#I may or may not delete that old one but for now I've just removed the series tags from it

[freezerbnuuy]

My Quick (ish) Way of Cleaning Up CC

I know that there are other ways to do this, and you don't necessarily need to do it this way, but this is how I quickly clean up CC I no longer need / want whilst the game is open using an older non-Curseforge version of Mod Manager.

Since of course you can't always delete or move game files whilst the game is open (at least not on Windows) what I do is use Mod Manager to tag things as 'to be deleted' so I can delete everything in one go after. Sometimes When it comes to pose pack thumbnails or CAS thumbnails I don't always remember the hair or creator just by looking at the thumbnail, so this works better for me.

Download the old version of Mod Manager. You can download the one that doesn't use / connect to Curseforge by clicking the white 'Download Mod Manager' button, then below the 4 buttons for the different operating systems it says 'Show All Versions' in grey text on the bottom left. Click it, and download the 1.0.9 beta for your Operating System.

I recommend backing up your CC before doing any cleanup in case you delete the wrong thing.

When you're done, open the program and whilst your game is open click Settings.

Click 'Analyse Thumbnail Cache'. This will search for missing item thumbnails in the localthumbcache.package and update them in Mod Manager.

With that done, it'll make cleaning up your CC a lot easier. So now it's the fun part, going through the relevant stuff in-game (buildbuy stuff in Live Mode, CAS stuff in CAS, testing out pose packs in Pose Player etc...)

First, we need to create a Category that we will tag our CC as.

To do that :

Go to the Categories button on the left-hand sidebar.

You'll see a green button saying 'Add New Category'. Call it 'DELETE' or 'TO BE DELETED' or something.

Click 'Add' and you'll see a little header at the top of the screen with your category's name on it.

Whether you're going through Live Mode to clean up Build-Buy, CAS to clean up clothes / accs or the Pose Player to clean up pose packs, you can easily and fairly quickly add all unwanted CC using this program to the 'TO BE DELETED' category to get rid of it all at once.

Let's say you're going through CAS CC, you're starting by cleaning up your hairs, and you've got a hair you've decided you don't like or don't need anymore. Once you've found it in-game:

Provided you've organised your CC to some level, you can look for it by thumbnail in a Hairs folder.

If not, and you have lots of files that are hard to sift through quickly and you know the creator's name, search for the creator instead. I'm going to be using a QR Sims hair as an example (I would never, EVER delete this hair it is one of my favourites! This is just an example)

(You may have problems searching for the creator because some creators have different names on their files than you'll know them by online, and others don't always name their files something that's easily-searchable or tied to them. You may also have issues if you've used the Bulk Rename Utility program to rename CC or remove spaces.)

QR Sims's hairs have their name on the thumbnails and they have their name in the file names. Select Home on the left-hand sidebar, and then you click the little triangle shape in the top left corner and click it to bring up the drop-down.

I've put in QRSims, and it's bought up all of their hairs. I click the 'Hair' to bring up the thumbnails of all the hairs and then I locate the one I'm looking to delete.

Select the hair that you want to delete, and then we're going to add it to the 'TO BE DELETED' category.

Click the little triangle-square-circle icon in the top right icon bar.

A dropdown will appear. Change the drop-down to 'TO BE DELETED' then click the green + button. Click 'Go Back'.

If you've done it correctly, you'll see a little 'TO BE DELETED' tag on the top of the thumbnail.

Once you're done going through CC and tagging stuff as 'TO BE DELETED', save and close your game.

Now, go to Home on the sidebar, and then click the Search triangle in the top right-hand corner.

On the Categories drop-down on the bottom of the menu, change it to be 'TO BE DELETED' and it will come up with all of the CC tagged as such, as well as the folders they are in.

Click the folder name/s to expand them, then click 'Select Filtered' on the bottom of the drop-down menu on the right. If all done correctly, all of the 'TO BE DELETED' files should be highlighted.

Then just click the bin icon in the top-right icon bar, click Yes and it'll delete the files for you.

I hope this is helpful for someone!

You can also use the 'Problems' option on the left sidebar and Duplicates to locate duplicate CC and delete it.

[barbaracleboy]

So, I post about Etrian Odyssey, Bug Fables, and Pikmin a bunch. Which of those do people like, what overlap is there (if any)? If you don't follow feel free to answer anyway, I'm genuinely curious.

[nightospheresims]

AxA 2023 Clothing Collection (For The Sims 3)

After many laborious days of sitting hunched over my laptop like a molerat... she's hereee! I converted the clothing ONLY (i'll leave the accessories for another day...), and included all of the belted/non-belted/patterned/graphic/solid variations as well. Not all of the original shirt graphics are included due to the amount of work it was, so I settled on about 6-9 of my favorite swatches each.

Also I just wanted to mention that, like always, the teen versions were giving me trouble so there may be seams on some of the items. If you notice any other issues tho, please mention them to me! This was a lot of stuff to convert so sometimes things slip through the cracks😞

The Leo tee was converted by me previously, so if you already have it make sure to delete it before downloading this!

More info about the items below the cut.

That's all I think... enjoy!

♡  CHANGELOG  ♡

updated 06/10/2024: there was a bug in which having the merged file in your mods folder would cause crashing when sending sims to university. I've removed the merged options from both this and the axa 2021 collection. please make sure you have the individual packages and not the merged one(s)!

updated 06/02/2024: fixed the multipliers on the layla top and max/sam sweatpants, color should be less blinding now. Please completely delete any of the old files and replace them with the new ones!

♡  DOWNLOAD  ♡

PATREON (FREE)

alt: Mediafire

note: in the .zip you can pick and choose which ones you want or you can download them all in a merged package :)

♡  Support Me (Ko-fi) |All Downloads | TOU  ♡

♡  INFORMATION  ♡

everything is recolorable and has custom thumbnails.

alek skirt

af and tf

everyday, career, outerwear

recolorable with 2 channels (skirt and buttons)

1 preset

jess shorts / oliver shorts

af, tf, am, and tm

everyday and athletic

2 presets: belted and non-belted versions

recolorable with 2 channels (shorts and buttons)

navie jeans / jack jeans

af, tf, am, tm

everyday, career, outerwear

2 presets: belted and non-belted versions

recolorable with 2 channels (pants and buttons)

max sweatpants / sam sweatpants

af, tf, am , tm

everyday, athletic, career

1 preset

recolorable with 3 channels (pants, stripes, and logo)

layla tee

af and tf

everyday, sleepwear, swimwear, athletic

9 presets: 1 solid, 8 graphics

recolorable with 2 channels (shirt and bows)

alex top

af and tf

everyday, formal, career

1 preset

recolorable with 1 channel

lyney jacket / lynette jacket

af, tf, am, and tm

everyday, sleepwear, outerwear

7 presets: 1 corduroy, 6 plaids

recolorable with 2 channels (jacket and top)

vanessa skirt

af and tf

everyday, formal, career, outerwear

2 presets: belted and non-belted

recolorable with 2 channels (skirt and fur)

tiffany top

af and tf

everyday, formal

1 preset

recolorable with 2 channels (top and charm)

trey top

am and tm

everyday, sleep, athletic, career

7 presets: 1 solid, 6 graphics

recolorable with 2 channels (shirt and safety pins)

troye top

am, tm

everyday, athletic, career, outerwear

1 preset

recolorable with 1 channel

elijah pants

am and tm

everyday, athletic, career

1 preset

recolorable with 2 channels (pants and buttons)

leo tee

am and tm

everyday, athletic, sleep, career

14 presets: 13 graphics, 1 solid

recolorable with 1 channel

♡  CREDITS  ♡

this set belongs to aharris00britney! I just converted the clothing to the sims 3 :)

@matchsim @xto3conversionsfinds @pis3update @wanderingsimsfinds

[bendyartistic]

Be aware of alexbstudios.

Over the course of what I believe a few months maybe, Alex has been harassing me with strange behavior and as of recent hurtful remarks too. He's been bothering other people as well from what I've seen. Probably going to say I should've just blocked him, but I wanted to keep an eye on things just in case. Today was the point in time after everything that I realized I should let people know about this kid.

I want to show from the beginning to present time of the interactions he's done with me. And maybe something can be done about getting him off the platform...

Firstly I want to say Alex has admitted to being 12 years old... apparently. I know this from this reblog. This already is a very large red flag. Considering the young age, no a callout doesn't seem right but I still want to warn people regardless since he's still active on the platform.

Though I am uncertain if this is true, he did not confirm nor deny my question about it.

Now lets get to the start of things. I don't like people reposting my art anywhere without credit, surely that can be said for everyone.

Randomly in May Alex reposted my art, no credit, mention of who made it, or where it came from. I should mention Alex had been following me well before this post, so he knew who I was. Rightfully I responded with a request to take it down as I didn't appreciate this.

Upon making this request he made a small complaint about it, which was unneeded. While he did "delete" the post, it still technically there, just edited. Therefore never officially removed like I had asked.

He also uploaded two other drawings I did, but he did not remove those ones.

Not too long ago on a post I made showcasing my Chris model, as it had been a while since I posted it, and I wanted to let people see it.

Alex later said some... questionable things about it. And it really made me uncomfortable to say the least.

For context in my AU, my Chris is 29. This has been stated before a few times.

I want to get to the biggest thing here however, as this is what drove me to make this post. The consistent weird and hateful DM's he has sent me.

I have told Alex to leave me alone on several different occasions and he has refused to do so. Again I know I should've blocked but as I said, just wanted to wait in case. Truth is I don't like blocking people, never have, I feel weird doing it. But anyways Alex made a poll a week ago if I recall correctly of whether or not he should keep or delete his account. The poll won on keep. No sooner did this happen, Alex was in my DM's bothering me about it after I again told him to leave me alone.

The DM's are as followed with context and info:

He responded with something along the lines of "Then my account would become lost media!" to which I only responded "No one really cares."

Next post is where Alex starts to mock me for being slow with my replies. I don't quite understand what speed he expects me to write my replies at, I guess 5 seconds?

So as you have noticed Alex is now making fun of my autism, and it's going to continue in this unfortunately. Bringing up a disability in an argument should not happen. However at some point Alex accused me of creating alts to vote against his poll, I have none.

I'm not sure why me specifically... and I hate how me being "slow" keeps getting brought up. Also racism is somehow brought into this as well.

He spammed me with the same image repeatedly, and it continued for a while. Passing that, he wanted me to run the same poll he did on if I should keep or delete my account. I obviously declined.

He then blocked me after this.

Alex in the past DM'd me, when he made those remarks about my Chris model. I wasn't happy then and I'm still not about it.

I'm still puzzled as to why he calls being blocked as banned. Besides that this comes to the end of the DM ark. Alex has done other things, such as suggest people to draw strange stuff, edited other peoples work, steal other peoples work, and tried to stir up drama at one point.

In conclusion,

Alex is immature. And should not be here, especially this fandom. But in general he should not be online, it is clear he has unlimited access to whatever he wants.

I am sorry to my friends and others who have had to deal with him. That is all I have to say.

Any questions or whatnot is fine. Reblogs are appreciated in order to spread the word.

[jellycatstuffies]

i just realized that the jellycat retired website isnt available anymore? like they completely deleted it or something. do you know why they would do this or if theres any other place to find the retired designs/what year theyre from?

I've been in contact with the CEO about this since it was so upsetting to me that they removed it and one could no longer look at beloved old friends. I just brought this up a few days ago again and I keep getting the same answer, that they are working hard to bring this section back as they know how important it is to people.

I have two theories about this: Either they are working hard on the most complete retired section ever (a monster project admittedly). OR they figure it's better not to display retired designs publicly as that may lead to more people trying to sell "rare" Jellycats for crazy prices and they just don't want that knowledge out there anymore purely for business reasons. I hope the former is the case, and we will soon see a completely revamped Retired Jellycat Section obviously but from a business perspective it makes more sense to leave that information out I think.

As for other places, there is a database (called jellycollector I think) I know of that's quite new and still in progress but expanding. And of course there is me. I literally saved everything on that website from early 2019 onwards. I also have almost all of the catalogues. Most of them are easy to find as PDFS online!

I will keep you updated but I hope this is helpful for now. I know how frustrating it is that it isn't there right now...

I want to point out that for specific identification questions, one can always email Jellycat customer service , too.

[rpschtuff]

Beta Editor Overview

This post was originally made on January 7, 2023, and was last updated on January 14, 2023.

After seeing quite a few posts expressing confusion/frustration over the beta editor, trying to understand new features and find where old options have moved to, I thought I'd write up an overview of the new editor, showing the various changes it has from legacy.

My main goal is to show people that the new editor not nearly as bad as they may have heard. You'll have a few days of weirdness and confusion, and then you'll be used to it. The beta editor does have some bugs... but so does the legacy editor. We've all just gotten used to legacy and know how to work around its quirks. After a couple weeks with beta, you'll be familiar with it and know how to do the same.

FAQ

I'm putting this part above the read more to quickly answer the questions I see asked most often.

How do I cut posts with the new editor? — You need to get an extension called XKit Rewritten and use Trim Reblogs. Once you have that installed, save the post to your drafts and click the scissors icon along the bottom of the post. This will open a window that allows you to remove earlier reblogs. If you run into funky issues, see my ginormous post here.

Where is blockquote? — Blockquote is now called indented. There are two ways to reach it. Option 1: select your text, open the dropdown menu, and choose indented. Option 2: type / on an empty line, select indented, and type your text.

Where is small text? — Select your text and click the small S in brackets. I recommend doing this at the end of writing your post, as it can be finicky otherwise. The old keyboard shortcut for small text does not work anymore; the new shortcut is CTRL/CMD + COMMA.

Where are bullets? — Select your text, open the dropdown menu, and choose bulleted list. You can also type / on an empty line and select/type bulleted list. Additionally, you can type * and a space on an empty line to autoformat to bullets, or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL/CMD + SHIFT + 8.

How do I disable reblogs on a post? — Click the settings icon in the top right, click the dropdown next to "Who can reblog?" and select "no one." (Please note that while it says those mentioned in a post can always reblog, I've found this to be broken. At the moment you should only disable reblogs if you don't want anyone reblogging it.)

Why does adding a gif to a post include the URL? — Inserting an image via link will automatically include that URL underneath the image in the final post (though it won't display in the editor). You can remove this by hovering over the image and clicking the chain link icon in the bottom left. Select the URL in the field there, delete it, and click Done.

How do I add alt text to an image? — Add your image, hover over it, click the three dots in the bottom right corner, and click "update image description."

Adding Elements

When you click on an empty line, options for things to add to your post will appear on the right, similar to legacy.

In order, these are:

Image

Gif search

Link

Audio

Video

Read more

All of these work almost exactly as they have previously, except for adding an image. Clicking that will give you this, which resembles a standalone photo post of the old format.

You can then upload directly from your computer, or paste a URL, as before. If you insert an image via URL, that link will be visible just below the image in your final post, though it won't show up like that in the editor. It'll look like this.

If you don't want this, make sure to click the link icon at the bottom left of the image and delete the URL there.

Back to the image you added in the text editor! Hovering over the image will give these options.

The squares icon in the top left lets you click and drag the image, and you can drag images next to each other to stack them horizontally. The X in the top right will remove the image from your post. The link icon in the bottom left shows the image URL, and will only appear if you inserted the image via link. And the dots in the bottom right allow you to add alt text to your image -- click the dots, then click Update image description.

Formatting Text

Now! If you type up some text and then select it, formatting options will pop up. This is similar to legacy, but now there's a dropdown menu.

Here's what's in the dropdown.

Here's what they all look like in a post.

Regular is plain text. Bigger is the equivalent of the headline option on the legacy editor. Biggest is the equivalent of the main title, but you can have more than one in a single post now.

Quote turns text into a serif font and increases the font size. If you type up a long quote, the font size will shrink.

Chat switches to a more computer-looking font.

Lucille increases the font size and is a cursive font.

Indented is blockquote. It looks a tiny bit different on the dash now, with some more spacing on the top and bottom, but it's functionally the same.

Bulleted and numbered lists are self-explanatory. You can also start a bulleted list by starting an empty line of regular text with * and a space, and a numbered line by starting an empty line with 1 and a space. Additionally, the keyboard shortcuts CTRL/CMD + SHIFT + 7 for numbered list and CTRL/CMD + SHIFT + 8 for bulleted list still work.

You can also access these same options (and some others) by typing a slash onto the start of an empty line. A menu will pop up, allowing you to either click the one you want or simply type the one you want and hit enter.

If you want to quickly add a title, an indented blockquote, or anything like that, this is the fastest way to do it.

Hopping back to the rest of these options now!

To the right of the drop down, these options are:

Strikethrough

Bold

Italics

Small

Link

Color

Most of these are self-explanatory. Keyboard shortcuts for bold and italics work as before. The old keyboard shortcut for small text no longer works, but CTRL/CMD + COMMA does.

Link works the same as it always has, and the keyboard shortcut of CTRL/CMD + K works as well. Additionally, if you have text selected and just paste in a URL, it will insert as a hyperlink from that selected text.

Color lets you change the color of your text to a few presets. Just click the paint bucket, and pick the color you want.

Post Settings

Back out to the main editor now, here's what under the settings icon in the top right.

Custom URL lets you set a custom URL for your post, if you want it to be something other than a string of numbers.

Content source is the source link and works similarly to how it did in legacy.

Post date is not the scheduler! That's under the post button dropdown and is fairly straightforward. But this option lets you backdate a post, setting the date to sometime earlier than you actually made. Gonna be completely honest, I haven't used this at all and don't entirely see the point, but if you want to play around with it, there it is.

Who can reblog? Is one of my favorite features. Opening that dropdown lets you disable reblogs on your post. The reblog button will be grayed out on the dash. (After you've made the post, you can edit to turn reblogs back on if you need to.)

While this does say that anyone mentioned can always reblog, I've found this to be broken in my testing -- I have submitted a ticket to staff, so hopefully they're working on it. It would be a godsend for roleplayers, since it would restrict reblogs to only the partner that you @-mentioned in your starter and keep randos from reblogging your threads.

Lastly, the text editor lets you switch to HTML or Markdown for your post, if you prefer one of those. They are similar to how they worked in legacy.

Community Labels

Along the bottom of the editor, you'll see the close button, the post button with the same dropdown as in legacy, and another dropdown that reads Everyone by default. Here's what that one looks like.

This is where you can manage your community labels, which is a fairly new feature from Tumblr. By default, your post will be marked as being for everyone. However, if your post contains any of the content listed, you should click to toggle that one on. This will hide your post from anyone who has that label switched off in their settings.

To check what you have on or off in your settings, look for this underneath your filtered tags:

Tags

Tags work the same as before. The only notable difference is that you can now edit inside tags without having to completely delete them. Just click on the text where you want your cursor to be.

You can rearrange tags with click and drag as before. Just be sure to click on the blue space around the text, rather than on the text itself.

Autosaving

The beta editor will automatically save your posts! It's autosaving whenever you see this pop up at the bottom of your screen, every minute or so.

If the editor gets closed unexpectedly, the last autosave of your post will go into your drafts. As someone who's lost many replies to unexpected tab closures, this is a godsend.

Just know that this only works if something external closes the editor. If you click the close button yourself, the post will disappear.

Miscellaneous Differences

You can now have more than one main title (Biggest) in your post.

You can no longer have multiple levels of bullet points.

You can no longer have paragraph breaks within your blockquote/indented text (though it's been that way for a while). To get a similar look in your blockquote, hold down shift and press enter twice (or use <br><br> in your HTML).

Previewing a post on your blog is still possible, but in a different location. Go to a post in your drafts, click the three dots in the top right, and click preview.

The editor will still remember your tags, but capitalization will be removed, which might be an aesthetic annoyance.

The editor will only suggest tags that start with your search. For example, if your ask memes tag is send me stuff ( ask memes ) — typing "send me stuff" in the tags box will suggest this tag for you, while typing "ask memes" will not.

When making or reblogging a post, your most recently used sideblog will be up by default; this is different from the legacy editor, which would always open your primary blog. Be mindful of things going onto the correct blogs!

More items may be added here as I spot them. Feel free to send any observations of your own if you have them.

Known Glitches

Because the beta editor is still known to be buggy, I thought I'd document the glitches I am aware of. I have reported these to staff using their feedback option and highly recommend that you politely do the same if these annoy you.

I've heard from several people that using CTRL/CMD + Z to undo caused their entire post to be erased. This has not personally happened to me, but I've heard it enough times that I feel I should share it here.

Using CTRL/CMD + A to select your entire post can be finicky. Clicking and dragging across the entire post is more reliable.

Typing with small text can be finicky and won't always apply correctly. I highly recommend applying the small text after everything is written, just to save some headache.

Generally, text formatting and paragraph blocks can behave oddly, especially when trying to select more than one. This is also a problem I've had with the legacy editor, but my experiences are not universal, so it may be a hindrance to you.

Customizing Beta/NPF Elements on your Theme

This is only for those of you who want to know how to change the way certain new beta elements look on their blog theme. If that's not you, you can stop reading here!

These are the elements and classes you want to customize in your CSS:

BIGGER - h2

BIGGEST - h1

QUOTE - .npf_quote

CHAT - .npf_chat

LUCILLE - .npf_quirky

RED TEXT - .npf_color_joey

ORANGE TEXT - .npf_color_monica

PURPLE TEXT - .npf_color_chandler

YELLOW TEXT - .npf_color_phoebe

BLUE TEXT - .npf_color_ross

PINK TEXT - .npf_color_niles

Colored text that isn't one of the default colors from Tumblr will just use <span> to assign a custom hex code, and can usually be targeted that way. You may need to use the !important property to override some of these default styles.

[circular-bircular]

I'm putting this blog to rest.

I'm done. I'm out. And god, is it a relief.

You might notice I'm posting this around the same time that SAS is posting a major post in an effort to light the tag on fire. I highly doubt it'll work, but it's the best attempt. Me and SAS are close. Nearly one in the same, some days...

You'll notice the end of the post says, "just wait for what happens next."

This is what happens next.

I'm deleting my syscourse blogs. Finally. No "maybe I will" or "I've been considering it." I've been considering it for a loooong time, and I've actually been intending on getting rid of Circular's-Reasoning for awhile now. I just... haven't had the energy to.

But now... My life is moving on. I'm moving on, quite literally, I gain possession of my new house... probably today when I end up posting this. I'm not sure, it's my first draft, we'll see how this goes. That's terrifying to realize. I'm like... an adult. I'm an adult who's craving good conversations about my disorder, about systemhood and how it's conceptualized, and more intricate parts of my selfhood. And... Syscourse just is not that.

I've done this sort of thing before, if you all know MotCR -- @memoriesofthecircularroom, for the uninitiated. That's the OG Circular Blog, and is an archive of the first few years of syscourse. But... Now, it's going to become a bit more. Here's my game plan.

I update MotCR to be the Circular Archive. Anything I think needs archiving -- good posts of mine, silly reblogs, or just good posts overall where I added something of my own -- will get reblogged there. It's gonna be busy for a bit.

In the meantime while I start that process, I answer any and all final questions/asks or drafts that've been in the works. I don't want to leave people hanging.

I delete a lot of blogs. And... I do mean a lot -- not even just the syscourse ones. Just the ones I think it's time to let go of.

I've often teased how many blogs I have. It's fluctuated wildly in the past. But here's the down and dirty. Here's what I own, and what I'm planning on removing.

@circular-bircular (Hi, Hello, You're Here)

@circulars-reasoning (Already planned to be gone awhile ago)

@systemquirks (I just don't have the energy to run it, and I'm so sorry for that)

@yourfaveissecretlysas (Yes, I am the one running that)

@system-confessions (Surprise! No name blog that barely exists, again, I don't have the energy)

@debunkingsyscourse (Look, I make these too easily)

@equalsys (Not sure how this is a shocker to anyone)

@ricejustdidthings (An old system-no-syscourse blog I have that I don't use anymore)

@my-systems-cringe (Been meaning to delete this for ages)

@circulars-answers (Unneeded)

And potentially one other, unnamed for now blog -- that's the one I've never told people I have outside of select discords...

So that's 11 blogs I'm getting rid of, potentially more. And that's with me still keeping 2 syscourse blogs and an 18+ system blog. Jesus christ.

It feels good to get it off my chest, though. It feels really good to be leaving.

"But Circ! Your posts make me happy!"

Fantastic! You can follow the new system blog I'm going to be making, @thecircularsystem (is that link working? I don't know, it's a brand new blog.)

Try this link out instead if that doesn't work!

I'm still going to be posting system related content there. I'm still going to be doing my normal random shit that I always do. I may even dabble in syscourse -- and definitely in sysconversation. I like that tag! But I'm not going to be doing syscourse nearly as often, and I'm going to try and stay out of that tag in search of reblogs and such. Too often, it results in me getting aggressive with someone, rather than just... spreading good information about systems, or existing online as I want to exist.

I just need a refresh. A new step, a big change. I'm moving on.

I really hope you all can too <3

[thefirstknife]

Alright the new Veil Log is so fucking insane. I am completely not normal right now. Personal video because DLV hasn't uploaded yet, transcript from me as well:

Chioma: Chioma Esi, research log: Lakshmi-2. Osiris: What?! Chioma: Maya's... I don't even know what to say. I'd recused myself from further experiments. Told her to take some time off. She refused. And she... the minute I wasn't there, she started hauling the braindead Exos out of cold storage. Hooking them up to the veil interface. She burned through dozens of them. Reversed the entire machine's design. Used a chorus of braindead Exos to funnel data down to the conductor seat, projecting a mental imprint. Hers. I... I didn't know Lakshmi-2, but Maya did. And now she's... she's made this thing. It speaks with her voice. Has some of her memories. The way it looks at me... It's like it knows something I don't. Nimbus: Osiris, do you recognise that name? "Lakshmi"? Osiris: Yes... and no. Lakshmi-2 was an Exo and once-leader of a faction on Earth known as the Future War Cult. She died over a year ago. But she never once made mention of any of this. Of Neomuna, of... Maya. Did she know? Did she remember? This is all as much of a revelation to me as it is to you. It throws everything she did while in the Last City into question. Nimbus: I mean, with... if she was a copy of Dr. Sundaresh, then... is she really dead? Osiris: I don't know. For now, I must deliver a rather uncomfortable report to Ikora.

I genuinely don't know where to begin. I am absolutely losing my mind about this to such a degree, this is personally my favourite reveal in the recent years in Destiny.

Lakshmi-2 is a copy of Maya Sundaresh. She was made by Maya, hooking up braindead Exos to the Veil and using the power to create a "mental imprint" of herself and implanting it into one of the braindead Exos, that of Lakshmi-2. Lakshmi's voice is Maya's voice and she had some of Maya's memories. Lakshmi is essentially a version of Maya, with a copy of Maya's consciousness made with the Veil.

Lakshmi-2 becoming a leader of the Future War Cult is just Maya going back to her roots; Maya MADE the FWC. Lakshmi's obsession with the Device and looking into it is just Maya's obsession with the Veil. I am so shocked right now because I've spoken about the possible connection between the FWC Device and the Veil in April. Before any of this new data. What the hell. I'm pretty sure this is how Maya heard herself name the Veil; by looking through the Veil, she could connect with her other consciousness. I initially thought it might be with her simulated selfes; that might still also be correct, but in this specific case she may have heard herself, as Lakshmi, while exploring the Device. In the post I linked above, I specifically drew the connection because of a lore tab from vanilla D1 which I noted is probably just some old stuff, but that there's a possibility this old stuff is deliberately being made relevant again:

At 11:33 she reported the sensation we have called "The Opening Of The Veil." The Device recorded temporal displacement of her consciousness to the order of six degrees.

This seemed just like something that may look like more than it is, but with the knowledge that Lakshmi-2 was on Earth, back in charge of the FWC and running more experiements... Yeah. This has to be relevant. It has to.

Lakshmi ofc never spoke of Neomuna so it's unclear if she had those memories or if maybe they were removed when she was sent to Earth. Also when did she come back to Earth? Had to have been early enough to experience the destruction of Old London. Possibly in a team with Stargazer when Stargazer went to Earth to delete the records of Neomuna?

Either way, I'm gonna be insane about this for a long time. So much potential here for so much stuff. Really interesting that Nimbus asked if she's really dead; what if we could interact with Maya again, somewhere, somehow? Her copies are everywhere, after all. Not just as Lakshmi and possibly more, but also her Vex copies.

[nikki-tine]

So it's come to my attention that despite the page I have set up within the desktop version of my blog, I don't have a mobile version of an introduction post here. Oops! This one's newly written, too, in a different format than the other.

So, that being said - Hello!

I am Nikki/Niko (Whichever you prefer!) and I am a 27-year old Genderfluid artist person (My birthday is on January 9th!). I don't think there's too much to be said here, but I can and will say with confidence that this blog has been, especially in the last few or so years built up to be a catch-all for whatever I deem good to reblog or post (All of which typically related to fluff stuff, feel-good vibes or something that I may feel strongly about).

This place is, and always will be a safe space for a) People with disabilities (I am autistic, have ADD and Bipolar as well as Anxiety) and b) LGBTQ+-identifying people (I am, as mentioned before Genderfluid, and I'm Pansexual Panromantic!).

If a reblog or post makes you uncomfortable, then I will happily delete it if asked.

I make it a point to keep these posts SFW especially nowadays - however, I can't quite vouch for possibly the oldest of my posts (as I've been here since the early 2010s along with some ol' dumb teen thoughts involved and it'd take forever to sort absolutely everything out from over a decade ago at this point). I'm pretty sure that I've removed most of the NSFW stuff already from those years ago, but if I missed something then I don't mind deleting it as long as you let me know first (I'm incredibly disorganized and would appreciate a nudge in the right direction).

With these details out of the way - I am an artist that dabbles in various fandoms with no real sense of rhyme or reason outside of either hyperfixated interest or otherwise with the intent to update old ideas and refresh them into new ones. Like most artists on the internet, I ask that you do not repost without credit, trace and/or copy my work. I'm quite literally living paycheck by paycheck with my family right now. You CAN however use my artwork as a reference or as inspiration for your own work - If you do, lemme know! I'd love to see the result!

Here's a vague list of fandoms I dabble in (though my post history doesn't quite show that as I tend to leave most of my stuff to posting on Discord instead):

Pokemon (I've been a part of this one almost my entire life lol)

Sonic the Hedgehog (Another fandom I've been in for a grand majority of my life! I'm more of a casual fan as I haven't made much art recently, but I still absolutely love looking at what others come up with for OCs and stuff.)

Undertale (ESPECIALLY AU-centric)

Digimon (Passionate about this one specifically - I have a project I've been working with under this fandom since 2014 on and off)

Cookie Run (Kingdom primarily with a minor Ovenbreak focus for AU concept ideas)

Dark Cloud/Dark Chronicle (This one's SO obscure, but if you know these games then I give you a virtual baked good of your liking! These two games hold a very special place in my heart.)

Dance Dance Revolution, NotITG, Friday Night Funkin (I'm a rhythm game nerd and love the creativity of the communities surrounding these three - I just haven't been able to piece together anything for it yet visually except for FNF stuff on and off)

A Dance of Fire and Ice (Same as the DDR fandom part, but I've made a couple fanart pieces before so this one I may have an easier time of conceptualizing later)

FNAF (Specifically Security Breach AU work! This one's not as frequent as others but I still have stuff in mind for it. Security Breach is how I finally caved with the FNAF series as a whole after watching how the fandom grew over the years.)

Warriors (Warrior Cats, in our year 2024? Eeyup. I just like the funny spiritual witties!)

Team Fortress 2 (This one's in and out but it's one that I come back to a lot as my boyfriend, regularly interacting and involved in the GMOD animation community reminds me of my own TF2 stuff with his presence alone lol. Love you James! &lt;3)

Persona 3, 4 and 5 (This one's a lil self-explanatory but I have AU ideas surrounding these games that I want to make more art for eventually)

If I have anything else not listed before, I'll add it to the list. C: Please keep in mind that although I dabble in these fandoms, AU versions of existing characters may be changed in terms of sexuality, personality etc to reflect the AU they are from (For example, I have a version of Cream Unicorn Cookie that uses he/they pronouns, and my Redeemed!Pomegranate Cookie from the same AU leans bisexual over lesbian for reasons relating to reflection of character and overall character development. I like to make characters more flexible while self-indulging, so keep this in mind). I note this because my own headcanons about certain characters have set off one or two people in the past unintentionally and they VERY much have pushed things in an effort to keep canon down my throat out of retaliation. Let's just say that this part in particular is a thing that taps a sore spot for me for personal reasons. :/

When it concerns making art of my characters - surprise or not, feel free to make art of them and mention me in post (and/or message me, either way works)! It makes me feel SO loved when I get art from others, and I appreciate every piece dearly. 💜💜💜 (I go so far as to hold onto an archive of art that was done for me - with artist names in-tact within the file name nowadays!)

A few things to consider when it concerns tickling-related matters with me:

I am a Switch! I'm unsure how far Ler or Lee I am just yet, but I do enjoy tickling both ways. Unfortunately, however, I'm the kind of person that practically flies across a room when poked,, (if it comes down to tickling my sona - Niko Spirata - tie or hold 'em down if you want to wreck 'em with tickles lol)

My interest in tickling alone is purely SFW - It feels too weird looking at IRL photos/videos with very rare exception (a lot of the exception is the giggle the lee produces from ticklish contact). As a result, all the stuff I'll be reblogging and posting here is art or animation-related instead!

My favorite tickle trope is the one where a shrunken someone or a small something wiggles under the unwitting lee's clothing to tickle them! (Points at wormonastriing's Squirmles as an example of this trope :3) No, seriously. If I end up with art of any of my characters getting destroyed with tickles in this manner I will ASCEND BEYOND GALAXIES.

My favorite spots with tickling overall are belly, side and rib tickling - on rarer occasions, I enjoy tickling in other places (I prefer foot tickling if the lee has paws instead of normal feet!). This lines up with a particular enjoyment of characters being slightly chubby! I looove a good squeeze of the sides or belly, enough to get the lee blurting out giggles.

I have only a few tags I use now on a regular, but these are:

#nikki-tine (This is my user tag and I put it in with my art posts and other things I post sometimes. You may also see others' posts under this tag, primarily with stuff related to asks or when art's been posted for me in the past &lt;3)

#art, #tickle art, #tickling art (These are self-explanatory!)

#NJEGNJ (Something to that effect, lol. It's not exact but keyboard smash tag is typically wrote similarly or around the same for several posts, all of which ones that got me chuckling or giggling like a dork!)

~

My Commission Status is currently set to OPEN (paypal prioritized for now).

It's really complicated, however, and I don't have any other methods than Paypal and Robux right now so if you have questions about that then feel free to message me and I'll try to clear it up as best I can!

I only have two prices, both fully colored and shaded.

Chibies are $25 USD (+ 5 for an extra character)

My normal art style is $50 USD (+ 10 for an extra character)

I do best leaving the BG transparent, but if I HAVE to work on one then I can do nature-themed backgrounds pretty okay. It’s not a strong-suit of mine, however…

My Art Trade Status is Busted Wide Open™ to Mutuals, but I'm a little picky and choosy with random people.

If I decline an Art Trade, please don't take it personally!

In terms of Roleplay, It's Closed on-blog, BUT I'm Open to Roleplay in Discord servers (Provided there's a Tupperbot there for me to use).

I've been looking to find an RP server that has mutuals/friends and allows Undertale-related stuff (especially of the tickling-related kind!), so if you're a part of one please let me know!

DM Status overall is Open (As long as you are kind to me, I will return kindness back!).

My Asks are ALWAYS OPEN! I really like getting stuff in my inbox (and I unfortunately don't get asks often at all).

I'm most comfortable interacting with other adults and SFW blogs (this is more-so for safety than anything else on my end. I don't have the emotional or mental energy to handle potential drama involving context-disconnected words). I don't mind interacting with NSFW blogs here but only if in the context of specific interests of mine and not much else.

I don't really have much in the way of who can't interact with me as long as you are respectful/mindful of chat etiquette and are aware of the kind of impact you may make in messaging people like myself.

I do my best to look at blog descriptions and respect DNI's - If I end up poking at something I shouldn't by accident, as long as it's not met with aggression in DMs, I will happily fix whatever problem you may have related to that. I HATE making others uncomfortable/upset!

If you have questions, feel free to ask! I don't really use other forms of Social Media, but I do use some websites with a social aspect to them casually.

Links:

Flightrising (Funny dragon site)

Chicken Smoothie (This one's a fun lil adopt site from the late 2000s)

GPX Plus (This is literally Pokefarm Q before Pokefarm Q lol)

Gaia Online (Another old site with unfortunate currency inflation, but it's the site that's kept me going with character designing and such over the years! The blog part here is old, but the avatar is updated from time to time. This site is the reason I lean on Monochrome + a color as an aesthetic a lot lol)

Bluesky (mostly inactive - want activity there? nudge me here!)

DeviantArt (It's VERY rare I post here now. Also a warning for those under 18 - there's suggestive and nsfw art in my favorites dotted here and there so look with caution. my gallery itself is SFW however and all the works that would have been nsfw are archived.)

Artfight (Self-explanatory!)

[islandofsages]

return to ... wonderland?

hello everyone!!

i won't lie to you, i didn't think i'd ever revive this account. i even thought of deleting it sometimes but i know that some may still want to take comfort in my writing and the thing is, i do get notes from time to time despite the state of this account.

but recently i found myself in the x reader trenches once again ... just not for genshin unfortunately. i'm no longer part of the fandom. rather, now i'm rebranding this blog to become a twisted wonderland x reader blog instead!

but aside from that, nothing much has changed. i will still only write non-romantic requests, despite me now being unlabeled and definitely experiencing some romantic attraction here and there ahaha. crazy what time does to you.

i did want to try writing for multiple fandoms but i don't think i have the passion for writing x readers for them so i'm still sticking to one central fandom for this blog. if that changes, well, i'll cross that bridge when i come to it.

i've decided to loosen up the boundaries here a bit and now fem/fem-aligned readers are allowed to interact with my work but you can't follow nor request for fem!readers bc i'll just be blunt with you - most x readers are still fem reader-dominated. i've even seen some anons default to she/her pronouns for allegedly gn readers. so no, fem readers are not a thing here. mutuals are an exception to this rule, you can follow, but you guys still can't request for fem!readers. that is one thing i will absolutely refuse to write.

also, since this is focused on twisted wonderland now, requests should specify if reader is yuu or not. i know it's a normal to assume reader would be yuu since yuu is supposed to be us but some of us just can't really insert ourselves into yuu regardless (like me, my self-insert is not my yuusona. they are different characters).

oh and i also write for character x character now !! i absolutely love exploring dynamics in this game bc it feels like any pairing is possible. still no romance but you can request them :D

those are the main changes. you can find smaller changes + more details in my rules (which is in my pinned!). and don't worry, the old genshin stuff will still be there for you, i won't remove them. just keep in mind that i won't be writing for genshin anymore.

and that is all for now!! feel free to send in requests + spread this around :] and don't be shy to ask me anything or even just chat through asks <3

[sapphia]

Speaking of copying and plagarising and all that good stuff, how do we feel about the copying and distributing of fan content as a preservation method?

Fanfiction is an old enough medium that we've seen huge losses of content only preserved through site caches and saved stories, which is a true loss to fandom history. This is the reason why I've left up the vast majority of my fanfics, despite no longer being able to take pride in the skill of my writing from a time so very long ago: it's a little timecapsule into not just my own history but fandom and fanfiction history. Fanfiction is absolutely all about trends and in-things, be that the content it's writing about or fanfiction concept trends, and one day we're absolutely going to want to remember that people were writing these sorts of stories en-masse.

Although there are already many author's whose work we've likely lost because they've self-deleted or removed for censorship over the past 30 years (literally, that's how old ff.net is), we've yet to see the biggest total-time-capsule loss that could happen to fanfiction history--the mass-deletion or wipe of ff.net content from the post-fanfic boom (such as if the site is ever killed or if the administrators do another largescale purge as with the M+ bans and subsequent porn crackdowns). Some stories have been preserved through reposting by the authors, and some have been saved by fans who downloaded them to archive or for their own personal offline use.

Not all of these have been reposted--some day in the future there will be a lot of work put in to trying to trace down and preserve many of the pillarstone fics of the fanfiction communities from these times. And it's crazy to think that some of my fics, with their modest reviews and low hitcounts, are a part of this history, whether it's because someone out there someday will desperately what to reread a crackfic about a naruto character reading other characters bedtime stories, or because I was one of the many people writing harry potter fanfiction tropes that grew and evolved and developed into other things that we are still seeing in modern fanfiction today.

And even further into the future--how do we feel about reposting AO3 and other fanfiction works now? Sure, AO3 seems safe at present, but it won't always be, and many of the authors from its early years have orphaned, or worse, deleted, their immensely-popular stories.

When does copying and plagarising and reposting works without permission move into archiving? There are many fanfictions from the 2000s we will never recover because no one would have ever dreamt to copy them and put them anywhere else without the author's permission. That's a horrible thing to do to an author! But you simply cannot rely on an author to preserve their own work if you are wanting to ensure it will be available for any purpose in the future, be that research or discussion or consumption or any other reason. The author may not be alive. They may not be aware anything is happening to their story at all. They may be the writer of My Immortal and turn out to be a horrible person who deleted everything and likely would have deleted her base fic too had she had access to the account to do it.

When do we take works out of the hands of authors and say: This. This is important enough for us to save, whether you want it or not?

When does plagarism become preservation?

[derekscorner]

Four changes I would make to Bleach

Before I begin I want to warn you that I will list things from the ending of the Bleach manga. This is important because if you're watching the recent 'Thousand Year Blood War' anime then you're essentially seeing the manga, aka the source materials, final story arc.

Yes, Kubo is quite involved with the anime right now and he is making changes to the story in bits with the anime team. What I fear may be spoilers may no longer be so but just to be safe I warn you anyway.

With that out of the way let us begin~

#1 No Fullbring

When I say this I do not mean that I would cut the Fullbring Arc. I've come to appreciate what it did since the manga ended.

No, when I say "no fullbring" I mean that I would actually make it a temporary power. Once Ginjo steals Ichigo's fullbring that is it. There is no "oh, remnants of it still exist" or other such logic. I would have that power truly lost.

I'd still keep Zangetsu's redesigns but simply remove the fullbring additions like seen in my edits above. My reason for this being a few.

First, I do not like how they have him keep it only for it to just vanish shortly after anyway. Once Zangetsu is reforged you never see it again.

Second, Ichigo being everything under the sun and doing little with it does bother me even now. Even if it's to a much smaller degree.

Third, I once had this post going over how I would have Ichigo gain and lose powers as he learns about the world over the story but I deleted that post since...well the Bleach story DOES do that.

This alteration is just a small one left over from that long rant.

#2 Resolve the Kurosaki twins story thread

This alteration isn't as scenario specific as it is above. I'm sure many have their own ideas on that and I like seeing them. But for the sake of conversation and consistency I will offer the best idea I've heard over the years.

Use the twins to restore Ichigo's powers

From what I remember this idea is simple. In order to restore Ichigo's powers at the end of the Fullbring Arc Urahara had used the twins latent spiritual powers.

I made a big post on them already but TLDR Yuzu can see ghosts as blurry images while Karin has powers she's very vocal about not exploring.

Plus, these two are the closest beings to what Ichigo even is in the series. They would get the chance to be truly normal and, for once, help their brother instead.

It'd be a beautiful little thing in my mind but that is just one option I've seen.

P.S. This idea basically meant that the spirit sword used to restore Ichigo was forged from the twins powers then changed with the spiritual energy of all his friends.

#3 Ichigo loses his Quincy powers

This is one of those potential spoilers I warned about. In the manga Yhwach not only absorbs the Soul King but proceeds to rip the power for his quincy army before finally stripping Ichigo of his own.

This is happens directly after Yhwach infamously breaks the true Tensa Zangetsu before we even got to see it's true ability.

Truth be told, I'd leave the part of the quincy's having their powers, and thus their lives, stolen by Yhwach. What annoys me is the ambiguity of what came next that persists even now.

The Fullbringers restore Tensa Zangetsu but the exact nature it has is just left a lingering mystery.

To fix this I would just explain it. Yhwach's about to remake the world and so he's taking back all the power he had passed around. The only exception to this even would be Uryu due to his 'antithesis' ability. (uryu has proven he's immune to Auswählen once already)

I'd also have Ryuken survive the event but I would leave him powerless since he's more interested in being a human anyway.

For Ichigo, this means that old man Zangetsu is gone. It would make sense for Yhwach to steal his quincy powers but break Zangetsu. All modern quincies derive their power from Yhwach while Zangetsu is a hollow turned zanpakuto.

Hollows are poisonous to quincy and thus Yhwach decides the best way to depower Ichigo is to break his bankai then steal his quincy powers.

You could even use this as an excuse. Once Xcution restores Tensa Zangetsu it's outer shell could break away revealing the original shikai underneath showing that it's changed to reflect the loss of it's quincy aspects.

Heck, you could even change the true Tensa Zangetsu to be purely black like in my edit above. ^^ This is just my idea as well, I'm open to others, all I really want is for the anime to explain it.

I only went this route because I like the idea of Uryu truly being the last quincy by the end of the story. Speaking of Uryu...

#4 Have Uryu do more

From what I've heard this change is actually happening in the anime. I would like them to take it even further due to Uryu's Schrift. In the manga, this man is bluntly stated to possibly be the only known counter to Yhwach's Almighty and Auswählen.

This unique trait of Uryu's manifests as 'The Antithesis' once Yhwach grants him a Schrift.

That alone, in my mind, means that he should be way more crucial to the final battle than the manga made him. He literally just appears to shoot an arrow at Yhwach which he should've literally been able to see coming.

I don't think that role is bad in of itself but by hell do more with it. Show me why Yhwach wouldn't see that arrow coming, show me why the antithesis is...well the antithesis to the almighty.

Just do something with the boy in the finale other than handing him a silver arrow to beat the last boss with like it's Zelda or something.

Anndddd we're Done

These are my four changes I'd like to see. I do not expect #3 nor #4 to actually happen and they definitely aren't going to do changes #1 or #2 now.

I also thought that I would have more but to my shock I do not. I'll end this here~

[marionedde]

HOGLOW KNIGHT SHIT OR WHATEVER.

this will be updated once silksong comes out (good fucking lord.)

I've been watching mossbag and he had that one theory about masks giving bugs mind. Also i would like to add that there's a SHIT TON of little guys all around hallownest. Squits, tiktiks, vengeflies, etc. Now as far as we know they were never really a part of the society of hollow knight. So they were either animals essentially, or most of them didn't have the masks to be aware like mossbag says.

There's porbably also the effect of the pale king's leftover light causing at least a bit of sentience remaining for people such as Tiso, mila, iselda and sly who as far as we know don't have masks.

so more advanced or at least evolved bugs and beasts are sentient.

We also might be able to think back to the ancients. From what we see, a lot of them have face shapes similar to the fools, but they don't look like removable masks. It's possible that the ancient beasts were born with this mind, and the masks just mimic the pattern and idea of sentience.

this also might give us an answer to the nailsmith. He's obviously dead and really fucking old. and possibly stupid considering he picked that tiny-ass cave for a living. Conclusion? Didn't have a mask.

Now in one of mossbag's videos he mentions Boon from the prequel and how he talks much less...educated than quierrel. But tuk can, and is in hallownest, so i think like this.

Advanced beings (npcs) can exist in hallownest and have mind, or with a mask. being without either will diminish their thought process, but it's still present.

Lesser beings (smaller enemies) can exist in hallownest and (maybe?) have mind, but being without a mask will delete their thought process essentially.

THis can also contribute to how easily the radiance would be able to infect them.

If the bed bugs as i call them (mila, husks, aristocrats) were once lesser beings then gained the kings light/mask they were able to think more.

Maybe mask maker couldn't make a mask big enough for the tiktiks.

Some masks may not be obvious too. the Knight's masks, aka health, are possibly handheld objects. they wouldn't fit its face. so maybe some of the lesser bugs capable of HOLDING OBJECTS (aka bed bugs) would be able to obtain a mask.

Now what about the guys in the howling cliffs? they have the mask look but lost their mind.

answer: i don't fucking know. Probably the hex the king placed, but maybe those aren't masks and are just what they look like. It's possible, i guess. Mask maker did say it's difficult to tell who's in a mak or not.

Also, other substances may have worked similar to the pale king's light.

Think:

Unn's essence keeping the mosskin sentient but got canceled out by the radiance (shes called that for a reason.) thus causing unn to be tired from trying to push back.

The hiveblood keeping the bees functional during the reign of the pale king (they were technically outside the kingdom) but, once again, not being strong enough to stop the infection.

jiji, the snail shamans and the seer all avoided infection and this is porbably due to their own spiritual resolve.

OTHER MASKS:

-Godseeker masks: causes a conection between minds. this is obviously stronger than the mushroom hivemind, probably because it's a PHYSICAL MASK. the godseekers didn't have any gods, or they died, so the mask was a way to remain safe from losing their one collective mind (also mask caused that) as well as connect them to any nearby god they could attune (latch) onto.

-Grimm troupe masks: probably keeps the wears under the control of the nightmare's heart. This could also explain why divine seems a bit more in control of herself than brumm. She only wears half a mask. Brumm wears a full one.

-Steel soul masks: no idea what these do but it's probably important. Jiji is most likely affected in a positive(?) way as far as we know, considering she isn't from hallownest and doesn't have a traditonal mask. Since she seems to carry info from...wherever she's from...the mask probably helped her keep it stuck in there.

tl;dr

mossbag is great, masks keep mind, and so does a god's light, the more evolved the creature is the more mind they can keep if it's lost.

[eternalflashh]

nahida, irminsul, and representations of cognition throughout: an analysis

As the god of wisdom, it is probably intuitive that Lesser Lord Kusanali is depicted as someone omniscient, uber wise, indomitable in logic and without flaw of reasoning. More often than not, though, throughout the archon quest and story quests, we have been shown some of her shortcomings, from her lack of knowledge in certain aspects, and her susceptibility to certain forms of trickery. In this brief analysis we discuss aspects of human cognition and learning, and compare them to aspects from the story, providing evidence for the contrary—that, perhaps, there is no better representation of wisdom in the challenging nature of Teyvat than a god like her.

(Note: I do not claim to be any sort of expert in the topics I discuss here; this is merely a subjective analysis based on what I've learned of cognitive psychology and observed in canon. And, as with everything else I do, I did this simply because I was bored and I like overthinking things. Read at your own discretion.)

To me, Nahida, Irminsul, and Sumeru's stories are almost like this… super well crafted personification of working human intelligence itself. On a larger, fantastical scale, of course.

We know that the Irminsul is Teyvat’s repository of information—basically the brain. We know that Nahida is a branch of Irminsul, a part of that brain. And, well, this “brain” is actually represented in ways that are almost quite realistic, in many senses.

For starters: one of the most important functions of the brain is that it acquires information—that it learns. It accumulates knowledge, and while neurons do break down (and are not easily replaced, if ever), information is actually quite robust and does not “disappear” easily, besides the natural decay of time. There have been cases where people have lost part of their brains to accidents, yet retain their memories and even cognitive functions intact—the brain is actually far more malleable than one may think.

And in fact, you don’t “unlearn” things. You can’t “remove” things from your mind as easily as you imagine it—most of the time, when you “unlearn” or “extinguish” something, you really are just learning a new association that counters the old one. This new association takes time to develop, and spontaneous recovery often occurs—it takes time to “unlearn” something, or to “relearn” concepts. In life, we often have to correct our false preconceptions (not just in science!) and adapt to an ever-changing world—this constant process of unlearning and relearning and correcting is, essentially, what makes us “wiser”—the more we know, the more we understand. It is a constant growth of the mind. 

Nahida, then, being the deity of wisdom who rules over all knowledge, is a form of being where regular learning processes in cognition are essentially amplified: there is no normal degradation of “memory” (as things are stored in Irminsul reliably); there is no loss of information, and yet Nahida is still able to learn new concepts and understand how they relate to the old ones, revise her understanding based on most recent evidence or events. Basically, she learns quicker than mortals with minimal risk of decay; she is a god, this element of hers (arguably) understandably exists. 

But we also know: Irminsul itself is not perfect. We know that memories of Irminsul have, indeed, been deleted or altered. Of course this could easily be chalked up to the fantasy aspect outside of the analogy, but this could still be explained in terms of regular brain anomalies. Deleted memories could be analogous to memory loss in a sense (anterograde amnesia, cf. retrograde amnesia), while altered memories are, in fact, pretty common in real life—perhaps even more so than memory loss, for various reasons pertaining to heuristics, bias, and preconceptions—even though we tend to not realize it at all, unlike the glaring effects of memory loss.

Putting aside the why’s and how’s for now, memory loss is typically more noticeable than altered memory, but either way, the brain can actually accommodate for memory losses/alterations by bending to fit the “narrative” they previously had. The brain doesn’t like inconsistencies and gaps—it will try to explain something in the most coherent way possible with whatever available facts, which is actually a helpful adaptation to have in case we cannot obtain every piece of data we need. (The phenomenon is most common in terms of visual gaps, but is also prevalent with other senses and also with memory. For more, look up constancy bias.) Though, of course, in the case of memory loss or alteration, this isn’t necessarily a good thing. But in fact, this is what Irminsul does—it restructures itself accordingly with what facts are available, constructing a “coherent” narrative that, as we know, is false.

From this, we’ll be branching out to two points. The first is that Nahida’s existence aligns with this analogy in the sense that the removal of knowledge from Irminsul (of which she is an avatar of) is representative of the “weakening” or “shrinking” of the brain. As mentioned previously, this is not in the physical sense, for the case of the brain—but because Nahida is the physical representation of the abstract brain, then it makes sense that she shrunk during the eradication of forbidden knowledge. She lost all that knowledge gained—it would have mean her “growth” and “learning” has essentially reverted, hence she returns to a “younger” form of who she once was (see Nahida’s 2nd SQ) (though in act 5 of the AQ, it was Rukkhadevata splicing a branch off Irminsul itself, the image still stands that what’s left of the knowledge once forbidden knowledge has been taken away is not much). 

Now what, exactly, forbidden knowledge is, we don’t know yet, but how it affects the brain would not be so much of a mystery—there are pieces of insightful or revolutionary findings that can influence plenty of one’s beliefs, or the way one sees and interprets the world, which would then change the way one process information and generates new thoughts in turn. For example, imagine that one day you wake up with the existence of “blue” gone from your mind. Nothing is blue to you—things that you would once call blue will look greenish-yellow to you, even the feeling of “blue” will simply be called “depressed”, or something else, but nothing in the world will be blue to you. That simple “removal” can change a lot of things from how you perceive to how you describe, which is why the effects of removing forbidden knowledge can take a huge toll, or at least a huge change, on Irminsul—hence the big metaphorical brain, hence Rukkhadevata, hence Nahida.

And second, what happened to “Irminsul” being perfect? We cannot call Irminsul a repository of “perfect” knowledge, i.e., that every information it contains is true to the core, because we know the information stored in Irminsul is faulty and malleable. In fact, Irminsul being “perfect” is with respect to its functionality as a brain, as a system. Theoretically, when exposed to true information, a perfect brain should contain only true information. But we know there are forces beyond Teyvat, ones that Irminsul inherently can’t capture/perceive (e.g. the twins). It’s like us not being able to understand a dolphin’s cries, or the color vision of a shrimp, or anything beyond three-dimensional vision—this is inherently the nature of Irminsul itself to not capture that information (with exceptions I'll come to later). Irminsul is still an essentially “perfect” functioning brain, but inherently not designed to capture that beyond its scope. Which then would make sense why it can be altered or robbed of memories in such a way that it would not “break”—it can self-regenerate, it can still function brilliantly. It thinks it functioning perfectly fine means it’s still intact, when in fact, it has been contaminated with false information without it even realizing.

Back again: this is very much like the brain, like human cognition. Because rational humans make judgment based on the available facts, this becomes a problem when your facts are wrong. Usually, with humans, there is a degree of confidence to which you would know whether what you know is right—but if you have a “perfect” brain like Nahida theoretically does, or at least a very highly functioning one, you would have little reason to question your brain. And that, is in fact, her pitfall.

As we've seen from Nahida's second story quest, because she doesn’t have all the facts, she has to make do with what she knows. And she still does that sufficiently, as her godly capabilities should allow. But she also makes decisions that quite mirror her old ones: wanting to eradicate the remnants of forbidden knowledge herself, willing to lose her power and revert her own evolution in favor of apep’s health. One would not make the same decisions if they’ve learned the catastrophic price for it—Nahida is, alas, uninformed now, so she proceeds to make the same mistakes. If it weren’t for the traveler, Nahida would have so easily fallen into the same rabbit hole again; this is what happens when you “erase” memories, or revert time—you are only bound to repeat old mistakes. 

Here I’d also like to briefly mention that because the traveler did not have a good justification for stopping Nahida (they couldn’t, after all), it’s likely that Nahida would not “learn” why this was a bad idea, if not out of sole trust. As in, without the traveler’s continuous intervention, it is highly likely she would fall into this pitfall of her old mistakes one day… or would she?

Aside from her and Irminsul’s story being a very nicely fitting metaphor to the brain, she actually also represents cognitive strategies very well in her speech & personality, which solidifies in the metaphor very neatly. One major thing I'd like to point out is her constant use of analogy—which may sound like a gimmick or just a random personality trait. But in fact, in cognitive research, analogical reasoning has been shown to be a robust predictor of effective learning and success. So the fact that she often spits out seemingly random analogies out of nowhere isn’t just a random trait, but rather, a sign that she is constantly abstracting commonalities between distinct phenomena and learning about them effectively (in contrast to rote memorization). 

This is, in fact, an incredibly important thing—as you might’ve already realized—because it combats the dependence on memorization, which we’ve seen is a problem given the inherent state of Irminsul and malleable memory! And we’ve seen these analogies play a very important factor in the progression of the AQs and SQs, like when she transcribed the truth about Scaramouche/Wanderer in form of a fairytale to preserve it from being lost to the void, or how forbidden knowledge was altered into a different form—the oozing stuff in the Chasm. This is such an important aspect of Nahida’s character because it shows that she understands that the power of transformation or abstraction transcends that of simple mass erasure, and can be used as a manner of preservation. Quite literally, the power of analogy was used to show Nahida’s expertise not only through merely being knowledgeable, but also through creativity, just as its role is in the world.

And most importantly, it does imply that she realizes the shortcomings of her “brain” aka Irminsul. (I hypothesize it’s either an effect of her memory loss (memloss on a wide scale, like retrograde amnesia, would show “loss” effects instead of adaptation, like the symptoms Nahida exhibited) or Dottore’s intervention of telling her about false skies, that makes her realize how much she doesn’t know.) Perhaps this, even, is what Rukkhadevata meant when she said “you will be a better archon than I”, because she already has ways of overcoming these past cognitive flaws as well. This—this realization that your brain can be functioning perfectly and still be flawed, exactly because of its perfect nature—this is the invisible yet solid distinction between being knowledgeable and being wise. And this is why Nahida is the god of wisdom, rather than just a library that contains every information in the world.

In sum: Irminsul and Nahida is a really nice representation, whether intentional or just by pure coincidence and overreach on my part, of a "perfect" functioning brain in a world of unreliable information, and Nahida's ability to abstract hidden symbols to preserve truths addresses this issue quite admirably. All of this nicely manifests in Nahida through little quirks that may be overlooked, but (I suspect) may be very significant to her character and the development of the future plot. Thank you I am Done

[neotriobrainrot-reborn]

INTRODUCTION/ MASTERPOST (V4)

(hiya, reposting my masterpost because I'm a dumbass and had accidentally deleted the main post. And considering I changed the name of my ao3 and Twitter, I needed to make another one to fix it)

[ao3: CosmicEcosystem]

https://archiveofourown.org/users/CosmicEcosystem

[Twitter: @MetallicForest]

[Alt Account: @goldenphalloides(Tumblr) and @goldPhalloides (Twitter)]

[Ey: Important Update to this masterpost. I decided to make an alt account called @goldenphalloides to store all of my writing and art so that it doesn't get drowned out by Reblogs on my main. You can still send stuff like asks and requests here ofc! But I'll just be posting the stuff on the alt!]

This will change as I post more fics and make other changes, so anyone can check this at anytime and be caught up!

With that out of the way, sup! I decided to make a Masterpost that'll involve stuff I've written, drawn, and stuff I may plan on doing in the future

Most importantly, sorry for not writing anything in a while, I was burnt out, It's a work in progress, but I am trying to get back into writing, which is why I made this post in the first place

These are a list of the series/fandoms I'm interested in and will write for:

(Keep in mind that this entire post is subject to change as time goes on)

Fandoms:

Epithet Erased

The Amazing World of Gumball

In Stars and Time

Spiderverse Movies

Bug Fables

A Hat in Time

Little Witch Academia

Mario (in general: stuff like paper Mario, the Mario & Luigi RPGs, etc)

Sonic (In general)

Little Nightmares

Amphibia

The Owl House

Celeste

Zelda

The Mother Series (Mother 1/Earthbound 0, Earthbound/Mother 2, and Mother 3)

More to be added or possibly removed as time goes on

REQUESTS:

For anyone that had previously sent a request for something that I've never gotten too(I know there was at least 4 stuff I still haven't gotten to even months later), I do apologize for that. Life had hands I just wasn't ready for-

Regardless, I am now getting back into the groove of writing. My requests are open and I will take asks. Whether it's in the form of a writing request, or ya simply want a space to ramble: Ask, and the Golden Forest shall provide! You can send a request in any form, whether it be through an ask, a post (as long as you ping me), a submission, a DM, any method goes!

Though, you should keep a few things in mind:

I am free to deny requests & Asks. I'm just writing for fun, and to improve it to something I'm proud of, but mostly fun!

While I'm not opposed to writing romance, I do prefer Gen/Platonic stuff a lot more as I love platonic dynamics more than anything else! It's more of a personal preference than anything.

Please be patient. Believe it or not, I do have a life and some things will take me longer to get to than others, so please be patient and I'll get to ya!

Just practice basic courtesy

No NSFW.

Boundaries

My list of boundaries are pretty simple, but important

Proshippers & anyone who agrees with that nasty crap DNI (Do not interact) with me

If you're racist, homophobic, Transphobic, a bigot, or in any way and in any shape & form against the LGBTQIA+ community, DNI with me.

that's about it as far as it goes. Below here will be a list of stuff I've written categorized fandom to fandom. Each fic will have a link. a summery, and my thought process when writing it.

Before I show what I wrote, it's important to mention that I've only written stuff for Epithet Erased so far. I am branching out now into a variety of more stuff now, but this is just to let ya know so it doesn't look completely weird.

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

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

Epithet Erased:

The Power of Friendship (and a gun)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/37548673/chapters/93719221

An old work I wrote about a year ago where the entire premise is if Phoenica had a real ass goddamn gun during her encounter with the Wolf. I know they don't exist in the epithet world, but it was a Crack fic I wrote in 1 hour for April fools

♤♡◇♧

Neo Flavored Cookies (726 words)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/38738505

A short one-shot about Molly, Trixie, and Phoenica trying to bake cookies. Pretty fun overall!

♤♡◇♧

Everything's (not) Okay - Broken Royalty part one (13k words)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/36271753/chapters/90421513

An unfinished fic involving an au where the Fleecities were abusive.

This was one of the first things I've written, and looking back on this, I kind of hate it. I don't really like a lot of the writing decisions I've made. A lot of it was ooc, even for an au, and a good amount of moments didn't feel too put together. However, I would be wrong if I said this fic had no value. It personally kickstarted my writing journey!

I do want to mention that I do and don't plan on finishing it. While the work is discontinued, I am working on something called "Re-Spored" which will basically involve rewrites of my old fics (like this, for example)

♤♡◇♧

Spotify Drabbles (100 words)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/43944868/chapters/110493883

Just a drabble challenge thing I did a while ago. I don't really plan on updating it past chapter 1.

♤♡◇♧

Amphibia Erased Neo - Part One (Over 20k words)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/37727497/chapters/94188754

An old fic I'm kind of fond for, although most of them are technically old lol.

The premise involves Molly, Phoenica, and Trixie getting warped to Amphibia in the Calamity Trio's place. As of now, it's discontinued as I plan on rewriting it for "Re-Spored". There's a lot I didn't like when looking back on this(like the characters feeling ooc since this was written before Prison of Plastic, not enough unique moments/scenes, etc), but I'm still fond of it since I had fun writing it!

♤♡◇♧

Hedgehog Heaven (481 words)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/46215691

Just an April fools fic I wrote about with Mushroom Girl (background character) being obsessed with hedgehogs. Nothing much, but it's a fun read

♤♡◇♧

Mushroom Girl Drabbles

https://archiveofourown.org/works/46809085/chapters/117902524

As the name says, it's a drabble list about a background character that earned the status of blorbo. I do plan to have 10 chapters of drabbles!

Spiderverse Movies (ITSV and ATSV)

[WIP: will be updated]

Bug Fables

[WIP: will be updated]

A Hat In Time

[WIP: will be updated]

Mario

[WIP: will be updated]

Sonic

[WIP: will be updated]

Little Nightmares

[WIP: will be updated]

Amphibia

Amphibia Erased Neo - Part One

https://archiveofourown.org/works/37727497/chapters/94188754

A fic which involves the Neo Trio(from Epithet Erased) going to Amphibia in the Calamity Trio's place. At no point does the Calamity trio show up, but I'd say it's fun to read! However, keep in mind it is discontinued. I plan on rewriting it as a part of "Re-Spored" with the chosen name being "Amphibia Neapolitan Flavor" (name is subject to change)

The Owl Ho2use

[N/A, will be updated]

Wordgirl

[N/A, will be updated, though I am only getting into the series most recently so this may take a bit more time than the others]

Celeste

[N/A, will be updated]

Zelda

[N/A, will be updated]

Mother Series

[N/A, will be updated]

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

WIP (Work In Progress)

Fractured Bell

Fandom(s): Epithet Erased

The Respored (aka rewrite) version of "Everything's Not Okay - Broken Royalty Part One". For context, scroll up until you see "Everything's (Not) Okay"

I'll just say it up front, nothing about the story I had in mind for the original version of the fic justifies it even being more than one chapter, let alone 20 and a multi part thing. Barely anything about "Everything's (Not) Okay" made sense in my eyes, looking back at it. The original plot was faulty, everyone was ooc even for an au excluding maybe Rick, and if I ramble even more about how much I don't like one of my old fics I'll be on my death bed. Ironically, I'm still fond of it, but more In a "Aww, well aren't you an adorable piece of garbage" way.

So involving this rewrite to keep things short, will be only one chapter. The chapter will most likely be a long one-shot(possibly up to 20k words. At the bare minimum, it'll be around 7,500 words), but still a one-shot

Tldr: I'm turning Brokeon Royalty into a One-shot and naming it "Fractured Bell"

Amphibia: Neapolitan Flavor

Fandom(s): Epithet Erased & Amphibia

The respored (rewrite) of "Amphibia Erased Neo"

I kind of like the original version better than Broken Royalty, but it still had its problems. The chapters weren't really too unique, and while the frogs(like Sprig, Polly, etc) were in character, the human characters(Molly, Phoenica, Trixie) weren't.

The rewrite is meant to be a complete overhaul of the original fic, where it changes nearly everything from the original.

Garden of Fungi & Flowers

Fandom(s): Epithet Erased

Just a short One-shot involving how Mushroom Girl meets the blond girl with a flower in her hair, nothing much! Just full of fluff!

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

That's basically it. Wouldn't call it a list, but it's there!

With everything out the way, hop into my ask box to your own comfort! Even a simple "hi" is pog! :D

Update #1: I've added Wordgirl, Celeste, Zelda, and the Mother Series to the fandoms I'll be writing for (Though keep in mind that I'm only getting into these recently so it may take me some time to gain enough knowledge of the characters before I start writing)

Update #2: I added a category called "Current WIP" where it details personal stuff I'm writing outside of asks/requests

Update #3: I Made a small post that briefly details what tags I use and what they mean. It'll be linked below this

[essayofthoughts]

7, 11, 13 & 17 for the writers asks!

7. What is your deepest joy about writing?

Hm so. Two parts. Part 1. When, when writing something, I manage to solve a tangle of problems in a way which feels satisfying and ties up enough loose threads without seeming unreasonable and unrealistic. And Part 2. When I manage to write something that people connect to? Some of the comments on Ripley's Assistant and That Balance May Return and that people have sent me privately give me strong emotions.

11. Do you believe in the old advice to “kill your darlings?” Are you a ruthless darling assassin? What happens to the darlings you murder? Do you have a darling graveyard? Do you grieve?

I hate killing my darlings, hate it, hate it, hate it. I've got better in recent years about deleting lines, but I still loathe it and prefer to rework things and rewrite it than just delete. And the problem is, my memory is terrible, so either 1. I delete it and forget it forever or 2. I remove it to a doc of notes and then forget I have a doc of notes. So generally, when I can, I try to move a line immediately to the relevant doc, or I rework it. I know sometimes it's necessary to delete things but I will never stop hating it and it's probably a good thing for me that I tend to get ideas of whole scenes. That way I can edit a great deal of it, but as long as the overarching scene is the same, I don't mind. (If I have to delete the scene... noooooooo 😰)

13. What is a subject matter that is incredibly difficult for you write about? What is easy?

There is a very solid answer to the first part of that question but it's also complicated so I'd rather give you that answer in private, Mike, if you want to hear it. For another answer of something that's difficult for me to write - torture. I usually get around this by writing indirectly, letting the reader's mind fill in the gaps, because rather as with horror that's often the more effective way, but yeah. Not for me.

I also struggle to write the POV of outright malicious bastards just because I don't see the point of that kind of perspective? I don't see what is gained by being like that. I see it as deeply self-defeating and struggle to write it when I can't make out the goals of it or how it connects to other people.

As for easy - I mean, you've seen my fics. Manipulation, trauma, healing from violation. Angst and Hurt/Comfort in general, tbh. I struggle to write pure fluff, it feels deeply substanceless to me, but angst and hut/comfort have texture and I can always write those.

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

Mrrm. I don't know that there is much that won't make it in? Like, someone once commented about Ghost Cass something along the lines of how it can be kind of slow paced and... yeah. It's my self-indulgent "Take as much time as you like" fic in some respects, and while I do want to keep the plot moving it's also that... it took me ages to get from writing ficlets and oneshots to writing big fics! I am relishing it now. But also, because of this, a lot of the ideas for lore and history and details and stuff going on off-camera... we'll get bits of it anyway? Characters will inform others of lore, details of what happened elsewhere can be backfilled with other POVs, and for example with the Briarwood Arc part of Ghost Cass there's gonna be a downtime fic, and that's gonna cover Vox Machina, sure, but also some NPCs that are relevant, both within Whitestone and elsewhere, and help to provide some of that additional detail.

Idk. I don't like it going to waste? This is why I used to have such an issue of infodumping worldbuilding into a story. It's the whole reason I made monsterblog way back when, so I could infodump things in one place and redirect to it instead of infodump again in a fic. Instead I kind of work in background worldbuilding as information which a character has due to their background and it provides both worldbuilding and character information.

But I guess like, if I had to pick one piece of random background worldbuilding, lets go with my fave:

In my headcanon (shared with @blorbologist) - it starts with how Whitestone keeps bees. Snow Mead is a locally made Whitestone alcohol, and for mead you need honey. However, if you're making it in reasonable quantities you're probably taking quite a bit of honey, (not to mention honey just to sell as honey, and beeswax) and this is Whitestone, where it's cold and there's a shorter summer, so there's fewer flowers, so there's less for the bees to feed on. Mead was valued by the Norse because it used honey and honey wasn't cheap! It was a rarity, a treat.

But Whitestone makes Snow Mead enough that not all that long after the Briarwoods' occupation is ended Percy is able to obtain some Snow Mead amongst other local alcohols, which means the business has likely been continuing even during this occupation - an occupation which prevented trade between Whitestone and the rest of Tal'Dorei, I would note.

So the beekeepers need a way to sustain their hives, right? And IRL the way that's done is with sugar water. But sugar hasn't been cheap, historically, because it's kind of a pain to grow and refine and it was usually imported and made from sugar cane. We know trade was cut off for five years, so how are these beekeepers getting sugar for their bees? Given Whitestone climate, it can't be sugar cane imported or home grown, so most likely it's sugar beet, as grown in some of the fields near where I live.

And, if they've got hardy sugar beet growing, then they might well even have a surplus of sugar. Which would explain how, even as Tal'Dorei was rebuilding after the dragons, Vox Machina were able to set up a very prolific and successful bakery/pastry shop in Whitestone. Importing sugar, even with their money and connections would be tricky, and Vex doesn't like to waste money - if there's sugar locally they can get and use that at reduced cost.

And, further, it would be a source of income for the whole city even aside from the whitestone and refined residuum from the mountain quarries, which would help to explain why, despite it's small size, it hasn't just been subsumed into Tal'Dorei. Between it's isolated location and it's local sources of wealth, it's able to stay independent where other areas might find benefits in joining Tal'Dorei.

And... yes, that's a headcanon I came up with purely from Whitestone's climate and the fact they make mead.