#i choked up for real.

[flagellant]

The more I think about Wildmender the more I grow invested in it. It's a fascinating interpretation of terra nil and solarpunk since so often the genre is fundamentally rooted in settler-colonialist philosophy, and even games which are intended to be the opposite of that--terra nil comes to mind as the obvious one--just end up actually revealing a different side of the factorio problem, because terra nil is an incredible impersonal restoration of ecological systems. Terra Nil acknowledges climate destruction on a global catastrophic scale and it accepts the responsibility to fix that, but it isn't shown as a human act, nor does it really allow itself the realism of just how terrifyingly impossible the task is to try and literally fix the entire world. Its game structure is supposed to be the anti-factorio but its puzzle structures focusing on efficiency and robotic engineering patterns of rewilding end up feeling more like a dialogue than an inversion. It's trying to say that the idea of humanity as fundamentally destructive is wrong while it doesn't actually ever address the human element.

And then there's fucking Wildmender. A game where you are a single human child in a world of endless wasteland and death, where the only other things are ghosts who remember a halcyon era and the hubris that ended it, wraiths which are consumed by their own greed and destruction of the land for their cursed immortality, and a couple god statues. The entire map is just ceaseless grief, filled with the literal dessicated remains of all the biodiversity that came before the countless disasters. And it's a big fucking map.

And then...the game gives you a shovel and a sickle and a mirror that shows the wraiths what twisted reflections they've become.

And the game says, "The entire world is waiting to be better, and the only way to do that is by doing it yourself, long and hard and hopeless as it seems."

I cannot emphasize enough how overwhelming the task you're handed. There is not a single speck of life left in the world. You are given a shovel and a water bottle and just...expected to do something about it. To look at the literal endless wastes and think you can heal it.

This is what Wildmender cherishes that Terra Nil denies: This is an impossible task for you alone. But it has to be done...and you can actually do it. The way you can turn sand into soil and dig irrigation channels is beautiful. Every single scrap of land that you reclaim is something you had to do on purpose. You had to do it yourself. You had to actively choose how to do it.

And the game makes the reward of even just getting a bit more water into the sand feel like victory. Your starting oasis turns from soil into lush and beautiful meadows--sure, technically instantaneously by doing magic on a specific type of plant. But it took me 4-5 hours before I got there. You have to travel so far into the desert to learn how to grow grass again, and then you realize that this endless hostile wasteland is a fraction of the map you're given. And you look at this sudden profusion of meadowy grassland surrounding your spring and despite how sudden it feels you remember how big the world is. You made more progress in a minute than you did in 5 hours and it's not even a speck on the map. How the fuck is this gonna happen?

And the answer is by accepting that it's going to take a long fucking time and a lot of hard work.

That's how it's gonna happen. Get to work.

[heart-select]

Honey, just put your sweet lips on my lips

[dieselocelot]

are you going to strangle me next?

[emeraldotter]

keep reaching out

[murkying]

Good evening, QSMP was a Sociological Study Conducted by Harvard University

[kittykatninja321]

my controversial (?) opinion is that I am not opposed to objectifying men I just wish the Nightwing butt thing wasn’t so corny

[alistair-blackwood]

genuinely don't understand people who gripe about someone getting into dunmesh for m/m pairings as opposed to f/f when none of them are even close to being the main point of the series

[augustatheghost]

"chris and i were very careful and very judicious in the way we interacted physically" yeah yeah yeah

[logansdoe]

Putting your hand in his hair and slowly dragging it down to his jaw to rest it there QGHSHHS— I will kms

[the-real-list-of-ominous-threats]

I will make your weird masochist friend call you a tsundere and beg for you to hit him

[throwdownyourheart]

…

[joelletwo]

PLAY ON THE PLAYGROUND TOGETHER...........................

[chicago-geniza]

Looking at the weather forecast and I imagine next week will be mostly pendulum-ing between the poles of "if I don't have at least one window open I get claustrophobic and dust-allergy-asphyxiated and Die" and "it is 18 degrees Fahrenheit outside"

[spotsupstuff]

Imagine if tarrows forgot shes not a slugcat, and absent mindedly tried to store a pearl in her stomach for safekeeping and nearly choking.

the only time i can imagine it happening is before Sparrows would leave the Void Pools cuz otherwise she has that fuckin.. rebreather mask constantly on. it would tunk against that before it'd get the chance to get into her mouth. so here's some ouchies

[lacewing-if]

POV: you want to write dark academia IF but you seriously hate studying.

[swordmaid]

this kiss anim still makes me ?????? … can’t take ascended astarion’s kisses seriously they are so goofy like why are you choking her in public omfg I thought this was a classy party…….