#otherwise I could've given them matching outfits

[mdnablue]

hello gacha world tumblr, is this anything

[artsyfyro]

Soooooo not that long ago, I finished Octopath Traveler 2. I hadn't played the first mostly out of disinterest and hearing that the party doesn't really interact much, but my interest piqued with the second after hearing about it and watching a friend play it in call. Now that I've played it myself, uhhhhhh yeah is probably in my top 3 for this year.

I love each member of the cast (it's hard to choose my favorite but at the time of writing it's either osvald or partitio), I love each of traveler's stories and how they weave not just into some greater plot resolved at the end of the game, but how they contribute to painting the world and cities you visit with their differing perspectives. Oh and I absolutely love the combat in this game, the shield and break mechanics add not only a nice bit of nuance to fights, but also to your party selection and tactics, and I like how things like boosting, secondary jobs, and latent powers (new to this game) open up the party's versatility by quite a bit. Anyone can be anything, but some characters do it better than others.

I'd go further on my thoughts, but this is more or less preamble for a fun little art project to do with my characters. There are 8 jobs (4 more if you count the secret jobs) with 6 elements and 6 weapon types split between all of them, and each character has a starting one, and a second one they can later equip. Basically, I just wanted to draw my rats and 1 cats in outfits that matched the job i'd imagine they'd fit the most. And wouldn't you know it, they came out pretty well actually.

As you can see, Volt became a Apothecary and Scholar, Kilua a Thief and Hunter, and Skye a Warrior and Dancer.

Kilua's is probably the easiest to explain. Her characterization already paints her as a thief, her main weapon is a dagger, she has access to some form of darkness manipulation with the shadow manipulation and the dark typing, it's kind of a given. She could've done fine with just Thief, but her outfit is based off of Ochette's thief attire, who's normally a hunter. And with a hunter's use of electricity, focus on the critical stat, and particular brand of debuffs like abating orb and leghold trap fit pretty well with Kilua's multifaceted skillset.

Skye is also kind of easy to explain. With moves like eneverating slash and vengeful blade, I get the impression Warrior in this game fights closer to a iaido sword style, and that's exactly what Skye does. As for the dancer addition, it's less because of the outfit choice, as Skye's take on the attire is based off of Temenos's take on it whereas he's normally a cleric. No instead, it's because Dancer has wind magic, and provides buffs that increase damage and turn order speed, which I think just makes sense based on how I imagine Skye uses wind magic, which is less offensive, and more supplemental.

Lastly is Volt, and honestly it probably seems like it would've made more sense to make Volt a scholar, right? I mean Volt's main shtick is having really powerful electricity, Scholar is all about offensive magic and boosting it to immense amounts, it just works. And that's not wrong, but I chose apothecary because I think not only does the outfit translate to Volt's quite well, but apothecary as a kit (in OT2 at least) is a bit closer to what I imagine Volt's approach to a fight is otherwise. Apothecary I think is a very versatile class that excels in support (with healing and poisoning) and surprisingly strong DPS with things like drastic measures, all made better by the class's high hp to help tank hits and keep everyone up. A versatile class that I think helps work with Volt's more adaptive approach to a fight, albeit in a way that I don't normally think of for them. Volt's normal weapon is them using Iron Tail, but since that can't really fit the theme, sword or axe can make for fine enough replacements. Plus, I do kind of think Castti's want to lend a helping hand to all she can does translate to Volt's personality in some way, even if means they both get thrown into life threatening stakes.

And that's basically all I feel like showing right now. Full transparency, I was wanting to make individual posts with larger doodle pages for each character, and tbf, I might post more doodles related to this concept if I feel like it later, but I didn't really feel like putting that much into it all considering how long it takes me to finish things. Besides, I like how this is now.

Also funny little thing to leave you off with. When a character equips a secondary job in Octopath (either the first or second game), their costume changes to match that of the new class, with no way to change it otherwise unless you swap to another job. While I don't really care about applying that logic to my characters, if I did, then Volt's original class would've been scholar, kilua's would've been hunter, and Skye's would've been dancer. It'd be funny to sketch up what each of them might look like in those classes attires, but maybe another time.

Thank you for reading, and you have a good rest of your day!

[childrensward]

I'll do it anyway.

I went to my local furry convention's babyfur panel earlier this year. I was noticeably nervous because this was my first time going to any kind of adults-only event with no idea of what to expect, and because I was still rather paranoid about the idea of people assuming that I had "nefarious reasons" for being there. I was so nervous that someone noticed how shaky I was, but was really kind and reassuring to me, telling me that nobody genuinely cares if you're into this, and if they do, then they're not worrying about the bigger problems.

I can vouch that, despite it being advertised as an 18+ panel and scheduled after dark, that nothing NSFW happened there. Sure, people were regressed and in their headspaces, talking about littlespace stuff and dressed in juvenile outfits, but because it was a safe place for them to do so where everyone going into that panel room knew what they were coming for, the shared interest in regression that we all had. Nothing sexual was discussed or performed, and I'd assume that such a thing would only be discussed if consent is given to the parties involved in that conversation.

I ended up leaving the panel early as I was pretty exhausted from the rest of the day, but I felt a sense of relief knowing that, actually, babyfur panels are a safe place for me to be, because everyone there is essentially on the same wavelength. No, I might not personally be into the sexual aspects of babyfur, nor do I consider myself ABDL, but I still felt like it was okay for me to be in that room with all of those people, despite how haywire my nerves were (honestly, I feel like part of it could've been the mix of Red Bull and THC in my system at the time.)

So I can vouch that, yes, things like babyfur panels and CAPCon aren't inherently NSFW. While I completely understand requiring the distinction between SFW regression and ABDL kinks for the importance of keeping minors safe and out of adult kink spaces, I think the amount of animosity a lot of SFW regressors hold towards ABDLs when we're related in a lot of ways is retrogressive and shows rigidity on a topic that's otherwise deserving of a lot of nuance. (Not to mention how complete anti-kink sentiment can delve into reactionary territory, where beliefs that spaces like LGBT kink communities are just hotspots for sex crimes while ignoring how spaces like the Catholic Church get away with abusing children scot-free tend to fester, but that's another conversation to be had.)

If you guys really do want SFW age regression meet-ups and conventions, you're going to have to start working with other people who are on your DNI criteria. Otherwise, I recommend looking into local littles and babyfur groups that already exist if you're overage, because chances are that they're already largely SFW spaces.

Although if I am to bring up something, it's that I think even SFW agere meetups should still be 18+. I do not think it's at all a good idea for underage regressors to mingle with adults while in such a vulnerable headspace. Of course I'd assume that admins and moderators of said spaces would be doing their jobs to make sure nobody is taken advantage of, but I think it's way different when you're meeting these people in real life and getting together to put yourselves in a vulnerable state. Even in completely SFW spaces, people can still get seriously hurt (if online caregiver-little matching isn't enough proof of this...)

I see we had a discussion about stuff as a community in my absence and I'd like to throw my anecdote on the table but I don't wanna dig up discourse that people have moved on from already