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sudoscience · 4 months

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Finished The Indigo Disk last night, so time for some more PokéThoughts:

For costing more than half the price of the base game, I feel like the story could have been longer. I'm certainly not done playing the DLC yet (still haven't caught the Loyal Three, for example), but I finished the story in ~2 days. The base game probably took me about a week? To be fair, I did start the DLC with a full team of Lvl 100 Pokémon, so that probably saved me a lot of time.

Similarly, for being called "The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero", you really don't spend that much time in Area Zero. Again, this is likely due to having a late game, high level build. Part of the reason it took longer in the base game is because you don't have Koraidon, so you can't just jump and fly to get where you need. Also, I just immediately used the warp point to get to Research Station 4 instead of walking through all of Area Zero again. I hope I didn't accidentally skip any fun interactions, but with how much Game Freak tries to railroad you into doing the plot how they want you to (see my previous post about the DLC), I feel like if there were any cutscenes there, then you just wouldn't be able to use the warp points for... reasons.

That being said, what time you do spend in Area Zero is just as awesome as the first time you go there in the base game. The new music is great, too.

Speaking of new music: Celestial (Remix by Toby Fox)?! Leave it to Toby to make an Ed Sheeran song actually good, I guess.

Performance wise, it's comparable to the base game, maybe slightly better? Only clipped into a mountain once. Haven't noticed any other glitches so far, but it does occasionally seem to run a bit sluggishly. (And it continues to suffer from a lack of voice acting.)

Koraidon can fly now!!! Wish there was an option to invert the y-axis, but it can fly!!! Also, you can BE your Pokémon now!!!

Spoilers?

I like how they tell you Blueberry Academy is in Unova, but it's not, like, attached to it at all. It's just an island. They could have said any region, and it would have had negligible impact, imo. (But I am saying this as someone who hasn't actually played Gen V, so maybe there were things I missed.)

Well, okay, I think it did have one effect. I haven't played B/W, but I know Unova is supposed to be based on America, so when one of the NPCs mentions "BBQs", I was like, "Oh, that's cool. They have barbecues here instead of picnics." Nope! Stands for Blueberry Quests.

Terapagos being tiny when Kieran first pulls him out was the funniest shit

It broke the fucking Master Ball?! It can do that?!

Still not sure I really understand how the Stellar Tera Type works. I know it's not every type at once. I'm not sure how that would work either. Wouldn't they just cancel each other out?

I don't feel like the game did the best job of communicating how much time had passed. Carmine (and later, Kieran) always being like, "You really kept me waiting". I literally did not??? But also, Kieran saying, "I looked up to [Player] for so long", meanwhile I'm pretty sure that, at most, one in-game week has passed since I first met him. I guess if I had played the first part when it first came out, it would've felt like a longer time. (It was probably supposed to be at least a few months in-game.)

Also makes it a little hard to buy into his motivation being his desire to beat me in battle. Wait, maybe that makes it more believable, actually. "You're still bitter about that?" "Yeah? It was just last week..."

But, again, I would be perfectly happy to let him have Ogerpon. He has a personal connection to it! If I keep it, it's probably just going to stay in one of my boxes. (It is pretty cute, though.)

Despite the lack of hugs, I found the ending acceptable. I do still wish you could have hugged Kieran, though. Or at the very least, when he says, "Can we be friends again?", you should have been able to say something like, "What do you mean 'again'? We're still friends!"

#i know it sounds like i'm complaining a lot but the dlc is actually really fun #would recommend #pkmn #al rambles about pokemon #the hidden treasure of area zero #pokemon #pokémon #pokemon scarlet and violet #sv spoilers

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superintendent-b · 5 months

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If Alpha-Nine had civilian jobs what do you think they would be?

Ooohhg, fun question!! 😁 I actually think about this a lot, although in a very unserious manner. Sorry this took a while too, I struggle with writing (like heavy on the struggle) but I tried my best to give them in-character answers. Anyways! here's what I have for you…

Buck — for Buck, there's the obvious answer of fisherman. He's had a lot of experience with fishing and seamanship in his childhood, plus he has plenty of strength and stamina now as a Spartan. I don't see him being a particularly smart man so anything that requires higher education would not be a great fit for him. He could be a nice athlete coach too. We don’t know if Buck is interested in any sport but if we’re weighing in his role as Fireteam Osiris’ advisor and mentor, it could work.

Dare — if I'm being honest, it's hard to see her outside of ONI but considering she's a Section One agent, I think she’d be a good fit for a career like archivist, data analyst, or researcher. She might also make a good detective.

Romeo — he'd for sure be a business owner of some kind. I don’t see him being anyone's employee since he can be a little abrasive with authority figures. So it goes without saying that being in a position where he has autonomy/independence is best for him – plus I think he’s smart enough. Also taking into account his previous experience as a Merchant Marine, he could become the marketing specialist behind his business.

And a silly answer I will not give context for, Bartender. (Maybe bar owner…?)

Dutch — He could continue pursuing religious studies and philosophy. We know he studied religion and philosophy prior to being drafted, and sometime before then, he was a truck driver. A religious study degree could lead him to do non-profits or social work, but there's nothing directly related to the degree that fits Dutch. It's the same story with philosophy – though it's useful for understanding things like business or economics. That being said, why not become business partners with Romeo? They were pretty attached in Helljumper (tbh that was kind of just Romeo… my poor clingy boy.) Of course, he could always go back to being a truck driver, but according to Bad Blood that wasn't very fulfilling after being an ODST.

Mickey — in my personal opinion, he could be a firefighter. It gives him the chance to help others in his community, which we know he's all for, and it's dangerous enough that I think it could work for someone like him. He could also thrive as a political activist or (less likely imo) a political leader. Regardless, I think making money wouldn't be a big concern for him as he would be way more inclined to work for non-profits than someone like Dutch.

Annnd joke answer: GameStop employee.

Gretchen — unfortunately there's not a whole lot on her so anything I say would be pure headcanon. However, I don't think a desk job would make her happy. Despite her disability, Gretchen is still a dedicated and ambitious woman – I’d love to see her in the automotive mechanist/technician field or even just general maintenance and repair (again, there’s nothing to suggest she would, but there’s also nothing to suggest she wouldn’t.) On the other hand, I believe she'd be employed with Romeo and Dutch in whatever business idea they’ve cooked up. She served with them both for… however long… I like to think they became a family.

The Rookie — professional sleeper. 64k a year. I'm joking, Rooks can be whatever you want him to be :)

#thank you for the ask!! :D #voidedbattery #halo #halo 3 odst #alpha nine #edward buck #veronica dare #halo romeo #halo dutch #halo mickey #gretchen ketola #the rookie #ask post #ask prompt #txt post #im so nervous. the writers are going to kill me

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yxstxrdrxxm · 2 months

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In response to this post (^｡^)

For starters, you make some of the best edits/ banners imo!! I rlly love the visuals and color schemes of One Last Call, not to mention the new banners for your main(?) blog!! The desktop layout is also rlly pretty; I’m always in awe of the spinning dial animation :0

As for your writing, the way you write yanderes is so…..aahh how do I describe it?? Your stories are so delightfully dark, exciting, and creative. Every time I read a new drabble, I can’t take my eyes off my phone, and the endings always surprise me in a good way.

Lastly, by now, you already know how much I love your OCs. You write their backstories + dialogue so well, and it’s rlly fun to interact with them. Their character designs are also *chef’s kiss* especially Cupid’s <3

I hope you know I hogged this ask because seeing this makes me sob HSAIUHUDFIG LIKE PLS IT MADE ME ;-; IN THE MOST /POS WAY POSSIBLE HELPPP

anyways just. oh. ough. I'm honestly gonna be fr w/ you, the desktop layout was actually from someone else I saw (I believe their cr. is there but if not, I'll find whoever it is and get it!), but I'm very honored that my edits are the best you've seen orz

(I put too much time on them and I do not regret doing such a thing LMAOOO esp for OLC, that sht was so fun to do)

Your stories are so delightfully dark, exciting, and creative. Every time I read a new drabble, I can’t take my eyes off my phone, and the endings always surprise me in a good way.

I... REALLY??? ;-; TYYYYY, I PUT A LOT OF TIME AND EFFORT TO THEM /pos

researching for those stories + making sure they work are one of the things I put so much effort on and I sometimes have to resist losing my mind over them because some are a menace to write HAIUHDFUIR though I'm very glad you love them! (I also pride in some of them because GOD I have too many ideas on a few that ended up being extremely dark LMAOOOO)

I think my fave will be Tailor of Inazuma because that got me in the "let them cook" and its the darkest, vile sht I can come up with. It's absolutely bonkers HAHIUFHRDI

HELP OKAY BEFORE I START RAMBLING LET ME CONTINUE READING

(update: I literally had a moment where I'm just kicking my feet, giggling and rolling over the bed at the third one. Pls I took too much pride in my ocs and worldbuilding and it reminds me why I hoard this ask for 2 days and would've done it anyway if I wasn't going "oh right I gotta answer the others" HAIUHERIUFG)

(anyways I hope u know Im smiling like an idiot while I prepare for Flawed's opening. It's insane but dw I'll be fine. I'm def sane abt this.)

(No, no I'm not sane.)

#💌 ;; messenger writes #💌 ;; to my beloved: jessamine #;; kicking my feet giggling twirling my hair in the most /p way (no homo)#;; iwhsuderf sorry im not normal abt this. absolutely not.#;; i've hoarded this for too long... im v sorry if you thought i didnt get it. i did.#;; i just cant bring myself to answer this but... alas #;; BAHAHAHHAHA #;; anyways orz ignore me as i sob on my bed /pos

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japanifornication · 5 months

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9, 22, 26 for the fic writer asks!

hi rylan, tysm for the ask!!! 🥰

9. what fic meant the most to you to write?

this is a pretty tough question! looking back i wrote a lot more than i thought this year (2023 has been so long jfc) but i guess i would have to give this to status. mostly just because it finished off the series that really kicked me into gear in this fandom 💕

22. share an excerpt from your favorite scene.

it was an open secret they were frustrated with each other, phoenix with edgeworth for running away again, edgeworth with him for “giving up.” things were made worse by the distance, made worse by the constant friction in the ways they’d both always done little things that drove each other crazy and now amplified into disaster by everything else.

so the notion of edgeworth being a “friend” instead of someone he just miserably wanted to hatefuck just to get over him was laughable, but he couldn’t tell his daughter that.

he’s been thinking about it too long and he knows she knows that. he pulls away from the half-hug she’s got him in and picks up her crooked hat from atop her head, ruffling her hair softly then setting it back down straighter and pulling her back in for a tighter hug. “yeah. everything’s fine, kiddo. sometimes he’s just annoying, you know? seems like he knows everything, doesn’t it?”

that earns a laugh, which always makes him feel a little lighter. “i think he does, daddy. he’s so smart. but you’re smart too, just in a different way.” she leans her head against his shoulder and it tips her hat again.

“mm. you think so?” he asks with a low chuckle, scratching at his stubble.

“mhmm! he reads like a lot of books, i bet. and probably wikipedia, for fun. i like to do that too sometimes. like i bet if i asked him… the national flower of austria, he could tell me in a second. but you’re better at people. like, you could tell that snake guy was a good man who wasn’t just selling us a sick snake for more than it was worth, right? d’you think miles would be able to tell that?” she asks. her eyes are closed as she talks, and phoenix wonders what she’s picturing in that endless imagination of hers.

“i think he could have gone online and done the research to find out, but i don’t think he would have agreed to this in the first place,” phoenix snorts.

“because he’s too proper for a pet like a snake,” trucy sniffs with a faux air of decorum, and phoenix lets out a loud laugh. he’s needed that; she always knows what he needs.

“yeah, he is. but it’s not his decision. he’s helping but ultimately it’s still my decision, and i know you’ll take good care of ant.”

my favorite parts of writing decadence are actually the scenes between trucy and phoenix. i think during 7yg he really does need her just as much as she needs him, and i wanted their relationship to be more than just set dressing to the nrmt, even though that is the focus. i hope i pulled that off and keep pulling it off. more soon! i know i keep saying that but... more soon (croaks and dies).

26. if you had to choose one, what was THE most satisfying writing moment of your year?

also a hard question. if we're talking about specifically writing, and not like, anything related to posting the writing, it has to be writing decadence. i just find a lot of catharsis in writing arguments, especially of characters in very unhealthy (manic, anxious, etc.) mindsets. it's a place i know very intimately from my own life but with Help have come a long place from, and don't want to return to obviously, because it's not fun in real life. but it makes for compelling writing/reading imo, i can't really explain why misunderstandings and arguments are some of my favorite things to dig into. i guess there's still some part of me, even now that i am medicated and doing okay, that loves the satisfaction of being the architect of fights and deciding who gets the last word and when it's over, something that very much is not how it works when you are the one having a manic episode or anxiety attack.

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devitalise · 9 months

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IMO IT'S THE LAST WEEKENd OF JULY!! Ty for letting me be the first this time I'm sure it was very hard to wait on my slow ass (I did mean to send this sooner & not literally the very last weekend but alas this job of remembering is in fact very hard 💔) JULY BOOKS + POTENTIAL AUGUST READS PLS!! 🤲

HIIIIII i can't believe july went by so quickly with such awful weather here in the uk! as i swore to myself i'd be outside doing things this summer i get hit with overcast miserable weather and rain! i did enjoy a weekend trip to barcelona to make the most of the beautiful 30 degree heatwave and enjoyed a lot of sangria and picked up such a fun book for that trip let's get into the

july book wrap up

(spoilers: i did not read #3 in the neapolitan quartet... maybe august)

Thiefs Journal by Jean Genet

theeeee most challenging book i've ever read i think. it was like doing a boss fight where you're 5 levels below the recommended level and you can get through it but it's hardfought. stellar, though. there's a lot that went over my head on this initial read, but i loved reading this book even when struggling through it. Genet's candidness was so refreshing i admired his voice and how unashamed he was to hold positions and opinions that were hypocritical, even. i saw this was added to your tbr recently, and i think you'll love it too!

Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih

no reprieve! jumping right into another difficult book. one of my long term reading goals is to continue seeking out more non-english fiction, and coming across this book (i think it was in the list of recommended reading at the back of Let It Come Down by Paul Bowles as suggested by Penguin) was kind of serendipitous. i wish my reading had credited me more Big Words for discussing books like these but it's one of those ones where i'm itching to hear someone else's perspective on this so i'll do some googling. enjoyed it though!

My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley

my barcelona read. i took my mom for her birthday, so it was only fitting i read another book giving voice to disjointed mother-daughter relationships. i loved this. i'll never get bored of this subject matter, and i think Riley did a commendable job at presenting something well-balanced between real emotional turmoil and humour. what stuck out to me most was holding yourself back from expressing yourself wholly to your mom in the same breath that you expect her to be vulnerable and the kind of. dance you do back and forth to test who'll blink first kind of thing. second plane read that's blown me away this year

The Portrait of a Mirror by A. Natasha Joukovsky

i just finished this today so thoughts may be a touch too fresh, but this was really like reading a character study on the main four in gossip girl if we'd followed them through to their 30s (big 4 being blair, dan, SVDW and nate). that snobbish upper-middle class art and literature intellectualism with high society expectations as a measure for acceptable behaviour. i appreciate books that are well researched and go the extra mile, and this did it for me. shame i got stuck with the ugly cover version.

august reads

i've already picked out my next read! rue (of okruee fame) and i will be buddy reading The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde and if the weather gets better i will finally pick up ferrante #3. i'm 27/35 books towards my reading goal and feeling pretty good tbh <3

also on the road to Being 25, i have started organising my birthday, as you do when it's in december i've booked my hotel and flights so excited to be a girl in new york

#book talk #dj servo #imo inquiries

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gwaaaaar · 1 year

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My Personal Ranking of the MazM Games

Lawd im going insane so. Making this ranking. Excluding Yellow Bricks of course. Keep in mind this will not inherently judge the quality of the games moreso my enjoyment so feel free to disagree :) i would love to hear everyones opinions

HYDE AND SEEK SWEEP!!!

Imo theres nothing wrong with HNS (a lie there probably is but shhh). The characters are solid, the plot can fall a little flat at times but MazM said they prioritized making memorable characters more as they can be taken out of the story and used in multiple re-imaginings. They were pretty successful in doing just that. If we didn't have hns we wouldn't have Alan... mai waifu...

Kate is a good protagonist! She's a smartass and an absolute hothead but a load of fun. Pollie is literally a sopping wet meow meow tumblr would love her if HNS was actually popular. I don't think you guys need to know my opinion on Alan (beautiful gorgeous all that is good in the world). Mihir is good South Asian representation:) hes witty and sympathetic. Shoutout to Crack for actually making him look South Asian... so real for that. Bishop is an amazing antagonist like holy shit it may just be my bias but idk she got me tweaking. Of course you got the OG characters like Jekyll and Hyde, although I must admit Jekyll was fucking tweaking lawd that wasn't Jekyll that was his evil brother Jackson.

Art is really good too! Crack was working solo on this project and their art is soooo good, not Maha's painted style but it definitely works for the setting. The watercolor makes sure its not visually boring. The gameplays really fun! If a bit difficult, but I managed to finish the game 3 days after release. It's refreshing after the previous interactive book style games we had before. Honestly I'd reccomend it to any new MazMians and it's very easy to get into :) It's like MazM's tribute to JNH which made them popular in the first place.

2. It's Pechka time. Pechkas all over the place.

Ok ok so. I'd actually say Pechka is a masterpiece. Like literally nothing wrong with it story/characterwise. The story isn't as weak as HNS and it takes itself a lot more seriously. It is MazMs first historical game and it is really educational! Korean rebellion in Russia is a very interesting topic to explore. I didn't even know about it till I played this game.

It was their passion project, it's clear they were very excited to share a story that dealt with their culture so personally. The love shows through the research and dedication they put into it. The characters are sos so so gooood like. Back when I was smaller, I used to scoff at Pyotr for being selfish but. Nowadays hes my poor meow meow malewife. He'd do rounds on tumblr if he was popular. Asya too theyre literally the malewife girlboss dynamic. Pyotr and Asyas relationship is so fucking complicated but lawd they compliment each other perfectly. Daejin, Lizaveta, and Kyuhan have such a sweet story together and just. Aughhhhh.

The art done by Maha and Crack is interesting. The art style uses hatching and it's more simplistic compared to the painted art styles of prior. They primarily focused on making sure the characters actually looked ethnic Korean. The colors assigned to each characters omg... I LOVE WHEN CHARACTERS HAVE A SIGNATURE COLOD THAT REPRESENTS THEM TO A T! The CG cards at the end though... THERES NO HAPPY ENDINGS!!! Some are more bittersweet/neutral. But I think the CG cards do have a wide range of emotions and effectively carry the endings well.

The only problem of this game is the coins which makes it rlly tedious. Pechka is a bit slow burn, so the fact you can only play 2 eps a day is a bit... of a drag. Theres like 10 endings and no log to keep track of what dialouge youve gone through. Like i get you cant replay it without replaying the entire story bc of the endings system unlike jnh or poto or hns but at the very least i wish there was a log to keep track. The footnotes too like, we cant even replay induvidual episodes to find more footnotes which is a bit infurating. It follows the interactive book style of the previous games but the 10 endings give it a new twist.

But yeah on a technical level i might rate it the same level if not higher than hns. Just with hns i found more enjoyment and not many faults :)

3. Thy Creature,,,

Lawd I think you all know how I feel abt Thy Creature. But I'll break it down. Early access Thy Creature had so much potential to be a modern masterpiece it's actually unreal. It was doing something new by being a midquel game rather than prequel/sequel/1 to 1 adaptation. The idea of the bosses representing concepts and characters is genius. They messed up once they realized they didn't have enough time to do all they could n its a shame. I wish it could've gotten delayed just so the writing would be baked properly. Story is a lost cause </3 With characters, the characters are good! However. In the new version, EA characters such as Noah, Justine, and Creature, have been character assasinated. Noah got away just barely because his new iteration is not all bad, Justine's character stayed relatively the same however her feelings towards the Creature have been tampered quite a bit. A lot of the Creature's moral dilemmas are stripped away and it is far more emotionless in the new version which SUCKS. Noah and the Creature had such an interesting dynamic in the early version and it had been removed in the final cut </3.

Character motivations have been completely hidden as the new memory system doesn't give them induvidual reactions to memories which SUCKS. Like. Noah lashed out at the Creature because he realized he had forgotten about his beloved orphanage. YOU DON'T GET THAT IN THE NEW VERSION </3333. They made 701 eviller rather than sympathetic in the final version too </3 The characters that were introduced in the final version are just fine though, perhaps because we didn't lose anything, only gained. Leon is a ray of sunshine, Hanna is a milf, Alex is a badass, Ben is sympathetic etc etc They're like a family :) The boss battles r so cool too... Only gripe is EL is a fascinating character and died too soon to feel attachment to.

The art is fucking gorgeous, Maha primarily worked on the art until Crack finishsd HNS and joined 6 months before release. Unfortunately this is the last MazM game the two worked on as they have left the company due to overwork. Their art is practically one of the lead contributions to why people like MazM so much. Thy Creature is beautiful. I like the earlier concepts better with the sketchy/horror aspects, but the new polished art is just as good. The bullet hell gameplay is a neat mechanic! If only it weren't so hard :(((. In demo traliers there was a concept for having text slide across the screen and scenes playing out during the bullet hell. The bullets would be words and you as a player would have to pay attention to the story thats playing out while dodging, which is a fascinating concept too! But, that sort of thing would be very difficult for certain disabilities and just in general hard to deal with, so I understand why they removed it.

This game was not meant to educate like Pechka, but rather be moving. There are no footnotes like the other game which is fine like it is its own thing. I still think it's a lot of fun. Team MazM put their heart in it just like they did with Pechka, it's worth a try if one likes bullet hells :).

4. Phantom of the Opera let's go!!! 🌊🐴 juan

Lawd you guys know how I feel abt it too. But I'll break it down. Story for the first half is book accurate but the second... The changes are uhm. A decision alright. Not a good one but they're there. I did enjoy it a lot but I will admit the quality is a bit meh. It was my first MazM game so there is my bias. Although shoutout to Daroga for going "shut up white boy" to Raoul when he was being a bitch abt SWA. MazM took an anti-racist stance and they are so real for that. The fact they added the Daroga in the first place is good but, they fucking blame him for Erik's actions when whatever Erik did was his own fault??? But also they made Eriks backstory darker and had the audacity to be like. Actually no one hates you for your face Erik lol. Like??? NO???? HE HAS CLEARLY BEEN SUBJECTED TO IMMENSE PERSECUTION FOR LOOKING LIKE THAT HIS TRAUMA ISN'T HIS FAULT??? But I unironically like the episode where they unionize against the shitty managers. First Pay and A Strike is one of the better episodes. They have two endings, one is canon compliant where Raoulstine run away together, and the other is where they go their seperate ways. I think the addition of that second ending is a cool one and brings to mind new opportunities!

For characters, I think the character added to background characters like the dancers and Remy are pretty fun though! The managers are eh tbh like they shouldn't have been that malicious + the accidental racism with Carlotta and Melek. Melek... dear sweet Melek... she is a good character on her own just not in the story she's placed in. Her existence defeats the purpose of the story. She exists as a prop to make Erik look worse which. </3 Erik and Christine are the most butchered characters here like Raoul took their character development. Erik lost all his compassion, becoming a whiny baby. This defeats the purpose in the og book where he shows mercy to Christine by letting her go because she gave him a single act of compassion. The point of POTO was showing compassion and mercy and he just has none of those???? Christine had been reduced to a naive girl that needed to be taught to be strong via Melek. And i know Melek was portrayed as the one in the right and all but they fact they made a brown woman tell a white woman to toughen up leaves a bad taste in my mouth. She shouldn't have been used as a prop like that. I think it's purely accidental how this came off. But yeah Christine in the OG book, she was strong! She told Raoul to piss off many times, her strength was by showing compassion. She threw her fear aside to give a kiss to her captor!!! Raoul here is the best like hands down. I can write an essay for him later but his character development is the best and he is oddly realistic. I think a problem with the og Raoul (reason ppl can't side with him) is the fact his character doesn't translate well through time. Someone made a wonderful post abt og Raoul here! Give it a read it's good. The way MazM translated Raoul is fitting, as he gets far pushier than OG Raoul to some degree, but his development at the end is quite cathartic. They made Raoul sympathetic in another way which could be relatable for some. The OG Raoul was "attractive" because he was willing to give his honod and status away for a lower class woman. MazM Raoul plays with that idea, by placing more pressure on Raoul and making him unhappy with his situation. He is forced by his family to be perfect for them when he is a child at heart. He loves Christine because she is freeing for him. He is a good person, he just lets obsession cloud his judgement. He is the perfect foil to Erik here and just. Yeah I'll get my essay going soon. Not here. Not here.

Art is fucking gorgeous, Maha and Crack worked on it together but IMO Maha takes more prominence with their art style as the painted looks of the cg cards perfectly match the aesthetic. The backgrounds are BEAUTIFUL. The character designs are lovely. Erik is book accurate minus for the color of his mask. He is monstrous and it's awesome. Christine is blonde, just like the book! The starry look of her hair is unusual to people but it's a game, like whatever looks cool yk? It's beautiful she's beautiful. And we can't forget Jimin Raoul. What a look. They were originally gonna make Christine and Raoul both blonde but probably changed hair colors to make sure they didn't look too alike. I think the pink hair does give Raoul the perfect sweet vibes, even if it's a bit outrageous, it's funny and iconic!!! It also puts a nice duality theme between him and Erik, pink and black my beloved. The dancers are cute, love you Jammes. Remy... lawd i want him. The managers look French.

For gameplay, you have the interactive book format, which again isn't too engaging for me, but it's a good casual game and I think good for newcomers as well because the art is appealing. Coin system is meh but tbh better than Pechka. The footnotes are a lot of fun! Interesting stuff to know like. What's in gunpowder, what the fuck is eugenics, etc etc. But it does hilight the footnote system which helps to provide social context and consume in a new light :)

5. Jekyll jekyll hyde jekyll hyde jeky

I don't hate Jekyll and Hyde, it just doesn't capture my interest like the others do. It's not bad at all and one can argue it's better than POTO but. Idk not for me. The story is pretty book accurate with the characters being canon compliant. It's not a bad thing bc POTO was kind of a shitstorm with the changes made, but I don't feel as engaged. Again it's all up to taste. It just feels like MazM didn't bring anything too new to the table which is alright. This is the game that brought MazM to relevance so ofc, it's a special lil guy :)

Art is done solely by Maha but lawd it is GORGEOUS. DILFS FOR DAYS!!! Cg cards are wonderfully composed, sells the atmosphere of the story. Chibis are so silly, it's like Don't Starve.

The gameplay is the interactive book style and uhhh, idk it's okay. Again nothing to write home about. It's a nice game to play on a rainy day :)

Honorable mention: Heartless

I found heartless on qooapp and while I can't play Yellow Bricks, I'll give my 2 cents on heartless.

I have heard the Wizard of Oz games MazM made are quite book accurate. I haven't read Wizard of Oz yet so I can't give my two cents on that. I'll give my two cents on how I felt.

Heartless/Yellow Bricks were MazMs first games. You can definitely tell the influence it has on their other games. How the story is paced etc etc. It's more child-friendly than their later games, but still has quite a bit of grimness to it. After all, it's about the tin man. Maha's art is so so so diff than it is now, YB/Heartless has a far cuter atmosphere where both the sprites and the chibi sprites are both, well, cute. Nicholas... sweet guy </3. Admittedly he does look like a child when he's an adult but they had a vibe to keep up. The witch is a milf. The gameplay is the interactive book style but it leans more into interactive imo. The minigames where you run away are reused in POTO where you run from the flaming skull. But uh in Heartless, YOU RUN AWAY FROM THE AXE THAT'S HACKING AWAY AT NICK. 😟

It's a ministory to explain what's with the tin soldier and oh boy with the short time it had, it pulled at my heart strings and never let go </3. Fun thing. Anyways. The footnotes system don't give any context metawise, just ingame stuff. Which isn't a bad thing as some people are unfamiliar with Wizard of Oz lore so it's good to fill them in on it.

#mazm #mazm hyde and seek #mazm jekyll and hyde #mazm thy creature #mazm phantom of the opera #Mazm Pechka #I will do anything besides my work

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yourstrullyme · 1 year

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boop! you have to answer the following questions and get into the ask of 3 your mutuals and make them answer them as well

1. Are you named after anyone?

2. When was the last time you cried

3. Do you have kids

4. What's the first thing you notice about people?

5. What's your eye color?

6. Sad or happy endings?

7. Any special talents?

8. Where were you born?

9. What are your hobbies?

10. Do you have any pets?

11. What sport do you play/ have played?

12. How tall are you?

13. Favourite subject in school?

14. Dream job?

omg this is fun

1. yes, my mom had a grandma that they called Lina, thinking it was a nickname for one out of two possible names so my mom gave me one of them (the prettier of the two imo)... turns out her grandma was just Lina lol

2. oof id say tuesday? ive been terribly sick and stressed out of my mind and had a test i did very badly on and it was just too much

3. nope lol

4. usually... id say the clothes, style, vibes. im bad w faces and eyecontact

5. green w lil brown freckles

6. both? i love bittersweet endings and honestly if the story is good and the ending makes sense i dont care if its happy or sad

7. uuuh im really good at picking up stuff?? like learning something for the first time is pretty easy, perfecting it is tough but starting is easy. i can also move my ears lol

8. Reñaca, Viña del Mar. Chile.

9. they change a lot but id say rock climbing, music in general, and reading and writing would be the most consistent ones

10. YES her name is carlotta and she was born to a dog a friend picked up from the street so i adopted her. shes small but her body is long and short-legged and her hair is colored like a black and white border collie, but her hair is really tough lol and shes got a beard. shes just a mix of a lot of things. she turns 3 in december

11. sooo many lets see... formally i did volleyball and hockey in school, plus athletism where i mostly did long and high jumps amongst other things. football in college (i was a goalkeeper) and now rock climbing, and im also considering joining a jiu jitsu gym with a friend to try and exersize more regularly (and beat the crap out of each other). then on the side ive always dabbled in running, did a bit of skating, rollerskating, some gym stuff, water skiing, fishing, and i tried kayaking for a month and i want to get back into it

12. 1.74 mts

13. so many lol although i enjoyed myself the most in english, spanish and history back in middle and high school, now that im in college i really love economy and anything to do with biology. basically everything lol

14. oh god... no idea. many jobs. id love to have a job that requires me to travel and meet many people, and a lab job or a field job but in research, and a public figure kind of job? the kind were u have to decide stuff and make speeches and shit. id love to write too, to be a writer on a tv show or write books, but also direct or act (i shouldve been a theatre major honestly if i could have aby job this one would probably be it lol) id love to also have a farmer or a shepards job... the long hours in the great outdoors and physical labor just call to me lol

i just feel like my dream job is a dynamic job, nothing too stagnant, but then again that can just be my age talking yknow? maybe when im older i'll just want a good paying job that allows me to be w my loved ones so who knows. ideally though, it would require me to be outside some part of the time lol

this was fun thanks!! also to that anon that asked me the same thing the answers are here but thanks for asking!

#asks #ask #thanks for keeping me entretained while i escape my marketing class #lol #captaintanthamore #also love the new pfp captain looking mighty good #personal

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smooth-goat · 1 year

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😅🥺😈🤡🛒✨🎢⛔✅💔

(from this post)

so many !! jfdskl;a

😅 What’s a story or scene you’ve created that you’re a smidge embarrassed exists?

I don’t really like “Sweetpeas and Daffodils”, tbh. I mean, I leave it up but since it was pretty venty I got it out quickly and don’t like it all that much—it’s just kind of boring naval gazing imo

🥺 Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?

When you’re not sure if love is enough! When there’s so much love and a desire to make things work, but you just don’t know if you can work though something—Moomintroll and Snufkin wrt Sisu, but also Snufkin and his parents! I just love the tragedy of it.

On The Other Paw, I also really love when someone can just step in no matter what. More of a personal thing for me, I think, being disabled in a way that is socially viewed as, if not needy, then gross. So moments like when Moomintroll holds Snufkin’s face after Snufkin vomits in “acacia & asphodel” chapter 7 hit in a really personal way for me.

😈 Has there been a point in a story where you did something just to be playfully mean to your readers?

Tbh I don’t think so? Closest thing I can think of is ambiguous endings, but I don’t do that playfully, but rather because I just love reading and writing ambiguous endings; I think they’re more interesting. Okay with more reflection, definitely the cliffhanger between the two fics in the Ginger Tea series. Not so much the ambiguity at the ending of the first piece, but playing coy in the comments about what the decision would be even though I knew jfdklsa

🤡 What’s a line, scene, or exchange you’ve written that made you laugh?

A few! Especially in “chlorine & corticosteroids”, where I had a lot of fun with Lake and Jesse’s banter. But I also do like this exchange in my Owl House beekeeping AU (that I haven’t finished fjdlsa)

“You said this hive’s been here for, what, six weeks?” he asks, after a moment. He has to speak up over the buzzing.

“Mm-hmm.” She nods, too, even though he’s not looking at her. His peripheral vision can’t be that good in that veil.

“Yeah, it’s been here way longer than that.”

“Really? How long?”

He hums for a moment, peering down into the gutted floor. “Two, three years?”

“Years?” she repeats, dumbfounded. How could she not have noticed? “How can you tell?”

Hunter pulls a funny little crowbar out from his pocket. He shrugs. “Lotta bees.” I also like this unpublished exchange from “acacia & asphodel”, which makes me chuckle:

Snufkin sets Sisu down on the carpet before unbuttoning his winter coat. He glances over to see Aliisa sitting cross-legged on the couch beside a scraggly cat, a deadpan expression on the witch’s face as she scrolled through… Vine? The one with the videos.

Snufkin opens the coat closet door. Closes it again. Turns to his roommate.

“Why is there a cat.”

“Her name is Talvi,” Aliisa corrects, her tone as if they’ve had this conversation before. “She lives here now.”Snufkin sighs and puts away his coat before bending down to help Sisu out of theirs. He tries to ignore the pain in his fingers “Do you know how expensive it is to own a cat? Especially one off the streets? It’s probably full of worms.”

“You’re full of worms.”

Snufkin lets that one lie.

✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉

Fdsjkfl;sad awwwwww I think I’m good at mood and tension! Creating an atmosphere that fills a scene, yk? Like the second chapter of “acacia & asphodel”, where Snufkin’s taking the pregnancy tests and turning them over one by one.

I also like the Completely Unnecessary Research I do—mostly I just have fun doing it, but I think extra little details like adding travel times or medicine side effects or regional dress naturally make something more fleshed-out and grounded.

🛒 What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc.

One thing I notice in my writing is that I don’t often use attributive tags, like “he said” or “she yelled”—stuff like that. Usually I instead put an action that character is doing, frequently a fidget, which I try to make different for each character. Another style thing I notice is a focus on timing developed by punctuation—forcing a little pause with sentence fragments and paragraph breaks. I think that’s a thing coming from how I type casually online, like on discord.

With themes and imagery and emotions and such, I think I put a lot of emphasis on unsaid things—unsaid by prose or by characters. Like, trying to make this atmosphere of “elephant in the room”. What is the thing that so obviously needs to be said butcannot. Obviously, that complements Snufkin’s character very well when I write him, but I also have that a bit in my Infinity Train writing, like when Jesse is shaving Lake’s hair, and there’s thisshift in the relationship between them, where they’re becoming closer but neither are really going to acknowledge the intimacy of the act, and instead showing the lasting impact of it (and also Lake’s influence on Jesse in general) by mentioning little bits of Lake’s hair clinging to him on the bus ride home. It’s about Symbolism. It’s about Implications.

🎢 Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

I’m not sure! I don’t really think I’ve written any? I don’t know, I feel like all my stuff was pretty predictable, but maybe that’s just cause I know what’s gonna happen in them. But if I’m picking one, probably Black Cohosh? Just because it has a few pretty dramatic plot points, and its subject matter isn’t something that’s very popular in the fandom, so it might be a little more surprising for a reader.

But also I think the experience of reading Ginger Tea when it was coming out was probably a bit of a ride, not knowing that Snufkin would do.

⛔ Do you have a fic you started, but scrapped?

I wouldn’t really say “scrapped”, but I definitely have different things I’ve put on the back burner for even a few years, including one where Moominpappa builds a ramp up to Moominhouse, which I do like but just sdfjkl Haven’t finished it. ForIvy Garlands, though, I have a few paragraphs because it was originally just going to be their first birthday in Moomin Valley:

It was everything Sisu deserved.

And nothing he could provide.

Snufkin remembered Sisu’s second birthday, spent traveling back to Moominvalley, stowing away on a cargo ship from Gda?sk to Helsinki, covering his kit’s mouth to hide their cries while Soviet officers examined the ship from stem to stern for contraband and stowaways.

He remembered their first birthday, when Snufkin hadn’t eaten in at least two days. The winter freeze hung long and firm, and he could only gather enough for Sisu. They screamed and screamed, garnering the attention of the fillyjonk bakery owners who turned their noses up at the scrappy mumrikar tramp with the bastard infant. A younger fillyjonk had snuck into the woods several hours later, finding the father and child fishing on the lake. She had brought them a handful of ptasie mleczko—which quickly because Sisu’s favorite sweet—and apologized for her aunt’s behavior before slipping away once more.

He remembered seeing Sisu for the first time, loving them in an automatic, hollow way; cradling them in his paws like they could break. He remembered their cries, the pain, the blood, the darkness. He remembered the kind moomins of Zalipie bathing him and feeding him when he didn’t have the energy or will to do so himself. Snufkin remembered the disinterest, the distance, the resentment he felt for the little creature with which he shared blood. Over the years, his love for them filled out and developed, overflowing his heart—his entire body; it pushed out the resentment. Almost all of it.

✅ What’s something that appears in your fics over and over and over again, even if you don’t mean to?

Special interests ! I’m always putting in medical stuff or dress history or beekeeping in there even when it doesn’t have a reason jfkdals I just Have to get it in there.

Also, difficult parental relationships, I’m noticing! Snufkin with his parents, who he feels neglected and abandoned by; Moomintroll’s parents, who he feels don’t take him seriously; Tulip and Lake’s parents in “c&c”, who’ve done a poor job of keeping their children out of their divorce. I think people tend to depict parents as either all good or all evil, but much more realistic and interesting is when parents are people who just can have difficult times and screw up, and that a parent/child relationship is like any other: something that has ups and downs, takes work, and is a two-way street (which is complicated by the power dynamic in a really interesting way).

💔 Is there a fic of yours that broke your heart?

“Yellow Rainflower”, I think! It’s just really hard to see such a big fallout between Snufkin and Moomintroll. Every time I was writing a fight scene between them, I’d reach a point where I could start to wrap it up Or escalate it further, and I just kept escalating it. Not even really as an active decision—it just kept Coming Out jfdskla

#ask #asked and answered #ask meme #birdsong

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thegeminisage · 2 years

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WAIT HI I'M BACK BECAUSE I REMEMBERED MY FAVORITE CONTROL QUOTE it's not a spoiler, I promise, its just npc dialogue

so I was in the hub area after I unlocked it, just wandering around and listening to the NPCs and I hear one of them say, with SO much confidence:

"The world's not round or flat, it's clearly a non-euclidean rhombus."

and I'm still losing my shit over this, they said it with SO MUCH confidence and Im just like. WHO SAID THIS. YOU ARE RESEARCHERS. WHO BELIEVES THE WORLD IS A FUCKING RHOMBUS

anyways, whenever you get it, I hope you have fun! Emily Pope is the best, I think you'll like Raya. I had mixed feelings on her but she's cool, she doesn't show up much though.

oh, you can replay specific chapters too! i follow you, so whenever you get it and if you liveblog it, I'm gonna come back when you're near a specific part near the end-ish and tell you to have fun there! not in a "this is a hard part, good luck" way, it's one of my favorite parts and I think I'll go replay it today because it was fun and the music during it is GREAT

ALSO there are 3 outfits that are preorder only (2 of them are ps4 "only") but you can unlock them all on pc anyways with a mod on nexusmods, i did that, I like the Astral Diver one, Jesse's hair looks great. i like the Asynchronous Suit you can unlock after a mission. actually all the outfits are good but DON'T look them up, one is a spoiler!

anyways, I will be buying Deathloop to see if I like it today, probably will.

actually wait, does it have stealth portions? this doesn't change whether I'll buy it (probably) but I'm not very good at them 😖

this got kind of long, my bad. uh have a good day!!!

HIII AGAIN BESTIE sorry i took so long to answer :( i was really busy and then lacked the brain cells to socialize normally for a little while

deathloop DOES have stealth sections but not like. so the way it's designed is kind of sandboxy, there's 1000 ways to do any given task, so if you're bad at stealth you can do a guns-blazing approach. i am also bad at stealth!! so while it wsa pretty forgiving at not seeing me sometimes when i should have been seen (most of the time...more on that in a sec) i also usually didn't HAVE to do stealth if i was getting too frustrated with it. this is all to do with your abilities

so like, you have only a handful of abilities but they're very diverse - one lets you turn completely invisiible temporarily. VERY invaluable on missions where i can't stop getting caught. another boosts both your attack and defense temporarily making you nearly invisible, which is good for situations where you're just like "fuck it" & wanna mow down everyone. you can only equip 2 at once and there's like 5 total i think so you have to pick and choose (and i always kept the one on that's the deathloop version of "blink," the teleportation power from dishonored, so for me i really only picked 1 at a time). but imo that's part of the strategizing fun part! it's a thing where you might die a lot, but as with all timeloops, the more you do it, the more you Learn it, and the further your mastery of it progresses (plus you get to die three times before you get a game over, so to speak, so again, it's pretty forgiving - i think w/ difficulty settings you may even be able to increase that number?!). but yeah it's a lot like undertael boss fights in that way, if you've ever played that - or the way you do levels in celeste if you've ever played THAT. the mastery comes in repetition and when you can FEEL yourself getting better at every attempt it's actually quite addictive and satisfying

there is one mission that requires near-perfect stealth or you essentially die instantly, and the boss at the end of that mission has the invincibility slab so you can't just snipe her, or go in with your own invincibility on to try and take her out before she can instadeath you. you HAVE to stealth it. this one drove me INSANE it took me almost twenty tries (of dying 3x each) to get before i finally went out and got the invisibility thing to get it done, and it's really the only part of the game i truly disliked. once i finally got it i feel like i could do it again if i needed to, so it's not different from the rest of the game in that respect, it just wasn't...fun and i wouldn't WANT to do it again. THAT SAID that mission is really the only time i struggled with my lack of stealth skills, and with ~20 tries under my belt i can and will definitely advise you if you find you get to that mission and it's making you want to throw your controller at the wall. although you SHOULD be fine mostly and wouldn't it be funny if you came back like "hi liz i defeated fia on the first try"

anywa ygod the mods for control sound SO good and this is always my problem like. if i play on console i can take clips but i can't mod. and if i play on pc i can mod but not take clips. i wish there was an automatic clip-taker for pc bc it's one of my favorite parts about gaming!!!!!! geez someone get on that. i would have posted soooo many good deathloop clips for you all

also the thing about the rhombus made me SCREAM girl gn what the hell are you on. a rhombus!! control sounds so fun ik one day when i get around to it ill have a great time ty for telling me about it <3

#liz answers asks #liz plays deathloop #anonymous #i feel like u deserve a tag so:#dl anon #sorry this got long

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a-dragons-journal · 2 years

Text

Finally watched Wolf, since a friend was streaming it to a server, and. this is gonna be a controversial opinion, but it really wasn’t that bad.

Like, yes, it’s pretty caricatured at points, and I don’t love that. Nonhumans don’t generally act like this. But a lot of it, especially the descriptions of their internal feelings, is also... surprisingly accurate to what being nonhuman feels like. They read a journal entry from Jacob (the wolf protagonist) describing his species dysphoria at one point, and they had to have done some research for how real that felt.

And no, it’s not by any stretch of the imagination advocating for locking people with species dysphoria up. The Zookeeper and co. are blatantly villainous, almost comically so - they are clearly and obviously the bad guys. You can make the argument that they still portray nonhumans as people who “need help” even though the “help” shown in the movie is obviously not right (at least one reviewer took away that message, although I think they missed the point of the movie completely personally), but honestly I think even that’s up for debate. The biggest genuine problem I have with it is that it did imply pretty heavily that the Zookeeper and co. are right about nonhumanity stemming from “trauma” and “isolation,” which I don’t like because no, but that’s funnily enough not something I’ve actually seen anyone bring up in the criticisms of this movie.

Idk. It wasn’t good by any stretch of the imagination, and I certainly wouldn’t want it to be someone’s introduction to the concept of otherkinity (which I’m not really concerned about; like I’ve said before, it’s a small indie film that I haven’t heard word one about outside of alterhuman spaces, it’s going to leave exactly zero mark on the collective consciousness), but it’s not as bad as people were making it out to be imo. It’s a fun watch with people who know enough about nonhumans to know what’s accurate and what’s caricature, and for anyone who doesn’t I feel like it’s exaggerated enough in all aspects for it to not be that difficult for people to accept “oh, nonhumanity does exist, but it doesn’t look like that” after watching it, even if it was their introduction to the concept.

#this one's gonna get my inbox in trouble lmao #it's fine #........also ngl it might be caricature but it was also kind of satisfying to see nonhumans Acting Nonhuman as a nonhuman myself #like i recognize that it's not great representation but also #rani talks #journaling #wolf 2021

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crispy-ghee · 3 years

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Hello! Firstly I just wanna say I love your work, both your own personal drawings and stories, as well as the collaboration pieces with Isei. I was just wondering what your process was for your building of your Yautja clans?? I wanted to try my hand at making my own, so I was wondering what pointers you may have.

Hi! Thanks so much for the kind words, it actually makes me really happy that anyone is enjoying the stuff I enjoy making. Worldbuilding can be a lot of fun, and awesome that you're gonna try your hand at it!

I have a lot of thoughts on worldbuilding, and to be honest my approach varies here and there depending on what I'm making or writing, but I'll see if I can't gather my general thoughts into something more succinct instead of going off on a long ramble haha

STARTING INFO

When you're worldbuilding for a pre-existing IP, it's good to keep in mind the stuff you already know about the race/species. This seems really obvious, and imo you can mess around in and out of canon if you want bc it's your clan and you should have fun first and foremost, but it's something to consider.

(But also keep in mind that this isn't something you necessarily have to think about right away, it can come later in your process, but I'm just mentioning it here.)

With Yautja, there's the physical aspects that make them distinct (mandibles, crest, reptilian/mammalian, tendrils, claws, tall on average, tend towards warmer climates, strong, etc) and what we've seen of them culturally (glory/trophy hunters, honor code, matriarchal, etc etc). The cool thing though is that when you're coming up with a hook for your clan, you can either choose to follow these rules, or you could find something interesting in subverting them.

What if it's a clan of smaller yautja? What if these live in the cold? What if their clan doesn't give a shit about hunting? etc etc

Speaking about Hooks...

The Hook is just sort of a jumping off point where you can start building your clan out of. It doesn't necessarily have to be a hook for the audience, and it might even change or be discarded as you go along writing, but it's always good to have a place to start.

Hooks can honestly be anything and inspired from anywhere. I'm going to be honest that most of the time I don't really go searching for hooks, they're moments of inspiration that kickstart stuff. They're usually what causes the worldbuilding.

A lot of that (and a lot of worldbuilding, actually) is actually input. Being curious and learning things, consuming things, etc etc. Expanding your visual/mental library. It's not something that i do purposefully, necessarily. It comes from stuff I've read about, movies and documentaries I've watched, some tweet I saw, a picture on my dashboard, a wikipedia article I stumbled into somehow, a story a friend told, so on and so forth.

That being said, you can totally find a hook if you just ask yourself the right questions.

But the things that can be hooks, like I said, can vary greatly. It could be an idea you had out of nowhere, a novel question, a theme you want to explore, a cool image you saw, a costume you wanna try out, anything! For example:

Maybe you already have a character that you designed that you want to build the clan around. The character can totally be the hook. What are things about the character that might hint at what society they grew up in? Do they have a specific attitude? Quirk? Is there something about their appearance? The clothes they wear, the way their tendrils look, their coloration?

Maybe you saw a location that was really neat! What if Yautja lived in a place like that?

This clan is stealthy!

This clan likes animals!

This clan makes art that looks like _______.

This clan engages in a lot of warfare.

I liked this idea touched upon in a predator comic I read, can i expand on that?

What if a Yautja did Basejumping?

Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera...

Brainstorming! Ask lots of Questions!

I ask a lot of "why" and "how" after I figure out my hook (or hookS). It's an easy way to get stuff kickstarted.

How do they do that? Why do they do that? Is it ritual? Is it something else? Is it based on their history? On their environment? On their Lore? On their social structure?

And then just keep asking why after you answer that question, and then you'll have a pretty good foundation that you can maybe mess with or discard or change completely or use for an even better idea.

Like...lemme use the "Yautja Basejumper" as an example.

Why would this Yautja base-jump? Is it for a practical reason, like it helps them hunt a specific animal? Is it for a ritual reason? Is it for the thrill? Is it to prove themselves?

How do they do it? Do they use high tech to do it, or is it low tech? If it's low tech, what materials do they make their parachutes or gliders out of? In human base-jumping, what tools do they use, and how can I translate that into Yautja maybe? Or is it a completely different approach?

Do they basejump off of mountains? Is it something they do because they live in the mountains? Or is it maybe something they have to travel to a specific place to go do? What is this place? Why do they go there? Is it for a spiritual reason? Coming of age? Is the place itself significant? Does this have something to do with their history, or a legend that they have?

If base jumping is important, how does this affect what they find attractive or cool? Do they like really tenacious yautja? Is being more aerodynamic a boon? Would the wear anything specific for the act, bits of decoration? Is there an animal they want to look like?

So let's say just going through those questions, and asking myself why and how and other questions from that intial hook and then the answers I gave. Here's a (very very very rough) potential initial thought:

This Yautja clan base-jumps as a coming-of-age ritual. They live at the foot of a tall mountain, and young hunters climb to the top to prove their courage and tenacity. Part of the ritual is making your own glider--and if your glider doesn't hold up because you rushed it, then you get really hurt or die, and that's your own fucking fault. They're doing it to mimic large flying animals that once-upon-a-time roosted on that mountain but don't exist anymore, which had cultural/mythical significance to them. Maybe their ancestors used to ride them. This clan are able to fight in flight, unlike many other Yautja.

And then you can build off of that or change it, do research and look stuff up related to it to see if you can add more stuff, keep asking more questions about the things you decided on, etc.

Forever and ever and ever.............

Anyway, that's my worldbuilding approach, haha. It's basically "learn a lot of stuff, ask a lot of questions."

I don't know if that was helpful at all, but there ya go!

#Wolrdbuilding #predator #yautja #ask #advice #answer

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jewishsimming · 3 years

Photo

So I thought I'd put together some lookbooks for a few decades and talk about the fashions of the time, in the hopes that y'all might find it helpful to put looks together for your Decades challenge.

What I'd like to do is break down the outfits by undergarments, dresses, accessories and hairstyle and explain what was the fashion of the time, and give you the CC links to achieve this look.

Full disclosure - I am no expert. The information I'm conveying here is gained from my independent research, but take it with a grain of salt and do your own research too!

I’ll try to do some more looks soon.

Full breakdown and CC links under the cut.

Firstly, it's important to know that, like most people nowadays, not everyone had the latest fashions the very year they came out. Dressmaking was a time consuming and expensive exercise, and it was common for people to unpick and make over existing dresses into new styles. So if you hit 1890 and don't have a super rich Sim, it's okay to put them in a dress that is closer to 1888 - 1889.

Undergarments

My townie, Adina, is wearing what would be worn around this time period: a chemise and drawers, and a corset. Contrary to what period dramas often portray, women did not wear a corset against their bare skin, because corsets were meant to be comfortable support garments.

Corset | Drawers

Look #1 - Walking Ensemble

I use the term ‘walking ensemble’ loosely, because generally the walking skirt falls to the top of a woman's boot hem, allowing her to walk without dragging the hem of her skirt in the dust. But I digress.

It's important to note that it was frowned upon to step out of the house without gloves and a hat for many decades, so get used to picking out gloves and hats for your looks. It's fun, I promise!

This look is appropriate for around 1890 - 1892. Take it with a grain of salt, as it's based off an EA mesh, and probably not super historically accurate. But with the tailored bodice and waistcoat and overskirts, you could make it work IMO.

Hair - hairstyles in the early to mid 1890's are pretty vertical, swept up and pinned under a hat often trimmed with feathers or flowers (or both). Towards the mid to late 1890's it was common to wear stuffed birds on your hat; in fact it was so popular that it took a lot of bird species to near-extinction :| so not fun.

Shoes - sensible walking shoes aka the Victorian button boots, that all-rounder type of shoe, which comes with the Vampires pack, or a lace-up version unlocked with Get Famous.

Hair | Dress | Gloves | Hat

Look #2 - Day Dress

This look is probably more of a house look for late 1889 - early 1890's, as it doesn't include gloves or a hat.

Hair - as before, the hair is piled high on the head, with some strands falling over the shoulders. One thing nobody talks about is that from about mid 1880′s to about the mid 1890′s is that little curly-frizzy bangs were in style, so I’ve added them on to Adina’s outfit. If you’d rather not deal with the horror of that, you do you.

Hair | Bangs | Dress

Look #3 - Evening Wear

Anything that exposes the arms and shoulders is generally reserved for evening and formal wear.

Gown - the dress from Get Famous or a recolour is my favourite to use for the 1890′s. Any dress that doesn’t expose too much cleavage and is floor length (at least) is good. White gloves were worn.

For the dress, you can use Get Famous’s dress, or a the number of recolours, and the base game long white gloves. Pearls were common, as were stones.

Hair - worn in a high or low coiffure, often with hair accessories like brooches, feathers or a tiara.

Undergarments - as normal, though I believe silk stockings would be worn, as well as low-heeled pumps. The shoes I’ve linked are a classic style that I believe would work under this gown.

Gown | Earrings | Necklace | Shoes

Look #4 - Riding Habit

By the early to mid 1890′s bicycles were increasingly popular, especially with women, but horse-riding was still a pastime for the wealthy. Because, IMO, there is no suitable bicycle jacket (yet 👀), I thought I’d put together a riding habit look.

Hat - lil top hats were common, underneath swept-up hair (same hair I used in look #2.

Dress - I couldn’t really find anything closer than this. Normally it’s a well-fitted buttoned jacket and a skirt that can be buttoned up to allow freer movement. I settled for a separated bodice and walking-length skirt. Or you could download the outfit that the hat comes with.

Hat | Bodice | Skirt (New Woman set) | Boots

#ts4 #decades challenge #lookbook

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reversemoon255 · 2 years

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XZM-FE05 Hundred Edge

I have been waiting for this kit to come out since it was revealed in February of 2020. The Hundred is very heavily tied into the history of Gundam fan works, and seeing it physically in front of me is this really... intense feeling? I don’t really know how to describe it.

If you don’t know the Hundred’s history, back in 2009 the circle Kuramochi Zukan released the first in a multi-series work chronicling a fictitious Gundam series that took place in 1997 called “Gundam Beast,” and later “GUNM Beast,” possibly to avoid copyright. The Gundam Hundred was their equivalent to the X or Exia. So 10ish years later, now as Kuramochi Kyoryu, and in conjunction with several other groups, they’ve released the first in their Code Beast model kit line. And after handing the Hundred Edge, I’m really excited to see what else they’re going to release down the line.

The Good: This is a very well designed and solid kit. I went pretty light on the detail work on this one (because I plan on getting a second), so it allowed me to just enjoy the build, and it was a lot of fun to put together. It has above average posability, a decent accessory pool, and a transformation that would make every Gundam flight mode cry. The torso in particular does a lot of very interesting and intuitive movements to achieve its elongated lion version for its beast mode.

It’s also enormous. It’s 1/100 scale, yet it towers above Master Grade Gundams (or at least the one I own), and is over twice the height of a standard High Grade.

The Bad: The POM they use on this kit is much harder than with Gunpla, with the ups and downs you might expect from that. The tail is also not made of POM (one of the few jointed areas to not incorporate it) and falls apart easily when moved, though is easy to put back together.

Last issue I have is extremely minor, but I’m a little disappointed that the transformation for the arms and legs was greatly simplified in comparison to the original design. The current ones are fine, but I would have liked to have built the original jointage.

On a weird note, there were only two pieces left over after finishing, both on the neon sea green runner used for eyes and scopes and such. They also had accompanying stickers, so I was unsure if I had missed something. After a little research, it looks like they’re actually the barrel and scope for the upcoming “Arma Style” upgrade kit, if you were curious.

The Details: I went very light on details this time around. Black panel lining in narrow areas, black Gundam Marker in thicker ones, metallic green over the few neon green pieces. And it looks good, IMO. The only thing I would consider adding would be a bit of black paint to some of the white and orange pieces on the lower legs.

Overall, I’m very happy that this kit just exists, and doubly happy it’s very good. I definitely recommend it, but I feel like part of the reason I am is because I want to support this line and see more from it, and I hope if you’re reading this you will consider supporting them, too.

#Gundam #Gunpla #Gundam Beast #Code Beast #Hundred Edge #Model Kit #1/100 Scale #Kuramochi Kyoryu #Studio GS #Review

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mittensmorgul · 3 years

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In your opinion, which writer(s) wrote the best Dean episodes, Cas episodes and Sam episodes? Please don't feel troubled to answer it :)

ooh hello! This feels like a fun thought exercise. Thanks for asking!

I think I'm just gonna ramble about it rather than try to make lists or anything, because I personally feel like different seasons/eras of the show had writers that really stood out and gave me all the feelings :'D

Under a cut because it is long-ish, but also because these are my personal opinions delivered ramble-style and not like some sort of research paper even remotely attempting to be objective. :'D

I think I should start with Sam, since his character feels more consistently written to me across the seasons, but I have to start by pointing at Kripke himself. He wrote our intro to Sam, after all. Edlund gave us the best "soulless Sam" Episode with 6.09. And Meredith Glynn gave us some fantastic insight into Sam even in episodes that were equally about Dean-- like 12.11 and 15.17. Credit also to Yockey for 13.12 and 13.19 especially. He actually gave Sam emotional depth!

Sam as a character is kind of hard to judge according to the metric my brain set out for this. Like, I personally processed this question as "which writers revealed these characters' inner lives to us the most." And Sam as a character just... his "inner life" even from s1 was always a conflict with the Supernatural itself, you know? Far more than even the whole MoC arc for Dean was. Let me try to explain...

S1 Sam's biggest conflicts were find Dad so we can get revenge and I can go back to Normal Life and forget I was ever touched by the Supernatural at all. The demon blood/special children arcs were pretty much the same. His internal conflict was largely "am I evil, or even human?" And his personal goals were sort of the antithesis of the entire concept of the show we were all watching, you know? I didn't tune in to see Law Boy Sam and his Normal Life. I tuned in for Supernatural. lol

So from the outset, to keep Sam relevant to the narrative, the supernatural was essentially foisted upon him. Special Children. Demon Blood. "If you can't save him, you have to kill him." Sam was the object of the plot, and the vast majority of his character actions and choices and goals and desires were shaped by that.

Later seasons gave him a bit of a break from being the Plot Objective, to a certain extent, but every time he began to be even a little bit interesting in his own right (end of s12 taking charge of the hunters and then the AU hunters in s14, or his growing bond with Rowena and witchcraft in s13 and s14, for example), the plotlines never seemed to go anywhere truly deep for more than a random episode here and there. And that's just... disappointing. I mean, when the finale can only muster a blurry-wife-lonely-life montage for him, it only compounds the feeling that there just wasn't a lot to Sam as a character overall, that maybe deep down he just had no real internal hopes and dreams outside that basic generic notion of what life should be like for normal people, and that's pretty damn depressing.

Onward to Dean, because honestly he's the character we have with the biggest window into his emotional state throughout the series. Right from the start, Plot Happens To Sam, and we largely experience it through the filter of Dean's reactions to that.

In early seasons I credit John Shiban (starting with 1.06 Skin), Sera Gamble, and Raelle Tucker (starting with 1.03 Dead In The Water) with establishing the as yet untold depths of Dean Winchester. Sera obviously stuck with the show for a good long time and gave us some of my personal favorite episodes during that time, most of which I love for the Intense Dean Feelings (1.12 Faith, 3.12 Jus In Bello, 6.11 Appointment in Samarra). I'm not terribly fond of her showrunning, but heck she can write an episode.

But those folks took a character that potentially could've just been the two-dimensional dudebro monster hunter whose entire personality was classic rock and his car and made him into one of the most complex and nuanced characters in media. So credit to them for establishing Dean's hidden depths that future writers would build submarines (and one Ma'lak box that thankfully never made it to the bottom of the ocean) to explore.

In later seasons, my Dean champion was clearly Meredith Glynn. If you want to cry about Dean, just marathon her episodes. Well, her and Bobo enjoyed tag teaming on him, honestly, and that just made it so much better/worse. :'D

But I think overall Dean as a character was well established early on, and most writers over the course of the series were easily able to tap into that well without getting stuck on the surface level nonsense it was all too easy to float across when they chose to. More often than not, though, writers didn't get tripped up on the dudebro and chose to reveal the mess of Dean underneath. I mean, even Bucklemming occasionally nailed it (10.16 and 11.18 primarily for them imo)

Which brings us to Cas... the angel who fell in love with humanity, rejected Heaven and God, and chose his own family. I don't think any writer can touch Ben Edlund for ultimate Cas feelings. My biggest regret is that Edlund left the show before he could write a truly human Cas episode. If I could redo ANYTHING about the entire series (setting aside the finale, because that doesn't count), it would be to let Edlund write 9.03 and 9.09 instead of bucklemming... >.>

Why? Because yes, he showed us aspects of Cas as a phenomenal cosmic power, but he never forgot that none of it would've mattered without the crack in Cas, the little bit of him that set him apart from every other angel. And it wasn't his otherness or his power or his grace. It was his humanity. His fear of it at first (i mean his first episode with Cas in it was 4.16 ffs), and his evolution into gradual acceptance and then understanding and love. Not just curiosity of humanity as a concept, but his own desire for it in contrast to every other angel who rejected it for themselves and considered it "lesser."

Even at his most angelic, Edlund wrote Cas at his most human.

#how the heck to tag this even...#mittens thoughts i guess

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