#folk art tiles

[mexican-tile-store]

Don’t forget that it is not only about tile, but our company also offers as well incredible  Mexican ceramic sinks and toilets. Enjoy the amazing deal you can get by purchasing the Mexican tile mix in different decorative themes and then focus your attention on choosing some of our stunning treasures, especially among bidimensional Mexican high-relief tiles whose execution is just fantastic. The high-relief tiles can embellish backsplashes, counters, stair risers, and many other areas that need a show-stopper effect.

[evan-collins90]

Luna Parc - semi-private museum, atelier, and private home created by artist Ricky Boscarino (est. 1989, pictures are from 2003)

Located in Sandyston Township, New Jersey

Elements of both the Whimiscraft & Org-Nouveau styles

Scanned from 'Artist Interiors: Creative Spaces, Inspired Living' (2003)

[useless-catalanfacts]

17th- and 18th-century tiles decorated with representations of disabled people. From Barcelona, Catalonia. Museu d'Història de Barcelona: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

This tiles are "rajoles d'ofici" (meaning "job tiles" in Catalan language), a typical kind of decorated tiles that were very common in Catalonia between the 16th and 19th centuries, and which have become one of the most iconic examples of Catalan folk art. "Job tiles" are called this way because very often they represented people working, but they also represent people taking part in festivities, hobbies, or many other activities from daily life, as well as animals and workplaces. Thousands of these tiles have been preserved, and thanks to them we can see snippets of life a few centuries ago. (You can find more information and examples of these tiles in this previous post.)

[beautiful-basque-country]

Basque™ tiles. Most Basque people have seen these thousands of times in their lifetime.

[prairiedeath]

source

[hipstafootprint]

Folk Art Masterpiece · Linzer Straße, Vienna · 2017

[court-jobi]

Alexa, Play...

((banner by me! I don't own Horikoshi's work OR the mindblowing art of @gsony24~used w permission))

Pairing: Midoriya x reader

Words: 1.6k

Rating: G~

Warnings: Southern US!GNreader, comfort fic, tooth-rotting fluff here y'all, established relationship, language barrier, dancing-in-the-kitchen level self-insert

Summary:

Izuku comes home to spot your grocery list on the fridge written out in your native language- something he sees just as rarely as hearing you speak it. Just when he thinks he couldn't possibly find you more adorable, you strike a match and chuck it into his heart with a touch as simple as a peck on his cheek, a laugh thrown his way... or -like now- when you chat over the phone in an accent he never gets to hear. He wants to hear more so badly, and asks for it so sweetly.

A/N: a short n'sweet one today, folks, bc I was missing writing for this sweet green bean. I have yet to see MHA: You're Next, but have no one to see it with ughhhhh so off to writing fanfic to soothe the pain~

For my My Hero Academia Masterlist, check it out here!

Read on Ao3

You're on the phone with your mom when Izuku finds your sticky note for shopping on the fridge. His mindful shut of the door was appreciated by your mouthed apology, but let him know that he'd best occupy himself solo for a bit while you catch up. The time difference between your home country and here leaves your windows to chat limited, so he’s happy when your schedules align like this. 

If you'll be on a while longer, he thinks he can take a quick drive and pick up these few things for you. Inspired by the idea, he plucks the list out from the magnet’s hold.

You've got nice handwriting, a blend between printed letters and a tilted, cursive script. Personality shines especially near the end of a word, when you're rushing to move onto the next thought. 

Painter’s tape

bananas

white vinegar (stupid drain line)

It's so simple, but when it's written in your native language by default, it feels like a secret to be reading even something so simple as a list like this– scribbled out in the way as it appears in your head.

For most formal paperwork, your kana characters are decently executed, though it's always going to be harder when you grew up speaking Japanese rather than filling out lines and lines of bellwork in the kanji style. This isn't to say you've not been trying:

Over the course of your courtship, you've bonded with young Eri as an extension of Izuku's life and have inherited some of her early learning textbooks. You happened on them by accident, when you were helping her paint her room a few months ago. It sounded elementary when you expressed the interest to read and write Japanese better, and the sweet girl was so enthusiastic to help! 

She lent you her books, but of course you weren't becoming an expert overnight. However slow you’d pace yourself, Izuku was plenty proud of you for making the effort. He'd allow you as much grace as he could spare– especially since your notes were still so cute to find here and there~

Across the room, pacing along every other tile on the floor like stepping stones, you look up catching Izuku staring. You’ve been deep in conversation for only about an hour, but give him a wrench of your nose in jest, and begin wrapping up the call explaining that he’s home and you’d like to greet him properly. 

Izuku calls out a quick 'hi’ and ‘bye' to your mom when he motions to go on speaker; you're not one to refuse him, as he well knows. 

You seem pleased on more than one front when he asks to talk to your family, so he continues to do it. For one, you’re touched by how spirited he is to even want to interact with your mother, and his dropping of formalities and reverting to English to speak to her means a lot to you. Neither point is lost on sweet Izuku, based on how your smile brightens when he jogs over to you to be more in speaking range. 

When you hang up, you're quick to pop up and kiss him as a welcome home. Izuku hangs onto you a little longer than usual, thumb rubbing into your cheek as he savors you several times in quick succession. 

Just when he thinks he couldn't possibly find you more adorable, you strike a match and chuck it into his heart with a touch as simple as a peck on his cheek or a laugh thrown his way. 

“‘Zuku, what's that look for, babe?” 

In your sentimental bliss, you're still surprised to get such adoring treatment from him almost a year into a relationship. 

“Nothing,” Izuku chimes back, “I just forget that you're this American sometimes~”

“Whaddya mean, ‘you forget’?!” the concept sounds hilarious to you. 

“I do!” Izuku offers to take your phone to plug it in nearby, “I have to remind myself that Japanese isn't your first language, until I see you on FaceTime with your mom. Out of nowhere, I'll just hear you sound so different, like: ‘byyyye~ talk to y'all later’!”

You snort at his attempt at a southern accent– stiff and stuck on the wrong vowels. Clearly this succeeds in amusing you, because you hop up and down on the balls of your feet like you've discovered a new game:

“Oh my God, ‘Texas Smash Deku’ is the stuff of my fantasies!– oo!! say, ‘I’d like a honey butter chicken biscuit’~”

“WHAT?? N-no!!”

“What YES!! Please??”

Both doubled over in laughter, you're entertained over his thorough embarrassment, but you're both smitten and carefree: holding onto each other despite nearly buckling at the knees.

Izuku tries his best to catch his breathe first, determined to explain himself,

“I can't do it right! It's like- you say things- I don't know how to describe it! It's not just the flat, movie star accent.. It's–"

“What, a-- ‘drawl’? ‘Twang’?”

Izuku snaps at the realization.

“Yes!! That!! The country kind, like that chef you watch!”

You've rolled your eyes, stepping out of his kind hold in favor of checking out what takeout he brought home. 

“-Hey, no, come back!”

“‘Makin’ fun'ah my accent, I outta smack you’.”

You're far from really mad as you tote around the kitchen getting silverware and soy sauce, but Izuku follows you around like a shadow regardless. Eyes full of that puppy love, he does try to block you in from the pantry closet,

“I’m sorry, honey~”

“No you're not.” --but you're grinning out of forgiveness anyway.

Izuku sneaks a hold on you, reeling you in. It’s cozy in your shared kitchen, alight with just the right amount of overhead lighting and enough space for you two to stand and share tasks.

“I do like hearing you talk like that,” he shares contentedly, “It’s nice to listen to that side of you, especially when you have a lot to say.”

“Yeah well,” you turn into his arms, rather than away, “I'm sure you've noticed already, it comes from her side of the family. Guess I can't really ditch the accent whenever I switch back. The more I think about it… I'm gonna be happy if I can keep sounding like her as I get older. Lets me keep something of hers- even if my ‘dashing hero’ of a man over here thinks I'm being cheeky."

“No, I'm not teasing now! I mean it,” Izuku presses into you, “I only meant, you don't hold back or anything when you're chatty with her.”

He wonders if it stems from shyness, your avoidance of using too much English here at home. If you’re jamming out while doing chores -presuming you’re alone- you’ll switch the station once you know you have an audience.

“Not trying to hide it with you! I'm just out of practice here. No one else in our circle really uses English, so it doesn't come up, I guess.”

You make the point with a wistful aire. Occasionally you'll sub English classes as a favor to Izuku’s effervescent coworker at UA, but not often enough to get too much exposure. He's always been impressed with your Japanese diction, and thinks you could very well go into teaching if you ever wanted a career change.

Still, whether its for work or play, it’s a sound that’s intrinsically you, and there’s a magic to it that Izuku finds himself chasing. A secret power of yours, if he could only unlock it.

“--Plus, I don't think a lot of the slang translates over?” you get comfortable in his arms, locking your fingers behind his neck with no intention of leaving as you muse, “You guys have your own here, and that’s hard to figure out anyway.”

“I suppose you’re right.” 

Tenderly, you run your nails through his hair, a thoughtful look up to him, 

“Do you want me to use it more at home? Lay on the sugar for ya?”

A chance to hear you at your core? Watch your handwritten notes come alive?

“If you want-” Izuku softens, “-if you’re comfortable.”

“Can you understand me though?”

“I can hear you. It only gets hard when you get excited, ‘cuz you talk fast.”

You fuss back at him, “Oh, as if you don't.”

Caught under your hypocritical eye, he can only offer an honest chuckle back, “Fair~”

But for all of your feeling put on the spotlight, you seem to hold a soft spot for the way Izuku makes his requests:

“ ‘I guess I can indulge ya, since you asked so nicely.’ ”

–and it’s enough for him to try his hand to give you a linguistic sparring partner right back:

“ ‘Say something else.’ ”

All English flies out the window when he's looking at you like this, as you fall under a fit of nervous laughter, “What am I supposed to say?!” 

“ ‘Sing me a song, my love. Something 'twangy'.”

You giggled, "'Twangy', good Lord…” 

Izuku could write novels on everything from your finest features to even your most pensive insecurities, romanticizing each of them into a beautifully imperfect anthology. He does so in his mind, at least, when you’re barely lucid on the edge of sleep but still trying to engage him in meaningful conversation. He’ll do so in the notes on his phone, when he learns of yet another favorite token of yours, and wants to add it to the list of comfort measures he can refer to when you need it most.

And when you prompt Alexa to play your newly revealed ‘Karaoke hours that will never see the light of day’ playlist -the one that’s chock-full of female power ballads which you begin to sing your own rendition to-  Izuku is certain his mind nor fingers nor heart can catalog how much more he can possibly love you… though he’ll dance in place with you as he listens and soaks it all in.

[intimidatingpuffinstudios]

You are a young adult adrift in life, suffocating under the yoke of your oppressive parents. Feeling out of sync with the rest of the world, you yearn for freedom and life beyond the bounds of your prison.

You find it in the form of a ravishing stranger and a long lost city, calling out to you across space and time. Something is beckoning underneath the ancient city's glimmering white tiles, something old and powerful. Someone.

Will you resist the call beyond the veil and the promise of belonging it brings, or will you let yourself go and embrace the path destiny has set before you?

The choice is yours. Magnustor is waiting for you.

Features

2 romance options that can either be male or female (player can choose the gender of both).

3 different romance routes; 2 monogamous ones or 1 polyamorous one  (a triad between the player and both romance options).

Romance and customization focused narrative; you can play as straight, gay, or bi and as cisgender, transgender, or nonbinary.

(4?) different endings.

Set in the same universe as The Soul Stone War.

Credits:

Filopay Illustrations for all art  @filopay

Feniks for Inline Conditions

~*~

The Ren'Py demo is live, folks!!!!

I'M SO EXCITED! PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU ALL THINK, AND SPREAD THE WORD IF YOU CAN~

THANK YOU!!

[jovial-thunder]

Pre-alpha Lancer Tactics changelog

(cross-posting the full gif changelog here because folks seemed to like it last time I did)

We're aiming for getting the first public alpha for backers by the end of this month! Carpenter and I scoped out mechanics that can wait until after the alpha (e.g. grappling, hiding) in favor of tying up the hundred loose threads that are needed for something that approaches a playable game. So this is mostly a big ol changelog of an update from doing that.

But I also gave a talent talk at a local Portland Indie Game Squad event about engine architecture! It'll sound familiar if you've been reading these updates; I laid out the basic idea for this talk almost a year ago, back in the June 2023 update.

We've also signed contracts & had a kickoff meeting with our writers to start on the campaigns. While I've enjoyed like a year of engine-work, it'll be so so nice to start getting to tell stories. Data structures don't mean anything beyond how they affect humans & other life.

New Content

Implemented flying as a status; unit counts as +3 spaces above the current ground level and ignores terrain and elevation extra movement costs. Added hover + takeoff/land animations.

Gave deployables the ability to have 3D meshes instead of 2D sprites; we'll probably use this mostly when the deployable in question is climbable.

Related, I fixed a bug where after terrain destruction, all units recheck the ground height under them so they'll move down if the ground is shot out from under them. When the Jerichos do that, they say "oh heck, the ground is taller! I better move up to stand on it!" — not realizing that the taller ground they're seeing came from themselves.

Fixed by locking some units' rendering to the ground level; this means no stacking climbable things, which is a call I'm comfortable making. We ain't making minecraft here (I whisper to myself, gazing at the bottom of my tea mug). 

Block sizes are currently 1x1x0.5 — half as tall as they are wide. Since that was a size I pulled out of nowhere for convenience, we did some art tests for different block heights and camera angles. TLDR that size works great and we're leaving it.

Added Cone AOE pattern, courtesy of an algorithm NMcCoy sent me that guarantees the correct number of tiles are picked at the correct distance from the origin.

pick your aim angle

for each distance step N of your cone, make a list ("ring") of all the cells at that distance from your origin

sort those cells by angular distance from your aim angle, and include the N closest cells in that ring in the cone's area

Here's a gif they made of it in Bitsy:

Units face where you're planning on moving/targeting them.

Got Walking Armory's Shock option working. Added subtle (too subtle, now that I look at it) electricity effect.

Other things we've added but I don't have gifs for or failed to upload. You'll have to trust me. :)

disengage action

overcharge action

Improved Armament core bonus

basic mine explosion fx

explosion fx on character dying

Increase map elevation cap to 10. It's nice but definitely is risky with increasing the voxel space, gonna have to keep an eye on performance.

Added Structured + Stress event and the associated popups. Also added meltdown status (and hidden countdown), but there's not animation for this yet so your guy just abruptly disappears and leaves huge crater.

UI Improvements

Rearranged the portrait maker. Auto-expand the color picker so you don't have to keep clicking into a submenu.

Added topdown camera mode by pressing R for handling getting mechs out of tight spaces.

The action tooltips have been bothering me for a while; they extend up and cover prime play-area real estate in the center of the screen. So I redesigned them to be shorter and have a max height by putting long descriptions in a scrollable box. This sounds simple, but the redesign, pulling in all the correct data for the tags, and wiring up the tooltips took like seven hours. Game dev is hard, yo.

Put the unit inspect popups in lockable tooltips + added a bunch of tooltips to them.

Implemented the rest of Carpenter's cool hex-y action and end turn readout. I'm a big fan of whenever we can make the game look more like a game and less like a website (though he balances out my impulse for that for the sake of legibility).

Added a JANKY talent/frame picker. I swear we have designs for a better one, but sometimes you gotta just get it working. Also seen briefly here are basic level up/down and HASE buttons.

Other no-picture things:

Negated the map-scaling effect that happens when the window resizes to prevent bad pixel scaling of mechs at different resolutions; making the window bigger now just lets you see more play area instead of making things bigger.

WIP Objectives Bullets panel to give the current sitrep info

Wired up a buncha tooltips throughout the character sheet.

Under the Hood

Serialization: can save/load games! This is the payoff for sticking with that engine architecture I've been going on about. I had to add a serialization function to everything in the center layer which took a while, but it was fairly straightforward work with few curveballs.

Finished replacement of the kit/unit/reinforcement group/sitrep pickers with a new standardized system that can pull from stock data and user-saved data.

Updated to Godot 4.2.2; the game (and editor) has been crashing on exit for a LONG time and for the life of me I couldn't track down why, but this minor update in Godot completely fixed the bug. I still have no idea what was happening, but it's so cool to be working in an engine that's this active bugfixing-wise! 

Other Bugfixes

Pulled straight from the internal changelog, no edits for public parseability:

calculate cover for fliers correctly

no overwatch when outside of vertical threat

fixed skirmisher triggering for each attack in an AOE

fixed jumpjets boost-available detection

fixed mines not triggering when you step right on top of them // at a different elevation but still adjacent

weapon mods not a valid target for destruction

made camera pan less jumpy and adjust to the terrain height

better Buff name/desc localization

Fixed compcon planner letting you both boost and attack with one quick action.

Fix displayed movement points not updating

Prevent wrecks from going prone

fix berserkers not moving if they were exactly one tile away

hex mine uses deployer's save target instead of 0

restrict weapon mod selection if you don't have the SP to pay

fix deployable previews not going away

fix impaired not showing up in the unit inspector (its status code is 0 so there was a check that was like "looks like there's no status here")

fix skirmisher letting you move to a tile that should cost two movement if it's only one space away

fix hit percent calculation

fix rangefinder grid shader corner issues (this was like a full day to rewrite the shader to be better)

Teleporting costs the max(spaces traveled, elevation change) instead of always 1

So um, yeah, that's my talk, any questions? (I had a professor once tell us to never end a talk like this, so now of course it's the phrase that first comes to mind whenever I end a talk)

[murfeelee]

WWDITS INSP Set & Lot

This upload is inspired by one of my favorite vampire tv shows, What We Do in the Shadows. (It was supposed to be my Simblreen gift this year, but I'm hella late cuz IRL suuuuuucks...blood. 😅)

The DL folder includes 4 zip files:

My WWDITS INSP CC Set, including 37 wives items.

The WWDITS INSP Vampire Residence Lot to go in your Sims 3 > Library folder (in-game it'll be in the empty lots bin in Edit Mode)

A MERGED CC file of allllll the other CC I used on the lot (brace yourselves 💀) to go in your Sims 3 > Mods > Packages folder

Granthe's OMSP from MTS, cuz I wasn't sure if I could merge it or not and decided to play it safe.

WARNING: The lot uses a ton of CC. I have all of the EPs, and a lot of the Store CC too, so if you don't have EA's crap & items are missing, that might be why. But if you're not seeing any of the the 3rd party UGC, then I done goofed, sorry--it's been YEARS since I've shared my lots.

🦇 Enjoy! 🦇

Download folders (package files) : Mediafire | SimFileShare

Descriptions & preview pics under the cut:

Vampire Residence

IIRC, this is a 50x50 fully furnished lot.

The Library

The Fancy Room

Guillermo's "Closet"

Nandor's Coffin Room

Laszlo & Nadja's Coffin Room

Kitchen

Music Room

Bathroom

Other Rooms

Colin's Robinson's Bedroom (Basement)

Floors

WWDITS INSP CC Set

This set includes 37 fully recolorable items:

EA Handy Jar REDONE as Candy (ARSIL Bag of Chips Mod REQUIRED) V2 (misc appliances)

Wall Rack with Decor Slots (SN EP) (misc surfaces)

Horn Rack Frankenmesh (wall art)

Tile Pattern (found under Tiles, duh)

Colin Robinson Roomies Portrait (Surfaces -- the Walls version's included in Nadja & Laszlo Painting (Ruffs))

TS4 to TS3 TheJim07 Versailles Stool as Dining Chair

EA Aurora Skies Spiral Stairs FLIPPED as DECOR (misc decor)

Oval Bucolic Flowers in Glass (Pets EP) (wall art)

Octagon Bucolic Flowers in Glass (Pets EP) (wall art)

Column Round Skinny (columns, duh)

WWDITS-IWTV INSP Vampire Themed Newspaper Clippings (wall art)

EA Farm Fresh Folk Desk REDONE for 1 Tile

TSM Bear Rug as Sofa Throw (misc decor)

Nandermo Glitter Portrait (misc decor)

Goth Posters (UNI EP)

Primitive Hunt by Piero di Cosimo Wallpapers (found under Paneling)

EA DV Celtic Wallpaper REDONE PLAIN (found under Misc IIRC)

Spiral Stairs Tasselled Drapes as Decor (curtains)

EA Boudoir Feathers RECOLORABLE (plants IIRC)

RD's Giant Plumes Decor RECOLORABLE (plants IIRC)

3 Display Cases as Wall Lights with Slots (Reg | Smaller | Taller)

TS2 to TS3 Beck's Doll Dressed as Teddy Bear V2

Nandor's 37 Wives Painting (Walls | Surfaces)

ATS3_object_funeralparlor_coffin3_open_sims4to3 RETEXURED (misc decor)

ATS3 Coffin Table REDONE WIDER as SN EP Altar (beds)

Framed Hook Swords (misc decor)

Vampire Residence Portraits

EA TS2 to TS3 Apartment Life Table Lamp (Shorter | Taller)

Annev Animal Skin Rug REDONE as Wall Art ( + FLIPPED)

Hanging Knives (misc decor)

EA Topiary Pattern V2 (found under IDER)

Most of the items are self explanatory; there's nothing crazy going on, really.

And that's that!

🦇 Enjoy! 🦇

Download folders (package files) : Mediafire | SimFileShare

[useless-catalanfacts]

18th century tiles from Arenys de Mar (Barcelona Metropolitan Ambit, Catalonia).

Source: Museu d'Arenys de Mar.

[ohwolfling]

Waterdeep Style & Culture (part one)

I've been working on pinning down some aesthetics/cultures connected to Baldur's Gate 3 and the Forgotten Realms in general. Y'all voted that you'd like to see my ideas on Waterdeep FIRST so here ya go.

I (and many others) have spoken about Gale Dekarios being INCREDIBLY Greek coded, even before you find out the Dekarios bit. So in my mind, Waterdeep is deeply Greek coded. First, Chessenta does exist in Faerûn and is very openly Hellenistic/Greek inspired.

There will be pretty pictures & stuff, promise, but first let's talk about concepts of Greek myth & early society & how it relates to our Wizard of Waterdeep.

Themes/Ideals

Art and artistry served the gods and gods made people in their image and of course in Greek mythology gods and especially demigods loved to be a mess in, on, around, or about mere mortals. The parallels there are obvious… Gale speaks first of feeling the Weave, of composing with it. It’s art and artistry to HIM, regardless of any limitations, codes, or creeds Mystra or anyone else might try to put around it. Another parallel is the concept of Arete. Arete refers to the journey to personal excellence. It’s a belief that everyone is called to be the absolute best version of themself, with the acknowledgement that that is different for every living creature, and from person to person. Do we perhaps know a wizard who takes that perhaps too seriously and has been historically manipulated and controlled around that concept? Hmmmm.

Aesthetics

Greek Arts

Mosaics, Tiles, painted everything. Bold and natural. There’s a sharp contrast between the fine lines of Waterdeep’s architecture, the precision needed for its docks, its ships, and the boldness of its artistry, applied to all things. Art is meant to be seen, experienced. And all art there needs to survive winds and storms all kissed with the salt of the sea. 

My general idea of seafaring/fisherman communities and the specificity of Greek inspiration, especially mosaics, leads me to imagine a Waterdeep that utilizes clear motifs, themes, and symbols. You can already see from the photos I selected above that images reflect the natural surroundings but also lend themselves to myth. Even in busier, more detailed work, there are figures that STAND OUT! 

Clothing (symbols, structure, some talk of status, jewelry below)

Here’s an excerpt from a fic where I have Gale lay out a typical, representative Waterdeep dinner. Here, I utilized my ideas about folk/mythological symbolism and its use in even an artistry most of us don't event think about, dishware and such:

“Come and see,” Gale extends a hand, unnecessary for a walk through the foyer and kitchen and into the dining area but Tav takes it eagerly.  Tav gives a genuine sigh of awe at the table before her. This gladdens him. He meets her own sigh with one of his relief. She lets go of his hand to circle the table.  It was simple illusory magic but Gale took care in making a series of ethereal fish in blues and golds seemingly swimming just above the scene, a few of them circling playfully around the candelabra in the center of the table. The table itself Gale had lain with a gold runner with embroidered blue waves and copper boats along its length, a very old tapestry motif that had been popular in Waterdeep before Gale’s time. Still, it was handmade with care by his own grandfather. He resists the urge to tell Tav this in great detail, wanting instead to be present. He focuses on how charmed Tav seems by the space. On either side of the candelabra Gale had placed two wine goblets, bronze with inlaid seahorses the likes of which donned ships during Waterdeep’s parade seasons, which Tav had not yet experienced. A carafe sat on the corner of the table, covered in hand painted seahorses of a less stylized nature.

Clothing

symbols and structures

I think these symbols extend to clothing as well, perhaps less on the day to day (though I don’t think Waterdeep has a concept of being overdressed in so far as having prints, patterns, and embroidered details go). Embroidery is reminiscent of the mosaic and tile arts, taking turn with repetitive detail or focusing in on one figure or symbol. I won't get too much into jewelry for now but I do think small jewelry pieces might be used to signify rank and status in various arenas of Waterdeep life (and this is something that happens in a few magic school campaigns for Forgotten Realms), using specific coins or beads to communicate anything from authority to "first time caster, please be kind" and "this bard breaks suddenly to jam" to which district a person is representing. This is an especially impactful idea to me because I imagine that Gale may have given up all these other pieces, including signifiers of House Dekarios and his achievements at Blackstaff to solely represent Mystra once he became Chosen. I've also included some of Elia Fernandez's ASOIAF women art because of the specific way they use house sigils. Dynamic, colorful symbols.

I imagine summers are hot so you want clothes to have enough structure to SERVE and to have a base if you want to strip down OR add light linens for more protection from the sun. I want to combine the silhouettes we see from ancient Greece- cloaks and tunics and, yes, shapes similar to the Roman toga- with the flowing structure we see of the wizard robes we encounter in Baldur’s Gate 3. 

As a note, I think Waterdeep- partly by virtue of having so many places where people go to train as monks, bards, wizards, etc so having a huge uniformed student population, partly by virtue of having a canon drag scene- considers most pieces of fashion to be non-gendered. So any of the silhouettes included here, be they skirts, deep Vs, corsets, underbust details, etc, I'm assuming are flexible to and socially normal/accepted for any gender expression.

Lastly (for this round), here's a color palette for our Waterdeep aesthetics thus far.

I have a part two outlined that I hope I'll get to soon! It will be influenced by another island culture with a rich art/textile history and open us up to more fashion subcultures and how they reflect the working class and more physical studies of Waterdeep.

Feel free to let me know what else you might be interested in a series like this. Would you like more jewelry? Are you interested in interiors? any other specific elements of culture you'd like aesthetics for? Any time periods irl speak to you when you think of Waterdeep?

Thank you to those who voted to see this first and to anyone who reblogs or chit chats. If you'd like to support my sanity and so make it easier for me to do bigger fun things like this, I'm on ko-fi and Twitch and won't look a donation or support horse in the mouth.

[nevesceramics]

Heya! I'm the one who bought the welcome change tile! I got the notice of sale and just had to get it, it's such a beautiful piece and encompasses so many of the feelings I have being on T (I love being big and hairy it's incredible)

He's set up in a corner of my room with a few of my old vials, I don't do injections anymore but I felt it was fitting to put them together either way! Thank you very much for the incredible art, he'll be cherished for a long time!

Ahhhh what a beautiful and perfect display setup 💚💚💚 literally nothing gives me more joy than knowing my art made for trans folks is in a happy trans home!! Thank you so much for buying this fella!

[wildbeautifuldamned]

Heather Goff 1996 Folk Art Tiles Martha's Vineyard Artist 4 Different Tiles ebay The Art Guy

[wdba]

I feel like I need to get the brainworms out and talk about the contrasts and how much cooler the Owlks make the Nomai look (cause Nomai the gentle alien folks my beloved)

Okay, I've recently finished watching SovietWomble and an Astrophysicist's playthrough of the DLC and they both made couple points that I did not realize: SovietWomble noticed that the Owlks were living in on a single planet they frequently remind themselves of, while the Nomai were... Nomaidic and have no reservations about having to settle on two planets they crashlanded on.

Their technology, too! The Astrophysicist noticed the Owlks made use of solar sails to propel the Stranger away from the growing sun, while the Nomai made use of warp technology to go anywhere. The Stranger relies on centrifuge-based artificial gravity. The Nomai treats artificial gravity almost like an afterthought that they made tiles that allow you to walk on walls and ceilings (not to mention the gravity cannons they use to launch ships). The Owlks have light-based projection slides that you manually turn to view the images. The Nomai have 3D projections that allow you to walk in them???

And everything about the Owlks seemed hedonistic and excessive, too; they had wine and board games. Theaters, music halls, art galleries, painting and photographs, and what appears to be a restaurant? A viewing room for the solar system and its eventual supernova death?? Billboards that seem to point out that This Is A Tourist Spot??? Our beloved Nomai only had the basics, and those structures focused a lot on knowledge: a forge, an observatory, a museum, a school. Their greatest projects, the Sun Station, Ash Twin Project, and the Orbital Probe Cannon were just functional and minimalistic enough that all three of them pales in comparison to the grandiose that is the Stranger ringworld.

Which is getting to the point why I made this post: their dam. It almost feels like a monument to how excessive they were, second to the Stranger itself.

We eventually find out that the Owlks stripped their homeworld bare, turning it into a wasteland just to build the Stranger. And yet they have a dam, which isn't even implied to generate electricity! It's seems to be there for the simple purpose of holding back water, which they appear to have a surplus of. We accidentally harvested too much water from our homeworld and turned it barren, oops! The Nomai (beloved, gentle, caring, wise) took great care to leave ore for the Hearthians in the distant future where they evolve and discover space travel. Nomai!!! Best!!!

It feels to me that the Owlks represent the entertainment side of curiosity while the Nomai, the scientific. Which makes us wonder why they came to the Eye at all; were they like the Nomai wanting to study the Eye? Or were they there to gawk at its rarity, much like how they were going to treat a local sun going supernova as Yet Another Amusement?

[macabremachinery]

The Harlan Ellison Multimedia Literary Project & The Original IHNMAIMS Game Site

Yep, this was the 90's relic I was teasing about earlier last week. Behold, in GeoCities-esque glory:

Information about the site is discussed under the cut.

The Harlan Ellison Multimeda Literary Project was a student-run site that thoroughly discussed IHNMAIMS with academic analysis. Many of the links, when I first discovered this hidden gem, appeared to be broken. However when I accessed earlier snapshots of this site via the Wayback Machine, I was able to experience the site as it had been so lovingly cherished in 1998.

Unfortunately, like so many sites of its era, the formatting is horrendous. The gaudy white and tie-die tiled backgrounds clash with the pitch-black Time New Roman paragraphs, making many of the pages rather difficult to read. I recommend copying and pasting the text onto a document so that it's easier on the eyes.

Much of the "core" of the site is accessed through the Enter the World of AM link. From here you will taken to the main page.

Pretty straightforward. The 9 nodes listed in fuchsia are essentially pages breaking down separate bits of the I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream short story.

Yeah, I warned you about the gaudy formatting. I would post all 9 of my screenshots here as a backup to this site, however since the screenshots make the text difficult to read on a page already troublesome enough to decipher, I will simply link the project's main archived hypertext here.

Though many of the pages discussing IHNMAIMS do so with some academic jargon, the level of dedication and thought put into this project is commedable, and I cannot recommend this page enough for fans of Ellison, IHNMAIMS, and scouters of long-abandoned internet webpages.

While scouring this page, I cam upon a link at the bottom that caught my eye:

Curious, I clicked the highlighted text, and was redirected to this:

Yes folks, this is the official Cyberdreams website for I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.

It's one of the more in-depth video games sites I've encountered, the creatives behind this game were so obviously passionate about what they were making. That era of the mid-90's for video games was perfect for such a product like this to be made. I don't think it could have been made 5 years earlier or 5 years later. It was released at the right time by the right developer who obviously cared about making art, and here, in full glory, you can read over the process regarding how this project even came to be.

I cannot recommend enough checking both these sites out and taking the time to explore them. They are absolutely worth a scavenge!

I apologize for releasing this post so late, I've had to comb through several links to get screenshots/viewable webpages.