#insects mention

[prokopetz]

One of the occupational hazards of being so preoccupied with game design as a discipline is that sometimes I'll have dreams that are just some unknown force explaining an idea for a game to me, and last night I dreamed what is possibly the most obnoxious mechanical premise for a game I've ever come up with.

In brief, it was a traditional JRPG-style game with an atypical levelling-up scheme. Rather than gaining XP or levelling up at milestones, party members would grow in power by finding and absorbing or ingesting these little extradimensional parasites, represented in the dream as small grub- or fetus-like creatures with smiling humanoid faces. These parasites would be found as treasure and enemy drops, and could freely be given to any party member, except for the player character; the player character alone was unable to use them for Plot Reasons, and was entirely reliant on equipment to grow in power instead.

Absorbing a parasite both granted permanent stat boosts and unlocked weird psychic powers. However, they'd also cause progressive personality changes in the party members to which they were assigned, reflected by changes in dialogue and interactions, and eventually in granting or denying access to particular side quests. This function of the parasites was undocumented, and would likely go unnoticed by the player on their initial playthrough, as they'd level up as they went and would never see the unmodified dialogues.

A further wrinkle is that this effect was mediated by the game's expected progression. Farming parasites and "over-levelling" beyond where the game expected you to be would accelerate the personality changes, while going deliberately under-levelled would slow them (i.e., by giving your party members more time to acclimate to having bugs in their brains); like the personality changes themselves, the existence of these hidden modifiers would not be hinted at to the player.

If you spent a long enough stretch of the game sufficiently over-levelled, you'd eventually receive a non-standard game over where your party would betray, kill, and eat the player character. Furthermore, this non-standard ending had a deliberate "eclipse phase" whereby it would wait for a while after you hit the required threshold before pulling the trigger, in particular making sure that you've saved at least once, leaving your save file irrevocably fucked.

As a final twist, the non-standard game over would only trigger after resting; though the game's mechanics would heavily incentivise resting on a regular basis, it would theoretically be possible to massively over-level your party on purpose and avoid the bad ending simply by never resting again, potentially as a speedrun strat. However, doing so would alter the game's ending to replace the usual final boss with a hopeless solo boss fight against your own massively over-levelled party.

#concepts #gaming #video games #violence mention #death mention #cannibalism mention #body horror mention #insects mention #swearing

[bird-of-the-day]

BOTD: Green Woodpecker

^image credit: Charles J Sharp, Wikipedia

Green Woodpecker (picus viridis)

The Green Woodpecker is unusual in that it usually doesn't 'drum' on trees like other woodpecker species. It prefers to spend its time feeding on ants on the ground. At ant nests, it probes into the ground and licks up the adult ants and their larvae, using its long tongue.

#insects mention #woodpecker #green woodpecker #british birds #birds of britain #birdwatching #birding #woodpeckers #bird #birds #bird lovers #bird facts #bird fact #bird behaviour #bird feeding #ornithology #bird of the day #botd #animal facts #bird fact of the day

[queerbauten]

We were there [in West Berlin] a couple of days when Lydia, out wandering the streets, met Blixa Bargeld and was somewhat fascinated by this stick insect of a bloke in a rubber suit with animal hair stapled to it. She came back to the studio having told this bloke to get his band into the studio, and a couple of hours later, Einstürzende Neubauten turn up with this old truck and start dragging all these rusty steel springs and other metal junk in over this perfectly polished wooden floor. The engineer was having a meltdown!

Murray Mitchell in Lydia Lunch: The War Is Never Over: A Companion To The Film By Beth B by Nick Soulsby

#🤭 #Lydia Lunch #Einstürzende Neubauten #Blixa Bargeld #Thirsty Animal #Lydia Lunch: The War Is Never Over: A Companion To The Film By Beth B #Nick Soulsby #Murray Mitchell #y’know I don’t know that it was animal hair. at least not exclusively #body image mention #body shaming mention #? just in case #text heavy #insects mention #war mention

[balladetto]

i think link deserves to catch fireflies with someone. or beetles. any bugs really. just as a completely whimsical thing with no burden of memories that would make his heart ache because catching bugs is a pastime he did by himself as much as he did with others and outside of home as much as in it 🥺

#* intermission / ooc. #does this technically count as a study?? made this to put it in my wishlist tag sksjdjfj #kid who could be classified as bug catcher in a normal pk.mn verse ahahsjd grass/bug expert!! #i cannot stand the fellas so it is hilarious to me that he falls on the complete opposite of the spectrum ahaha #(hates the disgustingly bigger ones though. link vc: skulltulas can fuck off) #hope you’re having a lovely day!! be seeing you <3 #wishlist tag. #* lionheart / study. #insects mention

[primeministerofantarctica]

i'm enamored with the memetic internet slang "girls when x" however the use of gendered terms in reference to myself makes me uncomfortable so to rectify that i'm replacing "girls" with a random insect. grasshoppers when the fanfiction tagged as angst makes them cry. carpenter bees when they remember amy rose won't be playable in smash despite having potentially the most sick-ass finishing move. predacious diving beetles when edible cookie dough exists.

#and so on. you get the picture. #astra rambles #personal #insects mention #man. now i really want some cookie dough.

[caintooth]

i was 15!!!!!!! i was 15, what did you do to me to make me think it was supposed to be like that? i wrote from your perspective for so long i started to think i wanted it too.

#diary #idk how to even tag this sorry for venting y’all #abuse tw #abuse cw #tw abuse #cw abuse #gross tw #insects mention #gross mention #bugs mention #infestation #maggots

[arathergrimreaper]

I think I'm a cockroach queer. You know, virtually unkillable and determined to gross people out.

#insects mention #anya says shit

[movedto-bunny-lovers]

6 for whoever wants to answer this?

6. What made you head over heels for s/i? What lit that spark for you?

"It was how sweet and kind she is. She also listens when I talk to her, compliment me when I deserve it, she is patient with me, and always honest with me. It was the butterflies in the stomach of that spark for her. It's also being excited to be with her."

"Hope you have a wonderful weekend and thank you for the ask!"

#otp: wing hero and his dove #little-shaymin #f/ovember #f/o takeover #ask #insects #insects tw #tw insects #insects mention #Not Safe for Chris #robyn dni

[amaurotine]

hythlodaeus really enjoys bugs. there's few faster ways to put a smile on his face than submitting either an animate plant concept or an insectoid/arachnid/bug-type concept. of course, he also enjoys conventionally cute insects like bumble bees, but many of the less-admired specimens of bug occupy a special place in his heart. he prefers caterpillars to butterflies, finding them endearing in their awkwardness and cherishing the fleeting anticipation that builds as he observes them in their chrysalises. one of his favourite insectoid creatures is anything mantis related, as he finds them both elegant and bizarre from an aesthetic standpoint, and highly effective at their purposes, even if the mate head consumption thing strikes him as a little morbid. he also finds tarantulas and spiders cute, and he has something of an affinity with them, allowing him to obtain venom from them for the sake of creating antivenoms and study the aetherial composition of the venom itself, which is something that fascinates him to no end. 

#✿:ﾟ* 𝐻𝐸𝒜𝒟𝒞𝒜𝒩𝒪𝒩𝒮 . #bugs mention #insects mention #spiders mention #was kinda afraid to bring this up tbh bc ik some folks are triggered by bugs :^( i apologize for that but he enjoys them #i will NOT be posting pics of spiders on here dw lmao...will mostly stick with featuring the less triggering bugs :^)

[prokopetz]

As a technical writer I'm usually not prone to falling into the trap of that xkcd comic about the geologists who think your average person knows the chemical formula for quartz, being as "accurately assessing the probable prior knowledge of a given audience about a given topic" is literally one of my professional skills – but then I start talking about what I consider to be extremely entry-level tabletop RPG stuff and I'm met with shocked exclamations of "wait, back up – there are RPGs where you can play as BUGS???".

#gaming #tabletop roleplaying #tabletop rpgs #game design #technical writing #insects mention

[bird-of-the-day]

BOTD: Fieldfare

^image credit: Arnstein Rønning, Wikipedia

Fieldfare (turdus pilaris)

The Fieldfare is a thrush that winters in the United Kingdom, Southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. During the winter, berries are an important part of the Fieldfare's diet, but it is omnivorous, and its diet includes snails, slugs, worms, spiders, and beetles.

#fieldfare #birds of britain #british birds #botd #birdoftheday #bird fact of the day #bird of the day #birds #bird facts #bird behaviour #insects mention #birdwatching #bird fact #birding #bird #ornithology

[queerbauten]

Hello!

What you felt most wonderful about blixa Bargeld.i wish the answer would be a describe.connect with what she appears in your head.

Hello!

How I feel about Blixa, hm? How would I describe her?

I harbour for Blixa Bargeld a deep, abiding respect and admiration which I have for few others on this planet. She is this larger-than-life, powerful, and even intimidating figure, but she's so sweet, so kind, and so gentle. Everyone who's described her as otherworldly is correct—if you've ever seen her in person, she has a presence that sets her apart from everyone else—, but she is also so, so human.

Photographer Muriel Delepont once said of Blixa, "He was the way I like people to be: distant and respectful, with a certain indifference as well as a certain curiosity for my character." That's very much my experience as well. She can be distant, but she's never cruel. When I've spoken to her privately, she's been as kind and sweet as she is publicly. She can do so much with few words.

This post is super mushy, but it's all how I feel. She's this cosmic experience who is so incredibly down-to-earth. She gives, to quote Nick Cave, the feeling of "yummy butterflies [that] explode in our tummies," but she's never going to lord that power over you (well, except maybe in jest). She is a genuinely good and amazing person.

#thanks for the ask! :D #as I said this post is super mushy #but I've had so many good interpersonal experiences with Blixa that I can't not be #she... did me a great kindness once that I can't elaborate upon publicly #but... trust me when I say she's wonderful #text heavy #insects mention

[purgatorical]

Took a bite of my ice cream (mint chocolate and sprinkles) and it was crunchier than I expected.

My brain, oh so helpfully: BUGS bugs bugs bugs there are BUGS in your ice cream. Youre eating. BUGS. 

Me, eating another spoonful: probably not bugs.

#ignore this if you want #insects mention #bug mention #bro why is my brain like this #half the time im able to continue but the other half the time i throw out food #or i had to smack myself because 'bug not hair' #i see 'bugs' out of the corner of my eye #its not even always bugs #but bugs happened just now so im talking about bugs

[barxlupin]

@noirbled asked:

“ here. hold my hand. you get scared again, squeeze tight, and i’ll help you. got it? “ / from sherlock.

REASSURANCE PROMPTS

"I'm not s-scared..."

Contrary to her half-hearted protest, Enola grips Sherlock's offered hand with both of her own, already clammy with perspiration.

She'd walked ankle-deep in blood and guts and knee-deep in sewage water without flinching. It won't be something as stupid as an insect to get the best of her...

A cockroach almost twice the size of the one who had first startled her skitters out of the rotting floorboards, dangerously close to her foot, and Enola screeches, her grip on Sherlock's hand turning vice-like as she scrambles to hide behind his back.

Nope. No no no no. She can handle all sort of animal that would make proper ladies wrinkle their nose in disgust, from snakes to lizards to snails, even bloody rats, but bugs? Absolutely not.

#noirbled #if you want to be heard you have to make some noise [answer] #you're a nincompoop! [ic] #verse: the game is afoot [main] #bugs mention #insects mention #(( turns out enola really hates bugs ^^; ))

[the-cabin-complex]

On a good note (not that there’s been any bad notes posted here at least), we went on a hike and saw a total of twenty five caterpillars of one sort, two of another, and some birds nest fungi (which we’ve never seen before)

—Tony

#Tony’s tag #insects mention

[collectedbyflick]

I think I just heard a cicada land briefly on my window and shriek.

At least, it better have been outside my window and not in my actual apartment, or I swear, I'm out.

#Flickposting #bugs mention #insects mention