#design based off of our alter
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Will I ever be something with feelings to hide? Or am I just a boiler with nothing inside?
#chaotic constructs#chonny jash#chonnys charming chaos compendium#cccc#cj soul#cccc soul#this is very self indulgent#but we're proud of it#a soul drawing for once. as a treat#design based off of our alter#however this is free to use#just. put credit that is our only condition#lyrics from brass goggles by steam powered giraffe
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mist the ORIGINAL queen. u just know she bossed all the boys around, including terzo
#nameless ghouls#namelessghoulettes#the band ghost#ghost bc#mist ghoulette#mist ghost#design based off an alter in our psys!#she is everything#➥☀️
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Random
- Cancer Placements are great musicians. Being ruled by the Moon—a planet the rules our fluctuating emotions, these naitves are susceptible to constant mood swings, which gives inspiration for art - mainly music.
^I also think this is why the Moon is one of the planets the rules music.
- Venus in Virgo (or any Virgo Degrees: 6° & 18°) are also great artists in whatever medium they take up. Venus being our aesthetics, social gracing, and values is paired with analytical Virgo; this can make the Native study and practice everything that comes to Art and master it.
- Aquarians can fall into conspiracy theories for a while. Being the sign that is supposed to break barriers and progress society as a whole, they are prone to questioning everything before them. This can make them pseudo-intellectuals too - still one of my favorite signs tho.
- Moon in hard aspect to Pluto or Uranus can make dangerous individuals. The Moon is a vulnerable placement, ruling the emotional state. Pluto is intense and uncomfortable, and Uranus is unstable. These Natives can make harsh and life-altering decisions based off of their emotional state. A bunch of serial killers and terrorists have this aspect too: Timothy McVeigh, Ted Bundy, The Columbine Shooters & Richard Ramirez.
- Mercury conjunct Mars natives will always sound mean and loud to everyone, regardless of what sign its in. Mercury is the way you communicate, while Mars is how you defend yourself and take action. This can naturally give you a loud and demanding-tone when speaking.
- March Pisces are usually seen as more bold and angrier since Mercury can fall into the sign of Aries when the Sun is moving through the later degrees of Pisces.
^Pluto in Sagittarius also squares the sign of Pisces—usually in the later degrees, which can make these natives come off as dominating and somewhat controlling.
- I’ve seen Taurus Moons being the most liked. Their emotional state is usually—depending on the aspects—calm and stable, which gives them a welcoming demeanor.
- Taurus Mars usually takes a long time to move on in romance. Once these natives are settled and comfortable with a person, its hard to convince them to snap out of it when they need to.
- the 12th House is a fame house. The 12th House can point out where we feel isolated from everything physical. The most famous people are able to live in their own worlds, separated from everyone.
^12H natives can also connect to the collective unconscious.
- Taurus Mercuries are the most stubborn people of all time. Taurus is comfortable and stable, while Mercury is analytical and interactive. This placement can cause somebody to be close-minded and (somewhat) argumentative. Whatever solution or opinion they think is right, will remain right, because they are so comfortable with it.
- The Sun either conjuncts Mercury or Venus, due to the fact most people’s Egos are designed to be aesthetically pleasing - to themselves or to others. You also have to use your ego through communication.
#astro observations#astrology#astro community#astro notes#astro placements#astrology observations#birth chart#natal chart#zodiac#rising sign
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Brother makes a demon-haunted printer

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me in RICHMOND TOMORROW (Mar 5) and in AUSTIN> on Mar 10. More tour dates here. Mail-order signed copies from LA's Diesel Books.
You guys, I don't want to bum you out or anything, but I think there's a good chance than some self-described capitalists aren't really into capitalism.
Sorry.
Take incentives: Charlie Munger, capitalism's quippiest pitchman, famously said, "Show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome." And here's some mindblowing horseshoe theory for ya: Munger agrees with the noted Communist agitator Adam Smith, whose anti-rentier, pro-government-regulation jeremiad "The Wealth of Nations" contains this notorious passage:
It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest. We address ourselves not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages.
Incentives matter – if you design a system that permits abuse, you should expect abuse. Now, I'm not 100% on board with this: every one of us has ways to undetectably cheat the system and enrich ourselves, but most of the time, most of us play by the rules.
But it's different for corporations: the myth of "shareholder supremacy" has reached pandemic levels among the artificial lifeforms we call corporate persons, and it's impossible to rise through the corporate ranks without repeating and believing the catechism that there is a law that requires executives to lie, cheat and steal if it results in an extra dollar for the investors, in the name of "fiduciary duty":
https://pluralistic.net/2024/09/18/falsifiability/#figleaves-not-rubrics
And this attitude has leaked out into politics and everyday life, so that many of our neighbors have been brainwashed into thinking that a successful cheat is a success in life, that pulling a fast one "makes you smart":
https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/04/its-not-a-lie/#its-a-premature-truth
In a world dominated by a belief in the moral virtue and legal necessity of ripping off anyone you can get away with cheating, then, sure, any system that permits cheating is a system in which cheating will occur.
This shouldn't be controversial, but if so, how are we to explain the whole concept of the Internet of Things? Installing networked computers into our appliances, office equipment, vehicles and homes is an invitation of mischief: the software in those computers can be remotely altered after you purchase them, taking away the features you paid for and then selling them back to you.
Now, an advocate for market-based solutions has a ready-made response to this: if a company downgrades a device you own, this merely invites another company to step in with a disenshittifying plug-in that makes things better. If the company that made your garage-door opener pushes an over-the-air update that blocks you from using an ad-free, well-designed app and forces you to use an enshittified app that forces you to look at ads before you can open the garage, well, that's an opportunity for a rival company to sell you a better software update for your garage-door opener, one that restores the lost functionality:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/09/lead-me-not-into-temptation/#chamberlain
I'm no hayekpilled market truefan, but I'm pretty sure that would work.
However.
The problem is that since 1998, that kind of reverse-engineering has been a felony under Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which bans bypassing "an effective access control"
https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/
There's a pretty obvious incentive at play when companies have the ability to unilaterally alter how their products work after you buy them and you are legally prohibited to change how the product works after you buy them. This is the first lesson of the Darth Vader MBA: "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further":
https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/26/hit-with-a-brick/#graceful-failure
I've been banging this drum for decades now – like when I got into a public (friendly) spat with the editor of Wired magazine over their reviews of DRM-based media devices. I argued that it was irresponsible to review a device that could be unilaterally downgraded by the manufacturer at any time, without – at a minimum – noting that the feature you're buying the gadget for might disappear without warning after you've shelled out your hard-earned money:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/03/painful-burning-dribble/#law-of-intended-consequences
Of course, companies that get a reputation for these kinds of shenanigans might lose market share to better competitors. Sure, if the company that made your phone or your thermostat or your insulin pump reached into it across the internet and made it worse, you're shit out of luck when it comes to that device. But you can buy your next device from a better company, right?
Well, sure – in a competitive market, that's a plausible theory of "market discipline." Companies that fear losing business to rivals might behave themselves better.
In theory.
But in practice, the world's "advanced economies" have spent the past 40 years running an uncontrolled experiment in what happens if you don't enforce competition law, and instead allow companies to buy all their competitors. The result is across-the-board industrial oligopolies, cartels, duopolies and monopolies in nearly every category of good and service:
https://www.openmarketsinstitute.org/learn/monopoly-by-the-numbers
Now, even a duopoly has some competition. If you don't like Coke, there's always Pepsi. But again, in practice, companies in concentrated industries find it easy to "tacitly collude" to adopt one another's worst habits – the differences between the outrageous payment processing charged by Apple's App Store and the junk fees charged by Google Play are about as meaningful as the differences between Coke and Pepsi.
Which brings me to printers.
I know.
Ugh.
Printers are the worst and HP is the worst of the worst. For years, HP has been abusing its market dominance – and its customers' wallets – by inflating the price of ink and rolling out countermeasures to prevent you from refilling your old cartridges or buying third-party ink. Worse, HP have mastered the Darth Vader MBA, bushing updates to its printers that sneakily downgrade them after you've bought them and taken them home.
Here's a sneaky trick HP came up with: they send a "security update" to your printer. After you click "OK," a little progress bar zips across the screen and the printer reboots itself, and then…nothing. The printer declares itself to be "up to date" and works exactly like it did before you installed the update. But inside the printer, a countdown timer has kicked off, and then, months later, the "security update" activates itself, like a software Manchurian Candidate.
Because that "security update" protects the security of HP, against HP customers. It is designed to detect and reject the very latest third-party ink cartridges, which means that if you've just bought a year's worth of ink at Costco, you might wake up the next day and discover that your printer will no longer accept them – because of an update you ran six months before.
Why does HP put such a long fuse on its logic bomb? For the same reason that viruses like covid evolve to be contagious before you show symptoms. If the update immediately broke compatibility with third party ink, word would spread, and some HP customers would turn off their printers' wifi before the "security update" could be applied to them.
By asymptomatically incubating the infection over a long, patient timescale, HP maximizes the spread of the contagion, guaranteeing a global pandemic of enshittiification:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/ink-stained-wretches-battle-soul-digital-freedom-taking-place-inside-your-printer
HP has done this – and worse – over and over, and every time I write about it, people pop up to recommend their Brother printers as the enshittification-free alternative. I own a Brother, an HL3170-CDW laser printer that's basically indestructible, cheerfully accepts third-party toner, and costs almost nothing to run.
But I still don't connect it to my wifi. The idea that Brother is a better company than HP – that is possesses some intrinsic antienshittificatory virtue – has always struck me as a foolish belief. Brother has means, motive and opportunity to push over-the-air downgrades to block third-party ink as HP.
Which is exactly what they've done.
Yesterday, Louis Rossman, hero of the Right to Repair movement, revealed that Brother had just pushed a mandatory over-the-air update that locks out third-party ink:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpHX_9fHNqE
Rossman has a thorough technical breakdown of the heist, but it boils down to this. Brother is just as shit as HP. Look from the men to the pigs and the pigs to the men all you want – you will never spot the difference. Take the Pepsi Challenge – bet you won't be able to guess which is which:
https://wiki.rossmanngroup.com/wiki/Brother_ink_lockout_%26_quality_sabotage
This was the absolutely predictable outcome of the regulatory incentives our corporate overlords created, the enormous, far-reaching power we handed to these corporations. With that great power came no responsibility:
https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/26/ursula-franklin/#franklinite
Filling our devices with computers that run programs that can be changed in secret, that we're not allowed to inspect or alter? It's a recipe for a demon-haunted world, where the devices we entrust with our livelihood, our privacy and our wellbeing are possessed by hellions who escape from the digital Tartarus and are unleashed upon humanity.
Demons have possessed the Internet of Things. It's in Teslas:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/edison-not-tesla/#demon-haunted-world
and in every other car, too:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon
Our devices – phones, pacemakers, appliances and home security systems – are designed to prevent us to find out what they're doing. That means that when malicious software infects them, then – by design – these devices prevent us from knowing about it or doing anything about it:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/18/descartes-delenda-est/#self-destruct-sequence-initiated
This should not come as a surprise to anyone. Show me the incentive and I'll show you the outcome.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/05/printers-devil/#show-me-the-incentives-i-will-show-you-the-outcome
#pluralistic#brother#printers#ink#ink-stained wretches#ink wars#demon-haunted world#drm#dmca#dmca 1201#anticirumvention#incentives matter#ulysses pacts#enshittification#darth vader mba
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I’m trying to organise my thoughts in dungeons and dragons au inspired by @noodles-and-tea but it’s taking too long so I’m just doing the important jayvik part here:
Basically, Viktor the DM is running a campaign that is basically the story of arcane. Jayce is one of the players. Arcane!Viktor is an NPC that was designed to be a twist villain. Starting off as a harmless looking ally for Arcane!Jayce (and a way to help Arcane!Jayce get out of his failed charisma check in front of the council). Arcane!Viktor would eventually use the hextech to create the glorious evolution and be the final boss.
(Viktor may or may not be subconsciously projecting himself onto Arcane!Viktor.)
Viktor miscalculated how into the roleplaying Jayce would be. How quickly Jayce would make Arcane!Jayce go ‘This is OUR dream now. Viktor’s MY partner’. Viktor takes pride in his storytelling so he alters the plan a bit. Make the inevitable fallout be based on outside factors. Arcane!Viktor starts to get sicker. Piltover’s society focuses on Arcane!Jayce more, which creates a divide between PC and NPC.
But Jayce never gives up on his NPC friend. Even when Arcane!Jayce fails his insight rolls and gets manipulated by everyone and can’t tell when Arcane!Viktor is keeping secrets from him. Jayce, and thus Arcane!Jayce never gives up on his partner.
Viktor is furious by how Jayce’s roleplaying is ruining the plot line he planned, but he wants to stay faithful to Arcane!Viktor’s character (remember that projecting I mentioned before?). So as a last ditch effort, he decided that an NPC he introduced for a different character’s story: Arcane!Ambessa for Mel’s pc. Arcane!Viktor was already dying, but Jinx’s pc provides the perfect way to kill off the character with a bang.
A literal bang.
Viktor has that sadistic DM glee when he leaves that session on a cliffhanger. And the feeling returns when he opens the next session and describes what Arcane!Jayce sees slowly revealing all the chaos before finally revealing Arcane!Viktor on the floor.
Jayce is devastated and that reaches his character as well. Arcane!Jayce tries some CPR, takes of the clothes and sees the shimmer/hexcore corruption, but still keeps going.
Jayce rolls well enough to get the heart beating again, which annoys Viktor but he makes clear that Arcane!Viktor’s spine is broken, he’s on death saving throws with disadvantage cuz he’s already ill. This is the end.
But then Jayce does the unthinkable. He asks “Our lab is still in the building right? Where the Hexcore is?”
And Viktor has to watch as Arcane!Jayce uses his homebrewing against him. Viktor has to move on to the next scene so he can take some time to figure out what the HELL to do next.
But this NPC is Viktor’s subconscious right? And Viktor has a lot of self-hate. Specifically for his body but he’s going to use that self-hate to create this villain and watch everyone attack the representation of Viktor’s self-hatred. And no, Viktor is not in therapy even though he should be. He claims he has enough medical conditions to deal with then do any mental health stuff.
So the campaign goes through the events of season 2. Jayce and Ekko’s player characters have to disappear because the real people won’t be able to attend the next few sessions. Jayce will tell anyone who will listen how worried he is for his NPC friend. And Viktor plots.
Viktor finally arranges things to convince both in-game and out-game Jayce that Arcane!Viktor had to be killed. By using the love of the character against him. By showing how Arcane!Viktor will be met with a fate worse than death, along with dooming the rest of the world if nothing is done. Jayce losses hope over saving Arcane!Viktor. Real Viktor refuses to analyse how that makes him feel.
And then it’s near the end of the final battle. While the road was complicated, Viktor finally got the final boss he planned for in the beginning. Unfortunately it’s looking like a TPK for his players but Viktor’s really in the zone. Plus Ekko’s got that broken homebrew z-drive, so it will probably be fine, Viktor reasons.
Then Jayce says; “Look we’re running out of options. Maybe… can I try and reach out to Viktor one more time?”
No one’s really confident but they don’t have a choice. Ekko even uses the help action. And by that, I mean he throws the Z-drive into the Machine Herald’s face to buy Arcane!Jayce more time to talk.
And Jayce makes his speech. We all know it. Nearly everyone at the table is near tears, including Viktor.
“Why do you persist?” Arcane!Viktor asks, but it’s a question from the real Viktor as well.
“Because I promised you.” “Also, I reach out to hug him, and I’m hoping he can read my mind and see the future Vik that I saw.”
Viktor doesn’t even make Jayce roll any charisma checks by the end. He’s so touched by the speech (again refusing to analyse his feelings). He still takes his DMing seriously though and says that Arcane!Jayce must leave or he will perish, and Arcane!Viktor will stay and sacrifice himself to release everyone.
“WHAT?!” Jayce cries from the table, “You mean after everything Viktor still has to die?!”
“He played with powerful forces Jayce.” Viktor explains. “The least he could do is fix his mistakes.”
Jayce furrows his brow. “If that’s really how it is… then my character is staying with him.”
“Pardon?”
“You heard me. They made hextech together. They should finish this together. My character will say that straight to his face.”
“Wait, what?” Jinx comes out from the bathroom. “Jayce is your character dying right now?”
And so Viktor ‘s twist villain who was meant to break everyone’s hearts and be easy to hate, dies trying to reverse his mistakes knowing that he is loved, and has always been loved by the partner that’s right there be his side.
Afterwards Jayce tells Viktor that is DMing broke his heart. Viktor just laughs and pretends that Jayce just didn’t a witness a deep part of Viktor’s psyche and gave it so much kindness and love.
#arcane#viktor arcane#jayvik#jayce talis#d&d#tabletop#arcane au#jayvik au#D&D au#trpg#Trpg au#arcane viktor#arcane jayce#jayce arcane#my post#arcane fanfic#Jayvik fanfic#ekko arcane#jayce x viktor#the machine herald#Viktor x jayce#hexcore#hextech#dnd au
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emily gwen absolutely does not deserve to live in poverty but it's a massive stretch to say they invented the flag when it's just another edit of someone's edit of someone's edit of the lipstick lesbian flag. they should get support but im fucking sick of people acting like they did something amazing for us when all they did was add more ugly colors to an existing ugly flag. they deserve better because they're human but no one is taking anything away from them by using the flag that was already derivative
so is my inbox just a magnet for dumbasses lately?
i don't know what the fuck you think the lipstick lesbian flag is, but this is the lipstick lesbian flag:

it was created by a woman named natalie mccray, who is notoriously a racist and transphobe. nevertheless, this flag became very popular in online spaces when it was introduced.
since there was still no official lesbian flag, people then used a derivative of this flag as one. it's not really known who decided to remove the lipstick symbol from it and use it as a flag for lesbians in general. but for a while, this is the flag that some people used:

many people had gripes over using the pink flag as our official one. some didn't like that it was based off a flag made by a bigot, others didn't like that it excluded butches and masc lesbians as pink usually symbolizes femininity (which is absolutely valid; they're the backbone of the lesbian community).
during much of the 2010s, many tried to create their own original lesbian flags. but emily gwen's creation gained much popularity because the meaning behind their flag and the different colours that THEY personally chose resonated with many in the lesbian community. this is the sunset lesbian flag that emily created with all the meanings behind each colour:

emily was not copying the lipstick lesbian flag or anyone else's flag. if you were around during 2018 when emily released this flag, emily would explain time and time again their thought process when they came up with this design (i don't remember it all, but i do remember that the dark orange was actually meant to specifically represent butch lesbians and the dark pink was meant to specifically represent femme lesbians; but emily eventually altered the meanings behind them because butch/femme culture is merely a subculture of lesbian genders and they wanted to include others who are exclusively masculine or feminine but are not butch/femme).
emily's creation of the sunset lesbian flag is a historic part of lesbian culture. they put a lot of thought into the flag, and they've received so much hate for trying to be inclusive of everyone in the community. i don't give a fuck if you like the flag or not, but what you're not going to do is accuse my friend of something that is absolutely untrue and disrespectful.
so get the fuck out of my inbox before you start spouting bullshit. you're an embarrassment to the lesbian community.
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Board game nights | Sawamura Daichi, Azumane Asahi & Sugawara Koushi
Commissioned by @ticklee-sunshine
A/N: I hoooope you enjoy thiiis Suuunshiiiine 💞 as always, I apologize profusely for the delay *sobs* I hope you like it! It was fun to write these cuties. This is based on this post, sent by Sunshine hehe ❤️
Summary: Ah, nothing like enjoying a night with your lifelong friends and... a stupid board game.

Adult life was difficult, but exciting at the same time. Getting a job came with more responsibilities than just doing homework and playing volleyball, but it was always rewarding. However, adult life was also a very busy life; a kind of balance between work, relaxation, family and friends, but Daichi had become very accustomed to it. He loved his job and he thought that he had a very nice grip of things in general, but he couldn't lie, many times he was so tired that he wished he could stay in bed for five days straight.
When all his activities began to take their toll on him, he knew perfectly well that there were two people who were there for him and, although it was a little difficult for one of them to come from Tokyo to Miyagi, they always managed to meet up and spend time together.
It was just one of those days. Daichi, Asahi, and Suga had made plans to spend Friday night together at Suga's house. His apartment was always so cozy and for some reason, Daichi thought it always smelled like cookies. The three of them had eaten dinner and had a couple of cans of beer on them, just enough to make their heads feel just a little light.
They spent much of the night reminiscing and laughing at not only themselves, but also their little and, in Suga's words, adorable kohais. Daichi soon began to feel the tiredness in his shoulders disappear and the stress of the week dissipating. He needed this and he knew Asahi and Suga did too.
“Hey,” Suga chuckled, wiping a tear of laughter from the corner of his eye. “Remember that game?"
Daichi tilted his head to the side. “What game?”
“Oh no.” There was horror in Asahi’s features, but a little smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. Daichi was even more confused, especially when Suga got up with a bright grin and disappeared into his room, coming back a few moments later with a Jenga box. Both Asahi and Daichi gasped, their cheeks flushing.
“Oh my goodness, why do you still have that?!” Daichi said, chuckling a little as Suga sat back down on his side of the table at Daichi's right. He pulled out the tower of Jenga pieces and it was as if a hurricane of memories flooded his head, making him laugh lightly.
“Oh please, don't tell me we're-”
“Our dear designer will go first!” Suga interrupted Asahi, pushing the tower between them.
“Why me?!”
Daichi laughed. A little bit of excitement swirled in his chest. He still remembered perfectly well the day when Suga, of course, had proposed to alter this Jenga game. It was a normal game: pieces of wood that you had to take out and place on top, but with the peculiarity that on each piece there was a small inscription, made by Suga himself, with a permanent marker.
Daichi could see that the letters hadn't worn off at all, even after playing for so long on the weekends when they were in high school. On each piece a small punishment or 'dare', as Suga called it, was written and all of them, absolutely all of them, were related to tickling. Tickling a body part for a certain amount of time, enduring being tickled without laughing, doing something stupid to avoid being tickled, Suga had come up with all sorts of ideas that had really blown Daichi and Asahi's minds. The work of a true sadist, Asahi had said at the time, earning himself a second round of tickling just because.
“Loser will pay for breakfast tomorrow, okay?"
It wasn't like Daichi or Asahi could say no... and it wasn't like they wanted to say no, either. Daichi had to be honest, he was excited to play again, and from the goofy smiles on his friends' faces, he knew they did too. Especially Suga.
Asahi whined, but he reached out, his hand shaking slightly as he pulled the first piece out. He immediately tried to pull it on top, but Suga snatched it off his hand and read the inscription out loud:
“Three minutes of tummy tickles.”
Asahi whined again, almost kicking his legs like a child throwing a tantrum as he grabbed the block from Suga's hand and carefully placed it on top. Daichi laughed and pulled out his phone, setting the timer.
Poor Asahi was already laughing even as he lay on the floor, infecting Daichi and Suga. Both men stood on either side of Asahi and Suga immediately lifted up his shirt, exposing his toned stomach.
“I hope my tickling abilities aren't too rusty,” Suga said, wiggling his fingers just above Asahi's tummy, making him squirm and whine. “Ready, Dai?”
“Why are you asking Daichi if-”
“Ready!”
“Gahahaha!”
The laughter of the three echoed throughout the house as four hands descended against Asahi's stomach. The former ace immediately curled up into a ball, trying to protect his stomach, but there wasn't much he could do with four hands on him. Daichi's fingers ran quickly up and down and back and forth, scribbling all over the warm skin. Suga, on the other hand, dug and vibrated his fingers forming a claw against the center and sides of Asahi's belly, right around his navel.
“S-Stahahahap!”
Daichi chuckled, “you certainly are still ticklish, huh?”
“And I certainly haven't lost my touch!” Suga chirped, giggling when he made Asahi squeal and jerk heavily to the side.
Daichi felt like he was back in high school and laughed happily along with Asahi and Suga until his phone rang, signaling the end of the two minutes. Asahi sighed, quickly pulling down his shirt and laughing when Suga mischievously poked the side of his tummy.
“Dahahaichi! Suga is ch-cheheating!”
“Don't worry, it's his turn now.”
Suga looked up with wide eyes and said something about how it was unfair that it was his turn already when he had bought and taken care of the game, but as they settled back around the table, Daichi and Asahi looked at him with mischievous smiles and he had no choice but to take out a block.
“It says 30 seconds of side tickling,” he said, barely turning to look at the block, but before he could place it on top of the tower, Daichi grabbed his wrist and snatched the block from him. “No!”
“Oya?” Daichi smirked, turning the block around so the other two could see it too, Asahi leaned forward to read it, Suga groaned. “Ticklers’ choice + two minutes.”
“That is so unfair!”
“I ask for his ribs,” Asahi said, totally ignoring Suga as he looked at Daichi with a smirk.
Daichi nodded, “then I'll go for his hips.”
“Hey! Why are you guys being so mean?!” Suga yelled, but he stay laid down against the floor, Daichi and Asahi quickly hovering over him. “W-Why do you have to ch-choose such horrible s-s-”
“You can start now, Asahi!”
Suga began to squirm under their hands. Asahi's light, gentle, almost shy fingers carefully dug against his ribs and into the ticklish spaces between them, rubbing circles and squeezing and pinching, knowing Suga was weaker to harder tickles. Meanwhile, Daichi's fingers pressed against Suga's hip bones, rubbing circles that had Suga bouncing his hips and moving them from side to side as if he was dancing.
“He's so ticklish, isn't he?” Asahi asked, giggling when he found a pair of ribs that made Suga squeal.
“He truly is. What's the matter, sensei~? Can't stand a little tickling?”
“I'm gohohonna kihihihill you!” Suga cackled, his hands weakly trying to push at Asahi's. “It's beheheheen mohohore thahan two m-minutes!”
Just as he said that, Daichi's phone rang again and that was when the adrenaline started running through his veins. It was his turn! He has always had very bad luck in these kinds of games!
“I feel so bad for you,” Asahi said, patting his back and Daichi reached out to pinch his side. Asahi giggled, pulling away.
“I do too,” Suga chuckled, already recovered from the tickle attack as he carefully placed his block on top of the tower. “Anyways, go ahead, Daichi!” Oh he was so ready to destroy it.
Daichi picked a wooden piece and pulled it out ridiculously slow, causing Suga to yell at him to hurry up. Asahi laughed, but Daichi was sweating as he read the block.
Oh heavens.
He looked at both men. “I- I think we should- ah!”
“What does it say?! What does it say?!”
Asahi read the lines out loud after taking the block from Daichi's hand and Daichi, rather childishly, covered his ears to not hear, as if that could be of any help.
“Hehe, it says ‘big prize! Getting tickled in your worst spot for three minutes with your arms and/or feet pinned down!’.”
“N-Noho, please! Let- Let me choose another one, yes? I- I- n-no! Nohoho!”
Both Suga and Asahi launched themselves at him, knocking him to the floor. Each one grabbed one of Daichi's wrists and pushed them up over his head, exposing his most ticklish spot: his underarms. Daichi shook his head, giggling like crazy.
“Please, no! Plehehease, please, s-somewhehere ehelse!” He begged, looking up at his merciless captors, but he knew he had no way out of this.
Asahi set the timer as he still begged, shrieking as Suga acted as if he was going to start tickling him already, letting his hand fall towards his armpit before stopping it just a few centimeters away from his weak spot. He was already pink in the face and he couldn't stop giggling as the others tightened their hold around his wrists.
“Plehease! G-Guhuys, I really can't-”
“Aaaand… now!”
The feeling of Asahi and Suga's fingers on his armpits was simply indescribable. Every nerve under his arms set off and the sensations traveled to his brain like little jolts of electricity. The laughter that poured from his lips was loud and hysterical. It had been so long since he was tickled like this, he could barely stand it.
Daichi laughed, begged and screamed for them to stop, but he was almost certain that, at most, only five seconds had passed of the three minutes that awaited him.
“P-PLEHEASE! N-Not thehehere!”
Suga and Asahi giggled and chuckled, their fingers digging, pinching, rubbing, prodding and just doing about anything they could think of to tickle Daichi's poor, exposed and ticklish armpits. They knew how to tickle him so well, they had already so much experience and they truly hadn't forgotten about anything.
Daichi cackled and howled, shrieking ridiculously loud as his legs kicked and his body squirmed from side to side. He was surprised he couldn't free himself from their grip, he did a lot of training at work, but there he was, being reduced to a laughing mess by some tickles to his armpits.
“What's the matter, policeman~?” Suga teased, giggling loudly. “Can't stand a little tickling? Let's hope no criminals know about your weakness!”
Asahi laughed, shaking his head. “You are terrible. Daichi, tell him something, don't let him mock justice like this!”
They were both terrible! Daichi felt his face getting hot and he tried to say something, but he just couldn't, not when he was laughing like that.
“Five… four… three.. two… one… zero!”
Daichi collapsed on the floor, breathing heavily as he tried to stop the laughter that continued to flow out of him. He didn't even have the strength to lower his arms, but Suga and Asahi helped him... by tickling him again. Daichi immediately lowered his arms, writhing on the floor.
“G-Gohohoodnehehess, this g-game is teheherrible!”
“You're just unlucky, or should I say, very lucky?" Suga giggled, poking Daichi's ribs and tummy until he sat back again, letting out a long sigh as he put his block in olace. "Okay, Asahi, you're next!”
"This can't get any worse, right? Oh..."
"Let's see," Suga chuckled, taking the block from Asahi's hand and grinning wildly at the words. "Three minutes of feet tickling with brushes~"
"Plehehease, d-don't! Anything buhut thahat!"
Daichi thought perhaps it wasn't that he was unlucky in this game... Suga simply was, indeed, a sadist!
#haikyuu!!#haikyuu!! tickling#sawamura daichi#azumane asahi#sugawara koushi#ticklish!daichi#ticklish!asahi#ticklish!suga#tickle fic#mia's things#commission#commissions
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Maudado’s Debut 💛✨
Bjd custom I made for my friend Sev_thecat for our meetup at Eurofurence! She is also on display at the artshow ^~^.
She was based off of Sev’s furry design of the youtuber Maudado, who has been their special blorbo for a while. While having a conversation about wishing for youtuber figures I got the idea for a kickass present.
Originally I was planning on altering a Mova Planet doll, but Bonbon Galaxy’s Furry body type went on sale soon after I had the idea and it was perfect!
I had to sculpt the hair as I’m rubbish at fiber craft, and her eyes where custom as they needed to be so big.
I was learning as I go while sewing the hoodie but as Sev’s a sewing fan I’m sure she’ll have a new wardrobe soon!
#traditional art#maudado#bonbon galaxy#furry#bjd doll#ooak#fanart#animal#kawaii#cute#furry oc#artists on tumblr#artist on tumblr#figurine#art#youtuber#fursona#featured
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Simply Plural & Solo Server Organization Assistance
I noticed another uptick in systems requesting help organizing their simply plural. So that's what this post is. Featuring how we organize our system server on Revolt/Discord because it's safer for us than downloading an explicitly system-focused app. We don't talk about aesthetic or whatever since our Simply Plural is a wreck. If you're just looking for aesthetic inspiration sorry but you should go elsewhere. Also we're in the middle of remodeling so ignore the mess. Pictures and stuff below.

Ok I'm gonna start with Simply Plural.
We started by organizing based on system. Side systems aren't included in the main system category cuz why would they be.
The "Update" section has profiles that Anna or another archivist/manager wants to look at and profiles that alters haven't added to since making it.
Here's the inside of the main systems folder
"Age" is organized like this
"Littles" being 0-9, "Middles" being 10-12, "Teens" being 13-19, and "Adults" being 20+. Regressors can be any age but some of them asked for a section so they got one. We only really use the specific ages for parts who are stuck or who jump. Updating every alter who ages when they do is hard and not worth it when they can just tell us their age in the designated custom field.
"Extra" just has sections for dormant parts, integrated parts, and who the integrated parts went to. If we know who integrated into who, we have a custom field for specificity.
"Families & Special Groups" is for parts who are family members and parts who split off at the same time and are still together. The groups are usually in their own little bubble but there's no discernible effect on memories and memory sharing so we don't count them as a sub or side system.
"Formation Status" has 3 sub-sections for fragments, "in-betweens", and formed.
"Gender" has subsections for feminine alignment, masculine alignment, queer/GNC, and gender hoarders. Queer/GNC has subsections for any singular gender identity parts have listed that aren't exclusively feminine or masculine (e.g. nonbinary, agender, genderqueer, pangender). We tried to restrict it to "at least 3 parts have to experience this for it to be an official subsection" but we're pretty lenient about that. It gives parts trying to discover who they are or build themselves a little ground work at least.
"Interaction Status" has these subsections
You can probably figure that out on your own.
"Location" has subsections for various parts of our headspace where parts stay when they're not fronting.
Nutty added the "Name" section. He likes to alphabetize things and I guess our Simply Plural is no exception.
"Orientation" has subsections for romantic orientation, sexual orientation, and a section called "double down" which just means both orientations are the same (e.g. being biromantic and bisexual, being heteromantic and heterosexual). I think this is a messy way of doing this section, but I was outvoted.
"Preferred Language" has subsections for all the languages we or other parts know, knew, or have learned. We aren't fluent in much other than English, but there are parts who know a lot more than others in certain languages and that's really what this section is for.
"Religion" has more subsections than I thought but the division makes sense. Anyway you probably won't need to include this section unless parts have very different views on religion.
"Role" has a ton of subsections. Anna or whoever organized it tried narrowing it down. So "protectors" has subsections for aggressive, emotional, physical, preventative, sexual, social, and verbal. You probably won't need all that, but if it feels better having subsections for your subsections instead of putting specifics in your custom fields, to each their own. Lemme know if you guys want some role/function examples and how they operate in our system.
"Silly Groups" has subsections for silly groups. "Green Gang" consists of parts who have all set their profile color as green. "Freaks and Creeps" has parts who have a shared interest in supernatural and paranormal entities. I'm in "Gamers Anonymous" and we talk about video games and make fun of cishet CoD players. It's been really fun and Dr. Collins thinks it helps with integration and connection or something. So make silly groups. It's worth it I promise.
"Species" is for species. We got subsections for dead alters (like ghosts and Dacir and stuff), humans, nonhumans, objects, shapeshifters, voiders, and alters who don't know or don't feel like either. "Nonhumans" has subsections for different animals and anthros who identify as nonhuman.
"Subsystems" have subsystems. There aren't sections for roles since the roles are already established in other sections, but if the subsystem has roles specific to that subsystem, maybe put those roles in that section. That was a lot of S words. My bad.
Side systems have their own roles because they're not a part of the main system and it would be bad if the managers confused them and marked them dormant. But there's a similar process I think. We don't really have access to them so it's hard to tell if they even know about this stuff, but a couple of the side systems seem to have updated their profiles and groups so that's promising.
And here's how we do our Revolt.
We switched to Revolt after Discord announced their plan to switch from the current model - which is cool and good - to the stupid model - which is stupid and bad. Enshittification takes a while but so does transferring all of our stuff so at least we'll be ahead of it. Anyway Revolt is exactly like Discord but without the subscription and paid stuff so if you're using Discord this tutorial can still be helpful.
We have a server for the main system and servers for sub and side systems. Side systems are harder to communicate with — especially since there are presumably very few alters in the known side systems that know about this stuff (and care enough to look) — but this has made it way easier.
Anna started by putting the "Sysfo & General" category at the top. She thought it'd be easier for newbies if what they needed to see was where they opened up. I agree with this thought process.
"Read Me" is her introducing herself, introducing the server, and outlining the rules. Pretty simple - don't snoop, be respectful of boundaries and triggers, date and add context to body/irl pics, stuff like that.
"Roles" is describing alter roles and functions. Has basic roles like host, persecutor, gatekeeper and more system-specific roles like archivist, mimic, filters, and more.
"Innerworld Mapping" has pictures but it's more writing than I expected. Names places, puts pictures that relate to those places, and describes the layers and connections. A lot of fakes ("NPCs"?) listed there too which is nice when I go to clean out our Simply Plural. Parts get confused sometimes. I don't blame them. Fakes are confusing.
"Accounts" is where we keep account information. We put emails and usernames in without censoring but coded passwords so the only place we have those fully written out is in our real life journal.
"Recipes" is self explanatory.
"Body Pictures" is where we put pictures that are taken of our body. The rule for that section is that you're only supposed to put body pictures in there if multiple parts are fronting or if whoever's putting the pic in doesn't know who the fronter was. Other than that, Anna said that she wants the body pictures that specific parts take should go in their "Pictures" channel.
"Memes" section is for memes that we relate to but are specifically about our disorders or symptoms. "DID Pics" is for pictures that we relate to as a system but they aren't memes. Pretty dark place. I try to avoid it but I noticed some of the traumaholders really like it. I think that's concerning but it's none of my business.
"Shared Journal" is for communication or general logging.
"Example" category is a placeholder for the parts name. For dormant or integrated parts, we do this
Here's what Anna wrote for the example "Info" section
"Faceclaims" is self explanatory. "Front Tells" is self explanatory. "Triggers/Draws" are separated by message but are kept in the same channel.
Here's what she said about "Pictures" and "Videos"
Here's what she said about "Links"
And here's what she said about "Journal"
That's all from me if you have questions, need more advice, wanna check out our custom fields, or anything else leave it in the comments, mailbox, or reblogs and we'll get back to you 👍
dividers from
and
#idk how to tag this sorry#i'll let a manager deal with it#mixed/blurry#simply plural#sp inspo#simply plural inspo#simplyplural#simply plural resources#system resources#did community#osdd community#plural community#system community#cdid community#system things#system stuff#system blog#actually a system#system#did system#osdd system#polyfrag system#cdid system#plural system#dissociative identity disorder#osddid#polyfrag did#actually polyfrag#plurality#sysblr
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Living online means never quite understanding what’s happening to you at a given moment. Why these search results? Why this product recommendation? There is a feeling—often warranted, sometimes conspiracy-minded—that we are constantly manipulated by platforms and websites.
So-called dark patterns, deceptive bits of web design that can trick people into certain choices online, make it harder to unsubscribe from a scammy or unwanted newsletter; they nudge us into purchases. Algorithms optimized for engagement shape what we see on social media and can goad us into participation by showing us things that are likely to provoke strong emotional responses. But although we know that all of this is happening in aggregate, it’s hard to know specifically how large technology companies exert their influence over our lives.
This week, Wired published a story by the former FTC attorney Megan Gray that illustrates the dynamic in a nutshell. The op-ed argued that Google alters user searches to include more lucrative keywords. For example, Google is said to surreptitiously replace a query for “children’s clothing” with “NIKOLAI-brand kidswear” on the back end in order to direct users to lucrative shopping links on the results page. It’s an alarming allegation, and Ned Adriance, a spokesperson for Google, told me that it’s “flat-out false.” Gray, who is also a former vice president of the Google Search competitor DuckDuckGo, had seemingly misinterpreted a chart that was briefly presented during the company’s ongoing U.S. et al v. Google trial, in which the company is defending itself against charges that it violated federal antitrust law. (That chart, according to Adriance, represents a “phrase match” feature that the company uses for its ads product; “Google does not delete queries and replace them with ones that monetize better as the opinion piece suggests, and the organic results you see in Search are not affected by our ads systems,” he said.)
Gray told me, “I stand by my larger point—the Google Search team and Google ad team worked together to secretly boost commercial queries, which triggered more ads and thus revenue. Google isn’t contesting this, as far as I know.” In a statement, Chelsea Russo, another Google spokesperson, reiterated that the company’s products do not work this way and cited testimony from Google VP Jerry Dischler that “the organic team does not take data from the ads team in order to affect its ranking and affect its result.” Wired did not respond to a request for comment. Last night, the publication removed the story from its website, noting that it does not meet Wired’s editorial standards.
It’s hard to know what to make of these competing statements. Gray’s specific facts may be wrong, but the broader concerns about Google’s business—that it makes monetization decisions that could lead the product to feel less useful or enjoyable—form the heart of the government’s case against the company. None of this is easy to untangle in plain English—in fact, that’s the whole point of the trial. For most of us, evidence about Big Tech’s products tends to be anecdotal or fuzzy—more vibes-based than factual. Google may not be altering billions of queries in the manner that the Wired story suggests, but the company is constantly tweaking and ranking what we see, while injecting ads and proprietary widgets into our feed, thereby altering our experience. And so we end up saying that Google Search is less useful now or that shopping on Amazon has gotten worse. These tools are so embedded in our lives that we feel acutely that something is off, even if we can’t put our finger on the technical problem.
That’s changing. In the past month, thanks to a series of antitrust actions on behalf of the federal government, hard evidence of the ways that Silicon Valley’s biggest companies are wielding their influence is trickling out. Google’s trial is under way, and while the tech giant is trying to keep testimony locked down, the past four weeks have helped illustrate—via internal company documents and slide decks like the one cited by Wired—how Google has used its war chest to broker deals and dominate the search market. Perhaps the specifics of Gray’s essay were off, but we have learned, for instance, how company executives considered adjusting Google’s products to lead to more “monetizable queries.” And just last week, the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against Amazon alleging anticompetitive practices. (Amazon has called the suit “misguided.”)
Filings related to that suit have delivered a staggering revelation concerning a secretive Amazon algorithm code-named Project Nessie. The particulars of Nessie were heavily redacted in the public complaint, but this week The Wall Street Journal revealed details of the program. According to the unredacted complaint, a copy of which I have also viewed, Nessie—which is no longer in use—monitored industry prices of specific goods to determine whether competitors were algorithmically matching Amazon’s prices. In the event that competitors were, Nessie would exploit this by systematically raising prices on goods across Amazon, encouraging its competitors to follow suit. Amazon, via the algorithm, knew that it would be able to charge more on its own site, because it didn’t have to worry about being undercut elsewhere, thereby making the broader online shopping experience worse for everyone. An Amazon spokesperson told the Journal that the FTC is mischaracterizing the tool, and suggested that Nessie was a way to monitor competitor pricing and keep price-matching algorithms from dropping prices to unsustainable levels (the company did not respond to my request for comment).
In the FTC’s telling, Project Nessie demonstrates the sheer scope of Amazon’s power in online markets. The project arguably amounted to a form of unilateral price fixing, where Amazon essentially goaded its competitors into acting like cartel members without even knowing they’d done so—all while raising prices on consumers. It’s an astonishing form of influence, powered by behind-the-scenes technology.
The government will need to prove whether this type of algorithmic influence is illegal. But even putting legality aside, Project Nessie is a sterling example of the way that Big Tech has supercharged capitalistic tendencies and manipulated markets in unnatural and opaque ways. It demonstrates the muscle that a company can throw around when it has consolidated its position in a given sector. The complaint alleges that Amazon’s reach and logistics capabilities force third-party sellers to offer products on Amazon and for lower prices than other retailers. Once it captured a significant share of the retail market, Amazon was allegedly able to use algorithmic tools such as Nessie to drive prices up for specific products, boosting revenues and manipulating competitors.
Reading about Project Nessie, I was surprised to feel a sense of relief. In recent years, customer-satisfaction ratings have dipped among Amazon shoppers who have cited delivery disruptions, an explosion of third-party sellers, and poor-quality products as reasons for frustration. In my own life and among friends and relatives, there has been a growing feeling that shopping on the platform has become a slog, with fewer deals and far more junk to sift through. Again, these feelings tend to occupy vibe territory: Amazon’s bigness seems stifling or grating in ways that aren’t always easy to explain. But Nessie offers a partial explanation for this frustration, as do revelations about Google’s various product adjustments. We have the sense that we’re being manipulated because, well, we are. It’s a bit like feeling vaguely sick, going to the doctor, and receiving a blood-test result confirming that, yes, the malaise you experienced is actually an iron deficiency. It is the catharsis of, at long last, receiving a diagnosis.
This is the true power of the surge in anti-monopoly litigation. (According to experts in the field, September was “the most extraordinary month they have ever seen in antitrust.”) Whether or not any of these lawsuits results in corporate breakups or lasting change, they are, effectively, an MRI of our sprawling digital economy—a forensic look at what these larger-than-life technology companies are really doing, and how they are exerting their influence and causing damage. It is confirmation that what so many of us have felt—that the platforms dictating our online experiences are behaving unnaturally and manipulatively—is not merely a paranoid delusion, but the effect of an asymmetrical relationship between the giants of scale and us, the users.
In recent years, it’s been harder to love the internet, a miracle of connectivity that feels ever more bloated, stagnant, commercialized, and junkified. We are just now starting to understand the specifics of this transformation—the true influence of Silicon Valley’s vise grip on our lives. It turns out that the slow rot we might feel isn’t just in our heads, after all.
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How about any TTRPGs set underwater that aren't horror themed?
THEME: Underwater Games.
Hello friend! I am so sorry that your asks got eaten - I'm glad to have them back! (It looks like Tabletop Trick or Treat unearthed a few gems.)
Now, let's see what kind of underwater games I can fish up for you!
Deepwater Enclaves, by kiryas.
Just plain old air pollution? A failed weather control experiment? Or more sinister forces? Nobody will know for sure why earth cooled below a dark mantle of clouds in the 1980s. Agriculture could not adapt fast enough and when conventional battles for the few remaining natural resources close to the equatorial line erupted into full-scale nuclear war, humanity was on the brink of extinction. Less than five hundred thousand mostly malnourished, freezing humans were left, when the year 2000 began.
This game is about venturing from a safe Community into the unknown. At the core are taking risks for your loved ones; sometimes this is at odds with your individual motives.
Deepwater Enclaves is a Rooted in Trophy game that contains a number of roll tables with evocative choices, and a community creation that involves the entire table. As players, you play both your character and a member of the community who is important to someone else. You play through a series of scenes, structured in a similar way to the way you might set up a scene in a tv show.
To participate in a scene, if you are not one of the original characters set to play a role, other players must spend a token. These tokens are also used to affect outcomes from when you roll, as well as reduce risks that may pop up as you play. You need two different colours or shades of d6’s for this: one colour will represent regular dice, while the other will represent “dark” dice, which raise the stakes whenever you roll with them.
Overall, I think this game is about exploration and survival. I think it has the potential to be a horror game if you want it to be, but you can also alter the tone to redirect the story towards something more dramatic, perhaps centring the game more on your community, and awarding the players with enough tokens to give them the ability to pull themselves out of danger.
Carcinauts!, by Hessan Yongdi.
Carcinauts! is inspired by a famous British children's animated TV show that takes place in and around the sea. You play animal explorers, scientists, and rescuers. Joined by your many friends and helpers, you seek to learn more about our fascinating oceans. Make the world a better place for the animals who live in and around the Great Blue Sea!
Based on the prolific Dominus system created by members of the Brazilian RPG community, Carcinauts! is designed to allow for quick play without a game master. This makes it idea for a solo session in the Sea or a team adventure, using the tables to build out your story. Its simple rules based around d6s and largely non-violent topic materials also make this game child-friendly.
Carcinauts is a two-page game that feels a little bit like a kid’s show; you are all underwater animal explorers, going on missions and solving problems. The resolution of the game is called the Dilemma oracle, and is fairly simple. You must determine two possible outcomes or answers, and then roll 1d6. On a 1-3 the first option is true, on a 4-6 a second option is true. These outcomes need not necessarily be “success” and “failure” either. They could be “left” and :right”, “up” and “down”, or “true” and “false”. This resolution system also makes the game friendly to solo gamers or GM-less tables.
If you want a light-hearted game about underwater explorers, which generates a lot of story ideas for you, maybe check out Carcinauts.
Deep Love, by Bully Pulpit Games.
You’ve come to this paradise to drop a two-and-a-half ton iron ball off the side of a ship and lower it almost a kilometer into the abyss.
You’ve come to crawl inside that iron ball and go down with it, to see what there is to see down there.
You’ve come with three other brilliant adventurers, friends, and lovers, and you’ll all get a chance to descend and risk your lives in exchange for seeing things no human being has ever seen. And maybe, in the inky darkness and cold silence, you’ll find a measure of happiness and fulfillment.
Deep Love has a fond appreciation for old naturalist drawings of various fish, and uses those drawings as the art for the game. You play four characters, possibly pre-generated, on an expedition to the deep waters of an island for a geographic expedition. You all have feelings for each-other, and you’ll have to spend some extended time in a bathysphere to sort this out.
This game looks like it’s equal parts emotional conversation & role play, and, on the other hand, discovering the wonder of the ocean. According to the designer, it looks like you can modify how much you want to experience the former, and how much you want to experience the latter. If you want a game that gives you the tools to explore both your character’s internal emotional landscape as well as the strange underwater world around them, you might like Deep Love.
Submerged, by Arcane Atlas Games.
SUBMERGED is a solo journalling game of undersea exploration.
In this game, you take on the role of a daring explorer aboard a submersible. You have been charged with venturing into the depths of the ocean, to find something wondrous and undiscovered, hidden deep below the waves.
This one is for the solo gamers! It’s based on Carta, which uses a deck of cards to explore a map or series of locations. The player draws a number of cards and lays them face-down in a grid. Each turn, you move to a new card, flip it over, and come up with a journal entry based on the prompt the card gives you. The four suits represent four elements of the game: the Lost City, The Creature, the Wreckage, and the Signal. All of these elements play into the themes of mystery and exploration that this game seems to be about, but I don’t think any of it is necessarily horror-focused.
24XX The Deep, by Chaosmeister.
ONE DAY THE OCEANS DROWNED THE WORLD. Humanity survived below the waves. The sea birthed leviathans. Your crew owns a dingy old sub. Odd jobs, salvage, leviathan hunting and a few merc gigs keep you afloat and breathing.
24XX The Deep is a game about underwater survival and it’s also a drama. As a 24XX game, it’s only a few pages, but those pages distill the necessary parts of the game into a few things: customization for your submarine (aesthetic and mechanic), character options, and roll tables for pieces of the world, such as the factions that your crew might have to work with or work against.
The designer for this game says that 24XX The Deep isn’t necessarily meant to be a horror game, but it can still be a little creepy in tone when you consider the ways the natural underwater environment can raise the stakes for your players.
Aqua Squad, by Em.
A Tunnel Goons hack of aquatic and aquatic-adjacent adventure, created for the Saturday Morning Cartoon Jam.
I think this might be a fairly safe bet considering it was submitted to something called the Saturday Morning Cartoon Jam! As a Tunnel Goons hack, this game is fairly simple. You follow the Submarine crew of the Cuttlefish, as they go for adventures underwater. Players pick character types, which kind of act like characters on a tv show, and fill in a few pieces of information to make those characters fit their play style.
The resolution mechanic involves rolling 2d6 and adding a relevant ability, and adding +1 for any relevant item you might have with you. You must meet or beat the difficulty score to succeed. You start with 3 items, and 10 HP. There isn’t much in terms of GM tools for adventure generation however, other than what appears to be episode title names. These titles can be evocative: you roll two words and put them together, so the GM may have an interesting time designing a “ghostly volcano” for the squad to investigate, or trying to figure out what the title “Vacation Megalodon” might mean.
Signals From The Deep, by Aaron Goss.
SIGNALS FROM THE DEEP is a tense, ocean-floor setting and scenario made using a no dice, no masters roleplaying game system Tiny Tokens.
This scenario takes you and the rest of your old, sentient, deep sea research robot team SEA-4 on a shared voyage, exploring deep sea wonders as you seek out the source of a anomalous signal detected way down at the bottom of the ocean. What awaits you in the depths?
Signals in the Deep is a mystery game, but it’s not necessarily a horror one. The game is small, meant to fit on two double-sized poker-card-sized cards. It’s easy to pick up and carry, and doesn’t have too many rules. Your core goal is to figure out the source of the signal; but what exactly that source is will be up to the GM, at least from what I can see.
Also Check Out…
Octopus Shipwreck Explorer, by SassWrites.
Bones Deep, by Technical Grimoire Games.
Odyssey Aquatica, by Old Dog Games.
My Mermaids TTRPG Recommendations.
The Sea Calls Recommendation Post.
My Coral Recommendation Post from last week.
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Aoife's Tournament Attire
I'm gonna cheat on Aoife's a bit because I found a couple images I think are great representations of what she'd ask Rosie/help Rosie make for her to wear! Additionally, Aoife isn't going to be the sort who is going to be planning out her outfits to make a statement in the same way some of our ladies will!
Daytime i was thinking about this because my gosh.... rosie would have NEVER slept if she was making/altering clothes for the entire Malconaire household! so i think aoife definitely helped brainstorm some ways she could meet valentina's requirements for tourney attire without being too much trouble-- so she definitely repeated pieces of looks in every day but restyled with different overskirts, jackets, etc. i def think these are similar to what she wore! (but maybe not the largest body-less design right off center... that armor-esque look doesn't really say 'aoife' to me!

also aoife pretty much always keeps her hair up in braids but i like to think she lets rosie decorate it with ribbons and flowers <3 and we know at least one of the days she had ribbons in her braids because i *think* she ended up undoing it to give it to @forgottensebastian as a favor since she'd "accidentally" lost the one valentina insisted she bring! but, i think she typically does something like this...

Evenings i def think aoife tried the same move with having a few pieces she'd restyle each evening but i don't think it worked *quite* as well for a couple reasons (that i'm just sort of make my own assumptions so correct me if you think i'm wrong!) 1) i think @forgottenroisin would've wanted to do something special for aoife to wear at least one of the evenings! 2) i assume @forgottenvalentina probably had some strong opinions about what the girls were wearing to those feasts in the evening! i do think she got a couple nights out of just restyling things and i the silhouettes of these seem very close to what aoife would wear!-- just obviously with less ornate jewelry/decoration

sticking with the braid theme, aoife let her hair down a bit for the feasts in the evening but still keeps her signature braids

Valentina's Party even though valentina was insistent on everyone wearing dark green for the tournament aoife (probably with some egging on from rosie!) ended up wearing pale green-- which i sort of think is often her go-to color for more ~formal events! (not me realizing rn that her profile pic is in a light green dress so... i guess maybe that's where i got that inspo? hah!) aoife def doesn't want to draw attention to herself and i think being in those paler colors makes her feel less noticeable... BUT i do think they actually complement her very well :) definitely not so heavily embroidered (also wondering if the base of this dress wasn't what she wore to the ice ball?!) and i def feel this hairstyle is actually close to what she would've worn, completely with some pearls to dress it up--which i think i'm realizing is maybe the only ~fancy jewelry aoife ever really wears?

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not dead, just no internet currently. feel free to send us something nice to come back to!
jasper ira. bodily 23. he/him. mixed indigenous (anishinaabe) & white trash /pos. white passing. taken by @carnage-cathedral
dxed ASPD, AuDHD, OCD. FND. medically recognized pf-DID, NPD, schizospec. physically disabled.
our system has no host. we don’t usually sign off with our names/initials or designated emojis anymore, sometimes we do. if you think you’ve sussed out an introjects source based off of name/initial/emoji/whatever, kindly keep it to yourself. mutuals can ask for simply plural, please respect our privacy and don’t out an alter as their source.
ko-fi
support my music:
bandcamp (preferred)
spotify, apple music/itunes, youtube music, amazon music
instagram, tiktok
demos can be found in my #🪳.music tag
art blog: @juggalofication
retro/vintage blog: @jell-o-mold
iwc: if casual use of f slur & r slur bothers you, you're sex repulsed, you're sensitive to light gore, you're in recovery/clean/ sober or sensitive to substance abuse
we don’t trigger tag unless asked to do so. if you send an anon asking me to tag a trigger, i probably will (or i'll at least try)
dni: under 16, terfs/swerfs, radqueers, pedos, zoos, antisemites, pro war/genocide, racists, ableists, anti cluster b
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do you think furries exist in the undertale universe or are they labeled as like monster apologists
Of course furries would exist in the UT universe. Have you seen Mew Mew Kissy Cutie? Sure, she may not be a truly furry design since she just has cat ears + a cat tail, but it shows that a human with animal features isn't beyond human invention. All you gotta do is push the animal features a bit more and boom! Furry design!
I've always had the HC that modern humans in UT are entirely unaware of the existence of monsters and magic outside of like. Pop culture and Halloween and myths and folktales, which changed and altered lots of details. The first war between humans and monsters happened so long ago that monsters became a myth to humans as the years passed. Along with monsters becoming myths, magic fell into antiquity before disappearing entirely from the human population. Essentially, the Surface is a sort of a reflection of our modern era, except perhaps a bit more futuristic since it's implied that Undertale is set in the future, with Chara having fallen into the Underground back in 201X, which is supposed to be "a long time ago" (anybody ready for the iPhone 86, which comes with a hologram projection feature that nobody uses because it sucks ass?).
But yeah. Back on topic: What happens to furries when monsters come to the Surface. Well, I imagine that the furry community experiences a massive upheaval. The discourse is insaaaaaaaaane. Is it insensitive to have a fursona that you present yourself as online? What about what type of sona you have (like if it's based off a monster or made to look less like an UT monster)? Does this make it more or less acceptable? You'll also have whatever conservative news outlet there is in the UT universe running think pieces about how kids are expressing a desire to turn into monsters by drawing themselves as like. An anthro bunny. God, these monsters are corrupting our youth, won't somebody think of the children???? You'll also have plenty of cases of disappointment from monsterfuckers when they find out that their werewolf boyfriend is actually pretty goofy instead of sexy and broody and isn't going to, um.
Anyways...
I think that for the most part, monsters would find furries pretty cool though. Like, yooooooo. You have a wolfsona with orange fur and neon bones? That's so cool! Can I make a humansona? (and, good lord, that has its own discourse).
#[rusty door hinge noises]#here's a fun question for you: Since Starlo wears a cowboy outfit (which is what he believes humans dress like) and roleplays as a sheriff#(like the humans do in his movies) is Starlo the monster equivalent of a furry for humans? is North Star his humansona?#did Starlo do all the stuff that he did in what is essentially a human fursuit (if you're a monster)?#food for thought.#(sorry if you wanted a more goofy answer I'm not good at those ^^;)#let me know if i need to tag for that gif. iykyk
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🎂 Birthday Yapp Post 🎂
today is our bday!! and we promised to yapp about Velvet and how her fursona and demon forms work! 💜
so the TL;DR is that Velvet as a fursona is a representation of our plurality and her forms represent our alters, and our OC Mist/Stella is a representation of another one of our alters. they all share the same crescent moon tattoos on their left shoulder, and the same piercings!
below we'll go into detail about the process behind Velvet and Mist/Stella as OCs, and show a little bit of our old art and talk about our upcoming plans :3
so Velvet as an OC started back in late october after i had started art after a 5 month art break, and i wanted to explore my identity as a furry and a therian.
i've always resonated with demons and cats, and thought of myself as both of those things! so those were the first things i experimented with c:
with the initial design i based velvet's design off my own appearance and clothing.
after designing velvet as a cat though, it didn't really feel right. there was something about it that both equally felt right and wrong, so i wanted to explore her as a red panda next since i've always felt a kinship with them c:
the red panda felt right, but it also had that same "wrong" feeling as before and i didn't really know why!
in november, we discovered we were plural and we immediately began to incorporate it into our art (or perhaps, we had always incorporated into our art, we just didn't know it)
in terms of alters, Velvet represents Sophia (the host) and Velvet (the co-host) with the demon form, and the red panda form respectively!
we wanted a few commonalities in velvet's designs, which started as the same hair, eyes and similar body type! we continue to explore velvet's two forms as the two hosts of our system, and we further refined their designs over the next few months.
we really like foxes, so we designed a lover for velvet - an OC named Auri (they/she) who isn't based on an alter in our system (to our knowledge)
at this point in velvet's design, the only commonalities between the two designs was the hair style, hair colour and the eye colour!
it was intentional, because when we first became self aware as plural we were similar in terms of personality and identity but as time went on we've become more and more different from each other but have maintained that sort of interconnected bond between us.
some more art of Velvet and Auri from december, and also our OC Ashe (they/them) who we haven't really explored since but we want to absorb her design into some future plans we have for Velvet c:
at the end of december we were drawing more and more of Velvet in her red panda form, and we were experimenting a lot with her design and incorporating some older elements from older designs.
we started drawing her with more and more piercings, and this is one of the common design elements between my alters' fursonas.
in january, we added another common design element between our alters; a crescent moon tattoo on the left shoulder. velvet still has the same eye and hair colour in both designs, but that's something that might change in the future. we also changed their body type, because both of us have different ideas for what we want our body to look like.
we've been experimenting with both of their designs with each art piece and trying to represent ourselves more accurately.
you might be wondering about the cat fursona, that is actually something we've been thinking about, we would like to represent Sophia's identity as a cat furry in the future through Velvet but it's something we're unsure how to approach!
maybe it'll be a third form? who knows! 💜
this is our alter Mist/Stella, and it's fursona. as was mentioned earlier in the post we really like bunnies, and we wanted to make a bunny fursona at one point but it didn't feel quite right.
however, Mist/Stella feels a lot of kinship with bunnies and also sees herself as one and we've been working on her design behind the scenes and we're happy to finally show off some glimpses.
she's an angelic bunny with big floppy ears and big wings. the wings can be hidden, and we wanted to sort of have this "slightly fallen" angel aesthetic to her. she's also non-verbal and we chose to represent this by drawing her without a mouth.
some of the elements of it's design are personal, but she shares the same piercings and crescent moon tattoo as both of Velvet's forms, but it's important to recognize as an individual it isn't Velvet.
What's Next?
well, as you've seen we explore our furry identity and plurality through our art and that's something we're going to keep doing. we want to refine our style, continue experimenting and keep improving!
as for actual plans, we want to eventually design that cat fursona for Sophia, and also we have other alters.. such as an angry shark with major attitude issues.
i'm open to any and all questions!! i'm more than happy to talk about my OCs :3
thank you for reading this far!! ☕💜💜
#furry#anthro#red panda#bunny#plural system#plurality#fursona#therian#transgender#trans#lesbian#art#my art#velvet demon yapping
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So... Shapeways is going bankrupt.
This is particularly irksome for me, as that's a good 1/3rd of my monthly income, so I'm crossing my fingers while I start setting up a new store on cults. I have literally thousands of items so getting them all up is going to take ages.


But why did this happen?
Well I'll fucking tell you what I think happened.
It was a company run on arrogance and cowardice.
Shapeways made its mark as the cafepress of 3d printing. The weight of this was their marketplace that let people sell prints directly to customers without having to do the printing themselves. At its peak, I made more from Shapeways than from my day job.
The problem was that Shapeways put zero effort into the marketplace. They'd send some of us to a con to promote the idea of 3d printing game minis a couple of times, sure, but when it came to actual site maintenance and design every suggestion and request by sellers was roundly ignored. We asked for better search and categorization options. We asked to be able to name variants in our stores. We asked for better communication from the print techs. We asked for accurate subcategories that actually reflected how customers looked for items. None of it was done.
As such, the site was baffling to customers and difficult to understand. This was made worse by Shapeways' continual renaming of their materials. So after a couple of years Shapeways announces that they're not going to do anything for the marketplace because it's underperforming, and are going to focus on B2B, and in doing so they buried the marketplace in a tiny little link on the front page.
Overnight sales plummeted. We complained again, nothing was done. We asked for a different URL that went straight to the marketplace (something that would literally cost them $80 to do) that we could direct customers to, we were ignored.
The marketplace is underperforming, so we won't put in the effort needed to make the marketplace perform. Makes perfect sense.
Prices go up. Shipping goes up substantially, and then it was a thousand little cuts. The auto-checks were altered to make it impossible to verify anything manually with any accuracy, so it became harder to design for the limitations of their printers.
The site slowed down substantially so every click had a several second pause, making shopping and maintaining frustrating and unpleasant. Shipping costs to many areas of the world became insanely high, effectively cutting off entire markets.
Want to not be Shapeways? Then remember this:
Your users know more about your site experience and their own needs than you do.
If you have a sales site, and the people selling through it say "this isn't working, we need this" then maybe you should listen to them and not just say 'you're wrong' to their faces.
Oh, and also, if goddamn Rolls-Royce comes in filing false DMCA claims over the use of the word "Phantom" in any context on your site, you don't take every item through a multiple day review for every edit and say "LOL, we can't do anything"
You take them to court for abusing the system on behalf of your user base, you fucking bootlicking cowards.
OH, AND I ALMOST FORGOT!
I HAD TO FIND OUT ABOUT THIS FROM A DM ON TWITTER.
They've sent me a check every month for half a decade and they don't even send a "We're closing shop" email.

Look upon my prints, ye mighty, and despair.
If you want to help me though the meantime, here's my paypal.me and my gofundme.
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