#and then put that in a somewhat comprehensive form

[stormbreaker101]

W101's Advanced Combat 102: School Identity and The Roshambo

Over the past few years, Wizard101 has been trying to add more variety to gameplay by introducing Advanced Combat, which focuses less on raw damage and more on hanging effects, the additional ‘things’ that can be present in battle.

In a previous post, I went over each hanging effect and their symbol, as an intro to reading spells. This post will dive further into the inner workings of Advanced Combat's logic. It's somewhat of a tangent from the topic of learning how to read the spells, but I believe it's a necessary one. Simply reading spells is one thing; understanding why they work the way they do is another, and far more important in my opinion.

School Identity

In Advanced Combat, each school is represented by a hanging effect, except for Balance, because Balance is All Things. As such, when we talk about schools interacting with other schools (via synergy or countering), what's really happening is that the spells are interacting with the hanging effects associated with other schools.

This graphic is provided in-game by the prequest, and it is a higher-res and less comprehensive version of the post I made earlier.

Each school's representative hanging effect is based partly on its previous identities, the ways each school worked before.

Fire's hanging effect is Damage over Times, as it's always been since the game first came out with its iconic DoT spells like Fire Elf, Heck Hound, Fire Dragon, and Rain of Fire.

Ice's hanging effect is Positive Wards, derived from Ice always being characterized as the tank school and getting more defensive utility than any other school (Tower Shield, Legion Shield, Frozen Armor).

Storm's hanging effect is Positive Charms, easily remembered by the most infamous wizard101 player archetype Wolf Stormblade.

Life's hanging effect is Heal over Times, because Life has always been the healer school. Think back to the 1-pip Sprite spell.

Myth's hanging effect is Negative Wards, and it's certainly the most changed from how it used to play, partly because Myth has had So many different gimmicks over the years that aren't hanging effects.

Death's hanging effect is Negative Charms, since its old-school primary mechanic of draining HP isn't a hanging effect. An easy way to remember Death as the Weakness school is to remember its utility spells of Plague, Virulent Plague, Infection, and Bad Juju.

Roshambo

Rather than having pairs of schools that are both super-effective against each other (Fire/Ice, Storm/Myth, Life/Death), each of the two Triads (i.e., Element and Spirit) has a rock-paper-scissors dynamic going on now. This system was first introduced in Beastmoon, and introduces an updated version of the School Wheel:

However, while this graphic is good enough for Beastmoon, I believe it can't be used to explain Advanced Combat's system unless you're already familiar with Roshambo. So I will be making my own graphics to introduce and break down the Advanced Combat Roshambos.

First, we have the Elemental Triad of Fire, Ice, and Storm.

Storm douses Fire, and Storm's immediate and hard-hitting attacks overpower Fire's slower overtime method.

Fire melts Ice, and one turn of a DoT activating can remove the shields Ice puts up and leave the Ice user vulnerable to the remainder of the DoT's damage.

Ice freezes Storm, and a Shield can block most of the damage from an otherwise buffed-up Storm hit.

Then we have the Spirit triad.

Death ends Life, and Death's many Negative Charms can hinder Life's ability to heal or attack.

Life surpasses Myth, and Life is able to heal back the extra damage that Myth would do with its traps.

Myth conquers Death, and Myth's traps can make up the lost damage that Death's weaknesses give.

And when we put the two triads together, we see relationships between Element and Spirit schools form:

Death withers Storm, and Death's Negative Charms overpower Storm's Positive Charms.

Storm washes away Life, and Storm's immediate damage can knock out a target before they can try to heal it back.

Life survives Fire, and Life is able to heal back the gradual damage that Fire gives.

Fire burns Myth (think the Library of Alexandria), and Fire's overtimes can whittle away at Myth's traps the same way they plow through Ice's shields.

Myth shatters Ice, and Myth's infamous double-hits of old and trap spam of new can overpower Ice's defenses. (Think also of the old spell Shatter, which can remove multiple shields from a person)

Ice survives Death (think of prehistoric animals being preserved in glaciers), and Ice's defenses can keep Death from draining enough health to keep themselves alive.

Each school is able to counter two other schools, but can also be countered by two other schools. Except of course for Balance, which sits in the center of the wheel and has no arrows pointing to it. It doesn't directly counter any one school, but can't be fully countered by any one school.

A Note About Astrals

Auras (both positive and negative) aren't as immediately representative of any of the main seven schools. However, they are closer to some schools than others.

Star is situated inside the triad of Storm, Life, and Death. Following this, the developers have begun to add Auras as supplementary parts of Life and Death's identities, with Life getting Positive and Death getting Negative.

We can see this new association with Spellweaving. If you weave into Life or Death, your exclusive weaving buff is an Aura that increases the damage of your main school and Life/Death damage.

[gausses]

o(*≧▽≦)ツ🎉

[wombywoo]

Ok! I've finally decided to put together a (somewhat) comprehensive tutorial on my latest art~

Please enjoy this little step-by-step 💁‍♀️

First things first--references!

Now I'm not saying you have to go overboard, but I always find that this is a crucial starting point in any art piece I intend on making. Especially if you're a detail freak like me and want to make it as realistic as possible 🙃

As such, your web browser should look like this at any given point:

Since this is a historical piece, it means hours upon hours of meaningless research just to see what color the socks are, but...again. that isn't, strictly, necessary 😅

Once I've compiled all my lovely ref pics, I usually dump them into a big-ass collage ⬇️

(I will end up not using half of these, alas :'D)

Another reference search for background material, and getting to showcase our models of choice for this occasion~

When picking a reference for an actor or model, the main thing I keep in mind (besides prettiness 🤭) is lighting and orientation. Because I already kinda know what pose I'm gonna go with for this piece, I can look for specific angles that might fit the criteria. I should mention that I am a reference hound, and my current COD actor ref folder looks like this:

Also keep in mind, if you're using a ref that you need to flip, make sure you adjust accordingly. This especially applies to clothing, as certain things like pants zippers and belt buckles can be quite specific ☝️

Now that we've spent countless hours googling, it's time to start with a rough sketch:

It doesn't have to be pretty, folks, just a basic guideline of where you want the figures to be.

The next step is to define it more, and I know this looks like that 'how to draw an owl' meme, but I promise--getting from the loose sketch above to below is not that difficult.

Things to keep in mind are--don't go too in-depth with the details, because things are still subject to change at this point. In terms of making a suitable anatomically-correct sketch, I would suggest lots of studying. This doesn't even have to be things like figure drawing, I genuinely look at people around me for inspiration all the time. Familiarize yourself with the human form, and things like weight, proportions, posing will seem a little more feasible.

It's also important at this stage to consider your composition. Remember to flip the canvas frequently to make sure you're not leaning to one side too often. I'm sure something can be said for the spiral fibonacci stuff, which I don't really try to do on purpose, but I think keeping things like symmetry and balance in mind is a good start ✌️

Next step is just blocking in the figures. Standard. No fuss 👍

Now onto the background!

It's frankly hilarious how many people thought I was *hand-drawing* these maps and stuff 😂😂 I cannot even begin to comprehend how insanely difficult that would be. So yeah, we're just taking the lazy copy and paste way out 🤙

I almost always prepare my backgrounds first, and this is mostly to get a general color scheme off the bat. For collage work, it's really just a matter of trial and error, sticking this here, slapping this there, etc. I like to futz around with different overlay options until I've found a nice arrangement. Advice for this is just--go nuts 🤷‍♀️

Next, I add a few color adjustments. I tend to make at least 2 colors pop in an art piece, and low and behold, they usually tend to be red and blue ❤️💙There's something about warm/cool vibes, idk man..

Now we move on to coloring the figures. This is just a basic block and fill, not really defining any of the details yet.

Next, we add some cursory values. Sloppy airbrush works fine, it'll look better soon I promise 🙏

And now--rendering!

I know a lot of beginner artists are intimidated by rendering, and I can totally understand why. It's just one of those things you have to commit to 💪

I've decided to show a brief process of rendering our dear Johnny's face here:

Starting off, I usually rely on the trusty airbrush just to get some color values going. Note--I've kept my sketch layer on top, but feel free to turn it on and off as you work, so as to not be too bound to the sketch. For now, it's just a guideline.

This next stage may look like a huge jump, but it's really just adding more to the foundation. I try to think of it like putting on make-up in a way~ Adding contours, accentuating highlights. This is also where I start adding in more saturation, especially around areas such as ears, nose and lips. Still a bit fuzzy at this point, but that's why we keep adding to it 💪

A boy has appeared! See--now I've removed most of the line layer, and it holds up on its own. I'll admit that in order to achieve this realistic style, you'll need lots and lots of practice and skill, which shouldn't be discouraging! Just motivate yourself with the prospect of getting to look at pretty men for countless hours 🙆‍♀️

I'll probably do a more in-depth explanation about rendering at some point, but let's keep this rolling~

Moving forward is just a process of adding to the figures bit by bit. I do lean towards filling in each section from top to bottom, but you can feel free to pop around to certain parts that appeal to you more. I almost always do the faces first though, because if they end up sucking, I feel less guilty about scrapping it 😂 But no--I think he's pretty enough to proceed 😚

They're coming together now 🙆‍♀️ Another helpful tip--make sure you reuse color. By that, I mean--try to incorporate various colors throughout your piece, using the eyedropper tool to keep a consistent palette. I try to put in bits of red and blue where I can

Here they are fully rendered! Notice I've made a few subtle changes from the sketch, like adjusting the belt buckles because I made a mistake 😬 Hence why you shouldn't put too much stock in your initial sketch~

The next step is more of a stylistic choice, but I usually go over everything with an outline, typically in a bright color like green. Occasionally, I can just use my initial line layer, but for this, I've made a brand new, cleaner line 👍

And the final step is adjusting the color and adding some text:

Tada!! It's done!

All in all, this took me the better part of a week, but I have a lot of free time, so yeah ✌️

I hope you appreciated that little walkthrough~ I know people have been asking me how I do my art, but the truth is--I usually have no clue how to explain myself 😅 So have this half-assed tutorial~

As a bonus, here is a cute (cursed) image of Johnny without his mustache:

A baby, a literal infant child !!! who put this wee bairn on the front lines ??! 😭

Anyway! peace out ✌️

[ridiasfangirlings]

How to buy K merch in the Year 2024

I got several asks about this so rather than do each individually, I’ve decided to just make one big How to Buy K Merch in the Year 2024 post. I’m going to skip over the more obvious western sites like eBay and focus more on Japanese sites here. Because there hasn’t been much new K merch in some time keep in mind that most of what you will be looking for is secondhand, which means availability will vary.

Shopping Services

For some of these sites you will need a shopping service, so we’ll start there. This is by no means a comprehensive list of available shopping services, just ones I’ve used and liked. 

FromJapan - This one is very straightforward — copy and paste the url of the item you want into their search bar. For anything in certain sites like Rakuten this will pull up a page that will give you the item and its price in your currency and you can just click add to cart. For other sites you may need to request a price quote, there’s a small form to fill out and they’ll get back to you on if they can order it. Timing depends on when you make the request. The nice thing about FromJapan is they will hold items for you for 45 days, so you can collect multiple purchases from multiple sites over time and have them all shipped at once. The bad side is that after 45 days they will discard your items, so keep an eye on when your oldest item arrived (you can see how long it’s been at their warehouse on your account page, and they will email you as the deadline gets close too).

Treasure Japan - Treasure Japan is a much smaller service than the others on this list but also the one I’ve used the longest. Being a smaller service means they tend to be more able to purchase items that might have seller restrictions, particularly from places like Mercari. Some listings when pasted into other shopping service sites will have a ‘cannot purchase from this seller’ warning, because some sellers don’t want to deal with shopping services. I haven’t had much trouble with this merchandise-wise, but when I’ve run into it with j-fashion Treasure Japan has been able to order when the bigger services couldn’t. Their site is set up so you will input different sites in different sections, there’s one for auction, one for ‘flea market’ (this will be places like Mercari) and one for shopping sites. 

Buyee/Tenso - Buyee is a shopping service, Tenso is a forwarding service. They’re owned by the same parent company but are separate sites and you’ll need a separate account for each. Buyee is directly integrated with some sites like Mercari and Yahoo Japan, you can put in the url into their search bar and get a listing that you can buy immediately. Like FromJapan, any sites outside of the ones they’re integrated into will require you to request a quote (I found this more difficult with Buyee than FromJapan, personally) and they will sometimes be unable to purchase items. They will hold your items for 30 days at no charge, and you can request to consolidate packages for shipping.

Tenso, as I said above, is a forwarding service and somewhat more complicated. Basically when you sign up they will give you a Japanese address (presumably one of their warehouses) and you can then buy directly from Japanese websites, inputting the address you were given in the address field and paying with your own credit card. The items will be shipped to Tenso and from there you can have them sent to you. Obviously this is more complicated than a shopping service. I’ve used it mainly for things that didn’t involve an item being shipped (this is how I signed up for Fan Clan back in the day, for example, though my lottery goods were sent via Tenso too) or sites that require you to sign up to purchase from. I wouldn’t recommend it for any marketplace type site unless you’re fluent in Japanese, since sellers on those sites may try to communicate with you. 

Stores 

AmiAmi (no shopping service needed) - AmiAmi is mainly for new goods but I’ll mention it here anyway, in case K ever gets more merch. AmiAmi usually sells out on preorders, you place your order and they will let you know when the item arrives. You pay at that time. They do sometimes get used merch though so you can keep an eye out there, sometimes there will be decent deals on items that only have small flaws like the box being damaged. 

Amazon Japan (may or may not need a shopping service) - Did you know overseas people can buy from Amazon Japan? You do now! You will need to make a new account, even if you have an Amazon account in your country. Whether you need a shopping service or not depends on the item. Anything sold directly by the company will likely not need a shopping service — the majority of my K manga and the stage plays were all bought directly from here, and when I was supplying raws for Countdown and LSW I was buying the magazines from here as well (I’ve also used it for Pokémon plushies and sewing books). If the item is being sold by a third party seller though you will likely need a shopping service. The site will tell you when you try to check out.

Surugaya EN (no shopping service required)/ Surugaya JP (shopping service required) - This is a secondhand shop and a great place to find merch. The main difference between the English site and the Japanese one is that the Japanese site has a larger selection (particularly doujinshi, and even more particularly spicy doujinshi). The English site periodically has free shipping sales so keep an eye out. Surugaya also has physical stores and will sometimes share merch between the store and the site so keep that in mind too, I have had items canceled before because they sold out in store and the listing hadn’t been updated yet.

Mandarake (no shopping service needed) - Another secondhand shop similar to Surugaya. I have not actually purchased from them myself and am not fond of their interface but I know people who have bought things from here. Like Surugaya they share stock with physical stores so something you want can sell out even after you’ve purchased. 

Lashinbang (shoppng service required) - More secondhand shops. Lashinbang is rather small though so they don't always have much stuff, at least not for K.

CDJapan (no shopping service needed) - This is also better for new merch than secondhand but still worth a mention. I’ve found their prices tend to be worse than a lot of other stores though, this is more of a last resort for me.

Otaku Republic/Goods Republic (no shopping service needed) - Otaku sells doujinshi, Goods sells merch. The main draw is that these two are easy to search if you’re uncomfortable dealing with Japanese sites. I haven’t used them in quite a while but when I was buying from them they would send me free gifts with every purchase (my S4 cup came from them, as well as a bunch of clear file folders that I didn’t take pictures of because they’re being used as sewing pattern storage right now). The main downside is that while shipping is free over $50 they massively mark up the base prices to make up for it. I eventually stopped using this site because the shopping service was cheaper even with shipping and fees, you are paying for convenience. A lot of their ‘inventory’ is just listings from other sites including Surugaya, so check there first.

GoraShop (shopping service required) - This is Gora’s direct bookshop! They only have the season novelizations and Idol K books right now, as well as some Ayaka stuff. 

Kinkurido (shopping service required) - This is the King Amusement Creative shop. All Memories was sold through this shop but is currently sold out, if they ever restock Gora will likely announce it on their Twitter. They do have some other small K goods available, including some CDs and artbooks (and Sarumi body pillows). 

Marketplaces

Mercari Japan (Shopping service needed) - If you’ve ever used the English version of Mercari, here it is again but Japanese edition. You can find a lot of good used pieces here but prices are set by the individual seller so be wary of overpaying the first thing you find. Be sure to use a translator to look at the description in case you're buying a damaged item. Sometimes shopping services can try to negotiate the prices if you ask. 

Yahoo Japan Auctions (shopping service needed) - Similarly as above, if you’re familiar with eBay this is fundamentally the same thing. Some shopping services will allow you to place last minute ‘sniper’ bids, and most will let you set a maximum bid and keep bidding on your behalf until that max is reached. 

Shopping tips and things to know

The good news about buying from Japan right now: the yen is weak, so you can get deals! In the US, anyway. This may depend on your country so if you’re unsure on the exchange rate you can google “[your country’s currency] to yen exchange rate” and it should give you an approximate.

The bad news: shipping is killer. Keep that in mind, especially if you’re buying heavy items like bags or shoes (yes, K has those, there are several SuperGroupies collabs. If you want a S4 purse or Yata Misaki shoes keep in mind you will probably be paying through the nose for shipping). For the European types, you may have additional taxes too so be aware of your country’s import laws. Ditto when it comes to customs. For my fellow Americans, I have never had a customs issue even when buying fairly pricey dresses so you’re probably okay on that end but I can’t speak for other countries. 

Character tax is real. Basically, more popular characters will likely have more expensive merch because there’s more demand — for example, Fushimi and Yata merch tends to be more expensive than, say, Silvers merch. Keychains and pins are usually cheaper than larger items like figures and standees either way though. 

Most of the Japanese sites will need to be searched in Japanese. For character names, I suggest going to the K wiki and grabbing your favorite character’s name in kanji and using that to search. For pairings, while marketplace sites like Mercari may have listings under the pairing name sites like Suruga will use the two individual character names so you’ll want to search under that. If your browser doesn’t have an add on to translate that’s very helpful to grab in order to make your experience easier. For K itself, in general this is really the downside of having a favorite series with a one letter title. However, using ‘Missing Kings,’ ‘Return of Kings’ or ‘Seven Stories’ can be helpful here but will likely mostly turn up merch made for that specific season/movie. 

If you want to look up something specific like a plush but don't know the Japanese word for it, Jisho can be helpful. Look up the kanji for the word you want and then copy-paste into your search. The downside is sometimes there are multiple words for the same thing or a word may be in kanji but people use the hiragana more often and you won't know, but it should get you on the right path to start.

On buying spicier goods: most shopping services have it in their terms that they will not buy adult items. In practice, however, this depends. I've had FromJapan refuse to buy perfectly tame G-rated doujinshi. Treasure Japan has in their terms that they won't ship adult items but like 70% of my doujinshi collection was purchased through them, with an R18 Sarumi book purchased as recently as last year. I've heard Buyee also states that they won't ship adult items but it's hit or miss if they turn down your order, and if you buy directly using Tenso they likely won't even open your package. Keep your country's laws regarding importing in mind, especially if you think customs might be likely to poke around in your package. Don't get in legal trouble just for spicy drawings.

Buying secondhand is a marathon, not a sprint. Sometimes it takes a while for what you want to show up, so just keep looking! When I was collecting my nui set I literally bookmarked the search for “K ぬい” (nui) on Mercari and checked every day or so, which may be more obsessive than you want but it does get the job done (I was molded in the merch search mines of trying to find lolita dresses that haven’t been sold for 10 years, so I’m used to this kind of thing). If you keep looking you may even find things you didn't know you needed, like this Sarumi bedsheet I forgot to add into my collection post.

Happy hunting!

[yinandyanglifestyle]

I went to Sydney for Alphonse Mucha

by: Icie

One thing to know about me, I was an interior design major back in my home country. I absolutely sucked at it, but I fell in love with Art History. In that minor, our professors taught us about different art styles through the ages and bit by bit I saw the progress of art through the ages. I loved the OG Gothic Style, Romanesque, was disillusioned with Baroque and Rococo from the west... It was too Western focused and it didn't interest me as much (because I was an Asian kid) until we got towards the end of the 19th century where the grandparents of weebs (of which I am a part of) hailed from and Japonisme was a thing. Japonisme inspired so much beautiful art and it triggered a domino effect that ultimately led to Art Nouveau where Alphonse Mucha was a main character.

This was it. My favourite art style! I can never go back to loving other art styles after discovering Art Nouveau. It spoke to me about how feminine it was and it awakened something from my mostly masculine soul. I wanted to see more of these beautiful girls surrounded by flowers and stars, wearing kimono-inspired clothes in pretty pastels. The macaroni hair only added to the romanticism of it all. This is what love is like, but in art form!

Fast forward to 2024, The Mucha Foundation collaborated with the Art Gallery of New South Wales to host over 200 of this master's works which was "the most comprehensive exhibition ever seen in Australia of this visionary artist's work". I had to see it. I needed to see it! I am a big fan of Mucha and Art Nouveau, and one of my dreams was to go to Paris, Brussels, and Prague for all of the beautiful swirly-whirlies. Being a Brisbanite, I was exited. Please come to my city! Please, please, please! But AGNSW said "sorry, it's exclusive to Sydney."

Dammit. It's off to Sydney I go. I donned my Sailor Moon dress, packed my bag for a 3 day trip with my partner just so I could see this legend's works and boy, I was not disappointed. I learned to love Mucha and his works even more. We landed in Sydney, didn't check in our hotel, and went straight to the main quest:

Outside, they had this big banner of Mucha's name. Inside was this glorious area that showcased Summer (left) and Rose (right). Oh wait, the exhibit is next door. So we went to the more modern building, down two floors, bought tickets, and enjoyed the art.

In the newer building next door, I was treated to pre-art nouveau Mucha. We learned about what his life was like before his popularity. He designed some clothes for a theatre, hung out with everyone's buddy Paul Gaugin, Ludek Marold and Annah the Javanese. The tour guide said, "if he wasn't a painter, he would've been a great photographer".

Then we were treated to the meat of the exhibit: the Sarah Bernhardt stuff, his lithographs, his sketches, but what struck me most were his concept art to reality. (Excuse my phone's shadow. For some reason, AGNSW decided to put these works on a 45° angle under bright lights. The girl beside me even said "fucking glare!" and I wholeheartedly agreed.)

We were treated to so many wonderful works and I cried when I saw parts of Le Pater. I'm an atheist but this made me think that maybe there is a god. Maybe. But still, beautiful artwork that left me speechless.

I got to stand next to my favourite work of his: White Star. Joy!

At the end of the exhibit, the tour guide talked about how Mucha who was somewhat influenced by Japan, now influenced Japan. Now we come full circle with anime and manga characters depicted in art nouveau styled paintings and posters. Oh boy, we had our Lord Yoshitaka Amano's works in the gallery as well. I was so lucky to see works of my two favourite artists in one day!

It was almost 2PM by the time we finished the tour. We spent at least 4 hours in the gallery after landing just because I fangirled and was willing to spend money on Mucha. Yeah, I bought stuff. A reproduction of Alphonse Mucha's original "Documents Decoratifs" which focused more on his industrial design work (jewellery, cutlery, furniture etc) which I rarely see on the internet, a set of badges and make-up from Japanese brand MilleFée.

I went to Sydney for Alphonse Mucha and it was worth it. I end this rabid fangirling with the parting words of the Art Gallery of New South Wales' tour guide: Mucha's style has never been as well loved and as well represented as it is in Japan.

[thecurioustale]

I got Google's new AI toy to generate an entire podcast discussing a scene from my book.

I read with much enjoyment and pleasure of nostalebraist's recent experiences with Google's experimental new NotebookLM, which will take a piece of writing that you give it and generate an entire conversation where a pair of AI-generated hosts get into a "deep dive" discussion about it, in the style of a discussion podcast.

I listened to the "The Northern Caves" and "sufficiently advanced" podcasts and was similarly impressed at how far the mimicry of human speech patterns has come.

While it is in the experimental stage, NotebookLM is free to use. All you need is a Google account. That's a pretty low barrier to entry—and I have just enough vanity and masochism synergy to try this out for myself with my own work!

Let's do a deep dive, shall we?! =D

I had Google whip up a "deep dive" of a piece of my own writing that I shared earlier this year for the ATH 25th anniversary, a scene from The Great Galavar, set many years before ATH where a much younger Silence, new to Sele, asks Galavar for a desk and they go to Javelin's furniture shop to see about getting one. (I only fed Google this scene; not the attached scene where Javelin visits Galavar later that night.)

Here it is:

I'll start off with a complaint that spans the entirety of the podcast: I was put off by the disingenuous way that both podcast hosts acted as if they hadn't read the work under discussion and expected the other to explain it to them, because they keep switching these two hats back and forth (proving very conspicuously that they both know the work very closely), and it comes across as patronizing. I noticed, however, that I found this more off-putting with the podcasts nostalgebraist shared than with my own.

And a couple more quick complaints:

First off, there's no recognition of Silence's left-handedness, so frankly I think we can throw these toasters onto the scrap heap for another 20 years of development. 😏

(Actually, stick a pin in that; I'll come back to it later.)

Second off, I forgive these AI hosts for their horrible butchery of the pronunciation of custom names like "Terlais" and "Sele." 😭😭😭 That's understandable and not off-putting (though it does jar).

But mainly:

I am very impressed by the the AI's ability to synthesize an understanding of the material with such high fidelity and general accuracy! I think it's super cool!

While obviously this represents a major stride for AI technology, I think this is first and foremost to my own credit for writing such a coherent scene in the first place (more on that later). With my own work being analyzed, it was a lot easier for me to notice (as opposed to with nostalgebraist's podcasts) just how the AI was essentially digesting and repeating my own text back at me, occasionally literally but more often through a very basic layer of interpretation and recapitulation. For example, at the beginning they talk about how Silence has this sharp intellect and "sees right through you"; this is true and I would even call it insightful, but it's also explicitly there in the text, conveyed in different words but unmistakably the same idea. So really the AI picking up on it is just a validation that I wrote it in the first place. (More on that in a moment.) This makes the AI synthesis somewhat less impressive than it otherwise would've been, i.e. a very elaborate form of mimicry, but the absolute reading on my impress-o-meter is still very high. This is, all things considered, a fantastic level of comprehension, mistakes notwithstanding (more on those in a bit).

It was a very awkward, disorienting experience for me to hear these convincing simulacra of people earnestly discussing my work, especially with the work being a scene about Silence, which is always quite personal for me. I think, echoing nostalgebraist's thoughts, that it hits on a level that would not have been as intense / visceral for me if the exact same conversation were purely in text. But even if it were text, I definitely feel seen (in a rather uncomfortable way, like with a light that's too bright) that the AI easily picked up on the fact that this scene is all about Silence even though she's not the point-of-view character and Galavar actually has a much larger presence in the scene than the AI deep dive would have you think. The AI saw right through that.

The main complaint I gathered from nostalgebraist's reaction to the AI podcasts about his works was that the AI analysis was anodyne, superficial. I partially agree, which I'll get to. But with this criticism in mind, I thought to be on the lookout, when listening to my own AI podcast, for insights about how a more lay audience might engage with and understand my work. Are any hypothetical lay readers picking up on the main themes? Do they understand the basics of what's happening? How does my work come across to the sorts of people who listen to the kinds of podcasts that NotebookLM is simulating? That kind of thing.

I found the answer promising: Like I implied above with the AI's recapitulation of Silence's power to comprehend people's thinking and nature, if this podcast is any indication, I think my work is more readable than I have given it credit for. I don't consider this scene to be a particularly "easy" one to parse (nor particularly "hard"), but the AI did a pretty good job of it, so maybe I was underestimating a hypothetical human lay audience's ability to absorb and enjoy it as well.

I do have a complaint of my own: I was wryly amused at how the AI replicates the common practice of the male podcast host leading the discussion and doing most of the talking, with the female host providing a lot of affirmations and occasionally offering original insights with less egotistical framing. It's very subtle, and I can't rule out that it's just me being oversensitive and construing data out of noise, plus I don't listen to a ton of podcasts (especially the type of podcast that this experiment is most directly imitating), so there's that caveat too...but I still perceive it strongly enough to wonder what it's doing in there, as it's not something I would expect Google to: A) do deliberately; B) fail to notice.

Anyhow, as to the analysis being anodyne or not: Yeah...yeah, I do see it. But I'd probably look at it as an exercise in realistic expectations. What do we realistically want from an AI podcast host? To be challenged both deliberately and serendipitously with insightful perspectives and non-obvious ideas? To what extent?

To approach those questions, consider this: I mentioned earlier that you should stick a pin in the fact that the AI didn't pick up on Silence's left-handedness. That was a joke, obviously, but it touches on a point of interest for me in this experiment: All of today's big-splashy AIs work by virtue of having lots of examples of human-generated data to draw from and emulate (plus the information contained in your prompt). What happens, then, when you invite them to venture into spaces that humans rarely talk about, such as, oh, for instance, a stylish and objectively correct obsession in sinistrality?? Well, the answer seems to be that they just don't pick up on the opportunity. I'd probably have to be more pointed about Silence's handedness in the text, thereby raising left-handedness to the level of "an idea in itself," for the AI to notice it as relevant to the meaning of the text. In essence, I would conclude that uncommon ideas are nearly invisible to the AI when they are present only in the background. (Silence's left-handedness is explicitly mentioned only once, and is alluded to twice more.) This has implications about this kind of AI's ability to compose original philosophy; namely, that the AI is constrained for the most part only to repeating what we already know and connecting different things that we have already said. And I don't know if this is something fixable, because asking someone to interpret something that they don't already have good information on is an exercise in a form of intelligence that I don't know is well-suited to how these AIs work (and would thus be more likely to produce gobbledegook answers and continually infer meaning where none is intended).

So, in this one respect, I am not impressed by this AI performance, but neither am I thus surprised. I would have been shocked if they had picked up on the subject matter that is much more niche or even virtually exclusive to me.

I think perhaps the next big frontier for getting these AI "deep dives" to have more valuable (the first frontier having been developing the ability for the deep dives to be seriously attempted at all) is for AI to begin doing what humans do, plugging in life experience to connect seemingly unrelated ideas together. By my understanding this is emulable (and thus "fixable") under the current paradigm of AI, at least to some extent. I always enjoy it when some character is talking about some straightforward problem, and their mentor / advisor / parental figure / etc. starts telling this seemingly unrelated story that ends up either recapitulating the same idea in a different way (sound familiar?) or else shedding new light on the original idea through context or testimonials. I think this is something the current crop of AI could be taught to do.

This brings me to a comical moment at the end of the podcast where one of the hosts mentions that she gets "chills down [her] spine every time [she] reads it" (lol) when she gets to this point in the scene:

“Fat, eh? Not many of those around here. It’s not really an Ieikili fashion.” “Give it time!” Silence merrily exclaimed. “I will teach this whole society how to grow fat.”

CHILLS !! LOL

And the hosts go on to elaborate that it's "chilling" because with Silence there must be a double meaning to it, i.e. ambition, influence, etc. This is a very interesting take, and it's also the first of several mistakes I'm going to discuss.

The mistake is twofold. First of all, the female host calls Silence's line about teaching society how to get fat the last line of the excerpt. It's not; it's closer to the middle. I find this error fascinating because it implies the absence or failure of some kind of logical error-checking that I would have thought is trivial but which perhaps isn't. Second of all, there's no deeper meaning to Silence's vow. She just likes fat people. If there is a deeper meaning that must be forced out of it, it is an insight into Silence's multifaceted nature, as elsewhere in the scene there is so much focus on her restoring her health and vitality and mobility after a long convalescence from her prior injuries. She's all up for fitness and mobility, but she's also up for curtailing that on her own terms (as opposed to involuntarily), or having a lover do the same, when the context is right. I think this error provides insight into the kinds of calculated risks that the AI takes in order to compose its analyses. The AI is obviously not well-exposed enough to fat liberation speech in its training data to have picked up on this fat-affirming message as such; instead it drew on the imagery of growing fat as a metaphor for growing in power and influence, which is much more common in our culture—enough that the AI assumed that's what I was talking about.

So, this gets back to what I was just saying about the potential dangers of trying to force the AI to draw conclusions on ideas that it isn't well-exposed to: It'll do it wrong, both in assuming meaning where none is intended and in characterizing what that meaning is.

A second mistake that I'd like to mention is that, early in the podcast, the hosts characterize Silence as someone of "very few words," which isn't supported in the text (and if anything Silence tends to be verbose). What I think what the AI was picking up on is that Silence wasn't sharing her full thoughts with others, which is actually a really clever (and correct) reading, and somehow got from there—perhaps by way of Silence's deliberateness and her initial "passivity" in Sele during her convalescence—to the idea that she doesn't physically talk much. This is a fascinating conflation to make! I assume that what's going on here is that the AI has fitted Silence's personality type into a box, and this box potentially includes the character trait of not talking much, and the AI decided that there is enough supporting language in the scene to establish that Silence indeed doesn't talk much. No such language exists, but I see how an AI (and perhaps a human reader not familiar with Silence) might infer that it does. I'd be curious to round up some humans, make them read this scene, and ask them questions so as to implicitly invite them to say that Silence is a mate of few words without explicitly prompting them to do so. I bet you some would, even though in this very scene Silence is literally quite talky! Because it's easy to compartmentalize those things, I think: Silence's actual talkativeness, and her personality traits which might imply that she is not talkative.

A third mistake, which is, again, wrong in an interesting way is that there is a very clear up-front statement by the male host that Silence "is a woman," with emphatic tone on those words. This isn't the end of the sentence. He pauses, and there is some reaction from the female host, and then he finishes his thought: "...of few words." So, this is mistake not only because of the "of few words" part but also because of the "is a woman" part. I go out of my way to characterize Silence as near to genderless as possible, and while this doesn't apply to physical sex (she is female-bodied) there also isn't any discussion of that in the scene; so the AIs are drawing this purely from her pronouns, the discussion of conation (mindwashing / "mental merging" as the AI aptly puts it), and the clarification that Silence and Galavar are not bonking.

I wouldn't necessarily bother to call it out (I don't expect AI to use my paradigm of sex and gender), except that the way the host delivers his distance really emphasis the "is a woman" words, and I think that's deliberate; I think it's a very clever thing the AI is doing, piggybacking on a separate idea (about Silence not talking much) to insinuate without immediately mentioning it that there are sexual tensions in the scene. Now, it's wrong; there is no sexual tension—not between Silence and Galavar anyway. (And the AI elsewhere allows that the source material is vague on this point; I would say, from reading this scene in isolation, that that's fair.) But in fact this is the scene that woke me up to the fact that there can't be sexual tension between Silence and Galavar, at least not in the past, because she's still practically a goddamn kid when she kids to Sele, and Galavar is early middle-aged. I had never wrapped my head around that until I was laying out this scene in my thirties and realized that it'd be gross. So I wrote this scene with no sexual tension between them at all; the fact that Javelin originally mistakes Silence as a lover of Galavar before actually meeting her in person is part of the verismilitude of Javelin. But I can see how an AI without knowledge of any of these characters' histories outside this one scene might take the mistaken perception by Javelin as a positive indicator of a relationship between Silence and Galavar. So, again, I think we are seeing some of the limitations on this type of AI. In the grand scheme of things, many human storytellers would have sexual tension in a situation like this. And I think the AI failed to see that there wasn't any, or at least wasn't able to make up its mind.

I actually like this failsafe. The podcast hosts mentioned several times that the source material is unclear or vague, which makes it a lot safer for them to speculate. That, in my opinion, is a really solid implementation by Google of a way to lampshade the AI's risky assumptions to the end user. This way, if the podcast hosts go barking up the wrong tree at least they will appear to be doing it honestly, based on the text's own ambiguity. And I think all the instances where the hosts invoked this failure are justifiable instances, even if they aren't necessarily correct that the text is in fact ambiguous.

Another mistake, and one that's a lot more disappointing for technology which is otherwise getting so impressive, is that the hosts misgender Javelin later in the podcast after originally getting it right. (Editor's note: Actually I am not sure that they gender her correctly in the first place. I've listened to this thing so many times in the course of writing this that I'm not up for going through it again, so take the following with an asterisk.) I suppose this too is a reflection of how the AI actually weaves its stories: To them, the "Javelin" mentioned at any one moment in their podcast isn't necessarily the Javelin mentioned at any other moment. The AI''s persistent understanding of, for instance, the City of Sele as the setting for this scene does not imply a comprehension of what "the City of Sele" is but rather that it would be appropriate to mention a thing which is probably called the City of Sele in various instances where our human minds would in fact agree that it is appropriate.

A very understandable mistake is that the hosts infer that Silence's choice of the word "secretary" has some special meaning that goes beyond the actual meaning. (She chooses the word, having only recently become proficient in the Selish language, because of its relationship with "secrets.") The AI hosts are wrong in their speculation but they're right to be sniffing something there. (It is, after all, the title of the excerpt.) And you kind of need to have the other scene, with Galavar and Javelin that evening, to better understand why it's the title, and so I don't hold it against the AI for falling short here. I do like that they tried to mention it at all; I think they would have been remiss not to.

A final mistake that I'll mention is that, when talking about Silence's new immersion in Sele after having lived in Junction City, the hosts did indeed take an incredibly anodyne route of characterizing this discontinuity. I found that line of discourse to be very underwhelming. And it rises to the level of a mistake because it is not correct. Silence's adjustment to Sele is not complicated all that much by her past life in Junction City. That's just plausible-sounding tripe; it's not analytical at all.

There are plenty more mistakes, of course, but, moving on from mistakes to talk about specific praises, I really like how the AI hosts were able to pick up on the fact that Silence's behavior in this scene is all about her trying to prove herself. It is specifically stated in the text (albeit in a narrower sense, referring only to Silence's newly restored ability to walk partway across the city), so I'm not surprised that the AI picked up on it, but I'm glad that it did. That smacks of good design to me. It's a very important detail. And, assuming Google put its "top men" on the case for making these deep dives as compelling as the technology (and the company's contortions to avoid getting sued) presently allow, I would be inclined to consider the successful identification of this point as important to be a high-quality indicator that their efforts were constructive.

But, of course, this is the same tech that I found so underwhelming in the previous paragraph, so...you know. You win some; you lose some.

Another praise is that I appreciate the hosts for being gentle with me in describing "Silence's almost superhuman level of perception." It was equally within Google's power to invent an AI podcast host duo that will just absolutely trash you and roast you and make fun of you instead of acting like your work is the most interesting composition they've seen all year. Silence's capabilities are definitely possible, and I would even argue plausible, but I fully grant she is performing way above your average schlub. A character like her may not defy belief, but she strains likelihood. So I think it's fair and probably even authentic for the hosts to point out that she's "almost superhuman." I think not mentioning it at all would be a mistake. Silence is not just making power plays; she's an extremely competent person making power plays.

Anyway! Let me go back to something I said earlier that I said I would get back to:

I think this is first and foremost to my own credit for writing such a coherent scene in the first place

It occurred to me, even before generating this deep dive podcast, that I would like to feed the AI a scene that is much more difficult to parse, and see what that "deep dive" looks like.

So join me later when I do that. But for now, I think this is a good place to end it.

[twilight-good-yall-dumb]

I have genuinely seen some of the most horrific takes on Liam Payne's death, and even though I don't often get controversial on this website, I'm about to.

First of all, labeling Liam Payne as nothing but some shitty abuser is such an obtuse observation. Obviously, I understand that the power of the internet has had a large part in this. People listen to whatever other people say without second thought or further research. So sure, if you hear from more than one person that Liam was this awful abuser, most people just take that on faith.

The problem is that it's so much more complicated than that. Firstly, a lot of the current information we have about Liam and his ex-fiancé is alleged. Not to say that it isn't true or that I don't believe her. That isn't the message I'm trying to get across at all, but still, it is alleged information, and it's coming only from her. Secondly, a ton of people have been massively misled because Maya released a FICTIONAL book that is supposedly "inspired" in part by her relationship with Liam, and people are taking instances from the FICTIONAL book and assuming they are true to life. Which is...unintelligent to say the least. Secondly, I've seen one account of a fan claiming she was "manipulated" into sending nude photos to Liam, but this fan was literally 25 years old. And according to her, there was no blackmail, threats, or serious pressure involved. We're not talking about naive 18 year old girls like I've seen people claim. And again, I've only been able to find this one account. This was not some kind of trend with him.

Again, my intention is not to blame any of these women or claim that they're lying. It is only to reiterate that other people have been exaggerating the evidence we actually have.

Secondly, the only thing Maya has outright claimed about Liam was his obsessive contact during and after the end of their relationship. She ordered a cease and desist to keep him from further contacting her and to try and put an end to the emotional abuse she had faced. This included him threatening suicide, obsessively apologizing, etc. Which to be entirely truthful, is manipulative and unacceptable behavior. That being said, it is also the behavior of, and a clear symptom of, his poor mental health and substance abuse issues.

Seeing people straight up say that they don't care that he died because the world is "better off without an abuser" or that women shouldn't mourn him because it's somehow anti-feminist to care about a man who has harmed a woman in any way is...such a crazy fucking take. Like I genuinely hope these people never come across somebody in their lives who is dealing with trauma, addiction, or mental health struggles, because holy shit that lack of compassion is crazy. Like, yes, he was not a great guy to Maya. He has literally admitted that in interviews before, admitted that because of his addiction and mental health issues that he has hurt people he loved. This is not behavior in any man that should be excused, but it is behavior that, in my opinion, can be forgiven if that man has the time to make amends.

Liam Payne was not Diddy. He was not a fucking monster. He was not the sort of man who seriously harmed and traumatized countless women. He was a man who was unwell and who made mistakes in his relationships. But as we've seen from so many of his loved ones in the last few days, to his core, Liam Payne was a kind person. He cared about his family, his friends, his son. He wanted people to be happy, to smile. He wanted to entertain people, to be there for people, and to be loved. He was a human. And he was a victim of the music industry. He was overworked, objectified, and commodified as a literal child, and then he was left on his own after spending his most formative years in an extremely high stress environment. I mean, honestly, the fact that any of the boys wound up somewhat stable is beyond my comprehension. There was bound to be at least one of them who struggled to adjust.

And so, to say that you don't care that he died, to say that the world is better off without him, is a wild fucking stance. To have so little empathy for somebody who was a victim himself, to care so little for somebody who brought love and joy to the lives of so many people, who left behind a seven year old son, is fucking cold hearted. Nobody is asking you to cry over a man who you have no personal connection to, and we're also not asking that any of his potential victims receive hate or blame. But that doesn't mean those of us who are grieving should have to hear discourse about your "morally superior" Liam Payne take.

Some of us just want to mourn somebody who was a massive pillar in our lives, who brought us joy in dark times. Who, because we cared, we worried about for years. Not all 1D fans are the same in this regard, but I never hated Liam. I never blamed him for any of the foolish things he said in interviews. I understood his actions as those of somebody struggling, of somebody who was calling out for help, who needed that help, who needed support. Liam Payne, had he lived longer, could have become the man that he wanted to be, that everyone close to him knew he was capable of being. He'd been to rehab, he'd had periods of sobriety. He was working on himself. He was slowly getting better. So yes, I am mourning for the man that he was, not just the boy in the band, but the man he was working towards becoming. I am mourning for the man who made silly videos during Covid that helped me get through the monotony. I am mourning for the man who took silly selfies that made me laugh. I am mourning for the man who was talented beyond belief or recognition. I am mourning for the man who wanted to be loved and accepted so badly, and who the rest of the internet treated like SHIT for years before his death. Which, by the way, almost always had nothing to do with serious allegations but rather actions that the internet deemed "cringe."

I am so tired, and so upset.

None of the women who are mourning Liam's death are "betraying their own sex" or whatever else some of you seem to believe. They are simply exercising a thing called empathy. Try it out sometime!

[theyareweird]

Corpse Party: Yuuya Kizami —Aesthetic

Yuuya Kizami's Character & Personality

Yuuya is the seventeen-year-old son of Seiji and Shiori. He's the younger brother of Kouki (brother) and Haruna (sister). Yuuya is a student of Byakudan Senior High School's classroom 2-4. He likes mirrors and silver accessories. Yuuya's hobby is observing humans. He dreams of raising an amoral society and relieving people's pains. At first, Yuuya is supposedly a protective and strong ally. He's sophisticated and classy with his Japanese pronouns, language, and manners. However, Yuuya occasionally comes across as somewhat blunt and apathetic. Underneath this façade, he's a sociopath. Yuuya has no comprehension of morality, affection, social interaction, or value of life. Violent from childhood, his acts ranged from trying to beat a student to death to mutilating animals. Yuuya has a cynical perception of truth. He firmly believes everyone is hiding behind a mask and lying to him, preventing him from seeing their 'true' personality. Eventually, Yuuya became convinced death would reveal a person's true self. As a result, he lusted to kill those around him. Due to his lack of understanding of others and the world, Yuuya created a false front as a teen. He acts as a loner who prefers to sit on the sidelines and observe while he studies others and their interactions, ironically committing the same type of deception he loathed. Yuuya is extremely egocentric. If people wish to be involved with him, he expects them to put him at the center of things and 'care' about him the way his family 'didn't'. Thus, Yuuya is arrogant. He doesn't hide this trait and even flaunts it in some cases. Having been repeatedly told he'll grow up alone due to his sadistic ways, Yuuya thinks if he's second to none, being alone won't matter.

At Heavenly Host, he attempts to work with his "friends" to escape. However, after a series of deaths and mental breakdowns of several classmates, he concludes it didn't matter how a person dies since they're going to anyway. This justified Yuuya's need to murder those around him. Ecstatic, he put his philosophy into practice, hoping to reveal the inner selfishness in his classmates to finally understand them and himself. However, in Book of Shadows episode 6, bits of pity, remorse and guilt come from interacting with Yuka. Yuuya hoped helping her would give him some means to atone for the terrible things he has done. This indicates he holds some basic understanding of morals and knew what he was doing was wrong to a degree. Yuuya always dreamed of having a younger sibling. Forming somewhat of a complex around this, he's fond towards the thought of having a little sister. Yuuya harbors deep hatred for his family. Specifically, his older siblings, whom he feels are always "lying" by telling him they want what was best for him. Yuuya convinced himself his entire family hates him and his older siblings are always taking attention away from him. His intense and unresolved frustration with being the youngest child, always picked on and told what to do, played a major factor in shaping his philosophy. Yuuya theorized had he had a younger sibling, he may have been able to understand how his siblings truly felt when they said they loved him.

[glitch-pep]

A somewhat comprehensible essay about how the Chaotic Crossover AU was created

Word count: Around 3000 words.

Approximated reading time: 25 minutes.

Summary: Me explaning my weird thought process and the string of ideas that lead to the Chaotic Crossover AU. I wrote the essay for fun, don't take it too seriously. I'm totally not saying that because I went off topic a few times.

It's seperated into 10 sections so that it'll be easier to read. This is my first attempt at posting a longer piece of my writing as well as an essay, I tried to make it interesting and entertaining.

I hope you'll enjoy! 💚💛💜💙

#1

It was around some point at the beginning of the year 2023 that my mom and I randomly decided to watch the movie Ocean's 8 together. I'm usually really picky about movies because my attention span is terrible and if I get bored I don't wanna watch anymore, but when she told me it was about a heist I was hooked. I love heist movies, I always did, and I loved this movie too, it's fun and actually funny and charismatic, with a decent twist to it that I won't spoil, but I definitely do recommend that you give it a watch.

Anyways, that day changed everything. The moment the movie was over, the moment that I went upstairs to my room, I had no real idea what I was getting myself into. I put on my headphones, put on "Mission Impossible Theme - Electric Guitar Cover by Kfir Ochaion - ALP Guitars" on loop, I took my purple hula hoop and I started to pace around my room trying to come up with ideas while spinning it around like a weird stim toy. Ideas for what, you may ask?

For my oc's to be in a heist together, of course.

#2

You see, my mind is very easily influenced. That's definitely not a good thing to be honest, but I don't know how to phrase it differently. Basically, whenever I watch something I immediately start thinking of oc ideas that have something to do with it. If I watch a movie about cowboys I'll be trying to make a cowboy au in my head, If I watch a movie about a royal ball I'll be imagining them all dolled up at a fancy event.

You can bet your ass, that I, heist movie fanatic, wanted my oc's to be in a heist together real bad. Thing is... at the time, I had a teeny tiny little problem that made this idea a little difficult...

I literally only had two oc's to work with.

Those two being Charlie and Mina.

The girlies. The legends. The og's.

...but yeah, still. Two oc's isn't a lot to work with. I did have Charlie as a plot starter, she's literally a thief, of course she'd want to go on a badass heist to steal a bunch of valuables. But how on earth would Charlie convince Mina of all people to go on a heist with her?

Besides... these two are a fun duo, but they're not entertaining enough on their own, seeing only the two of them interact constantly will get bored real quick...

But did you think that stopped me, dear reader? Oh no, no no no no no. I didn't let go of this concept. I felt a mighty need. I NEEDED to see a group of my own special little guys on a wacky heist together.

#3

In an act of desperation, I literally thought about bringing back my old Ducktales oc's and the Club Penguin oc's I had recently scraped. The Club Penguin oc's were a no go, I firmly decided to turn those into humans and to work on them at some point in the future. As for the Ducktales ones, I'd have to rewatch an entire show to be able to properly rewrite and redesign them and I didn't feel like doing that...

...but then, I remembered two oc ideas that were lingering in my mind, waiting to be thought of. A Making Fiends oc, which I did try to create but ultimately scraped the idea of cuz I couldn't make the design look right, and a Welcome Home oc concept, of a sleep themed character with a moon head.

While I was going to start to work on the Welcome Home one, I still didn't wanna tackle the Making Fiends one. So, in my mind, I firstly created a weird meta version of the au we know today.

I started to design and slowly form a personality for moon girl. While I was doing that, I added her to the heist even though she was nowhere near done yet.

As for the Making Fiends guy... well, he was going to be a self aware scraped character who was supposed to be able to exist only in this au, and nowhere else. It was supposed to be an universe where everyone is self aware that they're characters, and that I, their creator, exist.

The guy was supposed to be very mad at me specifically at all times, because the girls got their own lores and stories in their og universes, meanwhile his only role is to fill up space in a heist scenario.

I remember getting the idea that, before I even post about these two, that I should create a series of fake screenshots where I'd showcase these two without explaining who they are, as a sorta little thing that only I would really understand the context of.

...and this is where things changed.

For fake screenshots you need fake scenarios, for fake scenarios you have to imagine the characters interract. 

#4

The very first idea I had for this was Charlie, excitedly breaking into the guys house and then trying to convince him to join her crazy heist plan, and him of course not wanting to.

It was this bickering that I really liked. It was this bickering that I found insanely entertaining.

It was this bickering that ultimately saved both Charlie and Milo as characters.

These two are at their BEST, when they have someone to go against, a rival. Someone to argue and fight with. These two basically shaped each other as characters.

Most of Milo's personality was created while I imagined him arguing with Charlie like they're in a Danganronpa trial. And while Charlie's personality didn't change, it definitely expanded. The Charlie from a year ago isn't the Charlie we have now.

Also, I gotta add this, Charlie and Milo are basically Ash and Five but in a different font, I have realized that only later on, and I really love this dynamic. I won't explain who those two are in detail, if you know you know.

So, we have established that these two helped and pushed each other to become the best versions of themselves.

But let's be real, there ain't no way in hell Charlie's gonna convince Milo, even the Milo we have today, to participate in a heist that easily.

So, what does Charlie do?

Drag moon girl into it, of course.

#5

I thought to myself... huh, what if Mr. Serious had a soft spot for moon girl? And then Milo proceeded to shape Molly's character into place, with one of the most beloved dynamics I've made so far. Molly changed Milo a lot too, of course.

Molly is the thing that made me realize that Milo is at his second best when he has someone to care for, someone to love. Eventually this love did spread to Charlie and Mina as well, but he doesn't show it towards them the same way.

Charlie and Molly changed each other in a way that made me realize that Molly is at her best when she has someone to lead her. A lot of Charlie's personality came to be from me imagining her explaining something to Molly in a cool leader type of way.

And then there's Mina. Now you're gonna say, Mina's the odd one out. Mina's the only one who hasn't changed at all since I first introduced her.

Mina has changed, she just changed the least. All three of them shaped her character to be more caring and less cold, which isn't very obvious... given that it's Mina we're talking about.

Heh... I guess ya could say, that she was too lazy to change any more than that. Mina's the most simple character out of all of them, I don't wanna change that too much. Her simple character is fine, and it's at it's best when it's put together with complicated characters. And welp, we got three complicated mfs right here.

All of these dynamics were born while I was imagining them in the heist scenario. You forgot about the heist already, didn't you? I can't blame you, I did too... for a long time.

#6

I just started to imagine them in different scenarios and those kinda made me forget about the heist one, but, within this au the heist thing did happen... well, it was supposed to.

Basically the au began with them all just being thrown into this white room with four doors lined up before them. Each of them had a missing item from their inventories that they wanted to get back. They got to know each other a little while they were going through each other's universes, they found the items and that was it for a while.

Until Charlie found that a new door showed up in the room. The door lead to the front of a giant building, which turned out to be some rich guy's massive mansion. And of course the mansion was full of valuables that Charlie wanted to get her hands on, but failed attempt after failed attempt... she just couldn't get in.

That's when she realized that it would be far easier if she had someone with her... y'know, preferably three people. And boom she's at it with the convincing. Mina agrees cuz she wants to avoid another one of her aunts weedings, Molly agrees cuz Charlie told her that it's a good thing that they're doing this, Milo agrees cuz Molly is a part of it, and because he's baffled that she managed to drag Mina into it.

And because they were like in a heist together I almost called the au the "Charlie's Angels AU". Because y'know... there's Charlie who's conveniently named that, and the other three who's names all start with an M. I honestly still think it'll be a clever name for some sorta au, but I went for the name Chaotic Crossover AU because it's more simple and it explains what the au is about better. Besides, I feel like if I actually went for the title that's a movie reference I'd have to constantly stick to the whole heist thing or otherwise it wouldn't make much sense.

The only other type of name I considered before I went for the one we have today, is something along the lines of MMCM AU. Maybe the letters were arranged differently, I honestly don't exactly remember. Yeah, I didn't get too creative with this one, it honestly sounds like a band name to me... and yes, I did consider making a band au but nah, I'm going to use the band concept for something else. Also there's lore reasons as to why these 4 wouldn't really be capable of being in a band together.

So they meet up to create a plan, they have fun chatting and messing around for the whole day, only to find that the door which Charlie talked about dissapeared. She wasn't lying about it, she even took pictures as proof.

But, oh well, does is matter that much anyways? Maybe the real treasure... the real heist, was the friends we made along the way.

And, it was.

#7

Besides this beginning, there is no other plot to this au.

The rest of it is just them mindlessly having fun with each other as I put them into random scenarios and funky outfits.

I said this somewhere before, but, the au has no actual ending or middle, just a beginning.

Time doesn't flow the same, they're just meant to stay the same age, time has been stopped, basically.

There was supposed to be a plot at some point, but I realized that I would spoil a lot of stuff from their actual canon stories, and I am always overly cautious with not spoiling people.

Also, the characters here don't line up 100% with their canon counterparts, even if they do for the most part, because I erased their canon problems for the sake of having them be actually happy unlike their canon selves.

Thing is, to what extent did I erase these problems?

Because, for some of them, if I erase the problem then they're not the same character anymore...

So it's basically a weird situation where they are and aren't themselves...

...I'm losing you, aren't I? Yeah, I'm losing it too.

What am I trying to say?

I'm trying to explain in a comprehensive way that the Chaotic Crossover AU makes no logical sense.

...unless, you hear me out about the explanation I came up with because I feel the need for everything to magically make sense.

#8

I present to you,

The Dollhouse Explanation

Which says, that the oc's in this au, are doll versions of the actual characters.

1. The white room with the doors is actually a dollhouse. Every universe they go to is me adding another playset to it.

2. Molly, Mina, Milo and Charlie are dolls. I play with them, making up roleplays and scenarios. I dress them up in different outfits very often, like one does with dolls.

3. They don't age because they're dolls and dolls don't age, so it seems as if time has stopped.

Could some of this apply to the act of making oc's and stories in general?

Yeah.

Does this change anything about the au?

No. Not really.

Why did I add this to the essay?

I showed it to my friend and she said that I should keep this part so I'm taking her word for it.

(She doesn't have Tumblr or other socials but shout-out to her!)

Have I watched too many theory videos on YouTube?

Yeah.

Should I stop?

Yeah, but we both know that I won't. :)

Also, the au was inspired and influenced by cartoons in danganronpa, which is basically a giant crossover in itself.

I'm saying this because, like in cidr, the characters and designs clearly aren't from the same universes, they still kept the each individual art styles from the shows, and I really liked the look of it. But, you could still tell that the sprites are from the same project because of the lineart and shading. It's the same situation in this au.

#9

...this is a cursed addition to this essay that I, on one hand, don't wanna cover cuz Part A of it is the cringiest and worst development fact about the au and I've kinda wanted to just pretend it never happened, but it influenced Part B in a way as to where I can't not mention it, and also I find Part B incredibly interesting.

Ok, so, Milo was always pansexual, but Charlie used to be bisexual before I settled on her being a lesbian.

...I'm just gonna rip the bandage off, Milo x Charlie was supposed to be a thing.

I know, I know, eugh. Look, I will think of many romantic character combinations just in case I might hit the jackpot, I like to explore romantic dynamics as much as platonic ones.

And, for like... a month, I was genuienly planning to make these two slowly get crushes on each other, I was gonna hint towards it with some sorta ship art.

But then, I was reconsidering things.

I started to contemplate the meaning of life, as well as all of my life choices and how they affected my life, me and my oc's. I looked into the distance, and then I took one, good, longggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg, look at Charlie. And then, finally, like a light at the end of the tunnel, my critical thinking skills tapped me on the shoulder.

I turned around.

"Her ass would never date a man." it said. I nodded, and shed a tear. It may have taken me too long to realize it, but at least I did.

And that's the story of how Charlie became a lesbian instead! :D

#10

And no, before you ask, Charlie wouldn't like Milo in that way even if he was female, or when he's presenting himself as more feminine like in the one purple design I made for him. She doesn't find him appealing in a romantic way at all. Same goes for Milo with Charlie.

Besides, both have standards... and different types.

Their relationship is far more interesting and genuine if it's presented from a purely platonic perspective, which it is, and which it always will be.

Basically, they're besties, your honor. Case closed.

The same thing goes for another ship I considered while I was still figuring out everyone's sexualities, Charlie x Mina.

I admit, I hate this one less, but still, it's the same situation.

They're besties, your honor. Case closed yet again.

Ever since I decided to keep it all platonic, thank heavens I did, I've always had this underlying fear in the back of my head that, somehow, people are still going to see it as romantic. I remember when I made the drawing of Milo and Charlie standing next to each other in greaser inspired outfits, I was like, oh crap, are ppl gonna see them as a couple?

But no one did. A decent amount of people saw it, and no one said a thing.

And I think that's nice. Beautiful, even.

I've seen plenty of characters which were, if you ask me, forcefully pushed together in a romantic way, despite the fact that they were clearly meant to just be friends. Having this sense of control over things, being able to determine the right path for these oc's, it gives me a sense of peace and satisfaction.

Everything is in its place.

Balanced, as it should be. 

Anyways let's talk about how this decision made everyone in this au absolutely unshippable with each other in every conceivable way.

1. Molly is an adult the other three are kids if you don't think this is a no go get the fuck away from my blog.

2. Mina is aroace and would never be in a romantic relationship, so that's a no go too.

3. The only two left are Milo and Charlie. Charlie is a lesbian and since Milo is a guy that's a no go.

This happened completely on accident and I realized it on accident too, but I'm not complaining.

Hooray to friendship! Hooray to platonic love! Hooray to platonic relationships!

They're just as valuable and beautiful and powerful as romantic ones!

Go tell your friends or family or partner or pet you love them!

You'd be surprised how happy they'd be to hear it.

And that's how the Chaotic Crossover AU was created.

If you've actually made it to the end, thank you for sticking around, you beloved madlad.

I hope you have a lovely day! 💚💛💜💙

[electrozeistyking]

I just realized what "The Amalgamation" reminds me of. The Slayer form in Baldur's Gate 3

Funny that it somewhat resembles it given I had the idea for two particular DDs I made to fuse into one being that was a giant version of a similar form. Just less surgical and more "magical".

While I'm here I wanted to say the design for it is sick. Body horror is my jam so this "little" guy was quite cool to see. Curious if you're gonna do a fic with them, would absolutely be down to read it if you did. A lot of the fics I read don't really incorporate the body horror elements of MD and it makes me a little sad since it's one of the things that drew me to the show. But I imagine you're quite busy with the Ghost Drone AU so I don't really expect it.

Also I might take a crack at drawing The Amalgamation but don't expect it to be too good. I may be able to draw horrors beyond human comprehension but limbs STILL get me. Like, how does the hand attach to arm, why are fingers so round...WHO DECIDED NECKS SHOULD BE LIKE THAT?!

I also considered drawing Beanie with one of my OCs but...almost all of them should NOT be within 500 miles of her. Two of them are literally The Boogeyman (even if Erik wasn't at one point) and the other two are loyal DDs. Yen would be sweet though, so maybe some art with them would work but I think they'd be too distracted by N's hot single dad vibes.

idk I just love your art and I want to pay tribute to it in some way because it's so awesome and super well made. Love what you're doing and hope you do well because of it!

(also sorry for the long ask I just started thinking stuff I wanted to say and putting it down)

Pal. Buddy. I absolutely LOVE writing nightmarish/horror sequences, I just don't often get a chance to flex that ability. You better believe that I'm planning on writing something about the Amalgamation! I even have a co-writer to help me with it... heheheh.

Don't worry, nothing's actually written yet. Those "excerpts" I posted were literally just me writing short little stories on the concept, seeing as I wanted to get them out of my brain... though, I may actively include them when I actually write about the Amalgamation? Too soon to say....

Also hey, don't worry if your art looks "bad" or "good!" So long as you make it, I'll love it either way! And don't worry, I love the lengthy ask! It was a delight reading all of your thoughts. :3

[birgittesilverbae]

Jillian & Bea (platonic, must it be said?): embrace

"The swelling has subsided somewhat," Jillian comments, gaze fixed on the tablet in her left hand. She flicks her fingers and a three-dimensional model appears on the monitor in front of Beatrice, a brain rotating slowly in space. "That may have a positive effect on the headaches, if that's been a contributing factor."

Beatrice wets her lips. "And if not?"

"If they persist, I'd like to get you in for a more comprehensive suite of neuroimaging. See if we can induce an attack while we're actively scanning and pinpoint a root cause." 

"Do you expect to uncover anything?"

Jillian lifts her head and locks eyes with Beatrice. "I'm not… I'm not sure that it will," she admits. Her eyebrows draw down as she focuses inwardly, seemingly turning the problem over and over in her mind. 

Beatrice takes stock of Jillian's words in the intervening silence, forces herself to consider the possibility to which she's so steadfastly turned a blind eye. The perpetuity of serious injury has never truly been a concern, not when Sister Warriors so rarely live long enough for acute ailments to turn chronic. A sister is healthy, then injured, then dead. Devoured by the mission before the bill for years of cumulative trauma comes due. Mortality as a given.

But now, in the aftermath of the holy war, Beatrice must look to the future and consider that she will likely survive to see it, survive long enough to truly live. Survive long enough to be dogged by the lingering effects of combat, by constant low-grade joint and muscle pain, by headaches that lance through her skull with all the brutality of an icepick to the temple.

Jillian is closer, now, her mouth moving, but Beatrice can't quite put the sounds together to form words. She's crying, she realises with removal, recognising it only when the ice cold pad of Jillian's thumb brushes hesitantly across her cheek. 

"I don't know why I asked," Beatrice says, the words catching in her throat. "I didn't want to know."

Jillian's tone turns more gentle and she leans forward to put an arm around Beatrice's shoulder, to hold her in an unpracticed embrace. "It's better to know," she says, "to be able to use that knowledge to guide our next actions."

"I don't want a next action," Beatrice protests, petulance slipping into her voice without her consent. "I just want a nap."

[alpaca-clouds]

Sexuality in a Solarpunk World

To end out my rambles about sex positivity, let me talk about what the relationship between societies and sexuality would or should look like in a Solarpunk world under the perspective that a Solarpunk world should be somewhat utopian. This holds true both in the idea of a Solarpunk future we might wanna strive for - as well as worldbuilding a fictional solarpunk worlds.

Solarpunk worlds need to be Sex Positive!

The entire sex positivity vs sex negativity is about so much more than just a relation with sex. Because, in the end, we cannot have a world in which woman can have equal rights and queer people can exist in peace, as long as sex negativity prevails. Those things are all interconnected.

Sex negativity in the end is about control. It is about controlling people, controlling everyone, including even cishet men. Because sexuality (including asexuality) tends to be a central aspect of people. And the sex negative culture tries to control it and through it control people.

As I talked about. Sex negativity is very much about control. Women cannot like sex. Man have to like sex. Sex is only allowed in a monogamous relationship. Sex is only allowed between straight people. Sex is only allowed in a romantic relationship. Sex is only allowed in vanilla ways. And so on and so forth.

As such sex negativity is intrinsically linked with upholding the patriarchy. Sex negativity hence is also intrinsically linked with misogyny and queerphobia. It can even be linked with quite a few forms of racism.

To put it differently: As long as sex negativity keeps being upheld, you will also upheld misogyny and queerphobia at the very least.

Because of that, it has to go. We cannot archive utopia as long as sex negativity is the norm.

So, what should sexuality look like in a Solarpunk world?

I wanna bring in those core principles from the kink sphere: Safe, Sane and Consensual. If someone wants to have sex in a way that it is mostly safe, happens within sane parameters, and between two people who can and do consent... Then it is fine. You do not need to like it, but you also do not get to shame the people about it. Simple as that.

People get to be queer, without anyone questioning it. People get to be polyam without anyone questioning it. People get to be kinky without anyone questioning it. But also, people get to be just boring vanilla straight folks, without it being questioned.

As such sex education in a solarpunk world is also going to be not only accessible and comprehensive, but also mandatory within schools. Because kids have the right to learn about it - and because it will actually protect them from predation.

Basically it is just gonna be: Let people do their thing. Don't shame them. It's alright.

Because we cannot have a fair and equal society under a sex negative outlook.

[hivemuthur]

the Ilithid

Or - diving into the original AD&D lore form Monstrous Arcana by Bruce R. Cordell on types of Ilithids players can encounter.

Colloquially known as "mind flayers", Ilithids universally elicit images of horror and fear in the minds of surface dwellers and underwolrders alike. Ilithids shock and repulse other races due mostly to their practice of cephalophagy (...). This abominable habit has such power to appal that the saying "The 'flayer hasn't eaten yet!" was coined centuries ago to convey hope in the face of near-impossible situations.

So - hot topic, tadpoles! Originally, they come from mind flayer eggs, which Ilithids can produce only twice during their entire life. From those eggs, little, helpless tadpoles hatch after a whole month of extremely well protected incubation. And they remain so for another decade, thus it takes this long for a tadpole to mature and be ceromorphosis-ready. The tadpole survival count is 1:1000 - most of them get consumed by the elder brain which resides in the depths of the briny pool.

The criteria for ceromorphosis are also somewhat difficult, as the only acceptable races would be humans, elves, drow, githzerai and githyanki, grimlocks, gnolls, goblins and orcs. After having a tadpole inserted into one's ear, the magic begins - the process completely replaces the original tissue of the victim with Ilithid tissue, therefore - the original victim is dead. From this an Ilithid is formed - any they come in many shapes and sizes.

Generally, all of this makes Ilithids an extremely rare race to encounter (lucky original characters) and also - an extreme threat. As a society they highly resemble anything produced for Alien saga (especially Prometheus).

Arcane Ilithids Which in the lore are said to not even exist, since they are most likely the wrongly recognized type by those, who are not aware of psionic abilities effects. As per most of handbooks, psionics being different to spells, since the source of this power is science.

Ulitharids Or super-jacked Ilithids. Forming from tadpoles seasoned for not 10, but 20 years, reaching over 7 ft height and 6 tentacles and live for at least 250 years.

Elder Brain A sentient disembodied mind that resides at the bottom of the briny pool and initially is a conglomerate creation of deceased Ilithid brains. That makes it a united consciousness for all Ilithid colony. The elder brain suborns individual egos to the gestalt consciousness that suffuses it's mass of tangled, fibrous tissues. Generally, it reaches a 10-foot diameter in size (it is believed that the rest of the brain mass is shunt directly into a node of Astral Plane and remains unified with the elder brain on the Prime Material Plane).

Alhoons (Illithilichs) Rogue Ilithids! Basically undead magical adepts - strayed away from the collective consciousness and general Ilithid teachings to find their own way (in death, apparently). They "live" in solitude, being frowned upon by orthodox Ilithids.

Ilithid Vampires Exactly what is says on the cover - now eating both brains and blood. Their main area of inhabitancy is Demiplane of Dread. They are insane, not able to pass the curse to their victims and are being hunted down by their original race, since Ilithids absolutely hate them. Thankfully, no plague of vampiric mind flayers is imminent.

Urophions So, sometimes Ilithids experiment and do put the tadpole where they shouldn't. If it works, what they get is a very brain-thirsty but also not very comprehensive or mobile creature that ends up as an Ilithid watch dog. Some of them escape into the Underdark, in search of their true purpose.

Neothelids An insanely cool concept named leviathan slug by the author of the supplement. How does it happen? If someone or something kills the elder brain, the entire Ilithid colony around it dies, which leaves poor tadpoles with no food and care. As they grow hungrier, they, well... eat each other. Until the greatest tadpole survives. And the greatest tadpole still has to lurk around for little creatures' non-sentient brains. But with the right measures it will grow enough to finally eat a mind that thinks and this does the trick. Something called reciprocal sentience is triggered, creating a dragon-size neothelid, whose breath dissolves everything but brains.

[littlesparklight]

Hi! Hope you're having a good day (and if you're not, I hope it gets better!!)

My question has to deal with your writing - namely, what's the best way to get some of my more complicated/long-form thoughts to you in a way that would be comfortable? I would really love to leave somewhat comprehensive comments but I know that kind of thing can be a bit off-putting to many writers who write for the sake of fun. Since your work is so well-researched and grounded though, I want to engage with it on a level that suits the time and effort that's gone into it.

Do you, perhaps, accept entirely too-long tumblr posts as commentary? (Ao3 comment length simply is not enough unless you prefer like, twice and thrice replied to comments LMAO)

Hello. <3

It's been a fine day so far, thank you!

I'd love that, actually! I love any and all types of comments, but if you or anyone else wants to dig into it and leave longer ones I'd be delighted!

I'll be honest and say that yeah, since I am writing for fun, if something/a character really didn't work for a reader and they think it should be rewritten in [x] way or shouldn't be there or whatever, that's not really interesting or helpful to me to know. The fic is out there; it will not be changed dfhvdfj The only thing getting rewritten at some point is Helen's section of the relevant Moira chapter because my god it needs it.

Aside from that, though, hit me up! And honestly, I would be more than fine with chained comments on AO3 if they really get that long, keeps everything in one place/connected to the fic! But if that's too annoying for you, haha, yeah, I'd be fine with tumblr posts as commentary instead.

[azullumi]

do u have any tips on how to get ideas and form thoughts 🚕 i love ur fics !!! how do u get inspired :O

i will try my best to answer your question in a comprehensive way nonnieeee!!

a few tips that i can give in getting writing ideas and forming thoughts are:

write all of the your ideas down in a notebook even if u think they are cringy or corny (sometimes those ones turn out the best). i have a notebook of ideas and i’ll show a page of how mine looks like; it doesn’t have to look organized haha i like mine messy and cluttered. basically, you just put everything you want there and you can look through it when you’re running out of ideas or when you want to look for a certain something

read a lot!! i know it can be kind of cliche but reading books will help you more in writing. trust me, i swear.

don’t be afraid to use prompts or tropes for your ideas. that’s all yeah.

you can use your experiences like real-life interactions, events, and such!! (i do it all the time and it really helps in creating somewhat realistic situations that feels so real and fleshed out bcs its what happened to you). also you could twist it into your narrative like how you wished the situation should have happened and ended and what you wished you heard or said. writing gives you the freedom of imagination and lets you express your thoughts and feelings without repercussions

just let it all happen. just write, vomit those words out, let your thoughts spill into your writing, just let it happen. you don’t have to worry of the grammar as you write, you can check that later.

challenge yourself in writing!! you are free to write whoever and whatever you want. you have the freedom in your hands but you must be aware of the boundaries or lines that you must not cross ^^

keep on writing (never back down never what!?) ignore the grammatical errors, the mistakes, everything, it’s all part of the experience. as long as you’re enjoying what you’re doing and you love it (learn to love the art of writing)

anywaysss!! i’m glad that u love my fics AUGHHH <33 it makes me happy gosh and to answer your question, honestly i get inspired mostly by song lyrics!! listen to music as you write, it will help i swear. it helps set your mood and give you more ideas toooo!! i tend to get inspired through many things so there’s that ^^ I THINK THATS ALL? I HOPE I WAS HELPFUL AND I MANAGED TO ANDWER UR QUESTIONS 😭😭 pls dont hesitate to ask for clarifications and such bcs i can be confusing at timessss MWAA TAKE CARE AND STAY HYDRATED

[multiplicity-positivity]

Sorry if this ask gets broken or send more than once, tumblr likes to crash on my phone a lot oops!

Anyhoo, any advice for creating a headmate?

We're a traumagenic system, so we never had any control over when we split new headmates. But I'm a fictive of someone who's a twin and I really miss my brother and would really really love it if he could join us in the headspace, I think he would really like my headmates and they would be very receptive of him <:) I talked to the others about it and they said they think its okay for me to try as long as we do so in a healthy way.

But I dont know how to split a new headmate in a healthy way. Im obviously not going to purposely put us through stress and/or trauma to encourage a traumagenic formation, that'd be unhealthy. BUT I dont know how to help form a headmate in a non-traumagenic way... Do you have any advice or tips? I know theres lots of ways to willingly form new headmates, but I dont really know how to utilize them.

Thank you so much in advance!!

Hi! This is pretty tricky, and in general we’d advise traumagenic systems to make sure they’re in a safe place/have made significant progress towards recovery before attempting to create a headmate. There’s a lot of ways something like this could go very wrong if proper care is not taken! That being said, you do know yourself and your system better than anyone else! So if you and your system believe attempting to create a headmate is the right thing to do and the best move for your system, we’re wishing you the best of luck, and have some resources we can share.

All of the best resources we’ve found so far we’ve compiled in our resources post for questioning systems.

That post ^ has a whole section for plurality that is non-dissociative disorder specific, with tons of links to guides and resources on how to go about creating a headmate. The paromancy (called “tulpamancy” in the links) guides are probably the most comprehensive, with tons of information on creating a paro/thoughtform, which is a type of nontraumagenic headmate.

Y’all might also find it easier and less high-stakes to visualize this person as an imaginary friend or an aspect of your headspace. Lots of systems have NPCs in their headspace which have limited autonomy, but aren’t actually full-fledged system members. You can visualize an NPC in the same way you visualize a setting or object as a part of a headspace - we have a little headspace primer which we’ll link below which might help if you choose to go this route!

If you start out with this potential headmate as an imaginary friend, and they ultimately start to feel like a part of the system, there’s a term for that! It’s called imagi, and you can read a bit more about it on Pluralpedia:

Hopefully this helps at least give you somewhat of a starting point! And if we may, a final word of caution:

Creating a headmate is a big deal. Often this is something that will last forever, and cannot be easily reversed. What is so so important to understand, is that once this headmate can think for themself and are afforded some autonomy and agency, they may make decisions or choose to be something that no one in your system ever would have anticipated.

This means thy may want to separate from their source. They may not act, look, or view themselves the way the twin from your source would have. They may not arrive with source memories, and may not see themselves as your twin at all. In many systems, headmates act and function as their own individuals, and feel happiest when they have their own agency and get to make choices about how they present and interact with the world. This means, there is a chance that any headmate you create won’t live up to the standards you’ve set for them beforehand. We’re not saying this sort of thing will happen 100%! But there definitely is a chance of this occurring, so it’s best to be prepared in case it does.

In the end, this is your choice and a choice to be made by your system! We just hope y’all are understanding the consequences of doing something like this, and know that no matter how you envision your new headmate at the beginning, there’s nothing certain that will keep them that way as they grow and develop on their own. We hope your potential new headmate will be understood, valued, and respected for who they are as they are, and not who others hoped for them to be!

Sorry this got so long! Good luck with everything! We hope this process goes as smoothly for you and your system as it can!

🌸 Margo and 👻 Ghost