I try self care. caring for the injured parts, understanding the ache. Reassuring my inner child who is beginning to hate their ever changing body, becoming my own advocate. Recalling all the times I opted not to do something due to being embarrassed of myself, not wanting to be seen; and now running into those opportunities, smiling wide in photos, not caring because fuck’em I’m going to take up space and I AM going to have fun.

Love & Power,

Tash

Resources:

https://msmagazine.com/2019/10/18/the-feminist-history-of-fat-liberation/

https://www.dazeddigital.com/beauty/article/56384/1/the-radical-history-of-the-queer-fat-liberation-movement

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/healthy-bmi-obesity-race-/2021/05/04/655390f0-ad0d-11eb-acd3-24b44a57093a_story.html

#body positive #health #fat liberation #bopo #internal family systems #ablesim #fatphobia

[ladyswillmart]

After I get better at sewing, I’d really like to try making some of Hivallion’s actual outfits from LotRO. I’m just nuts enough to attempt to make 1/3 scale Scale(?) armor, and perhaps even a tiny version of his lesser ring (Nírya) but I have no idea how I’d go about it. 🤔 My dad studied art and jewelry-making in college so he might have some ideas.

I did get his hair for a new wig though! A beautiful, very generous mohair weft (color 18) from The Olive Sparrow on etsy. The colors in the picture aren’t quite right, the hair is sort of reddish in person.

Now I just need some eyes and I can actually start making the head!

#adventures in doll-land #LotRO #problem is some of the outfits in there do not make sense from a tailoring pov #so liberties might have to be taken

[samueldays]

Pathfinder's Spray of Failure: Monk

Regarding previous post on classes where I criticised Pathfinder in passing for failing to fix the Fighter, I got some comments and asks about Pathfinder attacking or defending it for other class things, so let's talk a bit about that.

I hold that Wizards dropped the ball with 4th Edition D&D, then Pathfinder bumbled into being the 3rd Edition successor for people who wanted officially supported 3e-like material and play, but Pathfinder added very little of value and Paizo (the company) was mostly lucky in picking up the metaphorical $100 bill on the sidewalk.

Paizo heard about bad design in 3e and 3.5e, but had no understanding of what to fix, and changed around a lot of dumb shit at random while claiming to fix things.

Paizo was spraying failed changes all over the place when making Pathfinder, undermining their own value proposition by making it harder to convert characters or switch play from 3rd Edition D&D. This did very little to fix 3e's problems, and added new problems.

My example today is going to be the Monk class. Links for those who want to read along: Monk in the 3.5e SRD, Monk in the PF SRD.

The Monk in 3.5 was generally agreed to be underpowered. There's four roles in the classic adventuring party - Fighter, Thief, Mage, Cleric - and the 3.5 Monk fills none of them. Nor does it carve out a new and fascinating niche with its own method of play.

The 3.5 Monk plays like half of a Fighter and one-quarter of a Thief. The Monk suffers from severe Multiple Ability Dependency (MAD) needing Str, Dex, Con, and Wis to do the fighter part, and Int to get the skills if it's going to be doing any thieving on the side. The Monk has poor accuracy, poor damage, poor toughness, and class features that try and fail to raise 'unarmed' to a viable combat style.

For example, Ki Strike (adamantine) at 16th level. Makes one's hands count as adamant when attacking barehanded, enabling the Monk to punch through the armor of monsters like the Stone Golem that shrug off damage from regular blows. Except the Stone Golem can show up at level 10-11 and the Sword Fighter can buy an adamantine sword as early as level 5. Ki Strike is too little, too late.

The Monk is still better with fists than anyone else with fists, but that's not saying much.

The Monk also suffers the general non-caster problems like "Cannot Fly" which force it to buy a Magic Item of Flying to remain relevant when flying enemies become common. At least it gets a teleport-like ability (Abundant Step) which helps a little.

So what did Paizo change about the Pathfinder Monk?

Well, first, if you look at the class skill lists near the top of both classes, there's some general system improvements like merging "Hide" and "Move Silently" into one single "Stealth" skill, but other than that, they removed Knowledge (Arcana) from the monk's skill list, and added Knowledge (History) instead.

As a class, this makes the Monk marginally worse in D&D - Arcana is the knowledge skill that covers dragons. For people switching editions, this makes their experience worse because it's breaking compatibility for no gain.

Flurry of Blows was given +1 to hit at first level, scaling to +3 to hit at 20th level, while the class Armor Bonus now goes up every four levels instead of every five levels, so that's 0 points higher half the time and 1 point higher half the time, swapping back and forth as you level. Flurry of Blows also had its underlying mechanics changed: 3.5 started at a -2 penalty that went away with advancement, Pathfinder made the -2 penalty permanent but added a different bonus scaling from +1 to +5, hence the net result of scaling from +1 to +3 to hit.

This still does not make the Monk competitive in play, only annoying to play if you're used to 3.5 and you have to learn these tiny tweaks!

The 3.5 Monk gets bonus feats at levels 1, 2 and 6. The PF Monk gets bonus feats at levels 1, 2, 6, 10, 14, and 18. This is an improvement, but it's still too little, too late, hardly worth the hassle of using a different list of feat choices.

Ki Strike (adamantine) is still at 16th level, boo. Ki Strike (silver) was added at 7th level to help the monk punch werewolves, yay. Ki Strike was also tied to a Ki Pool of resource points which become available at 4th level and can be spent to perform weaker knockoffs of a wizard's Haste spell (single target, shorter duration, partial effect).

At 5th level, the PF Monk gains the new ability to spend a point from the Ki Pool to add five feet to the height of a high jump. Remember the "Cannot Fly" problem I mentioned above? 5th level is where the Wizard gets the ability to FUCKING FLY by spending from a similarly limited pool of daily resources. If you're going to make the Monk spend limited resources from the Ki Pool for temporary mobility, GIVE HIM FLIGHT ALREADY, not this slightly-higher-jump.

Wholeness of Body, a monk's self-healing ability, was changed to cost points from the Ki Pool where it previously was free. It's been given a greater maximum healing in Pathfinder, if you spend all your daily Ki Pool points on it.

3.5 Monks can teleport themselves and handholding allies 600ft with Abundant Step. PF nerfed this to self-only teleport, and made it cost points from the Ki Pool.

The 3.5 Monk can become ethereal (ghostly) at 19th level with the Empty Body ability for free a short time each day, up to about two minutes. PF made it last longer, up to eight minutes, but also made it cost points from the Ki Pool to use on a per-minute basis.

The entire Ki Pool mechanic sucks.

Partly because it's a small resource being stretched across too many weak uses, creating bookkeeping hassle and yet more compatibility-breaking petty change for little gain.

Partly because this is now a class feature at 19th level, at this point At-Will Etherealness For Free Forever wouldn't be out of line, the spellcasters have been traveling to other planes of existence for 5-10 levels, the enlightened monk can surely shed the frailties of the flesh by now to casually battle enemies on the astral plane, and resume wearing that flesh like clothes at a later time. But no, pay per minute.

3.5 Monks become immune to mundane diseases at 5th level. PF improved this to become immune to all diseases at 5th level, including supernatural ones like ghoul fever or mummy rot. Also, Stunning Fist was given the option to do things other than Stun. Thanks for the small buffs. Monk still underpowered.

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Finally, at 20th level, the capstone ability of the 3.5 Monk was to become an extraplanar creature who has achieved harmony with the cosmos and is made of enlightenmentanium, gaining a perfected body that shrugs off the first 10 points of damage from any nonmagical weapon. This was almost entirely useless because everyone has magical weapons from 10th level and up.

Paizo messed around with this in unhelpful ways and instead gave the 20th level PF Monk a perfected body that shrugs off the first 10 points of damage from any nonchaotic weapon.

This is marginally more useful, because there are so few other uses for chaotic weapons and people won't be carrying them by default, but it's still weak, it's still simple to bypass, chaotic weapons are easily available at 20th level (you can make them as early as 7th) and the PF Monk as a whole is still underpowered and can't fill the Fighter role and can't fly and hasn't been fixed, despite all the tweaks.

Paizo's PFSRD also offers a different capstone option at 20th which I paste here:

Old Master At 20th level, the monk has reached the highest levels of his martial arts school. The monk gains one additional attack at his highest base attack bonus when using flurry of blows, and his dodge bonus to AC increases by 2.

This 20th level class feature is almost as good as the Haste spell that wizards get access to at level five. Haste gives an additional attack unconditionally, a 1 dodge bonus to AC, a 1 bonus to hit, and faster movement speed.

D&D characters leave the realm of "real people" around level 5. yesyes, there's lots of you who want to complain that wizards are doing unreal magic at level 1, but 1st level wizard magic is things like "Shoot Flaming Arrow But It's Magic" and "Disguise But It's Magic". 1st level magic mostly replicates real capabilities.

Old Master would have been cool as a Monk ability around 5th level. That's when he reaches the highest levels of his martial arts school, by the standards of real-life martial arts schools. Instead, Paizo put it at 20th level, because Paizo like a lot of D&D designers make the recurring mistake of thinking 20 is the "highest" level in D&D so 20th level is where you put the highest human capability.

No - the highest human capability is around level 5. After that, D&D characters are superhuman, and their class features should be superpowers.

If I may make a silly suggestion, 20th level martial arts in fantasy land should be like that infamous time Superboy punched continuity, excusing DC Comics's retcons and alternate character interpretations as in-character events from bruised timelines.

The 20th level wizard gets utterly bullshit spells that impose worse-than-death fates like being put into suspended animation and then entombed several miles underground in a cavelet hidden from divination spells. Even Resurrection won't help you now!

The 20th level monk should get to punch continuity. If you're fighting a major badguy with a bad matchup, punch him in the childhood and now you're fighting a different badguy in the present. :-D

#all #dnd #pathfinder #rant #rpg #tabletop #longpost

[avaguedoodle]

So, I'm staring down actually finishing what has for so long felt like a sisyphean task. So, we're gonna Post about it here!

It's gotten a bit out of hand since the original tags. But if you're looking for a full scale rewrite of the entirety of VLD with a lot of found family-ing, Adashi being a hot mess, and an unnecessary amount of world building boy have I got the fic for you!11

Who You Travel With (300805 words) by avagueidea Chapters: 50/52 Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron) Characters: Keith (Voltron), Lance (Voltron), Pidge | Katie Holt, Hunk (Voltron), Shiro (Voltron), Matt Holt, Adam (Voltron), Allura (Voltron), Canon Allura - Character, Lotor (Voltron), Krolia (Voltron), Spattering of both Earth and Alien OCs

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Road Trip, Found Family, Kerberos Mission comes home safe AU, Slowburn AF (I'd say I'm sorry but y'all know I'm not), Paladin Shuffle, Keith isn't expelled AU (though he's trying his best to change that), Road Trip AU!, Part 1: Road Trip, Part 2: Space, Part 3: ???, Alternate Universe Canon Compliant, YES I am rewriting the entirety of Voltron (No I didn't think that fact through) Summary: With the Kerberos Mission arriving home soon, Keith realizes this is his last chance to do something reckless. That's how Keith, Pidge, Hunk, and Lance find themselves stuffed into an ancient, tiny sedan, driving thousands of miles to solve an 18 year old mystery before Common sense (or Shiro) can catch up to them. Little do they know, the answers they find will take them much further from home than any of them were expecting.

Despite being Keith's common sense, Shiro shows he has none as he, Matt, and his ex-fiance end up chasing after the runaways before anyone gets arrested, or worse, expelled!

A story about found family and finding out what's really most important via road trips and ancient intergalactic space wars.

#Voltron #Adashi #Klance #fanfic #Found family #gotta get that life changing road trip in there #AU/canon compliant #(Play 'spot what single event diverged us from canon' with me) #this thing had plot twists even I didn't see coming (like Klance. I legitimately had not planned for that one until it happened) #penultimate chapter just uploaded (epilogue excluded) #my writing