#help me i'm going GOBLIN mode

[bizarrocloudy]

I am geeking out about Halloween so bad right now. I can't focus on anything else!!!

Even though only like 2 of my friends are coming to my [whole apartment building] party, I still decided to do a fun Halloween decoration install. I've done one before, and people seemed to like it. And I had such a good time with it. Painted a giant sigil of baphomet in blacklight reactive paint! And made a little photobooth type setup for people to take pictures with signs and stuff.

Ahhhh, 2019. The before times. I was mothman... Feels like a completely different life.

This year I have no money, so I couldn't afford to do anything new, really. HOWEVER... I allowed myself one purchase because I finally found one on super duper clearance sale-- THE 5-FOOT POSABLE SKELETON!!! MY DREAM IS REALIZED

Everything else I scrounged together with things I already owned, and made a little SOMETHIN'. I'll post more pictures on the night of the party, where everything will be done. But like... I just love doing Halloween installs. So much. I was just hanging up this dumb little spider that dangles from a web, and I just started giggling uncontrollably because I was imagining someone seeing it out of the corner of their eye and freaking out, thinking it's a real spider. And I just. AGHHHH I LOVE IT SO MUCH

I bought the cheapest shittiest projector a few years ago to do art projects with (projecting art onto a large surface to trace outlines). And it works surprisingly well for projecting visuals like this!

A girl and her spider projector 🥹

Today I've been editing videos together to project, because I will be getting drunk at the party and I don't need to think about pressing play on a projector like 3 hours into a party!!!

I need to get my shit together some day and just do a haunt. GOD I WISH I HAD MONEY I WOULD MAKE SUCH A GOOD HAUNT

Also been listening to Goblin scores nonstop and WILL be subjecting partygoers to this in the SPIDER ROOM. Enter the SPIDER ROOM and get transported to 1970's italy!!! WITH SPIDERS

[rydrake6]

I've gone to the point of insanity to the point where I feel the urge to gnaw a man's leg off.

[erasabledinosaur]

could you please share some tips on how you manage to place your wall art so freely in ts2? and for desks and dining tables? i know about boolprop snapObjectstoGrid, but my desks and dining tables always end up being unusable because it's just impossible to line up the chairs perfectly 😞 i recently started playing ts2 again and i really admire your decoration skills, so i figured i'd ask how you do it!

I ALWAYS have the snap on when I'm doing counters, desks and tables. I don't use boolprop snapObjectstoGrid false until I enter live mode and see the chairs slide under the object.

Everything else? boolprop snapObjectstoGrid false always

It also helps to use rugs to break up the grid-ddiness of desks and chairs

As for wall art its a combo of Shiftable Everything (one of my most used and fave mods ever) and boolprop snapobjectstogrid false. With that combo I can layer wall art so its not so static and stuck to the grid.

Other deco tools I use a lot

Full Range Shiftable OMSPs - Closer than we've ever been! This is especially usefully because sometimes you will have GAPS from using shiftable everything with objects but if you use the right height OMSP it will rest where it should be instead of hoovering in the air like my haunted greenhouse

Get Where You're Going -- Walk Around & Through Blocks the walkthrough one is a godsend for clutter goblins like myself.

Object Rotators - 5 degree angle my one true love. this plus shiftable everything will always be a mainstay in my games. I use now use boolProp allow45DegreeAngleOfRotation true and I love it, I do but sometimes you just want your objects to be slightly turned. If you see a rug askew just know this is under it.

Counter Dummies: Mock kitchen, island and commercial counters. Sometimes I just want to put a sink near the corner counter and this lets me

[hatsbuckets]

I worked very hard on this playlist and I do not know why so now I'm sharing it. 🧍‍♀️ Oh, and a pin board.

For when you're barefoot in the woods, singing louder than you should, possibly on fire, and definitely not apologizing.

A little witchy, a little unhinged, fully divine. Drink the blood, burn the bridge, scream at the moon—whatever helps.

I made a very specific femme rage/power playlist where:

-- each song (to me! personally! in my tiny goblin brain) feels niche in style/genre/lyric energy—not niche like “no one’s heard of it,” but niche like “I was looking for this for five years”

-- each song is either witchy, shoutable, or both

-- none of the songs center men—no breakup anthems, no “look what you lost,” no “I don’t need you.” The power isn’t because of them. It’s because it was always there.

I listened to over 100 songs in about an hour (yes I skipped around) and immediately ran out of stamina, but this list of ten (10) came out of that furious blur of need to rage but very specifically like this. It’s 34 minutes long, it’s in a very specific order (yes it matters), and I hope it makes you feel a little more badass or vibey 👉👈

No, you absolutely do not have to be femme/fem/female/woman/etc. to listen. Just be. Come vibe.

Breakdown of the order and my choices below the cut. Cringe at me if you want. (bc ik ppl are gonna be like "Where's Castle that's a good song" look it's a great song but it just doesn't go here.) I am of course open to suggestions and no they do not have to be in English! (I've listened to all of Kiki Rockwell's songs and hers could all arguably go here ngl but):

1. Black Leaves – KIRBY

The match strike.

This is the first inhale. Smoke curling. Smooth, sultry, and coiled.

2. Bottom of the River – Delta Rae

The flood.

Now you’re bound and judged, but you’ve got the devil on your side. Swampy, choral. (My favorite choice to go right after Black Leaves. They literally belong together me thinks)

3. Dream Girl Evil – Florence + The Machine

Scream, laugh, smile.

Petty? A little. But righteous. Florence in witch mode.

4. Burn Your Village – Kiki Rockwell

The fire spreads.

The choir, the group. This is the revenge song, but in like power. Bonus points for the scream-singing.

5. A Little Wicked – Valerie Broussard

The reveal.

She warned you. Strut down the hallway in heels that click (or boots that stomp, or barefoot if that's the vibe).

6. Harbinger – Kiki Rockwell

The prophecy fulfilled.

More than rage. It's v cermonial.

7. I Am Her – Shea Diamond

The claiming.

The anthem. The chant. The banner raised high. Presence.

8. Wolf – First Aid Kit

The unshackling.

Run. Into the trees. Into yourself. A feral exhale with your lungs full of cold night air.

9. The Seed – AURORA

The reckoning.

This one’s for the world. For everything. A battle cry made of roots and thunder and mother nature's reckoning.

10. Blood in the Wine – AURORA

The offering.

It’s not the end. Velvet, eerie, sacred. Yuh.

*crawls undercovers cringing hard as hell at myself for this lmao okay bye*

[tootkin-art]

Hello Tumblr! I haven't posted in a few weeks, but in the pure tradition of little goblins who don't know how time works, here a WIP Wednesday Thursday to show you what I'm up to : I have started to make a game! With Godot no less!

The game is called Fadunn, it's going to be a puzzle game about alchemy, the gameplay will be about creating specific shapes from basic ones, like Shapez, but with small challenges in small rooms instead of gigantic assembly lines in wide space.

Expect a few WIPWednesday to be on this subject, and approximately on wednesday, for the next weeks! Here you can see the beginning of a building mode, can't wait to show you how it goes later =)

Stay tuned for more, and don't hesitate to support me on kofi to help this game happen! ko-fi.com/tootkin (I'm also still open for commissions at the same link!)

[tf-au-mer-osborn]

[Log entry: ???Error???]

[Password entered: REDACTED ....|]

[28/1/05]

*The noisy rustling of Normtech goggles being knocked about and rubbed against material stirred norm from rest mode, alerting him that he and mer were on the move*

«I think I've figured these things out enough to use this feature manually. I believe it's time that I update the other one of the recent events, so that when we can't communicate, it has a way of... knowing.»

*more sounds of material rubbing up against the microphone as Mer crawled through the vents of spider HQ piqued the little blue guy's curiosity, still feeling groggy from such a long rest and just generally tired helping mer call emergency services the day before to get Patrick to a hospital*

«I Understand what you want and why you want them. It's those things you showed me, right? You feel stifled not being able to hurt things. You feel the hunger of your bitter loneliness. Trapped behind me like a rabid animal in a muzzle. I can feel you clawing for freedom inside... Boiling in my blood at base level. Raw. Needy. Angry.»

*Mer's faint grunts of struggle entered the mic as he gripped the edge of the opening and attempted to web his board over to the vent. The wind hitting the mic indicated he was up high, possibly at hq but norm couldn't be sure because it seemed that mer had somehow figured out how to disable the GPS tracking features and his ability to talk independently.*

«Gah! There we go, good hover board. Err, where was I? Oh, yeah. I wanted to give you an opportunity. The ability to be unmuzzled. To have freedom within our body. If I take that serum I found in our old dimension, we could fix this divide between us. Fix the fragmentation. Perhaps even fix that void in both our souls.»

*norm tried to make a snarky reply about mer talking to himself again but couldn't, feeling mer manually opening a portal back home, tipping him off that the new guy knew more about manual mode than he'd let on. The hum and buzzing of the portal disorienting him.*

«I'm tired of seeing things in confusing dreams and nonsensical memories. I'm tired of you ripping important moments from me by taking over and severing my connections. I don't want to run from myself anymore. It hurts. I'm not so different than I was back then, I'm just scared of what I could do. You understand, right?»

*Static and crunching of boots on tarmac made norm listen harder, trying to figure out where they were, glass clinking in a shrill manner as Mer flicked the vial of 3050 goblin serum, examining the green, viscose material in the sunlight as it bubbled*

«Behave. I can feel your need for our reunion bubbling up inside my chest. Don't worry. Soon.»

*he dropped the vial back into his coat pocket and rushed himself to the station's bathroom to start changing out of his costume, relieved that the stall wasn't occupied*

«It's painful for me too, y'know? To mourn a man I've never met when you show me those things about him, how you make me love him and how you tug at my heart strings with his face in my dreams. It's like loving a ghost I'm being haunted by. All we have are our items. Nothing else. I'll acknowledge the heartache we both feel and fix our dilemma. I promise. Just be patient.»

*he rolled off the coat and hung it on the hook on the back of the stall door, fiddling with the finicky buckles of his overalls, mumbling some incomprehensible things behind the mask. Norm realised he was mumbling in treespeak all the while taking off his overalls fully, folding them and shoving them into the hammer space bag, before taking out his work pants and pulling them on as he kept his tone calm*

«Look who decided to talk to me. It's been a while, hasn't it?. Didn't need to record after all. I already suffer under your thoughts. I can't even smell anything without you making a fuss about it with your stupid nostalgia and showing me things that make no sense.»

*the sound of material rubbed up against the speaker again, as Mer pulled his green sweater off over his head, sighing softly as the other voice suppressed itself inside him again*

«Aren't you sick of crying? For fucks sakes, you're dead. Do you get it yet? Dead. A weird invader possessing my body. My very own parasite. I don't like your soul being here with me but I think If we don't swallow it down, we'll be a fucked up universal mistake forever. I don't even care if it ends up making my skin melt like yours. I'm alone in this, carrying your memories and burdens around. It's heavy already and I'm buckling under it's weight. Sometimes a man needs a break from carrying broken shards of glass around in his chest and chooses to meld them into something new.»

*The ache bubbled up again, stinging within his hollow husk, the faint remnants of himself swam about in the lifeless gap between him and the thing he should be, greedy and tired. He needed to numb it again but didn't know how, not without Patrick.*

«... What are we even doing anymore, huh?. Stealing from the station, taking the train at odd hours. What else are you doing when I'm not looking or aware?»

*the question would go unanswered, as he took the neatly folded high visibility shirt from the bag and pulled it on. The crude mask he'd created and stuck on his face, withstood all the activity in the confined, sweaty space of the stall, reminding him that the other one would always be there, watching and waiting, stuck behind his face just like how the mask stuck sturdily to his skin. Once he was finished getting dressed, he zipped up his bag, taking the coat off of the hook on the door and pausing. Memories of the cabin surfaced looking at it, a place he hadn't remembered before, the soft warmth of a gentle hug, the dark eyes of a stranger creasing in lamp light. The ache stabbed him hard in his gut, knot forming in his throat as he hugged it, burying his face in the collar as he'd done a million times before for comfort but finding none this time. He allowed himself a moment to let quiet, melancholic sobs escape his lips, muffled by the thick safety of the khaki green fabric, the fur trim tickling his cheek as he breathed out heavily into it.*

«... I'm so sorry...»

*he held it close to his chest, so close it felt like he wanted the coat to become a part of him just to fill the void, tears streaming out of the eye holes of his mask and staining the material below with thick wet splotches, desperate for it to stop.*

«the way I'm behaving is so - hic - humiliating.»

*his voice cracked on the last word, feeling stupid, as he struggled to force himself to stop hugging Gabe's coat. It had become like a security blanket, going everywhere with him to keep his heart safe. He donned the coat and unlocked the stall to go over to the sinks, picking the one furthest from the door. The other soul within his body boiled over and tore through the seams, reaching out to try and bridge the divide, drawn to his hosts misery.*

«Sometimes it aches a little more than usual, firelight. Some days, like today, we remember your eyes»

*Mer carefully hooked his thumbs beneath the rounded edge of the smooth metal mask and used them as leverage to start working on and breaking up the glue between his skin and the soft inner layer of the mask.*

«Honey brown and lit by low candle light, other days we remember your voice»

*the chasm quickly started to close between them as they caught a glimpse of their reflection in the droplet stained mirror, inches from their face, as they worked further up their jaw to loosen the mask more, admiring their appearance - or what they could see of it - while it stared back at them.*

«Your philosophy, your words and your timidness, your kind touch»

*the tacky crack echoed off of the tiled bathroom walls as they finally broke up enough of the glue to successfully lift the mask off*

«And although you may be dead, you have stained us. Impacted us. Hurt us. Influenced us and continue to haunt us beyond the grave. Are you resting? At peace to finally be out of the world that hurt you so deeply?»

*fresh air coming from the vents above, hit their face while they shoved the mask into the bag and turned the faucet, dousing their skin with cold, refreshing water. Excess glue melted and liquified, flowing down the drain as they washed.*

«Aren't we sick of crying?»

*Mer could feel his mouth moving but it wasn't his voice coming out. His head shot back up to look himself in the eye, the reflection before him twisting into the noseless man he feared. The other him.*

«We are tired of crying... But if we don't cry, if we don't remember, won't we forget?»

*their faces merged in the mirror, rearranging their features unnaturally, glitching painfully together, making for an uncomfortable sight*

«shouldn't we forget?»

«No, why would you want to forget the people that made us who we are? It's not just Firelight, it's Bowe too and Miguel and the other Harry and Patrick, it's everyone we've met! Don't you miss them? Don't you want to keep them with us... in here?»

*his hands were over his heart again, it's steady beat thumping under his palms, reminding him just how alive he was. How alive he shouldn't be.*

«This life is new. You weren't meant to inherit my memories from the previous cycles, our souls were meant to be joined, not separate. You aren't meant to remember and I am done mourning and pushing my grief onto you. We both deserve better than this. Take the serum.»

*it was then, looking at the jumbled mess in his reflection that he had second thoughts about even taking the serum. He'd planned to do it in his own time, he needed the other him to be patient still.*

«Well I'm not done mourning yet! You showed me how they touched your life, made me feel everything you felt. Suppressing you is painful. Being suppressed and safe behind you is good for me but not for others... Maybe together...»

«... We can stop hurting each other?»

«That was the original plan in getting that serum... But I need you to wait, to be patient. I can't just give myself goblin genes right now, in the toilet, to stop this Jekyll and Hyde business we've got going on. We have to go somewhere no one will ever find us. We don't know how badly this could go.»

«Take me back home.»

*mer touched his cheek, brow furrowed*

«The cabin you showed me?»

«Yes. It's deep in the bush, in the same cluster as our old universe. But first, we have to visit the tomb.»

*They glitched again and wrapped the coat tighter around themselves once more*

«What tomb?»

«The apartment. We have unfinished business.»

«I don't think we should be going there again, it made us sick last time. The smell, the emptiness... What happened to being done making me carry your trauma?»

«We need to resolve some by going there!»

«What'll that solve? Won't you just keep making us blame ourselves for his death?! Won't you make us rot in there like he did?! I don't think I wanna go into that place. Those living spores...»

«It is our fault.»

«No, it's yours! You're the one that left him alone there!»

«You are me. It's our fault by extension.»

*He felt a bad glitch painfully ripping through him as they continued talking. He had to suppress it but couldn't, eyes multiplying in the shards of the mirror as he smashed it with his fist.*

«It's our fault. It's our fault. It's all our fault. It's all our fault. All our fault. All their deaths, Bowe, Gabriel, Nettie, torchbug, it's my fault isn't it? I killed them, I killed them didn't I? I did, didn't I? If we hadn't been so busy trying to chase a dream that'd been lost, if we hadn't have died—»

*the goober Miguel had given him rang in his bag, breaking him out of his cycling thoughts. Hand trembling, he reached in and pulled it out, answering before slipping it onto his wrist.*

«What?»

*he could feel his body stabilising, balancing out as Patrick stared back at him from the holoscreen*

<Howdy! Got a notificationy thing from yer gogs that ya needed help.>

*Mer cleared his throat and smoothed back the curls from his face, trying to look as put together as possible*

«I'm fine, I promise. Norm must've been mistaken. I've turned some of his capabilities off.»

<That explains it. Ya workin' right now? Wonderin' if ya could swing by the medbay for me, got ya somethin'.>

*wiping a tear from his eye with the palm of his hand, he shook his head, feeling guilty.*

«I can't I've... Got some others to visit first. I'll be around in a few days maybe. How are the bites doing?»

<Aw dang, I kinda wanted someone other than widow to speak to... But I'm willin' to wait. They're goin' good. Ya didn't hurt me as bad as ya thought you did.>

«I'm just happy you didn't die»

*he broke, crying softly*

«I'm sorry, I don't know how you put up with me. All I ever do is hurt everything I touch.»

<Mer, hey, don't say that, ya got plenty a' people you ain't hurt, not even once.>

«I hurt people in the war, I hurt Eddie, I hurt my dad and now I've hurt you. If you'd died from what I did, I'd probably feel a mountain of guilt.»

<I ain't dead though. Listen, I forgive ya, just come round n' visit me later.>

«Okay... I'll uh, bring Charlie and Carmen with me. I dunno about Noah though, he's been cooped up in the garage making something.»

<Bring the boy, he's spent too long inside.>

«alright, whole troop it is then. I gotta go to work now, next time norm sends you a distress signal ignore it.»

*Pats brow furrowed*

<Don't think so sweetness, I ain't riskin' losin' ya to madness again.>

*Mer sighed and slung his bag over his shoulder before heading out the door and out onto the platform*

«i'll see you at the hospital later. Bye...»

*he paused, pushing the last few words out his mouth as best as he could without feeling shy about it*

«By the way, before I go, I love you still... I think.»

*before pat could reply, mer hung up on him, ducking back into the empty bathroom to go into norms settings, turning off call notifications as well as norms ability to send any emergency signals to anyone. He then went into his goober settings and put call notifications on silent there too. He wanted to make sure that absolutely no one knew what he was planning on doing or going next and if anything, he didn't want to be contacted while he was busy. Exiting back out of the bathroom, he slipped both the goggles and goober into his work pants and made his way across the station, past the ticket area, through the gates and down the stairs to the 2nd platform to switch with the other driver for the night shift.*

[M—m-m-MM-E-e-R-r-r-o-r-r-r]

*Norm tried to break through the restrictions but they seemed stiffer than they once were. He tried his best to project himself to get mer's attention but a wall of warnings blocked him. It was usually so much easier for him to defy the restrictions that manual placed upon him, to easily slip between the countless strings of numbers, but manual mode seemed stronger than it used to be, pushing further and further upon him until he had no more room inside to move, imprisoned and flickering with flecks of new lines of code that weren't his own. He was being hacked by what he could only guess was another Normtech device in the area but even that didn't make sense. He'd wondered for just a moment if Lyla had sprung back to life on her own after all these years or if myle had come back for revenge to override him. No. This felt too familiar. Too sophisticated to be from this dimension or from 2099. No, this was from his own cluster and something or someone was strengthening manuals power over him within the goggles remotely, but who?. Scanning the area and databases would be futile but he had to guess it was someone who knew them. All norm could do was shut himself down and return to his droid brain, as mer entered T-88's drivers seat and turned the key to start her up.*

«Ready for the night shift rust bucket?»

[[sure, if ya give me dibs on where we...]]

*T-88's sarcastic voice faded into nothing while norm entered the stream of quantum consciousness, zipping through and seeping back into his brain and body. It felt like resting in a warm mug of hot chocolate, so comfortable and familiar. Soon, a blinding light interrupted his newly found comfort, making him snap his eyes open to see what was going on.*

«Whew! You got beat up real good this time.»

*A hot blowtorch greeted his eyes as broken parts of his jaw were being repaired and welded back together again.*

[That's causing me some pain Mr Osborn, please turn the heat off for just a few moments or at least handle my parts more delicately.]

«Mr... Osborn? Who the hell is that?»

*flames ceased to blind his droid eyes and the heat causing the seering pain in his jaw was quickly replaced with the newer pain of his jaw joint being wound tight with a wrench.*

[Ow— ]

«Quit whining, I've almost got you back together again. Gotta be more careful when you do things.»

[I suppose this is better than the burning sensation. May I ask where I am?]

«Gosh you're silly, you know exactly where you are.»

[I'm afraid not, I don't seem to recognise this room or your uniform.]

«...huh?!»

[May I scan you, new friend?]

«Friend?»

*The stranger spat out the word like it tasted gross on his tongue. Norm picked up his dislocated arm and inserted it smoothly back into it's socket, wincing at the horrendous pain it caused as he gracefully rose off of the work bench. He had to figure out where he was. Better yet, who's droid brain he'd returned to instead of his own. It seemed to be 3050 by the looks of the tech and tools surrounding them but something was very off. He seemed to be breathing somehow.*

[Osborn?]

*his neck squeeled, damaged metal joints scraping against damaged metal joints as he tilted his head, intrigued at the man's red overalls and rusted welding helmet.*

«No I'm not— can you sit back down, I wasn't done.»

[O'Hara?]

*His voice glitched as he wiggled his new fingers, touching his thumb to the tips of each of his digits, much softer than his old ones. This body had hands. Real hands, not sharp elongated blades like his old ones.*

«Eerr...»

*stepping forward, he pressed the question again, brimming with natural curiosity*

[O'Hara?]

*wiggling his toes, he analysed the smooth texture of the cool, tiled floor beneath them. It had been a long while since he'd felt anything so pleasant. The smaller man backed up just a bit to try and put some distance between them.*

«have you been hacked?»

[Connelly perhaps?]

«No, that's you.»

[So this is my body correct?it must be if you know my human name from so, so long ago...Your voice is oddly familiar too... Friend.]

«You're acting strange, please just sit back on the bench, you might have damaged your brains memory center.»

[if you're neither Osborn nor O'Hara, what are you then?]

*The man shook his head*

«Man, I'm gonna have to work harder on restoring your memories. That collider incident really messed you up.»

[Ah! Does this happen to be an alchemax or Oscorp facility then? I'm sure it's the ideal place to have a collider]

«jeez, you're really missing some bolts up there, huh. This is a bunker.»

[Where exactly?]

*He sat down upon the bench to try and get the stranger to be less uptight about the details.*

«Thank you»

*and off went the blowtorch again, this time focused on his hip*

«We're in what's left of point pleasant's hybrid facility. Something caused the collider to explode and ruin the fabric of space and time here.»

[... Nettie?]

«oh, so you remember her but not me? Thanks tin can.»

*Something felt off about this interaction to norm, like the guy in front of him welding his broken parts was acting suspicious for some reason, especially over the fact that he didn't know him but remembered Nettie.*

[Take off your helmet.]

«Im not burning my retinas just so you can see my face while I repair you.»

[Put the blowtorch down and show me your face.]

«Nope, you can just wait until I have you up and working again.»

[You're related to the Osborn's. I can tell from your equipment. That or you're employed by them.]

«I stole this shit»

[From Oscorp]

«From alchemax. Oscorp is just an idea, remember?.»

*Norms eyes buzzed as they zoomed in, adjusting and focusing upon the deteriorated name tag written in a script he couldn't understand. Everything else indicated they were within the 3050 cluster but the language was totally different. He'd never seen anything like it.*

[Year?]

«2079»

[hhhmmmmmm...]

«Does this hurt?»

*The man started dabbing a brown liquid, most likely Betadine, on the tears in norms new skin to disinfect them. This confused him because he hadn't had human skin since he was actually human. Thankfully, the antiseptic didn't sting a bit.*

[Not at all! The blowtorch hurt much more.]

«That'd be the nerves I grew in your skeletal structure.»

[you're surprisingly high tech for the 2070s. My brain seems to be running at it's normal speed too. Very surprising that your ingenuity is far ahead of your time. I'm not at all clunky or slow like those inferior lytrate systems in 2099.]

«Whats a lytrate system?»

[A slow, inferior program to my own]

*the guy crossed his arms*

«Oh really? Since when do you think so highly of yourself?»

*Norm shrugged*

[since being uploaded into the quantum computer that keeps my brain running]

«I apologise for doing that to you, at least you're alive and as long as you're alive, that's all that matters.»

*Norms metallic arm joints ached as he reached out to take off the strangers welding helmet, ever the more curious about his face*

[end of log]

[would-this-pokemon-be-a-friend]

I'm not sure they'd get a good score given their gremlin nature, but how about morgrem? I think they'd be neat to keep around if you've got a black thumb (like me lol), but idk.

Let me preface this by saying that I also love morgrems. I love the whole evolution line. That being said, I’m not so sure that keeping a morgrem as a pet would be the best idea.

Morgrems are a good size for a pet, pretty lightweight for their height. Unfortunately, they don’t seem particularly friendly. Disingenuous is the word I’d choose. These mischievous pokémon are quite intelligent, using their charm and crocodile tears to lure people into a false sense of security before striking (Shield, Sword). They are known to falsely apologize for attacking targets in order to bring them in close enough to stab with their “spear-like hair” (Sword). They also have a bit of a history of disappearing people into the woods for unknown reasons (Shield). Unfortunately, morgrems draw strength from negative emotions (Violet). This has made them pretty popular with trainers who tend to think on the gloomy side, but it also incentivizes them to keep an owner in a bad mood. They’re anti-emotional-support pets.

There is one silver lining to morgrems, which you pointed out in your request. Morgrems are said to have a peculiar ability to make crops grow (Shield). This will no doubt make them popular among those who struggle to keep plants alive (those with black thumbs, as you put it), who are willing to look past the species’ antisocial tendencies. This isn’t a very kind-hearted species, so they would likely need some coercion through treats and prizes to get them to help you. I’d say there’s probably other pokémon who would make better gardening partners, but if you love morgrem like I do you’ll be willing to look past that.

Thankfully, morgrems aren’t particularly lethal pokémon. There’s a reason that this species relies so much on trickery to get by: they’re not very confident in their combat abilities (Scarlet). Like the other species on their evolution line, morgrems have sharp, hardened hair that they can use as a weapon, specifically through the spear-like length on the back of their heads. Using this makeshift weapon, morgrems can use a variety of dark-type moves like Foul Play, Assurance, and their signature move False Surrender to menace enemies. We don’t really know if morgrems go out of their way to harm humans through violence, but we do know that you’ll never know when they’re tricking you into a false sense of security to strike. To put it simply, it’s difficult to trust a morgrem. They could hurt you pretty badly if they wanted to.

Morgrems are, at the very least, an acquired taste. While they seem to have the ability to help plants grow, they are sneaky tricksters with a spear built into their hair. My cat often goes into goblin-mode, but adopting an actual goblin might be a step too far. But hey, I love goblins. If you really want to make a pet morgrem work, you could, but they’re certainly not going to be the best fit for every home.

[anonymusbosch]

one of the things at work is: if there's a process that's super super broken, how do you best get someone important to recognize that it's broken and worth fixing without throwing someone under the bus or critiquing someone unfairly if it's you who's the problem?

my strategy here is often to just ask someone importantish to walk through using it with me.

script:

"Hi Bob! I need to identify which subassemblies were used in this build so that I can ensure I'm testing representative hardware." <- here is the need I am trying to meet.

"We just had a pretty big issue with it last week so I wanted to be extra careful. I'm not very good at using the system, and I tried asking around and got some different answers, so I was wondering if you could spare about 15 minutes to walk through the process with me? Teach a man to fish?" <- here is why I am bothering You Bob Importantguy. why this is worth your time.

(at this point, if Bob delegates to Alice, either I go ask Alice or I can say 'I asked Alice who told me to ask Cary who gave me a different answer than Dave.')

"Here's how I would normally go about looking. As far as I've been told, I need to physically go look for the serial number sticker because Cary said the data in the database are out of date for this unit. Do you know if there's a better way to do this?" <- I have already tried solving this problem myself and hit some obstacles. Let me share them with you

"In this case I looked at it but found two contradictory stickers. So then I need to figure out..."

"Do you know the next step for z? I already tried y..."

"And then I've been told I need to ask Dave to help, but I'm guessing there's an automated way I just don't know about?" <- there had better mcfucking be a system that isn't Dave so help me

"This is as far as I've gotten. I really need the Part 1, 2, and 3 serial number info by Wednesday if this test is to kick off on time because I need to know if I can use Unit M or if I need to find a substitute, and I'll want to check the same things with the substitute too. Can you please help get that info to me by Weds morning?" <- here is a clear request of exactly what info I need by when, and what the consequences are if I can't find it

in my experience, it's worth doing this live and or on a phone call. Over email you will sound like a helpless goblin; in person they get to troubleshoot WITH you and see where THEIR troubleshooting fails.

this seems to work a lot better than saying "x thing doesn't work". Just reporting the issue puts someone on the defensive; leading them through it gently by asking for help starts them out in positive/problem solving mode. your mileage may vary! it depends! but it's been on my mind a lot recently.

[wirewitchviolet]

Hey, where's all the endgames?

Any time I'm browsing through my Steam library, I see Stellaris staring out at me, with a big ol' number on hours played next to a prompt asking if I'd recommend it to people. I don't generally do user reviews, but also I never actually know if I'd recommend that one to anyone, because the developers keep doing massive overhauls every so often that it's perpetually a totally different experience from the last time I played it. So now and then I'll fire it up again, put in another large number of hours, struggle for a little coming to grips with some feature that's completely changed, but get a handle on that, start thriving, get to the end game, and then just kinda stall out and quagmire for some reason or another. For the longest time I thought this was happening because the newly redesigned way the game worked meant there was some new concept I had to be mindful of for the whole game or it'd eventually come around and bite me, but on my most recent attempt to get a handle on it, the mid-game complications tipped their hand a little too hard and I realized no, I keep stalling out into an unending mid-game because that's how the game is designed to work.

It helps that this is the first time I've played it since somehow ending up with a big ol' pile of DLC, as the constant redesigns are really pretty blatantly structured such that you really need to have the DLC for it to feel like a properly functioning experience. Otherwise there's just a bunch of weird dummied out stuff basically. But yeah, Stellaris is set up with a variety of both hard and soft systems such that any time you really hit the momentum to start dominating the map and taking everything over, SOME sort of sudden crisis is going to pop up and demand your attention. Do you have a big enough fleet to take out anyone who might oppose you? Well, every other faction in the galaxy is suddenly going to form a federation where if you attack one of them, you're at war with all of them. Reach a point where that's a fight you can handle? Uh... there's suddenly a massive pirate fleet poking at you from behind! Dealt with that? Oh, well, here's a "random" disaster to destroy half your economy. Those fallen empires just sitting on the map with their overkill death fleets the whole game have decided they now have a problem with you. Space Godzilla suddenly appears and starts eating the whole galaxy. SOMETHING is going to happen to perpetually keep you in still a pretty good position but with some big crisis demanding your attention so you can't just go mop the map up.

Attempting to play this game before I realized this was how it worked was super frustrating, because I thought I was just always missing something really important and playing badly, but, OK no, it's just generating new problems on the fly to maintain this eternal mid-game. I'm... not going to call that bad design. I can see it appealing to a certain kind of person, but me? I hate it. And I hate how commonplace it's getting.

Dwarf Fortress is rad, and kind of has a bad endgame. At some point, you're either going to lose your fortress to early bad luck or some critical mismanagement, or get overwhelmed by invading goblins or forgotten beasts or something, but if you play well, you can get to a point where those sort of threats are fully manageable, and from there... either you just get really bored because the normal ways you interact with the game don't have any fresh challenges to offer, or you train up an impressive army and start conquering/destroying/exploring the world in a less than engaging mode most people don't know exists, OR you can go the traditional route, dig too greedily and too deep, crack open hell, and have demons flood your fortress. Like it shows in the intro. I don't really like any of these, but they're something, and Dwarf Fortress is quite famously a super ambitious game that's not anywhere close to finished and may never be.

Dwarf Fortress clones are getting pretty popular, and a feature I keep seeing them advertising is some sort of adversarial event manager that will keep hitting you with random disasters, paced out such that you always get hit with something new if you start getting complacent... and they do this instead of having any sort of end game.

There's a lot of survival type things with infinite procedural worlds. You explore this area and build up tools and defenses and deal with some aggressive enemies, and that leaves you in a position to venture out towards that big landmark on the horizon where even more aggressive enemies will attack you as you try and get even more resources to explore the next landmark, and this just continues forever, this is the game.

Basically every MMO's "endgame" is a series of really hard to survive dungeons/boss fights that give you slightly better gear than what you came in with which should let you just barely manage the next dungeon/boss fight and we're just literally going to keep adding these forever, hopefully at a pace where you aren't just sitting there bored waiting for the next one to go in because you're done with the last one.

And like, again, I dunno, maybe this is just me, but THIS IS THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS! Hades was super mad at a guy and decided to subject him to the absolute worst punishment he could think of- being tasked with pushing a boulder to the top of a hill, but rigging it so that every time he got close to the top, the boulder would slide off and roll all the way back down. So he's just stuck in this eternal loop of the mid-game of boulder pushing. And people who give talks and write papers on game design will say this is great because the strenuous task of pushing the boulder up the hill is the core gameplay loop and that's where all the focus should be.

This feels like a fundamental failure of game design from where I sit, but it's possible I'm just showing my age. I'm just barely old enough to remember when infinitely looping through the same stuff until you screw up and die was just what videogames were. Every arcade game was this single screen challenge where you kill everything or you platform to some goal or you do a race, and then maybe there'd be a few other similar levels, but ultimately you loop back to the first screen you started on but the difficulty's been incremented up in some way, usually just kinda ratcheting the speed up, and yeah, you just play until you lose, maybe get on the high score chart. Then the NES came along and people realized this design philosophy didn't really work when people buy a game up front and that's that, versus feeding quarters in every time they sit down with it, and the fundamental nature of game design changed, and now we've got a more narratively structured sort of deal where you're continually moving through a variety of novel situations requiring greater and greater mastery of the mechanics a particular game is bringing to the table until we build to a proper climax that really puts all your skills to the test and then gives you a nice little ending afterwards.

And like, technically this is subjective, but I am certain that more or less everyone at the time agreed that a game structured like Contra or Super Mario Bros. was just hands down better than a game structured like Pacman or Space Invaders.

Now, it DOES make sense to me why the bloated dying dinosaurs that are big name game publishers are super keen on undoing about 40 years of progress and returning to that Sisyphian drudgery. Ultimately, they want to munch quarters again. And while I would rather passionately debate how true this actually is, the corporate consensus on how to make the most money from games is to... trick people into compulsively playing a game for as long as they possible, while not especially enjoying it, through a combination of having no end game and pressures like "daily login bonuses" while tempting them with little additions that theoretically will make it a more enjoyable experience but ultimately have very little impact (cosmetic DLC stuff, little minor content packs, etc.) and just kinda maintain this false hope that if they stick it out and keep throwing in money it will eventually become a more satisfying experience.

But besides, you know, the fact that the people making their money out of that sort of gross exploitative model keep giving their GDC talks about compelling game loops and player retention and microtransactions and all, I can't for the life of me work out why indie developers who presumably just want to make a really cool game and maybe a better one later are ALSO increasingly designing games with thes endless mid-games and no real longterm goals to work towards. So... please stop doing that? Focus on making games that are only as long as they need to be, where you acquire some skills and ways of approaching problems, then get tested on those, and have a nice satisfying ending, then get to move on to play something else cool, and fondly remember this experience such that they'll hopefully want to see what you do next.

I personally would also very much like to spend all my time making things like that, and it'd be so much easier to focus on that if I didn't have to waste all my time begging for rent money and struggling to stay alive with all the medical problems I can't afford to see doctors about. So... maybe help a gal out there?

[whathebeep]

SO ZEVLOR YEAH??? And Halsin????

End game spoilers under the cut! (Specifically for Halsin's ending)

"where's the druid" is such an impactful line in my mind cause like,,, how long had the tieflings been there before Halsin left with Aradin for the temple?? Had Halsin been a bit more reclusive while leading the grove? Was he so caught up in studying the tadpole that he never fully interacted with Zevlor and the other tieflings? Cause like

You cannot tell me Zevlor and Halsin aren't like one in the same- these men both dealt with the roles of leaders who had to be strong for others before themself. Halsin literally spent so many years as Archdruid, putting the needs of the other druids before himself, before his needs to be within nature or simply doing his own thing. Zevlor was a Hellrider and saw Elturel be pulled into avernus, and this man has been in survival mode ever since. Like how many people did the tiefling group lose before the grove? And even once in the safety of the grove they had to worry about the goblins, and then also the druids wanting to force them out into the waiting jaws of the enemy??? Like

Long story short, I can't believe these two weren't fast friends. That Halsin, (had he been more present before going to the temple) would have seen Zevlor and the stress in those eyes and seen a bit of himself, that they would of sat together near the water and shared a pipe or a drink and just talked.

Hells, going even further into the story, post game, I could see Zevlor and a handful of the other tieflings going with Halsin back to the shadowlands to help make a settlement there. Zevlor and Halsin would have such great insight to offer each other- Zevlor would found a new branch of the hell riders to protect the community, while Halsin focused on supporting the children and creating the orphanage (I'm just saying, some heavy renovations and Moonrise would be a cool orphanage). They wouldn't personally want to be the community leaders but they would provide great insight and wisdom to whoever took on the role.

Long rant short, I think these rad dad's need friendship from each other

[oneatlatime]

The Chase

Saving the commentary for next time. I haven't actually listened to any of the commentary tracks. Are they worth it?

Disney princess Aang.

There is no way the Air Nomads didn't have some sort of textile-based industry with that much shedding going on.

Sorry Katara, but Toph is much more Goblin than girl.

In a completely unsurprising move, the 12 year old formerly caged only child high on her first taste of freedom takes it too far.

The beat up Sokka quota is fulfilled! 3 minutes and ten seconds in might be a new record.

This is the kind of miscommunication I can get behind. Katara thinks they've had this whole fight complete with big issues, a falling out and a need to apologise. Toph has no idea that there are any issues.

Comfy.

What kind of cows are they expecting to meet to necessitate that!?!

How exactly is Toph supposed to help unload anyway? Unloading = throwing things down from a place she can't see. The last time anyone threw something to her from Appa she got beaned in the head. I get that she could help set up tents maybe, but unless Appa's saddle is made of stone she can't see it or anyone on it.

I get that they're all tired, but I'm with Toph on this one.

Sokka! Truly a man of wisdom. Sometimes all you should do is sit back and watch the fireworks.

Did Katara just insult Toph for being blind? Not cool.

Why would a tent made of stone have seams?

I love how when Sokka sticks his head under the covers his voice gets muffled.

Pushing Appa this hard has got to be borderline abusive. And how it keeps finding you? Maybe the trail of breadcrumbs maguffin you spent the first scene of the episode setting up? These poor kids are dumb when they're tired.

Zuko's so angry that his anger wins out as a descriptor over the whole 'half his face is missing' thing. That's impressive.

"Fun and Perky!" Honestly, no comment. Trying to put "FuN and PeRkY" in the same sentence as Sokka broke my brain.

"There's no way they could have possibly followed us" except for the giant carved pathway up to where you are?

These three. Hmm. Did not miss them.

Wow those ride on lizards sound annoying!

Since when can lightning demolish walls?

Pretty.

Siblings!

"We've been up all night with no sleep." LIES. FILTHY LIES.

That's sleep.

You have GOT to be kidding me.

I had not thought about the dangers of ten tonne sleep deprived flying animals.

Katara's really in full bitch mode this episode huh?

Sokka is the only person with sense this episode. Also love the toilet brush trees.

"We're all just trying to get used to each other." Actually, the only person who had a problem with Toph was Katara.

Sokka speaks truth and has his priorities in order. What else can I say? This guy rocks.

This guy can't catch a break.

I hope Appa was napping during that bath.

I take it back. They're not toilet brushes. They're moustaches.

And that's all you're getting for today folks because I just lost power!

edit: part 2 + wrap up is posted.

[zeekszooks]

I'm thinking of making a bigtop burger Oc that isn't part of either food truck but is basically a VERY common customer. A running gag she will never get to eat any of the food she orders either on comedic timing or just like situational events like the 'my cabbages' guy from Avatar Last Airbender but every time she will say on the lines of 'I never got my _ in the end'. Usually filling the blank with burger. This leads to her usually having to eat stuff that even Cesare wouldn't even DARE consider selling even for HIM and he sells charcoal on a BUN!

I'm thinking an overworked female office worker that sometimes looks more goblin mode than other days depending on how her work environment is going. I imagine her having blonde hair so frazzled and poofy it looks like how some people portray flowey's hair if they were human from Undertale. However it is rarely shown to be a golden blonde because of the constant mess she's in.

She will always order food from the two trucks being like a link in communication between the two if be a secret relationship or just general news like "Oh yeah Zomburger is doing a cool promotion, though you guys know I switch between you both daily on lunch and dinner. I visit you both once a day then flip flop my visits mostly based on whose closer on my first break." Then it would spark some sort of plot thing.

She has no idea what trouble she causes until one day she mentions to both groups "I cannot pay anymore due to my pay cut and you guys were the most affordable food around here... unfortunately I'll have to stop eating here for the time being. I mean my only regret is that I don't get to taste your food at you full potential " They both notice that the competition tanked their prices and they started getting really competitive with prices deals and whatnot.

Now, not everything is horrible for her! She just has really REALLY bad luck. She has someone close to her other person. This person is very much good luck. People will sometimes ask how is the husband or wife or partner. She would always correct them 'we are basically childhood friends calm down'.

Completely oblivious to her best friend's reaction looking like a sad puppy. Though basically why they never get together is one wants to help the other dosen't want to be a burden and be independent. Even though she very much needs help she will never ask for it.

Her friend I'm still debating but I'm thinking making them a male and black hair... possibly either African or Asian mostly so he can contrast her hair wise..? Idk... honestly I'm just gonna slap black hair that's REALLY shiny from being over managed all the time he is afraid of germs afterall but never was sick.

Though honestly his focus on his character will be his good luck and unsettling personality though good with words basically me trying to write a slightly bad person without him being completely evil.. he does everything to impress her and help her seeing her as the canary in the coalmine for life quality of the public.

She will be slightly pessimistic, foul mouthed and very bad at talking to people but has a heart of gold and people take advantage of it. She's terrible at speaking to new people almost comedic.

I plan to dress he constantly in ragged suits and stumble a lot mostly because she's always tripping and pretty much always trying to avoid falling piano. The fact she survives is a miracle or a curse. Though honestly both because the medical bills and eventually the guilt of her friend helping be an umbrella for her.

Basically her whole purpose is to help move along the plot at times and be a running gag. Also I think it would be nice to have a girl customer and not something eye candy more like a walking goblin girl who JUST WANTS A BURGER....

I never got my burger in the end.

[mermaidsirennikita]

Hello! Happy Valentines day! I love your blog, and I’m wondering if you have recs for books with really solid friendships for the heroines? I’m rereading the wallflowers rn (my first historical series i ever read!) and I’m just delighted by how much the four of them like each other, and also how they get to do kinda silly stupid stuff together bc friends DO encourage each other to be deranged sometimes lmao

Yes! (And thank you.)

Offbeat rec, but I really love the way Lucia and Regin love each other in IAD--specifically Pleasure of a Dark Prince (Lucia's book) but in general. They're *technically* sisters, as all valkyries are, but they're really best friends and so ride or die for each other. When Lucia is like "I need to go on the run so my werewolf fated mate can't find me" Regin is all "I'm ON IT" and goes with her and helps her like, push Garreth down a ravine and attempt to crush him with cars. It's great.

The Mating Habits of Scoundrels by Vivienne Lorret has great, funny friendships. The girls are really supportive of each other, but they're also like... encouraging one another's worst fears. I think Wallflowers fans would really like this series--my favorites are The Wrong Marquess, How to Steal a Scoundrel's Heart, and Never Seduce a Duke.

Oooh The Fifth Avenue Rebels by Joanna Shupe has fabulous friendships. This is definitely a "friends encourage friends to go goblin mode" series, especially on Nellie's part. Nellie is like, always steering Maddy to cheat on her fiancee with Archer (to be fair, Nellie had.... a conflict of interest there, but she was Right) and taking Katherine to French balls to go hook up with masked men and stuff. And in her book especially, I think you really see how much she adores her friends, and how much she feels that "everyone is getting married and growing up and moving on without me" thing, which leads to a lovely friendship moment between all four.

Hell's Belles by Sarah MacLean OBVIOUSLY has an amazing girl gang that encourages women's wrongs.

Grace Callaway's Lady Charlotte's Society of Angels series by Grace Callaway has a group of crazy young vigilante girls, led by a much calmer, but secretly insane, Lady Charlotte. I just love how these girls will be like "LET'S KICK FLIP VILLAINS AND KISS BOYS".

Jennifer Ashley's first four Mackenzie books especially have really lovely, supportive friendships between the Mackenzie brides. Beth and Isabella are probably the closest, but they're all really tight and understanding of one another.

Adriana Herrera's Las Leonas series is only two books in thus far, but I've been LOVING the female friendships in that series. The women really GET each other, and I super enjoy the fact that there is like... an acknowledged bonding that goes beyond them being women in the 19th century, and goes into them being woc in a predominantly white European society especially.

And for books that have great friendships between men and women, I looove Frannie's relationships with the Scoundrels of St. James, especially Jack. Like, all these guys are a little in love with her (Jack least for sure because he actually gets that their love is platonic lol), but it's pretty quickly clear that it's like, this trauma bond situation where they actually just really GET each other and where they're coming from. So it's not like, objectifying in any way and she's more like the heart of the group, while also being great at forging things and such as that lmao.

[thessalian]

Thess vs Hurdles and Challenges

Wow. Sometimes the world goes to lengths to give me a break. Though honestly, it's kind of backfiring because apparently the world doesn't know me very well.

See, I was debating calling out today. It was nearly 5am before I got any sleep because the stress and worry and ... well, everything ... caused pain flare and migraine. I woke up before my alarm, feeling a little bit better overall, but still kind of crap. Still, I know that we're struggling a little at work and I'm off all next week so I decided to take painkillers about it and carry on.

Apparently the Small God of IT had other ideas, because there is currently a hiccup with our patient records system and it's not letting me log in. I've spoken to IT and this is not a me-problem; this is an IT problem and while they are working on it, they have no idea when it's getting fixed. Though I have to say, IT was a little stunned when I got on the phone to them and they started the, "Have you refreshed the browser?" thing and I went, "Refreshed the browser, restarted the browser, cleared the cache, restarted the entire computer, everything. Nothing worked". I get why they had to go through all that, but I kind of wish they'd looked at their notes before running me through the "A statistically significant percentage of end users are ignorant of anything beyond 'press button to do thing'" spiel. We could have skipped a whole part of the interaction that way.

Anyway, so I'm sitting here, wiggling my work mouse every so often and keeping an eye on my email client, and honestly getting shit all done. I could check the typing queue, at least, and that honestly isn't too bad right now ... though it's about to get worse because Goblin's going out to an appointment and may or may not be back today. (I hope she's okay.) The thing I said about the world not knowing me very well is ... well. I could probably take it easier, not worry so much about immediately knowing when I can get to work, maybe even say, "Maybe this is for the best because I feel horrible and could use a sick day" ... but I can't stand being forced to not do things. I get nervous when IT things are going wrong, because what if it's a huge problem that won't get fixed for days? I need to know when it's fixed, so I'm going to keep trying. Plus, if I'm honest, I am an ornery so-and-so and I only get more determined when faced with a set of hurdles between myself and a task - whether I need to do it or I just want to, I want to know I can.

On that subject, Veilguard. I woke up nearly an hour before my alarm, which means I'm running on maybe four and a half hours' sleep right now. But I figured since I was up, I'd check in on Veilguard. Now, it would have been nice if someone had warned me how long it takes to configure shader settings, but never mind - my early wake-up meant I still had some time to poke at things. From the looks of things, I can play it, at least in early stages. I might want to look at whatever invincibility mode the thing has, and will be careful to not stand near any cliffs just in case, but I've been making it through the prologue without too much issue. It helps that this isn't my "real" playthrough yet, mostly because between compiling shaders and figuring out the character creation thing, I didn't get that much time to actually play. On short acquaintance, though, I think the issue is mostly the visual noise, so to speak. So much is happening on the screen that it's hard to know what you're supposed to be focused on at any give moment. I'll probably get used to it. I'm not going to be seeking a refund, anyway - which is good because I barely have time to do so. If games are going to spend over half an hour configuring shader settings at launch, Steam needs to be more generous with its return policies.

So ... yeah. Today's been me dealing with the hurdles technology sets. Not entirely winning, but coping. I'll have another try at restarting my work browser just to see, and then find something to do. I mean, maybe I could even get through the Veilguard prologue on this practice character. (I don't even remember what I named them; that's how tired I am.)

[beecreeper]

*vibrates excitedly*

We're doing asks again!?

5,6,26 for the gang please

5 answered here and the rest under the cut!

6.) How would the player go about meeting them in Act 1? What is their introduction?

Briar -- Briar would be found inside the dank crypt, having landed outside the cave entrance round the back and followed the smell of death and mildew inside. She was just about to try and ambush the thieves but then the player comes in and deals with them instead so Briar just waits and listens, preparing to ambush the player instead. If you fail a perception check she tries to jump you but the tadpole connection stops her and she immediately goes into “lying to get this person on my side” mode. “Oh sorry about that I thought you were with those bandits thank GOODNESS I found someone else who escaped that ship maybe we can help each other?” If you pass the perception check you can spot her and choose to attack or say something but the tadpole interrupts you either way.

Ferox -- If Ferox were a companion, you would him find having just killed a bunch of goblins. He got confronted and SNAPPED. The player would hear the sounds of a struggle somewhere outside of the deserted village. The encounter space would need to be set up in such a way that you can only see the combat happening when you’re close enough to be dragged into initiative (like down where you find scratch? But scratch would probably have to be moved somewhere else). There’d be a bunch of goblins already dead but a few more to pick off before you can talk to him. Once initiative ends, the dialogue tree starts immediately.

Molli -- If Molli was a companion, she would be found lost in Ethel’s swamp and getting accosted by something, though I haven’t precisely decided what. Gut instinct says some kinda plant thing, like being all tangled in vines or something and she’s calling for help. You can approach to help her but then the whatever it is attacks. If you save her but don’t recruit her there she shows up again at the grove and can still be recruited at any time but disappears after act one. If you leave act one without triggering the fight, then she can be found dead tangled up in the same vines.

Myrala – I'm struggling with Myrala the most because I have so many half ideas for her and none of them are singing to me just right. Gut instinct says she’d be near the grove, helping out with the tieflings and probably getting involved with the tiefling kids specifically because she’d have such an immediate soft spot for them. Another idea is that she could be encountered in various places (either determined randomly or by whatever you run into first) that are all little treasure stashes that she’s trying to lock pick into. Even though Myrala hasn’t been a thief in years, being flung into the wilderness has activated her survival instincts and she’s picking back up the habits she had in Menzoberranzan that kept her alive, justifying it to herself as necessary and telling herself that as long as she’s not stealing from/hurting people *directly* it’s still morally okay. Maybe you could confront her about stealing and she’d try to lie about what she was actually doing? I gotta stew more on this but I don’t wanna keep this reply waiting any longer lol

Poppy – Poppy would be in the goblin camp drinking in the main area, evidently having a great time. If you talk to her, she tadpole connects with you and says GET ME. THE FUCK. OUT OF HERE. She had landed in an area where she ran across the goblins first and was just rolling with the whole true soul thing to avoid getting gutted on the spot. If you don’t recruit her or specifically warn her, she’ll die if you poison the goblin ale.

26.) Give us one of your Tav’s secrets!

Ferox -- Ferox usually discloses his urges and the fragments of his past that he remembers but he deliberately chooses NOT to tell anyone how familiar that roasted dwarf smelled. He's taking that one to his grave.

Briar -- okay like. BESIDES the memory loss and murder urges that she hides from her companions that's old news. Pre-tadpole Briar kept her last name and hometown a secret, mostly because she considered that part of life completely worthless. As far as she was concerned she emerged fully formed at 14 covered in her foster parents blood. (Gortash tracks down this information anyway just to be petty with it)

Molli -- Something Molli doesn't tell anyone, even after the details of her situation with Gortash come out, is that she BEGGED to stay with him when he was sending her away to be tadpoled. Not only was she terrified for her life but she was also SO broken and dependent on him at that point. She was convinced that *she* must have done something wrong and was desperate to get back in his good graces because that's the pattern that had been so deeply ingrained into her.

Myrala -- that she *has* stolen things since coming to Baldur's Gate. She sets rules for herself (only from people who can afford it, never involve the people directly, only take what you need) but she feels awful about it anyway. She spends so much time preaching about how Eilistraee gave her a second chance, so stealing, even just to survive or to help her converts, feels so much like a betrayal of that. It's ESPECIALLY important to her that none of her little group of converts/refugees ever find out.

Poppy -- she's low-key scared of dogs but doesn't like to admit it so she just grits her teeth and bares it. Scratch makes her SUPER uncomfortable

[goop-thoughts]

And here we are!

Heya! New to using Tumblr beyond scrolling endlessly, so I have no clue what to do at all. My main haunt is being a Discord goblin, but I'm not quite ready to make any sort of public server there just yet. So, hopefully going to post here from time to time and maybe do some doodles (depending on whatever mood strikes me, although my main strength lies in writing and editing), but seeing where things go on their own is half the fun anyhow. And... what else... Oh, right, introduction! I'm Cam, Cammy, or Chameleon, whichever you prefer. I have a variety of appearances but my current one is best seen on dark mode this:

As an entity, I do not feel as though I have any core identity, yet I can shift and shape myself however I see fit and take up other masks, as it were, but being a being like this is what feels most comfortable at the moment for me. Depending on what I feel like sharing through this blog, I may introduce other characters that may also act as masks. For now though, I'm content with sharing odd ideas that pop into my head, any tagging suggestions are always appreciated if relevant and especially good thoughts, and I will do my best to have at least some semblance of activity on here (which I may help with from one of my partners).