#[ dash commentary ]

[king-of-wrath]

And now that we've used the Holy Roman Empire as a model for the RPC, I feel the need to recreate it in EU4 or Stellaris

I want to see who starts the first war and who will become the superpowers

[abyssanon]

Wait so you guys CANT dodge bullets huh

I really need to stop judging what's normal with mortals from what Sidon tells me huh

[themosthatedbeingg]

Oh dear … a spell gone wrong .. and now there’s a bby king of Hell wandering about .. they seem lost and confused.

[alchemicalterror]

Always nice to know I managed to explain somethin' complicated in a way that's coherent; you are my litmus test for that, bein' one of the most broadly educated men I know, I appreciate the weigh-in.

And I agree. But so long as the kid doesn't go preventing his own existence somehow, I figure he'll be broadly fine, time's weird.

Wait shouldn't you be more worried about Ghoul NOT going back to the future? Don't you worry about the sacred timeline and all that? What if he meets his past self someday and the universe implodes?

So. Short version?

No.

Long version below:

So that line of thinking pays homage to the false idea that time is a straight shot of events that can be plotted on a graph or timeline in one unbroken, contiguous stream from beginning to end.

In reality, what we perceive as time only holds any sort of narrative flow or structure because we as people can only hope to glimpse it from a single perspective - our own - and because we are creatures hard wired to seek and internalize patterns to such a degree that we will invent them for our own comfort.

But just because we are able - through this fabricated self-delusion built off perspective re-enforced by a societal drive to tell stories and arrange events in a manner that suggests they are, in fact, sensible - does not mean that this is how time or reality actually work. Casuality is much more complicated than that, and existence as a whole much larger than can be summed up from a single person's understanding of it.

In truth, what we call time is less a single path of events strung one after another, or even something that could be represented by a conspiracy board of events, and is instead more akin to an entire bathtub's worth of glitter upended on enough fly-paper to wallpaper a bedroom with, roughly once per second, with each sparkling fleck being an entire cosmos' worth of concurrent experiences happening everywhere, to everyone and everything, across our universe, constantly.

Trying to worry overmuch about the shifts that one little change is going to make in that sea of chaos, and set the world's supposed narrative on a farcical 'wrong' path incorrectly attributes the possibility of a 'right' one, when in truth reality is just going to keep on reality-ing whether or not Ghoul lives out his life in the early aughts or pops back to when he came from. Weirder shit has, is, and will be happening all the damn time, and it ain't worth worrying about one stray speck of glitter.

S'pecially since I like this one.

But that's just a layman approaching the topic from the broad strokes of psychology and sociological profiling, and taking an educated stab at explaining something damn well outside my wheelhouse, I'd chase up Eddie for a more nuanced approach from a background better suited to this sort of discussion if it interests you.

[swordsoprano]

i got an ad for starbucks while scrolling the @massachusetts-official blog?! this is a crime

[musou-fuuin]

"BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK-" Rather than using her words, the komainu of the Hakurei Shrine is doing what all dogs do best when they want to get their owner's attention.

"Uggggh. Aunn, please shut up..." Reimu complains as she turns back over in her futon, desperately trying to cover herself. Winter is approaching, but has it ever gotten this cold this fast? She's seriously freezing her butt off here.

Aunn however isn't letting up, and even now is trying to pull the covers off Reimu. The shrine maiden continues to lay stationary with an iron grip on the covers for a few moments longer until...

"I SAID KNOCK IT OFF!!!" But as soon as she grabs Aunn to try and calm her down, a massive earthquake shakes the shrine, knocking down the little possessions that Reimu has. She holds tightly onto Aunn as they lay on the tatami floor bracing themselves, until... It stops.

With the tremors having ceased, Reimu pushes herself up off the floor and rushes to open the sliding door outside. When she does, she peers her eyes through the blizzard to see something that hadn't been there before.

A large figure is now looming over Gensokyo. A mountain, perhaps? Reimu stares at the structure shrouded in darkness for a bit, trying to think for a moment until she comes to a conclusion.

"It's an incident." Reimu closes the door and rushes back inside to change her clothes. Something more suited for braving the cold that had been tailored by Alice a long time ago. They're old clothes, but an effective alternative to her shrine maiden uniform.

"Aunn! Watch the shrine. I don't think I'm going to be back for a while." Prayer slips and needles equipped, Reimu opens the sliding door again and takes off into the dark cold of the night.

It's time once again to fulfill her duty as the Hakurei Shrine Maiden.

[bingbongbugtime]

Eevee is cool but what about wimpod how do we feel about wimpod

[the-storm-chaser]

The woman flinched at the gesture, the cold metal grazing her skin. She froze, her focus soley on her mask even as it drew closer.

What...would she want changed?

It wasn't she gave much thought to based on the principle that it wasn't possible. Thoughts raced through her head, some more plausible than others.

To have her reputation changed to attract better work?

To be able to use magiks without Senko?

To become the smith she was supposed to be?

There were too many paths she could choose...which even would be the right one?!

There was a sigh.

'I would bow to your judgement.' She paused, closing her eyes. 'An unbiased view... that might yeild a better result...would you not agree?'

The observation made her refocus on the Creator, then to the pendant that her fingers still traced.

'...I suppose you could say that-' Her voice was quiet, glancing to the side. It was funny that her one strength came from so much weakness....She was just grateful to whoever wrote the inital story had allowed her to even have it at all.

"How would I correct yours? That depends, my dear..."

The creator turned to fully face the other. Marching over to her with precise, delicate steps as she passes the paper to her other hand; together with the quill. With her free hand now able to gently cup the swordsman's chin. Clawed gauntlet tips gently and carefully running along her face as the one eye observes her... intensely.

"I do not know your story. I have only been observing you for a short while now. The more we speak, the more is revealed to me. Now I could open your 'proverbial' book. And see your story for myself, but I find that forcing the matter is intruding."

"With your permission, I would take a long look at your story and make some suggestions based on observations. Or if you already know what you would want to be changed, I would take those and work with them."

Humming sweetly, she leans even closer; who cares about personal space? Her eyes sharpening as a low hiss seemingly escaping the... mask, and not the woman behind it.

"There is pain within you. You have reached for your pendant several times now. It is tied to something that occurred. That would be a starting point."

"And disperse with any concerns. I could make it so you're not even aware things have changed. Or I can have you remember that your story has been altered. But it might be an... unpleasant sensation. Knowing that you're missing information. But this is not youth adventure trash! You will not magically remember if you think hard enough."

"That what has been erased can never be brought back; only rewritten."

[thaumatology]

Therapy doesn't 'fix' you, it's not magic. It just gives you tools to deal with whatever your problem is.

[battle-subway-ghost]

You guys just need more things to talk about than Pokemon I think

[king-of-wrath]

Apparently, even in the year of Our Lord Two-thousand and Twenty-four, people need this simple chart explained to them at length

[katyspersonal]

Canon: Maria idealized Gehrman "without being aware of madness of his curiousity", which makes perfect sense as this is why she is trying to kill Hunter over! Gehrman was not the ideal mentor and failed her by doing something too morally questionable even in her eyes for knowledge, as Byrgenwerth affiliatee that he is! He was clearly affected by Maria's passing strongly and made a doll in her memory, fully absorbed in the process and "hyperfocused" on making such elaborate clothes for a happier, gentler version of her that never knew hunt and blood. However, Doll was pulled into Hunter's Nightmare just like everything else in Abandoned Workshop and can also be considered a "tool of the hunt", so Gehrman tells us we can use her like one if it doesn't weird us out and Doll even also tells us to use her.

some hateful gremlin in localization team: Actually let's reduce this character into a creepy man that had "mania" with Maria and drooled all over the Doll while creating her and also tells us that we can fuck the Doll xDDD

🙄🤦‍♂️ I genuinely don't understand the motivation for it. Remember to never trust Western localizations of Japanese media and always check the source, kids!

i will NEVER forgive english localization for demonizing my man Gehrman, he was not obsessed with Maria😭😭

[drillrundunsparce]

what the fuck is wrong with people on this website

[gorbalsvampire]

On Humanity, Tenets and Convictions

The V5 corebook does an appalling job of explaining how these mechanics fit together and what they represent; I don't think even the Players' Guide really hits it in the terms that are needed. I don't want to jack the excellent post by @vixensdungeon but nevertheless, the urge to explain things on Tumblr dot Com, the App and Website, is very strong in me this morning.

Humanity itself is objective. Each notch on the scale has defined, concrete mechanical impact on what the character can and cannot do, and these are consistent no matter what the character thinks or believes or feels, and these are universally applicable, no matter who your character and my character and her character might be. At one end of the scale your character is Literally Unplayable; at the other, they are more human than most humans, certainly than most RPG protagonists, and might as well be unplayable considering the role of the TTRPG as societally unacceptable behaviour simulator (cf. Power Kill, as usual).

Tenets are subjective but shared. They are the ethical rules on which our story operates: the things that we have agreed should provoke a moral crisis in our vampire protagonists. For Humanity loss to occur, you need these cues and triggers, these "thou shalt not" rules, and for that central fact of the game - that unlife isn't life and living it makes you less of a person - to come up in play, they need to be rules your character is going to break.

Without Tenets you have no idea what makes Humanity vulnerable and precious and worth saving; there are not many universal, objective, "doing this always gives you a Stain" rules in V5. You have to do the work here. The game needs you to decide what's horrific in order for its personal and political horror to exist at all. You cannot skip this. You cannot rely on a universal morality that isn't there and isn't shared to dictate Humanity loss. The game needs you to think about these things.

Convictions are subjective, and entirely personal. They are the "but thou must!" imperatives which allow your character (and only your character) to justify breaking the Tenets and retain a grip on their Humanity. They create the opportunity for your character to resolve their moral and ethical qualms in their own favour every so often; to stop the process of play being a nihilistic rush down the Humanity scale. VtM works if you all speedrun down to Humanity 4 and act like the usual "chaotic evil until proven otherwise" TTRPG protagonists but it aspires to make you think and feel things about that and the rules are set up to demand you meet that aspiration.

If you want a vampire game where the state of being a vampire isn't a moral issue, can I recommend Vampire: the Requiem Second Edition? A game with an objective, universal definition of Humanity and the threats to it as "experiences that remind you you are not a human being any more," and the more fundamental that reality check is, the less likely it is a character will retain Humanity when confronted with it? It's extremely tidy and doesn't demand that you establish and interrogate any of your own principles. It's not moral "degeneration," it's experiential "detachment," and that hits very differently.

Also, none of this is to do with Lines and Veils. Tenets are rules you want your characters to break. They are the substance of your morality play. They will come up in play and they will do so often. Lines and Veils are rules about what you as a player do not want to have to experience at the gaming table and they are not supposed to come up/be directly narrated. One of these things is part of a core gameplay function and one is a safety tool. Know the difference.

[dannyphantom-fenton]

Okay, I saw a comic of Dash telling Danny he respects his bisexuality and is bullying him as a nerd, not as a member of the LGBT community, and it got me thinking.

What if Dash eavesdrops on a conversation and believes Danny is pregnant?

Obvs this is a trans Danny au, and something happened to Ellie, and Danny is carrying her core. Vlad finds out and is himself about it. However, Dash hears this argument and puts things together in the wrong way.

Vlad corners Danny after school. Dash is staying after to practice for football and is going to practice when he sees Vlad dragging Danny into a room. He decides to listen in at exactly the wrong time.

“Daniel, you must stop being so irrational about this-“

“Irrational! You almost killed her because she isn’t a boy! I barely managed to save her! Now I have to stop taking testosterone because of you, and I have to worry about raising her during high school and putting off College-”

“I can raise her.”

“Not a chance, fruitloop. She’s my daughter.”

“She’s mine as well.”

“You were the one who decided to throw a tantrum and not only create her, but try and destroy her because she isn’t a boy! You don’t get to touch her!”

Cue a conveniently timed ghost attack or call from Maddie, but they leave without realizing Dash was listening in. Dash now has to grapple with the fact that the nerd he’s been bullying is pregnant, and the mayor, who he thinks he’s heard Tucker say is his godfather, is the other dad!

(Dash grew up with them, so he already knew Danny was trans.)

Dash immediately enlists the other A-listers to help him protect Fenton.(Because Dash may be a bully, but he’s not evil. He’s not gonna beat a pregnant man, especially since the mayor has apparently been creeping on Fenton.)

This all culminates into protective A-listers making it known Fenton is off limits and an extremely confused Danny who doesn’t know what’s going on.

[life-after-laughter]

Okay pipsqueaks, who did this? Speak up, which one of you nerds brought up the divorce? Do you know how insufferable he's gonna be about this for the next month?

Valentine's day is next month, why'd'ja go and do this right before Valentine's day?? You people, I swear.

i have a hard time believing you were ever married i mean you run a tumblr blog

....Uh-huh. Right. Hey folks, social experiment time: