#Also sure I'll maintag this

[vaeciorolefrex]

I don't know why I drew this

[mellohirust]

Ok I'm having a lot of thoughts on the new artwork and I'm gonna make it everyone's problem. Personal analysis of each piece under the cut for the sake of everyone's dashboards:

-Not only is Luka's face entirely scribbled out, but Hyun-Woo's is crossed through, whereas Hyuna's is the only one visible entirely. The scribble over Luka's face also traps Hyuna in a bubble (or perhaps puts a wall between them, however you may interpret it). If meant to be seen as a bubble, it's definitely a nod to how her life is "his" in his own words and how he thinks he can 'protect' her (according to his opinion of her in his art book character profile, anyway). Definitely connected to the Hyun-Woo incident and also a huge Luka death flag. Assuming it's Luka's POV due to the color, I think it's interesting how he doesn't let himself be known. I'm guessing it's either a means of hiding his emotions from the viewer once again or a representation of the guilt we have yet to see him outwardly show, in the case that he harbors it.

In the case of it being Hyuna's POV, however (given the color looks as if it could pass as orange also to me), it's just clear as day that she holds resentment for him for the Hyun-Woo incident, and the barrier interpretation would be more applicable. I can't say I blame her.

-Mizisua's feels more obvious to me. Mizi is the focus of Sua's entire world just as much as the reverse is true. They quite literally live in their own little bubble in this piece, one that Sua herself curated in order to protect Mizi from the dark truth of their reality (and one she lived in alongside her in order to forget her own worries for as long as possible). However, the sharp jagged lines threatening to break through it are also in Sua's color. This may be her simply recognizing reality as is or could be a representation of her own darkness and how she refuses to let it show around Mizi. The main point being that Sua protected her despite the pain of it she had to bear.

-Ivantill's is actually the hardest for me to interpret, but I have a few ideas. It's clear that this is from Till's POV and he's drawing sea creatures: this could be a nod to Mizi and her home planet. The fish bowl he draws encompasses them both, essentially trapping them together (which, given how little freedom humanity is given, isn't exactly off, though it's very interesting to me given that it's particularly these two with no others around). What obviously sticks out the most is that they're the only two distant from the camera. It feels a lot more like some private moment being intruded on this way, and it seems that Till recollects his whole world rather than Ivan in particular (who, nonetheless, is definitely a part of it). It also makes their expressions unreadable. It's entirely unclear what Till felt towards Ivan going off of this alone, whereas the other pieces seem to be focused on the relationships of those in the pieces. Vivimeng I am Once Again Asking to see Ivan from Till's perspective :( (please).

(On the topic of the fish, assuming they're representative of the people Till knows, the jellyfish is obviously for Mizi. Filling in the gaps, I'm guessing the anglerfish would be Ivan, and the remaining would be Sua. Or maybe I'm just tinfoil hatting too hard and they really are just random fish, lmao.)

(This is, interestingly enough, also the drawing in which the vandalism exits the scene as little as possible, almost entirely contained just as the fish are. Again, it really does look like a more private moment of theirs.)

In conclusion: thank you Vivinos for hurting me on this fine Friday morning and I am absolutely terrified for Wiege <3

[quo-posts]

I was yapping to my bestie about how Grian tends to loose his team/ is often (partially) responsible for their deaths and then immediately goes to find new people and that was their response to that XD XD XD

[rosesradio]

it's hard to put into words other than to say i think one of the reasons i don't like solangelo is just because it feels like one of those one-dimensional ships you like when you're 14 & you use them to hone your fic-writing craft into beautiful longfics that you return to in college for nostalgia & you're like "neat. what the fuck did i see in this pairing"

[creatuesfromthedeep]

Here are some tips for making a character that is usable in a long-term narrative and/or roleplay, from someone who's been writing and roleplaying for over a decade

You shouldn't know everything about your character immediately. Those 50-question bios you see floating around? Disregard them for now. You don't need to know their favorite type of pie, or small details about their backstory. Free yourself from the assumption they need to be a fully articulated being before you write a single sentence of lore.

You'll need MOTIVE (what drives them?), FEAR (what are they scared of happening?), and ATTITUDE (are they calm? easily angered? hyper?); with these three things, you can easily create the illusion of depth.

Real depth comes later. Much later. 5000+ words of narrative storytelling later.

To break these three core elements down a bit:

Motive: Your character needs some kind of ambition or desire to guide them. Do they want to lead the clan someday? Do they want their cozy little farmstead to not get flattened by Luminax? Do they want to be a good father to their hatchlings? Do they want to escape their dark past?

Don't be afraid to pick a small motive at first, because motives will change and adapt to the circumstances of your plot. Luke Skywalker didn't start off his journey knowing he'd face Emperor Palpatine, and your character doesn't need to have the faintest idea of the places they'll go or the choices they'll be forced to make.

Fear: This is what you get when they can't achieve their motive, or essentially, the motive for the motive. Are they scared of not having control? Do large changes scare them? Are they worried about becoming their father? Are they terrified their dark past will catch up to them?

Thinking of fears is sometimes difficult, and sometimes too easy. I recommend starting off with one foundational BASE FEAR, aka the fear from which all other fears flow. A good tip is to ask "why is my character afraid of this?" and keep going until you hit a major part of their backstory. Ex:

I am scared of spiders (Why?) Because they have too many legs (Why is that scary?) Because it's gross (Why do gross things scare you?) Because it makes me feel unclean (Why does that scare you?) Because being dirty reminds me of the day my father died (Bingo!)

By digging back and finding that base fear, you've successfully a key component of your character and given yourself a useful tool to begin explaining your character's trauma. That's not to say that fears always tie back into extreme trauma, but it should be important to your character.

Attitude: This is how they react to social situations, or essentially, how their motive and fear translate into their personality. A character who wants to be in a leadership role and dislikes not being in control may have a big issue with authority, and authority-adjacent characters. If they're a farmer who wants to be left alone, they might be exasperated with all the hub-bub. A character who really wants to be a good father might have a fatherly aura even around other adults. A character on the run from something might be battle-hardened, or they might be neurotic and anxious! Potentially even both!

However, you need to remember, Attitude is not personality. Attitude is how a characters' motive, fear, and personality intersect with their ability to socialize. It informs their level of patience (and if that changes depending on the person!), their ability to joke and be silly, and what kinds of things will get on their nerves. Ex:

I am very short-tempered and impulsive. I am afraid of authority because my teacher used to hit me for using my left hand. I want nothing more than to be left alone. I'm not going to listen to anyone and I'm going to do the first thing that comes to mind, even if it's detrimental to myself or others. I will push people away and I will avoid emotional vulnerability.

Those five sentences already tells me how this character will interact with every other character. I can now slot that character into any scene I want to, and begin envisioning a larger character arc and character development.

Remember, not every character will get along, and no character is capable of charming every person on the planet. The most perfect, gentle, patient, leaderly, kind, hilarious character probably has one character with self-esteem issues who HATES their guts.

Quick checklist:

Name

Pronouns

1-3 distinct appearance traits (height, notable piece of clothing, and the color of hair/scales/fur/etc are the big 3)

2-4 personality traits (plenty of lists online, just grab a few one-word descriptors)

1 Motive

2-4 bullet points of backstory (Do not write a long backstory, and only do this AFTER you've done Motive; you are not writing a character for their backstory, you're writing them for their place in the present story)

1 (base) Fear

Attitude

Once you have all those things, you are fully capable of writing an interesting character within a long-term narrative or roleplay setting. Yes, that's it.

One thing to remember about narratives (and roleplays) is that the most interesting part should be DURING the narrative. Setting up a character who can have interesting reactions, has a solid basis for a variety of dynamics with other characters, and has some set desire has the highest likelihood of facilitating an interesting narrative.

The fun thing? Now that you've got all this set up, you can set your character loose on whatever world you've got, and expect that they'll get into trouble on their own without the narrative needing to drag them into it.

[the3rddenialist]

Thoughts:

I think it's interesting how different of a character Marvin is in the Altrverse comics as opposed to Marvin's Magic.

Which makes sense, MM!Marvin is basically just Sean, whilst Altrverse Marvin is so far his canon.

But compared to MM!Marvin, who is very loud and boisterous, bro Altrverse Marvin is quiet

Like dude does not talk that much, fairly visually expressive, but my man is a lot more quiet.

Like the few instances of him talking a lot is when he's with someone more close, like Moira, Sunday or Ramesses (who are all very chatty around Marvin, Moira and Ramesses a lot more so) and typically if he's enthusiastic. But he would much rather listen or, with someone he doesn't like, stare in the distance with an annoyed expression than talk. He's definitely a more 'talk when necessary' type of guy. Which makes sense in the magic business where words are powerful. But it's kind of funny cause if you got into a disagreement with him he'd probably just stare you down lol.

There are pages where Marvin doesn't say anything, it's just interesting. Real quiet kid in Vol 1 too.

[ftmcutiepie]

Just A Girl January Day 26

I wore a red thong and matching bralette under my boy clothes to class today and when I got home I stripped down to my underwear, changed into more comfortable red panties and put on a skirt, nothing over it, just the bralette like a crop top.

I felt sooo cute and feminine🥺💕💕💕

It was still too cold to wear that outfit for long though, so I put on pants and a black mesh top and jacket over the bralette and 😳😳😳 not to be a tease bc I won't post pics but I looked so fucking hot??? Undeniably like a woman, too.

It felt sooo good and right and I was sooo horny🥰🥰🥰

This kink is making me enjoy being a woman in ways I haven't really before transitioning.

I don't really know what my point is tbh. (More rambly, less sexy thoughts under the cut)

Full disclosure, I'm very much still a guy. Kinda like a femboy, I guess? I really like the term ftm girl for me bc it's like yeah. I'm ftm and a "girl". But not in a cis way, in an explicitly transmasc way.

I don't feel like the term "non-binary" really fits, though.

I'm not gonna detransition for the kink although the idea is ridiculously hot. Hell, I'm not even really questioning my gender. Like I said, still a guy.

I just. Kinda wish I had someone I could "be a girl with" IRL. Someone who misgenders me and I can dress femme around and treats me like a girl.

I can't wait for summer and hope I'll have opportunities to dress femme around trusted friends and/or in public where no one knows me.

I kindaaa wanna tell someone I'm questioning my gender and wanna try out they/she pronouns but I don't wanna lieee and I won't involve unconsenting people in what is mostly a kink. Like, there's some enjoyment I get out of "womanhood" that's not explicitly sexual, kinda like gender euphoria, but in a femboy way? lol. But like 99% of my enjoyment is kinky so🤷‍♂️

[random-autie-fangirl]

Sorry, for giving geno run Charisk romantic subtext, it will happen again...

The jokes you can make calling them "LOVEsick" or "LOVEstruck"

The codependency that comes when you've killed literally everyone else you could have had a connection with. (...It also means there's more time for the two to be alone together)

"we'll be together forever, won't we?"

...and they were partners (oh my god they were partners)

Also you know the trope of Frisk/Chara taking Papyrus's scarf, well here? it's Chara who picks it up but specifically tells Frisk that it's a gift for them, a gift for their beloved partner for doing so well so far...I think they might do the same with Asgore's cape or Sans's hoodie

I also also like the idea that the Sans fight takes so long that they have to go back the inn (or Asgore's house) to stay the night (almost definitely Frisk's idea, Chara's always like surely you can continue a little longer despite not being the one actually fighting), or breaking into another rando's house to get an actual proper meal sometimes and isn't that a kinda date

[residentialsinyomakai]

Say csndy and ronnie have you seen them yet. Ooo but theyre so spaced oht. B-b-b-bennie and the jets

[tea-of-destiny]

(Prompt: "Shark")

“Look, kid.” Standing up from the card table, Mark clapped his hand onto Clive’s shoulder. “I can tell you’ve got a good heart. No idea what you’re trying to accomplish by getting mixed up with the big boss, but whatever it is, I want to see you succeed.”

“So… what’s the problem here?” Clive asked warily.

“You might’ve won me over with your words, but most of the Family ain’t quite so, ah, receptive to concepts like ‘compassion’ or ‘intellect’. If they sense any weakness in you, they’ll turn on you at the flip of a coin. And I can’t be caught helping you if you don’t show you have the backbone to command the rest of ‘em.”

“You think I’m not tough enough to achieve my goals.” Clive crossed his arms in front of him, unamused.

Mark simply shrugged. “Well, not so much the ‘being’ part as the ‘acting’. If the big boss has thrown you to the sharks, it doesn’t have to mean you’re also a shark now—the humble crustacean has its merits, too. But are you going to let them tear you to shreds where you stand… or are you going to make them believe you’ve got the claws to fight back?”

Clive studied the man’s face for a long minute. Then he turned his gaze away, pursing his lips. “What do I have to do, then?”

“Lie. Cheat. Backstab. Play their game, and play it mean, kid," Mark replied, voice firm. "Act only in your own interest from here on out, and make it clear that no one is safe from you.”

The image of his family’s smiling, innocent faces immediately sprung to Clive’s mind. He swallowed hard. “…No one?”

“No one.”

[barbaracleboy]

Me When I Can Shill Some Obscure Game to Somebody

Level 1: Play Bug Fables, it's a super fun Paper Mario-like with lovable Characters and loads of charm.

Level 2: Please play the Pikmin games, they're fun and satisfying with lots to do, lots to read, and vibes that are simply unmatched.

Level 3: PLEASE play the Etrian Odyssey games, they're really hard but there's loads of possibilities in the teams you can make and lots of fun Character and Monster Designs and they feel very satisfying to succeed at and their music is often immaculate and-

[fogwitchoftheevermore]

the use of latin in the 100dmv series is like. cool. fun. a practical way for me to use my latin classes that i suck at. however everyday i worry for the day legs tries to use the words "book" or "free" because minecraft doesn't support macrons and without the macron those are the same word.

[gaspshichat]

extremely long pearl appreciation post except this time i'm maintagging bc i want her to see this. she deserves to see this

she is the kindest soul ever. every bit message, every sub message, every gifted sub, and as many chat messages as possible are read. she genuinely doesn't want anyone to be left out

pearl had a rough start to stream today with a bunch of bots saying really weird things and someone revealing private information of hers which is weird. i have choice words for them but i'll keep myself pg for this post

it resulted in her having to turn on sub only mode which she said upset her. what did chat do?

they gifted probably around 200-500 subs to the community

pearl kept saying how bad she felt that she was practically forced into turning on sub only mode but she also said she didn't want her community gifting so many subs bc of an awful situation. they still did

i will always say that pearl is the nicest person ever. anytime smth bad happens to someone in chat, she's sympathetic and kind and gives them a message. anytime smth good happens to someone in chat, she's very excited and happy for them

it takes someone who is genuinely kind and selfless to do that. pearl does not have to read every bit message and sub message. but she does

her community reflects this kindness. i got broken up with two hours before valentine's day and told chat [bc streams for me are 6am-10am]. chat was so kind and gave me ideas on what to do with the flowers [which i did what they suggested!]

i've been in fandom communities for almost ten years now. pearl's is the kindest. there are so many people in chat i recognize [secret agent, sapphicwhimsy, kawaiitron, voxkeys, cardmoney, etc] that i look forward to seeing in chat. usually i dread seeing what happens in twitch chat's

not hers. hers are so full of kindness bc she is full of kindness and it just radiates and spreads to her community. yes it's fairly no nonsense, her deleting any weird messages, but that's to make sure it's a good place to be

i've been having nightmares and flashbacks recently due to reasons i wish to keep private. very few youtubers/streamers are able to help me sleep without those issues. pearl is one of them. her community is genuinely safe

i tell everyone interested in mcyt to watch pearl. i've been spreading pearl propaganda [/silly]. she deserves so much more than she has. pearl deserves the world

this is an extremely long post but i need to get my point across to her and anyone else, whether they're a pearl fan or not [yet]

pearl, we all love you and are proud to be part of the community. you are such a genuinely sweet person who deserves all the kindness in the world. i'm so sorry you had to deal with that bullshit [pardon my language]. it does genuinely suck but i hope the ~300 subs helped make you feel better hehe 🫶🫶

[betweenlands]

wait okay. puzzling through this out loud, i'm so sorry for the discourseposting yet again. not maintagged, but you're welcome to weigh in here and check my work; math is not my strong suit and this is likely is far from perfect.

so misadv is using the same LLM-based NPC system as Pirates, right? meaning that, regardless of whether or not the system is installed on a server, the cost of training and fine-tuning that LLM is already sunk -- it got paid when it was being made for the first time. and yes, it sucks ass how much power and electricity was drained there, but the point is. whether or not misadv uses those NPCs, that power still gets used on Pirates. so the only cost we're actually looking at is the cost of sending queries, maybe some fine-tuning but likely not as much as the first time the system was made.

let's estimate this super generously -- here's an article i'm using that goes into LLM power usage. there's precious little on cost total when it comes to only sending requests to an already existing model, this article lists 0.1 MWh per million queries, and that's what i'll be going with for the time being.

so: if the players talk to the NPCs a grand total of one million times, they will use 0.1 MWh of energy, or 100 kWh. that's not nothing! that's a pretty high cost, right?

except, uh. hey, how much in kWh does it cost to run a minecraft server 24/7?

well, this is a bit hard to calculate. a lot of the estimates come from, like. people on forums, or on reddit, or similar people self-hosting. couldn't find any info on professional server hosts. but what i've read estimates that keeping a minecraft server up for a month seems to cost about anywhere from 50 to 75 kWh.

in other words: in order to consume the same amount of energy that just keeping the server running would take, the players on misadv would have to send messages to the NPCs a grand total of 500,000 times a month.

if you're still opposed to misadv using LLM-based NPCs on principle, that's fine! if your issue is with the people behind Pirates having created the LLM systems in the first place, sure, be mad about that too, i certainly don't think it's great! if your issue is generally with the popularization and normalization of overall LLM usage, yeah, i get that, it's a fair argument!

but in this specific case using an existing system where the vast majority of energy costs would have already been used no matter if misadv had these NPCs or not, i don't think it's fair to say that continuing to use the pre-existing NPC system from another server is destroying the environment unless you also want to go after, like. every minecraft server host ever.

[karatekamania]

bored and on the train so have some miscellaneous karate joe headcanons, I've typed some of these out before but most r new! under the cut because it's long and idk if I wanna maintag this

the reading material is conflicted but in my head he's really good at karate! it does say somewhere that his style has a unique sense of rhythm and hes unsuccessful in competitions because his opponents can read his moves, but I think he gets past this by sticking to increasingly complex rhythms! he completes at the highest level that's there in the rh universe, like their equiv of the olympics or whatever. senior's standards for "mastering karate" are ill-defined and he probably keeps moving the goalposts (pun not intended) on joe

he's extremely overworked and over-stressed by his training, to the point where he has pretty bad chronic pain/repetitive strain injuries in his hands.

similarly im also considering hcing him being partially deaf in 1 ear from the first time his father introduced bombs into his training (& 1 exploded in his ear)

also he listens to music really loud on the reg and (like all my fav characters) hes autistic 2 me (so has audio processing issues to boot) so I think he needs 2 ask ppl to repeat themselves a lot

or he would, if he wasn't really shy and afraid of coming across as weak/useless/a disappointment! I've talked about that before but yeah. he masks it by trying to put on a tough guy persona & doesn't talk v much (he's a v expressive person as the games suggest but i think he actively tries to hide it most of the time)

he's a decent cook, having learned because seniors is so bad!! I need 2 give him a silly fav food other than pancakes (from honeybee remix...),,, my heart says he likes rly cosy things like soups and stews and everything

^ kinda fits vibes wise with how I like to draw him wearing comfy sweaters loads!! i think he's kinda winter-coded as a person but I'm not sure if it's actually his fav season or what!

in general he's not super fashion-y (makes it a challenge to draw him sometimes BC I love making characters dripped out),,, man lives in old band t-shirts and hoodies/sweaters and really knackered jeans

ohhh yeah this was a big 1 and I've said this before but he really likes the rockers (was a fan of jj's stuff pre-retirement and then when he comes back onto the scene w his student),,, I think he had a childhood crush on jj at one point

& I think he gets really into old games/consoles at some point, maybe because senior keeps them down in the basement in a box! he likes to take old consoles apart and figure out how they work

ummmmmm also he's like really scared of sucking at something (like a new hobby/sport or whatever)/disappointing others. idk I already said that

might think of more if so I'll just make an addition to this post