#aesthetic cumulative

[naturally1]

Aesthetic enhancement for anyone who likes that sense of ambiance!

[keendaanmaa]

Peace // Portland Japanese Garden

November 9, 2023

[rusedrabbles]

Follows a reveal gone mostly right (Danny had to drag his parents to the Ghost Zone, because Ghost Writer banned him from checking out books. If they refuse to listen to their son, then may they'll listen to the cumulative research the many scientists who call the Zone home in their afterlife. It was a bit hilarious watching Darwin and Linnaeus lecture them while Muir chipped in about the Zone's relation to the living world. (Muir definitely advocated for the Ghost Zone section of the Infinite Realms to be designated a national park. In the future, Amity Park would come to be unofficially known as Afterlife Park, for the large gateway to the Ghost Zone. The dead are far more talkative than anyone realized, but it's nice to be able to see ancestors, and the scientists and historians love the first-hand accounts. As long as you don't ask about their death.))

Now that his parents, sister, and friends have given up the ghost, as well as their children and grandchildren, Danny had decided to explore the Realms some more, but a fight with Skulker (a scuffle, really, more for the fun than anything), and a natural portal later, and now he's being pseudo-adopted by a villain. At least they fit his ice aesthetic, and hey, it could be worse, he could be in Gotham! Oh, did he mention? He's stuck a seven years old. Still better than Gotham and its clown problem!

[ranticore]

Is there any "canceled" settings that never got out? Or just some canned ideas like OG modified people(?) thera

I have loadssss of canned ideas which couldn't work in the setting I envisioned:

the first story idea for Siren i had was going to be about an unmodified human (employed by modern atom corp) crashlanding there, and the three explorers (huarvaa, qedivar, and terwy) would volunteer to help them travel to the precursor settlement to find parts to fix their space ship. But along the way they would all make the discovery that they were all humans all along (obviously with the unmodified human believing they were being helped by three aliens). So there'd be points in the story where they'd be like "huh what a weird coincidence that [some similarity they share]" finally turning into "wait so your people made us to be slaves on this planet??" and the unmodified human having to absorb the rammys. Reason I didn't go with it: didn't like the focus on an unmodified human, I felt it a disservice to the sirenians' intelligence to imagine that they couldn't figure out all that shit on their own.

That one jumps to mind as this was originally a Siren blog and I do still work away at it here haha.

For outright cancelled settings and stories, kiiinda ISOK, i don't really make new things about it anymore and it never grabbed my attention enough, I'll draw my faves but don't feel like developing stories or characters there right now

Twist the manticore came from a very recently fully cancelled story about curses which you can find in the #manticore tag on my big art blog. Basically a concept of a really fucked up city built on a mine of the substance which allows people to visualise magic spells and particularly curses. The story was about a curse broker who would be hired to cast curses not necessarily of his own design, but he'd be the one pulling the trigger because it's like this nightmare gig economy where you need an endless supply of new people to cast curses because each casting takes a cumulative toll on the body. Anyway I fell away from it because it was hard to write a very actively suicidal pov and I never figured out the ending so it felt aimless. Sometimes when I have no ending in mind I can just go on and on throwing new scenarios at the characters to see them react but I wasn't feeling it here. But I liked the manticore and sphinx designs

Obviously all of my 21st century Inver writing is gone noncanon now which is great. The future now is entirely uncertain yippee!!!

I've also had one billion story ideas which are up on the shelf kind of waiting. A big one you might know from my werewolf sketchbook is the glam underground werewolf subculture stuff which I came up with while watching dog shows lol but essentially warring werewolf packs decided to cut down the body count by doing head to head dance battles instead based on the beauty and aesthetics of their werewolf forms, it was a little inspired by drag balls but it's something I'm not very familiar with so if I were to go at it seriously I would need to do a lot of work. The story would be about a guy who got bitten and had to find his way to one of these spaces where because of his lovely werewolf form he gets poached by a pack and ends up competing with them, until he stumbles across the dead body of the current best in show competitor, rival to his new pack, and is accused of murdering him. He is charged with proving his innocence, but also finding out who the hell bit him because it seems like it may have been done on purpose to create a scapegoat for this murder. Anyway yea full murder mystery and the werewolves had show names which were as extravagant and striking as u can imagine*, essentially leaving their straightsonas at the door once a month to queen out among the only people who understand them. The only setting I could possibly imagine for it was vegas lol but in a more homophobic era (the underground lycanthropy scene being analogous to gay culture ofc).

Another story I wanna work on eventually is a revamp of the radio dragons, I realised ultimately that I was still trying to 'fix' pern with it when presenting a rebuttal to the ethical problems with dragon rider stories ends up really boring ("the dragons are in charge and they pick their riders when the riders are teens and there's an element of choice etc etc" boring). Ultimately I should just be completely inverting the dynamic and leaving it unchanged so that the issues are made blinding rather than fixed - in this case, the dragons are in charge, but they are picking their riders from birth. Newborn human baby instantly hooked up to an adult or at least older adolescent dragon and treated like a particularly smart parrot for most/all of their lives. And the story told entirely from dragon pov of course (dragon would do anything for their beloved rider!! even maybe let them vote?)

I have more but that's off the top of my head

[imsodark]

I think that 'Born To Die'/'Paradise' and 'Suck It And See's have really similar aesthetics - Naturally, some of the oppulence of Born To Die isn't in Suck It And See, but the themes of Americana & motorcycles are in both records' visuals & lyrics, that of lost love & longing. Yet, I think AM & Ultraviolence have very similar aesthetics and themes of black & white, complicated relationships... And Honeymoon & Everything You've Come To Expect have so much oppulence, yet this crushing feeling of self-doubt... And then this era cumulates in Alex Turner produces Alexandra Savior's Belladonna Of Sadness. A record that sounds like Alex Turner & Lana Del Rey had a musical love child. (Not to discredit Alexandra's own achievements, obviously.)

And... They were supposed to make an album. The Last Shadow Puppets and Lana Del Rey. A record I will always mourn. We got 'Loaded', 'Dealer', 'California', and 'Thunder', but... What if we got that whole record?

I've just been thinking about the way that Alex Turner & Lana Del Rey, my two favorite artists, have intersected. I kinda want to make a playlist of everything I just described, maybe connect the parallels.

[changelingsandothernonsense]

Josh designs part Three- Arkanis

I've drawn and painted his Arkanis design the most. This one is when he starts taking the Nerevarine thing seriously and starts incorporating a lot of Ashlander aesthetics into his over all look. It's also when he and Erra become an item and he starts using his father's last name (Ensirhaddon) a lot more.

Josh in his ash gear. Complete with amulets made by Erra.

He's in a constant fight between himself and the call of the Ascended and often loses himself to their calls. (Hence amulets). After Kogoruhn he gets a second scar on his nose (he breaks it a lot).

As can be seen here. He uses a lot of Ashlander motifs from this point onwards. He starts applying kohl around his eyes and a dark paint on his fingers.

It cumulates in the bois getting married and Josh realising his destiny...and all the shit that comes along with it.

[gallus-rising]

ok so question since i think you'd know. should i join flight rising. i need a new petsim style game in my life. if so what should i do when i start flight rising???

cracks knuckles ok i'll try my best. first off i'm one of the crazies with a dedicated Gen 1 lair, which means i'm not using one of the game's main mechanics: breeding pretty dragons. normal people will spend months searching the for sales, borrowing and loaning dragons with other people, all to find the perfect pair(s) to create the perfect baby. i'm fully at the mercy of RNG and buying dragons with mediocre colors for exorbitant prices because the fact it doesn't have parents is a status symbol lmao

ok things to do

incredibly customizable. idk if i've every played something else that let's me fancy up my pngs this much. as a few examples here is: Dexdee, on over-dressed nightmare with her familiar, cute background, and user made accent. Coco Jumbo, he's wearing an invisibility cloak so you can't actually see the dragon only the clothes it's wearing and his named familiar Polnareff. Nina Tucker who is not wearing anything, doesn't have a familiar and is permanently in the baby pose

all dragons have 3 poses: baby, male, and female. and there's items to let you lock them into the baby pose, freely swap between the M and F poses, and make them face the other direction. they even recently added animated effects to layer over dragons! oh and eye types! back to Dexdee and Nina up there you can see Dexdee has totally normal eyes but i gave Nina spooky glowy eyes. there is also a Lot of apparel. just tons of clothes to dress these things with

dragons also have bios to customize via html. stick a meme in in, put together some fancy Aesthetic™ shit, join the masses of us with cool bio layouts full of unwritten lore orz

if you wanna do fancy stuff but don't know what to do there's tons of user made guides and bio templates

the rest of the game:

(hopefully i've labeled this coherently) in the "play" tab you've got the main ways of making money. earn 75000 treasure a day at the fairgrounds doing minigames. Flight Rising's economy isn't crazy so 75kt a day is actually enough to let you enjoy the game lol. especially since one game specifically, Glitter & Gloom, is busted and can be used to max out your treasure cap in about 30-40 minutes. coliseum is the second primary mechanic. make your dragons fight the local wildlife at one of the 23 venues for unique items. it's unfortunately the grind-est part of the game while also being the best money maker and biases of most on-site events 😔

next thing to do: the forums

Flight Rising has a very active community. my main topic hangouts are dragon share which is dedicated entirely to fawning over each other's pngs and asking for advice on how to dress or improve them or whatever, all the topics where people sell art, and the Light dominance topic (i'll get to that next). but there's site discussions, RP, art and writing, The Economy. etc etc

i outlined the spot where your chosen factions' private discussions are. if you sign up i highly recommend checking those out because they'll have pinned guides and user run resources

final thing to do. this one is totally ignorable but it's one of the Big community things

to stop lairs from completely filling up you can "exalt" your dragons, which lorewise means they've been sent off to serve your faction's deity. when you exalt a dragon it gives you a little money, and you can level it up to get even more money! people have it fully down to a science how to best level dragons and when to exalt to optimize payouts. i've even participated in some of the experiments lol

the faction that exalts the most cumulative levels (relative to faction population size so the smaller flight's have a chance) in one week wins and gets special bonus for the week (second and third too) these things are fully scheduled community run events. i mean like people coordinate these things a year out to set up raffles, art sales, fun games, badges and adoptables, make the whole thing themed, and even coordinate with other factions to fight each other for first place! flights do not get first place accidentally because there's always one pushing to take it. we've got a community run newsletter for this shit. i promise dom is more fun then it sounds >.>

dominance is definitely something you're gonna wanna read up in your flight's private discussions (some flights are more into dom than others) and is not something you wanna do when first joining, but while you're getting the ropes of the site it's one thing to keep an eye on as something to do

this is not an actively but it's a widely beloved feature of the site. gems, the premium currency, and be earned in small amounts doing site stuff and freely sold and traded between players. it's entirely possible to enjoy all site features (mostly buying special gem-only items and skins/accents(cool player made art your dragons can wear(that's an entire creative and economy communities of it's own but this post is getting to long lol)) without spending a cent 😎👌

and finally a Site Culture Thing: it's pretty inclusive! there's a few pride items that cover a variety of identities and multiple trans NPCs. instead of fantasy world ""Christmas"" our winter event is Halloween....... 2! Valentine's Day explicitly includes platonic relationships, also the Valentine's Day shopkeeper is a wheelchair user! another shopkeeper uses a cane :] Big Deal Updates have slowed down because the staff wants to focus on making the full site screen-reader compatible. and they started running new Dragon Breed Lore thru sensitive reading

ok and if any of that has convinced you to give Flight Rising a shot some advice for starting out:

send me a friend request so it's easier for me to give you stuff ;D

fiddle around with your account settings. i highly recommend setting "Feed Style" to "Selective" because it let's you more easily control what those hungry bastards eat

i believe for new players the Which Waystone is on automatically for new players, but if it's not then check it out on the sidebar. it'll tell you basic stuff to do

check out the Dragon Customization and Activities sections of the encyclopedia for more info on how to do stuff

when gathering prioritize Hunting, Fishing, Insect Catching, and Foraging for now. you get daily bonus for keeping your dragons well fed!

use the achievements tab. not only are there some fun items to earn via it, almost all of the achievements are stuff you will just do normally while playing which helps figure out what to do! on the top right of achievement's you'll see this button

that's an extra way of earning Achievement Tokens. there are daily, weekly, and monthly tasks to complete to get more tokens. these are all smaller things done during normal gameplay and will help point you in the right direction(s)

there's a big ol' user guide for Tomo's Trivia Tablet (one of the dailies) so you can just ctrl+f that for the answers instead of having to memorize a bunch of shit

Grimmer & Gloom game guide. this is where you make money

bond with your dragon's familiars everyday to get a lil extra money, but more importantly, because they give you chests for hitting Friendship Milestones. DO NOT OPEN THE GOLD CHESTS you can sell them for about 30g in the auction house which is a much better deal than what you'd get rolling the RNG dice by opening it yourself 👌

you get one free faction change if you find you're not enjoying your flight

Roundsey is evil. do not trust her

no really, i will give you stuff. i'm rich. i'm solidly a member of the dragon upper middle class. i'll buy you stuff, give you items needed for achievements and/or to expand your lair space, send you extra food, straight up give you money for things, fully level a team of dragons so you've got some dudes to go coil grinding with. this is a longstanding open invitation to all FR mutuals

oh god this is so long. i'm sorry. uuuuh feel free to hmu if you need any pointers or i explained something poorly. i can find something written by people more knowledgeable and articulate than me

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

I’m going to be writing my first novel (original fiction) and I’m already stressing myself out about creating good prose and character dynamics. I have so many ships that I admire and I can tell so much thought went into their dialogue and backgrounds but how are writers writing thousands of words a day with that type of thoughtful writing?? AHHHHH. I think I could only write like 200 words a day to create stuff with the depth of character that I love and want for my own writing

I think your fanfic is good so that’s why I’m asking 🙂‍↕️

That’s really exciting!! Good luck!

Writing is very much a cumulative skill in my experience, the more you write the easier it will be to balance the various elements of plot, prose, character, etc. You’ll also just get a better handle on the patterns of these things. It’ll be easier to quickly formulate plots, to make interesting character choices without having to think about it as hard. So definitely, don’t get discouraged if you’re struggling with the balancing act now! The more you work on it, the more naturally it will come to you.

That being said, a big part of writing efficiently is having a good method. The saying that you can’t edit a blank page is very true. Stressing over getting everything perfect on the first try is just going to needlessly slow you down. Just get it done, and then you can fix it later!

For original projects, I personally like to outline heavily before the drafting process. And then I use that as a roadmap during drafting. Once I have a draft, I go over it several times with a particular focus for each pass (subplots, nailing character arcs, worldbuilding details, etc)

I think it’s just really important to work with purpose. Otherwise you can get lost in the weeds.

Re: character dynamics and dialogue, I think dialogue tends to come organically from character. And then character itself should go hand in hand with plot/premise.

It’s a bit of a chicken or the egg scenario, but I think it’s important to nail down what kind of story you’re trying to tell and what characters can best carry that. I do think that theme is really *really* important, and that’s how you get a cohesive, compelling story as opposed to ten tropes in a trenchcoat.

But yeah like basic questions, who are your characters, what are their arcs? Can you sketch out a basic starting point and end point for them and meaningfully talk about how they’re meant to change? Are these changes cohesive?

Good ships are good because they have interesting premises, conflicts, and interactions. You need to make sure everything is solid on a conceptual level. So much of writing advice rn is like “throw in a dagger to the throat scene, that’s sexy” but like shfhff what does it fucking mean! There needs to be a point to sexy scenes. And vulnerable moments need to be earned. A relationship needs to develop from somewhere.

It’s way more important to flesh out what about the characters are appealing or disruptive to each other, where they align and clash, and to make sure it makes sense, than to write perfect dialogue.

I’m very much a proponent of getting the foundation right and then fixing the aesthetic dressings later. My first drafts, my dialogue is usually in short hand, just to get the gist of it down, and my prose is pretty dry. There’s always room to fix that stuff later.

But yeah my personal tips:

Outline as much as you can! it’s easier to rewrite an outline than an entire book. And you’ll have to rewrite the book multiple times anyway, so might as well make it a bit easier for yourself. I like to personally have a shorter birds eye view outline, and then one that goes into scene level detail. But also I am insane. So, use whatever level of detail works for you.

Be aware of why you make every choice in your story. Could be because of a theme, because you want to set up a later plotline, or because it’s cool. Whatever the reason just make sure you know! That makes it easier to weigh any potential changes against each other, and to figure out your priorities. But also to tell if any elements end up becoming superfluous over your editing process. if you introduced scene A to set up scene B and you end up cutting B, then A doesn’t need to exist anymore.

Each scene should have an arc! You don’t need to outline scenes if you don’t want to (… I like to) but make sure there’s movement in them. My personal rule of thumb is that a scene needs to accomplish at least three things to justify its existence. Those things can be developing character, particular relationships, a subplot, the main plot, or just showcasing a fun setting, but I just like to make sure that multiple things are happening to be efficient.

Start out with high concepts and recognizable tropes (if you want!) but once you get into the details, then you need to aim for specificity. Specificity is so important, that’s where things get interesting. Similarly, characters are most endearing for their flaws and vulnerability. A character written to be generically likeable is less interesting and memorable than a specific character.

Also, be aware of each character’s perspective, both over the course of the story, but also in every scene. What are their goals? How much do they know, what are their impression of events, and how do they want to present themselves to others? Particularly for side characters, is there anything they need to react to that you might not have considered?

This might all sound unrelated to writing quickly, but in my experience the better understanding you have of your story and your characters, the easier it is to draft. That way, you’ve done all the thinking beforehand, so you don’t need to pause and figure everything out as you write!

[luxe-pauvre]

25 years after its initial publication, Theory of the Young-Girl remains remarkably prescient, with influencers now serving as the corporate mirrors through which the Young-Girl forms her identity. “The Young-Girl is part of the new lifestyle-police,” the writers argue, “making sure that each person fulfills his or her function, and sticks exclusively to it.” The Young-Girl is risk-averse; she doesn’t engage with other people, but rather with their cumulative qualities amassed into the specific character or social situation “in which one is supposed to conform no matter what the circumstance.” Alienation, but make it aesthetic. In Majuscule, Emmeline Clein wrote that “Pleasure, facilitated by purchases, replaces any fuzzy feelings fostered by a community of fellow women for both bimbos and tradwives, and it’s this will to ownership that unites them.” Here we see how the Young-Girl may naturally evolve into the bimbo or the tradwife. Perhaps their escape into an “individualistic, fatalistic mindset” might be how they grin and bear the realities of patriarchy and capitalism, “but it does nothing to make life less miserable for women as a class.”

Raquel Alvarado, The myopia of youth

[mousemilf]

my home looks like a failing antique mall booth but it is so cringefail and annoying when people try to position maximalism as a leftist aesthetic. the most beautiful maximalist home ive been in belonged to a trust fund kid and most of the delightful little tchotchkes were purchased new. it means nothing. even my home has taken yearsss of strategic thrifting and probably thousands of dollars cumulatively to decorate like this. and it still looks off in my soulless modern rental. like it literally just takes way more time or money or both than greige ikea minimalism. again i love it but i do nott understand how people are painting it as a working class anti-consumption thing.

[parcy-anda-but-with-actual-posts]

Okay, so first time in a long time tackling a monthly challenge, I'll go ahead and make cumulative weekly posts here for Smaugust (2024). Just having fun, not trying to impress anyone, but I also want a convenient place to come back to it. =v=; General Warning: Creativity is not my strong suit, but I've tried not to be too predictable.

Day 1: Fruit — A scorpion pepper dragon. Peppers are fruits, technically, but I tried to mix it up by having this dragon be super chill, or at least lazy. It's content to be left to its naps as it overheats easily in its hot, arid environment, being more active at night, and even then, not too active. XD I can expand on lore for this, but keeping things simple for now.

Day 2: Ash — medieval/monk illustration inspired, apologies

For this one, I took a photo of the ash tree out front, and used its outline to create a cloud-breathing false hydra of sorts. Sad hypothetical story time: in reality, this is a mass of separate serpents all coiled up together and spewing thick vapors to obscure what lies at its center. These are the various children of an immortal great mother serpent, of whom all that remains is her head. They wouldn't leave her behind, and their home has decidedly not been safe since the incident; they carry her with them everywhere, hiding in misty places and masquerading as a large tree.

Day 3: Storm — I defaulted to scenic, because design on the word storm alone, I was really struggling with. Have a storm drake-like thing. ^^' I created pale yellow glows that shone through and lit up surrounding foliage as it stalks and prepares to attack something. I also let the colors that come to mind with dark clouds and stormy nights take this thing over completely. Fun experiment. C'X

Day 4+5: Fossil+Hybrid — this doesn't bode well, having to combine to make up for lost days this early. >v<; Here, though, have the unholy spawn of anatomically-somewhat-accurate Aerodactyl and the proportions and vibe of an Azhdarchid. I adore these pterosaurs on an aesthetic and imaginative level... would just about wet myself in fear if faced with one. Maybe someday I'll come back to prompts like this and actually put some respectable time into posing and rendering, but for now, just quick ideas for fun. :3

Day 6: Mist — WHOOPS, I missed one - adding this one in belatedly, but it was done on time... might have overlooked this because it really was thrown together in a hurry, and highly self-indulgent. Like, more than most of these. ^^' Have a cotton ball mass of dragon that curiously rolls up on little towns at pre-sunrise hours, especially at the base of mountains. It's a lazy and harmless enough creature, but it has a way of scaring little ones sh*tless, just the same. The sun rays coming through don't hurt it, luckily, but it does add to the "be not afraid" vibes. X'D

Day 7: Striped —Along with nostalgic inspiration of a friend's character, I based this one on a Cheshire Cat vibe, spiraling shapes vaguely snuck in. I'm still having much too much fun with the rough wash brush... but that's what I've decided to do this whole month, is have fun. ^^ Hopefully you're having a nice day!

Each week will be a different post, since the 30 image limit leaves us just shy of fitting the challenge into one post. >v<; See Week 2, if you like! (or Week 3, or 4, for that matter!)

[aesthetinet]

Around the Corner - Conspiracy Theories

Good day, netties, it is [Cor3!ander] again, and I think you should ask yourselves today what conspiracies you believe in:

James Bridle tells you that you should too, in the eighth chapter, “Conspiracy”, of his book New Dark Age. He does not explain the origin of conspiracies as they manifest today in the Digital, but meticulously focuses on those which surround chemtrails and climate change. In a seemingly paradoxical effort, Bridle rationalizes them to unearth their belief systems and parallel those with ours which we often perilously dub as common sense. We, the Aestheticaste, are greatly interested in this kind of academic exercise, because it offers generosity to some symptoms of the Digital, where we often regard it as an uncompromising place.

Bridle’s narrative is chronological and cumulative rather than the point-proof-significance format of a typical essay, but this works in its favour to evoke the layered narratives which characterize conspiracy theories. Therefore, he starts with a personal story of tracking the flight plans of charter aircraft orbiting around England under the pretense of a conspiracy, to find out that they are only routine data collection trips. He then recounts the trials and tribulations of discourses surrounding chemtrails, the troubled dialogue between Inuit people in the high Arctic observing how position of the sun had changed, even though the observed symptom was actually the result of climate change, and morbidly how human violence through history has spectrally contributed to it. Bridle aims to shoot a story directly into our minds, since those that contribute to it are ours as well.

Bridle's style is a breath of fresh air to us and those that undertake this kind of critical reading and reviewing of works on such serious topics. It is a way to have fun when we should in dire times, because when you focus too hard on something for too long, you get tunnel vision and lose awareness of the world around you. Nevertheless, these topics are still serious, as cited in Bridle’s explanation of Inuit peoples’ observations and their reply. Essentially, because of the ice melting in the upper hemispheres and with how snow and ice refract light in complex ways, the “repositioning” of the sun that the Inuit people saw was not technically wrong: because of the melting ice, the sun's light itself repositioned. However, the scientific community discredited the Inuit because their language did not agree with their paradigm, despite the truth of the matter. In that case, Bridle argues that official authorities themselves contributed to a false conspiracy while the equivalent of “folk knowledge” expressed truth. Therefore, he concludes, that is only one instance out of many where the targets of conspiracies can actually be the perpetrators.

I am curious as to how this argument applies to arguably more problematic theories. Those such as the “lizardmen” theory which states that otherworldly humanoid creatures secretly control governments to enslave and/or brainwash humanity. That one is well known to be founded in antisemitism, but how do our authorities fudge rebuttals against it, and what would be the consequences?

Bridle illustrates unequivocally that conspiracy theories are bred from mistrust between citizens and authorities. Although it is vacuous to say that by itself, aesthetics in fiction love to use that as a fulcrum to create worlds, and offer interesting rebuttals. For one, I greatly love grimdark: the dingy sci-fi middle child aesthetic that jumpstarted the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop rule system in 1987, and continues to thrive today. Grimdark essentially asks, “How bad can things get without it ending altogether?” I argue it is a more curious question than simply what the apocalypse might be, because it is one thing to fear finality, but another to fear suffering. Therefore, I agree with James Bridle in that both the producers and receivers of conspiracy theories can do better to reflect on the question rather than repel it.

Check your corners,

Aestheticaste

And for your education:

[itssovero]

11. Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc (Ubi Soft Paris, 2003)

Watch my playthrough of this game here!

The second and last proper 3D Rayman adventure we've seen in 22 years, this installment features some solid platforming, a few unique (if a bit underutilized) combat mechanics, a satisfying new scoring system, and an edgier tone than its predecessors.

Gameplay-wise, this is still more or less the Rayman you know from Rayman 2: The Great Escape, but with a few new mechanics. Combat returns to the original Rayman's two-fist projectile system, but with a 3D twist; not only can Rayman literally throw a punch, he can also arc them left and right horizontally while strafing to circumvent enemy defenses. It's a great mechanic at its core, but its implementation is clunky due to the requirement to be moving in the direction you wish to arc your punch, and surprisingly few enemy types and object interactions make compelling use of it.

Supplementing the combat and platforming both is the new "laser detergent" system in which you can equip a timed power-up from stationary points in each level, temporarily enabling Rayman to do things like gradually electrocute enemies and swing from hanging hooks, deploy guided missiles, or knock enemies off stilts and retract tall platforms. Some types are more fun than others, but generally it's a neat way to add some dynamism to the gameplay.

This goes hand in hand with an additional layer known as COMBO MODE, an excellent addition to the gameplay which adds a score attack element to landing hits on enemies and picking up the game's collectable jewels; doing these things in quick succession nets you scaling additional point yields which factor into a ranking at the end of each of the linear stages (each of which have a "par score" of sorts to shoot for). Tagging power-up cans also doubles points earned throughout that power-up's duration. High scores in individual levels contribute to a game-wide cumulative score, and meeting certain total score thresholds unlocks a smattering of minigames. This simple addition adds an engaging new layer to the gameplay, as it encourages the player to consider how to chain actions together and the order in which to perform them. As it's implemented, I feel that the game could stand to feature more ways in which to keep these combos going, and the fact that some secret point caches (in the form of small creatures you need to either focus on in first-person mode or slowly sneak up on) require you to slow down enough for your combo to time out feels kind of counterintuitive to the design, but it's a fascinating system for a platformer nonetheless. Honestly, a lot more games in the platforming space should feature something like this.

Aesthetically, the game continues with the mystical runic aesthetic of Rayman 2, but with the antagonistic hoodlums' presence adding an additional layer of splintery wood and ramshackle structures I can only half-jokingly describe as "outhousepunk". The overall tone of the game leans far more into raunchy comedy than scenic whimsy, and whether this is a good thing or not will differ from person to person. Personally, I think it has its moments, but a handful of contemporary pop culture references stick out like a sore thumb and really date the experience. That said, the ramblings of Billy West in his performance as Murfy the flying tutorial frog and his spiel about "cahmbo mode" in the game's opening chapter have permanently wormed their way into my braincase over the years.

Rayman 3 is a bit of a mixed bag, but it's still got enough charm and interesting ideas to make for a good time. That said, there's a lot of untapped potential in its combat and combo mode mechanics, and more than two decades later, I still long for a new, more polished 3D Rayman title which iterates on these systems further. With Ubisoft reportedly having begun the exploration phase for a new Rayman project in 2023, perhaps Murfy's tongue-in-cheek promise of a proper "Rayman 4" will actually come true in the next handful of years.

[dwnunya]

Cavaliers of Barlam

Some concept art for a faction in my custom ttrpg setting!

I based much of the design of the knights of Barlam around munitions armor of the 16th and 17th century and grotesque sculptures in Italy, but a better description of the desired aesthetic is soldiers of the late middle ages who know themselves to be part of the scariest and richest military in the setting. Grotesque masses of metal that at times cumulate in a thin needle-point, suitable for cracking open the crab shell plates of other knights. Something that's gilded and beastly. They are for use in a low fantasy world building project called Sinastria, representing a conquering empire's cavalry.

A few notable aspects: The horse's headwear I based closely off of Scythian horse barding, which I love the silhouette of. Their front bears what I'm calling a menagerie peytral, which is meant to display from a charge of knights galloping abreast that the forces of Hell itself are coming to run down whoever lay in their sights. In ages past, cavaliers of Barlam would garland the flayed skins of enemies along the bottom of the barding, but in more civilized times this has been replaced with curtains of fine red cloth. Likewise, the knight afoot bears two traditional markers: Panache of Entrails, what was once the large intestine (hip) and small intestine (shoulder) dried in the sun has now been rendered in feather-stuffed cloth sacks. The knight afoot I styled in the fashion of a gargoyle, while the horsed one was based on a rat skull.

[moviesludge]

aesthetic of the day is the way you create art in little steps, bit by bit over time, resulting in an altogether complex work, but the viewer sees your work all at once. The cumulative nature of the artistic process to create a final product vs the viewing of the result of that process in an instant

[albontology]

would you be willing to explain the geochalex tag on the angel/fae/machine rules post. i am assuming george = machine rules but i don't know about alex or charles and i am interested

oh yeah great question!! thank you for asking, i'll say tl;dr: in my mind, george = fae rules, charles = angel rules, and alex = machine rules. reasoning and extreme yapping under the cut o7

first massive disclaimer is this is rpf-goggles equipped i dont actually know shit and am making half of this up. naturally. so from there.

so what initially drew me to think of that/tag the post as geochalex is because of the inherent disciplinary quality of being a driver: not only do f1 drivers have to abide by a multitude of rules, but they're often one of two representatives of a mass of people and a brand, and further they have to be in control of their bodies at all times. so in this very flowery sense, the figure of the driver is one defined in relation to the rules they have to abide by both in the established system and in the larger expectations of the industry. following that, the way that i matched geochalex to their respective alignments has to do with this framing of relationship of driver to authoritative power, the 'rule-arbiter'

the first and immediate association to me was george with fae rules because of his status as gpda prez and resident rulebook consumer. this has recency bias, ofc, but in particular, think back to all the posts on how george being called to the stewards is just an exercise in his memorization of the fia rulebook. george respects the rules and abides by them, but does not take them for face value, and is more than willing to flex his expertise with them to augment his own position in relation to them. there's also the association here of fia rules-fae rules as a power tied up in the nuances of class and society, though that's more tonally tenuous. the more important aesthetic consideration is those massive and haunting baby blue peepers of his. they must be borne of some sort of otherwordly magicks.

second is charles and angel rules. ofc, here, 'god' is the religiously fervent spirit of ferrari. was there ever any question. coming from a very catholic slant, the components of love, awe, and fear as necessary motivators to follow the rules are key. charles loves ferrari, and, i would say, does fear it in the christian sense of the word. to disobey ferrari, or to vocally express his displeasure with it (or its extensions i.e. engineers), is not necessarily disallowed, but like.. you can feel how those rifts kind of marr this massive tapestry of ferrari lore and how charles is woven into it. how do i express this?? the "irreversible consequences" of the og post has to do with how the entire ecosystem, legacy, and history of ferrari are tied up into how charles represents them, and how 'rule breaking' is not only a transgression but a betrayal.

finally is alex and machine/ai rules. alex, i love you, but this was a bit of a shoehorn to complete the trifecta. still, i think out of all three this one fits alex best, because, in the system of dynamics we've established, alex is the one that doesn't have this single entity to be set in opposition to. in the ai-allegory, alex is a cumulation of information he's gathered from various experience, and the rules he has aren't necessarily prescribed by a single creator, but instead are a self-imposed disciplinary practice that runs embedded into his every behaviour. this to me is very alex!! as the media-designated 'personable funny guy on the grid', alex is constantly receiving input from all directions on how he should behave, and in my view has baked into his being the need to be highly functional, agreeable, yet disciplined in every regard. if he intentionally transgresses upon this model, it fundamentally shifts who he is (largely by reshaping how people perceive him). also, the idea of willingly breaking one's self to surpass their limits, while equally applicable to many other drivers, really resonates with alex's story to me given how much he's been through and sacrificed.

the final meme in the original post, where representatives of fae, angel, and machine come together in a meeting of the minds to discuss what the fuck god's problem is. that's what they're talking about in the driver debriefs. among other things, like the shanghai good boy collar and when in your career is too early to get a full-back tattoo.