#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

[logansdoe]

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

[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

[doesnotloveyou]

"why is my fave actor still in a dumb franchise 😢" there's this lil important thing called CONTRACT LAW where, if you are 22 and you sign up to do say 11 movies in a franchise (*cough* Sebastian Stan), but the contract doesn't say when those movies will release....you could still be stuck in that franchise into your 50's

"oh, they really love the franchise that's why they're still in it 🤡" could be, or could be they signed their life away to it and have little choice. if they rely on the franchise for their income---a number which can go up or down---they better not talk trash

"why would such a good actor pick such a stinker film???"

they read an amazing script, signed up to be in the film, but NO LAW says the studio cannot completely change the script, their character, and everything else about the movie after they've signed

they heard that an actor/director they like will be in it, or were directly asked to join by someone on the project they respect

they genuinely need the paycheck (which CAN be protected by law) the same way other people work at McDonald's

they wanted to try something new (some actors do get bored, guys)

they prefer indies where the managers are dedicated to the craft not the box office lottery

shockingly, their every move is NOT dictated by strangers on the internet, aka fans

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

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

[eonars]

Ok couple things I want opinions on:

- do I venture out to the art store I've never been to today and see if they have panel boards and maybe some nicer equipment than just the regular hobby store even though it's above freezing today after a full day of snow. I have to go to the grocery store regardless so I have to go out in the ice but the grocery store is much closer than the art store. I have spikes for my boots

- guy off an app who described himself as a pleasure dom and who keeps sending me crunchy jpegs of like I WANNA MAKE YOU WHIMPER WHILE WE WATCH HORROR MOVIES TOGETHER on snap wants to meet me tonight and I genuinely cannot be bothered. Tempted to just block him out of the blue and not have to deal w it anymore but iono. I think I already know the answer to this one just needed to throw it out there

[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"

[mafaldinablabla]

It's less than a month that I start having suicidal thoughts on top of depressing ones when I'm really tired including after the weekly yoga class but it could mean anything right haha right?