#lancer's design has really changed

[ferronickel]

Looking Glasses Development Art 4

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Here's the color reference that I've been using to make Looking Glasses (prettied up a bit). This was one of the first things I made for the comic, but a lot of it wasn't finalized until after I'd already finished the first few pages. These character designs have changed a lot since then, especially Lancer's, so I'm actually in the process of making a new color reference guide with full-body paper dolls so I can design outfits on them. This guide was incredibly useful though, especially after I had Lancer paint his nails five different colors, which made my life a living hell.

[vexwerewolf]

Should I read homestuck

tl;dr: no

actual answer: yes, but with some extremely important caveats.

Firstly, because Adobe shitcanned Flash, you can now no longer experience Homestuck in the form it was intended upon release... unless you download the Unofficial Homestuck Collection. This act of unbelievable, nay, saintly generosity by Homestuck's most dedicated fans allows you to experience Homestuck as it was intended - as close as is humanly possible.

"As close as is humanly possible" is the key phrase here. One indelible part of the original Homestuck experience was UPDATE! Homestuck would sometimes go weeks or even months (and later, years) between updates. I wasn't on Tumblr back in the day, but at the peak of Homestuck, even if you knew nothing else about it, you'd know when an update dropped because Tumblr's net traffic would increase something like three to fourfold. People would go apeshit bananas about whatever new revelations the Huss would drop on us.

You also need to realise that Homestuck is a product of its time and while its takes on sexuality and gender identity was pretty progressive (for its time), Huss did use the r-slur a bunch.

While we're on the subject of the author, Andrew Hussie (of whom my current understanding is that they have not changed name but go by they/them nowadays) is, in the most diplomatic possible terms, a very unique person. They are, at times, a visionary storyteller with genuinely fascinating ideas. At other times, they come off as kinda spiteful towards their readers.

Without meaning to dip into spoilers, some story beats seem (in my opinion) almost intentionally calculated to upset, irritate or mock certain fans. It never rises to the sheer vicious contempt that Steven Moffat had towards Sherlock's fanbase, but it does leave a bad taste in my mouth whenever I go back.

Additionally, and this is where a sort of birds-eye-view spoiler is unavoidable, the story suffers from the Game of Thrones pitfall of repeatedly increasing its own complexity by adding new plot threads without resolving existing ones, eventually leading to fatigue on the part of both the reader and the author. The arcs of a lot of characters just straight up get abandoned, while a couple of characters take an unnecessarily large amount of screen time.

There's one character in particular that the author openly states within the narrative (the author exists within the world of the story. It's... a whole thing) that they favour, and whose behaviour the story is warped to accommodate. You'll know exactly who I'm talking about almost the moment they show up.

Another reason I say that it's not really possible to read Homestuck as it was originally intended is because a lot of the shit that happens in it fits into the zeitgeist of the internet at the time any individual update was written. There's a whole section in the late middle third that is inextricably and very specifically tied to how it was like to use Tumblr in 2012.

Additionally, a lot of things have soured with time. There was the whole Hiveswap debacle (it was first announced in 2012. We got the first act in 2017. We got the second act in 2020. We do not even know if the third act will ever come out.). There were the legal threats. There were the Epilogues and Homestuck 2, which were... how do I put this? Not universally liked. There's been nearly a decade of discourse since Homestuck ended, and a lot of things haven't grown better with age.

All of that being said.

You should read it.

I cannot express to you just how big an impact Homestuck has had on internet culture. Even people who claim to hate Homestuck unconsciously use slang that it invented. Its unique ideas on storytelling, character design and narrative chronology have, in both subtle and unsubtle ways, changed the way millennials and Gen Z tell stories.

A lot of people were inspired to tell stories because of Homestuck - one example I always give to Lancer players is that Kill Six Billion Demons started as a comic on the MSPA forums (before it was homestuck.com, it was MS Paint Adventures), so Homestuck is in an indirect but demonstrable way responsible for the existence of Lancer. The sunglasses that Gideon Nav from the Locked Tomb wears have been explicitly stated by Tamsyn Muir to be Dave Strider's. Toby Fox made music for Homestuck, and worked on large parts of Undertale while living in Andrew Hussie's basement.

We also know someone in the Bluey creative team is a Homestuck, because...

There are subtle but direct references in Bojack Horseman, Hazbin Hotel, Steven Universe, Adventure Time - and those are just the ones that it's easy to prove! In a more general sense, I think there's a lot of cartoon series, movies, games, etc. that would either be very different or wouldn't exist if Homestuck hadn't happened.

It's certainly influenced my work.

I think, being very cautious to manage your expectations, that you should read Homestuck. At the very least, a lot of things people say on Tumblr will start to make, if not sense, a different kind of nonsense.

[theresattrpgforthat]

hi! have you seen the TTRPGS for Palestine bundle yet? and do you have any recommendations from it

https://tiltify.com/@jesthehuman/ttrpgs-for-palestine

THEME: TTRPGS for Palestine

The TTRPGs for Palestine Bundle is going from April 12 to May 7, so there's not much time left to get it, but here's some recommendations of some really awesome games that you can find in it.

Gubat Banwa, by makapatag.

GUBAT BANWA is a Martial Arts Tactics and War Drama Tabletop RPG where you play as martial artists poised to change the world: Kadungganan: the cavalry, the wandering swordsmen, the tide turners, the knights-errant, the ones to call in darkest night in a world inspired and centering Southeast Asian folklore.

Witness, grand warriors, honorable gallants that trudge and toil under kings and haloes. Witness, KADUNGGANAN, that refulgent name. That blasted name: WITNESS NOW. The end of days is upon us: and the new world MUST BE BORN. Bear your blades, incant your magicks. Cut open your tomorrow from the womb of violence. Inscribe your name upon the very akasha of this world. 

Gubat Banwa is designed for fans of 4th edition D&D, with in-depth character abilities that make you feel both unique and powerful, in a colourful and flavourful world full of vibrant cultures and clashing conflicts. The game uses an action economy with different action options carrying different weights, which also reminds me quite a bit of Lancer. If you want a game that pushes you to strategize with your friends and weigh your advancement options carefully, you want Gubat Banwa.

Gun & Slinger, by Nevyn Holmes.

GUN&SLINGER is an RPG geared for short, episodic sessions about a weapon and a wanderer. A Maestro and two players (Gun and Slinger) set out into a dead planet mutated by a god's forgotten child and hunt strange bounties, investigate the world and unlock hidden powers. During play, they seek to learn the nature of what’s hunting the Slinger, figure out why the Gun is sentient and discover how the world died.

This game is specifically for three players, using the rules of Go Fish as a resolution system. Gun & Slinger is all about using your resources to the best of their ability, and your resources might exist on your character sheet, but they also exist as cards in your hand.

What really intrigues me is the lore that’s baked into your character sheets. One of you is a wanderer in a twisted world, tempted by strange powers that guarantee to change you into a monster. One of you is a sentient magical gun, borne by that wanderer and designed to deliver death and pain.

Gun & Slinger has expansions included, allowing you to instead play as a wanderer possessed by a demon, a mech and a pilot fused as one, or someone who bears a cursed sword. I think the fact that it requires a small table and the fact that the characters’ lives are tied together makes this a high-stakes, terribly intimate game.

Apocalypse Frame, by Binary Star Games.

In a ruined and terraformed world where most of humanity is under the yoke of a brutal regime, the former workers of a once-remote factory - now known as The Collective - have risen up to create a future of freedom from oppression. You are an Ace - a highly skilled pilot referred from a Division in The Collective and assigned a humanoid combat vehicle known as a Frame. You and your Strike Team of fellow Aces must take on The Collective’s greatest threats, ensure its survival, and carve a path for its continued success.

Apocalypse Frame takes mechs and fits them into the LUMEN system, which centres competency as well as fast but effective rounds of combat. The game includes a variety of different threats, allowing you to tailor your campaign to your group’s tastes, and the tailoring doesn’t stop there. You choose both a division that your character belongs to, and then one of three mechs within that division, allowing players to share similar fighting styles but differ in weapons. You can also modify your basic frame, adding general modular systems alongside systems and armaments that can come with your mech, making character creation and progression exciting for folks who love tweaking and tailoring to their heart’s content.

If you’re a fan of Armored Core or Battletech, you’ll want to check out Apocalypse Frame.

Here, There Be Monsters!, by wendi yu.

No matter what they tell you, there’s still weirdness and wonder everywhere. You just have to know where to look. At the edges and cracks of ‘normal’ life we exist, we persist, and we resist: the monsters, the magicians, the anomalies, the freaks, and the outcasts. We gather in the shadows, trying our best to live our lives in a world that, when it doesn’t exactly fear or hate us, doesn't even believe in our existence.

here, there, be monsters! is a rules-lite response to monster-hunting media from the monsters' point of view. It's both a love letter and a middle finger to stuff like Hellboy (and the BPRD), the SCP Foundation, the Men in Black, the World of Darkness games and the Urban Fantasy genre in general. It is an explicitly queer, antifascist and anti-capitalist game about the monstrous and the weird, in any flavor you want, not as something to be feared, but to be cherished and protected.

Here, There, Be Monsters is a love-letter to anyone who has been made to feel monstrous, as well as an homage to media such as Hellboy, the SCP Foundation, and Men in Black. It’s urban fantasy meets organized power structures, and as the monsters, you’re here to burn those structures down.

This game uses descriptive tags to slap onto your characters to represent what they can do. You can choose from a number of different monster character backgrounds to give you guidance towards, and there’s plenty of monsters both in the base game and in the game jam wendi ran back in 2022. If you want a game of power, anti-capitalism, and punching up, this is the game for you.

Pale Dot, by Devin Nelson.

Pale Dot is a collaborative storytelling game for 2-5 players about a crew of non-human cosmonauts leaving their planet to explore a strange solar system, finding threads to unravel the unknown along the way. It is fantastical, surreal, and perhaps very unlike humanity’s own ventures in space exploration. Though one thing is universal: leaving home is terrifying, dangerous, humbling, and a catalyst for changing one’s perspective. 

Pale Dot is a GM-less game where players work together to create an alien setting and subsequently envelop it in cosmic mystery, embodying cosmonauts called Dustlings, as well as one of 5 different settings. During their journey they will be able to travel to 24 different locations within their solar system, each with several prompts for improvisational scenes. Each player will also have to manage the integrity of their cosmonaut and their shared ship while avoiding space's many perils.

The cover for Pale Dot gripped me the first time I saw it; a tiny creature in an astronaut suit, looking up in fear at something in the sky, as vegetation blooms inside their helmet. You play as the Dustlings, non-human but sentient species exploring the Cosmos, a strange, horrifying and wonderful universe that changes those who venture into it.

Mechanically, Pale Dot uses a GM-less structure similar to Dream Askew, but there feels to be a much bigger emphasis on the setting your cosmonauts explore, rather than the cosmonauts themselves. Your characters are assembled traits, drives and equipment, almost all of which can be expended to cause or solve problems. Each player is also responsible for at least one setting element, such as The Cosmic Wilderness, The Wondrous Endeavour, or The Omnipresent Danger. As you visit locations, different elements will be prompted to influence the scene, while your cosmonauts try to navigate the scene and try to finish the mission. If you want a game that is collaborative and evocative, I definitely recommend Pale Dot.

Fractal Romance, by Ostrichmonkey Games.

A never ending abstract landscape of rhythm and soft glamour. Wander the halls, rooms, and chambers. Encounter strange Denizens and get to know them better; befriend them, fall in love, just chill. Try and fill out your own blurred edges. Fractal Romance is a tabletop role playing hangout. You will pick up a character to play and explore the Fractal Palace, generating its infinite sprawl and the Denizens that inhabit it, as you play.

Fractal Romance is all about searching; for something you need, something you want, or even for who you are. It feels rather surreal, perhaps like a dream dimension that you are moving through. The game uses a deck of cards to generate rooms, as well as the denizens of this gigantic, dream-like palace. This game uses rather simplistic playbooks, each asking you to choose three descriptive words, and then uses cards to fuel your character’s actions: you have things you can always do, things that cost a card to do, and things that you must do in order to draw another card.

If what you want out of a game is a chill time with friends, moving from one vibe to another, and generating emotional stories for your characters, you might want to check out Fractal Romance.

Himbos of Myth and Mettle, by huge boar.

You are big. Big arms, big tits, big thighs, big brai- you're big where it matters. In addition to a heaving, throbbing body, glistening lightly with a thin sheen of pleasantly fragrant perspirant, you have one singular unifying trait  - come hell or high water, you are going to help.

Himbos of Myth & Mettle is a high fantasy, high camp role playing game of epic proportions (of body), for 2-5 players, one of whom will act as Game Guide.  The rules center around a simple roll under mechanic and prioritize narrative flair and cinematic descriptions. Himbos is inspired by many classic fantasy properties (and could be considered OSR adjacent) , but leans towards a more garish, salacious and queer (gay or odd, pick your fighter) style of play. It is designed with comedy and flamboyance in mind, but is not without it deeper and darker touches. It's definitely not grimdark, but there will probably be blood. Think classic fantasy pulp in style, but contemporary sensibilities, modern rules-lite mechanics, and a player philosophy centred in helping, kindness and being fucking hot.

I’ve heard rave reviews for Himbos, and I think the idea of leading an entire group of well-meaning but possibly over-ambitious adventurers is a great set-up for a game full of laughs. Himbos is very much designed for a light-hearted evening of fun, flirting, and fucking up (but in the best way).

Other Games from the Bundle I've Recommended:

Space Taxi, and Creation Myths, by GothHoblin.

Caltrop Core, by Titanomachy.

Souvenirs, by Rémi Töötätä.

Thunder in Our Hearts, by Marn. S.

Eldritch Courts of Some Repute, by AlanofAllTrades.

[tagamantra]

On Posture In Gubat Banwa

So the sixth version of Gubat Banwa's First Edition "returns" to the ideal that HP as a pacing mechanic, an Action Economy limiter, and a resource pressure. As always, in Tactical Combat games, resource management is a major aspect of the gameplay. Management of action economy, management of distance, management of other currency (such as Class-specific Resources). Most of a Tactical Combat Grid game revolves around the manipulation of these mechanics: reducing, regaining, adding, changing, force multiplication/division of these resources, and more. In Tomian Design (that is, Tom of LANCER RPG and ICON RPG), costing.

For the first 5 versions of Gubat Banwa's design, we worked with lower HP values (across the board) and with Dice Pools. The idea was that each dice in a dice pool was an attack launched, or a moment of concentration. Every die in the defense pool was a parry or evasion attempted. While the fantasy of that worked pretty great, the maths on the other hand did not. It worked almost counter-intuitively against the high-flying martial arts x deliberate tactical combat that I was trying to strike a balance for. My white elephant, my Shambhala, was to strike a good balance between that.

The Change

In 1.6, while the Dice Pool didn't entirely go away--much of the game is built around getting tactically advantageous positions so that you can get more dice and a higher chance of dealing greater damage on the target--it went for a more linearly scaling game with the result on the die reducing the target's Health.

It was a hit, mostly, among the inner circle (that is to say, my friends that I run the newer version for). There was an immediate sense of "we know how this game works" now.

On Tactical Video Games

It was more transparent--this information was crucial to making a tactical game work and sing. This is why in video games, almost every tactical game has the "Combat Forecast", like in Fire Emblem and Final Fantasy Tactics, that showcased the expected Hit Rate and the Damage Output.

This is absolutely integral: tactical games are decision point games. Without the proper information (doesn't need to be complete information), no decision can be done satisfyingly. This isn't to say that dice pools can't be used for a tactical game of course--I've done it. But it requires a different kind of design principle and design goal that Gubat Banwa wasn't going for. That sense of martial progression, of spiritual strength and eventual enlightenment.

From HP to POS

During the initial playtests, we were still working with HP. Hit Pearls. The idea was that every hit "shattered" a Hit Pearl. This worked with the Dice Pools, because the fiction was that every attack could be parried with Defense Dice.

What was the problem with this? Firstly, the math of this was inherently fraught, unfortunately: on higher levels, Defense Dice were either horribly impenetrable or did absolutely nothing to defend you. It became a binary thing. That was not the goal: for the martial fantasy to come to life, much of the decisions should not binary but rather, on a gradient spectrum.

To me, the destroyer of tactical grid games is when there's a single best strategy that shatters the tension of the game. My favorite parts of Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre were early game moments where the output randomness could make every fight go completely different, even if you redid the same stage more than once.

Secondly, when the outcome of an action is that, really, nothing happened, you used an attack (even worse, the attack was buffed by yourself, an ally, and tactical modifiers) and then the target was able to parry all your hits. The fiction is exciting for a second, but then when you return to the battle grid, nothing changed. The mechanics fed into the fiction, but the fiction didn't feed into the mechanics.

With the math change, the fiction of the Hit Pearls wasn't working because HP values were higher to compensate for the changed math. 12 Hit Pearls could feasibly be visualized as Link's Hearts, for example. But at 48 HP, that didn't work anymore.

Hearkening to the Ancients

So I actually went on a trip to older versions of Gubat Banwa, and found I'd solved that particular problem. Older versions of Gubat Banwa had HP as "Mettle", their ability to stay in the fight. Turning to the game's current version, I realized the Physical Defense stat was perfect: POSTURE. The stance, the guard, the ability to keep fighting, the ability to turn mortal wounds into grazing hits, the ability to ignore the effects of bleeding wounds, of burning pyres, of seeping poison.

Every attack was inflicting damage by chipping away at the target's guard, or forcing their stance into more compromised positions so that they would be open to an actual mortally wounding strike. They were still real hits that the defender was actively still guarding against. And with every attack defended, their guard wore down.

This hit me after watching Donnie Yen's SAKRA (2023) the other day. Reaching back into the high-flying wuxia roots, Donnie Yen's character doesn't even take real hits until after he's overwhelmed because he is such a martial superior against the rest of the Beggar Clan. Because his Posture was so high.

Ten Thousand Earth Shattering Blows

It worked great. Not to mention that it's a great reference to Sekiro, another huge inspiration to the games's intended fiction, which also had a Posture break. Now Staggered for half Posture or lower made sense: your guard is brittle! You court death! Now the Wide Open affliction felt more in genre: your guard is wide open, so you're suffering more!

The Physical Defense stat was renamed into PARRY, while the Magical Defense stat was kept as RESILIENCE (itself a reference to Final Fantasy Tactics A2!) The defenses were there to keep the mechanical bite of an Attack vs Defense interaction, to provide an avenue for another mechanical design space, as well as to shoe in the fact that when an attack targets your Parry you're physically blocking while an attack against your Resilience requires your fortitude and concentration to block against: when your Posture is reduced, when you guard is worn down by these attacks, you know how you were defending.

When enemies hit 0 POS, that attack is the one that gets through their Defenses and kills them outright. When a Kadungganan falls to 0 POS they're not dead, but they suffer a WOUND, which only heals on Downtime (as opposed to POS healing on Repose, ie., short rest).

On Defeat and Victory

While you're Defeated, you suffer the same effects of Stun, but you can still act and do things, even make attacks at full power: you're Kadungganan after all. But every attack against you, despite your PARRY or your RESILIENCE is not met with a stance ready to block. Thus, every instance of damage you suffer, no matter how much, inflicts another Wound. When you eat 5 Wounds, you can pull on your Conviction to stay alive. Otherwise, you are tossed back into the cycle of reincarnation, or into the river to Sulad, or to Lunar Heaven, or to whatever next life your Kadungganan has chosen to ascribe to.

Status Effects

Statuses such as Poisoned, Bleeding, or Aflame, don't break you yet because they must eat through your bodily resistance. But they are still real: an aflame Kadungganan fights on even as flames swathe their body.

They can die later, when they feel the effects of the burn when their POS falls to 0. They can die later, when the Poison finally seeps through and enervates them and destroys their defensive capability. They can die later, when the bleeding takes its toll and they can no longer keep their stance up.

Martial Glossolalia

With a simple terminology change, the fiction changed entirely. Now everyone knew it was their defenses wearing down. Swords didn't cut off their fingers, flames didn't burn through their skin. They know that defenses are a holistic thing: your stamina, your constitution, your composure, your reactive ability, your dexterity, your presence of mind, your focus.

"It's not realistic!" The game is not meant to be realistic, and realism is not an inherent ontological good nor is it a goal for most TTRPGs, you will notice. Experiences, feelings. The fiction Gubat Banwa draws upon--SEAsian Folk Epics, Asian Martial Arts Cinema--is filled to the brim with the CLANG CLANG CLANG of sword-on-sword action. Often these clangs happen so quickly that you cannot process them, they are abstracted to you when it resolves in your brain--so is it abstracted by Gubat Banwa. Posture going down is the CLANG CLANG CLANG that resonates across a fight scene. It's not realistic because it's not meant to be, and even then, we must argue what your conception of reality is!

I could be argued that much of Tabletop RPGs (and, I would argue, most of games in general) is an exercise of language. Exploiting its vagaries, its ability to connect. When you go into Gubat Banwa, learning the mechanics of the game is learning a new language. And what is language but the foundation of culture?

[corsair-news-alliance]

Waitwaitwaitwait. Morse. You. The Morse of CORSAIR. Quite possibly one of the most influential non governmental bodies in the Orion. As a handler, do not have a chassis.

Like, what sort of strict Union Glue huffing tester was in charge of your certification? Like, by the Stars. Unless you nearly killed someone with your testing range, they really shouldn't have flunked you. I get that is Lancers are "elite strike forces" technically, but c'mon. Any poor fucker can wake up with a Litch instead of a toaster once morning because a HORUS cell thought it would be "funny." GMS testers aren't usually that strict unless you actually tested on Cradle.

You should retake. Even if you're not planning on using a chassis. From the sounds of it, you've survived hell twice over. Try it again. If you want to rule out mechanical failure, which is generally the only reason anyone even gets flunked, ask to borrow someone closer to you's neuro helm if they don't use a mech mounted system.

Having an Everest to use in a crisis scenario is a lifesaver. Even if you're not great at it. Even if you're a shit shot. Just punch a fucker. Designate CAS. Hell, the Everest can even work as a command vic!

There's so many uses for a combat chassis outside of frontline combat that it's a crime they failed someone like you.

Signing off, [Redacted]

[Morse lets out an absolutely exhausted sigh]

Ra below the Omninet is as bad as my parents. I'm not that damn influential I'm a handler... I stopped more people from dying in a pointless company civil war. I am not some force of power. I did my job and that's it.

Don't idolize me.... don't turn me into a figure I am not.

I failed the damn shooting range exam nearly twice. These meat and blood hands with a training sidearm...

I am not fit to pilot a mech, I do not want to pilot a mech and I won't pilot a mech.

How hard is it to understand that I am not a pilot and won't be a pilot. My job is behind the desk taking care of pilots. You wanna know who did handling and piloting?

[Her vocal stim of clicking is audible for a few seconds]

Signal. Deuces. Hell Commodore did a few times.

It changes you.

I've seen it.

Power to the pilots, I'm dating one and pining after another, but I am NOT touching a frame with the intent to even turn it on.

Not everyone has to pilot to be useful. Thought the Omninet would know that.

//Morse\\

[theohshit-r-official]

Long-as-hell OOC post incoming

So, I feel I should probably clarify this, on account of shit going on in the zeitgeist re: Lancer RP on here, and because I and this blog am not an entrenched figure in the community here, so it pays to be as clear as possible what I am here for:

First, let me clarify: this is not about anyone in particular, and god knows I'm guilty of not doing some of the shit I'm going to recommend here. Second, this is, in addition to not being about any one person but instead the different microcultural elements I've noticed on here, mostly a post to explain what *I* am going for with this blog so that *YOU* can decide if or how you want to engage with it and me.

The primary purpose of this blog is as follows and as I will elaborate on here:

To serve as a place for people to dump their shitposts, serious opinions, and in-world takes they don't necessarily want to put out via an established character blog or their main in a more centralized place. This means I WILL publish most shit people send, even if some of the implications are not so great, though I won't publish some of the more egregious shit on account of it sucks. See this article [LINK HERE] for an example of something similar being done by a real world political figure (notably, a known inspiration for the Ungratefuls' Tyrannocleave) for a much better purpose than mine.

This ALSO means I will likely be publishing from people not immersed in the community or party to your established norms. I understand that online spaces largely run on reputation, but I, out of character as well as to some extent in, am an academic and I'm pretty well informed of both positive and negative consequences of this, and this is an intentional choice. DM me or send an ask labeled as OOC if you want to talk about this, I'm happy to discuss it, I'm just not likely to change my stance on it on account of "This is a heavily established, pretty well-researched concept in human social dynamics" so don't expect me to change what I'm doing from the jump. With that being said, let's lay out the motivation a bit:

Part of the appeal of LANCER that was explicitly intentionally designed by its creators is that there are both large structures of recalcitrant, sticky politics (see: Albatross hunts pirates, a group known to exist largely due to economic suffering, for a megacorp that sells weapons to pirates; the KTB is required to maintain an absurd level of extractive industry by Union, which favors their most abjectly fucking awful major house politically; etc) that serve as a shared bedrock for engagement and are pointedly shitty as hell *AND* large swathes of space where you can largely do pretty much whatever you want and have things be as good or as bad as you want so long as you avoid having them be run directly and heavy-handedly by the major players (as a brief sidebar, if you want an example of someone doing an excellent job of navigating the intersection of the larger players and the open, freer space and a damn good homebrew module, I highly recommend Vex Werewolf's In Golden Flame Act 1 [LINK HERE]). LANCER is a game where both the narrative impetus and mechanics are intrinsically tied to political context and dynamics, and the way LANCER allows for space from that for players and GMs is to have a lot of literal space unaccounted for.

The implication of this, of course, is that it is intended to be an equally valid mode of enjoyment to get really into the weeds of the established politics (hello, Siren Song, cannot WAIT to play an idiot in you and see how you break her) OR to not do that and avoid it entirely, but, and this is key, you cannot really feasibly do both at once reliably at scale without a lot of care and awareness, and I do not think that that is a reasonable expectation to have of total strangers on Tumblr. The official Discord community for this game has a rule to the effect of "Do not use your comfort to stifle political discussion unless ABSOLUTELY necessary" (very, very roughly paraphrased), and instead encourages disengaging from shit you do not want to deal with. To give an example of how that translates to practical domains, in the context of the game, if you didn't want to have to deal with Harrison culture, you wouldn't play a game on Ras Shamra, so why would you choose to pursue a conversation with someone playing a proud character from Ras Shamra on here if you don't want to hear what that character would say?

A lot of the conflict on here seems to stem from people being frustrated with people from one side of the aisle or the other interacting with them without establishing rules of engagement and/or where they stand on "I want to enjoy a sci-fi power fantasy without thinking too much about the implications" versus "I really want to dig in on the psyche of a proud Harrison soldier," both of which are equally valid ways to engage with the setting and the game. They come into conflict in no small part because many people in the prior category are expressly interested in using the mechanics of a mecha setting to tell a mostly feel-good story without the political meat and grit of the original setting materials, which, I'll especially note, is not something people coming from other mecha contexts are likely to expect. This means that you have a conflict between people interested in one mode of engagement (which, if I had to guess, comes more frequently from a general tabletop gaming background) and others interested in a very different mode of engagement coming from differing backgrounds, including but not limited to the broader world of mecha fans.

(NOTE: I am not saying that these groups are totally distinct or that this is the sole reason conflict happens, I'm just trying to give a more fleshed out example for people who are less familiar with the draw of the grit. I think the mecha community is a good example for this, as it is both something that a lot of people are peripheral to AND a cultural context a lot of people really don't understand from the outside)

Let me elaborate a little here on where the mecha side of things is coming from, for those of you less familiar. The arguable single most influential piece of mecha media in much of the world (Neon Genesis Evangelion) is in part an express exploration of the ethics of military recruitment and the use of child soldiers. The fact that this piece of media has recently been used to sell McDonald's does not change that weight in the culture of mecha media, nor does it change that, historically, mecha is a genre about war. The most prolific mecha series by far is Gundam, whose villains famously have a point and whose protagonists infamously tend to develop through deeply traumatic realizations that they may not be the unambiguous good guys they thought they were. Mecha media, on the whole, pointedly cultivates a strong sense of engagement in setting geopolitics, the ethics and process of war, and the role of individuals as vehicles of violence, and people coming from a heavy mecha background are likely to be invested in exploring these themes.

That being said, I totally respect wanting to engage with it from another angle, but you can see how people wanting a more free-form, canon-lite experience and people who are coming from a mecha background looking for the nitty gritty of the established, shared setting could come into conflict, particularly when it comes to making claims about established parts of the setting. Of course, in character conflict is fine and well and dandy if that's what you're going for, no shame in that, this is more to do with the out of character aspects, including how you respond to and handle in character conflict.

Here's the thing: this dichotomy of interest does not favor a single, fully connected network of people heavily interacting. It does not favor a community with a single set of hard norms. It favors a lot of individual level variation, it favors many smaller sets of norms between individuals, and it favors good communication about those differences. I am aligned with the creators of LANCER in that I think both approaches to engaging with the material have value, and I want there to be space for both here, and I agree with them that the two are not always compatible. To preserve space for both, we need to prioritize curating our own experience over policing others', which, I know, shocking that the person who linked Anarchists Welcome would make a statement about taking an anarchistic approach to maintaining a stable, healthy social context which allows for conflict.

This is one of the reasons that I, in running this blog, have consciously chosen to almost exclusively respond to other people's posts who I actually have spoken to out of character, despite Umommiest being an extremely vocal HORUS shitposter, because I often cannot tell from character blogs what their relationship to the shared text is and their interest in different modes of interaction. This is ALSO why I'm going to be fairly indiscriminate in publishing asks and submissions, and only have Umommiest respond to what gets sent in when either prompted directly by the material or when it is plainly a shitpost that allows for some play (see also: the 8 year old seeking liberation via artillery platform and soft target elimination frames). As is quite well known in the kink community, consent does not occur in character, and personal norms and interests should be established outside of them. If there is a character blog on here that you have concerns about or want to interact with but are unsure how to proceed, DM them and check in, the same way that you would talk to someone if you wanted to join a game of pickup basketball or something. This is a social activity, social activities have fairly well established means by which to initiate them in a more intentional manner, let's make a point to start using them more consistently.

With that being said, if there is a character blog that you do not want to see, block them. There will be characters that people choose to play that you personally A will not like and B may not wish to engage with. Use the curation tools you have rather than relying on norms all the time, as norms develop from consensus and require other people to change to work. You don't have to put it on others to tailor your experience. I will go somewhere else rather than deal with somebody I don't want to talk to at a bar, and this is a similar sort of interaction. Blocking is not a condemnation, it is a choice to not engage with someone or something you do not want to. On my end, I will be doing my best to consistently tag in-character posts, reblogs, etc with ohshitumommiest going forward so you can block the tag as described here [LINK HERE] if you want to see what people are submitting without any of Umommiest's commentary, responses, etc. I'm also thinking I'll move towards initially publishing even the shitpostier things without commentary and then following up with a reblog with the commentary (so if you want to see just what other people make and not her bullshit, that's cool, too).

For the record, I *am* personally interested in the politics of the setting and Umommiest is a character that is heavily written based on the canon. She is also, frankly, a HORUS shitposter of the highest and worst degree, if you can't tell from her demeanor, and will engage with people who comment in character on posts here as would reflect a highly informed, terminally online political agitator with no formal affiliation to anyone who sees all of her speech as largely without personal consequence. Part of the purpose of the ohshitumommiest tag is to allow you to engage with the submitted material without having to see if and how she replies to you if you are not interested in that. If you are, hey! Looking forward to having some fun together with this horrible girl I've made!

Frankly, I don't care where you fall on the spectrum/split of hard text engagement versus loose text as inspiration, but I do care that everyone has an outlet for shitposts and other art/thought pieces on the setting that they think are gold or at least fun but don't have a place for personally. I think Lancer fucking rules, and people have a lot of cool, funny, and beautiful thoughts and ideas on it regardless of affiliation on these grounds, and I want to make this a place to share them without too much worry of how they fit a given blog.

If that nondiscriminatory approach to publishing is unacceptable to you, cool, I don't care, block this blog. Maybe read the linked article first and see if that helps you see a different perspective a little, but, please, use the basic curation tools available to you on this site to help maintain a diverse community that reflects the varied appeal of LANCER's setting.

With that said, play ball, and I'm looking forward to continuing to see the awesome, wild, wonky, and frankly unhinged shit this community continues to create!

PS: if you want to anonymously publish something with a link or an image via this blog, please DM me and I will effectively spoof a submission so your blog does not have to be attached. You run the risk of me knowing that you sent it, but it doesn't get broadcast to the world.

PPS I know that there are some other folks on here who engage with other LANCER online communities (e.g., the official Discord) who share much of the opinions I expressed here, particularly the "Hey there are different, conflicting way to enjoy the setting, and having some understanding around that is healthy for the community" stance, so feel free to share this around as you like.

[randomlywanderingmoth]

Part of the problem with Fate Grand Order is the core gameplay is fundamentally flawed, and it's very difficult to restore "a fun game" around a flawed core.

Quick and Buster and Arts were all interesting notions, and could have mapped into action gameplay (if we were to merge FGO's ideas with FSR's gameplay I would equate them to fast attacks, heavy attacks, and weaker attacks meant to charge your special bar, but I digress).

As it is, though, it just makes for unpleasant feelings in gameplay, demanding optimizations (I would point out that in the international release we only recently got the ability to combo all three together, and made Quick chains strong enough to consider independently). Those optimizations rise up around every aspect of the game; only a select few Servants have the ability to AoE without accessing their Noble Phantasm, and they haven't even made it to international. There's a wide range of Craft Essences, but only a few that ever matter. Creativity in builds is tamped down around increasingly narrowed build notions as the devs design with over-optimized teams in mind.

The end result is a game that, optimally, advises you to use your super rare fully powered optimized support, your friends' identically super rare fully powered optimized support, and a high power damage Servant, and repeatedly fire the damage dealer's Noble Phantasm to either clear waves or kill bosses.

Speaking of which, from a lore perspective, this is also completely messed up. By the lore of the Nasuverse, a Noble Phantasm is a Servant's super secret ultimate move, only meant for the final hour. This is fully incongruous with the gameplay, where you typically throw the same world-ending mythology-defining techniques three times in a row and call it a day. (Entertainingly, in the International release, we've also made it to Traum, where we see faceless Servants fire their Noble Phantasms like simple artillery, but that's its own commentary.)

Like, it's so effortless to imagine better systems than this! Servants deployed on a chessboard-like map, heralding back to the themes of Fate Apocrypha; suddenly we don't need anything as mechanically obtuse as Class Advantages when we could organically differentiate each Class by how they navigate the board or how they fight each other (Riders can leap over enemies like knight pieces in chess; Archers can attack at range without moving; Lancers do really well on Attack but have poor Defense; and Berserkers can be the units of terror that lore implies!)

Alternatively, the Grail Battlefronts we've already seen- rework the entire game to operate more organically like that; maybe Servants can use skills without entering combat, but it exhausts their actions. Then different forms of gameplay can exist beyond just "mulch the enemy"; like "defend this location" or "collect these resources" or "defeat This Particular Foe".

Or, even if we had to work with just the system we have! Change THAT! Rather than select three cards from a set of five, have it go down the list; each Servant gets One Action to either pick from "Quick, Buster, Arts, Use A Skill".

As for Servant Customization, walk it all the way back, all the way back up to the Attack/HP boosting. Make it so that players can individually optimize Servant performance in different ways- this Servant has better output in Arts, that Servant has higher Crit Star generation. And for folks who'd already spent their Fous, you could just say "right, so anybody with Fous spent can now allocate those points into these new Stats! No harm done!"

Of course, in order to do this, they would likely need to construct a whole new framework for their game, whilst preserving the progress people have made until now.

Then again, they are presently building castles in the sand during the rising tide with one hand and bandaging bullet wounds with the other, so maybe a long shot like that is what they need.

[did-sm1-say-catfish]

s2 ep5??

FUTURE EP??? OMG!! ---

IS THAT A BUTCH LESBIAN??? no its js valerie 

its so sweet shes still close with her dad ---

AND THE FENTON HOUSE IS STILL THERE YEYYAYY ---

who tf is that

thats not danny what

nonnonononon ---

messing with the past??? hrm ---

danny going evil cuz of the test is so real ---

danny, getting ghost breath: GET OUT OF MY ROOOOMM!!! jazz: danny, we’re in the kitchen jazz, seeing the ghost: BUT IF YA WANNA BE ANNOYING IM GONNA LEAVE!!!  danny: jeez wtf

thats what you call complicated by avril lavigne ---

Ghost: I AM BOXED LUNCH!! DAUGHTER OF THE BOX GHOST AND THE LUNCH LADY danny: uhmmm. ew ---

burger guy: guys noooo dont run away from the danger in our storeeee we swore an oath to protect the nasty sauceeeee workers: for minimum wage?? hell nah brother ---

sam and tucker: who was that u were fighting? danny: boxed lunch, daughter of the box ghost and the lunch lady sam and tucker: yikes danny: i was thinking ‘ew’  ---

wait clockwork’s design is eerily similar to one of the ancient all powerful ghosts from the ghost king tale ---

jazz, to her friends: guys i cant decide bewteen harvard yale and stanford helppppppppp *her friends walk away* jazz: what could i have possibly done wrong??

babe wake up new reaction pic just dropped!! ---

danny, about to cheat: im just gonna take a peeeekkk tucker, to sam: shouldnt we stop him? sam: we’re his friends, not his mom. still wish he wouldnt but  danny, getting ghost breath before he can look: aww shit here we go again tucker and sam: WHEWWWW oh shit no we meant OH NOOOO A GHOST ---

skulker and technus combined: HAHA WE’RE GONNA KILL U TEE HEE tucker: is this ew or yikes?? ---

lancer, to jazz: ur brother stole my test answers!!!  jazz: how would he do taht???!!! lancer: well idk but if he suddenly gained the abilities to go invisible and go thru walls it would prove my theory jazz: uhmmmm ---

dannys powers short circuit and he falls down: AHHHHHHHHH danny, grabbing hold onto a flag pole: oh wow this actually works i thought for sure it would *breaks* AHHHBREAKKKKSKJNJDHNBFHJ ---

tucker, short circuiting technus-skulker: tee hee

them grabbing onto a flagpole: ohh yayyyy the flagpole thing actually- *breaks* AHHHHHHHHHH ---

NOOO THEYRE GOING TO THE FUTRUE

see you in the future yeahh e yeah e yeahhhhh ---

clockwork: see, for me, time moves forwards, and back and- why am i bothering? yall are fourteen ---

tuck throws the medallions onto them??? boy has serious aimmmm ---

THEYRE DEAD IN THE FUTURE???? DANNYS PURE GHOST???  ---

he put the time medallion in danny????? ---

“strange how highly combustable condiments can ruin your future”

yeah evil danny, i agree ---

evil danny in the past???snbjdfiojhfbknd

evil danny: NOW WHOS UP FOR uhhh what did we use to do together?? UHM! VIDEO GAMES AND RAGING AGAINST THE MACHINE??? ---

awwws shes (jazz) finally telling him she knows!! except its evil danny. you ruined it evil danny i wanted my sibling moment!!!!! ARGHH ---

the future ghosts are literally just plaing monkey in the middle with regular danny  ---

dANNYY DID THE SCREECH

danny: my voice is changing?? great im going thru evil puberty ---

OMG EVIL DANNNY IS A COMBO OF HIM AND VLAD?? ---

HES BALDING. HASJDHBGHJHBGHSJKJNM ---

CLOCKWORK MY BUDDDYYyy ---

AWHBEJBHGVSHVSGHJN JAZZ AN DDANNY TALKN ABOUT AHBWJNHDBHJHVFSJ I LOVE THEM SMMMN SIBLING BONDING ADORBS JKABHGHDJFHGHIOSKJBH ---

evil danny stil exists!!!! OMHGGG ---

well. that was a rollercoaster. i now know where all this evil danny hype comes from and yk. i dont really like him all that much. but, hell, maybe i'll change my mind.

[sunsestart]

I'm so obsessed with this song rn

It's addictive 😞😞

And,,, CALL ME CRAZY, BUT UHH it kinda reminds me of deltarune a little (Especifically with Caine as deltarune's Gaster)

Okay I'll continue yapping undert the cut,,

I mean- we still can't be fully sure of what his role is gonna be

But it's VERY likely he's responsible for the darkworlds, and we know those heavily represent escapism—life is better down there! there's adventure, there's fun, food, friends, you can overcome challenges, your dreams can come true

But at the end of the day they're not real...

One of my favorite theories is that Gaster is using those dark worlds to analyze our behavior, he's purposely making connections to undertale to grab our attention

Undertale's world is designed to be a game, deltarune's world isn't BUT THE DARKWORLDS ARE

OKAY SO HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO THE SONG?????

Uhh, spoilers for digital circus!!

All the characters are forcefully placed in this "amazing digital world" where anything is virtually possible! Caine is constantly sending them on adventures, he's not real, but his purpose is to entertain the real humans in the circus... reminds you of something?? THE DARKNERS! THEIR WHOLE PURPOSE IS TO ENTERTAIN LIGHTNERS! BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY... TO ENTERTAIN YOU!! THE PLAYER!!

Okay so... actually going over the parts of the song that remind me of all of this and explaining aoahsk

It's mostly just the Caine parts that really remind me of Gaster making fun worlds for the player "If you love adventure, you're in luck!

Instead of the lightners hating this fake reality, they love it! And it's not like it's forever... they always have the choice to leave...

(Not like the digital circus cast that has no other option but to stay and no memories of their previous lives...)

But who knows! That might change! The weird route might change the perspective of the characters?? It's gonna be so harsh for Susie to realize she can't be with Ralsei and Lancer at the festival...she seemed so excited about the idea...😭

OKAY SO LAST PART, WHERE CAINE GETS A LITTLE CRAZY

That could fit in a situation where maybe something bad comes out of the dark worlds...and the character become more wary of them...

He might try to convince us of how bad and awful reality is compared to his dark worlds

Or something....

ANYWAYS YEAH THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN THINKING LATELY

[aprocessionofthoughts]

Ghostly Changes

ectoberhaunt2023 day 19- claws/horns TW- none summary- Danny's ghost form is changing

ao3 masterlist

After the accident, Danny had been relieved that he still looked mainly like himself. He could pretend that he was just a kid with ghost powers. Sure maybe he had kind of died, but he was still alive. He still looked normal.

And then Undergrowth had happened, and his core started to mature, things had started to change.

It had started small. When he was in ghost form his skin began to get paler. He hadn’t noticed anything at first, not until Sam pointed it out.

After that, he’d tried to be more observant. He was not only getting paler, but his skin was taking on a slightly blue color. 

And then his human form had begun to look pale as well. Mr. Lancer had given him a strange look one day and told him he should spend more time in the sun.

The fangs at come next, and Danny had to be careful not to open his mouth to wide or people would see. Not that people were really looking at him these days. Most of the time, Danny noticed that if someone glanced at him, they’d quickly look away. Even Dash was avoiding him.

And what was worse was that even Sam and Tucker never looked him in the eyes anymore.

He’d ask them what was up, and they’d answered that looking at him was unsettling. That it made their skin crawl and activated their flight reflex.

Danny stood in his ghost form in front of his mirror at home. He tilted his head side to side, reached up to feel his ears. They were slightly pointed now. His freckles were slightly green and if Danny looked closely they resembled the current position of the stars. He ran his hands through his hair which had begun to float on its own, not fiery but like he was underwater or in space. He felt along his head till he came to the two points that had begun to grow. He frowned and thought of Nocturne who had horns growing from their head. He examined his fingers which had begun to grow longer and end in sharp claws. 

He steeled himself and met his gaze in the mirror. His eyes were still green, but they swirled like the portal and his irises had grown to cover nearly all of his sclera. His pupil looked darker than black and made Danny think of black holes.

Danny transformed into his human form. This one was at least mostly normal, if you ignored the paleness, fangs, and the strange quality his eyes had. They didn’t look different, but according to his friends, looking into his eyes made them think of a powerful predator.

What was happening to him?

Did ghost’s have their own sort of puberty?

Frostbite had said his core was maturing. Was that what was affecting his appearance? But a lot of the ghost’s he had met still looked mostly human. Why was he changing?

He turned away from the mirror. It didn’t matter. He had too many other things to think about. He had a test he hadn't studied for and a project he hadn’t started. And with his luck they would probably be a ghost attack.

--------------------

Danny had gone back to ask Frostbite what was happening, and the ghost yeti had confirmed that his core maturing was what was causing the changes. 

“But why is it causing these changes? There are plenty of ghosts that still look human?”

“It depends on the ghost’s core and on the level of energy they have. Halfa’s have always been powerful, and you were made in the birth of a permanent portal.”

“So?”

“That means that you will be very powerful one day. Your form is changing to reflect that. You have met Noctorn the Dreamer and Undergrowth Guardian of the Green, their forms changed to reflect their cores and energy levels. The same is happening to you.”

“But I don't want to change.”

Frostbite had given him such a sad look then. “To fight the design Fate has woven for us always leads to disastrous results.”

“But I changed the future. I stopped Dan.”

“That was another timeline, the Great One. And you had the help of Clockwork Guardian of the Will Be.” Frostbite set a hand on Danny’s shoulder. “But worry not, Great One, these changes are merely of appearance. Who you are will not change.”

Danny had left after that.

--------------------

One year later

Danny’s human form hadn’t changed much more besides the fact that not even his friends would look at him directly anymore. But his Phantom form… 

His ghost form had stretched to a height of three meters, his arms and legs were long and his feet and hands ended in claws. His skin was skin tinged blue and several patches were covered in hoarfrost. His eyes were completely green except for the black holes of his pupils, and his green freckles still reflected the position of the stars. His hair was longer and floated unencumbered by gravity. His mouth was full of teeth and his face looked sunken with his cheeks covered in an ever shifting pattern of frost. And from his head grew antlers covered in hoarfrost. They were big, extending two feet above his head and two feet to either side of him.

And above his head floated a crown made of ice and the aurora borealis.

[megoomy]

judith, a witch(?!) in a pact with a malak named ba’ul

more info and reference sheet under the cut!

here she is!! i'm happy with her look, less so with the rendered image of her, but we can't win them all.

like it says on the sheet, i was taking a lot of cues from her in game Draconic Lancer title costume. I wanted to lean into the white more than her default outfit, calling back more to the helmeted look she has before joining the party. but obviously, i didnt want to do anything that looked too much like that, or that had gold accents like her in game jacket and...skirt cape(??), because then she'd come off as kind of abbey coded. so i settled on pink accents, pulling from the colors on the Draconic Lancer look. i think it's fun. it gives her a girlish touch, which is a part of judy's character that i like! she's badass and secretive and mysterious, but she likes cute things too. well. her idea of cute, anyways...i think it suits her persona of being a "witch" in this setting. judy understands how to create an image.

speaking of that. unlike rita, who has a lot of magical knowledge, judy is basically a witch in name only. she understands how to form a pact, and not a lot past that! i think we landed on this for a few reasons:

Judy's father, Hermes, was a blastia expert, and naturally good at the magic of vesperia's universe. but judy was just the opposite, and in the novels she initially couldn't even grasp the talents natural to most krityans. being a witch who doesn't actually do much magic seems apt.

speaking of her dad, this also provides her connection to rita. they're both...witches. rita WILL NOT call judy a witch though, as you might imagine LOL (on that note, maybe hermes takes on the role of grim as the witch teacher?? again, we havent really decided on this LOL)

ba'ul obviously makes most sense as a malak, since the malaks and the entelechaia are both spirit equivalents for these tales entries. (well, entelechaia become spirits--listen, you get what i mean if you've played enough tales games) and judy MUST be with ba'ul! much like she only learns how to use her nageeg after interacting with ba'ul in the novel, i think she has just enough resonance to meet ba'ul, and their connection increases it, and she refines that ability as a "witch" enough to solidify their bond through a pact. they're family!

But yeah she uses a spear to fight. Ba'ul helps her imbue it with seraphic artes to a degree, but mostly its just the spear. I went with a design similar to the Brionac, since that's her Lore Important Weapon, but uh, i haven't designated this lance with lore importance itself. maybe we'll come up with something. looking at it right now i really think i should've colored it differently but IM NOT CHANGING IT, I ALREADY POSTED TO TWITTER!!! (it may change, hell, i decided to make it kind of glow pink in the image, im not fit for weapon designs)

Ba'ul always comes first to Judy, but neither of them is particularly biased against daemons or humans, despite knowing the truth about malevolence. she's quick to befriend yuri and loves repede (who is also a daemon, i gotta put him down on paper soon) and seems understanding of people's different circumstances. but she prioritizes her own goals first, so she'll disappear at the drop of a hat if it suits her, and yuri knows better than to count on her too much...

oh yeah. ba'ul is considered a "dragon" in vesperia, but that comes with a lot of BAGGAGE in this universe, so he's not a dragon here. he, um....he just looks like that. it's fine.

[usafphantom2]

How many B-21 bombers will the U.S. need? Experts say more than 100

The U.S. Air Force originally wanted to build 80 to 100 bombers when the aircraft was first announced. But the world of 2023 is much more dangerous than the world of 2016.

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 12/13/2023 - 08:51am Military

The original number of bombers would have difficulty fulfilling conventional and nuclear missions in a great war.

The B-21 Raider bomber, which has been under secrecy since 2016, made its long-awaited first flight on November 10. Now that the bomber is really flying, it is worth asking: how many stealth bombers does the United States really need?

With China, Russia, Ukraine, Iran and North Korea dominating the headlines for one reason or another, the 80-100 bombers that the U.S. Air Force originally wanted to build now seem like a mere starting point.

The B-21 Raider bomber was announced in 2016 with great fanfare and should replace the B-1B Lancer bomber and the B-2A Spirit bombers. In 2023, the average age of the B-1B bomber fleet was 34.5 years, while the average age of the B-2A fleet was 27.35 years. Both bombers have been out of production for a long time, and the B-1B, in particular, suffers from maintenance problems, since the contractors who originally supplied spare parts are no longer on the market. There is also the issue that planes suffer from outdated technology that makes them less able to penetrate enemy airspace as originally intended: bomb a target and then flee.

The B-21 will serve alongside the B-52J, an updated version of the B-52 Stratofortress bomber, 76 of which are still flying. The B-21 was originally designed as the penetrating bomber, while the B-52J was the non-penetrating bomber that could bomb targets in a permissive environment (think: Afghanistan or Iraq), or launch salvaes of long-range conventional or nuclear missiles beyond enemy radar and the range of air defense missiles.

Since 2016, the rivalry between China and the United States has become more intense and China has doubled the number of nuclear weapons installed. The United States is also involved in a direct war with Russia, imposing strict sanctions on Moscow as a result of its invasion of Ukraine; a new Cold War with Putin's Russia seems almost inevitable. At the same time, North Korea now has intercontinental ballistic missiles that can hit the United States, while Iran uses its representatives in the Middle East to attack American targets, while continuing its nuclear weapons program.

Throughout Europe, Asia and the Middle East, long-term peace prospects have not improved since 2016 – they have worsened substantially. Assuming that all this changes the strategic calculation and that we need more bombers, how many do we really need?

How many bombers for a nuclear war?

Let's examine the nuclear mission first. Many of the U.S. Air Force bombers perform conventional and nuclear functions. A B-2 bomber, for example, could launch JASSM-ER cruise missiles with conventional warheads against Chinese targets on a day and launch B83 gravitational thermonuclear bombs on Russian targets the next day. Still, only a subset of the U.S. Air Force heavy bomber force has a nuclear function: although all 20 existing B-2s have nuclear capability, none of the remaining 45 B-1B Lancer bombers and only 40 of the 76 B-52H bombers can carry nuclear weapons. This leaves 60 of the 141 bombers for nuclear missions.

If the U.S. goes to war with Russia, or with China, or with Russia and China, it must contain a series of bombers and keep them on alert 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, armed with nuclear weapons and ready to fly. A conventional war between nuclear powers could quickly turn into a nuclear war, and bombers on conventional combat missions would probably not be able to return in time to rearm them with nuclear weapons. By the time they flew back to the continent in the United States, there may be no more base to return.

In 2023, Russia deployed 1,674 nuclear weapons, while China deployed about 410, and North Korea between 35 and 65. China is currently embarking on a nuclear construction that the Pentagon believes will raise the total number of nuclear weapons deployed to 1,500 by 2035. North Korea is probably expanding its nuclear arsenal, although, being a poor country, there will eventually be a limit to the number of weapons it can use at the same time.

Sixty nuclear-capable bombers is presumably the minimum number that the USAF considers necessary to face nuclear war scenarios involving Russia, China and North Korea. The U.S. Air Force should also consider the possibility, however small, that, at some point, it may be forced to fight Russia and China at the same time. If the Chinese arsenal increases by 66 percent, we may need a corresponding increase in the minimum number of bombers, in addition to a handful of extras. As a result, we may want to increase the number of nuclear-capacity bombers from 60 to 90, with all 40 B-52J and 50 B-21 placed on nuclear alert.

How many bombers for conventional warfare?

In a conventional war, Air Force bombers would be used as missile carriers, launching missiles against long-range enemy targets. All existing U.S. Air Force bombers - a total of 141 B-1, B-2 and B-52 - can perform conventional combat missions. Most of today's bombers, such as the B-52H and B-1B, are better off launching cruise missiles against enemy targets, while the B-2 can still penetrate enemy airspace.

If we assume that the USAF replaces the B-1 bombers with B-21 bombers on a 1:1 basis, this gives us a need for 45 B-21. Once again, we may have to wage a conventional war against Russia and China at the same time or, at least, wage one while deterring the other. We could consider increasing the number of B-21 for conventional operations by 50%, giving us a total of 67 B-21.

This is not an excessively high number, but to launch a key in this, the U.S. Air Force also stated that the B-21 was built with other missions in mind, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, and electronic attack. Some studies predict it with a maritime attack role in Asia-Pacific, sowing minefields near mainland China and hunting Chinese navy warships. We could add ten more bombers per mission, totaling 97 B-21 for conventional missions.

In total, our approximate calculations reveal that the U.S. should buy about 147 B-21 Raider bombers, plus 76 B-52J, for a total of 223 heavy bombers. This is significantly higher than the 80-100 B-21s launched when the bomber was first announced, but less than the 290 bombers that the U.S. Air Force intended to have at the end of the Cold War.

The conclusion

The world of 2023 is more dangerous than the world of 2016. The world of 2029, exactly when the first B-21 enter service, can be even more dangerous. The first mission of the bombers should be to stop the war; the second mission should be to fight if the deterrence fails. Fewer bombers in peacetime makes sense, but more bombers in times of tension to deter opponents and make war less likely also makes sense.

Source: Popular Mechanics

Tags: Military AviationB-21 RaiderUSAF - United States Air Force / U.S. Air Force

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has work published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. Uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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[aviel-the-trans-bucket]

I have an unquenchable thirst for Alex info 🙏 1, 11, 13, and 20!!!! 🥹🫶

So I think I’ve answered 1 and 20 before so let’s bang those out

1 voice claim

Ok so voice claim is hard, since he always basically sounds how I sound in my head which is wildly different to how I sound irl. But I would have to say Cody Carson the frontman for florida pop-punk band Set It Off

Specifically listen to their song lonely dance, the bridge section is almost exactly what I have in mind

20 Fighting style

Alex has had a mix of fighting styles over the years that have stacked on top of eachother and he uses any number of weapons.

He started as a dual weirder exclusively, dipped his toes into spears tho (the canon lore being him learning biting jabs) and went all in on a sorta battle mage lancer. His lance acts as both a deadly weapon and staff.

His fighting style is heavily inspired by the owl house and ffxiv dragoons. He does also has decent experience in hand to hand, bows, great swords and katanas, as well as chacrams

(I main dragoon, drk, and summoner in ffxiv I had to give him those job skills)

11 my inspiration

Alex has been ship of Theseused over the years, he started as get this, a my little pony oc. He was my childhood oc, and after middle school when I was dealing with my own gender stuff, I transed him and started to strip away a lot of the mlp elements keeping the magic and wings

So it’s early highschool and I’m getting into rapid fire fandom hyperfixations one after the next. His darker elements and backstory stemmed from creepypasta, alot of the characters from that backstory came from a gmod skit YouTube channel, he takes lore and interactions from characters in supernatural. Slowly on a drip feed he became what he is.

For design he’s changed a lot, he used to have a side shave dyed black and for a tim3 was fully brunet. The bleached hair was inspired by Gerard way and I can’t remember why I first gave him a white streak but over time more and more bleached. I was really inspired by the maleficent movie for his horns and wings but also angel headcanons from supernatural.

Some of my oldest art of Alex I have with the most recent on that list being from 2022

tldr: Alex as an oc is almost 12 years old

13 rival

I wouldn’t necessarily say a rival, he has some exes he’s really bitter around because they deeply hurt him. He also has Dean who was just real shitty but he’s dead. Alex doesn’t have many rivals just enemies and people he has to pretend to be pleasant around while contemplating their deaths

Either you become a friend or you become a nuisance, rival implies a certain degree of respect and most of the people Alex disdains he does not respect at all

For instance, narcissist dren, those sorts of people

[amethyst0cean]

Favourite episodes of DP Season 1: Bitter Reunions: I like that we meet Vlad Masters for the first time, and seeing how him and Danny find out each other's secrets this early in the show makes it intriguing for future interactions for the both of them.

My Brother's Keeper (overall favourite): I LOVE Danny and Jazz's sibling relationship in this one, how Jazz cares so much for Danny and will honour his secret until he is ready to tell her. I'm hoping we will see more sibling bonds between the two of them in future episodes because I didn't know how much I needed it until I watched this episode. Fanning the Flames: Ember's song will forever remain catchy in my brain until this day 🥹 Despite Danny getting a love-struck spell for Sam during the episode, I liked seeing the bits of how they feel for each other before that (even though they were super terrible at hiding it haha). I don't mind seeing more hints of that for the two of them in future episodes, I can easily seeing them being good for each other relationship-wise as much as they are being best friends 😊 Teacher of the Year: I really liked Danny and his teacher Mr. Lancer's interaction in this one. Mr. Lancer, while strict and harsh a lot of the time, genuinely cares about helping Danny improve his grade even when Danny has been slipping up lately. When Danny puts in the effort and tries his best he does really well on his exam, and him and Lancer have a good conversation as well prior to that. On a side note, Danny looks really cool in his video game outfit design.

Public Enemies: This was the episode where Danny gets seen as the public enemy for the first time, being tricked and lied to by Walker which in turn damages Danny's reputation. It's a terrible situation that happens to Danny, but it starts an interesting turn of where the series might be headed for future episodes. Maternal Instinct: I loved seeing the bond between Danny and Maddie in this one, I wished we got to see more of it 🥹 Maddie was also just an overall amazing character in this episode and completely badass ghost fighter as well. I also loved the bond between Jazz and Jack just as much. It was funny seeing Vlad thinking Maddie and Danny were 'wanting' to stay with him but we love him for it 🥲 Life Lessons: It was interesting seeing how Danny and Valerie had to work together on a flour-sack babysitting project, where responsibility was key when both of them don't get along well (and are also enemies on the ghost-fighting side). Seeing how they can work together when push comes to shove and how they were able to understand each other a little more was nice to see, and would love to see how their dynamic could change as the series goes on. Sam and Tucker also had a really fun parental dynamic in the episode. The Million Dollar Ghost: I liked seeing a Danny (Phantom) and Jack Fenton focused episode, with Danny trying to cheer up his dad when Jack is feeling blue about not being able to catch ghosts. Jack's ability shines more clearly though when his family is in danger and he shows he's more than capable to take down ghosts when he needs to. Danny telling his dad how proud he was at the end was really sweet as well. Control Freaks: An interesting episode that didn't involve a lot of Danny saving the day, but instead having his friends Sam and Tucker being the ones helping him break out of the hypnosis he was in while being controlled by the ringmaster Freakshow. The episode having more of a Sam focus to it as well was a nice change and something I would love to see more of in future episodes. This was an overall great finale to finish off this season.

[ultimate-character-design]

The Ultimate Character Design Tournament

Please remember to vote for characters solely based on their design, rather than which character you are more familiar with or like more!

Designs and propaganda under the cut!

*Spoiler warning for: Quina Quen

Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello, and Michelangelo | Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2018

This is the only iteration where they are different species of turtle and it actually affects them as characters. The most obvious and really cool one is that Donnie is a soft shell turtle. He has made tech shells that he wears over his soft shell that have gadgets in them and they're also used as protection. It's a really cool way of showing his character.

Raph is a snapper turtle which are known for being aggressive which goes well with his most famous character attribute of having anger issues.

Leo is a red eared slider and is the only one with natural face markings which makes him stand out which goes with his personality.

Mikey is an ornate box turtle which goes with his interest in art and fancy cuisine. He's also got stickers that he has stuck to his shell which is another sign of his personality.

The fact that they're all different species is just really cool. It makes them stand out more from each other and fits their personalities. It also feeds more into the found family trope that is essential to tmnt.

Hermes | Hades

Very cool rendition of one of the Greek Gods. Also, I want his scarf.

Zhao Yunlan | Guardian

you look at a picture of him and it is glaringly obvious that he is a disaster bisexual detective who works on mysterious cases (in the book it's ghosts and in the show it's superpowered aliens). like his design is just so well suited for his character. from the first look you get of him you get an idea what he's all about and it's right

Sans | Undertale

Jack Box | Jack in the Box

He's so sexy

Paris | The Dummy’s Dummy

Lancer | Deltarune

Bruno Bucciarati | Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

character design so good it changed the course of my life (made me watch the show.) described by the magaka as. and I quote. "a feminine silhouette that exudes eroticism." do with that as you will. I am just a simple man n I like his tits and little lace bra situation

Quina Quen | Final Fantasy 9

"Why you care about small things?... World only have two things: Things you can eat and things you no can eat." - Quina Look how round! They're a humanoid frog species called the Qu. Frog chef! Who doesn't love a good frog chef? And they are canonly genderless! They are really imaginative and curious about different things to eat. They are also meant for more comedic relief, but they are tied in the heavy story elements as well.

*Spoiler Alert*

They're a blue mage (in final fantasy this means that they absorb enemy powers to learn enemy magic). They're growth as a playable character comes from the gourmand eating enemies (and feral frogs) They just eat or cook them to absorb magic abilities! They're whole arc involves them being a better mage and cook in order to make their master proud.

Midna | Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

[mdhwrites]

Penacony: Star Rail's Haunted House

And like one trying too hard, you're left only reflecting on how cheap and fake everything is and not in the ways the story wants you to. Oh, and for my normal fans who like it when I rip something apart, this blog is for you.

I'm starting with my non-spoilery thoughts and to start that off, I do want to say that this is better than the Loufu. The game, from character designs, world design and just general work put in has never looked so good. The flavor on everything is top notch and it is a welcome escape from the bland, near industrialist feel of the Loufu. The game design is included in this too with some of the best dungeons we've gotten, not a bad elite in the bunch (as a Fire Trailblazer main, the monkey makes me laugh) and a lot of charm even in the superfluous mechanics you can mostly ignore. The writing also takes a step up as a lot of characters have personality... Kind of.

And this is the crux of the issue. By the end I was left with the feeling that a lot had happened, a lot of words had been said and I'd met a wide cast, but that little of it informed me of anything. Penacony is meant to be a mystery but we are not an investigator. We are just being shouted at constantly "ISN'T THIS MYSTERIOUS AND DRAMATIC!?" to the point where I look up at them and go "Maybe, if you actually let anything be human for more than five seconds." Which I will actually admit: It was human for about half of it. The middle of 2.0, from once you get into the dreams to when the first true twist happens, reminds me of the best of Belobog. Hell, there is a scene in it that is literally the best in Star Rail with how genuine it feels and how real the heartbreak of it is.

But then the lights come on and you see how that scene is nothing but smoke and mirrors too. It is a trick that made me FAR more upset than anything on the Loufu frankly but after the Loufu, it also has eroded a lot of my trust in the writers for their main content. That their narrative lens is extremely narrow and entirely against anything I enjoy in media.

And so I'm left wondering if I'll end up regretting having bought the Battle Pass at the start of the cycle, despite just a week ago having been pretty certain I was with Star Rail wherever it went.

That is enough beating around the bush though. I'll put a good bit of space to let people who don't want spoilers to leave and then I'll get into specifics. 'Kay? 'Kay.

Firefly and Robin are two sides of a coin but both are mistakes. I know it might seem weird to start here rather than talk about the build up, setup, etc. but... Why would I? EVERYTHING is built up to the tragedy of Firefly and the mystery of Robin. If we really must though, here are my impressions of each of the other characters:

Black Swan: Fuck if I know. Genuinely, I don't know. I want to know, especially after having put 150 pulls into her banner but the game is so hell bent on shifting gears with her so constantly and letting her not react to anything that I didn't get a read on her, despite being the character we probably spend the second most amount of time with in this patch. She is at least nice and kind of likable but I don't know how much of that is an act.

Sparkle: Cryptic Bitch. Move on.

Acheron: Okay, I will be fair and say I do like Acheron. I've talked to another person to find out that her red dialogue changes depending on your choices with her. From the white dialogue though, she feels like a Shounen Lancer. The serious one who also has a quirk that lets you laugh from time to time. The tease of her being an Emanator is interesting but also like... How the fuck is Sam even alive for five seconds after she draws her blade then? Unless she just didn't? Emanators are literally the absolute most powerful things in this universe besides the aeons themselves though. She doesn't get to be an Emanator and not be strong game.

Sunday: Cryptic and Evil. Move on because we still know fucking nothing about him.

March 7th and Welt: About as useful as on the Loufu and at least aren't taking up screen time on the Loufu. Welt continues to be a brick, especially with his voice acting and March 7th may as well not be here.

Himeko:

...

Lets out a long, slow breath. We'll talk about Himeko later. Let me just say that she really highlights a problem with a lot of the statements the game makes about us and the express in this patch.

Sam: Not a character and a fucking awful boss fight. AT BEST he is more of a murder hobo than BLADE. The dude motivated by his desire to murder one person. Move on.

Aventurine: The worst. Just the worst. He comes across as an asshole who has zero power, zero charisma and has literally bought every friend, ally and favor that he's gotten in the past ten years. He is not a gambler as his bets are always done deals because he won't make deals he'll lose. He also has way more knowledge than ANYONE else despite having no allies, no one liking him, no powers that we've seen and yet knows the secrets of the memory zone better than the PERSON WHO HAS POWER OVER MEMORIES. Because Black Swan doesn't know Aventurine's truth. She leaves that up to you. It makes for this petulant asshole who is just a mastermind because the game says he is, and NEVER proving it, the last person you'd want to trust but the one you're forced to put your faith into and ally with no matter what. I literally got a joke ending because I told him to piss off.

But let's move on to the two who mattered. Or that we are told mattered, right up until their deaths. Robin is the much easier to point out as bad. We had literally two conversations with her and then find her dead in a bathtub so as to prove that Aventurine is smartest of smarty people because he's just so smart and clever and powerful and OMG! It also is only to further anger and add personality to Sunday. As such, Robin is fridged for TWO dudes. And we have no reason to care because why should we? Because Sunday is now having to cover up her murder? I have to assume she's been dead only recently unless she's been dead for like weeks and you've been somehow preserving her body because Firefly sure didn't get to fucking survive for ANY time.

Speaking of: Firefly is a character made to die. The only options we get to react to her death is compassion for those around us or blinding anger. Not remorse or sorrow or anything like that. It is supposed to mirror the player. You either can just move on or be furious and have it push you to the end of the content. That's it.

And I REALLY mean it when I say she's made to die. She's this nice, sweet girl who snuck onto Penacony specifically to escape an illness she has that is genuinely tragic and is killing her. She is kind, a little mysterious but appears to genuinely have a good heart. We even take a selfie with her which is our keepsake for after she dies.

We also got to already fight the thing that kills her. It appears out of nowhere the first time, descending from the ether above us while it is only us and Firefly, leaving us defenseless. HOWEVER! In a boss fight I do genuinely like, we fend it off for one phase until it finally pushes us to the side and has Firefly in its clutches. It takes its time lifting her up and it looks like Firefly might do something when BAM! Black Swan appears, entirely subduing the beast and freeing Firefly so we can go round two against it and having it be a much easier fight now that three of us here.

But in the memory zone again, knowing that Death is coming and tracking something, with us, Black Swan and now a third super strong fighter, Acheron, we walk into an open area. AND DRUMROLL PLEASE!

It's the instant kill! Where the enemy we have dealt with before comes out of nowhere, shocking and surprising everyone, even physically just bumping into two of us before rushing past the MC while we stand there helplessly and killing Firefly in a single moment! Can we get a round of applause for one of the worst death tropes in video games, if not all of media!? I haven't seen a bullshit death like this since Kat in Halo Reach! Give it up for these writers and how absolutely hack they are!

And here is the worst part: It does hurt. It hurts a LOT.

Penacony's writing is genuinely good in places. The middle portion of Penacony with Firefly is great. Firefly is a delightful character, even if she's a cinnamon roll too precious for this world. The game spends literally half the patch just selling you on why you should care about Firefly. So yeah, seeing Firefly explode into goop hurts but it's like killing a dog. Yeah, that hurts me emotionally but I can tell they're nothing but meat to you and so I get ANGRY at you using my emotions against me.

And worse yet, and I cannot stress this point enough: She is not the important death. We move right back to investigating afterwards with only Acheron's heavy handed words, where she's acting almost like she's never seen death before, to carry the torch for her. No, instead, it's Robin's death that is stated as being able to bring Penacony down. The one that matters. So move on. Firefly is just motivation for you.

Which even if you don't play Caelus and are female with your MC, it still fucking sucks. It also makes the part of Penacony that's good null and void because all you are going to remember is the bullshit death that it was building too. It cheapens all those good moments because you see the manipulation going on.

And... I'm not surprised at this point. If you don't count Herta's Space Station, this is three deaths for three planets. Belobog didn't have a main character death besides the villain and it was PLENTY dramatic enough. The Loufu on the other hand killed Tingyun. Tingyun was our guide... LIKE FIREFLY so that's two in a row that they've axed, but she didn't get much of a character. Instead, it's just shock value for shock's sake, something the writers clearly understood because then the entire epilogue for the PLANET is spent backfilling how wonderful of a person she was and mourning her death. I'm not kidding.

So that is three for three on fridged women, all done in order to just add stakes or a twist to the story. All three of them are also really bad and don't actually add anything to the story. We just continue our investigation after Firefly like we would have done regardless and get to another boss fight that makes literally no sense because YOUR ALLY SENT US HERE ASS HAT!

Addendum: This is actually FOUR deaths in three planets. The fourth is at least a guy so it's not entirely gender biased but it is also off screen. A villain we met once, kind of, named Duke Inferno is claimed to have been killed by Acheron before she came here with his invitation. The only part of this story that's confirmed mind you is the death of Inferno which uh... To quote Aventurine talking about Acheron's story "Lines up a bit too perfectly" for the asshat in the coat. It's not good and it makes the trailer Hoyo put out for the Ever Flame Mansion, that uses imagery you can find on Penacony for it, feel like a lie since we're not likely to see those characters at least until 2.4. But yeah, thought I should mention that there is a fourth dead character.

But... If you are a writer who got a lot of infamy from character deaths and is used to having YEARS of backstory, build up, connections, etc.... This is actually what happens. This is the first the Honkai part of Honkai Star Rail has been a real problem for the game. Even in the lead up to Penacony, they hyped up the potential of death by bringing in the lead writer for the Honkai series, who hadn't been on a livestream since, it sounds like... He killed a BUNCH of Honkai characters a year and a half ago. But that was the SIXTH anniversary of Honkai Third Impact. (sorry if I'm getting the timeline and the like wrong on this at all btw)

Star Rail is not even a year old. With that pointed out: let's talk about Himeko and the Express in general.

I don't know these people. I don't have a connection to these people. This is literally the first real chance we are spending ANY amount of time with Himeko. What does she do with that chance? Be cryptic, untrusting and a complete ass honestly to pretty much EVERYONE despite having pushed us trailblazers as kind, helpful people who will take risks and the like. But nope, she's just as bad as the rest of the people we've just been introduced to.

So when Firefly wants us to take inspiration from our allies on how to lighten the mood or when Acheron at the very start says we've made unbreakable bonds that we might lose... What the fuck are you talking about? March 7th is the ONLY one that might be able to be claimed about. Everyone else has no relationship with us. Half of them may as well not have characters with how little they've done or shown us or felt like they're there mostly to help with exposition.

So sure, go ahead and kill them off. You don't care about them enough to actually make me invested in them, actually build a status quote to then shatter with real danger so... Why should I? These people just exist for you to slaughter because you apparently don't know how to write a dramatic story otherwise.

It... It is rough for me right now. I even played a bit of the side content and went "Yep, this is still a good part of Star Rail." It made me think of how my brother hoped that Star Rail wouldn't have the Persona 5 problem. Great character work, a lot of fun, some real, deep emotions and genuinely good storytelling (I've talked about Guinaifen with such praise for a reason)... You just will never know by playing the main story because it's not there. Not after Belobog. The most important content, the content EVERYONE will see just isn't good.

And whenever 3.0 comes out, I know I won't be hyped after this. Even if they undo the deaths, I don't care. I don't care about your main story because it makes no sense and the stakes are fake. So... Why am I still playing if only the side content is worthwhile?

If I can never trust that a Firefly will do anything but burn out?

======+++++======

I'll admit a lot of this is motivated by anger. I'll probably do a second blog talking about some of the positives about Penacony, because there is a fair bit of good mixed in with the rest, but I needed to get out this frustration first because it was the majority of what the patch left me with. I also still stick by most of what I said, maybe not quite as harshly, even with a calmer mind.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.