tackypies

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“They’re trying to convince people they can’t do the things they’ve been doing easily for years – to write emails, to write a presentation. Your daughter wants you to make up a bedtime story about puppies – to write that for you.” We will get to the point, she says with a grim laugh, “that you will essentially become just a skin bag of organs and bones, nothing else. You won’t know anything and you will be told repeatedly that you can’t do it, which is the opposite of what life has to offer. Capitulating all kinds of decisions like where to go on vacation, what to wear today, who to date, what to eat. People are already doing this. You won’t have to process grief, because you’ll have uploaded photos and voice messages from your mother who just died, and then she can talk to you via AI video call every day. One of the ways it’s going to destroy humans, long before there’s a nuclear disaster, is going to be the emotional hollowing-out of people.”

Justine Bateman on AI in this article from The Guardian

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vintage stamps

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Another Lamaty'i but this time is inspired by postclassic period Yucatán Maya's clothing.

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Vampire Mansion

Veiled in perpetual dusk, the manor stands in eerie silence, its towering spires piercing the storm-laden sky. Within its shadowed halls, chandeliers burn with an unnatural glow, illuminating nobles who never age, their crimson smiles hinting at the hunger lurking beneath their whispered invitations.

Welcome to the Mansion Map Pack! It features 12 total prison maps, including grand dining rooms, bedrooms, gardens, and much more.

You can view more of these maps here.

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"Count in the mist of beloved ones" - my piece for Memento Mori: A Curse of Strahd Fanzine vol. 2 🦇❣️

It was a pleasure to participate in @strahdzine, please make sure to check the other contributers! Please, note that it's my tribute to the old cover art for the Ravenloft Campaign Setting, 2nd Ed. I loved this piece so much, so I wanted to do more watercolor/gouache-like version with modern touch.

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"The Last Stand." Another PC from our Curse of Strahd Campaign. Chup Marblemane - Barovian Warlock. He might not have his own soul, but he had the biggest heart. Original design by our player Mint (https://bsky.app/profile/grilledmint.bsky.social) #MistyCouriersCoS

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You’re the patron saint hunter.

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Playing with Procreate brushes and the CoS: Torch Rahadin.

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Portrait of Tatyana Federovna, for Curse of Strahd.

Without those to do him wrong, Strahd would be no one. Tatyana Federova was a beautiful peasant who fell in love with Strahd's noble and devoted younger brother Sergei, immediately throwing both into the path of Strahd's anger and starting the series of events that start the theme of the module.

Tatyana's portrait is only shown once in the module, in a gilded frame in the King's Suite, in order to show the resemblance between her and Ireena, but I thought she deserved an illustration of her own. Enjoy.

Patreon

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reaching so desperately for salvation only for god to look you in the eye and laugh.

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My piece for Memento Mori Curse of Strahd zine 2! @strahdzine

Spoilers below break

I’ve had this idea for Vampyr’s puppet show for ages, and I’m very grateful to put the idea to paper for the zine

Depicted is Vampyr with Strahd on puppet strings with fake cardboard Barovia and incarnations, featuring Tatyana, Marina and Ireena. The left balcony has notorious enemies (Kasimir and Ezmeralda) of Strahd while the right has those who could hold love for him (Sergei and Rahadin). Dependent on the game of course.

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my piece for the Memento Mori vol. 2 zine titled "Warm Bodies." @strahdzine featuring everyone's favorite elf; Rahadin note: I did some editing on this bc i wasn't too happy with the perspective initially

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Finally almost at the end of our 2-year CoS campaign where a lot a LOT has happened~ While I'm dumping art on here have some of my favorite doodles~<3

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Fallen from the sky with grace ✷

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oracle of fate

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dude omg i did NOT “come back wrong” you just remember me as imperfect and now i’m a divinely elevated version of myself with no capacity for wrongdoing. i’m still me dude i’m literally the same basically *all electronics within three feet of me explode* sorry i mean i meant to do that

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oh professor dekarios🤌🏻

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//THIS IS A GIFT, IT COMES WITH A PRICE WHO IS THE LAMB AND WHO IS THE KNIFE?//

how about that, uh. how we doing after that latest Unsounded update, gamers 🥲

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- [Patreon]

- [Ko-Fi]

[tackypies]

So I've been wondering about something ever since the reveal that Duane and Sette are best friends: Was any part of that dynamic a conscious subversion of contemporary parent and child dynamics that have become popular in media like TLOU and the new God of War games? Personally, even if it wasn't intended that way, it still felt like a plot twist on my end (In a good way!), as there's been a lot of media in the past 10-15 years that explores that dynamic and I thought this was doing the same.

Duane and Sette as best friends has been a dynamic I've written for almost 25 years. Now, I think the father/kid trends you mentioned have coloured how readers have chosen to interpret their relationship, but I never intended to subvert anything. In my mind, you can see very early on how they act more like friends than like family. The way they talk to each other repeatedly, specifically about Duane's own child and Sette's own father is pretty telling! They each came into this relationship already having a daughter and a father, and not requiring surrogates.

Duane specifically accepts Sette's flaws and never tries to convert her to Ssaelism, nor insist she stop acting like a Sharteshanian. She's not his child to teach, change, or shape. Likewise Sette doesn't seek Duane's approval by changing her ways, nor looks to him for examples of how to behave. That father/daughter dynamic just isn't there.

They are both fully formed people. They accept each other as such. They love each other as such. They're best friends :)

It's definitely a unique friendship though because they are both super unique beings. The ways they overlap metaphysically and physically really pull them together in a way that a bog standard human girl and human man probably wouldn't be. They're never going to be seeking dating advice from each other, for example. They can bond over how they are so set apart from the rest of the world due to their natures. And, due to those natures, they're going to understand each other to a degree few others do.

They both realise that now. They MUST HAVE each other. In its way, their bond is stronger than parent and child. In a way, they're twins.