#but diminishing returns

[yallemagne]

This pain SENSATION! Dark-Darker DEVASTATION! Before-fore-fore the symptoms of red-red INFLAMMATION!

Neroism - Anthong the Gay [English Cover], KarikiBear [Original]

This is one of four drawing projects I have assigned to myself per this post. This song was my most listened-to song from March to May this year. Of course, like most of the songs I listen to too much, I have a mental music video for this one.

(by the way I have a Ko-fi.)

Neroism is one of the few songs I have in my gem playlist, an appallingly short playlist for my Gem Dracula AU as partially explored in this post featuring the designs of Hematite (gem Jonathan) and Jasper (gem Mina).

In this verse, Hematite is sliced in half by Andradite, a warmongering gem who Hematite was sent to placate and inform of the establishment of Little Homeworld on Earth. For any other gem, a disruption to their physical form of this magnitude would cause them to immediately "poof" and retreat into their gem. However, Hematites, while not purposefully designed to have this functionality, can temporarily remain physically formed in cases of dismemberment and can use their polarity to manipulate the severed parts of their physical forms and even reattach them. Nevertheless, this is an incredibly traumatic thing to happen to a Hematite, and the only way to process the trauma and heal is to retreat back into their gemstone and reform properly.

Unfortunately, Hematite does not retreat back into her gem after this incident, paranoid that if she lets her guard down for even a moment, Andradite will find her.

[dapper-lil-arts]

Was makin a muscle study for fun and it wound up being that sunset shimmer anthro design I made because I'm delusional. good times. And of course I got carried away and didn't stop there

Twilight is ready.

[azadrithaanatheme]

Unexpected Reunion (Part 1)

part 1 | part 2 - click the images for better quality

First post of 2025 and it's Old Woman Yuri, as robo-god intended.

[devnaut]

I get it, TF2 is a really important game to a lot of people, myself included even if I havent really played in years. but the game is almost 17 years old. the fact that its even still around is kind of incredible on its own. and yeah it would be cool if it was still getting updated, but I get the sense that valve hasn't really given a shit about it for years and is/has been putting in the bare minimum. I think expecting any kind of capitulation from valve for a game that's that old and more importantly, far less profitable than in it's heyday is wishful thinking atp...

[deluxewhump]

Feel free to say why

[texas-gothic]

Watching HOTD really reminds me of how much it contimuously flabbergasts me that it took until Robert's Rebellion for the people of Westeros to realize, "Oh yeah, we literally don't need these weird, inbred Norwegian bitches."

[eraserspiral]

first part of the long threatened bloodweave fake dating wedding au tomorrow? perhaps?

[badbugbotblood]

new completely insane crack ship just dropped (King Candybug/Markowski)

Still workshopping a funny ship name but any and all suggestions are welcome! I'm liking the sound of "Hero's Hazards"

(hazards both as in workplace hazards (because for safety reasons Cybug-related issues fall under Hero's Duty's jurisdiction) and car hazard lights because KCB is a cyborg who may or may not have the Royal Racer incorporated into his body, and lights are also what Hero's Duty uses to subdue the mechanical menaces :3)

[burr-ell]

To expand on the previous post (with excellent addition by @kerosene-in-a-blender), I genuinely believe Laudna as a character would be a lot stronger in one of two scenarios:

1. Ditch the Whitestone stuff. I say this as someone who has produced almost nothing but de Rolo content—that is too big a part of Campaign 1 not to completely overshadow anything different the character tries to do in a long-form narrative. I think they could have threaded that needle, but that requires so much more focus and attention that a fast-paced story about a moon conspiracy just isn't built for. It's been 65 episodes and Whitestone nostalgia is all the character has meaningfully contributed to the narrative.

They put themselves between a rock and a hard place before the story even started. You can't bring in Delilah too often without inevitably treading on Campaign 1, but you also can't use her too little—not just because she's Delilah Briarwood, but also because that's the patron of a PC and your PCs need to be taking center stage. And yet there is nothing Delilah's presence has done in the story thus far that could not have been accomplished by a completely different, hitherto-unknown necromancer patron. Laudna's experiences in Whitestone could be replaced with a similarly traumatic backstory (it's not like Exandria is hurting for necromancers abusing power) and she'd have to actually elaborate on it and flesh out the worldbuilding and think about the backstory instead of being able to lean on "Hey, you guys remember that Briarwood arc? Freaky, right?"

2. Keep Laudna as she is and use her in an EXU miniseries. Set it in northwestern Tal'Dorei, where she's been wandering aimlessly for thirty years, spending half the time disassociating and half the time making her dolls. She meets a colorful group of people and they go on some adventures, and she finally decides to take back her life and do something about the voice in her head. You'd basically keep the Whitestone episodes of C3 as they are, give or take a few beats, as the climactic episodes of the series, and then the newly fire-forged friends set off for whatever new journey awaits them.

Maybe Laudna switches patrons; maybe she ditches the warlock thing entirely; maybe she ends the miniseries not knowing what she wants but excited to learn about it with her new companions. Mini-campaigns don't have to worry about that kind of thing! You can have your Whitestone nostalgia and some fanservice while still telling a pretty fun story, and it won't feel like a weird extra appendage to a main campaign that otherwise has very little to do with it. I wouldn't say it's a story I'd be interested in seeing continue, but it's perfectly serviceable for something small and self-contained.

What it has not been serviceable for is the long-form story of Campaign 3.

Honestly, I was a little concerned about all of this even before I started watching all the way through, but I wanted to give it time and judge it for myself. I don't believe in unfounded doomsaying, and I wanted to give the show a chance to do something interesting. And it has been 65 episodes, over 260 hours of content, which I think puts us well past the window of "give it a chance", and Laudna has spent the vast majority of her time not meaningfully engaging with her levels of warlock if it doesn't contribute to creepy girl vibes. (She frankly isn't engaging with her levels in sorcerer, either.) She's never even addressed potentially finding a new patron—so does she not want to? But then why is she so distressed about the idea of Delilah resurfacing? And if she does want a new patron, why has nothing actually happened in the almost-thirty episodes we've had since the Whitestone trip? If she's been "fighting Delilah for thirty-odd years", why didn't she take the chance to explicitly try to connect with, say, the Sun Tree? Or literally anyone else?

And honestly, as a Campaign 1 fan I have to say I'm also frustrated at how Delilah's presence specifically undercuts that story. Like, yeah, you have a technical reason for why she's still here, but "well she IS a powerful necromancer" is just a mechanical explanation, not a dramaturgical one. Her story is done. The chapter closed. She had ample opportunity, including when specifically asked by the Hells, to state any specific goals—any at all—and didn't. This is the woman who menaced Percy and Vex? This is the woman who permanently killed Vax? ...Really?

It could have been an interesting challenge to take on in referencing something from the past while bringing something new to the table, and it's not like they haven't done that before; they've already shown with Jester and the Traveler that it can be done. But they haven't done it here; any opportunity for Laudna to grow beyond her vague concepts—"What if Sun Tree Body...with Delilah patron? What if weird scary girl...but happy?"—has been generally ignored. Her killing Bor'dor is the first time in the entire campaign that she's done something that really got my attention, and in two episodes it's almost immediately papered over, followed by some inexplicable "must you continue to reconquer?" word salad about the gods.

Marisha explicitly refused to create a new character until she knew for sure whether or not Laudna would be resurrected. But if she enjoys her so much, when is she going to do anything meaningful with her?

[cindermetalheadgw2]

How do people have so much gold and so many legendaries in this game is there some kind of trick to gold farming that I'm missing or do you not have full time jobs and spend a ton of hours doing it or are some people playing some complex black lion stock market chess or buying gems with their irl money to convert to gold or something??? I have like 200 which is A LOT for me and I have to hide it from myself in a black lion buy order or else I'll spend it all in like three seconds

[cannibalmukbang]

the most soul destroying days of my life are the days between kingmaker episode release day and audio drama sunday. that's the '3am to sunrise' of my fortnight.

I'll be like. contemplating packing it up forever, this is a worthless enterprise, nobody cares about my art, nobody connects with it, i am speaking into the void....and then 2 days later Bob Raymonda will shout me out in his newsletter and I'll be normal again.

[wonder-worker]

[Edward IV] had two healthy young sons and died peacefully, in the belief that, with his enemies dead or compromised and his family loyalties assured, they would survive to adulthood, securing the future of the House of York. That this proved not to be the case should add a note of pathos to his history which has, in fact, been conspicuously absent.

— Andrew Robert Whittle, “The Historical Reputation of Edward IV 1461-1725”

[flebus]

hey i actually think i probably need to take a step back from tumblr for awhile. possibly a long while. im getting back into habits that are not healthy and im spending way too much of my energy complaining to/about an echoey microcosm. its not good. i'll be around for a few more days bc i don't have contact info for some friends but like. i dont feel great.

[lookninjas]

Are they just going to shoot at that orange bastard every time he falters in the polls, or..?

[iamthetruestrepairman]

does everyone feel alone or is it just me

[spilladabalia]

Godzillionaire - Drowning All Night