#lol that would require me to be functional or something

[vaguely-concerned]

for what it's worth I personally don't believe spite had anything to do with the pantry near-kiss experience at all. I think that was a 100% lucanis naturel disaster no supernatural additives present or indeed required. at most spite was watching that whole situation go down with mild puzzlement about approximately every part of it, I don't think he'd have much interest in it one way or the other. the explanation seems much more mundane and grounded and in some ways much sadder to me.

if your nervous system has never been in a place where any surge of emotion, even -- in fact sometimes especially! -- a good and exciting one makes you feel like your soul just touched a hot stove it can't get away from, then sincerely, from the bottom of my heart and without a trace of snark, thank goodness and I hope you never experience it. For the rest of you... fistbump of solidarity it's rough out here but *grits teeth* we stay silly etc. In the place lucanis is in during that part of the game, feeling like you're losing control (again even for ostensibly good happy reasons) can feel an awful lot like you're dying, or worse. on top of everything else going on for him -- again going only with non-supernatural elements and not even comprehensive: a year of non-stop horrific trauma added to pile of previous mountain of childhood and attachment trauma. chronic sleep deprivation. apparently dead grandma doubling as mother figure. cousin-brother aggressively fucking around and in real danger of finding out. fucked up the ONE thing he thought he knew how to do that's been the central pillar of his identity. the world might be ending even more than it already was because of it. keeps faceplanting with barely any dignity and having to get up again with alarming regularity GOD how could I ever not save treviso this man desperately needs a W (just one!!) like few people in the history of the world have before him. he's more caffeine than man because the alternative feels worse. it's bad in here. and ON TOP of all that he's in the process of falling just. appallingly soul-shrivingly in love, which can notably be playing on hard mode even when you're in a mostly functional place, that shit routinely rocks people to the core under the best of circumstances.

so I'm not surprised it's too overwhelming for him to handle when he tries to throw himself in head first -- in fact I'd have been more surprised if it weren't lol. he clearly wants it so much, which only makes it so much more painful that he can't actually bear to touch it when it's offered to him freely and eagerly. this is the tantalus-level awfulness of this kind of attachment trauma; food seems to be right there, you can see it, almost smell it sometimes, but no matter what you just can't seem to reach it. seemingly not for any flaw in the existence of the food, but because of something broken in you that can't or can't bear to actually eat. his deliberate flirting routine is kind of deeply dorky tbh lol (in the most endearing way possible let's be perfectly clear) and I don't think it's entirely natural to him -- that's a hastily cobbled together 'oh god I am getting the vibes here it is happening for some reason they like me for my personality quick what would illario do' approach if ever I saw it, supported by the fact that it never really makes a return after this --

BUT I do think his obvious near-unbearable delight with rook's existence and person that shines through in that scene is entirely real and unfeigned. he likes them so much. he wants so bad to be able to be close to them. he's so hungry for the reprieve and release and relief they represent to him, just for one moment, just one break from all the awfulness to have something uncomplicatedly good. and it's here, it's been offered, he's welcome!!! and he has to flinch away at the last minute anyway because he's an exposed nerve of a human being. there's a point at which every sensation including joy becomes indistinguishable from agony. he's pretty much exactly at that point. for the love of god have some mercy on him people. the feeling that salvation is right here but you're too broken a vessel to hold it is one I wouldn't wish on anyone. let him have a few moments to stare into the void before he's ready to get back up and try again surely we all deserve at least that much lol

[qinluna]

NOT WHEN IT COMES TO YOU (W. SYLUS QIN) wc. 1050. hurt/comfort. reader is the mc and experiences a panic attack. canon compliant to the l&ds story, no spoilers. character study-ish on the mental state of the mc. sylus is perceptive person and sees through the reader. non-established relationship. not proofread. side note: my writing program crashed after i pasted it to the tumblr draft. lol!

‘Does any of it matter anymore?’

You write those words in a pocket-sized journal every night. The very same one that’s tucked away in your drawer where an assortment of lingerie overfills and molds within one another. You have to do something, anything, to keep your body aware of its movement, its functionality and life.

Does any of it matter anymore?

You almost want to reach out to Zayne about it. To talk. To explain this stream of endless thoughts and the endless void of questioning your worth. Things haven’t been easy, to the point where you wonder if taking the Hunter Exam, valuing your worth on whether or not you passed, was worth it in the end. Not after everything you’ve found out. Not after everything you’ve witnessed and lost.

Now, you had bargained your life. A bold, risky step that required more trust than you could ever ask for. (You got it, regardless. You had nothing to fear in that aspect.)

“Does any of it matter anymore…?”

You ask yourself again, your voice a low whisper. You needed to make sure you were here, still. Some way, somehow. You were now shrouded by a blaring red sky and even darker red moon. Your gaze, holding faux grit, stares into a crimson gaze that looks over your sunken, kneeling form.

He wears a light curl of a smirk, lowering himself to you: “You should speak up, little Hunter. I can’t quite hear you.”

You push down that growing dread in an empty chest. But if it were empty, your heart wouldn’t be housed there, beating ferociously as you were face to face with the one who had answers you needed. If not all, at least some. The ones to point you in the right direction.

You call it going away in your own head—it’s what you do when you feel more than just your heart on the verge of giving out. It’s what you do when your fingers begin to twitch and tremble, your words struggling to come out. You don’t consider it freezing up completely, but a different sensation.

It’s just something you always dealt with on your own, always aware of.

The gentle flick of your fingers at your side gauges your knowledge of it happening again. Surrounded by desperate brokers and merchants; people with vile intentions and greed that isn’t a homely territory back in Linkon City.

You’re reminded why Onichynus thrives. Why Sylus wears the success and pride he does.

Despite his teachings intending to help you hold that same pride, you can’t. You realize too late in this room full of people who could eat you alive, you bit off more than you could chew. You remain by Sylus’ side as he indulges in the meaningless chatter of those who throw themselves at him with wretched desperation—but the room is beginning to feel hazy.

You know you should’ve arranged something. Some kind of signal to let him know you needed a breather.

This was more than a breather you needed. This was an emergency where you’re a glass sculpture, waiting and begging to be knocked over. You hated being made of glass, regrettably—hated being ogled at in that way. You feel it in the worst form now, being the guest of the most powerful man in the N109 Zone.

Your arm, securely wrapped around his bigger one, shifts back just slightly to tug at his sleeve. It’s not an obvious action, not even to the keen eye like yourself. But it’s enough that you feel the slight jerk, that startles him. To Sylus, this would be a disturbance as little of a fly on someone’s shoulder.

Yet, the air between you two shifts.

Sylus holds a hand up to the two men standing before you both, “Ah—you’ll have to excuse me, gentlemen. I just recalled that I am to assist the security detail with an issue. Please, do enjoy the rest of the evening.”

He leads you away without another word, brushing off the guests.

Vultures. Vultures. Vultures. Every single one of them.

You hold your breath in a subtle manner, your throat constricted. Sylus’ movement is swift and urgent at once, heading towards the back of the ballroom. He opens one of the double doors, ushering you out first before following closely.

It’s just you two now, in this empty, grandeur hall.

You felt sick. You wanted to die. You wanted every fiber of anguish to leave you be and never come back. You never wanted to feel anything again. You wanted to rip your heart out and burn it, to bleed out to death by its side—

—Does any of it matter anymore?

“Little Hunter,” Sylus’ smooth voice cuts through your clogged mind. His hand comes forward, knuckles gently brushing against your cheek, catching stray tears that roll down, “Just focus on me. You’re alright now.”

Oh.

Your eyes widen, your faint breath an overwhelming echo in your head as you come back to yourself. Never before had you seen his eyes so… fond. Gentle. Comforting. It makes you feel sick. You feel the need to lurch and throw up everything you’ve eaten.

Instead, your tears thicken. You blink a few times before lowering your head, pressing the back of your hand against your mouth as you pant heavily. Clawing through your throat is a string of sobs, your body tensing along with it.

Sylus reacts with instinct, his voice lowered as he gently shushed you. His arm wraps around your shoulders, pressing you into his strong torso. To hide you away from the world, to delicately hold your sorrows.

“You’re alright, Little Hunter.” He whispers into the top of your head, lips brushing softly against your hair, “I feel your shame, there’s no need to carry such a thing. I’m not upset.”

You hiccup, pulling away just enough to tilt your head back—looking up at him: “You’re… not?”

A deep chuckle rumbles from his chest. His fingers gently tuck strands of your hair behind your ear, offering you the most warmth he possibly can in this moment. Unfamiliar, but not unappreciated. You’re more grateful than anything, in spite of everything you two had rough edges about.

“Never,” he assures you with a smile. “Not when it comes to you.”

[blazetbw-art]

Hello, attempted a modern Sonic Bunnie Rabbot redesign!

@thepinkgalaxy55 did a post on twitter and it reminded me to finish this design from last year lol.

Check under the cut for the journey down the rabbit hole.

Started out with a sketch of her previous designs to get a better idea of what makes 'em tick.

From Left to Right: SatAM, Archie, Archie Reboot-all bunny, and Reboot Robo-bunny After that, figuring out the head. Stayed round, but wanted to avoid the same copy-past-face. Took out the bun-toof in the final since it really wasn't needed and she never had it anyway.

Next, let body & mech parts.

Initially started Forces Avatar like, but switch it over to a different direction. I wanted chonky lower legs and the Big O hydraulic fist. Started toying around with the joints found in the more modern renders of Metal Sonic and other bots.

Final lines and Color tests! Or at least with the original colors to see how I could make them fit, and where to take her design from there.

Went a more EggPawn style because they're very practical in their form and function in terms of design. I also like to think that if the modern Eggman were to turn to robotizicing, he'd probably keep the bots more simplified for what he could mass produce over something more complex that would require more fixing and tweaking.

She also got a pony-tail like MLP's Applejack because I felt it would help her shape a bit more.

And finally, figuring out colors for myself.

I ended up going towards the dusty-rusty-rose on the end to help her stand out from the bots as well as the other pink and purple gals already in the cast.

Yennyway, thank and be well~

[ms-demeanor]

Hello! First, I wanted to say thank you for your post about updating software and such. I really appreciated your perspective as someone with ADHD. The way you described your experiences with software frustration was IDENTICAL to my experience, so your post made a lot of sense to me.

Second, (and I hope my question isn't bothering you lol) would you mind explaining why it's important to update/adopt the new software? Like, why isn't there an option that doesn't involve constantly adopting new things? I understand why they'd need to fix stuff like functional bugs/make it compatible with new tech, but is it really necessary to change the user side of things as well?

Sorry if those are stupid questions or they're A Lot for a tumblr rando to ask, I'd just really like to understand because I think it would make it easier to get myself to adopt new stuff if I understand why it's necessary, and the other folks I know that know about computers don't really seem to understand the experience.

Thank you so much again for sharing your wisdom!!

A huge part of it is changing technologies and changing norms; I brought up Windows 8 in that other post and Win8 is a *great* example of user experience changing to match hardware, just in a situation that was an enormous mismatch with the market.

Win8's much-beloathed tiles came about because Microsoft seemed to be anticipating a massive pivot to tablet PCs in nearly all applications. The welcome screen was designed to be friendly to people who were using handheld touchscreens who could tap through various options, and it was meant to require more scrolling and less use of a keyboard.

But most people who the operating system went out to *didn't* have touchscreen tablets or laptops, they had a desktop computer with a mouse and a keyboard.

When that was released, it was Microsoft attempting to keep up with (or anticipate) market trends - they wanted something that was like "the iPad for Microsoft" so Windows 8 was meant to go with Microsoft Surface tablets.

We spent the first month of Win8's launch making it look like Windows 7 for our customers.

You can see the same thing with the centered taskbar on Windows 11; that's very clearly supposed to mimic the dock on apple computers (only you can't pin it anywhere but the bottom of the screen, which sucks).

Some of the visual changes are just trends and various companies trying to keep up with one another.

With software like Adobe I think it's probably based on customer data. The tool layout and the menu dropdowns are likely based on what people are actually looking for, and change based on what other tools people are using. That's likely true for most programs you use - the menu bar at the top of the screen in Word is populated with the options that people use the most; if a function you used to click on all the time is now buried, there's a possibility that people use it less these days for any number of reasons. (I'm currently being driven mildly insane by Teams moving the "attach file" button under a "more" menu instead of as an icon next to the "send message" button, and what this tells me is either that more users are putting emojis in their messages than attachments, or microsoft WANTS people to put more emojis than messages in their attachments).

But focusing on the operating system, since that's the big one:

The thing about OSs is that you interact with them so frequently that any little change seems massive and you get REALLY frustrated when you have to deal with that, but version-to-version most OSs don't change all that much visually and they also don't get released all that frequently. I've been working with windows machines for twelve years and in that time the only OSs that Microsoft has released were 8, 10, and 11. That's only about one OS every four years, which just is not that many. There was a big visual change in the interface between 7 and 8 (and 8 and 8.1, which is more of a 'panicked backing away' than a full release), but otherwise, realistically, Windows 11 still looks a lot like XP.

The second one is a screenshot of my actual computer. The only change I've made to the display is to pin the taskbar to the left side instead of keeping it centered and to fuck around a bit with the colors in the display customization. I haven't added any plugins or tools to get it to look different.

This is actually a pretty good demonstration of things changing based on user behavior too - XP didn't come with a search field in the task bar or the start menu, but later versions of Windows OSs did, because users had gotten used to searching things more in their phones and browsers, so then they learned to search things on their computers.

There are definitely nefarious reasons that software manufacturers change their interfaces. Microsoft has included ads in home versions of their OS and pushed searches through the Microsoft store since Windows 10, as one example. That's shitty and I think it's worthwhile to find the time to shut that down (and to kill various assistants and background tools and stop a lot of stuff that runs at startup).

But if you didn't have any changes, you wouldn't have any changes. I think it's handy to have a search field in the taskbar. I find "settings" (which is newer than control panel) easier to navigate than "control panel." Some of the stuff that got added over time is *good* from a user perspective - you can see that there's a little stopwatch pinned at the bottom of my screen; that's a tool I use daily that wasn't included in previous versions of the OS. I'm glad it got added, even if I'm kind of bummed that my Windows OS doesn't come with Spider Solitaire anymore.

One thing that's helpful to think about when considering software is that nobody *wants* to make clunky, unusable software. People want their software to run well, with few problems, and they want users to like it so that they don't call corporate and kick up a fuss.

When you see these kinds of changes to the user experience, it often reflects something that *you* may not want, but that is desirable to a *LOT* of other people. The primary example I can think of here is trackpad scrolling direction; at some point it became common for trackpads to scroll in the opposite direction that they used to; now the default direction is the one that feels wrong to me, because I grew up scrolling with a mouse, not a screen. People who grew up scrolling on a screen seem to feel that the new direction is a lot more intuitive, so it's the default. Thankfully, that's a setting that's easy to change, so it's a change that I make every time I come across it, but the change was made for a sensible reason, even if that reason was opaque to me at the time I stumbled across it and continues to irritate me to this day.

I don't know. I don't want to defend Windows all that much here because I fucking hate Microsoft and definitely prefer using Linux when I'm not at work or using programs that I don't have on Linux. But the thing is that you'll see changes with Linux releases as well.

I wouldn't mind finding a tool that made my desktop look 100% like Windows 95, that would be fun. But we'd probably all be really frustrated if there hadn't been any interface improvements changes since MS-DOS (and people have DEFINITELY been complaining about UX changes at least since then).

Like, I talk about this in terms of backward compatibility sometimes. A lot of people are frustrated that their old computers can't run new software well, and that new computers use so many resources. But the flipside of that is that pretty much nobody wants mobile internet to work the way that it did in 2004 or computers to act the way they did in 1984.

Like. People don't think about it much these days but the "windows" of the Windows Operating system represented a massive change to how people interacted with their computers that plenty of people hated and found unintuitive.

(also take some time to think about the little changes that have happened that you've appreciated or maybe didn't even notice. I used to hate the squiggly line under misspelled words but now I see the utility. Predictive text seems like new technology to me but it's really handy for a lot of people. Right clicking is a UX innovation. Sometimes you have to take the centered task bar in exchange for the built-in timer deck; sometimes you have to lose color-coded files in exchange for a right click.)

[coldgoldlazarus]

Okay, mostly done screeching in excitement, now it's analysis time.

First point: That purple blast of the turret getting taken out looks great.

Looks like we're opening hot, a lot like Corruption's beginning. Hopefully won't be quite as protracted as the Norion battle, though, lol.

Also, I've seen some jokes already about how this section will end with Samus getting depowered like the openings of Prime and Echoes, but given how barebones her arsenal seems to be here, (missiles and morph ball, which sometimes she just starts with and keeps, maybe bombs too) I don't expect that to happen.

The HUD and helmet edges are a lot more dialed back this time, pushed as far into the corners as they can go. Probably better for visibility this way, but I am gonna miss the more wraparound feel of the previous setup, with the missile count and hazard meter along the sides. But this isn't a bad look by any means, and we still have a fair few items here.

A & B: My bet is this is the replacement for the old hazard meter. In addition to keeping it out of the way, putting it right next to the motion tracker is a good move. I may actually remember to use that more this way.

C: Health bar is obvious, of course, but I really like the move of tucking it away into the notch on the top of the Echoes/Corruption/Beyond(!) helmet visor. The lines around it suggest an empty row above, undoubtedly for the energy tank pips once those are picked up.

D & E: Minimap is present as usual, not really much to say there, but I love the addition of a compass direction scroll beneath it, which should be helpful for putting places in context of the broader map. (Tallon IV's elevator label system, anyone?)

F: Missile count has been shunted down from the side to the bottom corner. I'm interested to see if it will grow upward, or just stay in its present spot and scale accordingly, as you collect more expansions.

G: This is the one everyone's already pointed out, but it seems that we won't have a visor OR beam swap readout.

Scan Visor is still an option as shown in the next bit, but based on the lack of an indicator in the hud, it's probably just going to be a toggle between that and combat, without anything else like X-Ray or Thermal or Echo or what have you. (Or it could be that that would only get added to the HUD after picking up a third visor, but I won't hold my breath for it.) Kinda disappointing to deemphasize one of the cool new mechanics the Prime subseries brought to the table, on one hand, but I'm still grateful to have the Scanner, and the extra ones always did struggle a bit to see much use.

Similarly, a bit disappointed this means we're probably looking at a stacking beam like in Corruption and the 2D games, (unless of course beam swapping is still there and just being left off the HUD until relevant for the sake of cleanliness #copium) but not entirely surprising; I'll live.

But what is interesting is what's there instead. The D-Pad seems to be tied to non-Beam weapons or tools instead, with the missile launcher as the only one available at present. I'm really curious to see what the other items will be; I imagine this is going to be Prime 4's unique spin on things. I saw someone suggest affinity weapons like in Hunters, but given those all function like Beams, it feels weird to me to set them against Missiles instead, ammunition requirements notwithstanding. I'm not going to rule those out, of course, but I could see this being something completely different entirely.

Again, I am very glad to see the Scan Visor is still here at least. Even better is that it uses the full-body highlighting of objects like Echoes and Corruption instead of Prime 1's icons. Pretty minimalistic layout, all told; I like that the scanning bar is a ring now. And it doesn't reflect Samus's face by default like in Corruption, which makes sense since we're not liable to have the same kind of mutation shenaniganry happening here.

I forgot to snag a screencap of this bit on my computer, so forgive the lower quality, but this scene is interesting for a few reasons.

The Pirates' breaching charges letting them into this room just as Samus passes through a gap in the wall overhead is a nice touch, and also remniscent of some sequences from early on in Corruption.

The Federation guys in here seem to be wheeling away someone or something on a stretcher in a hurry. That could be important.

Energy tank up in the rail section, but blocked by a box. Are we just going to bomb through to get it right away, or will we drop down into the room, and have to come back from the other direction to pick it up? (Please be the other direction)

Samus looking spiffy here, even at a distance. And as some have pointed out, looks like she's walking out of a portal instead of a door, pointing to either more dimension-hopping shenanigans like in Echoes, or possibly the time travel elements I recall hearing Tanabe wanted to play with at some point. (This plus the black hole look of the logo makes me think this could be more likely.)

Whatever the nature of the portal, though, the interesting thing to me is the sort of circular structure in the rock around it, suggesting a doorframe almost. A lot of the portals on Aether seemed to actively cut into the environment at random, the rock carved out in perfect spheres with fucked-up edges, and interrupting the pre-existing architecture or geology. In contrast, this looks like it was put here on purpose, implying a more controlled creation. Potentially really fascinating implications in that.

I also kinda wonder if these portals will be replacing elevators as a way to get between regions.

Ignoring the big numbers in the middle, (though they do kinda mess with my prediction that Prime 4 was going to be a 2024 holiday title to avoid getting eaten by Switch 2's inevitable 3D Mario launch title,) a couple things stand out to me here.

Giant tree in the background is giant, and I love it for that. Also looks like it's not the only giant tree here, even if still probably the biggest. I hope we get to go there later.

But in addition, we have a bridge in the middle distance, and a tunnel opening in the foreground. I will eat my hat if we don't get to cross that bridge, and my bet is that they're going to pull a similar trick here as with Skytown, letting low-poly versions of other "rooms" be visible from the current one, but dividing them with interior sections for optimization reasons, allowing for amazing landscapes of all traversible terrain. I loved that there, it looks great here, I can't wait to go explore all this myself next year.

[cuties-in-codices]

Where do you find these manuscripts? Is it like a website or do you find it randomly??

hey, thanks for the curiosity! lenghty answer below the cut :)

1)

medieval manuscripts are typically owned by libraries and showcased on the library's websites. so one thing i do is i randomly browse those digitized manuscript collections (like the collections of the bavarian state library or the bodleian libraries, to name just two), which everybody can do for free without any special access. some digital collections provide more useful tools than others (like search functions, filters, annotations on each manuscript). if they don't, the process of wading through numerous non-illustrated manuscripts before i find an illustrated one at all can be quite tedious.

2)

there are databases which help to navigate the vast sea of manuscripts. the one i couldn't live without personally use the most is called KdIH (Katalog der deutschsprachigen illustrierten Handschriften des Mittelalters). it's a project which aims to list all illustrated medieval manuscripts written in german dialects. the KdIH provides descriptions of the contents of each manuscript (with a focus on the illustrations), and if there's a digital reproduction of a manuscript available anywhere, the KdIH usually links to it. the KdIH is an invaluable tool for me because of its focus on illustrated manuscripts, because of the informations it provides for each manuscript, and because of its useful search function (once you've gotten over the initial confusion of how to navigate the website). the downside is that it includes only german manuscripts, which is one of the main reasons for the over-representation of german manuscripts on my blog (sorry about that).

3)

another important database for german manuscripts in general (i.e. not just illustrated ones) is the handschriftencensus, which catalogues information regarding the entirety of german language manuscripts of the middle ages, and also links to the digital reproductions of each manuscript.

4)

then there are simply considerable snowball effects. if you do even just superficial research on any medieval topic at all (say, if you open the wikipedia article on alchemy), you will inevitably stumble upon mentions of specific illustrated manuscripts. the next step is to simply search for a digital copy of the manuscript in question (this part can sometimes be easier said than done, especially when you're coming from wikipedia). one thing to keep in mind is that a manuscript illustration seldom comes alone - so every hint to any illustration at all is a greatly valuable one (if you do what i do lol). there's always gonna be something interesting in any given illustrated manuscript. (sidenote: one very effective 'cheat code' would be to simply go through all manuscripts that other online hobbyist archivers of manuscript illustrations have gone through before - like @discardingimages on tumblr - but some kind of 'professional pride' detains me from doing so. that's just a kind of stubbornness though. like, i want to find my material more or less on my own, not just the images but also the manuscripts, and i apply arbitrary rules to my search as to what exactly that means.)

5)

whatever tool or strategy i use to find specific illustrated manuscripts-- in the end, one unavoidable step is to actually manually skim through the (digitized) manuscript. i usually have at least a quick look at every single illustrated page, and i download or screenshot everything that is interesting to me. this process can take up to an hour per manuscript.

---

in conclusion, i'd say that finding cool illuminated manuscripts is much simpler than i would have thought before i started this blog. there are so many of them out there and they're basically just 'hidden in plain side', it's really astounding. finding the manuscripts doesn't require special skills, just some basic experience with/knowledge of the tools available. the reason i'm able to post interesting images almost daily is just that i spend a lot of time doing all of this, going through manuscripts, curating this blog, etc. i find a lot of comfort in it, i learn a lot along the way, and i immensely enjoy people's engagement with my posts. so that's that :)

[good-beanswrites]

My thoughts on how the Milgram mv machine works based on the evidence we have:

(I know there’s been discussion about where exactly the interrogations take place, but wherever they are,) the prisoners are made to sit in a specific chair near the wall that houses the machine.

It’s ordinarily hidden, but the wall panels shift aside to reveal it when the mechanical sounds play in the dramas. As well as the walls moving, the chair transforms to restrain the prisoner and attach whatever it takes to access their brain. The fact that none of the more frightened prisoners try to run or break it makes it seem like they physically cannot. This is why Fuuta sounds so panicked, and why Amane is suddenly helpless in front of Es in their T1 vds.

(My mind conjures very classic sci-fi mad scientist machines with wires, pipes, lights, nodes, needles, etc, but I’d love to hear how other people visualize it.)

In some vds (maybe all? I’d need to check,) you can hear Es take some steps right before their iconic line -- it would make sense that for safety reasons, the power mechanism is placed across the room. Once again it could be anything, but the sound effect makes me think of one of those giant wall-mounted levers you have to pull down.

The voice dramas don’t really provide the type of crime details that an actual interrogation would reveal, and it’s odd that they’re placed before the extraction rather than after Es gets to see the new details. This leads me to believe the machine functions with priming. All Es needs to do is get them talking about their murder, so it’s on their mind.

The video produced is much like a (non-lucid) dream. Even if the prisoners figure out that this is how it works, they can’t control it just by thinking really hard about something else. The murders produce the strongest emotional affect, and that’s what it picks up on. If someone else used the machine, it would default to whatever gave them the strongest emotional reaction in the ~15 minutes beforehand, hence why Es’ video focuses on their daunting task ahead. (The Undercover theory is still a bit loose, though, given the private shots that Es wouldn't have known about). It’s why the videos are usually closely linked to the vd topics/beats. I also like to think that the reason their prisoner colors appear so much is because they’re looking at those colors on their uniform 24/7.

The bell rings to inform Es that it’s the optimal time to use the machine -- the prisoner has been thinking about things for long enough that the video will be about their crime, and if the conversation lasts much longer they’ll start thinking of other things. It’s at a different time for each prisoner because it’s based on the specific conversation. I guess Jackalope is listening in to the interrogation, timing it perfectly. (The only one that kind of messes with this theory is Yonah, because they just keep talking afterwards lol, but it could just show that the interrogation is still in Es’ control.)

Their “Sing your sins” is the final priming nudge to get them to think of their actions as a sin, revealing their guilt.

Once activated, the prisoner enters a sort of trance/sleeping state. It’s very much like REM sleep, with the machine forcibly activating neurons and recording the output. The prisoners have asked Es what they saw, meaning they don’t remember the mvs. I like to think the prisoners do experience the mv in real time, acting as the major version of themself that appears, but can’t remember it afterwards. It’s when you experience a dream, but as soon as you wake up you’re just left with fleeting emotions and memories right on the tip of your tongue.

The video plays immediately upon extraction -- whether on a huge projection or little screen depends on which room it’s in. It simultaneously saves the memory so that Es can rewatch it later (on those old TVs in the jailbreak mix). The machine downloads the song and video together, but requires special parts to retrieve them. The technology is pretty new and fragile, so if one is broken, there might be a delay between when Es can hear the extracted song and see it with the video. (That’s my justification for Kotoko’s delays -- after 9 prisoners the parts wear out, or maybe Mikoto himself overheats it with his complex situation.)

Based on the lack of conversation we get afterwards, I picture Es leaving before the prisoner wakes from the trance. The machine adjusts their brain back to normal before they awaken, restraints freed and able to return to the rest of the prison.

It’s very much like a dream, so it’s not harmful despite the amnesia/head injuries the prisoners have. It does, however, exhaust them. Brain activity alone takes a lot of energy, so forced brain activity with added emotional strain would cause them to feel pretty drained the rest of the day.

[proosh]

So is Gilbert strictly a bottom in your view? Or does he switch? Can you tell me more about how he views his own sexuality and how he experiences others? I hope this doesn’t sound offensive lol i find ur characterization interesting, either response would be cool

short answer: He's not a bottom (he's a switch) but he is a sub because he desperately wants someone to give him orders.

joke answer: My brain says he's a switch but my dick wants to see him bottom, so he does.

slightly longer/more serious answer:

Everything in the world is about sex except sex. Sex is about power. - Oscar Wilde

Going to put this under a cut for length :3c

Gilbert's character is most heavily informed by his militarism and the intensely psychosexual nature of military power structures, where pragmatic duty meets hotblooded domination and violence. He is fundamentally someone who desires orders and service at an almost atomic level, and also requires (self-)control to function in any meaningful capacity.

This creates, in my opinion, a profile of someone who is chronically dedicated to service and can play either role according to situational need or desire: So long as he is in a position of power and control he is able to operate to the best of his ability.

Most sex is for him, I think, exists in a very similar mindset to his soldiering. He is "on", and he's working, servicing, and very much aware of everything that is happening. Which isn't to say he's incapable of experiencing "heat of the moment" sexual desire, of course.

It's just that that sort of aggression and desire for control and domination is not exactly a healthy mindset for him to exist in, in my opinion, and this is something he is very intimately aware of.

It's not that Gilbert is incapable of or unwilling to be the "active" partner. He's horrifically capable, which is the problem.

On the other hand, being the "passive" or "receiving" party presents a much more "safer" way for him to exist inside his head while he's "on", to speak.

To be an object of desire is to be an object of power. If he is operating within a space where he is being pursued, or being subjected to Service, then it creates a comfortable plausible deniability for his desires and experiences. It's within that "receiving" space that he can switch "off" and not be Doing His Duty -- he is a subject and object and does not have to be constantly thinking and calculating and plotting.

There is freedom in submission.

I need your help I need your discipline You know once I start I cannot help myself - Nine Inch Nails, Discipline

[mintytealfox]

How to you think Norton would react to learning that he's going to be a father?

OH MAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

I think he would be HORRIFIED initially!

The thoughts of 'how long do I have?? will I be able to live long enough for the child to even know me as their dad?? I need to set them up for success, do I have enough time to do that?? I can't allow them to experience poverty, what do I need to do to ensure that??'

Then the thoughts of 'what if Alice doesn't make it?? what if the child doesn't make it?? I have never had people to care about, its always just been me taking care of me after my father died. I actually have people to loose now, I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO--'

Alice: "Norton, your thoughts are spinning so loudly even I can hear them~" -trying to insert humor in there cause it is strange to see Norton actually worrying like this. Usually he is the one just 'do what you need to do, what happens happens cause its up to you and your own hard work'-

I feel like this would throw a wrench in how Norton functions cause it brings just about everything to the surface for him. Everything he wished he had, knowing how unfair the world is, what is required to 'change your fate' into a better one. This is something huge that he has no control over and I can see that freaking him out.

But I am sure Alice will figure out a way to reassure him, even if its just reminding him everything he has survived alone, what they have survived together, and what they will get through because of all that knowledge and experience. Then trying to hope for the best, enjoy and appreciate the now. Time will run out one day, so the goal is to set everything up today for the best potential tomorrow ;;

Then I can see Norton locking in, pulling out that grindset again to prepare for as much as possible

I am confident he will chill out lol just the initial shock and change that will come will likely rock his world for a second heh

[dinthoqaf]

Tell us about your guild? IC story/relations and members/roles as well as OOC information. Are they active? Recruiting?

Probably my favorite thing to talk about! Before I go on to explain anything about the guild, I do wanna say that I truly am blessed as the GM of the Sanctum. I was blessed in our first run-through up till we needed to take our hiatus, I was lucky as a GM when I opened up my Goblin Guild for a few years on @frostahesmegabite and I'm just as lucky with reopening it with a completely different crew. I've been blessed with great writers and even better people and it's only reinforced my opinion that coming back to Villian-based RP was a good idea. Now that I'm done fluffin' my folks (lol), I can answer your stuff for ya! Structure/Roles: The Sanctum of the Forbidden isn't an 'Open for everyone' type of guild. I'm picky on who we recruit, who we bring in character-wise, and how we go about things and that's for a large variety of reasons. The primary reasons are that the concepts of playing a villain tend to require an advanced understanding of story writing, and being able to work with the community you're both in and surrounded by (ie the guild and the public RP population). Structurally we go from New Bloods (New Members) to one of three groups, those being The Onslaught (Our Militant wing), The Shades (Think Rogues, Hunters, Engineers, Specialists essentially.), and Mystics (Individuals who excel at Magical Arts and/or Research). Most members never go beyond this as the next rank is the Inner Sanctum. This belongs to our Officer Core and there's 1 Officer per branch (Once we grow larger if needed, a new rank between that 3 and Inner Sanctum will be created for Sub-Officers to help officers work with their associated branches.) and then you have Dinthoqaf at the top. These roles do not dictate what events you can/can't do or anything, it's merely what your character would prefer to do work-wise, and if your character wants none of them? Then we'll go with what works best as we emphasize personal RP as much as possible over forcing a square peg into a round hole. (I should also add, we're neutral, so Alliance or Horde toons are welcome!) All in all, it's a pretty simple system. The guild operates OOC a bit more loosely however while I do make decisions on things that directly dictate the direction of the guild (final approvals like most GMs), I try to defer to the Inner Sanctum (Officers) in most other matters. Discussing issues, guild reforms on rules if needed, disciplinary actions on what's suitable, and things of that nature. When decisions are made, we go over them with everyone. At this point, we invite everyone in the guild (New Bloods too, even a brand new one.) to offer opinions and insight on the decision and to offer counters on whether they feel something is too strict and things along that nature. No one in the Sanctum is above reproach, especially myself and none of the officers are either. If they mess up, if they did something poorly, I want to know so it can be corrected and fixed. If -I- do something wrong, I cannot begin to fix anything if I don't know about it and I try to make sure all of my members know that they can discuss anything with me, even my failings, without the worry of reprisal. (And I know, it's easy to -say- that, but I try to make sure my actions speak louder than my words in this aspect whenever possible. Best example I have is just a couple weeks ago I made a small poll that offered complete anonymity on my performance and critiques on how people thought the guild was functioning and I've made it a point to adhere to that. No email collections made sure to keep reiterating no specific examples that would out someone, etc.) But I digress cause this is probably already immeasurably longer than you wanted! (Sorry! lol)

Recruiting/Recruitment? Yes, we're always recruiting as our most common method is through referrals/word of mouth. I do have a few discord ads floating around, but I don't like recruiting on the wow forums and I refuse to recruit through the wow public chat channels in-game (Trade, LFG, etc.). You will also catch us occasionally supporting WRA's in-game Guild Faire (Horde side currently till I can be bothered to make an Alliance toon to level and represent us with lol) to support server growth/rp! If you ever see any Sanctum members online and you have questions, give us a poke! Either we'll answer ya or if it's a non-officer, they'll poke/lead you to one of us for ya! :D Activity! Right now the Sanctum is going a bit slow. It's the holiday season. Most of our members have families (Kids, spouses, SO's, etc.) and hold full-time jobs and as some folks know, companies love Overtime this time of year but don't let that dissuade you. Some just have extended travel plans. We're expected to hit full speed on everything again as schedules return to normal in early to mid-January! Story Line? The Sanctum has its overall storyline, which is currently a 'holy war' between Dinthoqaf and his brother, Ammaelin, who absolutely hate one another. Dinthoqaf is making efforts to become a God (It'll never happen, promise. This story has been smoldering for 12 years now and Din will never get what he wants cause, come on.) and his brother stands directly opposed to letting it happen. Not because Din's a 'bad guy' (which he is tbf) but because his brother is just as much an asshole as Din is and believes that Din needs to be put down for the betterment of his family's history and future (That and the fact he's been wounded/humiliated by Din several times has nothing to do with it *wink wink*. Belf Paladin Pride, amirite?). The Sanctum is a core group of individuals who support and/or have belief in Din becoming what he aims to be in the desire that once he becomes this God, he'll cleanse Azeroth of its petty factional squabbles and make it a place where people such as himself and those who follow him will no longer be outcasts or shamed/hated by society simply for being who/what they are. (Essentially, he feels the Horde/Alliance are complicit in their powers and trample on people like he used to be and who he recruits and he is a power monger intent on ripping it all down.) We also have another big bad playing the bigger scene too on this war/rivalry, but, spoilers~.

People tend to join Dinthoqaf primarily because they hate the factions, because they're outcasts and need someone to help them survive, or they just don't know where to go anymore in life. Whatever the reason is, Dinthoqaf takes all willing to serve and aid his cause and becomes something of a father figure to all those who need it.

While this is our 'general' guild storyline, I keep the story relatively simple primarily because I emphasize and encourage personal storylines. Guild story is great, but you know what's more satisfying? Seeing your character -grow-. I'm a storyline whore like that. Dinthoqaf aims to become a god, yes, but I try to play him as a Support Role as often as possible. I want to help -you- build the stories you want to build, to help your character hit the next benchmark you want them to build. As much as I like to lead, I obtain my satisfaction as GM through being a tool to help you get what you need out of your RP. If you read all the way to this, you have no idea how much I appreciate you sticking it out. I have a lot to say but that's because of how proud I am of the community we've built. <3

[jade-len]

no but seriously though, let's say that you've never read svsss and proceeded to transmigrate into pidw as either sqq or one of bunhe's random npc shixiong/shijie. is there anything you guys would've done different from sy?

personally, if i knew that bunhe was going to literally become the embodiment of toxic masculinity, a dictator who collects women as if they were some coins, and a man who's overall just the product of the abuse cycle... i would try my damn hardest to prevent any of that lol.

but, for me, i would not promote a harem or bingge's fucked way of thinking. even if i just transmigrated as some other disciple, there would be absolutely no way i would let bunhe turn into bingge (also because.. why would i let the entire sect continue to abuse him). and, probably not even really bingmei as well? i don't know, i would obviously still protect and befriend him, but i think i'd be much more stricter about teaching bingbing morals, good ethics, mental health, all that jazz.

like, we live in a time where we actually know better about that stuff! might as well pass down our 20th century knowledge, y'know? i know sqq loves binghe the way he is, but if i read pidw i would most definitely not like bingge's character due to airplane's wack writing

(cut under is just me rambling lol)

but if i were to transmigrate as sqq... honestly, it would go two ways for me. genuinely, i think (after the ooc function) i'd just run away from the sect and take on a completely new appearance using magic airplane plant bullshit, find binghe (because i know damn well the abuse wouldn't just stop there.. also because the system will probably still demand for me to be some sort of mentor), then be like that one cool teacher or older brother figure? i'd definitely be more of that instead of a proper shizun. idk, i'd just treat binghe as if he were my little brother

or, since binghe is still bunhe and thus hasn't darkened at all, i would maybe pull him to the side and say that i'm actually not his shizun. probably claim that the real sqq hated teaching (which was why he abused binghe) and kids, so he made a doppelgänger (me) to replace him as he goes to buttfuck anywhere else from here. since i would know of luo binghe's loyalty at least from never having read svsss, i'd tell him to respect sqq's wishes

this is so that binghe would at least know that i'm not shen qingqiu. because remember, in this alternate timeline i only know pidw instead and don't know if binghe would forgive sqq for all the abuse he suffered, so don't blame me for going that route! again, i know that the system would still probably require me to be his mentor for the abyss arc, so i'd have to still stay as bingbing pretty much gets an entirely new person as his shizun. but hey, would he complain? i don't abuse kids and thus won't ever hurt him. plus, i don't think i'd be able to constantly put on a mask and pretend to be sqq, the least i could do is have luo binghe know the "truth"?

look i know that that probably breaks the system's rules, BUT remember, you can negotiate with the system. "well, i'm not revealing my identity as a transmigrator or the system? i'm technically still 'shen qingqiu', im supposed to be a doppelgänger, a copy! remember? so i'm technically him." also, i don't remember any rules about running away and such for the new identity plan, just that binghe still needs a mentor to push him off. i feel like with enough negotiation, i would be able to do this (also yes i know that i wouldn't know about the system not being strict, but i feel like i would figure it out pretty quickly, considering that i bitch a bit and will find a way to back up my argument if I'm really insistent)

speaking about the endless abyss!! yeah no i don't think i would be able to push him off. i think i'd make it abundantly clear that i don't want to, but i'm cursed to "fulfill" a prophecy or something.. either through a bunch of metaphors and stories. or, since system never said i had to full on betray him, just that he needed to be in there, i'd kinda just. tell him to jump and that there was nothing else i could teach him or something. i'll be waiting, bingbing!

and finally: what about if binghe fell in love? ...honestly don't know what i'd do with that. i feel like i'd be more gege material if anything since i'm not super different in age with bingbing, so i'd most likely see him as a friend or younger brother instead of a disciple (and i'd definitely treat him like one too. sorry, i just don't think i'd be able to take my job as a teacher or anything seriously, nonetheless actually teach teach. mentor-ish or bro figure, yeah i could do that. responsible teacher? okay, now you're asking for too much). so maybe? maybe not? i don't even know if i meet binghe's standards (which, admittedly, is kinda low but you get my point). i'd probably wanna kiss liu qingge though lol

[the-unknown-void]

Drone Reproduction Headcanons PART 2!! (NOT NSFW)

Please read this post first if you haven't, it's important for context:

This post is gonna be mainly about Disassembly drones- while I originally said they wouldn't have reproductive functions and they would have to be modified to have a port for the specialized cord to copy data into a pill baby. I've decided to go back on this in favor of a much COOLER idea.

CUCKOO DRONES!!!!!

A cuckoo is a species of bird popularly associated with "brood parasitism". A behavior in the wild where they will lay their eggs in the nests of other birds to raise their young for them. (just birds as an example, this does happen in other species)

Disassembly drones still don't have their own infant forms.. so they have to steal babies from worker drones, whether already activated or not doesn't matter. They inject a code into the UNN(Untrained Neural Network) that replaces the template for what they're supposed to grow up into with a disassembly drone template.

The new parent disassembly drone can choose to keep the child and raise it themselves or.. leave the child with the worker drone colony to raise it for them. (this'll be what the rest of this is about)

To prevent the child from being kicked out by the colony too early, they will look practically identical to a worker drone(minor differences) in their early stages. It won't be until their late teens that they begin to present disassembly drone features, and start to intensely crave oil.

This will lead to them killing the worker drones and they won't leave until the entire colony is dead.

- - - - - - - - - - -

At least that is the premise, of course at times the child may develop morality and resist murdering what they've come to know as their family.. but unfortunately this effort will usually lead to their death from core overheat(unless they can find a compromise). Sometimes the parent disassembly drone may return in search of the child after they become a certain age. Revealing their parentage and attempting to persuade them into killing the workers and coming with them.

Cuckoo drones do have some differences from normal disassembly drones. For one they wouldn't have a name like "Serial Designation (letter)", no yellow armband either, and they wouldn't have any programmed-in role because they don't have a squad.

By the way, cuckoo drones who were altered *after* activation are still very much related to their worker drone parents and still inherit their traits! The parent disassembly drone only changed them so they grow up into a DD instead of a worker. This means the cuckoo can have any colored lights derived from their parents.

Cuckoos who were altered before activation simply inherit traits exclusively from their parent DD (basically a clone cuz they don't require 2 DDs).

- - - - - - - - - - -

Well, I think that's all I have to say. I really need to just make a list of Disassembly Drone headcanons because I just LOVE coming up with the workings of a fictional species- I know they're robots but, let's be honest.. they're animals in a robot shell lol.

I wanted to share this immediately because I think it would make an AWESOME OC concept. So ABSOLUTELY feel free to use this for your OCs, I haven't seen anyone else make something like this.

Please tag me on you cuckoo drone OCs, I would LOVE to see them!! :333 (you don't have to of course)

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

You said you prefer Nikolai and Alina more as a ship but wouldn't that still end up with Alina being in a place or position she never wanted? Alina doesn't like the responsibility of being a ruler and being involved in politics but she'll have to do all of that if she married Nikolai so wouldn't that end up in her being bitter and unhappy too? She already found his manipulative skills disturbing in s&s and they'd only known each other for a few weeks I think? Of all the men in her life, Nikolai is the one whom she's affected by the least. Idk but I like the idea of them together but I just don't see how they could be endgame.

Well, to some degree, it’s a matter of how you interpret the text. Nikolina works best for me as a narrative culmination of Alina’s arc, as a middle ground between what Mal represents for her (safety in the familiar; regression) vs what the Darkling represents (the corruption inherent to power; terrifying unknowns). I’ve said before, but I like the sort of uncertain idealism Nikolina signals, trying your best and hoping it works out, etc

Then it becomes a question of how you read Alina’s feelings about any of these things

Alina’s narration states that she basically can’t be happy in any situation except one where she’s left alone with Mal, but then textually she’s practically always upset when interacting with him, and in his behavior, meanwhile, it feels like his love and respect for her is pretty conditional and that he cannot be happy in a situation where she has more power and importance than he does. Personally, I would say that relationship reads more like something she clings to because she’s afraid of change, and because, for most of the trilogy, it represents an idyllic, simple vision of her life that is framed as entirely out of reach to her. Her being unable to accept anything else feels like a rejection of both like painful realities for her, but also growth

That isn’t to say that the counterpoint is that embracing growth would look like loving court politics and a royal life for her, but there is a degree to which her discomfort with it feels more like being unable to move on from that particular, unattainable vision

It, incidentally, goes hand in hand with the Darkling’s only acceptable vision of happiness for himself being complete control over an unattainable ideal of a Sun Summoner. One who will affirm all of his choices, and somehow emotionally fulfill him in every way. Alina, in being a person, has already guaranteed his dissatisfaction

These both read like standards that will simply never be met! And so the natural conclusion to a positive arc, in my opinion, would look like coming back to earth and discovering what kind of happiness actually exists and is sustainable for her. Where, the Darkling, as her dark (lol) mirror self, essentially, and the realization of the worst case scenario for her, is simply doomed to self destruct— which he does! Spectacularly!

Alina, frankly, reads clinically depressed to me. I’m not convinced there are many circumstances where she could be unambiguously happy all the time. But I do think that ties into the theme I am thinking of, about like building obtainable and realistic happiness for oneself

Meanwhile, beyond Alina’s stated single scenario for happiness, in the first book’s initial, chosen one, wish fulfillment fantasy, that’s later turned on its head, I think there’s a sneakier, and even more impossible standard of happiness for her where the Darkling is simply… not who he is as a person. One where he does not betray her and does not require her complete subjugation in order to coexist with her. In the core structure and concept of the book, in the Darkling functioning as a character, her ultimate wish fulfillment must be one where he isn’t so cruel

And I think Nikolai does actually represent a more realistic version of that

Nikolai is basically introduced in the trilogy as like “what if the Darkling was a thousand years younger, born to privilege, and had a sense of humor.” He functions as a direct foil and a more accessible version of the Darkling’s values that Alina can engage with in order to understand and relate to him more

With that in mind, in a lot of ways, Nikolina is actually a vector with which to engage with Darklina imo?

Anyway, I don’t actually read her as like uniquely perturbed by or unaffected by Nikolai, tbh. The books make a point of how well they get along, and it’s not nothing to me that of her three canonical love interests, he’s the only one she interacts with regularly that doesn’t make her personally miserable

I actually enjoy that their romantic scenes are bolstered by them otherwise liking each other (very low bar 😭) and that the main source of conflict for them is external and circumstantial rather than interpersonal. And the implication of them having achieved a new level of understanding through shared/adjacent trauma after Nikolai is transformed back into himself at the end of the third book, and has escaped the Darkling’s grasp, but with scars— like Alina herself— is a very romantic and poignant concept to me!

Anyway, while I don’t think she’d ever joyfully embrace court life, I also don’t view finding a version of ruling that she can live with as a bad resolution for her

[cy-cyborg-draws]

It's been a very long time since I gave Kiesse some proper love!

I've been hyperfixating on the setting she's from and her story lately, so I wanted to redo her design since I'd been unhappy with for a while.

One of the biggest issues I had with it, was the prosthetics she used. I think I actually had an anonymous ask on my main account about how to make wing prosthetics work, so consider this an answer to that, if you're still out there anon lol.

In the past, I had hand-waved how her prosthetics worked because there are no functional wing prosthetics irl to reference. The previous solution was basically "magic robot wings" - which folks from my main page might recognise, is an example of the "perfect magic prosthetic" trope, a trope that I, as an amputee myself, absolutely hate lol, but I just couldn't think of another way to do it without giving her wing-elbows back. It didn't really fit the technology level of the setting either, so I got to work trying to think of something better.

I ended up digging up my old animation stuff from university, modelling a very basic dragon and spent a few days animating a flight cycle (and watching a bunch of slow-mo footage of birds and bats) to see what would be needed for the full range of motion in a wing-flap, and what could feasibly be altered, as a mechanical wing prosthetic will require some alteration to the way the whole wing moves, especially since the only natural joint Kiesse has on her wings is the shoulder.

The system I came up is a wing using a pretty simple pulley system anchored to her sides. There is a wire (which is mostly hidden) pulling the wing's elbow closed by default when the wing is back, but when the shoulder is rotated forward (which it would need to be during the majority of the wing-beat) a different set of wires an pulleys pull the elbow and hand/finger open again. This allows a pretty decent (if a bit awkward) range of motion for a wing-beat, and allows the wings to fold when she's not actively flying (though the tension line attached to her side can be unhooked to prevent accidental wings-to-the-face if she was to move around a lot on the ground).

I also wanted to make the prosthetics so that Kiesse could put them on herself. With this design, the harness would be placed on her back first and done up around her stomach using her front claws or tail with some kind of reinforced zipper. Next would be the sockets, which could be slid on with the assistance of some kind of frame to hold the wing when she's not wearing it (these are not common but do already exist for prosthetic legs to help elderly people/people with other mobility problems get them on). The membane can then be pulled into a track with a locking mechanism on the harness using her tail with the loops, and finally the tension wire can be pulled down and hooked onto the harness, most likely using her tail (the hook is, admittedly, not a great design since it wouldn't be very secure, but Kiesse would lack the dexterity for much else, so I'm still figuring that part out as of right now).

As much as Kiesse herself would hate it, I also had to dim the colours of the prosthetic, since the materials they have access to wouldn't allow for the bright colours I was using before. I feel like Kiesse will probably end up painting something on it instead during her story though lol.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my little nerd-out lol. This took me a lot of attempts to get something that could *potentially* work without a heavy reliance on magic/tech, and I feel like a lot of the issues I couldn't solve are pretty reflective of actual mechanical prosthetics, which I have used in the past (being convoluted to get on, requiring weird alterations to how the limb naturally works to get a functional result, being a bit finicky to actually use) so I'm pretty content with it for now!

[marcusbrutus]

2025 Resolutions (in no particular order)

DRAW MORE. I want to up my art production, despite having severe art block. It is a never-ending cycle. I want to at least sketch once a day, ideally more but I won't force myself. I don't wanna get burnt out.

MAINTAIN DUOLINGO STREAK. Currently I have a streak in Japanese at 391. I want to maintain that streak all through the year. I also want to practice Japanese more and at least get to where I can read basic text. Ideally, I will also commit more to immersion.

WATCH NEW SHOWS. I have a bad habit of not watching anything new. I like watching youtube slop, and I like rewatching shows I've already seen. New shows are scary. I want to watch more. SPECIFICALLY: I want to finish Attack on Titan, start (and ideally finish) One Piece, and watch Transformers Prime. I don't know why it's so hard to start new shows for me, but it can be physically painful to force myself to do something I'm not sure I want to do. Honestly, it's a miracle I even watched BCS in the first place, let alone finished it. You think Corvo just *happens* to watch and finish a show like that? It was HIM. JIMMY.

REDUCE SCREENTIME BY 2 HOURS. I mean this specifically on my phone. Screentime for video games doesn't count because I consider it a hobby, and obviously it won't count for digital art. When I'm on my phone, I find myself mindlessly scrolling. I've been considering getting a flip phone, but there is just so much on my phone that I need to function (maps, google, etc - can't even think of them all) that I don't know if it's possible.

PRACTICE MEDITATION / INTUITION / SPIRITUALITY. This is difficult because it requires time, patience, and discipline. Ideally, I want to meditate at least 20 minutes a day. I want to work on my intuition, and I want to get more into esoterica/spirituality. I would like to get more into spirit/deity work, which is also difficult because it requires time, patience, discipline, AND belief, which as a major skeptic I struggle with LOL.

[thesimfulbuilder]

Miss Robichaux's Academy

American Horror Story: Coven inspired Witch Academy for Glimmer Brook.

Sorry for the picture dump but I spent a LOT of time on this because I overthink everything lol. Like I mentioned in my last post it is definitely not 100% accurate because EA is strange, Hollywood magic, and specific items I don't have. However I did spend a bunch of time studying pictures of the set, re-watching episodes, and just general vibe hunting for this house. The house in question they used is an actual place in New Orleans called Buckner Mansion. Beautiful house but the interior is a bit different so I needed to improvise. Some things I really hadn't noticed until I paid attention like Cordelia's workspace right in front of an old unused fireplace in her greenhouse.

Anyway the house is built for the large residential lot in Glimmer Brook and is quite pricey at 488,817 Simoleans, but hey I didn't build it for rags to riches or anything lol. It would also fit in nicely in one of the base game neighborhoods as well but you might need to delete some trees I placed off lot. I was planning on using it for some fun story building with some sims from during or after Coven, but I realized you could also use it for some new characters from during or after Apocalypse, or just young witches and wizards all together.

If you are interested in playing with it you can find it in my gallery at thesimfulbuilder, just make sure you have the required CC beforehand if you want it exactly as shown. Small side note, the main sink in the kitchen cannot be used by sims due to the archway but the fancy little butler's sink in the island makes the kitchen still functional. I play-tested and made sure it all works (even with laundry day stuff) but I always could have missed something important so please let me know if I did so I can fix it for everyone!

CC used:

Chateau Set, Colonial set, Paris set, Florence set by Felixandre

Coastal Set by Harrie

Arabesque by Syboulette

Precious Promises, Domaine du Clos by Pierisim

Provence Set by Max20 (only for outdoor furniture)

Elegance set by Storyteller (paintings ONLY) I also dig the curtains for personal use but that's up to you lol

Witching Hour set by Myshunosun

Sincere thank you to all creators💕 Show them love if you can.

I'm still trying to keep my required CC lists pretty short for you guys because I am still learning and I'd like to make it easier for everyone to check out my builds, if you have some recommendations please let me know!

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy!