#(Bonus you get a cap of a thing I'm still working on pointing out from Ketsui but re Imperialdramons corruption with Code that Kou mentions)

[cowboysandpilots]

Eddie always knows when something is going on with Buck. He knows that man like the back of his hand which is quite a feat considering he hasn't been part of the 118 for very long. It's not that surprising though, Buck is not nearly as mysterious as he would want everyone to think, so when he walks into the firehouse and Buck is looking like he’s about to keel over, all flushed cheeks and pale lips, Eddie is having none of it.

"You're sick." Is the first thing that Eddie says without as much as a hello first.

Buck drags his eyes up to Eddie as he had been looking at the floor. "I'm not sick." He huffs but the nasal sound in his voice gives him away.

"Tell that to your face," Eddie replies, trying to keep things light. "C'mon, man. I have a kid, I know what being sick looks like. I'm telling Bobby and you're going home to get some rest."

"You're going to tell Bobby on me?" Buck coughs into his elbow. "Oh, okay, now you're being the child." He's way too sick to even care what a stupid comeback that was and his head is pounding as he tries to chase after Eddie to get to Bobby first.

His chest is heaving and his breath is ragged and choppy once they finally get up the stairs to Bobby. He and Eddie's words meld together as they speak. "I'm not sick" and "Cap, you gotta send Buck home." At the same time.

Bobby holds his hands up to get them to stop and gives both boys a once-over. "Buck," He sighs. "You're sick. You know you can't be here. You're a hazard to yourself and the team if you try to go on a job like this.

At this point, Buck abandons his stance on not being sick but he still doesn't want to go home. "Cap, I can't go home. What if I pass out and hit my head? What if I throw up and choke on my own vomit!" He was being way too overdramatic but he needed someone to take pity on him. Being sick was a nightmare and his house was so empty.

Bobby resists the urge to roll his eyes at Buck's overreactions because, despite everything, the kid did look awful. He was pale and clammy, his eyes were glassy and the dark circles under his eyes were the only colour he had. "Okay, okay. You don't have to go home but you can't work. Go lay in your bunk and I'll make you some soup."

As he watched his bonus child practically drag himself to the bunks, he calls out. "And actually sleep! Or I'll send Eddie up to monitor you."

(Hi, if you've read this far I'll assume it's because you liked this little fic at least a little bit? I would be so eternally grateful if you could hit that little reblog button. It costs nothing and it REALLY helps. Also, if you can, please think about commissioning me maybe? 🥺 I have lots of fandoms to choose from.)

[daftpatience]

hi pen friend!! I got a pilot kakuno pen recently and I am playing around with it. However!!! I learned that I really like having thicker bold lines and I’m kinda sad that the non on my shiny new pen is so so very fine. Is there a way to broaden the nib a little or do you maybe have recs for a pen with a slightly broader nib? (I have been preferring pilot pens with a 1mil nib size, those have good thicc lines that I like. Even a little thicker without being a marker would also be IDEAL) This is gonna be a work pen for me so being durable would also be a nice bonus.

ooh so!! there are a couple things you can do in this case!!! IM PUTTING IT UNDER A READMORE CUS I RAMBLEEEE letsgooo

• swapping out the nib pilot kakuno nibs are compatible with many other pilot pens including the 78G, Prera, Plumix, Penmanship, and Metropolitan! it can be hard sometimes to find spare nibs for this brand, so if this is what you wanna do i'd suggest hunting around any local pen shops that might carry nib replacements + ebay/facebook marketplace/etc.

• grinding the nib down this option is usually not recommended for beginners, but i'm all for fucking around with things i own (sometimes to my detriment) so i'd definitely look into it! especially with something as affordable as a kakuno - most fountain pens are tipped with a somewhat fancier metal (iridium, osmium, gold, palladium, etc) which you Don't want to grind all the way away, but kakunos are not tipped with anything special. they're just plain stainless steel through and through, and i see no issue in giving grinding a go in that case! you'll definitely want to watch a lot of videos on the process - most involve a whetstone and/or extremely fine grain sandpaper & lots and lots of smooth, confident hand movements.

the two i learned are these: smooth, long strokes where you tilt the pen from a low angle to a high angle, and figure eights. the angle of the pen is extremely important, and you'll have to be careful to ensure everything is balanced.

i've ground down a cheap knockoff lamy to a WIDE chisel before, and it came out better (albeit still a bit scratchy) than it used to write (because it wrote like shit originally) imo, as long as the inkflow is even and consistent i don't mind a little feedback on the page.

• getting a pen with a broader nib ok this is where i recc some more pens!!! if you're looking for a workhorse that's a little broader or juicier than a kakuno, i cannot overstate my love for the platinum preppy in 05 (medium nib). this little thing is an absolute legend. they can sit inked and idle for an entire year thanks to the cool seal mechanism in the cap, and i've never had one dry start on me before. they're cheap, feel amazing, i can go on. since they last so long, usually the first failing point is their bodies rather than their nibs, so if you want something a little more durable you can upgrade to a platinum plaisir (which is just a preppy with a metal body!)

i can also highly reccomend Lamy safaris for their ease of nib swappability and range of options! you can go all the way from an EF to a 1.9mm chisel tip >:)

the pilot metropolitan is a universally beloved pen for its quality, though i don't have one so i have no personal stuff to say! this and the lamy are a little pricier than the preppy/plaisir/kakuno but with that comes the bump up in quality and longevity. things to consider!

in general i'd say that any fountain pen with a snap cap rather than a screw cap will work well for work - since unscrewing and rescrewing a cap all day as you do things is sort of a pain in the wrist. i find myself leaning to my lamys & preppies when im working since its so much faster and easier to pop that thing lol.

[horseslur]

Things that are horrendously and embarassingly bad about sse/sso:

Game code and glitches and bugs

Weekly update schedule

Community management

This kind of falls under all three but generally Every part of the game feels unfinished and detached from the rest. Quests don't match up. Basic visual objects (clothing, tack) glitch through each other. Added content is frequently blatantly untested.

I'm not even diving into the dynamics within the company itself.

Or its horrendous marketing.

Also in game items have big inflation problems. Largely caused by the fact that the max amount of js a player can carry at any given time is capped at an amount you can max out in a day or two, which is automatically also a Very Low maximum that you can price an item.

The half-hearted retrofitting whenever they update a part of the game. Horse speed breaking quests. Retrofitting new tack to basic horses. This kind of ties back into point number one.

Things that I Genuinely Like about SSO/are done really well/have no better alternative in the games industry:

Sound design? I feel like people don't talk about this enough. Not just the music but also atmospheric elements are really well done, even if the game struggles with sound triggers sometimes. I especially like the horse-related sounds, as stupid as it sounds. If i can ride a horse in a video game I'm judging it by the noises the horse's hooves make. SSO is like right below tears of the kingdom in that for me.

Map design: It's frankly very impressive how every spot in Jorvik has really good views, and the balance between feeling like places are miles away and giving you excellent traveltime, while still being dense with locations and quest opportunities. Epona feels like three days of travel away, and yet from the right spot you can simply see the castle on the other side of the water!

Individual visual design: I like the look of the new player models (put your nostalgia goggles away. the old shit looks like it belongs in 2005 with oldschool runescape and you know it), same goes with horses, tack, even things like trees and environmental objects. The main problem is the janky mismatch between objects, which traces back to the lack of cohesive long-term vision and planning when it comes to developing the game as a whole, instead of individual parts and pieces.

The thing that actually inspired this post: as troublesome as the js economy is in the game, they've Genuinely hit the mark with starcoins. The goal of a premium currency is the delicate balance between getting as much real-life benefits from your players (whether that be ad revenue or simple direct payment for it) while giving them enough new goodies through it that it makes it worth it for players to put in that extra effort. No company in the industry gives away premium currency on a whim. The 100sc per week, which translates to 5 new horses per year and the occasional bonus if you've saved up more over time, is an excellent structure. You get to buy horses for free if you just wait long enough. You don't need to pay beyond your standard star rider price (and if you haven't bought the permanent version. what are you doing. paying for the pay once option pays itself back in 11 months over the monthly option, and 12 months for the quarterly option. Not even counting the bonus sc you get to begin with). Free weekly sc that are enough for a magic horse 4 times a year, plus a bonus horse or several pets, is an Amazing community service they're frankly doing. And from a company perspective? They are never going to change this in a way that is more beneficial to you. Because the goal of premium currency is not to buy horses, it's to earn the company money. It is the Main way the company earns money. And the 100sc works excellent because it's doing exactly what it needs to do: It's keeping you coming back to buy their new horses, and then makes you go "man I wish I had even more sc", thus tempting you into buying sc. Any increase in starcoins will be the opposite of an incentive to spend money on the game. If management is really stupid and desperate for cash, they will, if anything, decrease the amount of sc you earn, or more subtly increase the price of the things you can buy with it. Because that's what gets you going "Well if I spend just 20 euros, I can buy both new magic horses, and the Dutch Warmblood when it releases in a month."

Starcoins hits a really fucking good sweet spot between earning the company money, and doing a genuine community service by making it accessible on the basic paid version.

[ask-ethari-anything]

First of all! I LOVE YOUR TATTOOS!

ok now down to business.

are the metal looking things at the base of your horns a kind of jewelry? why did elves evolve to have horns? are they used for something? do they grow throughout your lifetime?

You like my ink, eh? I'll thank my husband for his steady hand in applying it, then. (They're more markings than tattoos - not permanent.)

Moon help me, you've certainly got a solid appreciation for elf horns! A rarity among humans, since you've none of your own. Let me see if I can clear some things up for you!

Horn jewelry comes in many sorts and styles, with all sorts of different meanings. Some of it depends on which elven culture the wearer belongs to. Others aren't so clear-cut.

Moonshadow elves love decoration. Many of us wear horn jewelry - rings, caps, cuffs, chains, and more - because they're pretty. I've made plenty myself over the years. But horn cuffs, specifically, often mean that the wearer has chosen a partner to be loyal to. Bonus points if the cuffs either look like a matching set (like Lain and Tiadrin's) or seem to resemble some details about each wearer's partner (like mine and Runaan's).

Alright, I hope I get extra credit for maundering on about horn jewelry, because I'm not sure what you mean by elves evolving to have horns. Evolved from what? We've always been elves. Elves with horns!

I can't speak for every elf in Xadia, but I use horns to show off my favorite horn jewelry. Don't try to tell me you wouldn't do the same if you had horns. Elf horns are a jeweler's best friend, you know - I put my best work on my husband's horns and I must say, he wears fine things well.

I'm no expert on elf horns that aren't the ones coming out of my head, but in my experience, elflings' horns bud when they're still very wee, and they stop growing around the time everything else does. We can look at our parents' horns and guess what shapes we'll grow ourselves, but as my ma used to say, "There's no guarantee until the curve kicks in."

Which is also what she'd say when pitching to us elflings for sackball. She could throw a mean sinker.

Thanks for your ask, love. I always enjoy being an expert on myself.

[justanotherpersonsuniverse]

Cap (evil beast who plays with my emotions <3) lore questions for PN!! (unrelated to the thing i'm writing, i just realised i can just, well, ask you about the things i've been wondering about)

obviously if any of this veers off into spoilers territory or would lead to you pointing out something you wish to keep close to your chest, do just say :)

Numero Uno: i don't speak spanish not sure what that is, so we know that Juleka is every cats favourite human friend, is that just because its cute (valid) or is there more to why they flock to her? and does this happen to other miraculous holders? as i may just be forgetting something, apologies, but i don't remember if marinette has spoken about experiencing this as well

2) what was with the crows. tell me please. was it just for the.. i forgot its name- the really fucking cool thing which was amazingly written (metallica moment) or is this a new creature that follows her around due to symbolism or that you just wanted to use to foreshadow Cool Things Dead Ahead, once again, why are the other holders not experiencing this (or is it just 'off screen'?)

3) at the end of the chapter it was very very fast tonal change, civilians don't seem to be taking hawky boy as seriously as they should even those majorly affected, now this is obviously because a) he attacks with the stupidest looking guys b) no consequences due to ladybug and c) even the heroes seem to be content with goofing off, so will there be a tonal shift in public opinion as things become more serious or will that continue to be something they have to wrok against, the fact that as soon as an attack is over all fear of these events seems to dissipate (although we have seen that our core heroes seem to understand the severity of the situation slightly more) or am i being silly and the fast moving on is people posturing to not seem as affected?

4) are they being paid for the work they do...? like, i feel as though they should be and we all know that people like to throw money at things they like to show that affection, so even if it wasn't a government (or i suppose just the mayor) funded thing they would still end up with money from people. wait now i'm creating problems in my head of people pretending to be the heroes online to get money- scrap this one people would scam others if it was a thing <3 i just think it'd be nice if they were financially compensated... i feel like chloe would panic with more money and try to find a charity she likes only to end up making her own for very specific a very specific cause...

5) is there any fun world building things / lore that you want to discuss? i have for sure missed a lot of things i'm curious about this was just off the top of my head as i was musing about panthera, but its always interesting to see dealers choice

(bonus question, do you have specific real cats /designs in mind for minou and parrot? if so show us the beasts, in case you can't tell from the everything about me i like cats and would enjoy that greatly)

Number Hana! (lets learn some korean shall we?) Miraculous holders do indeed attract their animals! It's like a drawn magic thing. The animals aren't per say processed but they have this innate desire to follow and to find interest in the holder. (Marinette has been followed by ladybugs. Bees will follow Chloe soon. And so on and so forth.)

Number Dul! The crows are... lets say Juleka's thing. Not Panthera's thing. Not the cat miraculous's thing. Juleka's thing. Although.. half of those birds are only there cause they recognize and like her in an actual bird way and not a magic way. They hang around Rose's window a lot (both at the hospital and at home) and corvids have amazing memory on who is friend and foe!

Crows and Ravens- they're a sign of bad luck and death. They only started to show up around Panthera very recently. Imagine like, just days before Hero's Day they've started to show up more and more. Juleka finds them a bit, ominous, but is nice to them anyways as respect. Unfortunately this just attracts more birds, poor Adrien's allergies...

Number Set! I would say the in universe answer is more so "A" and just, the underlined layer of spite against Hawkmoth. Paris banded together and won against him, so their confidence is pretty high by the fact they somehow really did scare him off. Only the B Team are also goofing over it as well, though for them there's a slight edge, while our main two LB and PN are the most on edge.

As for the meta answer on why I wrote it like that- I just wanted you guys to have a sorta light reprieve from the angst. Some funny scenes to lighten the suffering I threw you guys into.

Number Net. Chloe's been trying their best to get them money!!!!!!! I can't remember if it's working or not.

Number Daseot. Hmmmmm.. Nothing comes to mind exactly.. I will say to keep an eye out for how I write Fei in the upcoming Shanghai chapters and how she relates to Juleka. Shanghai Special will be setting up some.. themes for Season 3. That's all.

(I got nothing on Minou he was just always a blobby void cat born from my mind. Parrot was designed a bit after my Nephew who is a cat and also the tiktok cat Reznor!)

[crystalelemental]

This water mode is confusing me so much I just don't get it. Tried Marlon first, barely did anything while he mowed me down so I went "okay, these are going to be tough, I'll fight the others first so I can save the good stuff for him." And then I beat Misty with one sync? so fast I don't get any points from the hit bonus??? and the same goes for Lana??????? I have no idea how to approach this, I'm certainly doing something wrong but god help me if I can figure it out

I'll do my best. At a guess, the Strength modifier is likely set high for Marlon, but low for Misty and Lana. I'll try to break down a few thing.

First: ignore time. It's irrelevant. Any good score relies on high Strength bonus, and it becomes impossible to get a good time. It's completely useless.

Second: Total hits and Total buffs can matter, but don't make it a priority to cap them out. They're more of a little bonus.

The main things you focus on are Water types, Strength modification, and secondary effects.

We'll start with Strength, since that's likely where your confusion is. Strength is set after you've selected the stage, set your team, and hit Battle. It will ask about what Strength level to set, and goes from 0 to 1000. Every 100 Strength is approximately a 100% boost to typical Champion Stadium stats. In general, to meet the score requirements for all rewards, you'll want to set it around 200. If you have a really good team, you can push up to 250 or 300, but anything past that gets really dicey. A big distinction in this mode compared to Champion Stadium is that bulk is incredibly high. This is why time is useless; your hits will bounce off of opponents starting at around the 150 Strength amount. This mode is an endurance contest, and as a result, a lot of top tier Supports like Hilbert, who don't have good defensive backbone but are fast-acting offense buffers, are pretty bad. Marlon had more use for me as a support than Hilbert, for comparison.

Without knowing exactly what happened in your Marlon fight, it's likely Strength was set too high. If attacks are dealing next to nothing, but he's not really hurting your team too badly either, you might be in a good spot with some careful play. If he's absolutely chunking your support, it's definitely time to set it back a bit. Anything over 200 should be considered well in excess of your needs. I think around 175 is the safe spot; minimum strength to get 36,000 points per stage with all Water types.

That leads to issue 2: Water types are the only thing that matter. You want three of them on every team, otherwise the Strength requirement skyrockets to something like 400-500. Because all your opponents are Water-type, this means all your battling is off-type, which means those damage numbers go even lower. Using Rain also means powering up your opponent, so while it's helpful, it's risky and requires more defense. Flinching and sleep works, but they gain Resilience afterward, and are immune for a time, so it can't be locked down like CS either. Still, the delay can make a lot of difference.

The main thing I found is that, if your team can survive the opponent's first sync? You're probably okay. EX Strikers and Supports are Very Good for this mode, although Marlon's fight actively ruins Strikers thanks to the condition that cuts stats. That could be another aspect of him tearing through; if you're using any Striker, consider another option. Their stats are cut by 80% on Marlon's stage, so they basically accomplish nothing and die in one hit. Bring Tech damage dealers like Lodge Rosa/Silver, May, Nessa, Dojo Gloria, or NC Serena.

The last thing is just some added modification that can save a bit on strength. You get 1000 points for using a Main Character in your team, and thankfully, Water is loaded with options. I'd advisable to always make sure someone has Main Character on your team. Hilbert, Elio, Kris, May, Lodge May, Lodge Rosa, Dojo Gloria, SS Kris, and NC Serena are all Main Characters. Kris is generally pretty good against Archie (blocks 80% special damage by default), SS Kris is absurdly good against Misty (removes Hail), the tech options are good against Marlon.

The other condition worth 1000 bonus points is inflicting Confuse. This one's a bit tougher, because it requires specific characters to be useful. Crasher Wake, Siebold, SS Blue, and Tech Blastoise eggmon all have Water Pulse with access to Aggravation, and are fairly safe bets. NC Serena can also do it through Flabbergast on Brutal Swing, if you're feeling gutsy about it (or want to use her physical Dark sync to break Archie; it works).

Some other general hints are that secondary coverage options work if you need them to. May has Ground damage which is strong against Nessa, Dojo Gloria has Fighting and is strong against Lana, Lana herself has Leech Life which is really good against Archie's stage.

Hopefully that helps? Let me know if anything's still confusing, or if you're trying out stages and it's not working. I can try to troubleshoot.

[fuesch]

Good news, everyone! I've finished the binge from hell (Criminal Minds).

What made it hellish was that I just could not stop. I don't know if it was also something about the show or just my out-of-control ADHD using this as an excuse to ignore my to-do list. And so this binge took under 2 months, which - FUN FACT! - is shorter than finding a doc these days to get an ADHD diagnosis from (the German healthcare system has such a good reputation, but honestly, shit's been going down the drain since before Covid - and I say that as a city dweller).

If you're wondering how my fragile mind managed to handle this non-stop input of murder and various forms of torture:

Ignore the cases or try to enjoy them as revenge fantasies.

Focus on the team and all the "Hey, I know you from this/that/everywhere!" guest stars instead.

Crochet while watching. I've made such progress, the first of my cherry-pit socks is nearly finished!

I can't believe how long it's been since I've properly watched TV: The season I'm most familiar with is 2! Since other factors hadn't come into play yet, I suspect what caused this was a deterioration in adhering to a schedule (hm, parallel with rl, so I guess due to not being bound by a rl schedule, I slowly lost the ability to keep up with the TV schedule) and my growing passionate hatred of annoying commercials which had led me to getting stuck on Nickelodeon (their ads were also annoying, iirc, but ... uh, idk, can't remember), a documentary channel and CNN (International, that is - such bearable commercials, they should be the model for all).

I liked all the women on the team, which must have been a first. I couldn't tell you a favorite, because every one of them is great in her own way. Let me point out Garcia though, for giving me back the joy of hair decorations. Huh, I thought not having NCIS's Abby in my life anymore didn't impact me, but Garcia made me realize that without Abby my encouragement was gone. Man, do I hate that I need continual encouragement to be myself! So there's another CM binge and the long-time-coming NCIS rewatch with making caps of my girls in my future. Maybe I'll make myself a motivational collage and hang it on the wall above my monitor.

Anyway, on to the team's men! *sigh* Those were mixed bag for me. I mean, nobody was really bad, but it did span the whole range of chest-thumping type (which ugh - although Morgan's relationship with Garcia remains the best thing, they were close and cute but not a thing and that's the queerplatonic shit I wanna see everywhere, fuck yeah!) to guy who's just, idk, there and the that's-my-boy guy. My boy was and still is Reid *pat pat*. And as a bonus during this binge he functioned as my Peter Maximoff substitute. He did that not only by being my fave, but for example also by having messy lightbrown hair. Which, sure, isn't Peter, but it is Evan Peters (I'd like to take this moment to thank the writers for all the Evans and Peterss they put in and the casting person for that one time we got actual EP), who usually is my PM substitute. Hmph, I didn't talk about Spence as much as I meant to, but where to even begin?

How did everyone feel about the revival? It wasn't bad, but it didn't quite feel like previous seasons. I'm not that good at finding out what is bothering me about stuff, so it might have been more things besides it feeling darker visually and too much swearing (I'm generally not against it, but after 15 seasons of it not being there, it just felt so out of place). I wasn't happy with the lack of my boy, but if there's one thing this revival did right, it was the absence of change in the meantime (except for what they put Rossi through), Reid as well as everyone else still worked at the BAU, we just didn't see him and Simmons because they were on assignment.

I kinda want to talk about ALL the things, but I wouldn't be able to remember all that I want and writing all that I do would take sooo long. So if anyone wants to talk about anything specific, I'm here.

[pastryfilledpup]

(You don't have to publically answer this I just want to be a weirdo and vent my admiration for your work haha)

I commented on your story but I wanted to reach out to your tumblr but I love your feeder s0ush!n fic so much I just wanted to say it again. I'm so happy you mentioned your tw!tter- I went there instantly haha. All of that sh!n art is so good he's soo cute when he's so fat and so soft. The convenience store uniform and the ramen picture were my favorites but they're all wonderful

(Apologies for rambling now and it might be tmi!) I appreciate extreme wg a lot, but I do think I lean to the less extreme side usually. I still like him big though haha. In your story I loved your description of his waistband pressing against his stomach until his button fly popped, that type of thing is really really hot shdjsj the taughtness of a full belly after being overfed a big meal is one of the best things ever.

But a soft, big tummy after gaining weight over a long period of eating good food every day is really good too! I think both sudden and slow wg suit s0ush!n a lot.

With the way S0u photographs sh!n a lot, one of my absolute favorite things to think about is how he would love to document sh!n's weight gaining progress over time both with pictures and written log of how sh!n enjoyed (or not) his meals that day or if he needed to shop for new clothes that fit him. He would take his measurements and weight down too of course haha. Having the photos to visually compare his body from the beginning to the weight he is at now is an added bonus.

Thank you for sharing your work again! I loved s0u pouring ramen broth into sh!n's mouth so much, but if I could make any request for any future works it would be so nice to see a hand-feeding s0ush!n scene with food you can eat by hand!

(again you do not have to answer this- just the fact that I could get my feelings out is enough! thank you for all that you share and I look forward to all of your future writing!)

no actually i will answer this mwuahhaha 😈😈😈

but omg???? do NOT apologize to me this kind of ranting is what i live for!!!! do you understand the rush of dopamine and inspiration and motivation i get from seeing things like this???? that's why i ask people to reach out! it's such a huge encourager and omfg i just want to write write write!!!! you're words are so kind and so sweet...ahh im tearing up smiling and laughing.

also your ideas for soushin???? nomnomnom im eating them UP! ill be honest im not even a huge soushin fan but i feel their dynamic is perfect for feederism...poor shin who wants to stop being thin, and the overly affectionate to the point of being sadistic sou, who just wants to show his love for the boy...aghhhh is so good. i would love to do a handfeeding fic sometime! handfeeding is so intimate and sweet...so relaxing and gentle... but i feel sou might not be too sweet the whole time, haha.

oughh and the things you said about the photos and documents ahiqoahywjaj uthrhshgajak urhhhghhgg ohhhh that's rotting my brain...id be so down to do something like that but doing a long slowburn is very intimidating... perhaps sometime in the future...

also im in the same boat haha. i don't like extreme sizes too much and usually find them more fun in art, but i cap myself to certain limits when writing and such. the convenience store one i admit i didn't give the artist much description, just told them to make him huge 😅. but i still love how he came out, and i love that artist very much. the soup one is also very lovely! part of my fic was inspired by that one. my personal favorite is the sleepy catboy, since i just want to cuddle with him so bad 🥹

but again, thank you for reaching out to me!!!! it makes me so happy im like yeah yeah yeah!!! weirdos forever!!! i have given up hiding my weird interests which is why i uploaded and started doing these works, because i was tired of not getting any good or genuine ones!!! being open about this has made me so happy, especially knowing there are others like me who want it! and dont ever be afraid to ramble as i eat it all up!!!!! my brain is rotten with wg shin ideas, do not be afraid to share i would love to hear them. my ask box is always open, and so are my dms. i am available here and anywhere you are comfortable. thank you really truly thank you. you are wonderful. i hope you enjoy what i have coming up next.

from your friend, pastrypup <3

[phoenixyfriend]

Okay so, let's talk about this! Thank you for giving me an opportunity to yell about numbers. I went and looked up IRS stuff for this, and I genuinely enjoyed that. Under a cut because I got a little carried away with looking up various statistics.

Prices are going to go up no matter what. Inflation is a thing. The minimum wage staying stagnant is a problem. You argument is that we should allow poor people to remain poor because it won't help people in the middle class. The problem is that the middle class is already breaking down and getting thinner all the day, in part because the minimum wage staying so low is allowing employers to undercut their income as well. The solution is not to keep the minimum wage stagnant, but to enact laws that also prevent employers from cutting costs on employees in other ways.

Actually, do you have a link with evidence for the minimum wage hike impacting people below the poverty line negatively? Again, I'm talking about people who had three jobs to make rent now only needing one or two. Please show me a study, I'd love to see where you're getting these numbers.

Minimum wage increases always have mixed results for people. They are, by and large, good for employees, and the negative effects are often fueled in part by things like greedy landlords or out-of-state demands (like, you know, a CEO that still wants that multi-billion dollar bonus

I also at no point said 'overnight.' I actually mentioned a staggered process, with wage increases hitting big businesses first. That's how New York enacted a $15/hr minimum. The larger a business is, the more of its money is going unnecessarily to shareholders and upper management. By forcing those companies to enact a higher wage first, money is injected into the economy early, providing more revenue to smaller businesses, which have had time and that additional revenue to ensure they can also follow the wage increase when it's their turn.

You are correct that wages are part of profit margin calculation. They are not, however, the only part of it. You know what percentage of theft in the US is wage theft, where employers shortchange employees on their actual worked time? It's intense.

Anyway, again, the real thing to cover wage increases would be very slight cost increases for the product, for giant corporations. Thanks for mentioning Starbucks! I used to work there, so I know the actual numbers. I know what the supply chain looks like, what's made in house, approximate repair costs for the equipment, scheduling, that sort of thing. Fun fact, they're real fond of scheduling 5.75 hours so they don't have to give you a lunch break (legally mandatory at for any shift of 6hrs or more in my state).

You know how many drinks Starbucks can sell in a shift? You get thousands of dollars passing hands in six hours at one location. I remember one occasion where that shift was equivalent to about $6000 for a decently busy summer weekend. There are seven employees for this peak weekend rush. Say their wages jump from $15/hr to $20/hr. To cover that shift, the store needs an additional $210/hr total ($30/person). Costs would increase 3.5% to cover that. For your $5 drink, that's 17.5 cents. Starbucks regularly increases prices by about 20 cents to keep up with inflation for that very supply chain you're talking about. They can do the same for a wage hike without losing customers. (Will supply chain costs also increase? Yeah, obviously, but those costs will also be a very low jump, especially since large companies like Starbucks have multiple factories for their product; they have five roasting plants just in the US.)

If we're enacting CEO salary caps and marginal tax rates, it would be even less. If we have fees in place for cutting hours to employees by any business over 200 employees, that would be grand. If those businesses fail, well, then that wasn't a successful business model. Down with the megacorps!

Hey, I don't need Starbucks and McDonald's to lower their prices abroad. I mean, they could, many of their raw materials are way cheaper here so that supply chain issue isn't what you think. Remember what I said about multiple factories in the US alone? They don't need to send their syrup overseas if they already have a factory for it in Europe (Amsterdam's got Europe covered). But mostly, it would be nice if, when charging American costs, they paid American wages. Pay your fucking employees!

Grants for college probably aren't going to help nearly as much as caps on education costs. Someone on discord talked about how grants were done before and just resulted in tuition hikes, so caps on tuition, or just an expansion of public universities with grants going there, so more students can study at government-owned schools that can have their tuition monitored to not rise with the grants, would be ideal.

Did you know there are models that show just how much money we'd save if healthcare was funded through the state instead of private insurance companies? This article addresses it. Let's say you earn 4,200 per month. You pay $300/month for your health/dental/vision insurance, and your employer pays $300/month. That means that $600 of your monthly compensation is going to Health/Dental/Vision (and not a very good company either). If your taxed at 6% for universal healthcare, that's about $250. If your employer doesn't compensate you what they were also paying, you're still making $50 more. If your employer does compensate you for not having to shell out for your health insurance, you are now making $350 more per month. Seems like I'm paying less money, doesn't it?

You know, a person probably wouldn't be hunting out an economics degree in a desperate hope to not become a bartender if that bartending job just paid a living wage from the start.

Also, yeah, I forgot about endowments! Thank you for reminding me. Those need to be absolutely dismantled and redistributed for student betterment, either turned into scholarships or heavily taxed.

IRS: There were 112,023 employees in 1995, when the population was 263,730. Since the current population is about 332 million, the same ratio of IRS workers would be about 141,000. So let's start with that! I think getting an additional 87,000 workers is a great first step, but given the amount of backlog due to previous cuts... well. Since 2021 only had 78,000 employees, the addition gets us to 160,000, which... might be enough to make a dent in that backlog! And then we can take it back down to that 140,000. Doesn't that sound grand?

Also, that reading rec is from a 1958 libertarian who owned multiple businesses. It kind of doesn't apply to 'trying to help people below the poverty line over sixty years later.

Time for some tracts:

"How do we create jobs?" You raise the minimum wage, because if people don't need to work three jobs to make rent, those other two jobs will mysteriously open up.

"How do we support small businesses?" You raise the minimum wage, staggered to the biggest corporations first.

"How do we reduce homelessness?" You raise the minimum wage.

"How do we make sure raising the minimum wage doesn't negatively impact prices or--?"

Prices are already rising faster than wages are, this is playing catch up.

Put a cap on CEO salaries and bonuses, they can't earn more than 100 times more than their lowest paid workers. Current US ratio is 342, which is insane. (This list is mostly about the US.)

Hit corporations first, give small businesses time to adjust. McDonald's and Walmart can afford to raise wages to $20/hr before anyone else does, they have that income.

Drop the weekly hours required for insurance from thirty to fifteen. This will disincentivize employers having everyone work 29hrs a week, partly because working only 14hrs a week is a great way to have undertrained, underpracticed staff. Full time employment becomes the new rule.

Legalize salary transparency for all positions; NYC's new law is a good start.

Legislation that prevents companies from selling at American prices while paying American wages abroad. Did you know that McDonald's costs as much or more in Serbia, where the minimum wage is about $2/hr? Did you know that a lot of foreign products, like makeup, are a solid 20% more expensive? Did you know that Starbucks prices are equivalent? Did you know that these companies charge American prices while paying their employees local wages? At a more extreme example, luxury goods made in sweatshops are something we all know are a problem, from Apple iPhones to Forever 21 blouses, often involving child labor too. So a requirement to match the cost-to-wage ratio (either drop your prices or raise your wages when producing or selling abroad) would be great.

Not directly a minimum wage thing but still important:

Enact fees and caps on rent and housing. A good plan would probably be to have it in direct ratio to mortgage (or estimated building value, if it's already paid off), property tax, and estimated fees. This isn't going to work everywhere, since housing prices themselves are insanely high, but hey--people will be able to afford those difficult rent costs if they're earning more.

Trustbusting monopolies and megacorps like Amazon, Disney, Walmart, Google, Verizon, etc.

Tax the rich. I know this is incredibly basic but tax the fucking rich, please.

Fund the IRS to full power again. They are a skeleton crew that cannot audit the megarich due to lack of manpower, and that's where most of the taxes are being evaded.

Universal healthcare. This is so basic but oh my god we need universal healthcare. You can still have private practitioners and individual insurance! But a national healthcare system means people aren't going to die for a weird mole.

More government-funded college grants. One of the great issues in the US is the lack of healthcare workers. This has many elements, and while burnout is a big one, the massive financial costs of medical school and training are a major barrier to entry. While there are many industries where this is true, the medical field is one of the most impacted, and one of the most necessary to the success of a society. Lowering those financial barriers can only help the healthcare crisis by providing more medical professionals who are less prone to burnout because they don't need to work as many hours.

And even if those grants aren't total, guess what! That higher minimum wage we were talking about is a great way to ensure students have less debt coming out the other side if they're working their way through college.

------------------

Linda P requested something either really interesting or really silly and this is... definitely more of a tract on a topic of interest (the minimum wage and other ways business and government are both being impeded by corporate greed) than on a topic of Silly. Hope it's still good!

[caffeineforbucky]

As Time Goes By...(Chapter three)

A/N: This one took a while to write. I've just been so busy doing absolutely nothing all while procrastinating, so special thanks to that. No, but I really hope you like this, fellow reader. If you like the series, let me know if you want to be tagged!

(Side note: I've been playing RE8, thirsting over lady D, and dying over and over...it's going great! It's part of the procrastination...)

Also, has anyone seen the Bridgerton musical tiktoks? I swear I've had the 'burn for you' song in my head all last month and if you've been living under a rock...here's the link:

https://youtu.be/EwY9_m5qeow

Word Count: 2,299

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Fem! Reader

Warnings: I don't know....angst? As always, John Walker!?! AKA; Fake Cap. Umm...If I missed any let me know.

(A little PSA: I don't hate John Walker: or the actor. John is a well-written character. This is just strictly for the purpose of where my story is going. I'm more reiterating how Bucky treats him in the show. Thank you!!)

You groan, rolling from your left side to lay flatly on your back, arms spread out beside you. You inhale deeply, becoming aware of the moistened dirt and crushed wildflowers beneath you as they release their aromatics. Birds chirped around you, the busy sounds of traffic fading away while you lie still in the field, oxygen feeling heavy in your lungs.

"Y/N?!"

You barely heard the worrisome calls of Sam over the sound of your heart pounding in your ears. You lift your head, the view of icy mountains in the distance, blurry figures making their way towards you while you somehow managed to sit up. Your head was spinning, a sharp ache on the side of your thigh.

Your eyes flickered down, taking note of the small paring knife lodged in your thigh. You exhaled softly, nodding your head at the sight of it. "Okay," You grumble in agreement. With shaking hands, you wrap your fingers around the handle, bracing yourself by taking intervolved breaths before carefully pulling it from your thigh.

You worked fast, ignoring the crunch of rocks and dirt under the acknowledgeable footsteps of Sam and Bucky. Taking babochka, you cut off the end of your pant leg, wrapping the spandex around your wounded thigh before securing it with one of the holsters, tying the ends into a knot. You remain quiet, carefully pushing yourself up to your feet, transferring all of the weight to the opposite leg, eyes drifting up to meet the guys. "Are you guys okay?" You murmur, dusting off the clumps of dirt and dead leaves from your jacket.

"Are you?!" Sam exclaimed incredulously. "You're bleeding!" He points out, gesturing to the bright red staining the skin of your calf as it dripped down to your boot. The wrap might've held the wound shut, but that didn't mean blood wouldn't have soaked through.

"Oh, this?" You ask, glancing down at your leg, the wound throbbing in agony, but you did your best to avoid it. "I've had worse." That was true, from all those years fighting as an avenger. Getting shot, kicked, stabbed, beaten until you were purple, and undergoing mind control. This tiny stab was the least of your worries. It still hurt like hell, and you couldn't hide the discomfort in your features.

"Do you want a piggyback?" Bucky asks suddenly, slightly annoyed at your nonchalance and still concerned nonetheless. You weren't expecting it, the odd but kind offer, especially from the menace himself. Though you weren't one to pass up being carried. With a hesitant nod, you agree, watching Bucky crouch just a bit, allowing you to climb on his back.

The position was awkward for both of you. With his hands tightening on the back of your knees and your arms wrapped around his neck, neither of you could think straight. Yet, you were still thankful. The road to the airport was a long one, and you weren't sure if you could make it in your state. Bucky held you as if you weighed nothing, his super-soldier strength showing off while he carried you on his back, footsteps matching up with Sam. He didn't mind doing it, especially since he was the one who offered, and the proximity was just a bonus.

"Sorry about Redwing," Bucky muses, breaking the silence while the three of you sauntered down the empty road. There was nothing for miles, only empty plains of grass and dirt. Young trees scattered, lacking the greenery around them, evident of the cold weather in Munich.

"No, you're not," Sam remarks, narrowing his eyes to a pinprick at the winter soldier. "You've always hated Redwing."

"That doesn't mean I'm not sorry about it," Bucky grumbles, tightening his hold on you as he felt you slipping. You gasp at the sudden strength, clinging better to his shoulders as well. "How're you doin' up there?" He asks, jaw clenching from your touch.

"All things considering," You sigh, pushing aside the butterflies in your tummy at how close you were to Bucky. "I've been better. We've gotta find out where that super serum is coming from."

"Yeah," Sam chimed in, glancing at you. "-And how the hell after 80 years are there eight super-soldiers runnin' loose?"

Loud honks of a horn ring in your ears, tires treading on the gravel as an army jeep slows down beside the three of you. "So, that didn't go as planned, huh?" John chuckles, pushing the door open only for you to keep walking, paying no mind to the man in stars and stripes.

"Okay, keep going," John utters, signaling the driver to keep up as he pulls the door shut. "Look, at least we know what we're up against, huh? And I'm pretty sure it's one of the big three...so,"

"Aliens, androids, or wizards," Lemar comments as John nods his head in agreement.

"There's no such thing as wizards!" Bucky grunts, keeping his eyes forward, hands on the back of your knees.

"Fine, aliens or androids," John settles, sharing a look with his best friend beside him. "Look, it's 20 miles to the airport, and you guys need a ride. Gary, stop," He instructs, the wheels slowing down. John opens the door once again. "Get in," He sighs, motioning all of you inside the jeep as Bucky and Sam's footsteps came to a halt.

Bucky gently sets you down, taking note of the small whimpers falling from your lips. No matter how tough you appeared to be, you still carried so much vulnerability. "You okay?" He asks, eyes filled with so much concern it almost scared you. He hadn't looked at you like that in a while. "Do you want any help?"

With a soft nod, you oblige to Bucky's ask, needing more help than you anticipated. You didn't want to add any strain or force to your injury. You didn't even realize it happened, and that part of it was Sam's fault for swooping to grab you while you had a knife in hand, but you weren't going to start pointing fingers. You wrap your arm around Bucky's shoulder, using him as support while he boosts you up on the jeep after Sam climbs up first, helping you settle beside him.

"Woah!" John exclaims, almost rising to his feet at the sight of your thigh, your hands stained with blood. "Are you okay?"

With a curt nod, you adjust yourself to relieve some of the pressure while Bucky takes a seat on your left, leaving you to be right smack dab in the middle as he pulls the door shut. You blow out a breath, knowing damn well if it hadn't been for the mishap, you would've walked the damn 20 miles.

"Lemar, hand me the first aid kit," John instructs, pointing to the steel case beside his friend. You wanted to protest, but even you knew that the strap wasn't going to work. Mouthing a thank you, you take the case from Lemar's hand and clip it open.

"Okay, so we got eight super-soldiers on a bulk supply run," John continues, the jeep beginning to roll down the road. You hand the case to Sam, asking him to hold it while you searched for gauze, medical tape, and butterfly bandages, you were probably going to need stitches, but you'd worry about that later. "Why?" John asks, watching closely as you patched up your wound.

"They say their mission is to get things back to the way it was during the blip," Sam answers, handing you another strip of tape. "Maybe they're just tryna help."

"They had a funny way of showing it," Bucky adds, his eyes trained on you, a hiss slipping through your lips as you roll down the remaining spandex. You sigh in relief, the ache becoming dull as you shut the case, giving it back to Lemar.

"Better?" John asks, earning a single nod as a response. "I don't think we've properly met. John Walker," he smiles, offering a shake of his hand, but you didn't move, only staring at the outstretched palm in front of you. "Does she talk?" John mumbles suddenly, looking to Sam or Bucky for a reply.

Your eyes cast down, gaze hardening at the sight of the shield in his grasp. Flashes of Steve running through your mind, the many times he'd catch you trying to throw it like he would. Steve Rogers meant a lot to you, having joined him in not signing the Sokovian accords, being an outlaw, and helping to clear Bucky's name with Sam. So, seeing a man who wasn't Steve hold the shield awoke something in you. Something unkind and hateful.

"When she wants to," You claim, John squirms in his seat, sensing the tension as your eyes flicker to his. "And frankly has no desire to speak to you."

"You don't even know me," John defends, glancing at Bucky, a sly smirk on his lips, and Sam, who rendered quiet, his eyes looking elsewhere. John sets his attention back on you, lips razor thin.

You scoff, shaking your head softly as you fold your arms over your chest. "Jonathon F. Walker," You begin, leaning back in your seat, your eyes never leaving his. "Former Captain of the U.S Army's 75th Rangers Regiment. Graduated at the top of your class from the United States Military and the first person in American history to receive three medals of honor, ran RS-one missions in counterterrorism and hostage rescue."

John's tongue darts between his lips, a frown spreading throughout his forehead at the information you were giving him. Either you did research on him or, you just read his file, which you had done both. You were not one to go into a mission without potentially knowing who you were up against. It was better to be safe than sorry.

"So you saw the news?" John chuckles, the frown falling from his features while he shrugs. "Big deal, so did the entire world."

"Custer's Grove High school alumni."

John's smile falters.

"There you met, Lemar Hoskins and your current wife," You tilt your head in curiosity. "Olivia, right? Or am I getting it wrong?"

Clearing his throat softly, John broke eye contact with you. So you did know him, and you probably knew more than you led on. "Do they always just stare like that?" He gestures between you and Bucky, who had displayed the same distaste for him.

Sam glances beside him, observing the matched body language you shared with Bucky, its no wonder Bucky had taken a liking to you, even if he'd never admit it. "You get used to it," Sam smirks, turning his head back to Walker.

"Okay..." John drags, eyes flickering to the more sensible one of the trio, and that was Sam. "Look, that serum doesn't have the greatest track record, no offense," He waves his hand, dismissing the insult directed towards the only super-soldier in the car.

"We need to figure out where they're going. How'd you track 'em here?" Sam asks, "The flag smashers."

"Uh," Lemar murmurs, scratching the back of his head. "We didn't track them. We tracked you through Redwing."

"You hacked my tech!?" Sam gripes, straightening out his back as he sat up.

"Sorry," John laughs, "It's not exactly hacking. It's government property...kind of the government. Alright, you know things have gotten kind of..."

"Chaotic," Lemar adds.

"Yeah," John nods in agreement. "The GRC, they're doing their best to get things up and running smoothly post blip. If you guys teamed up with us-"

"No." Bucky interrupts. He couldn't let Walker finish that sentence.

"I've got mad respect for all of you," Lemar praises, looking between the trio before him. "But you were getting your asses kicked 'til we showed up."

"And who are you?" Bucky bemuses, cocking a brow at the man next to John.

"Lemar Hoskins," You mention, "I could've sworn we've been through this." You shake your head at the old man, for being 106, he couldn't hear a thing.

"I see a guy hanging out of a helicopter in tactical gear," Sam shrugs, "I'm gonna need a lot more than Lemar Hoskins."

"I'm Battlestar, John's partner."

"Battlestar?" Bucky repeats, narrowing his eyes at Lemar as he nods, confirming his alias. "Stop the car!" Bucky shouts suddenly, brakes screeching as the wheels come to a stop in the middle of the road. Bucky pulls open the handle, ducking, as to not rail his head on the bar-frame above him before hopping off the jeep.

"Look, I get it, okay?" John sighs, calling after Bucky. "I get the attitude, I do. You didn't think the shield was gonna end up here. I get it, Bucky. And I'm not trying to be Steve!"

"Good," You interject, rendering John to settle his eyes on you. "Because you will never be. And just because you're the one wielding it..." You grab the bar above your head, using it to pull yourself up. "It doesn't make you Captain America." And with that, you carefully jump off the jeep, following after the heated super-soldier.

Sighing in frustration, he rips his eyes away from your retreating figures. "I'm not trying to replace him either. I'm just trying to be the best Captain America I can be." He explains to Sam, hoping the falcon would cut him some slack. "-And it'd be a whole lot easier if I had Cap's wingman on my side."

Sam's eyes widen in surprise, his tongue darting between his lips. "It's always that last line," He scoffs, shaking his head as he jumped off the car, following you and Bucky.

John's lips thin out, face scrunching in a scowl. "Let's go," He instructs. The sound of the jeep leaving making its way to your ears.

[fruitcoops]

Remus gets injured in a game. I have literally read everything you have written but i'm not sure if you have wrote one like this. If you have, ANOTHER PLZZ

Hello anon! I wove this together with a couple different prompts, listed below:

1. Coops argument

2. Prompt 21: “You need to eat something”

3. Remus gets in a fight with Snape

4. Protective Sirius

5. Coops going home grumpy after losing a game (see link)

Sweater Weather credit goes to @lumosinlove! TW for fights, blood, bruises, arguments, and someone getting called a wh*re

Snape’s cheek gave easily beneath Remus’ fist, which was a tad bit surprising. He wrapped his other hand in the neckline of his jersey, yanking him back in to land another punch to the side of his head—that would leave a nasty bruise in the morning. Stars sparkled in his vision as Snape got a lucky shot in and he doubled down, ignoring the thin line of pain that trickled down his chin.

“Break it up, boys, that’s enough!” The referee’s whistle blew as he and another pried Remus’ hands off Snape’s jersey; someone took him by the shoulders and pushed him away from the fight. Pots.

“Say it again!” Remus shouted at Snape as the refs and their teammates continued pulling them apart. “Say it again and I’ll knock your fucking teeth in!”

James’ hold on him faltered for a second as another person skated over and tried to join the melee. “Cap, no!”

“Move, Pots.”

“Loops won the fight, it’s done. Let’s just keep playing.” James shoved both their chests hard enough to send them back a few inches, but Remus’ blood boiled as he ground his mouthguard between his teeth. He glanced up at the clock—3:16 left in the third, Snakes up by two. Their win was almost guaranteed and Snape was still pulling this bullshit.

He skated quickly over to the bench and mumbled his thanks to Hestia as she pressed some gauze to his lip and ice to his cheek. “Lupin, you’re in for the rest of the game,” Coach Weasley said, tapping him on the arm with his playboard. “Anything broken?”

“No, Coach.”

“Then get your ass back out on the ice and score some points. We need some speed.”

He could feel the fury rolling off Sirius as they wove through the Snakes’ defense, shooting again and again to no avail. Frustration built up in every nerve—he was worried about the win, of course, but mostly he was pissed. Pissed at Snape, pissed at James for pushing him, and pissed at Sirius for butting into the fight.

Remus scored a final goal just as the buzzer sounded. Hissing filled the stadium, even though it was a home game. Snape smirked at him as he skated past and the only thing keeping him from dragging him right back in by his greasy hair was the possible suspension.

The shower was cold, because of course the fucking shower was cold. Remus shoved his stuff in his duffel and waited outside the locker room, silently fist bumping the guys as they left. God, he hated losing games. It was inevitable, but it always felt shitty.

“How’s the lip?” Sirius asked when he finally came out, bag slung over his shoulder.

“Fine. What the fuck was that?”

“What was what?”

“You butted into my fight. Nobody asked you to.”

Sirius’ eyebrows rose. “Re, he called you—”

“Yeah, I know what he called me,” Remus snapped, practically slamming the door to the parking lot closed. “I was there.”

The only reason you’re on this team is because you’re the captain’s whore, Snape had sneered. He bit the inside of his cheek as his anger flared at the memory. “I was just trying to help,” Sirius grumbled.

“Well, you didn’t. You proved his fucking point.”

“I didn’t prove shit!” Sirius scoffed as they got in the car. Immediately, Remus felt claustrophobic.

“I had it handled, Sirius!”

“You’re still bleeding!”

Remus ran his tongue along his lip—sure enough, the salty tang of blood filled his mouth. He swore under his breath and held his sleeve to his lip; his cheekbone throbbed and he knew it would be swollen in mere hours.

“Here.”

“I don’t need that.”

“You’d rather stain your sleeve than accept a tissue from me?”

“It’s a black sweatshirt, it’s fine.” Sirius muttered something. “Care to share with the class?”

Sirius sighed as he turned off the freeway. “I said it was your idea to keep these here in the first place. I don’t know why you’re being all pissy with me. We’ve lost games before.”

“I’m pissed because you don’t think I can handle myself in a fight.”

Sirius took his eyes off the road for a half second in shock. “Excuse me? Why do you think that?”

“I just told you!” Remus said, exasperated. “Snape was being a dick, so I punched him. I didn’t need your hero complex to swoop in and save the day.”

“Re, I didn’t even get a hand on him. Pots—”

“Oh, I’m pissed at him as well,” Remus snorted, staring out the passenger window at the blurry lights against the dark. “If someone calls me a whore, I’d rather get the message across that they can’t do it again.”

“Would you rather have gotten a penalty?”

“Yes.”

“That is unbelievably selfish.”

Remus laughed without humor. “Y’know, it’s really funny that you’ve never had this conversation with Logan, the king of the penalty box. Is it because he’s not a delicate flower like me?”

“Wh—” Sirius clenched his jaw and took a deep breath. “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, Remus. I have never seen you as a—a delicate flower. For your information, I have chewed Logan out on multiple occasions.”

Remus gritted his teeth and trained his gaze firmly out the window. He heard Sirius sigh next to him and it took every ounce of willpower to keep his composure. The next ten minutes were dead silent and deeply uncomfortable, which was a rarity with them; even after losses, they would talk through the errors or try to lighten the mood.

Both of them closed their doors a little harder than necessary when they got to the house and Hattie trotted over hesitantly when they came inside. “Hey, Hatters,” Remus murmured, crouching down to her level and holding a hand out. She licked his cheek and let him bury his face in her thick fur—Sirius scratched her ears as he walked past. “Did you have a good time while we were out? Huh, baby girl?” He looked up and saw the tail end of Sirius’ eye roll. “What?”

“Nothing.”

“Don’t bullshit me, Sirius, it doesn’t work. I’m giving the dog a hug because I’m still pissed at you.”

“There is literally no good reason for you to be pissed at me!” Sirius finally said, tossing his keys into the bowl by the door. “Holy shit, Re, I don’t even think you’re mad at me!”

“Oh, yeah? Then who am I mad at, oh great and wise captain?” Remus practically spat, shouldering past him into the kitchen and wrenching a cabinet open. “Please enlighten me.”

“I wish I knew!”

Remus slammed the bread down on the counter and glared at him. “Then maybe you should shut the fuck up if you don’t have anything to support your claim.”

“Acting like this is a goddamn debate club isn’t helping. Your lip is bleeding again.”

“Fuck.” Remus ripped a paper towel off the roll and dampened it, holding it to his lip with a wince. Sirius opened the freezer and dug around for a moment with another paper towel. “I don’t remember you getting hit.”

“This is for you, you stubborn fucker,” Sirius said as he walked over and pressed it gently to the side of Remus’ face. “Better?”

“…a bit.”

The tension on Sirius’ face began to fade; he just looked concerned as he pulled the ice away and checked the bruise. “Your eye might swell.”

“Yeah.”

“Do you actually want to talk now, or should we yell a little more?”

Remus sighed and felt his anger abate. He was beyond exhausted, and still upset, but having Sirius nearby was like balm on a burn. “I don’t know.”

“I’m going to make some sandwiches. Hold this.” Sirius tapped the ice towel and moved to the abandoned loaf, grabbing some peanut butter and jelly as he went.

“I’m not hungry.”

“You need to eat something.”

“I’m fine.”

Sirius glanced over his shoulder and gave him a look. “I know you, Re. You’re not going to feel better unless you get some food, and neither will I.”

“I hate it when you’re reasonable.”

“No, you don’t.”

Remus’ lack of response was enough of an answer. The pain stretched to his forehead and he grimaced, prodding his lip cautiously. Sirius whistled for Hattie and spread the leftover peanut butter from the knife onto a clean spoon, holding it down for her to lick. A smile tugged the corner of Remus’ mouth. “Cute.”

“I can be cute on occasion.”

“You’re always cute.” There was a beat of quiet. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re forgiven. I’m sorry for yelling.”

“Not for interrupting the fight?”

“Nope.”

“That’s fair.” Something tickled at the back of Remus’ throat. “I fucking hate Snape.”

“Me, too.”

“Surprisingly enough, it feels pretty shitty to be called a whore. Who would’ve thought?”

Sirius turned and faced him, sleeves rolled to his elbows. His eyes were soft. “You know that’s not true, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Remus. What he said wasn’t true. You have nothing to prove to anyone on the team, least of all to me. You earned that spot on the roster fair and square, and Snape’s just freaked out because there’s another player who could grind him into the dust without breaking a sweat.” He stepped closer and leaned on the counter next to Remus, leaving a few inches between them. “I don’t think you’re a whore, if that means anything.”

Remus laughed softly. “Of all the people out there, I think you’re the only one who could reliably make that assumption.”

Sirius didn’t smile. “You’re my best friend and also my fiancé. The sex is a great bonus, but my favorite part of being with you is just being with you.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Remus muttered, though the sharp edges began to smooth in his gut. He closed the distance between them and laid his head on Sirius’ shoulder. “Love you.”

“I love you, too. Can I take a look at your lip?”

“Sure.” Remus peeled the towel away and Sirius bent slightly, poking the area around it. “Ouch.”

“That’ll probably take a week or so to heal. He got you good.”

Remus pouted. “No kisses for a week?”

Sirius did laugh that time, bright and sunny enough that Remus nearly made his lip bleed again with the answering smile. “I said nothing about no kisses.” Warm lips trailed from his unbruised cheekbone to the edge of his mouth, leaving tiny tingles in their wake.

“I really am sorry about what I said. You were right, I wasn’t angry with you, and I had no right to go off like that.”

Sirius shrugged. “It happens.”

“It shouldn’t.”

“Then let’s agree to talk first, bite heads off later, okay?” He held his pinky out and Remus linked it with his own, kissing it quickly.

“Deal. Are the sandwiches done? I’m starving.”

Wordlessly, Sirius handed him a sandwich and hopped up to sit on the counter, scooting over to make room for Remus to join him. They ate quietly, swinging their legs as the calmness of the kitchen crept back in once more.

[the-remainder]

Greetings weary travelers, did you know, as a budding magus, Ilar has traveled across the Serpentine Coast and witnessed many bizarre and fantastic tales. On quiet afternoons, Ilar and Vyn would share some of Ilar's special blend of tea, freshly baked pastry, and tell a tale to each other. If you've donated to The Remainder on itch or ko-fi, you'll have access to the mini interactive fiction - Story And Tea with Ilar - where all these short stories can be read.

But we'd also like to reward people who've supported us in other ways by releasing some of these stories.

Here is the first in what we hope to be a series of such stories, as told by Ilar to Vyn.

Enjoy!

If you're not sure what I'm talking about, this is a bonus short story that takes place in the world of The Remainder, a dark fantasy visual novel, you can play Act 1 by clicking here.

Tale of the Fog Children

Part 1 of 3

Voices often came to me when I sat in inner silence and simply felt the Currents brushing against my heart. Most of them were only noise, shallow thoughts from shallow realms, the regret of something done, or bickering over garlic skin. But this one was different, it yearned fiercely, single-heartedly, as only a human being could, and yet it has a hollowness that no human being could have, not the least a child.

Curious, I went to a balcony on the upper tower and peered over the foggy shores to the South. A commotion was brewing in a village a few leagues away, nestled next to a Seamouth, a fogdune had barged into the huddle of houses and swallowed one of them. Peculiar, I thought, and bad news. I looked with closed eyes and saw the sense of longing waft from the fogdune.

A thick channel of Currents was carried by the cloudstream to the tower, teasing out memories of my home, of the smell of mud and chicken feed. There was something else in the undercurrents too defused to disentangle at this distance. It was no ordinary fogdune, the magus mentee of that village was out of their depth. I checked my schedule and saw that you would be in a ritual for another three days. I packed a few necessities and headed for the village.

Arriving, I found that everyone who dwelled there gave the fog-engulfed house a wide berth, and little wonder, the Currents gushing from it was debilitating. I felt the longing tinged with sorrow and desperation before I heard the faint sound of howling wind emanating from the fog despite the still air. The energy was so dense that it would’ve turned an undyed - a commoner with no magick training - into a sobbing heap within minutes of close contact. A little more and they'd do anything, anything to end that despair.

“Stay away, traveler!” Someone shouted to me from their yard. “Bad luck that, do ya no good to linger, ya hear?”

Striding toward them, I replied. “Where are the people who lived here?”

“Oy, the Milborns, sunken luck if it could be said o’ anyone. They’d be stayin’ over with the Ashborns there.” The leather-skinned man pointed with his mushroom hat.

“Bad luck, you say? What sort, if I may ask?”

The man stopped chewing his straw for a moment and studied me up and down, clicking his tongue.

“My, pardon me, you’re a magus, ain’t you?”

I nodded, saying. “Indeed, I sensed something afoot here and thought I might help. Now, tell me about this bad luck you mentioned.”

“Aye, real pitiable. First, one child, nary a babe, passes from the winds, then a scant few years later, the other one goes missin'.” He spits out the straw he was chewing and made a face as if it was bitter. “Born on a Howling Eve, they were, and there ain’t no helpin’ that.”

I listened, puffing on my pipe, recalling. “Howling Eve? Do you think the children were…”

“Aye, ‘twas the low ones, Luccasi, the temple mentee said as much. Howling over the skies all that night, lookin’ for souls to snatch. And the children? Twins, ya see? Was s’pposed to be just the one. But he was so scared of the sound that half of him tried to run back to the Waters from inside his mama’s womb, and done got split right in two.

That’s how they were born twins. Sickly, only enough Waters for the one life, forced to be two. Skin the color of mildew. Poor kids, the folks too, what’d they e’er do to deserve such a thing?” He shook his head.

I nodded again, thanked the man, and left for the Ashborn’s house. I’d heard enough to have a theory, and if I was right, there was no time to waste.

Thick incense filled the little room when a young man with hollow eyes and a scraggly goatee opened the door to my knocking.

“Who are you?” He asked stiffly.

“The name’s Ilar, Magus. Are you the Milborns?” I nodded to the young woman sitting next to a makeshift altar that she’d just been praying to, where incenses burned. I recognized the herb. “May I?”

He stepped back to allow me in. “Duma, and my wife Sestra. We don’t got much, you’ll have tea?”

I nodded and entered, sitting by the firepit. A cursory glance showed no Devarna present. I knew then… But they’d just lost another child. I needed to be direct, yet without touching upon an open wound. “Sorry to hear about your child, I’d like to help. When did he go missing?”

“A week ago. He was playing with the other kids along the shore over yonder.” Duma’s voice was hoarse. “One blink he was there, right? Then he was gone, just like that. We looked, depths, we looked everywhere, right?”

“I see. And how long have you been burning the Longing Leaves?”

The young man’s forehead wrinkled into a mass of grooves as he looked down.

He glanced at my magus’s mark nervously and said. “The mentee said we should use it, right? They said no more than three days, if that’s what yer getting at, but there couldn’t be no harm, right?” Sestra began to fidget visibly as he spoke.

With a soft but firm voice, I said. “Devarna of Longing are usually very effective, but after three days, they will have grown disenchanted with the herbs. Further use will net you no boon. If you don’t stop now, you risk attracting something else, something undesirable. Do you understand?”

Duma stiffened, hands gripping at his loose leggings, lips pursed. Sensing this, Sestra leaned over and gently laid a hand on his arm while looking at me with something akin to pleading in her eyes. She wanted to say something, I realized, but—

“What are we to do? Just give up? Our only child, that boy! The mentee said these would call him back, well where is he?” Duma was nearly shouting at me. His wife flinched. Truths were left unsaid, and a lie was told. Tides were unfavorable here, I decided.

I stood up slowly, went to the door, and said. “I’m not your enemy, and neither is that fogdune. It’s getting too dark to Work, I’ll make camp outside the village. By next dawn, I will have a plan.

I hope you’ll consider listening to me when the time comes if you want what’s best for your child.” I threw a glance at them, letting the Waters shine from my eyes, holding the woman’s gaze for the briefest of moments, then departed. That should be enough to let them sense my power, and hopefully for Sestra to take the hint.

I built a fire and erected a simple tent with twigs and mushroom cappings in a copse on the edge of the village and waited. I’d seen fogdunes behaving like this in my youth. Could it be the same thing that happened to me? Another of Fate’s jokes, I chuckled.

To be continued...

If you enjoyed this and want to read the rest without having to wait, please support us on itch.io or ko-fi.

[wearesorcerer]

But as I am not a Brit and do not commit drive-by argument -- or rather, since I started this, I'm going to continue it. Mwahahaha. Cut for length.

That would check out if we didn't roll for stats (you're a kitty cat? then you get Dexterity 16, no variations), or if everyone in the world rolled for stats, PCs and NPCs and monsters (so the +2 to the Dexterity of all kitty cats will result in statistically more dexterous kitty cats in comparison to, say, orcs in the general population of the campaign setting).

Although I do kinda see the appeal of the first one as far as stat generation goes, the second one is spurious: the only reason we don't roll for stats for everyone is because it's too time consuming on a DM's part to stat every single NPC as an individual. It's something that has gradually been phased out: in OD&D, BECMI, and at least AD&D 1e (possibly 2e), you did roll each creature's HD to determine HP -- and in many cases they didn't have ability scores listed, which makes me wonder if those just didn't exist for them (they were only their combat block) or if you rolled for those, as well. (My experience with editions before 3rd is too incomplete for me to know one way or the other, which I find to be a failure on my part.)

For the longest time, rolling stats was presented as an option for minor NPCs (and there was a whole stat array in older DMGs for semi-randomized stats for NPC adventurer-types by class to meet in the middle).

We roll PCs that way because, originally, they weren't guaranteed to be heroic in stature: it gave a way of potentially representing anyone. (This is also no doubt the origin of the Prime Requisite: you had to be this tall [have a stat this high] to enter [take the class] and you got a bonus to XP if you were so much over that threshold because the stats didn't give bonuses and penalties as frequently as they have since 3rd edition.) Or, at least, we did: I've found that dice rolling is the least preferred method of character generation in 5e both in presentation and in play. Mostly, we use the "Standard Array" (Elite Array in 3.x; standard was 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8) or a point buy setup that is meant to generate the same results and utilizes the same caps (8 - 15).

I'ma split things up a bit for your next paragraph.

If you get a +2 to Dexterity from your species, the combination of what you rolled and where you're assigning each roll could still result in a clumsy, Dex 6 kitty cat. (Which should not be impossible! Not all kitty cats are the same! And even if a tiny minority of them are clumsy, people are allowed to be special, and adventurers are expected to be special.) So if the stat adjustment from your species doesn't guarantee you'll end up in the average of your species, what's even its point? It has no point, if you ask me.

That literally is the point.

The best example I saw of this was Baggi the Half-Orc Barbarian, a character a friend of mine played in undergrad. Baggi had an Int of 3. Since I was taking a linguistics course at the time, I had found out that animals like chimps (in 3.x, capped at Int 2) had vocabularies of about 300 words and related this to Baggi's player, which she used as guideline's for Baggi's speech: she knew some words in Common and some in Orc. Even though her Wisdom was decent, she had to be directed a lot and caused problems for the party -- realistic ones, as the player in question had worked with mentally disabled people (especially kids) long enough to pull this off.

And everyone loved it. Baggi was the most memorable of the characters in that particular campaign. The incidents other players got into were memorable, but Baggi was by far the most interesting and memorable purely as a character.

(I'll come back to racial Int penalties, which is where this whole thing started, later.)

Raistlin Majere's notoriously poor Constitution also comes to mind. He managed to work in setting despite his frailty, frequently as a plot point. Hell, my first "Rogue" (it wasn't a Rogue, but it pretended to be one) had a Strength and Con of 3 and 4 (no, I don't remember which was which).

I can't think of an instance where a character has used a racial bonus to offset an extremely low roll, but it's not an outlandish idea. Hell, it's fairly strategic: if you roll well on most stats but have one that's really low, matching it with your racial bonus aids in the extreme. I've done it numerous times with low but not horrible rolls.

I hatehatehate this notion that you have to have high stats to work in the game. Perhaps adventurers need high stats to survive, realistically speaking. Perhaps they don't: people with disabilities have lived and even thrived in communities of humans since there were humans. There's a wheelchair user in the middle of splash art in the new PHB! (Doing nothing but posing in a situation-inappropriate accommodation, I might add: it's clear the character is probably an Artificer, despite that class not appearing in the book, and yet the chair doesn't have mechanical legs or a levitation device or whatever.)

But of course that's how 5e works: there are no racial penalties and the preferred methods of stat generation aren't rolling dice, but choosing an array or point buy, neither of which can give you a stat below 8 (and now nothing higher than 15, so whatever).

I've seen people talk about removing the abilities altogether since at least 3rd and more often now because they're not really used and no one has a low score. I think that's a shame, as having meaningful drawbacks that come up a lot is a great source of characterization. But I've said that already.

That's the logic which gave women a strength penalty in older editions.

The notorious Strength cap for women in 1st edition AD&D isn't the same logic at all. It flat out ignored that the different races didn't necessarily have the same underlying biology, for one, since caps applied to all races, and had nothing to do with stereotype. Which we're getting to.

(Next couple of paragraphs were continuation of the same thoughts I've already discussed. Moving further.)

Benefits: pick a +2 and a +1 stat boost OR or 3 +1 stat boosts, an origin feat, two skill proficiencies, and one tool proficiency, take 50 gold, off you go. Isn't that liberating?

I like that idea in practice, but y'know what that is? The same thing as giving each character a non-class progression with a bonus feat at 1st level and every level divisible by X (3 in 3.x, 4 in 5e) and assigning points or whatnot to skills. Like in 3rd edition. Which the backgrounds wanted to avoid by being packages and giving RP advice.

But more importantly, those bonuses? That's already represented in game by assigning your ability scores to fit your class. You are a Rogue with a high Dex because of backstory reasons, which is why you assigned your high roll to Dex. I'm not against the notion of class (or background) giving you ability boosts also so as to mitigate the problem of insufficiency in the stat generation mechanics, but taking it away from something that also has justification (biology) and has more justification to be static than upbringing doesn't make sense.

I'm not going to belabor the issues of racism in D&D. They are manifold and beside the point. But I will point this out: the logic behind having races give ability score bonuses is the same logic as having races provide racial features. It's biological determinism. And having an elf get +2 Dex fits with how elves work, whereas having your background give you +2 Dex is just "hey, I have more points from my point buy!" But I said that already.

As things currently stand (2024), race accounts for your size (almost always Medium, with being Small not mattering all that much), speed (pretty much 30), aging rate (purely cosmetic), whether or not you have Darkvision or resistance to something (which you can and will get, either outright or an equivalent thereof, via items), and something analogous to an origin feat that doesn't quite match (Elf Lineage vs. Magic Initiate, Halfling Luck vs. Lucky, etc.). Or, to go down to what's left that separates one from the next, a not-quite-feat and cosmetics. That's not just boring, that's irrelevant. And as far as biology goes, it's unrealistic. 5e had already downgraded so many races to a point like this already; now it's an extra step in character creation that exists because LotR had a fandom. It's to the point that the leading game in a genre that works really well for xenofiction cannot actually do xenofiction anymore: approaching racial personality traits gets questionable very quickly and biology seldom matters. At least the racial bonuses (and penalties!) made your choice of race material.

Undecided about D&D 5.5 and the 2024 rules

Pros:

Weapon Mastery

Cunning Strike

stat boosts and skills moving from Species to Backgrounds

the PHB rules glossary and the DMG toolkit (for ease of use)

origin feats, and general feats giving +1 to a stat

easier to homebrew player-facing rules (because feats and subclasses are more streamlined)

some big changes, some minor tweaks

Cons:

power creep (full assessment pending until the MM comes out)

uneven power creep

stealth makes no sense

they fully bailed on the skill system

strains suspension of disbelief even more

less support for homebrewed monsters

some big changes, some minor tweaks

The CR system needs playtesting with the new Monster Manual, so assessment pending. We're probably gonna see much more dangerous monsters: Cure Wounds straight up doubled the hp it heals, and healing in general is a lot more generous. I don't know if that bloat was necessary, or motivated by anything other than "players can do MOAR damage now, buy our new books to be COOLER!", followed by a domino effect.

At this point, I'm torn between incorporating a few 5.5 rules to 5e, or a few 5e rules to 5.5, or whole other subsystems to either (I'm looking at the skill system of Level Up a.k.a. Advanced 5th Edition, it's interesting), or abandoning D&D altogether (because I'm tired, not because it's that bad). But I'm pretty sure I won't adopt 5.5 as is.

Assessment pending.

[fallout-lou-begas]

Howdy! I remember reading in some of your posts that you use some mods to make the game harsher and more difficult, would you be willing to post a list? (or link me to one if you've already made the post- I couldn't seem to find it) I'm just starting to get into using mods for new vegas and the mods you seem to like look to be right up my alley

Hi! I’m so glad you asked, I’m very happy to make some recommendations.

Lou’s Mod Recommendations for Masochists (or: Creating a Disempowerment Fantasy)

Interior Lighting Overhaul / Darker Nights / Directional Flashlights: A combination of mods that make navigating around in the dark a lot more interesting and dangerous. ILO removes all artificial light sources from interiors so that caves and ruins don’t seem unnaturally bright, DN does exactly what it says on the tin, and DF replaces the Pip-boy Light with a handheld, unidirectional flashlight that must be equipped (or worn, if you craft a harness or have a compatible helmet) in order to be used. You can see them in action in this video.

Med-Tek Trauma Kit / More Conditions to Fast Travel / Better Crippled Legs: As I explain in the linked post, these three mods in conjunction revolutionize the significance of getting your limbs damaged, which can turn a sudden injury in combat into a severe game-changer.

No Magic Compass / Remove Compass POI Markers: I forget which of these actually work but I use them in conjunction. These remove the little ticks for locations and NPCs from your compass so that it’s just that: a compass, plain and simple. If you still want Perception to be useful as a stat now that you’ve removed its effect on your compass radius, try Precise VATS, which ties your accuracy and range with VATS to that stat.

Manual Reload: a small mod, but a great one! All this does is prevent the game from automatically reloading your weapon for you, either when you run out of ammo or switch from one weapon to another. This forces you to pay more attention while firefighting, lest you be caught firing dry with an enemy charging you down. Also, manual reloading just...feels good? You get to push a button, and I love having more reasons to push buttons. This mod pairs exceptionally well with Empty Clicks for an immersive indication of being spent.

No Skill Tags: This mod very simply removes the [Bracketed] labels from dialogue options that indicate that it’s a skill check. In addition to being more immersive, it prevents you from seeing that you’re too low to pass a check, and if you’re proactive you’ll live with the consequences of trying it and failing it anyway.

Cover-Based Stealth: In addition to overhauling the extremely simple detection AI of vanilla New Vegas into a system based on line of sight across larger distances (if a distant NPC catches a glimpse of you, they’ll actually come over to investigate!!), its most important feature is the most easy to use global damage variable slider I’ve seen yet from any other mod. Basically, you can multiply the damage dealt by you and to you by however much you want. Setting a high multiplier turns combat into a swift, bloody, and extremely dangerous affair. Compare this to the in-game harder difficulties where the only thing that happens is that enemies get more hit points and combat becomes only more tedious, not actually more difficult. Cover-Based Stealth is also a completely modular add-on, so you can only use the parts of it you like and ignore the rest!

Project Nevada: PN is an overhaul mod that I find difficult to recommend on the whole, but it’s so modular in its design and approach that you, like me, can use maybe 10% of its features while ignoring the other 90% and it’ll work just fine. Most pertinent to me is its Rebalance Module, which lets you easily customize so many features like the toughness of the economy, the rate at which you must fulfill survival needs in Hardcore mode, your movement speed with one or two broken legs (which would make Better Crippled Legs redundant), formulas for carry weight and other statistics, and leveling rates such as experience gain and perk rate. My personal configuration is a tougher economy, slightly harsher hardcore rates, 45% and 20% movement speed from broken leg(s), the least encumbrance possible (which makes backpack items, included in PN but also available in many other mods, a necessity), and a far slower leveling rate: a perk every three levels instead of two, only 5 skill points per level, and tagged skills only receive a +10 bonus but have a x2 multiplier to all skill points invested into them. I can’t recommend slowing down skill point gain enough because there’s seriously not much in vanilla settings stopping you from becoming a God of Everything laughably early.

Immersive HUD: A fully configurable, positionable, hide-able HUD that lets you create a far less obtrusive user-interface. It’s handy for a litany of reasons, but for a more difficult experience specifically, try hiding your ammo count so that you actually have to keep track of your own bullets in your head. Pull your best Dirty Harry and ask yourself whether you fired five shots or six, and whether you’re feeling lucky.

Finally, in addition to these mods, you can take in-game steps to make your gameplay experience more difficult as well. Do not take perks such as Comprehension, which is counter-intuitive to reducing skill point gain, or Living Anatomy, which while a very neat mechanic completely removes the challenge of learning which ammo types are most effective against specific enemies on your own and the suspense of a protracted firefight. Sell skill books instead of reading every single one. That kind of thing. I also don’t have a specific mod to recommend that achieves it cleanly, but when I start a new game, I plan for my character to have 5 less SPECIAL points to invest than the game actually allows, and after creating my character I just use console commands to adjust them to a lower rate. I also use console commands to remove far more caps from my inventory whenever I see a doctor, because (especially with mods that affect buying and selling prices), being restored to peak-perfect health should cost a lot more to maintain balance. Don’t ever be afraid to use console commands to just make things work the way you want them to!

All of these mods and tips are not hard and fast rules or things that make one experience objectively “better,” this is just my best advice for turning the game into something that suits my own personal playstyle, which is beign the weakest, shittiest, poorest, underdoggiest courier in the wasteland.

[rainofaugustsith]

SWTOR: On Switching Factions

Faction switching. Your ex-Jedi is disenchanted. Your Imperial Agent wants to work for the SIS. You've been able to declare your loyalty to the other side, and so far all it's gotten you is some questionable cantina meetings. 

Spoilers for Iokath, Onslaught and Osssus

I think that despite the challenges, this is something SWTOR's devs will have to approach more directly eventually. Yes, we understand the willing suspension of disbelief, but for some characters it's completely impossible that their old faction would trust them in any way. There's the Jedi Knight, who can be denied a Master title at the end of their class story if they are too dark-sided. There's the smuggler, who may have opened fire on Republic ships and started a pirate empire. There's the bounty hunter, who may have blown up the ship of the Darth they were working for. There's the Imperial Agent who may now work for the SIS. There are all eight classes able to choose to ally with the Sith Empire in KOTET and all eight classes able to freely choose to support either side on Iokath, an act that leads to the death of the other faction's leader.

If a character has been actively working against their old faction for several expacs now, why does it make sense that they would be put in a position of great trust? It doesn't. And yet, on Ossus only Major Anri comments, and then only briefly, if an Imperial sided with the Republic on Iokath. If a Republic character sided with the Empire on Iokath, it's casually brought up in a news interview and then never again. While Tau and Darth Savik can question the player character's judgment, again, there are no repercussions, and they are still left in positions of great authority and responsibility.

Republic traitor Ror encounters Imperial Major Anri on Mek-Sha. 

At some point, it's going to fall apart. So far, if you are in the Untitled Saboteur Game you have caused major damage to your old faction on Mek-Sha, Onderon and Corellia, as well as more minor damage on Osssus and Dantooine. Somebody should have noticed already, and there's no way it can continue indefinitely. But how?

From a technical standpoint I don't think we are ever going to see a scenario where your character completely changes every single thing about themselves - all their abilities; titles, access to the other side's heroics from earlier in the game, etc. I think there's still much they can do.

New planets, new coding?

I think that trying to recode/flag PCs so they can walk into the opposite faction's fleet or homeworlds would be too much trouble, and lead to nothing but a mess of errors. If a PC who has defected needs to visit, say, Tython or Dromund Kaas they could always do what they did in the SoR Prelude flashpoints, the end of the Jedi Knight story and KOTET chapter 2, and make it an entirely different instanced area or different version of the planet that is not connected to the class story open world.

I also think it would be problematic to try to switch defectors over so they can access the other side's heroics or repeatable quests, so it would perhaps end up being that the old content is still accessible and the newer content is where they are recognized as defectors. There's already a lack of continuity and consistency with the old content so I don't see this as being problematic - for instance the NPC quest giver of the Tatooine bonus series still refers to my Sith Inquisitor as being an apprentice of Lord Zash, even if she is now the Alliance Commander and hasn't had anything to do with Zash in a decade of the story timeline. My level 75 Alliance Commander Sith Warrior can still fight the Hate Machine on Korriban. Yeah, it's out of order, we know, leave it be.

For content going forward, though, I think it could be more feasible. They set up Iokath so Republic OCs who chose to switch faction allegiance could enter the Imperial base and access the Imperial vendors and vice versa. On Dantooine and Onderon there are also specific quests/drop points for saboteurs that differentiate them from loyalists.

There are also quite a few planets where there are clickables, missions and resources which can be accessed by players in both factions from SoR onward. On Rishi, both factions can talk to Harlow Ricks; on Yavin 4, Oricon and Ziost they have the same daily quests. On Zakuul and Odessen all the medical droids, etc. are neutral and can be used by both factions' OCs. Thus, I'm assuming that there are ways to implement things so the bases and NPCs aren't hard-coded to only respond/reject to a specific faction.

New icons?

I'm thinking each class should have a new icon on the nameplate for anyone who has defected. Maybe the same icon they originally had, but in a different color.

New abilities?

I think switching everything would be a coding nightmare that would likely break the characters. However, I've noticed my "fallen Jedi's" eyes going red from time to time now. If they ever raise the level cap or offer a NEW ability or two, I think they could potentially code it so that saboteurs could train an ability more in line with their new faction, ie, a fallen Jedi learning lightning. They already have different abilities for different advanced classes; they could add one universal for all specs that is for saboteurs. There could be a 'secret trainer' on Odessen to teach it - like the training holos on Zakuul and Asylum who can accommodate all eight classes - so it's available to all factions.

A Jedi with glowing red eyes and power?

New Names?

5/8 of the class names are faction specific. A few, like "Sith Warrior," "Imperial Agent" and "Jedi Consular" could be changed just by lopping off the first word, and there are several like the Smuggler which really don't need anything at all since they are not faction specific, but the others are trickier. But since it's mostly just used on the  login screen, it doesn't seem necessary to change it.

As to how the character is addressed in game, that changes several times just over the course of the class stories, and again once you get to SoR and again at KOTFE - the Imperial Agent goes from being called 'Agent' to "Cipher Nine' to 'Legate' to 'Cipher Nine' to Commander, for instance - so the ability to change seems feasible. They could keep using "Commander" as it's a neutral Alliance title. "Agent," "Captain," and "Hunter" are also neutral. The Trooper may have been demoted since they have switched from the Republic to the Imperial military, but they may also may be given the same or a higher title, like General, in recognition of their service as the Commander of the Alliance.

For the Jedi and Sith? This gets tough because switching factions does not necessarily mean they intend to become a Sith or Jedi (Scourge certainly worked with the Jedi Knight without flipping over, for example). As I recall from the Jedi Knight story, the Republic characters completely ignore Scourge's title and do not refer to him as 'Lord Scourge' and I can't see the Sith Empire referring to defected Jedi as 'Master Jedi' either. Perhaps they will need to clarify your Jedi or Sith characters' intentions in the story. They could formally give a Sith lord or Darth title to the Jedi who have switched - Empress Acina or Vowrawn would certainly have that capability. Giving a former Sith a "Master" title might be trickier. The Jedi who were originally Sith seem to have to start at the bottom, and having the Alliance Commander referred to as a padawan would just be...weird. So they could always just go with the neutral Commander in all cases, or other titles like Battlemaster or Wrath.

Companions

I think it's inevitable that a defector will lose some companions - including those considered "main story." There are a few that are so staunchly loyal to their faction that they will not entertain the idea of working with you if you switch. In practice this may end up being like the "departures" that occurred after Ossus, ie, the companions send letters telling you that they are leaving, but they remain active in your companion list and can be accessed and used for questing or crew skill missions at any time.

[crystalelemental]

Unit Teambuilding - New Years Clair

At long last, Clair gets her due. I'm very satisfied with this outcome. It's not Dragonair, my precious baby, but Drampa's honestly a funny pick for her so I'm sold.

General Overview She's a Dragon Support. We need those so badly if Dragon High Score is going to be a thing.

Clair has three distinct points of strength. First, her TM is excellent, capping crit and giving a nice +2 to both offenses for the team. With a guaranteed MPR when she hits half HP as a grid node, she can get this to +4 in offensive CS easily. Second, Aggravation and Hostile Environment gives her a 40% flinch and 60% paralysis rate, which is excellent for Gauntlet. Third, her major passive disables multiplicative field effects for enemies only. I imagine this is because Dragons are weak to other Dragons, so having Dragon Zone creates some problems. Note, however, that it blocks the multiplicative effect for foes, but does not disable passives they gain from the field effect. Additionally, she has a grid node to give a flat +20% bonus to move damage for the entire team when any multiplicative field effect is active. Backed by X Def All and some grid-based survival tools like First Aid 4, TM Team Hit and Heal, and Team Fist Bump 3, Clair is in an excellent position.

However, her faults stand out. The biggest issue is she's Dragon weak without built-in Vigilance, meaning her relevance in High Score hinges entirely on there being a stage without Dragon damage. Clair's defensive buffs are also lopsided, so while she handles physical well, special is scary. Lack of any serious healing outside of First Aid 4 and some passive ticks, while having no Endurance, can mean she gets run over too easily. And of course, Aggravation 1 is insulting in an age where we have 60%s thrown around everywhere.

I think Clair falls somewhere around alright. I think the buffing profile is her big claim to fame, while the negation of field effects is irrelevant most of the time, and doesn't specifically stop Moltres from burning you or debuffing your stats. She's a decent, fun pair that I think could've gained a little more, but I am at least satisfied with Clair's first alt.

EX, Role, and Move Level? Support, so EX recommended. Role is Tech which is just for stats, easily skipped. Support, so 3/5 is a very good idea for survival and boosting tools.

Team 1: NY Clair, Lance, Lucas Generalist dragon approach. Clair's boosting is exactly what Lance wants without 3/5: boosts to both offenses and capping crit. Just add in a Dragon Zone and you're good to go with her.

Team 2: NY Clair, Renegade Cynthia, Shauntal The other type weak to itself, Ghost, can benefit from Clair's negation of field effects as well. Clair shuts down the opponent's potential boost to Ghost moves, while still permitting our side's buff. Shauntal is a nice recipient of Clair's specific boosts, needing the crit rate for better grid allocation, and appreciating the Sp Atk boosts.

Team 3: NY Clair, Irida, Lorelei Can you believe there's actually someone who can salvage Lorelei now? Rapid cap of crit and an injection of Sp Atk to complement her Ramp Up sets, and even boosts Def for Lorelei's sync. Granted, I don't think anyone should use Lorelei's sync, but if you really want to it's there.

Final Thoughts Clair is a generalist whose focus is capped crit and slight investment in offense. Many, many modern threats get +4 through TM or entry, and Clair tops all of them off, so I think she aligns well. Her ability to slap in a +20% move damage for the team that works with any field effect is divine. I think her main issue is that rotating Free Moves Next is a challenge, and she lacks for special bulk. She'll do well for herself, but I don't think she's your best pick this month unless you're really worried about Dragon being the next High Score event.