#i'm glad your day was good

[celebrating-achievements]

I don't have anything specific, but I had a good day today and wanted to share. I hope you also have a good day whenever you happen to see this

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[thordy]

[thephooka]

I've been dreaming of making a webcomic for nearly half of my life, and I've just started actually working on that, but... do you think it's worth it for me to start even with the decline of the scene? White noise is quite possibly my favorite piece of media, period, and it's in a format I love, so I figure you're a good person to ask the thoughts of.

(In reference to this post, I am guessing.)

ABSOLUTELY! 100%! MAKE YOUR WEBCOMIC!! Please don't let the whinging of us old heads deter you from making a project that you're passionate about.

I think it's important to ask yourself what would make it 'worth it' in your mind. What do you want out of making a webcomic? Is it that you want to experience the act of creation? Do you have a story you need to get out? Is your goal to get a book printed? To have a large audience? To improve your artistic and storytelling skills? To make a living on your artwork? To make merch? Some of these are way harder to do today, but some of these are goals that you will reach simply by making your webcomic.

If it helps at all, I had to do a lot of this kind of talk to myself when I was starting in 2011 (less because of the scene and more because I was low in self-confidence.) The only way I could get myself to start posting WN on Smackjeeves was to remind myself that I was doing this for myself only, and maybe no one would read it, and that would be ok, because if nothing else I would be making something I love and I would learn a lot doing it. 13 years later and I'd consider my goals met, even if I stopped WN before I'm truly done with it.

(Which speaking of, I feel very strongly that unfinished or abandoned webcomics are not a waste of time for either the reader OR the creator. Just because a story doesn't get an ending--or gets an ending you don't like--doesn't mean it's without worth!!)

The webcomic scene is not going to fully disappear anytime soon--it's just suffering the same corporatization that has gripped almost every art scene at some point in some way, and I think that problem has been compounded by the consolidation of the internet into a few social media platforms. But those platforms will crumble, and the corporations will bail once they can't squeeze any more money out of webcomics. The scene won't ever been the same as it was in the 2010s, but that's how time works, and that doesn't mean it won't ever get better than it is or that there's not gems to be found now. The only way it gets better is if more people make and read webcomics!

[coffeegnomee]

Every time Zam opens up about his mindset and explains why he is the way he is to Kab, the very next conversation she uses that information for her own selfish gain.

Just like. It's subconscious more than purposeful I think. Just given how she says it. But it is a facet of her inner reality that any information she gains she uses for herself and to help herself and she acts as if anyone's small kindness or compassion towards her plight is a blood oath of protection, help, and teaming.

But PrinceZam hates opening up and to see him so consciously trying to be open and honest and self aware about himself and where he's at, unlike season 4 where he was unable to do so, and to have that be thrown in his face every day and be misunderstood over and over and over and over and over.

[aeolianblues]

Right?

Right??

[pushing500]

Your stories make me want to play more n more interesting forms of Rimworld. I’m pretty scared to leave peaceful mode most of the time though! I’m a sandboxier, not a ‘risk the lives of these characters I’m attached to’-er. How do you manage the power creep of enemies with so few colonists (for the mechinator story)?

Gotta be honest, I do panic a little bit when I get big raids, or mech raids, or cultist chanters or whatnot. I often just pause the game and make some tea or snuggle my cats for a bit before I come back and try to think of the best ways to deal with the situation without getting my best mechanitor bois killed in the process.

The killbox has definitely helped despite its architect being a bit of an idiot (that's me, by the way), and it's nice to know I can throw the mechs at any baddies as a distraction and resurrect them later if things go sideways.

Also, I'm comforted in the knowledge that I can call XiaoLiang from Arwell if I need a convenient Man-In-Black; he's only, like, a half day's walk away and (so far) doesn't seem to mind being summoned on a whim.

I confess I have reloaded a save now and then, but it's a single-player game, and in the end, it doesn't matter what you do as long as you're enjoying yourself. My favourite difficulty setting is "Adventure Story" because it has enough danger to make for interesting plots and drama, but also plenty of room for character development and silly colonist interactions.

[bleaksqueak]

While I absolutely hate not posting, I'm also very glad Soli is on mini-july break because guess who has two thumbs and just spent the past two days in a migraine coma!? THIS GUYYyyowowwww.

[nekrosmos]

nekros, nekros, buddy, my guy, my friend (me panicking writing that who said that?? 0_0), YOUR COMMENTS????? I genuinely have no words holy shit i literally had to take a walk i was so excited, mind you it snowed earlier and i was on an 8 hour flight.

Ended up gushing with my best friend (who i gifted the fic to and who says hi actually pffft) on the phone about you for like 30 minutes while i was pacing my street, im speechless. I have no words. You're incredible, seriously what in the fuck how does one respond to that???? i need like 2-4 business to process it let alone figure out what to say other than just thank you i-

actually at a loss, you're something else <3, i humbly offer a virtual hug and a kiss if you'd like, at least until i figure out what to do, you've literally floored me Nekros wtf im blue-screening what does one do help

Mwuah <333

TEEHEE I'm so glad you enjoyed my comments <33 I had a lot of fun reading your fic honestly, it had something special, I adored the vibe of it, I'm so weak for the 141 feeling like a family and also authors exploring Ghost's traumas and stuff. Add some NikPrice to this and you got me 👍​

I'm not gonna lie, I love leaving obnoxiously long comments and then see authors lose their minds. It's my bread and butter. I think we as creative people really deserve feedback on our work we share for free with the world so this is my job now 🫡​

I'm so happy that this made you happy <3 Anytime, friend !!

[somecunttookmyurl]

SORRY ABOUT THE SPAM I THOUGHT YOU WERE MY DASH

ok genuinely i did not even notice a spam because i get notes with enough regularity that even after you've sent this and i went to look you're still broken up by other things on the activity page and it does not look like a spam

[corpocyborg]

did end up finishing the main quest of dai btw. the game was not worth the time i put into it.

[butterflydm]

"You lost someone important. Guilt's part of that."

*goes off and stares into the sea for a thousand years*

I do kinda feel as if I bought two games in one, because Veilguard is such a different experience in the second playthrough (this is not a complaint).

Grief. Regret. An ocean of it. And how to move past it. How important it is to be able to move past it and not let yourself be trapped by all your pain.

[endgame spoilers below]

Varric "goes to sleep" after your first big talk with him and then you can't talk to him again until after you've meditated and reached Solas (who is never far away, though you don't realize it).

It is amazing how Solas is able to criticize himself so strongly (via the memory of Varric) and then keep on doing everything that he's doing. He truly is the ultimate master of the sunk-cost fallacy.

Wisdom twisted into Pride. It is so painful to think that the thing that made Solas so furious and heartsick in his personal quest in DAI -- watching a spirit of Wisdom get twisted into Pride because it was brought into the mortal world to be a weapon -- is exactly what Mythal asked of him. And the anger that he shows towards those mortal mages (who he can and will kill unless you stop him) is thus displaced anger that he doesn't feel like he's allowed to feel towards Mythal.

So... what's up with the Rings of Power tag? It's about Solas, of course.

You meet a guy who is a lone wanderer. A vagabond, who claims no particular importance but somehow seems to understand the powers that are key to the world's salvation. He helps you out for a while. He's pretty arrogant - prideful, you might say.

You find out that he's essentially a demigod who has been lying to everyone for... weeks, months, idk. And that he actually is the person who helped break the world and make it what it currently is today... and he wants to fix the world. Except... well, except that fixing the world involves a whole bunch of people dying and basically destroying the world as it currently exists in order to create the 'better' world that exists in his imagination/memory.

His intentions may be good but every time he goes forward with his plans, it destroys so much and hurts so many people. His methods suck and his imagined perfect world can never exist. And he lies, over and over and over. He betrays you, over and over.

God of lies.

The Great Deceiver.

I've only finished one playthrough of Dragon Age: The Veilguard so far. And, in it, I gave Solas a good ending. The happiest ending that he probably could get. In which he doesn't get any of the things that he was trying to get during the game, but he does get a chance to atone for the many, many people that he's hurt and what he's destroyed. He gets shown a different path and is convinced to take it. He has someone who loves him enough to walk that path with him. "Where I'm going is terrible," he tells his love. "It won't be terrible if you're with me," she tells him.

Solas makes the choice that (Second Age/Rings of Power) Sauron couldn't make -- he chooses to stop trying to break the world in order to fix it. To atone by doing what the people of the world would want from him, rather than forcing his own vision on them. He stops. That's what Sauron can't bring himself to do. He can't stop trying to fix the world.

So finishing up Veilguard after watching Rings of Power let me play out a little power fantasy of: what if you could get him to stop? What if you could get him to see that his attempts to 'fix' the world are only making things worse? What would that look like?

Solas is able to admit -- after a lot of work by the protagonist to get him there -- that the world doesn't need him to fix it. By contrast, Sauron is going to double-down on his attempts to 'heal' Middle-Earth.

But it's interesting to get a chance to create a situation where a character who does have quite a bit in common with Sauron is able to have a different kind of ending.

As is tradition when I play RPGs like this, my first playthrough is for discovering a character and letting myself be fully led by the story, and now my second playthrough is to poke at all the choices and the seams of the story to figure out what I like best. And then I usually do a version of my first character again but 'perfected' in taking the alternative choices that I liked better than my first time through. So this second run is going to be for going through all the rest of the options and romances to see if I like them better than what my heart instinctively led me towards (Lucanis).

So this is my game plan for my second run:

Flirt with everyone. Make sure I do all Treviso quests before I go to get Davrin. Choose to save Minrathous (this is why I made my second Rook a Shadow Dragon -- Treviso seems so vulnerable to me, so I really have to stack the deck to get my Rook to choose to go to Minrathous). Sadly mourn that I cannot romance my Lucanis in this runthrough (my second Rook recently did the quest to acquire him and I found myself instantly enchanted all over again by his introduction. Thank goodness saving Minrathous takes him off the table; I don't see how else I could resist him).

Keep flirting until I get to the 'commitment quest' for each of the characters, and play through everything else until that's about all I have left. Then do separate saves for each romance. So six separate 'endgame runs' for this second Rook, allowing me to try out a variety of endgame scenarios.

Then, armed with lots of information, I plan to run as a dwarven Rook for my third runthrough, and do a run-through that uses my favorite choices now that I know how they shake out, and take a new approach with Solas. Probably a rogue. I've tried out the gameplay for all three classes, and rogue was my favorite (this is not a shock. Rogue has been my favorite in literally every DA game).

And now a collection of images I like to call:

They assumed Rook knew Varric was dead when these conversations happened.

Looking forward to what other conversations may happen where Rook is having an entirely different conversation than the other characters are having.

A collection of images I like to call:

Foreshadowing

A collection of images I like to call:

Ouch ouch ouch

One particularly excellent choice that the game made, imo, is that only Neve and Harding knew Varric already (of the companions). The rest of the team is assembled by Rook, and most of the team does not know Varric and doesn't even realize that there's a hole in the team, because Rook is already filling the position that she believes that Varric is meant to have. She is Varric's hand-picked second-in-command, and he trusted her to be able to handle this job. He chose someone with that thought in mind.

He knew the risks, and planned accordingly. He knew there was a chance (an excellent chance) that Solas was not going to listen to him. He had to try anyway, but he knows -- he says in the beginning -- that if it comes down to a fight, they will not be able to defeat Solas. He knows that if he can't talk Solas down, then he's probably going to die. And he goes in there anyway, because Solas is his friend.

He made a choice. Several choices. He chose to talk to Solas, knowing that it might lead to his death. And he chose Rook as his second, believing that Rook could save the day if Varric failed.

That's how Varric saved the world -- by finding the right person to finish the job.

[mushroomjar]

Can it be Lesbian Friday this Monday. I have a lot going on and I'd really like an extra Lesbian Friday this week.

Of course! Remember what the original post said: it's always lesbian Friday if you believe

[somegrumpynerd]

we don't get snow in florida (at least not my part. occasionally they'll get flurries up north by the florida/georgia state line) but we do get our own version after it rains sometimes:

^ that's the backyard currently. ive never actually seen snow in person but i feel like at a quick glance it's kind of visually similar?

anyway i took the shrimp out to play and as soon as i saw it i thought of you saying it was snowing, and i was like 'same! in a florida way lol'

also obligatory photo of the shrimp:

(her name is trixie but she's my shrimp and i love her)

anyway (x2) i hope you're having a good day and you're enjoying the snow (if it hasn't melted away) 💙🖤

DOG DOG DOG DOG DOG DOg!!!!!!!!!! She's so pretty please pet her many times on my behalf

Oooooooo that's so pretty!! Are they little flowers? :O I've never seen ones like that, they're beautiful! It does look like snow too

Sadly the snow didn't lie here, it just kinda melted immediately (rip) but it will probably keep trying cause it's pretty cold here right now. Hopefully it will snow soon because otherwise it'll just be icy ground and I'm gonna break all my legs trying to get to work lol

[melonchanverse]

aaaaand now i go to sleep it’s already 3 am by my time

[yuriyuruandyuraart]

AFTERMARE WEEK: Day 7- the end of a beginning/ the beginning of the end

make me believe and raise my hopes up one last time, then haunt my dreams for the rest of my life

aftermare week is hosted by @bluepallilworld

[doux-amer]

One thing that has deeply annoyed me about the response from Americans/Westerners about this week's events in Korea is that a lot of them, including people I like and respect, are like, "The protesting civilians and lawmakers who barged into the National Assembly would've been shot if this were the U.S./this would've never happened in the U.S. because people are too afraid of being shot." There's some truth to that, at least with regard to state violence, but I'm fed up because it doesn't account for how frightening this could have turned out to be had it not been for how much of an inept flop dunce Yoon Sukyeol is. It minimizes the courage of those who showed up.

Sure, it was likely that the military and riot police wouldn't have done much (again, YSY's self-coup wasn't thought out well, and there's more evidence of that as military officials and soldiers are speaking up about the lack of information they received, but I'll refrain from talking about that to avoid making this even longer than it inevitably will be, knowing myself), but let's not pretend there haven't been issues with them in recent years. They pepper sprayed and used water cannons during an anniversary rally for the Sewol ferry victims (x) (x) (if you don't understand how unbelievably cruel that is, look into the horrific Sewol ferry sinking). They tear gassed crowds (Korea has a gruesome history of this) and sprayed water cannons, and citizens have been injured and killed during the 2015 protests and 2016-17 Park Geunhye impeachment protests, notably Baek Namgi, an elderly activist whose death caused global outrage (x) (x). Park Geunhye was going to enforce martial law during those protests according to a leaked document, with hundreds of tanks, thousands of soldiers and special force troops! (x)

Not to mention, there are decades of extreme state violence that have scarred an entire country and are still super fresh for a huge percentage of the population. Again, check out that tear gas history piece. Look up the April Revolution, Gwangju massacre, and June uprising and see just how bloody they were. Thousands of civilians were tortured and killed. Look at how many protests were going on year after year during the 1980s. That isn't that long ago! All those older people who ran to the National Assembly to stop the coup? You bet a lot of them were college students who protested during that time or knew people who did. All the younger people? They may not have experienced what it was like living under martial law, but as I said, state violence still occurs, however much it's dwindled over the years, and you have to account for generational trauma. I don't think I'll ever forget the way I felt when I saw the breaking news alert about the martial law declaration on December 3. I've never experienced that, at least to that degree.

Instead of viewing the response from civilians and elected officials through the framework of police brutality in the U.S., it should be contextualized using Korea's own history. Thankfully most of the serious discussions are doing this, but like I said, even people who are smart about reading up on things have reflected on how this wouldn't fly in the U.S., not because of the difference in protest history, civil movements, and public engagement with both in the two countries but because of the military/police response. There's an insinuation there that Koreans would be more reluctant to do what they did if they knew what it's like to live in fear of violence instead of living in such a safe country like Korea...and I want to yell.

It was monumentally brave of everyone to do what they did to stop the coup. We're all laughing at how stupid the coup was and there's a reason why people were more furious than scared because of the political history of Korea and the laws set in place to protect the democracy and neutralize coup attempts, but this could have easily become a disaster. It's not alarmist of me to say so because there was no way for anyone to be 100% sure of how the military would react—especially when no one knew what the hell was going on.