#for world buildings sake

[herdsworldbuilding]

City Grime.

so world building a city.

It’s a complicated subject, involving things of how the city came to be, who made it and why? Where is it located and why is it located there? A city trends to thrive on trade or defense. Where dose the city get it’s food and water and where dose it’s waste go? Who holds the power, who are its people? what shapes it’s streets? Is it planed down or did it grow naturally over time? These are all good things to ask about world building a city… but that’s not what this is about.

I’m here to ask about some small scale things you can ask yourself about these cites. 

Specifically about Graffiti

- what is graffiti in the city like?  cities have a lot of graffiti, sometimes its small, sometimes its rare, in some places graffiti mainly takes the form of writing. in other places in the form of drawings.

Is graffiti big and bold or is it small and intimate? Is it both? Is it generally found out in the air or indoors? Graffiti out in allies and on walls vs the small stuff you find in bathroom stalls, school desks and on benches.

what sort of writing is favored? is it short phrases, “like Gorgeio was here.”  is it Tags (small words or names written on objects to claim something in some sort of competition, used by individuals or groups, to show territory or just to show off by getting them in the oddest places.) or perhaps graffiti is away to spread news about something, a bit like how graffiti in Pompeii was used. is grafiety used as markers and cyphers for people in the know?

Do people use graffiti to communicate in an indirect manner?

Think phone numbers written on toilet doors.

Is graffiti used as a more direct form of communication? Such as hobo signs that where used to tell eachother where it was safe to rest, or perhaps thieves guilds to quietly signal to eachother where a target or safe house is. Or perhaps it’s used by magic users for instructions or tests or pointing out the local supernatural hot spot. or wandering cultures telling eachother stories and warnings about the city they are passing through or even as sighn posts that only they can read. Like trail trees.

street art.

stickers, posters, and flyers.

Sometimes more physical things like a wall of gum, flags, shoes hung up places, necklaces strung up high where no one can easily reach them or locks chained to bridges.

I have even heard of small constructions; like fairy or mouse doors and little statues glued to trash cans or in cracks in the wall.

It can be a drawing and paintings or even something more physical like scraps of cloth tide to poles, yarn woven around trees or stickers slapped onto trashcans and signs.

In one place I have lived most graffiti is in the form of spray painted tags on everything and stickers. While in another place tags are rare as the buildings are painted with murals and art and trees with knitting tied around the branches. In another place most of the buildings where wood so graffiti was carved into it.

What kind of things are often drawn? What imagery do people use?

Graffiti will look different depending on what era of history it is, but it will still be around. It might be smaller in earlier time periods.

Is all the graffiti in this city you are building visual? Perhaps some of it is auditory, like wind chimes in a park, or poles carved to whistle as the wind blows through it, or perhaps it invokes a sense of smell or touch? Is the graffiti only able to be sensed or seen by the magical?

-what dose your city smell like? Do different districts in the city have different smells?

-what dose your city sound like? Is it mostly quiet humming of conversation and rustling of leaves, is it car horns and loud construction, is it water lapping on brigades and electricity buzzing through wires. Is it street musicians and local bird? Are some areas of the city different in sound pollution and how dose that contribute to graffiti?

Dose a certain kind of graffiti have a certain kind of well known meaning? Like initials carved into a tree surrounded by a heart, meaning romantic or sensual love.

- is there a code of conduct for graffiti? 

note that I am far from an expert in graffiti, I know like shiltz about it. im simply going off my observations.

I know that there is a loose hierarchy of tags.

If you can’t outdo it don’t tag over it, and if it is a memorial then do not tag over it. These guidelines are not enforced in the same way everywhere, but breaking them will get the other people that tag to come after your tags with a vengeance.

Or at least that’s what I have heard…

Another guideline that might exist is what can and cannot be tagged.

Street signs, utility walls, underpasses, abandoned buildings, train cars are free game.

While things like windows, cars and residential homes are often off limits (though I have seen plenty of exceptions to this too)

Trees and natural rocks seem to me a hit of miss on if they are in limits or off limits. - how dose the city deal with graffiti? 

Do they paint over it? Wash it away? Leave it to be.

Is it the city or private residents who deal with it? Dose the city even think it worth dealing with or do they let it alone?

Are there certain things that get graffiti more than other thing? Such as benches, utility boxes, lampposts, under bridges or one specific wall.

Dose the city do something to prevent this graffiti such as have anti graffiti seats in tram and rail carts.

If a city doesn’t have graffiti why is that? Are punishments so harsh that no one dares or are things allowed elsewhere so no one bothers or is it covered up as soon as it’s thrown up?

Dose the city install public works of art? And if so for what purpose? Public art is usually political in some form or another, be it from a statue to commemorate some historical event or another statue to be an ego bust to a certain people in political power or as a pice to try appease one group or another. It can also be used to hide things that the city dose not want it’s citizens paying attention too. Either in a benign way such as hiding vents or utility wires from view or more malicious things like Anti-vagrancy architecture hidden as “art”.

Dose the city encourage certain kinds of graffiti in certain places. Think street art vs graffiti Tags. Or the before mention news walls in Pompeii.

Is some graffiti seen as vulgar while other kinds of graffiti are tolerable or even encouraged?

What is the legal punishment for graffiti, if any?

Is some graffiti seasonal? Such as graffiti that occurs during certain festivals. For example beads caught in things after Mardi Gras or toilet paper during Halloween.

Do cities see vandalism in the same light as graffiti or are they viewed in a different way?

Is morality ascribed to graffiti? Is it seen as a symbol the degradation of civilization or is it just an active that is seen as fun? Is it something in between?

- how dose the graffiti interact with the citizens?

Is graffiti used in political messaging? Who in your world or city tends to use it that way?

Dose graffiti contain hate speech? Are there other groups who go around covering up the other groups messaging?

What groups tend to make what certain graffiti and who is the other group that tries to cover it up? Is it a gang? A secret society? A political activist group? A cult? Or just a group of petty artist trying to one up each-other?

Dose advertisement interact with graffiti? In example posters that advertise an event or painted art and words on a cross walk advertising a local concert.

Do people steal posters or graffiti when they can? Are there collectors of graffiti or is it seen as only something vulgar?

For example Alphonse mucha the most recognizable artist in the art nouveau movement did a lot of work in advertising. The main form his advertisement took was posters. I have heard that these posters where stollen at such a high rate it was difficult to actually get the advertisement out… though that may have been for an other artist. I also know some people who steal advertisement posters.

Are there any famous graffiti artists or is it an anonymous work for fear of harsh legal action.

How much attention do the average person walking the street notice the graffiti or pay attention too it?

Is there a specific pice or tag that everyone in the city knows about or is especially well known for one reason or another. Like wings painted on a city wall.

Is there a certain graffiti that is found in multiple cities or even travels to multiple countries.

In example; Kilroy was here, a small pice of ww2 graffiti that is still making its was across the world.

(I will not be confirming or denying if I have added to the collections of world wide Kilroys)

Is there graffiti that a person from one city in your setting wouldn’t recognize as graffiti if they traveled to another city?

Are there certain areas of the city that has more graffiti than others? Is there a city district know for its murals or a famous ally or street. Or something seen as a curiosity like the island of dolls in Mexico City.

Is there a certain group of people in your world known for a specific type of graffiti? If so why do they make this graffiti?

Is there religious graffiti? Either invoking or dameing one group or another?

Is religious motifs used in graffiti?

Is there graffiti involving superstitions?

For example (blue) bottles hung up in order to trap spirits, copper coins wedged into wood to ward against good luck. Pices of paper tacked to walls or posts with the wishes of the citizens.

What about public memorials? Do people make small plaques or remembrance? Do people create make-shift shrines? Have candle lit vigils? Or paint a mural? Do different communities in the city grive different ways?

How do the different cultures of your world, especially those living in any given city influences the kinds of graffiti found there? Do the patterns and styles of art change depending on what culture is more dominant in any given area of the city?

What kind of vibe dose the cities graffiti give? Is it chill and relaxed? Is it rebellious and provocative? Is it artistic and hopefully? Is it desperate and territorial? Hostile and hateful? Helpful and fun? Dose the over all vide of the graffiti change from one city district to another or is the city rather harmonious in its cloterr?

After all a sticker for a favored sports team slapped on a sighn post has a very different vibe from a sigh post littered with bullet holes.

-is there magical graffiti?

If you have a magic system, would people use it to make graffiti? Would there be something unique about graffiti made using the magic system?

Is there enchanted graffiti that changes and moves? Graffiti that looks different for everyone who sees it? Paintings of laughing women, chalk fish that swim on sidewalks or tags that translate themselves into many languages?

Can graffiti be organic in nature? Living pods and biological bits used as gag inducing decoration or bones hung up carved in runes? Sculpture made of feathers and fur.

Are magic users used to get rid of graffiti? Or are they the ones who make the most graffiti?

Is it used as protective wards? As a way to put a curse on someone?

And so much more!

As I mentioned I am no expert in graffiti, I don’t even know a lot about it.

But I hope I could at least make you consider about thinking of the very small details of your world, the slight and insignificant.

[ladyhawke]

There’s nothing in Nassau but horror. You said it was just a transition. That something better lay beyond it, something meaningful. But what if that isn’t so? What if the result of this war isn’t beyond the horror? What if it is the horror itself? Have you given this any thought at all? If we are to truly reach a moment where we might be finished with England… cleared away to make room for something else… there most certainly lies a dark moment between here and there. A moment of terror where everything appears to be without hope.

BLACK SAILS 4.08 “XXXVI.”

[little-pondhead]

After Danny is crowned Ghost King, Amity Park becomes detached from the mortal realm and is suspended between the two realms, much like Danny is. In an effort to combat this isolation from the rest of the world, Danny opens up his castle to the residents of Amity. (Not his Lair, just the castle he earned via conquest.)

Now the castle is more like a community center, and it’s constantly filled with both humans and ghosts coming and going. The Amity Parkers are already liminal, so visiting the Zone is actually healthy for them! The school takes the kids on regular field trips, ghost vs. human competitions get very heated, and overall everyone bonds over their shared freakiness and comes to terms with the fact they’ll never venture out into their world ever again.

But just because they’re detached from their world, doesn’t mean the residents of Amity can’t visit other worlds. :)

And it just so happens that their new community castle is filled to the brim with magic doors and ancient treasures to help aid on their noble quest of inter-dimensional grocery shopping.

[emcapi-gaming]

I am greatly enjoying all the discussion about Solution 9 and the positives and negatives that I've been seeing.

However! I went for a walk around the other day as Arkose! Who is my S9 oc with mild levin sickness (manifesting similar to peripheral neuropathy), and who often uses modified arm crutches for balance/stability.

And I suddenly noticed that this place is an ACCESSIBILITY NIGHTMARE. WHY ARE THERE SO MANY FUCKING STAIRS WITH NO RAMPS. WHY ARE THERE RANDOM BUMPS AND ELEVATION CHANGES IN THE ROAD.

Literally when I have time I'm gonna make a series of screenshots with Arkose posing next to all the FUCKING STAIRS doing very sarcastic /showleft, /showright, and/or "magic the gathering butt crack guy prayer hands pose."

[protagonist-art]

i may have problems and issues 🥳

[flickering-nightfall]

just asking, what if an iterator possibly gets too hot or cold? What happens if they can’t get to safer temps with out outside forces? What if they can’t get to safer temps at all?

Do you mean superstructures or puppet-bound iterators? I'm sure superstructures have a lot of failsafes to deal with temperature fluctuations, mostly via processing water intake. They're living saunas! They probably have an incredible resistance to both hot and cold, as evidence shows.

I'll talk about puppets here, but if you meant superstructures, well... a lot of what I'll say here could apply to superstructures too.

(For puppet-bound iterators, I am referring to my AU CDSS)

For heat: Puppet-bound iterators, like their former superstructure bodies, run hot and need to stay hydrated. They rely on liquid coolant that runs throughout their bodies. Ruptures in the coolant system are one of their many common problems, but with medical aid, they're not too serious. Many cases are self-healing, or the rupture will seal itself off and reroute around the blockage - like with collateral circulation. Leaks into essential systems are more of a concern than the actual loss of coolant. As long as they stay cool and drink water while waiting to get fixed, they tend to be fine.

If they are stuck in a hot region and can't escape, they'll suffer from dehydration, heat stroke, fried components, damage to organic tissue, seizures... pretty much what you'd expect. As a superstructure, Moon probably suffered from all this leading up to her collapse.

For cold: They're fairly resistant for a few reasons. One is the antifreeze in coolant. Another is the heat that they naturally produce. I'm thinking they have silicone-based skin, which is very cold resistant. They have hemocyanin, which tends to function better in extreme cold than hemoglobin. (Hemocyanin can also work at hotter temperatures. I have like a whole essay about this that I still intend to post lol.) However, the puppets have been modified to have more flexible and sensitive skin - dexterity in exchange for some durability. They're more susceptible to the perception of cold than they would be if they were a still a superstructure. Many of them also dislike snowscapes on principle, because they've been freezing their decaying metal butts off for centuries by the time CDSS happens.

Iterators in both forms are very moist, so if it's cold past their limits, their mechanical components will freeze. And like with hypothermia in fully organic beings, prolonged time in extreme cold will lead to tissue death and organ failure. Superstructures with fractured exteriors (direct exposure of internal parts to the cold air) are especially susceptible to this.

Misc theory about superstructures: Moon's superstructure was able to stay intact into Saint's era because she collapsed straight down into the water, preserving most of her shape. The canyon water could have provided the pressure and circulation she needed in the absence of gravity cores, as well as protection against land pests and insulation against the cold. Remnant slag could have her generate excess heat as well, which would keep the water surrounding her unfrozen. In a way, dying like that could have helped her live longer?!

Thanks for the question anon, this was very fun :P

[takemetodragonstone]

can things stop happening? i’m still trying to process the things that happened when i was 3 what do you mean there are more things

[mothinflamesdoodles]

Pulse Sans: The Frankenstein Font

Fanart for @specialmindz

[revlushaun]

that one post about "dungeon meshi is good because it had time to be good!" (which was a lie about the timeline it was produced in being exceptional) completely misses that dungeon meshi is uniquely good because ryoko kui doesnt rely on tropes and archetypes to explain her world building or characters, and actively subverts what tropes and archetypes characters would be linked to based on their appearance or in-world race or status. the fight for good working conditions has no bearing on how often writers are lazy in their world building and characters relying on tropes, and the fight for good working conditions is irrelevant to how good a piece of media is. you can look to something like harry potter as an example, i dont exactly think harry potter was made in crunch culture but theres a hell of a lot of problems with that piece of media explained away by literal sorting of characters into the good house and the bad house and using racial stereotypes like with the goblins or the offensive naming schemes for non-white characters.

falin looks like damsel in distress at a first glance but it was her sacrifice to be eaten, shes extremely powerful, and shes a weird little kid who played in the dirt who not many people understand, not some delicate princess needed to be saved by her big brother in shining armor. marcille is extremely ditzy and makes stupid mistakes like pouring boiling water, and instead of being the prissy academic the entire time who plays by the book she uses banished magic to save her friends, and the entire reason shes on the journey is she questions the powers above her dictating what magic should and should not be used for, and her lack of out of book knowledge gets questioned by the others instead of relied on. senshi ran away from the typical dwarf role, not caring for gold over the livelihood of his party and being actively good mannered. instead of making the half foots cowardly because of size, for chilchuck its just a logical thing to not fight if you would be in the way and stick to what your body can and cannot do, except he constantly has to help in combat situations to the best of his ability and starts to learn to care about his friends (and also he looks young but is actually a middle-aged alcoholic dad). normally cat women get represented with some sort of sexual air to them for some reason? but izutsumi makes it very explicit she is a cat, she makes a comment about how no one would be interested in a beastman and strips openly (not realizing laios is a monster maniac and not a perv that would want a sexy cat lady), her mannerisms are catlike instead of stuff like catwoman or 80s catra from she-ra. the other characters also still kind of subvert tropes and it never feels these are characters that stick to some archetype out of comfort and familiarity. the dwarven women dont have dramatic size differences and dont feel like caricatures, shuro is meant to show the problems with a stoic, cant express, overly dedicated to the girl of his dreams character, and thistle isnt just some evil presence for the sake of being evil but instead wanting to keep everything perfect in his eyes. kabru's party being foils makes his group feel like the party you would see in mainstream media too, stuff like his people sense and chosen one past of his old village and raised by elves, or mickbell being the little kid of the group.

another thing i want to mention specifically is the orcs. instead of relying on racist pan-indigenous stereotypes she engages with how they were the victims of elven colonization and that their way of life was suddenly deemed not okay, but elves displacing their homes with violence is somehow socially acceptable. I also REALLY like that the orcs use terms like brutish and s*vage to describe the main party instead of the main party using those words against the orcs, it made me chuckle about the breath of fresh air that provided. i dont think it handles orcs perfectly but its far better than other media that rely on racial stereotypes without unique world building. it even shows marcille's bias as an elf, the "who was here first" dialogue reflects that whole "no one is really indigenous, the dinosaurs were here first!" but replace dinos with zombies. theres a film called "reel injun" that goes more into how indigenous peoples are constantly either these brutish characters or the "noble s*vage" that has some sort of otherworldly connection to nature, usually to prop up the main characters for being "typical" white cishet christian characters like a cowboys and indians or an evangelical kind of way.

im someone who doesnt watch a lot of mainstream popular media because in my head the characters and story feel predictable and reliant on tropes. im very aware im picky with media and i stick to my comfort zone, but it also kind of feels like if i were to watch some mainstream media like star wars or harry potter, it would go as i can predict it would with all the pop culture knowledge id gained before ever watching those things as a kid. the hero is some chosen one, the bad guys are bad because the plot says so, the characters are some version of some archetype... perhaps im wrong, and maybe it doesnt necessarily mean that a piece of media is bad or boring, but i find dungeon meshi so nice to watch because nothing feels super predictable and you have to learn people's characters and morals instead of: this is the studious prissy one, this is the main character guy, this is the pan-indigenous race that is inherently brutal to people or mystical with nature, this is the tiny coward who doesnt fight cause hes scared and a big softy, this is the big dwarf that wants gold and minerals and has no manners, this is the evil lord of the dungeon that wants to destroy everything, etc.

(i also think the subversion of archetypes in dungeon meshi is why ive seen so much of it even though most of what i follow on tumblr is for hot queer guys or cute nintendo stuff, because if your identity itself subverts what is assumed of your body's archetype in cishet white christian society, youre likely going to enjoy the stuff that doesnt follow that a little bit more.)

[willowedspirits]

I've been re-reading @anbu-legacy and decided to do some doodles while I go :)

This set is all from the "ANBU Trials" arc. There is one doodle per chapter, and some random ones thrown in there for fun. I wanted to add something that either made me laugh or thought would be fun to illustrate.

I would highly recommend reading Legacy if you are 18+! It is very good and the writers are amazing!

[potatochip-oc-dump]

Cringetober Day 12 - Niche Interest

I survived the art challenge for ah... 10 or 11 days! new record! I won't force myself to finish it since I'm so busy (and Burnout) so take this prompt that I accidentally did early :3c

[orcinus-veterinarius]

I’m starting to feel like it’s a legitimate possibility that Wikie and Keijo will end up as the very first orcas to be transferred to a sea sanctuary. Combine the untimely deaths of Moana and Inouk and a financially troubled park with the blocked transfers to Japan (and the new park has already started taking in whales from other Japanese facilities, so I don’t think they’re waiting for them) and a government that’s eager to offload its cetaceans, and you’ve got the perfect recipe.

I hope it works.

[alcoveofconcealment]

Hey because the Wizarding side of the UK seems to be frozen somewhat in medieval era or at least tries to as a society keep to that era with clothing and other things either out of isolation or to preserve the wizard identity would they still use the British Imperial system?

Because that was used until like the 1960s. Meanwhile the wizarding world seems to be frozen somewhere between the 1400 to 1600s due to the whole statue of secrecy thing?

[skylar-jay]

You have Cat Quest aus?

Fgsgvjthjhj

I do! Well, just one lol

I call it the Second Chance AU It's specifically for Cat Quest 2

Basically the two protagonists are sent back home, but instead of losing all their memories they keep them, and are forced to figure out how to fix things before both fall into all out chaos.

[spotsupstuff]

Can Sparrows drive a car?

she Most definitely has a driver's license, but she strikes me as the sort of gal that would rather just Walk everywhere. she can drive both a car and a lizard and the former only in case of emergencies while she has multiple kilometers on the latter clocked in

[cicadaknight]

Rehashing a pain point with the Horizon franchise…

Why is there no mention of any real tribal nation in the game? No reference at all. The erasure of APOLLO didn’t remove the visions at the Grove, or any of the artifacts Aloy finds in her exploration. You’re telling me it makes narrative sense to have 30 minutes of Dutch artwork analysis and its historical significance, but not a single mention of any indigenous society? There are ZERO datapoints or ruins related to native people throughout the entire world that could have influenced Horizon-era culture?

😒 SIDE EYE 😒 It is that way because the devs made it so. Everything in a narrative is a choice.