#and I feel like it’s plausible with the already set lore. which obviously doesn’t really matter bc it’s just for fun

[l3irdl3rain]

How is my best friend Arthur has he helped you baldur any gates

He’s been good! My washing machine broke last week and I hauled it out the other day in preparation for the new one and he’s been loving his new Top Secret Hiding Spot.

We are taking a little bit of a Baldur’s Gate break right now just because I was getting burnt out. We’re slowly making our way through Mass Effect Andromeda for the second time. I’m very excited to get back to BG3 tho.

I left off right at the start of Act 2. I’m playing a Githyanki monk named Ez’rai and spent way too much time coming up with a backstory for them. I’m going to be romancing Wyll this time. I think Ez’rai growing up in such a harsh culture that didn’t have room for soft romance will go together in such a fun and cute way with Wyll. A noble’s son who is just so sweet and romantic and good.

[sepublic]

Kraid!

KKKKKRRRRAAAAAIIIIIIDDDDD

I was trying to avoid as much of Metroid Dread as possible to be surprised... But then I learned KRAID is back, in glorious HD as part of a mainline game and...

Oh, he’s beautiful!

Seriously, I’ve always wanted to see more of Kraid! Dude was one of the OG Space Pirates alongside Mother Brain and Ridley, who are present throughout the series; And as someone who is apparently Ridley’s Brother-in-Arms, I’m just really curious on what he could be like?

I doubt we’ll get much if anything in terms of personality, but that’s how Metroid games work anyway! Hopefully we get more lore on Kraid, how is he still alive? Does he have regenerative abilities, is he just really incredibly durable? An X-parasite imitation? Fake Kraid has grown up and this is Sclayd? Did the Chozo clone him, maybe even somehow resurrect him from a dead body, or even the afterlife considering their borderline mystical abilities???

Either way, that’s clever of the designers to have Kraid be restrained, as a meta explanation as to why he doesn’t just charge forward- Thus allowing the developers to start off with a traditional take on the Kraid fight... But since he manages to break an arm free in the trailer, the fight might progress and get more deadly, as Kraid becomes more free.

His neck brace will probably be the last to go, to show a sort of natural transition from the traditional style of Kraid fights, to a more modernized take and I am all FOR it! Everyone’s wondering if Ridley will return, but Kraid alone would MORE than make up for his absence, especially since Ridley is already so prevalent while Kraid has only gotten bread crumbs and the Brinstar Depths stage in recent years!

This is like a dream come true... And obviously Kraid is set up to fight Samus, but it’d be kind of neat to see an arc where him and Samus recognize a mutual enemy in the Chozo, and work with each other over it? Probably not, but I feel this would be more plausible than Samus and Ridley working together; A fun thought exercise I’d always entertained, but there really isn’t that personal vitriol between Samus and Kraid.

...I mean, there COULD be if Kraid takes Ridley’s death personally, but who knows, he might hold off on revenge just long enough for a practical escape! Regardless, I utterly adore just how gnarly and twisted this guy looks, it reminds me of Ridley’s Smash Ultimate renders that really modernize his look, breathe a new and alien life to it while still being the same! And the added, slimy body horror, borderline insectoid, like Smash Ridley!

But yes, I appreciate Metroid Dread taking the opportunity to be new, instead of trying to cater to the mainstream audience as an official return to pull them back, especially since we already had Samus Returns do that, especially with Proteus Ridley being thrown in! And with how Proteus was by far the best Ridley fight in the series, I can’t WAIT to see how Mercury Steam gives a new action to a Kraid boss battle!

And it looks like there might be a passageway behind Kraid that he’s guarding... Kind of like his previous appearances, I love Kraid being a giant guard dog- His girth and weight alone makes him an impenetrable wall! Plus he gives immovable object vibes, VS Ridley as an Unstoppable Force.

Ridley moves fast and aggressively leads the charge, while Kraid is less mobile, can’t even fit through most passageways; But holds down the fort and line of defense, tanking damage and shrugging it off compared to someone who heals from it!

Seriously, this is great seeing this under appreciated Space Pirate represented! I’ve always been salty about Meta Kraid being left out of Metroid Prime... And Kraid’s got a distinct identity of his own as one of the biggest bosses in the entire series by a long shot!

His big, colossal, green and chunky frame, that brutishness to Kraid, the size and brawn- It’s a nice contrast and foil to Ridley’ who is memetically huge in general, but from a relative standpoint averagely-sized as a boss, and MUCH scrawnier than the Awakened Behemoth; But he makes up for it wit speed and agility, flight, etc.!

Plus the concept of taking on a full-on Kaiju of the series, Metroid’s Godzilla... I always felt like there was a wasted potential to Kraid and how he stood out as a counterpart to Ridley’ more of the lumbering mountain to scale compared to the acrobatic Cunning God of Death! His Kaiju size, the way the ground could easily tremble from each footstep like Jurassic Park...

If Ridley is a Xenomorph, make Kraid into Godzilla and Rexy and every giant monster whose sheer scale inspires a horror based in awe, one that is huge and grandiose and demands attention and seizes all of it, gloriously basking in full view, in contrast to the more stealthy and subtle Ridley!

They’re both reptilian Space Pirates who debuted with the franchise, serve Mother Brain alongside one another as the two guardians to Tourian. And just like Ridley taking one of the recurring boss themes from Super Metroid and adopting it as HIS theme, Kraid seems to have done the same by Zero Mission!

Plus, Brinstar Depths, AKA Kraid’s Lair, is SUCH a metal soundtrack! It doesn’t necessarily apply to Kraid himself, but I feel like there’s an enigmatic personality hinted with the eerie, melodic tune of this theme... So as someone who’s tried to write him, mostly in my head;

What kind of person is Kraid? What archetypes and roles would he fit? As a more casual type of arch-nemesis, compared to the personal intensity of Ridley? A dumb brute, or smart in his own way? What personality and vibes would make Kraid’s Lair fit as a theme for him?

At the very least, I wonder if we’ll get Space Pirate lore, maybe even origins as to Kraid and Ridley’s species? They’re both huge dragons who took over Zebes... Could there be a connection between Ridley’s species and the Chozo? Will we get a bit of sympathy for Kraid, seeing him captured like an animal by the Chozo, perhaps to test experiments upon and clone?

Will Dread encapsulate the realization of just how much of a bigger scope villain the True Chozo are, experimenting on Kraid the way the Galactic Federation did with Ridley’s clone, another parallel between them? Will we explore the dark past of the Chozo, and a potential tragic look into Kraid’s species- So Samus has a better understanding of how her people have been terrible in many ways, even if that doesn’t at all justify Kraid the person’s actions?

Just... Imagine a storyline where Samus realizes that Kraid was made by the Chozo, or his species was, or they were genetically augmented or massacred, or something like that. Just a twisted moment of realization that explains but doesn’t justify. Which could lead to Samus and Kraid teaming up for a prison breakout at a pivotal moment, Kraid’s girth would make him a helpful ally.

Perhaps Samus could weaponize Kraid in the background to take the brunt of the True Chozo’s attacks, while she takes on the leader? Could he help with environmental terrain, blind to the background as a colossal feature of the environment, a kaiju briefly on your side?

Could we get a Kraid fight where he attacks from the background, instead of to the right? Will he ultimately die helping Samus- More for his own gain and revenge, but still? Maybe even leading to a reluctant salute from Samus as she recognizes them both as people captured, as experimented upon by the Chozo? Apologies for all of the fanon conjecture, my mind is racing...!

I think there’s SO much potential with Kraid and seeing him full, unadulterated HD glory... It’s glorious. It’s magnificent! This is a dream come true, and I hope Kraid finally starts to get the recognition he deserves! Even if he’s just A boss fight, I’m already sated and content here- And I can only imagine the new wave of fan content that will spawn for Kraid, as he’s recognized a defining moment of Dread!

Plus, I’d love to see people characterize and give lore to Kraid... All in all I am LIVING and in triumph here!!! I know I keep using this meme but

Literally this alone, just these shots... Are ALL I really want and need, in the end! Bless you Mercury Steam for this food, for breathing new life into this franchise while renovating what really needs it! I don’t even care if Kraid’s return is never really explained, I’m incredibly happy here!

This new design... It just FITS and works as a new, evergreen design for Kraid honestly! Compared to Ridley who is a lot more varied and arguably inconsistent, even with his Smash render... THIS is the new and definitive Kraid for me, now! I am having the time of my LIFE here!

Ridley the Cunning God has cheated death... is Kraid the Behemoth has reawakened!

(With the idea of Prime Kraid being reused for Metroid Prime 4... I’m wondering if we’ll begin to see an all new Kraid renaissance? 👀 More frequent content as Nintendo starts giving him and more appearances and attention, including in other media and advertising, alongside Ridley???)

[magnoliainthemaking]

We're going to develop a fan-made Season 4 for H2O: Just Add Water! Here's how you can help.

(For the Google Doc version of this post, click here.)

H2O: Just Add Water: Proposal for Fanmade Season 4

Background on the Series

The 2000’s were an early breeding ground for teen dramas. There are bound to be millions of twenty to thirty year-olds who can recall the rapturous tales of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Veronica Mars, the Gilmore Girls, and a whole slew of live-action, plot-heavy shows that appealed to its adolescent fanbase. And while most of these television series have either been immortalized as cinematic classics or revived for more hijinks, there are a few stories that have slipped under the radar of internet nostalgia, survived only by its compact, yet dedicated fanbases.

The particular show that I am referring to is one that you may or may not be familiar with, as it was passed around a number of networks since its inception in 2006. If you do recall it, odds are that you’ve either repressed the memory of this show altogether up to this point, or you still periodically binge the show to see if it still holds up.

And yeah, it does, as evidenced by the 1,500 members that still frequent its Reddit page and the plethora of posts that you can find on Tumblr. Heck, there’s a thriving Discord server that boasts about 160 active members.

The series that I’m talking about is none other than H2O: Just Add Water, an Australian fantasy drama series that aired from 2006 to 2010.

Now, anyone in the TikTok community will probably recognize the memes that spawned from this show, and in that way, its cultural impact has already been secured. But fans of the series will tell you that H2O: JAW is much more than jokes about condensation or exaggerated Australian accents.

It’s the budding story of three teenage girls who, after a bizarre, chance event, become mermaids whenever they come into contact with water. This presents a number of unique challenges for our female leads as they learn to accept their aquatic developments and grapple with keeping the secret under wraps. Eventually, the girls become closer to one another, combatting new threats using their powers and unravelling the mysteries of Mako Island, the isle where their journey first began.

The second season was supposed to be the final season of the show, but it was brought back for a third season by popular demand, a last minute decision that unfortunately did not work to its benefit. Season 3 did add some interesting lore and character development to the series, but it suffered from the absence of beloved icons and also created unnecessary conflicts between characters to make up for a lack of preplanning. As a result, the conclusion of the series was very bittersweet.

Several fans have taken their grievances online and have voiced their support for a continuation of the original show- one that would ideally resolve some of the core complaints that audiences had with the finale. These desires had not gone unnoticed by the production team who, in 2013, created a spin-off series called Mako: Island of Secrets. The four-season Netflix show featured an entirely new cast of characters and settings and branded the series as a new, separate adventure from the likes of Just Add Water.

Yet, this show didn’t offer the closure that many fans craved. Even though the series was received well, its ending in 2016 didn’t spark the same public response as its predecessor. It wasn’t just a snippet of the universe that the fandom wanted. It was the fantastic array of characters from the 2000’s show that made the series special. A continuation of the original series felt like the most authentic outlet for replicating the magic that was H2O.

The elusive Season 4 that fans have been pining for is seeming less and less likely as the years pass by. 2020 marked the ten year anniversary of the end of Just Add Water, and in that time, the actors and actresses have moved on to do bigger, better things. They have grown up, established families, and pursued much more prospective career ventures that should be celebrated and respected by the fanbase.

Yet, that doesn’t mean that the fans can’t continue the story themselves.

Origin of Concept

Remember the Discord server that I mentioned? Let me properly introduce it to you.

The Fish Girlz server is hosted by a number of avid fans of the show, many of whom are committed to analyzing H2O lore and developing projects based around the show’s premise. (There’s even a game in the works, and it is looking really fricking cool!)

Anyways, in April of 2020, a few server regulars began discussing what they would have wanted to see had the show been renewed for a fourth season. Some great ideas were tossed around, which prompted the user yetAnotherUser and I to consider what it would take to make a fanmade fourth season a reality. Obviously, live-action was out of the question, as it would be way too expensive and unrealistic given that we are all internet strangers without a production budget or professional swimming experience. Then the conversation shifted to animation, which seemed much more plausible.

The Plan

And so began our initiative- recruit other H2O fans with expertise in script writing, voice acting, sound design, storyboarding, animation, visual effects, and editing so that we can make this project possible. We’ve subdivided this project into various phases to ensure that different objectives are met during each key period of development.

If all goes according to plan, the pilot episode of this fan made reboot would enter post-production in September of this year and be published on Youtube sometime in 2022.

The pilot would take place a few months following the original conclusion of the series, with most if not all of the original characters returning for the season to defend against a new threat to Mako Island and its inhabitants. The plot will also focus on granting closure to characters and plot points that were left to collect dust for the past ten years, and will pay close attention to the fanbase’s wants and wishes.

For Phase 1 of the project, we are seeking out scriptwriters, revisionists, and concept artists for the pre-planning stages of development. If you are interested in joining the team or have any questions, feel free to DM me at Quarilaie#3085 or co-creator yetAnotherUser#3117 on Discord. And while you’re at it, be sure to join the Fish Girlz server! It is definitely worth your time if you are really invested in the show.

Deadlines for joining the project will be announced shortly on the r/JustAddWater Reddit and Fish Girlz server.

Thank you for reading, and stay snazzy!

[perriwinklesblog]

Right so let’s try and just go through what happened with the TNT and who it could have done this.

I feel like there’s two main scenarios (I imagine there are other scenarios but these are the ones most discussed)

TNT set off in person on the roof/just inside the roof of the prison.

TNT on a red stone timer so it wouldn’t need someone to set it off.

I feel like these are the suspects (again, I believe there are others being discussed but these are the main ones)

Awesamdude

Ranboo (Enderstate)

Technoblade

So let’s think through a few things.

(This is a very, very, long post, my conclusion is essentially hard accuse Ranboo)

First up the most likely of all scenarios, TNT manually exploded on the roof.

This scenario is the most likely due to ease of pulling it off and the fact no one noticed a TNT timer being set up on the roof of the prison. 

Tubbo suggested through his investigations that perhaps it was a last minute plan due to the sand being disturbed around the prison. The idea that the TNT was last minute feels very plausible to me. 

We know Dream has the ability to control people and possibly telepathically communicate with people somehow without being around them (example Ranboo) so it is possible that whilst Tommy was talking to him, he realised his obsession was never going to come back. He needed to find a quick way plan. He wrote the waivers with Sam. He knows the rules of the prison. He could have sent out a message for the TNT to be set off or for any other plan, not to escape but to trap Tommy with him. Why would he do this? To give him time to manipulate Tommy on his side and then convince him to help him escape. 

If it was a last minute, on the go, distraction plan, it would explain the sand disturbance and why not much actual visible damage was done to the prison. 

If the individual had a trident, escape from the scene of the crime without much evidence would have been easy. Jump off the back of the prison and trident away somewhere where they could regroup and establish an alibi. 

But who would do this? 

Only two are likely to have done it this way, Awesamdude and Ranboo.

Skipping Awesamdude for now the only other person able to manually set off the TNT at the time was Ranboo. 

I think we could all agree Ranboo would not have been consciously aware he was doing this. This is evident from the way he reacted to the news of Tommy trapped in there etc and due to our prior knowledge of Ranboo and his sleep walking ender state. 

We also know that Dream has taken advantage of the whole understate already and has a clear relationship with this side of Ranboo. We also know all it takes is a smiley face, given to him by anyone, to set him off. We still do not know what he did or where he went when Dream asked Sapnap to give him a message. 

We know Ranboo’s shovel had lower durability again once more and with the sand having been disturbed... that could be a possible reason why. 

Ranboo also knows where Fundy’s creeper spawner is to get gun powder, and he also has access to the gun powder in Phil and Techno’s house.

With Ranboo previous work with Dream really puts him in the heat. But it could be a red herring, it all fits together too well almost but perhaps we’re paranoid, perhaps we don’t want it to be Ranboo and perhaps it is just him. Okams razor, the simplest solution is usually correct. 

Ranboo also has tridents allowing him to do the trident escape method.

Why is it not Ranboo? Well... I’m struggling I won’t lie I’m struggling. 

The other suspect for this scenario is Sam. 

Sam had time to go to the roof of the prison and set off the TNT and make sure it didn’t do any lasting damage and leave no evidence behind. 

It also would not be suspicious of him to be up on the roof of the prison. 

He also knows all the secrets of the prison and all the passageways making it easy for him to leave and get back without being noticed. 

Sam is also known for TNT. Not just because of his creeper king skin but often he’s the one that has it outwith the lore. On Tubbo’s birthday he showed up with TNT. (Quite a lot) There is also TNT somewhere in the prison as a failsafe mechanism. He could have easily taken some of this and moved it for the purpose of the stunt. 

So Sam could have done it but why would he have done it?

Sam is the Warden and people often forget when he is in this role, nothing but keeping Dream in the prison matters. It’s everywhere in the waivers and conversations Sam has with people. The prisoner being kept in the prison is top priority. 

I have a whole post on Sam’s fatal mistake and the possible reasons in his decision making here. 

But for now let’s focus on why would the Warden do this? 

Quite frankly he wouldn’t. His reaction to Tommy’s suggests he wouldn’t. He is wracked with guilt, and has clearly been seen grieving. His sense of responsibility has lead him to take the full blame. With the other characters on the server missing the fact that Dream killed Tommy, but focusing on The Warden’s Failures. 

But if we focus on before Tommy’s death. It still doesn’t make sense why he would set this up. It served no purpose for him to have Tommy trapped in there with Dream. He hired guards after the incident which is pointless if he orchestrated the whole thing. Even if he trying to cover up his involvement it still wouldn’t make sense to bring in two people who could easily come across your lies. 

Most people focus on the fact that Dream hired him to make this build. I could hire a builder and then trap someone in the building the builder built but that doesn’t mean he was involved. 

Sam had no idea the prison was for Tommy. It was originally meant for someone else (We still don’t know who by the way) but then Tommy runway from exile and Dream repurposed it for him. (Obviously from the get go it was for Tommy but in lore it wasn’t originally meant for him) 

What I’m trying to say is, just because Sam is the builder, does not make him on Dreams side. In fact Sam saw Tubbo and Tommy off, gave Tubbo gifts, said goodbye to them. Sam’s character recently generally tries to help everyone on the server and stayed out of most of the conflict, It’s just with this prison and the egg that conflict has been thrust into his lap and generally he tries to do the right thing. 

It just feels wrong to have someone who managed to resist the murderous urges of the egg to keep his dog alive, then becomes part of the plot to trap Tommy in the prison. It also goes against the Warden’s code and if anything Sam is all about the Warden’s code. 

So in this scenario, I believe the most likely suspect is Ranboo. Sam may have had an easier time setting up the TNT but Ranboo has a better connection and motive to trap Tommy in the prison. 

This brings us onto Scenario 2, TNT with a red stone Timer. 

During Tubbo’s stream the idea that someone could have earlier and set up a red stone timer which would mean someone didn’t have to be there to set it off come up. I do not know red stone mechanics but those who do seem to believe this would have been possible. 

Now this would mean, the person could have gone onto the server at a time where no one else was on or perhaps when someone else was on but they knew they wouldn’t be anywhere near the prison and set up the timer. 

This is a risky plan as someone could have come across it all and either set it off before it was meant too or report it to the Warden or Sam could have come across it. Due to this I’m less likely to believe this is what happened.

If the sand around the prison was mined for the TNT this would mean the culprit was sloppy. They literally could have gotten sand from elsewhere. So if it was done this way they were either sloppy or that sand wasn’t used. 

There is also the element of, how did they know Tommy was going to visit Dream and when he was going to visit him. The only way this scenario works is if they were setting off the TNT to allow Dream to escape but with how little damage there was done to the prison, it would suggest that this wasn’t the goal. The goal definitely was to trap Tommy in with Dream. 

But this way does mean we can consider a wider range of suspects.  

Really, all suspects could easily pick up the knowledge to do this so it’s more about the reason behind whether they would do it or not. 

We’ve already gone through reasons of if and why Sam and Ranboo would be on Dreams side so I won’t go into detail with themes quickly I will say 

Sam has the most knowledge on red stone but unlikely to have done it due to unlikely being on Dream’s side. 

Ranboo could have done it this way but again, how would he have known when Tommy was going to be in the prison. 

So this brings us to Technoblade. 

Personally I think the idea Technoblade was involved is one of the weakest of all the suspects. 

Yes Technoblade owes Dream a favour but I truly believe this favour might have been killing Tubbo or getting something for resurrecting Schlatt. I believe he would have wanted to harm Tommy by having Tubbo killed and he’s been wanting to revive Schlatt for a while now. (I feel like theres a side to Schlatts character we don’t know about but he’s important to Dream for some reason?) 

Anyway, yeah I don’t think the favour Dream has in mind for Technoblade is freedom from the prison. The TNT didn’t even do much damage to the prison. Plus Technoblade is very showboat. He loves his speeches, he loves to leave a mark. This is waaaaaay to sneaky. He’s want people to know when he’s done stuff. He wants people to be slightly scared of him (I could go in on the reasons behind that but not the point of this). It just wouldn’t be normal for him to do it this way. Plus this clearly wasn’t about breaking Dream out the prison but trapping Tommy. And if it was about trapping Tommy, he’d want Tommy to know it was him. 

There just isn’t as much good solid evidence pointing to Technoblade. And him having the gunpowder? Rockets. The man loves a rocket and he also loves to have supplies. 

It just doesn’t feel very Technoblade to me. Especially setting up so it explodes later. He’d want to watch. 

This whole scenario just doesn’t quite fit so for this, offline suspects are pretty much in the clear for it. 

However, if Scenario Two turns out to be true, I would place my money on Ranboo setting it up. 

If you’ve made it this far to my rambling, well done. I am impressed. 

For my conclusion, I’d like to say I am more often than not wrong. One of the amazing things about this server and the creators part of it, is how they really can flip things around and turn it a way you wouldn’t expect. 

There is an issue of Red Herrings. Tommy is famous for doing this directly to our faces. Saying things to make us believe one thing and then doing something different and at the moment with all the evidence basically suggesting Ranboo, there is a slight chance that those clues have just been to throw us off. 

So overall, at the moment, Ranboo is looking to be the guilty party.

This is all pain.  

[thefairefolk-rp]

Do you have any advice for someone trying to start their own literate/semi-literate roleplay? (I know yours is fully literate but I'd like to allow short replies sometimes in mine) It's my first time

Hi there! Oh gosh I have so many things I wish I could have told myself seven years ago when this all began. I’ll try to boil it down to some things I think are most important. But, I already know this is going to be a novel lol. So, sorry in advance. 

1. Don’t be too overzealous with the amount of characters, factions and locations in the game: When I first started, I set out to make this massive sprawling faerie world with a choose-your-own-adventure feel to it. I wrote new bios alllll the time, and added new interesting groups and organizations whenever they came to mind. We had everything from barmaids in the distant slums, to wild fae youth living in the woods, to princesses living in the capitol. What this turned into was an rp that had literally over 100 (?!?!) characters to choose from, from pretty much everywhere on this huge map. I got to write all these super fun characters and people seemed really intrigued by the variety. In theory this was great. However, I started to realize that it made it more difficult for our members to come up with storylines long-term. Sometimes it was hard to even come up with how to get two characters with vastly different backstories could be in the same place. In 2018 I did a complete revamp that largely involved finding a more central theme for the rp, and cutting a huge number of bios and groups out. What I landed on was a concept that was a fae royal court drama, instead of a story about an entire faerie world.  So, now most characters are nobility, or involved with royals. There is now also a central theme of these warring old fae families, and an established history of backstabbing and scandal. It has helped a lot because now characters have tons of parties, royal events, etc. that they can plausibly meet at and even old beefs between families to stir things up. I could have saved so.much.time if I had really tasked myself in the beginning with deciding exactly what I wanted this story to be about and stopping myself when I started over-designing. 

2. Find a really solid admin team that you trust: I think in the beginning I felt like this was rp was my baby, and felt like things needed to be done a specific way. I was more resistant to changing things, even when they needed to be. But, over the years I have gotten to work with so many talented people with skills and ideas I could never have dreamed up. The more open I was to other ideas, the better this rp became. To this day some of my favorite things in the rp were not made by me! Also, find people with strengths you don’t have. For example: I find it really difficult to come up with new events, while the other two admins here are very good at them.

3. Make sure maintaining diversity is a constant goal. Many people are tired of seeing white-washed, straight, cis, non-disabled characters over and over. I think it’s our responsibility as rp admins to make sure our characters reflect the true diversity of the world around us. Add diverse faceclaims, and do your research on any group you are trying to represent that you are not very familiar with to make sure it is done with respect. This includes race, gender, sexuality and body diversity (quite honestly, we are still not where I want us to be with every category yet). We somewhat recently made the choice to disallowing people to change the race of a character because of how often people wanted to swap out a POC for a white faceclaim to make sure our diverse choices stay diverse. On a side note, there are a lot of rph’s (roleplay helpers) who will not promote or shoutout your group if your diversity is lacking. So it’s just beneficial all-around to make sure you’re doing it right.

4. Make sure your roleplay feels unpretentious and un-intimidating even for those who may not have participated in a literate rp before, or never rp’d at all. I think literate roleplays can have a (sometimes earned) reputation for being a bit elitist and intimidating. It can feel like a lot, especially when for so many of these roleplays such a large writing sample is asked for. We made an Application Guide that boils down our most important information, and a description of what is expected of an applicant so that people feel like they have a solid jumping off point. We also send a “How to Get Started” guide to all new members that includes a list of which blogs to follow, the link to our member list, and the link to our rp’s discord channel. If someone tells you they are new to this, really go the extra mile to make sure they are settled and comfortable.

5. Promote your rp effectively: Make sure your theme is easy to navigate, your color scheme is easy on the eyes and fits the vibe of the roleplay, and that a navigation page is easily accessible. Try to make your navigation page as intuitive as possible. If you have lots of lore like we do, making sure people can easily find the article that will answer their question. Also make sure a link to the plot, and characters is visible on the main page.

I recommend making sure your rp’s page really matches your setting and story so that it’s immediately apparent what some of the themes of the plot are. We use lots of royal imagery, fantasy imagery and nature imagery for ours. I know obtaining pretty graphics, especially if you may not be as well acquainted with with photoshop, can be difficult. Do the best you can, with what you have and don’t sweat it too much if it doesn’t start out how you want it to. I taught myself photoshop for this roleplay, and made many of my own graphics at first. They weren’t perfect, but I was able to get the idea across. I found the person who made my current graphics through a roleplay that I loved the aesthetic of. There are definitely some rp helpers on here who accept commissions to design graphics. Some charge, others don’t. Decide what works best for you! Also, make sure that the small 

I’m not sure if you know about about making a promo blog, and how to use the tags to promote. Let me know if you don’t, and I can PM you way more info on that because there definitely is a bit of a science to it. 

6. Don’t get too let down by slow periods: Obviously I am very very stubborn because this rp is old af. But, just know ALL roleplays have slow periods. I have had apps dry up for weeks or even months sometimes. I have had the dash entirely stop moving before, and activity 99.9% die. This used to absolutely panic me. But, now I get that this is just the inevitability of a long-term roleplay sometimes. It is often an indicator that something needs to change. Adding a fun event, or a new plot drop can make all the difference.  We recently did an Avatar: The Last Airbender AU that really boosted activity! If that doesn’t help, troubleshoot by messaging rph’s who offer opinions or rp help, or straight up asking your members what they’d like. Both can have great insight on what you can improve. But, be ready to not always hear what you want to. 

I hope this was helpful! If you come off anon and send me a message, I would be more than happy to chat with you further in private messages and answer more questions. I am genuinely so jazzed to see new literate/semi-literate roleplays pop up!

- Admin L

[silenthillmutual]

For the cliche prompts: Artemy/Daniil 4 or 23 (it could be 4 and 23 if you are feeling like mixing both. Tbh I wasn't able to choose)

(hello this is kind of silly and i’m not confident in its quality, but i am planning on writing a follow-up to this for the other number though it will probably be shorter than this! numbers here)

--

Things have been getting, in a word, ridiculous. The rain hasn’t let up in this section of town in four days, setting the scene nicely for all of Daniil’s drawn-out internal monologues about the futility of fighting fate or nature or whatever. His mind continues to grumble to himself as he sits in the hospital, trying to do research and feeling more and more, as time goes on...ridiculous. There it is again. Like the whole world - or at least the Town, which may as well be a world all its own - is laughing at him.

Burakh has been getting better at sneaking up on him; the only way Daniil knows he’s entered the building is from the gentle click of the front door as it closes again. He wishes the man would announce his arrival instead of using the opportunity to always try and catch Daniil off guard. One of these days he won’t have time to build his composure back up. 

Today, he’s safe; the rain makes the other man’s shoes squeak against the floor and he listens to the low-voice swearing with a smirk on his face. “Not today, you don’t,” he mutters to himself as he turns. He takes a moment, before standing, to admire Burakh’s form, eyes softening as he watches the man’s rain-soaked  hair fall and stick to his forehead, fingers weaving between the strands as he tries to push it back. He never manages to catch Daniil watching him like this, his own eyes taking int he sick strewn all about the hospital. Daniil looks away before Burakh can manage to do so. 

Daniil’s eyes manage to land exactly where he needs them to for a plausible escape. “This one,” he says, skipping the pleasantries his colleague never engages with anyway, “Has no sign of any illness. I suspect he’s merely playing ill to get out of the house.” The man even groans, over-exaggerated, on cue, and Daniil feels a little smug, as if that’s proved his point. Burakh doesn’t respond, or even react as if he’s heard, which chips away at the dam Dankovsky has been building, though at the present he can’t see the scale of the damage or the size of the resulting fracture. He files it as distraction, as even in their arguments, Burakh has never properly ignored him, and he is busy with his vials of tinctures.

He tries to clear his throat amidst its sudden buildup without drawing attention, licking his lips as he thinks for a moment on the cadence of his voice. It’s gone down again; maybe he hadn’t readjusted to it, let his voice go out?

Daniil stands, taking a few breaths as he goes, and starts again, keeping his tone steady as he speaks. “No matter. Now that he’s here and taking up a bed, I suppose he could have caught the Pest - or else be a carrier.” The man on the bed curls up suddenly. What Daniil can see of his eyes have gone wide. “So perhaps we should keep him for observation, if nothing else. Probably a danger to let him out now -”

When he turns back around, he finds his face almost against the other man’s chest, and has to fight back the blush that starts to creep up his neck at how very close they are. Dankovsky’s never warm, but good god, this man - between the heat he radiates and the way he makes Daniil feel, suddenly all feverish and flushed - it’s a small miracle Daniil doesn’t pass out from sudden warmth shocking the system. And now he can’t stop staring either, and he really needs to - stop dawdling, stop with the rapid blinking, and continue his thought already, damn you -

“Are you alright, Burakh?” he ask instead, his voice a horrid squeak, an octave or so higher than when he last spoke.

“Look in my eyes, emshen. I want to make sure you’re not lying when you answer the question I’m about to ask you.” His tone doesn’t demonstrate anger, but he may as well have asked Daniil to change the position of the sun and the moon... Alright, while perhaps not so literally impossible, Dankovsky struggles to maintain eye contact even with people he is not so wildly attracted to that a little more than a week’s worth of interaction incurs a massive internal paradigm shift in him. So this task is not so much less Herculean in nature. Burakh, too, seems to recognize he’s perhaps asked a little too much, as Daniil’s focus falters to those lovely cheekbones and lips, where his eyes follow Burakh mumbling, “Alright, that’s good enough.” He feels rather proud of himself for managing to re-establish the contact in time for Burakh to ask him, “What are you doing with a book on local herbs?” Which is when Daniil feels his stomach plummet and panic set in.

Alright. He needn’t come up with anything elaborate for an answer. “Research,” he says simply, hoping he’s not smiling too anxiously.

It’s hard to tell from the way Burakh is looking at him. He guesses his answer can’t have been too believable, because Burakh presses Daniil. “Research into what?”

“Local herbs, obviously!” Daniil smiles, but he can’t feel his face.

He’s still holding out skepticism about some of the truly bizarre things that people here believe, but a few more shoves in the right direction and he might even start to believe in some form of precognition; there’s nothing specific he can pinpoint in Burakh’s manner or expression to warn him that this answer will not be well-received, and yet he feels it somewhere in his stomach. His chest flips before the scowl sharpens and Burakh speaks. “You don’t trust me,” he accuses.

Daniil is back to rapid blinking - though thankfully this time it’s in confusion, as opposed to flustered cornering. He focuses more clearly on Burakh’s eyes, on his pupils, trying to determine what could have inspired this sudden agitation - though of course, Daniil is far from being am ind-reader. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” he says. It’s another chip, another scrape he doesn’t inspect.

“Then why do you keep asking other people about me?”

This, this is probably the suspicious look that Burakh is searching him for. He can imagine his face must have gone pale now, because the heat from earlier is gone. But it’s from a different reason to whatever Burakh is surely thinking, though Daniil is a terrible liar and all he can say is, “Excuse me?”

And not even, Excuse me? like ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about!’ But Excuse me? like ‘I didn’t hear you.’

“Capella says you talk a lot about me. Her brother says you’ve been asking about me, and the culture. And he’s not the only one -” But whatever Burakh says next is cut off in Daniil’s mind by panic. He has not, apparently, been as subtle as he’d thought or else pleasantries as exchanged in the Capital were as lost on everyone else as they were on Burakh. Which would have been excuse enough have  Daniil not waited so long to execute it. Stupid, stupid move, Dankovsky, because now it’ll just look flimsy if you try to say your preoccupation with your colleague was intended to be polite.

Burakh’s stopped speaking now, and Daniil doesn’t know for how many minutes he’s been done. It’s enough that he looks perplexed, and suspicious. Daniil scrambles, mentally, to find a response that’s one-size-fits-all, and lands with blurting out, “I’m just interested.”

“And why couldn’t you just ask me?”

“Because you’re busy,” Daniil says, working a calm facade back in place. “As we all are. I didn’t want to interrupt you.”

The look on Burakh’s face is disbelief, but until he says something of note, Daniil can’t possibly judge how much damage has been done. “Because I’m busy.”

“Yes.”

“We’re all busy.”

“Aren’t we?”

He looks genuinely upset now, though. Daniil can’t fathom what in his words could have possibly inspired that look. “Right. You’re so busy asking Yulia for books on panacea and Vlad for resources on local lore you can’t ask me,  your actual colleague about these things. Right.” Oh. Oh dear god no. “I thought perhaps we were friends, oynon, but looking for this without telling me? Asking my friends about me behind my back -”

“I just wanted to know if I could help you,” Daniil says. Which is much more honest than he intended to be, but now that this entire attempt to - what, impress him? Is going up in smoke, Daniil’s starting to realize how very bad at subterfuge he is, and that he never exactly thought this plan through. If he had, he might have come to the conclusion that his shift in priorities and ideology was never going to come without some humility and a significant amount of self-humbling. But now he’s stuck in t his fiasco where Burakh thinks - 

Well, he doesn’t actually know what Burakh thinks outside of there being some sort of betrayal of trust. And he does seem upset about it, so maybe there’s still a way for Daniil to get himself out of this mess. “You suck at lying,” Burakh tells him. “So you may as well tell me the truth. What did you do all that for?”

Right. Right! He can do this. “I changed my mind,” Daniil says evenly. 

“But why would you?”

“You’ve proved your panacea idea has ground to walk on.” Yes. This is going smoothly.

“And what changed your mind on that?”

“I fell in love with you.” 

He hears the words fall out of his mouth and listens to his brain scream afterward. It’s not what he wanted to say, not what he was telling himself to say and he’s not even sure how the words managed to come out against his permission or his knowledge like that. He could have, and should have, just said he’d heard it from Aglaya, or one of the children. There’s complete silence for a moment or two, an entire minute or so, until Artemy starts to ask, “What did you just say?” at the same time Daniil laughs a little too loudly, half shouting the words “Would you look at that, my shift is over!” tripping over himself to run out of the theatre.

[mst3kproject]

Tobor the Great

This was a movie YouTube thought I ought to watch. It’s so bad even Leonard Maltin didn’t like it.

Two scientists, Dr. Harrison and Dr. Nordstrom, are concerned about the effects of space travel on the human body, and so they attempt to convince the Civil Interplanetary Flight Commission (think NASA, but with funding) to use an alternative form of test pilot.  No, sit down, dog- and monkey-lovers in the audience, I’m talking about a huge, unwieldy, unnecessarily humanoid robot!  Obviously, foreign agents want to steal this machine and turn it into a huge, unwieldy weapon instead of a huge, unwieldy astronaut, but Nordstrom’s grandson Brian saves the day using his special telepathic link with Tobor!

The movie does not believe we’re smart enough to figure out why the robot’s name is Tobor.  It spells it out for us, literally and on more than one occasion.

Tobor the Great is a children’s movie – the main character is eleven-year-old Brian, who is mostly addressed by his nickname, Gadget or Gadge.  He’s established as an engineering genius in his own right, who gets to hang around in his grandfather’s lab and make friends with this cool robot.  He’s what every white American boy in the 50’s was supposed to want to be.  All of which makes it sort of weird that we don’t meet him until nearly fifteen minutes into the movie.

Consider some better children’s movies.  In Coco, Miguel is the literal as well as the metaphorical narrator – we begin with his voice telling us the backstory.  Lilo and Stitch gives us one title character almost immediately, and then brings in the second as quickly as it can to get us to the point where they meet.  Of course, you don’t have to introduce the main character first in a movie, but if you’re going to put it off you have to do it skillfully.  Star Wars takes its time getting around to Luke Skywalker, but it’s already given us somebody to follow in the form of C-3P0 and R2-D2, who make good audience proxies because 3P0 doesn’t know what’s going on any more than we do.  Tobor the Great lets nearly a quarter of its running time go by before we finally meet Gadge, and even more before we get to Tobor himself, and that time is spent setting up what seems to be a rather different movie.

The opening does establish the need for Tobor, but it takes way too long about it.  We start with narration and stock footage about the American space program, which is as deathly boring as it always is in these movies. Maybe it seemed more exciting in the fifties, when space rockets were the coolest thing around.  Then we get into Dr. Harrison and his complaints about unsafe practices, which lead to his resignation and to him trying to dodge the press before meeting the likeminded Dr. Nordstrom.

These seem like strange things to put in a children’s movie. I feel that a lot more time is spent justifying the need for a robotic astronaut than is really necessary, and the early close focus on Dr. Harrison makes it seem like he’s going to be our main character – but he fades into the background once we get to Dr. Nordstrom’s lab and at the end he’s not much more than a completely unnecessary love interest for Gadge’s widowed mother.  In Star Wars the two droids stick around and participate in the plot for the whole movie – Dr. Harrison doesn’t.  The politicking within the CIFC is not something children are likely to be interested in, nor is the nagging newspaper man, and all of these scenes are just guys in suits talking.  Very little actually happens and none of it involves robots carrying off beautiful women like the poster shows us!

The annoying reporter is a particularly odd inclusion. His name is Mr. Gilligan, which Joel and the ‘bots would have found hilarious.  I went into Tobor the Great totally blind, having never heard of it when the thumbnail appeared in my YouTube recommendations, but if I’d read a plot summary or something beforehand, maybe I wouldn’t have expected Gilligan to play a major role in the plot.  As it was, I figured he was either a Soviet spy or would unintentionally pass information on to them – but he vanishes after the first press conference, and the question of whether he has the right to compromise national security in the name of selling newspapers is never dealt with.  Instead the spies are a bunch of guys we’ve never seen before.

Once all this is over with, though, we do finally get to see Tobor strut his stuff.  Nordstrom and Harrison work on programming him to do things like type reports to be sent back to Earth and dodge meteor showers (as all 50’s space rockets had to do), while Gadge sits and watches… and does very little else.  You’d think this part of the movie would continue the thread of Gadge being the equal of the adult scientists, maybe overlapping with him and Tobor bonding, but there’s almost none of either.  Why set up Gadge as a prodigy if you’re not going to make use of it?  At the climax we expect Gadge to save the day by figuring something out, as he showed he could do earlier.  Instead he just shuts his eyes and thinks really hard at Tobor, like Ichi trying to summon Gamera. It works, but it’s not as satisfying as it could have been.  At the end the movie has neatly avoided almost all of its potential and anything that might have been cool to watch, and failed to give us anything it seemed to promise.

To make things even worse, Gadge is played by one of those insanely cloying 50’s child actors who say things like “oh, gosh!” and “gee whillikers!”  I cannot imagine anybody actually talking like this.  Actor Billy Chaplin sure makes it sound fake as hell.  While Chaplin is a decent actor physically, everything he says sounds stilted and unnatural, like he’s reading it off notes while trying to project his voice to a full auditorium.  The adult actors are much better, which just makes Chaplin look all the worse by comparison.

Tobor, on the other hand, is wonderful, in the ‘stupid cardboard movie robot’ way that makes Torg from Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and the delightfully awful robot of Devil Girl from Mars so much fun.  It’s got lots of blinky lights and moving parts, and stamps around with a pretty convincing sense of weight.  Unlike some movie robots it actually moves at a good clip when it wants to, perhaps helped by the fact that it has working knees.  The movie makes the point that Tobor is a large and dangerous piece of kit at the same time as it’s able to be gentle and dexterous, which reinforces the idea that it would be frightening as a weapon.

My favourite part is when Tobor drives a car.  I wonder if the guy in the costume could see anything. That must have been a hell of a day on set.

What you want me to get back to, though, is the bit where the robot is psychic.  Yes, that’s actually the premise of this movie, a telepathic robot!  I’m not sure how plausible that would have seemed in the 50’s, even in such an explicitly silly movie.  Dr. Nordstrom doesn’t expect the reporters to believe in it without a demonstration, and yet the same decade also produced films like The She-Creature that present such ideas with an entirely straight, albeit incompetent, face.  Psychic powers as hard-ish sci-fi seems to have gone out of style by the 90’s, and nowadays it sounds like something you’d see in the Weekly World News.

Man, I miss the hard copy Weekly World News.  It was so nice to have that little isle of humour in the sea of garbage that was (and still is) the supermarket tabloids.  Remember Hilary Clinton’s space-alien lover?  Classic.

The function of telepathy in this story is not just to give Gadge a way to summon the robot after the spies break Nordstrom’s control mechanism.  It is also a means whereby Tobor may acquire human traits and emotions.  How to make a robot feel things is a perennial problem in science fiction… a lot of the time the mechanism is simply glossed over, as an artificial intelligence becomes more human by interacting with humans. Emotions are just chemicals in our brains, though, and the more we learn about how they work, the harder it gets to justify a machine feeling them.  In Star Trek: the Next Generation Data and Lore have a special bit of hardware that must be installed to enable emotions, and really seem like they’re better off without it. In Saturn 3, Hector has a processor made of cloned brain cells that can produce their own chemistry, as well as a direct neural uplink to its programmer.

As such solutions go, I actually kind of like how Tobor the Great goes about it, even if the mechanism is silly.  Rather than having emotions of its own, Tobor senses and mirrors those of the humans around it.  When Gadge is panicking, worrying that Tobor is out of control, Tobor panics and goes around smashing things, thus making for a self-fulfilling prophecy. When Gadge thinks of Tobor as a hero, the robot comes to his rescue, carrying him to safety like a rescued princess, and responds to the anger and rage of the spies by turning these emotions back on them and beating them up.  This is quite different from many ‘emotional machine’ stories, in that it doesn’t actually require Tobor to be in any way self-aware.

Unfortunately the movie is not very consistent about this. There’s a scene in which Tobor gets frustrated and breaks stuff after being put through too challenging a simulation, which does imply that the robot has an intelligence and emotional capacity of its own.  This bit has a purpose, as it serves to make us worry that Tobor will be unable to tell the difference between friend and foe at the finale, but it just doesn’t fit with the way this machine is treated in the rest of the movie.

Like many others both from MST3K and from the Episodes that Never Were, Tobor the Great has a couple of good ideas at its core.  It even predicted how much easier and safer it is to send robots into space than people, although those robots don’t look much like the lumbering humanoids of 50’s sci-fi. Sadly, the film is uneven, rushed, and poorly-acted, and nothing particularly fun or exciting happens in it. Various people over the years have seen its potential and Tobor has starred in a couple of comic books and an unproduced TV pilot, but these never went anywhere either.

[paladinsheadcanons]

Hi! So after watching ‘A realm divided’ I still have a few questions about the Champions who don’t (or haven’t been revealed to) have a strong stance on either side of the divided realm, (magistrate / Resistance). I’m most interested about Seris’ view on this - She’s obviously a very powerful being with a supposedly important role in the Abyss. Any of the mods have a HC on what attracted Seris to this mortal war? And since it hasn’t been revealed yet, a HC on what side she’s on, if either?

There are sooooo many HCs and theories that could possibly be true regarding Seris’s involvement in the war. I’m going to detail a personal favourite one of mine that I got way to into at some point. Warning I’m bad at making theory post please forgive.

-Mod Inara

So, Seris’s canon bio lore is as follows:

“A being from beyond the Void, Seris has taken the name of the city she completely destroyed upon first setting foot in the world of the living. Draining the souls of her enemies and occasionally restoring them to her allies, however, pales in comparison to her unnatural prescience, granting her the ability to see into the past and predict the future all at once.

She appears here and there in time and space, always at the opportune moment to change the course of events toward some unknown but seemingly inevitable fate.”

From her lore, we can confirm some previously debated assumptions:

Seris was never mortal. She was born from “beyond the Void”, which I assume would be the Abyss. 

She can see through time and does interfere with events within the mortal realm but doesn’t appear to have a specific purpose for doing so.

She has enough power to “completely destroy” an entire city, most likely entirely on her own. 

Anyways, let’s move to the actual theories. Personally, I believe Seris is more than likely to be uninterested in taking any sides in the war. Putting it as briefly as possible, her goal is probably to steer the war to a fate she deems would be the most desirable outcome, but whether or not that is a good or bad thing for the Realm as a whole is up for debate. 

The thing is, from the Lore Cinematic (BLESS ITS EXISTENCE), it is stated that crystal energy was only discovered long after the first war, and the right for the common folk to use the crystals is essentially the entire basis for the war. This…doesn’t seem like something an “Oracle of the Abyss” would be interested in, given that her moral compass doesn’t exactly seem…well, ’predictable’. I mean, she canonly destroyed a city upon arriving in the living world and named herself after it. 

Okay back on topic of the crystals. I personally believe that Seris doesn’t actually need crystals to use her abyssal powers (though it’s still up for debate if any mortals can use magic without crystals), yet she uses three of them, one on her chest and two smaller ones on her hand where her attacks and healing come from. I feel like she simply knew of the crystals’ power long before anyone else in the universe, and used them to amplify her own powers. 

Another more dramatic but less plausible theory I have is that she could be using the crystals to strengthen her connection to the mortal realm. I’d like to assume that it’s a major weakness of hers to be unable to remain in the mortal world for long, but there is no actual canon points that support this theory so far. 

However, I strongly doubt either of these reasons are enough motivation for her to remain in the war. I highly doubt it’s sympathy or support of the commoners’ goal to fight for their rights to use crystals. Again, this spirit lady destroyed a city when she got here. I don’t think she cares too much about mortals. But that also means she wouldn’t really care for the Magistrate using them for themselves. Like, so what if they’re trying to take the crystals? Seris is not even a physical being in the Realm and can literally walk through time and space so she can go get more for herself whenever she wants, so I doubt the Magistrate could, I don’t know, bribe her into using them with anything. 

So, again, I think Seris is there to influence the war towards a fate she sees fit for it. Maybe she saw a terrible future resulting in the destruction of the Realm because of the war or a future that caused problems in with Abyss, and wanted to prevent that from happening. Maybe her goal is much smaller in scale and she wants to change the fates of several individual mortals instead of them as a whole during the course of the war. Either way, I feel like she wouldn’t take a side, wandering throughout the war healing whoever isn’t ready to go to the Afterlife yet while killing those who were or those who provoked her. 

That’s pretty much all I have for now, without making the post longer than it already is. Feel free to start a discussion though.