#mtas anon ask

[sandrockianblues]

Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of talks about the sandrock builder customization and how people been wanting more body types, although I’ve seen people being rude about it tbh, just the way talk about the female builder’s body is leaving a bad taste in my mouth. how do you feel about this?

Hi anon, thank you for asking me my opinion on this 💜💜

While it’s been more than a year of people vocalizing their desire in having sliders/ options/ different presets- only recently has the female builder’s body been complained about to the extent where I think a larger issue needs to be addressed.

Body shaming is still body shaming.

To pull some quotes I’ve seen:

“…small and childlike”

“…body types are definitely something that looks like an adult.” (In ref to Grace and Heidi bodies)

“…give us more mature body types too”

“I’m a baby.”

“…really awkward”

“Downright comical”

“…would love my builder to look more adult.”

“my builder looks like a toddler being walked to school by her husband haha.”

“I’m not a fan of looking like a child.”

“general proportions” (in ref to what the “issue” is)

“currently is kinda twigy”

And in discussion for future installments or advancements within the game:

“it’d be great if they got rid of that look.”

“I do hope they move away from it in the future.”

*this is about the female player body- I cannot speak on behalf of the male player body completely*

As someone who is personally significantly shorter than the builder myself and has a petite or smaller frame- this was very degrading to read comments of.

While I’m a huge advocate for any sort of character customization implements that can be involved such as height sliders/presets/ weight sliders/ whatever else, and I believe that you should have the right to vocalize your wants-

What I don’t believe is that it should come with mocking and criticizing the current female body of the player.

And I truly hope that this look isn’t just scrapped and gotten rid of.

Those under 5’2” are already misrepresented or just not represented enough as adults in games a large majority of the time. We often get stuck with characters that have larger or more curves than we do. Characters of average or taller height. Modelesque to curvaceous characters.

I’m not saying these physical wants for characters shouldn’t be implemented or that they should be ignored. I’m saying you can ask or wish for them without putting down those who do have smaller builds. Those without an hourglass figure or who legitimately are a foot or two shorter than the person they choose to become romantically involved with.

While this is something that me, family, friends, etc have dealt with our whole lives- those of us who have fallen on the very shorter side of the scale, I’m not going to standby and watch it be incorporated into a game that has quickly become one of my top two favorites in the past year of playing it.

Criticizing- not critiquing, there is a huge difference- the female player body as it stands right now and making harsh jokes about it is seen by those who happen upon these posts or threads and can identify with the body themselves. I know a number of short and petite people who are playing My Time at Sandrock, and if I’m being completely honest, this may be the first time we had a more comfortable experience with a character that can be customized for ourselves.

The builder is in their early 20s and also created by a small Chinese indie game company called Pathea. Think of how many of those who are more prone to those heights or body frames have been criticized alone. This game is possibly more prominent in China right now given that they have an online website we ourselves can’t translate. They’re aware of new merch and such we’ve yet to receive official news on.

Also for reference:

Yes, average height.

It may be fun to joke about how it looks to you, but for some people… this is our reality.

No, not all short people have dwarfism. No, not all petite people are just not eating enough. And yes, some of us may not have the ample assets that most women do have. And it’s something we’ve had to deal with our whole lives.

Implying that a taller height and a curvy figure or an incredible bust size is what makes a “mature” and “more adult” look is beyond insensitive. To imply that it is “what makes a girl a woman” is horrifically humbling to read.

And I do mostly see this body shaming of short or petite stature and height coming from mostly women. One cannot preach for body positivity if they continuously exclude and demoralize a body type. It’s hypocritical, it’s demeaning.

Comparing the female player body to the likes of Grace or Heidi or Jane- beyond saying it’s just the type of build one may want, as in, using them as a comparison to further degrade the current body, is yes, still body shaming and something a lot of us have worked hard to try and not compare ourselves to.

Does this have to do with me writing short female characters? Beyond the fact that I am short myself? Yes. Because it’s gotten to the point where if it’s not body shaming, it is fetishizing or glorifying the idea of being smaller than the average short height. And I want some readers to be able to read of a short character that isn’t “gremlin” or “closer to hell evil” or “feral” sometimes. Because that’s stereotyping. And we’ve been stereotyped our whole lives.

The female builder is in her early to mid 20s, around 5’2”, taller than some characters (that aren’t children), has a notable ass and chest- and yet while that’s how some of us look or it’s a bit more, “she’s not a woman”?

I have dated and befriended men from 5’ to 6’5”- and shockingly, men have been less prone to making me feel as less of a woman than the comments from my own gender have. I have shown and read these comments to my father, male friends, brothers and such only to see them become irritated that women are body shaming this body type. Pointing out the hypocrisy and some of the shallow remarks.

This is akin to a post I saw:

Unrealistic and far fetched right? How do you think we felt- those of us who were 5’2” or below.

Someone who is quite literally the same exact height as Andy irl and in my twenties.

I could go into the whole aspect of having to reanimate or rig the characters and players for cutscenes and interactions. I can dive into the whole deal with the “baby face” expressions (and yes, some people just do have a “baby face”). I can stand on Pathea’s side who has worked tirelessly and with several issues they had to work past. The deadlines and due dates they’ve had to push back while early access fans still cheered them on for support. Or I can point out that this game is rated with an E10+ rating.

But this post isn’t about that.

Preach for what you want or options you’d like to see. But no, let’s not make callous remarks and harsh jokes on the player’s body. Let’s not just suggest they get rid of it entirely.

Women are supposed to support women. How about we stop deciding bust size and height is what makes you a “real woman”?

[minthe-drawings]

*Le Gasp* THE COWBOY HAT RULE! 🤠

(glad someone pointed it out hehehehe)

[andreal831]

What's your thoughts on the Bennett coven and their lore?

I'm not sure if you're asking about how they are depicted or just generally about them so I'll answer both. It has been a while since I've rewatched TVD, so correct me if I'm wrong on anything.

Generally, the Bennett coven is one of the oldest and most powerful covens in TVDU. I know there is so much debate over the different witches and I'm not here to do that. While, yes, there are other powerful witch families, the Bennetts have a very long history and enough members to make an actual coven on their own, unlike a lot of other families. If the writers and producers were different people, I would love to see a spinoff focused on them. You could pick any time period and it would be an incredible story.

The show tells us they are so powerful because we consistently see other powerful beings (witches, vampires, and even werewolves) coming to them for help. Silas and Amara rely on Qetsiyah, without whom there would be no TVDU. Esther relies on Ayana, the brotherhood relies on a Bennett witch, a Bennett witch creates the weapon used against the sirens, Katherine relies on Emily, and then the entire TVDU on Bonnie. Even at Grams' age, she still had Damon backing off. Every time they bring up a new villain, somehow the Bennett coven has been involved.

So while we can argue witch against witch (which I'm not going to do), I don't think you can say there is a coven that could go head to head against the Bennett coven. They just have a much deeper history than any other coven we are shown. The Travelers may be the only ones that have as much history, but the Bennetts derive from them through Qetsiyah.

Now I don't think we can talk about the Bennett witches without mentioning the racism that permeates the TVDU. No matter how powerful they are, the Bennet witches are often delegated to sidekicks, which makes no sense given their power. Qetsiyah is the only Bennett witch that we see actually get revenge for the wrong that was done to her and she is seen as a villain for it. The Bennett witches are constantly losing their lives helping people who are just taking advantage of them. People like to paint it as they are helping their friends, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Especially when you factor in the time periods these "friendships" happened in. Katherine and Emily were not friends. The Bennett witches were constantly used and abused until they died trying to help others.

The Bennetts are not given their own storylines that don't directly impact the "main characters." They don't even get relationships (both romantic/platonic/familial) unless it can be used against them. Throughout history we always see the Bennett witches on their own, removed from their family.

A big reason that they could be so spread out is because of how powerful they were. If the Bennetts all stayed together, they would be an unstoppable force. But they would also attract a lot of attention and put an even bigger target on their backs. The Bennetts have a deep respect for their ancestors, so you would think we would see them form a coven like the New Orleans witches or even the Travelers. But because of their power, they are forced to live separate lives, not even staying in contact. I would have loved to see an actual Bennett coven.

Bonnie not knowing she is a witch until her teenage years goes against everything we know about witches. Hope has access to her magic as a baby, yet Bonnie doesn't until she is well into her teenage years. I would have loved to see it where Grams raised Bonnie herself and she grew up as a witch. But honestly, the show couldn't have done that because most of what happened in season 1 and season 2 wouldn't have if Bonnie had fully understood her power. She easily could take down the Originals, so a couple newbie vamps wouldn't have stood a chance.

Not sure if this is what you wanted, but if you have a more specific question that I didn't answer, feel free to ask!

[002yb]

hiii, yb! i adore your dickjay (and damijay hehehehe) contents so much, thank you for always feeding us bottom jay enjoyer ^-^

if you dont mind me being curious, what else do you enjoy beside DC? is there anime/series/manga you particularly follow? :o

Thank you so much! Writing for bottom!Jason is such a joy. (♡ˊ͈ ꒳ ˋ͈)

Other things I enjoy besides dickjay DC? It makes me feel shy to share somehow ahahaha, but below are my big 3 atm ♡♡♡

[cannibalisticskittles]

I'm just going to say it, the writer responsible for the translation and writing of Pen in the English version is just a bad writer.

YEAH........ i always want to be charitable with these sort of things, but i've seen too many instances of weird-ass changes that the head writer/translator Defends To The Fucking Death to remain real nice about it. my buddy my dude my pal. Let Go Of The Gaston Bullshit. it's shoehorned in and it does not work.

like, did i love pen the first time i played through the game, without seeing what some of his original lines looked like before being localized? of course! but at the same time, even the first time i played through the game, there would be moments of like. weird bits of dialogue cropping up that clashed with previous characterization, and it just went downhill during/after the goat main mission. if i suss out that something is weird and inconsistent without knowing about all the changes that were made during localization, that's not a great sign. and then of course, seeing translations of the original lines has just made that way more stark

[majorpepperidge]

Hiii, it's me. The writing anon. Come to ramble about more Pen. Heeho.

SO-

As one can guess based on my self-imposed title, I like to write and in turn means I like to very normally (okay not really) delve into characters and how they tick. So Pen has been a fun case of reading his dialogue and not knowing if I wanna punch him or like the fact there are cracks of being genuine. That said, I wanna like discuses two of Pen's piece of dialogue that make me scream at pathea for not doing more with this.

Dining, asked about his favorite things: "We're supposed to use teachings of the Light to solve issues, not weapons, so I prefer not to own anything that could hurt anyone. Although, not everyone in the local Church agrees with my stance..."

Rejected, but the player is married: "You are teasing me, no? Do you not already have a family? Protect your loved ones, do not dare break that trust!"

I'm screaming internally because something about these just adds so much to Pen? The fact that Pen, the guy who claims he has many lovers, who gets giddy when the player divorces their spouse and asks how good it felt and more, point blank goes "Do not break your family's trust". Something about that just gets the gears a whirling. It makes me wonder if Pen comes from a broken family and or something similar. I know people have given their own headcanons, saying Pen is the emperor of Duvos's son for example. So that just gets the gears turning but also that dining dialogue. Pen, tthe man who CANONICALL OWNS A RELIC OF DESCTRUCTION SAYS HE PREFERS NOT TO OWN ANYTHING THAT COULD HURT HIM-I???

It honestly makes me wonder if Pen, prior to the player coming to Sandrock, was already cracking. Maybe playing the role of enforcer for the church and seeing what the church taught made him start questioning stuff or he being outside of Duvos's toxic mindset and more started making him question everything, only shoved deeper into what he was taught as a child in Duvos by Matilda.

Anyway! Food for thought.

Sidenote: Love how Pen offers to just deck Yan for the player, that's sweet of him fhdjkf

I've never heard the 'son of Duvos Emperor' headcanon, that seems a bit...well, it ain't for me. Personally I think he was purely a genetic experiment/test-tube baby and was treated as such; lacking in a lot of love growing up and essentially told to 'fight for Duvos or be left to rot' (I'm not entirely privy to Duvos' setting/lifestyle, but I'd imagine it's p close to the Garlean Empire of FFXIV, so that's kinda what I'm basing a lot of this on lmao).

Everything abt his life up to Sandrock has been fighting, learning a very skewed history of the world, being trained in deception, etc etc. But then coming to Sandrock and having a lot of those preconceptions shattered slowly but surely and making him second-guess some things. To me, it feels like there's no love lost between Pen and the Empire as a whole; but he doesn't know anything but being loyal to it. All it takes is someone treating him genuinely and not being put-off by his loud persona for those cracks in belief to quicken. But he can't take back what he's done, ofc. So there's the main crisis, for him it'd be 'What's the point? I may want this but I can't escape Duvos' but snap him out of that and you're gonna have The Most Loyal Man Ever cuz now you're his entire world, oops!

[peachypede]

I'm surprised! The the daughter model for Sandrock is pretty unpopular, I thought I was the only one who liked how she looked!

I think she’s super cute!! I’ve seen some weird looking kids from this game though lol. Idk if they’ve fixed it for the other spouses kids who’ve come out weird but Logan’s kids’ faces come out pretty good though from what I’ve seen? I did accidentally name her Kainan because I thought she was a boy cause I saw a blue symbol but tbh I was also very distracted because she came out a bit darker than my character, Pecha, even though she was supposed to be a kid with Logan and um…

It kinda looked like Pecha cheated for a minute…me and my friends were theorizing “who’s the daddy”

She grew up looking more like Logan’s but I was very concerned for a bit akdjsj

We’ll see how the kiddos with Owen will turn out haha

[potato-lord-but-not]

hi! i have a question about commissions.. is there an option for making “meet the artist” template but for someone else? or well, maybe what i’m trying to ask is, could you make a template version of your “meet the artist”?

Honestly I feel like just a basic outline would be a good starter, because every mta I’ve seen have all been different and have included various different things. My best advice is go through the tag, take notes on some aspects you’d like to add or ones that show up frequently, and make a rough sketch outta that!

[1863-project]

sorry if youve answered this before, i searched but didnt find anything. but i see a lot of submas stuff with the bosses having offices and doing desk work, meetings, even needing suitcases! how much of that do you think a subway boss would have, and what sort of office work? or would that go to other employees?

asking you both as someone who works/ed with trains and as a pokemon fan with ideas on how post-league battle facilities (and the battle subway in particular) are run?

Hi, anon, I'll do the best I can!

A preface: I'm actually an archivist who works in a public library. Train stuff is a hobby of mine that I'm looking to really do more of because it's been a lifelong thing for me and we now know I'm capable of operating a steam locomotive decently well so I should be allowed to do it.

In terms of paperwork, there's likely stuff you'd have to do for a battle facility - things like setting it up as either a business or a non-profit, covering your legal bases and liability things, defining rules, etc. Once that's all done and you've got your battle facility up and running, though, day to day paperwork probably wouldn't be too bad unless you had to sign off on things.

The paperwork, I suspect, has a lot more to do with their other job, which is essentially running the Pokemon equivalent of the New York City MTA. In that situation, they'd likely be working more like stationmasters.

(Pictured here is the entrance to the Grand Central Terminal stationmaster's office. It's close to the track the 20th Century Limited used to leave from.)

Generally, a stationmaster at a large station or in charge of a lot of employees would be doing the following:

Managing the employees, their salaries, their schedules, etc.

Managing public relations, including social media in the modern day unless a staff member was assigned to that (please let it be Furze, railfans love Furze)

Keeping logs - day to day schedules, any incidents that arise, etc.

In their case, since they're in charge overall, Ingo and Emmet are likely the go-tos for emergencies, like bad weather causing issues for above-ground lines, flooding from rain, etc. If you want a good example of this, look up what Hurricane Sandy did to our subway system. It...it wasn't good. Since they're also more or less in charge of the entire subway arm of the Unovan MTA, they'd likely have to go to meetings with board members, and they would probably also be the ones running the employee union since they're working on the trains like everyone else.

Presumably, they'd likely both be FRA certified to drive the trains, because we've seen them talking about driving (and actually driving in the anime), so they're qualified both as conductors and motormen (engineers). Usually we see them working either in the stationmaster's office or as conductors, but we know they can drive, too.

So...let's just hope they have vacation days. Because they'll need 'em.

[akadoxalis]

Hello, by any chance have you drawn mtas Logan or Pen yet? asking for a friend👉👈

Hi hi! Really sorry for late reply. I do have a draft comic about my exp fighting pen but i dont have the confidence to finish even posting it ;; maybe ill post a ramble wip later? (No promises anon sry).

Also logan on the other hand there is a several WIP, but i think i will draw an answer reply about him in my builder blog soon since i postponed that ask long enough ಠ⁠‿⁠ಠ;;

[geistverrse]

(Anon who asked about some mta OCs from your art here)

Thanks a lot for answering, that was an interesting read :]

I adore Technocratic OCs, I feel like just because of the nature of Union itself they are quite interesting folks. So I really enjoyed reading through your post, your and your partner's OCs are indeed very cool characters who tap into Technocratic Union's potential in a creative and awesome ways, in my opinion!

So once again, thanks for sharing! Have a nice day / evening / night :]🍀🍀🍀

aww, of course! thanks for asking! anyone can feel free to prod me for my WoD OCs, i have over like. twenty of them across mage, werewolf, vampire, changeling and exalted (which technically isn't WoD but you understand.)

[sandara-and-coco]

hello! (pls feel free to answer this privately!! i wouldnt want to clog up ur blog with these asks haha) i was the anon that asked about the npc and item assets! thank u for the tips - i was able to work on and post my builders character sheet ^^ once again ur content and art for mtas is so lovely, happy to join such a cool community of sandrock builders here on tumblr !!

Heyy so it was you welcome welcome !

Oh don’t worry about that I don’t mind having sweet people like you on my blog 🌷

And no worries feel like I didn’t really help much but I was happy to discover your builder sheet for Nova✨️

I love her design, her outfit is super cool and I love the colors you used (green hair my beloved ♡) It’s also super original to have a builder from Seesai I think she’s the first one I encounter ^^

I hope you will have a good time here on Sandrock tumblr side 💕

[cannibalisticskittles]

Maybe it's because Pathea hasn't thrown me a bone in a while regarding Pen and now I'm picking at details but, you know how you end a marriage in mtas by giving your spouse a broken mirror? And how in Pens mission he shatters one and then the builder makes him a new one only for that one to end up shattered as well? This time by the builders hands? Wonder if that was intentional.

y'know, you could read it that way, but honestly? i Do Not think the devs put that much thought into it. 

like – if this was a novel then yeah, that would absolutely be intentional, tragic symbolism – especially considering the fact that you defeat him in the end using a shard of broken mirror, which could be read as the builder breaking things off with him in a final, dramatic way. 

but i really think it’s just continuing the theme of his vanity + weakness to mirrors without regard for what else that can mean. plus, since the mirror quest triggers so easily, it's all but guaranteed that every player will get it, and every player will defeat him with the broken mirror, the majority of whom will not have dated him, so it’d be some pretty heavy-handed symbolism that’d only really apply to the small number of people who romanced him. 

of course, i say all of this with the caveat with What Is Meant is different from What You Interpret, so if you interpret it in that light that’s totally valid, particularly since they really ought to have taken that reading into consideration. 

[majorpepperidge]

I'm kind of hoping we get to see Pen in another game in the future where he can somehow redeem himself. Away from the people he directly hurt. The whole super soldier things could be interesting. Plus that guard mentioned that in Atara they work with a rehabilitating etc. The my time series is silly enough to make someone like Pen do stupid little chores but dark enough to touch on hard topics. Might even make for a cool confrontation with Logan in a future game.

Doubt our dummy melon titted guy is going to get more than he has now in mtas though. I already miss him, he's so funny despite being horrible (I could make him worse but Pathea won't let me)

It'd be nice if they noticed how many people are upset abt the development and put him into their next mainline title but idk man, it's not the same cuz it'd be a new builder and lacking the connection of 'i loved you before and i still do' save for doing it outside of the game aufughdh I've resigned myself to making my own ending for Pen and Ray cuz I probably won't be playing my Ray file again. Could I break up with Pen? Yes. But I don't /want/ to lmao

[peachypede]

Would you happen to know where to get a blank sandrock builder sheet? I wanna nake one for my own builder, and I don't know where to get it. Thank you!

Ah!! I totally forgot to post the blank one when I was planning to because I hate when I see a good oc ref sheet but no one posts the blank one. Sorry about that!

So me and some friends tried finding the original creator for this but from what we know, they kind of just posted this on a discord server and disappeared? So if anyone knows, pls tell me and I’ll give them proper credit. It’s been eating away at me…

[phamphamz]

Bru cê tem algum problema com anons mandando asks em pt? Eu sei que tem vários brs aqui mas tbm tem mta gente que não gosta ent n custa perguntar sjksk

eu não ligo não asdhahjhjahja pode mandar na língua que quiser desde que eu consiga entender ou traduzir estarei respondendo