#I think I'm gonna go in December

[antiyourwokehomophobia2]

Does anyone have any positive inpatient stories? I'm tired of constantly hearing the negative side of things. With the way mental health is in this country, ain't no way there's zero positive stories out there 😭

[why-the-heck-not]

the scarf is coming along and soon I'll have to get used to wearing *gasp* actual colors that aren't black or grey or so dark they could be mistaken for black when it's dark out

[front-facing-pokemon]

[royalarchivist]

Pac accidentally makes an enemy of Etoiles by killing Ethan (Crankgameplays) not realizing what team he's on.

(He immediately regrets it)

[whirligiga]

Hey. Everyone take a deep breath and think of something you're looking forward to.

Something later today, something next year. Anything. Just take a moment to think about it and look forward to it.

(And if you wanna put it in the tags I'd love to hear it)

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2024: What I'd Like To Read By The End Of The Year.

I was feeling ~Whelmed~ over the weekend about all the things I still want to read, and I thought to myself, "Gee Why Is That??", so I pulled everything off my shelf and stacked it up basically in the order I'd like to read it and then went "....ah I see, carry on."

Now this stack WOULD be fine, except everything from ALWAYS COMING HOME down through HOUSE OF LEAVES is stuff I'd like to read adjacent to writing projects, namely: 1. IN BETWEEN (which I'm working on now but need to wrap up by the end of August) and then 2. NANO (which, y'know. Starts on November 1). So the sixteen (16) books between ACH and HOL are for the next three (3) months, and then I'll come back for the side-leaners during/after NaNo, I think.

(Not pictured in this stack is STARLING HOUSE, which I don't have in hand yet but will also be a NaNo Prep book!)

Basically my plan is to read down through this stack in this order and see how long it takes me! I finally got set up with my coworking space today, so hopefully I'll be writing late a couple nights a week starting. tomorrow. Which. will eat into reading time pretty significantly, hopefully.

But there's so much cool stuff I want to read! And write! And knit!! You see why I'm having A Time, huh.

[skeletalheartattack]

Im soooooo hungry i neeed.... gaming trivia. tO live 😺

i mostly just have TF2 trivia, as its history has always been something ive always been fascinated with, so i hope these suffice:

The Pyro's Beta Head: While 8 of the 9 classes had their heads redone throughout development (to better show off Valve's new facial flex system), only the Pyro was left untouched, leaving them as the only class to still have their beta head.

Reference Posing Medics: In "Trailer 2", there are two Medics who are in their reference pose, during the first-person sequence of the Scout running through RED's base. While their role isn't clear, one likely theory is that they were meant to be camera positions for shots that were ultimately removed, in favour of the Scouts perspective, and Valve just forgot to remove or hide them. The second Medic even turns to look at the Scout as he runs by, maybe further proving their original purpose.

The Teaser Corkboard: While we don't have a clear idea as to what Valve had been planning with the "Teaser Corkboard", one likely theory is that it was created for the proposed update that would've included both Asteroid and Cactus Canyon, due to the few mentions of "Future", the blueprint of the rocket engine from Half Life 2 Episode 2, and Poopy Joe. Also worth noting, the two posters that were added with the corkboard share similar styles Asteroid and Cactus Canyon.

The Balls of Steel Taunt: Originally, The Love & War update was meant to include a lot more taunts than what ultimately shipped. One of the few to get scrapped is a taunt called "Balls of Steel", where the initiator would dare other players to kick them in the groin. While we don't have footage of this taunt, we do have voiceline files that reference the taunt's intention, as well as the name. The few files that remain were reused for other contexts, such as the Soldiers Conga taunt, where his "Ooh!" and "Ahh!" lines were originally his pain sounds for the taunt.

[aparticularbandit]

Thing today will probably be very late.

....

Or pulling something unfinished from the archives to finish.

....

Or pulling something old and unposted from the archives.

We'll see.

[to-be-a-dreamer]

Chandler knows this but I am going to fistfight Samuel Dalton Reich in a Denny's Parking lot if we don't get some kind of Fantasy High: Junior Year promo content soon I am losing my mind please Sam just let me see my favorite losers again I will take a singular screencap to hold me over

[incomplete-ruler]

Fingers crossed I'll be able to live like a normal human being tomorrow 🤞

[derrick-starr]

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I rise again to bring you my own original blorbo.

I’ve been in such a slump lately, so I made my own D&December challenge to get back into drawing.

I’m going to make a new character portrait every 3 days of my original D&D characters. Messy rambles about my boy Raylin here under the cut :D

I've never actually gotten to play as this guy before, but I love coming up with new characters based on interesting dnd classes, backgrounds, or races.

This guy, Raylin Melviir, is a Drow Warlock (fiend) with the Haunted One background. While perusing different dnd backgrounds, the Haunted One really stuck out to me. I liked how vague and therefore versatile it was, and I was particularly interested in one of the offered Harrowing Events:

"A fiend possessed you as a child. You were locked away but escaped. The fiend is still inside you, but now you try to keep it locked away."

A fiend you say? Isn't that something you can make a warlock pact with?

So yeah, Raylin is a warlock who made a deal with the fiend who possessed him as a child and still haunts his mind. Having your patron, who you already don’t have a great relationship with, as a backseat driver in your head was such a compelling concept that I HAD to put it to paper. I’ve also always had a fascination with characters who share one body, I think Greed and Ling from Fullmetal Alchemist permanently changed my brain chemistry.

I'm still working out some of the backstory, but the idea is that the demon, Maldremon, was some big shot in the in hell, but was overthrown by a coup. To make sure he stayed down, they did some magic to separate his soul from his body and cast it away to the material plane. In his weakened state, he needed to possess the first person he saw or die, and that happened to be a young Raylin Melviir.

Living an idyllic little life, Raylin was a sweet boy with a kind soul who lived with his mother in a small village. When he was around eight years old (or the drow equivalent), he was possessed by this fiend and locked within his own mind.

Now, Mal couldn’t just start his revenge plot right away, so he had to bide his time until this body grew. In the meantime, he decided to have some fun. He became an absolute terror, getting into fights, sent to reform schools, and even getting in serious trouble with the law as he got older. Eventually he was arrested, but escaped, and started racking up arrest warrants and permanent banishments in every town he came across.

Raylin, this whole time, has been locked in his own mind, forced to just watch as this demon ruins his life. At first, he’s confused and scared and begs the demon to let him go and to stop hurting people, but to no avail. Slowly, over time, Raylin becomes more despondent and apathetic, slipping into a sort of sleep for weeks, months, or even years at a time.

After a long time, Ray decides to fight back. He spends months lying in wait, gathering strength, and looking for the perfect opportunity to fight for control, and somehow, he succeeds. Maldremon is none too happy about this, but Raylin stands strong, and is in control of himself again for the first time in decades. He's now the drow equivalent of about 21, but it's been about 45 years since he was first possessed.

Traveling around, out of touch in an unfamiliar body. He barely remembers what it was like to be in control, but this is a jarring change from what he does remember. Mal also didn't help with that, having acquired piercings, scars, and tattoos that he’s still finding.

Raylin is also wanted or banned from a good portion of the towns and cities around him. That, coupled with having basically no life experience or skills, does not bode well for starting a new life.

Raylin initially wants to go back home and find his mom, but he also knows that as long as the fiend is still in his head, it’s not safe to do so. So, his new mission is to exercise the fiend, but he woke up in the middle of nowhere, and finding someone skilled enough to help him hasn’t been working. Mal being a nuisance and trying to take back control also hinders his quest, as this can cause painful headaches. Some days, he has to concentrate so hard that he can’t even get out of bed, head aching and nose bleeding as Mal tries to tear his way to freedom.

One night, Raylin is cornered by bandits, and climbs a tree to escape, but it’s only a matter of time before they get him down. He’s going to die. And, though he’s scared, Raylin accepts this. At least if he dies, he takes the fiend with him.

Maldremon, unable to take back control, freaks the fuck out. He doesn’t know what will happen to him if Raylin dies. Will he die as well, or will his soul just be ejected out? Even if he was, he wouldn’t be strong enough to possess one of these men, and he’d die anyway without a host. Raylin is still holding strong against his attempts to take control, even when it would be to save their lives. Mal doesn’t want to die, so instead, he strikes a bargain.

Raylin at first is dead set on refusing, but Maldremon takes advantage of his fear and anger, though Raylin does the same. The deal is: Raylin receives power and boons from Maldremon to protect them and aid them on their journey. Raylin, in return, must help Maldremon find a new host, though they agree that it will be a completely blank vessel for him to inhabit. And finally, Maldremon can no longer attempt to take over Raylin’s body. With the deal struck, Raylin dispatches the bandits with guidance from Mal, and the two continue on with a shaky truce.

A mark like a scar appears on the back of his right hand as a symbol of their deal, the same symbol that Maldremon used to have on his forehead.

Now, for some of the visuals I added:

I dabbled with the idea that the symbol/scar on back of hand would glow when he casts spells, but I didn't want to deal with a second light source so I made a choice lol.

The random scar on his arm is meant to show that he's gotten in some tussles in his time, or at least Mal has. He definitely has a lot more hiding under his clothes, including two top surgery scars. Mal may be an evil demon ruining Ray's life, but he's not transphobic. I considered added a hint of a tattoo design, but it felt like it'd make everything too busy. I think he has one big tattoo on his back and maybe some on his chest? Upper arms maybe? Idk, thinking of tattoos for myself is already hard enough.

I included empty piercing spots because I love the idea that Mal got them a million different piercings so he could adorn himself in finery, but Ray hates drawing attention to himself so he never wears any.

The braided bracelet he has is actually something his mom made for him. I imagine the original material eventually got too small and old, so, several years into the possession, it broke. Raylin freaked out, nonstop crying for Mal to fix it. Usually Raylin has the backbone of a chocolate éclair, but he wouldn't stop and Mal thought it was annoying, so he found a bit of twine and added some extra length at the break. Now decades later, Raylin back in control, he noticed that the bracelet was still there with a new, longer extension to keep it secure. It must have broken when he was sunk into their subconscious, and Mal fixed it without prompting. Weird, bet that doesn't have any emotional implications or anything.

Drow have superior darkvision but also get disadvantage in direct sunlight, so that made me look into animals with really good night vision. In my search, I came across the tarsier that have these huge, buggy eyes with pupils that are like pinpricks in the daytime but become huge saucers at night.

And on the subject of eyes, Ray's eyes used to be a bright blue, but ever since he was possessed, they’ve become the same amber yellow as Mal's, even now that he has back control of his body.

I also chose that his spellcasting focus is an orb/crystal ball, hence the round satchel at his hip. I really like the idea that Mal can appear in the ball so they can talk to each other face to face. I'm toying with the idea that they can see each other as ghostly figures all the time, but either way, everyone is able to facetime with Mal through the orb.

And eventually when he can choose a boon, he'll get Pact of the Chain which let's him summon a familiar. Instead of a normal familiar though, it allows Mal to possess a small magic body and let's him go do any tasks necessary. The idea of this all powerful demon possessing something like a cat was too funny to me. It also opens up the door to him being obstinate and not wanting to help Raylin lol.

And finally, some personal character details:

One of the personality options for the Haunted One was "I like to read and memorize poetry. It keeps me calm and brings me fleeting moments of happiness," and I loved that so much that I started saving small poems that Raylin could read to make himself feel better. I also found one of my favorite poems in the process, I Heard a Bird Sing by Oliver Herford.

I've since decided that Raylin writes his own poetry as well, since there's not much else to entertain yourself with when you're (literally) stuck in your own head.

Initial characterization was very scared and docile, similar to the expression in this illustration, but as I think about and develop him more, I want to give him more of a backbone and maybe even a bitchy attitude. Maybe that'll come later on as he develops through whatever story he finds himself in.

Also, I decided he writes in a journal to sort out his thoughts about everything that's happened to him, as well as to keep a record of his own existence in case he dies or gets taken over again. I love the idea of playing as a character and having genuine entries for you or fellow players to read, so I have some written out because I'm so extra. I think I'd have to change some based on how his characterization and story line have changed, but the basics are the same. This also supports the idea that he writes his own poetry, maybe I can make some drafts and sprinkle into the journal entries.

[kyouka-supremacy]

I'm sorry I didn't answer your messages The Demons got me

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

I am on track to drop roughly 300k words' worth of fic in October, and I want you all to know, from the bottom of my heart, I am suffering.

[louisdotmp3]

so funny of me to be like ahh starting on the final bottom ribbing we’re getting so close to finished - girl your ENDS

[astranauticus]

suddenly overcome with the urge to animate/animatic the 2.10 wish speech.... someone really needs to take the procreate animation tool away from me im actually obsessed

[0809sysblings]

it's interesting that meta voting seems to only be pushed so incredibly hard when it would result in a guilty verdict for the prisoner. but when the meta voting would result in an innocent verdict... it doesn't seem to be as important. i wasn't here or active for when haruka's and muu's voting was happening so i may just be talking out of my ass but. muu's guilty percentage was just so high, i can't help but make assumptions like this. i'd say shidou is an outlier as his votes were probably influenced by the meta mindset.. but i have a feeling that his votes wouldn't have been that different even if the meta wasn't being considered.

i really do wonder what was going on in people's minds when they were voting muu guilty..

it's like voting prisoners guilty is locking them up in a little box and pushing them to the side away from view. we don't have to think about consequences if we just vote prisoners guilty, right? freedom is dangerous, and it's easier to brute force our way to "peace".

except for the fact that it literally always backfires.