#rp experience. insane.

[crows-of-buckets]

Im still so mad about the fact that baldurs gate 3 is over 100gb. Like it's just wasting space on my PS5 rn there is NO NEED for the graphics to be that bloated

[huggywuggysuppy]

once you finish Empires S1 i'd like to hear your thoughts about esmp1!gem. she's genuinely one of my favorite characters to analyse because she is so nuanced and interesting in so many ways anywhere you look at her. her twisted determination to achieve peace at ANY cost, her rigid thinking and neurodivergency, her relation with symbols like her tower or the end and the moon, or her genuine wish to be a good person and so many other things. there's so much that is impossible to grasp at first (<- <- me, lesbian who is really normal about her favorite gem)

She's right.

Essentially, Gem understands the role a wizard PLAYS in a story. She's never the cause of something, but she sure amplifies both the problems and the solutions. She's morally gray, she's playing both sides, but nobody ever challenges her on that because of course Gem's helping the heroes too -- they need artifacts! She's a plot device, a questgiver, a weapon. She's the voice of reason, the straight man in any comedy duo, yet makes the same questionable decisions as anyone. She's experimenting, she's out of her comfort zone, she's having the time of her life. Wizard Gem is, ultimately, a real wizard.

That's the short answer anyhow. Longer analysis, well, I'm so glad you asked. I can't talk about character without diving into the content creator metanarrative (feature not a bug) so let's get into the noodles! What about Wizard Gem makes her so fantastic?

Wizard Gem is a catalyst.

From the beginning, Gem is mixing up dynamics and forcing new inspiration by opposing what's static. The way the rest of the Wither Rose Alliance sort of? Molds? Around her. How Sausage and fWhip are beefing until the day she alliances with Pearl and suddenly the four are besties. How she adds moral nuance to the villain side, both by mixing relations with the hero side, and just by insisting the Wither Rose are seeking peace, really, they're trying their best! This stops things from being so cut and dry and basic. Instead of Xornoth's vain forces against the heroic bumbling fish people (with the plant and animal empires in between), there's all sorts of messiness and drama. And Gem's aware of this, of how she's changing things, and so the effect is amplified.

On a CC level, even her origins are experimental. Gem was originally planning a more naturey plant wizard, but since Shubble, Katherine, AND Pearl, were plant based (& arguably Joey too) she adapted into amethyst and rocks. And it turned out amazing! That foundation of experimenting made it easier to take larger risks both content and character wise. All the empires folk enjoyed the lore centric storytelling: only getting deeper into it through the season, but Gem especially paved the way for embracing rp and outfits and items and fun.

But back to C! As the Wither Rose alliance progresses, terrorizing the server included, Gem maintains her peace loving stance. Taking on the role as fWhip's (and later Sausage)'s PR managers is genuinely so important to me. She never really stops them from doing bad things, but she's always discouraging them and talking them down one or two degrees. Ultimately loyal to her alliance, she's also taking responsibility for the consequences. Helping out Jimmy behind the scenes to lessen the blow, both for him but also herself.

At her core, Wizard Gem wants peace.

For herself and friends at least. Unfortunately, the Crystal Cliffs aren't in a bubble, so she keeps having to save the world anyway. She dreads conflict at best and fears it at worst. Her concerns are her kingdom, her neighbors, whatever magic / building she's invested in right now, and maybe a light shenanigan here or there. She'll help fWhip get out of trouble because they really do love each other, he's always helping her out too in his own ways (ex: making her stuff,) and she'll protect the realm so the problems stay far away from their doorsteps. When things do eventually fall into her lap, she definitely deals with them. Just... not 100%. Enough that they stop breaking the peace for now.

Let's be honest, Wizard Gem is firmly in denial. She's down for burying the corruption and letting it claim whole towers of her base. Often she'll just accept whatever another player brings to her: buying Scott and Katherines plush, whatever weird scams Lizzie tries on her, etc. When Scott gives her the Elsa curse, she hangs out in the nether, takes Shrub’s dodgy Xornoth cure, and stubbornly "it's fine"-s her way through avoiding a real solution until fWhip drags her to Katherine. It's telling that her (short-lived) corrupted evil version is more confident, while others become hyper or angry. This isn't laziness: it's fear. She doesn't want to step on any toes and start any conflicts. You can see it in how she talks to Jimmy and fWhip: giving them what they need not to win, but to end things.

This is how Gem maintains the story role of a wizard: she's always trying to stop things, so she's never starting new things, only making them better or worse. But how does Gem get away with it? She's simultaneously one of the most invested players in the lore, yet playing a character who'd rather be anywhere else. That dichotomy is entertaining, sure, but there's something else here.

Wizard Gem is loyal, curious, and moral. Just... not obviously.

Gem is unfathomably loyal. While she plays both sides, she's always standing alongside her allies in battle and all her actions are ensuring they're safe. She may be exasperated, yet treats her immediate alliance members with kindness. How fWhip drags her into things, but he never asks her to, it's always Gem CHOOSING to follow him because what else is she gonna do? Let him do it himself? How Sausage makes her laugh with his absurdity, even when they're fighting. How she's always a little uncomfortable, even in her great empire, except in the quiet simple moments with her allies between schemes.

(Still can’t believe roseblings isn’t canon. Like fWhip’s line about how he blew up relations with Scott because he messed with Gem, "it's okay fWhip I'm fine now," their tones, ohhhh devious work. They don't need to be canon, nonfamilial platonic relationships and all that, but STILL. I'm only human.)

Gem's also invested in magic and learning more about it, and she learns to trust and share that with others. The Crystal Cliffs Academy demonstrates growth: from solving problems herself when they’re too big to ignore, to actually addressing things at the source. Explicitly, the goal is to strengthen other empires magic knowledge so less crises happen. That’s preventative instead of reactionary. Even choosing the Ocean Queen as her first student is intentional: not an ally, causes a lot of medium scale ruckuses, in text Gem sensed her using transformation magic that wasn’t hers and wanted to guide Lizzie towards at least controlling it. Start of season Gem would’ve just kept handling any crises herself.

Essentially, Gem is trying SO HARD to be good. As anon said, she has a sort of rigid thinking (again, fun contrast between CC experimental and C rigidity) that creates this fantastic mix where she's staying true to the Wither Rose because she loves them and wants to keep them safe as their friend, but also trying to act for the greater good as a wizard, even though she'd rather focus on her own things. It's not a stable point of view, and is constantly challenged, creating the amazing series of events that we get to see unfold.

Also, Wizard Gem is straight up cool.

Regarding imagery, Wizard Gem has a distinct style that’s so fun to build and draw and write about. She's magical and otherworldly (dragons, the end) but also ethereal and magnificent on a human scale (towers, the moon.) Amethyst itself is inherently unique: something about forming deep under pressure, growing slow and beautiful, sought after as thrones and paths alike. These aesthetics have infinite storytelling potential, and look cute doing it.

And all these things are carried into Gem’s imagery as a whole! Losing her eye to and getting corrupted by the end portal in Life Series, building dragons and towers and villages all across her mc worlds, often using the moon in builds like her hc10 lighthouse. She’s solidly the moon in shinyduo sun/moon dynamic (while they both employ sun/moon all the time, Pearl builds and lores solidly more sun, let alone their comedy dynamic.) Even the struggle between embracing/chasing excellence versus holding herself back out of fear: that's Gem in every world! Emp1 is combining a lot of Gem's themes into one single character. And turns out she's really awesome!

This character wholeness lets Gem maintain her signature exasperated excellence over the other players. Like PVP prowess and building skill, she's an expert here too, and delightful to watch and interact with. Wizard Gem is amplifying everything, trying to keep her loved ones safe, learning that she needs to make peace herself, all while staying true to her beautiful masterful self.

Finally, CC!Gem is delighted to roleplay like this.

Every time she turns to the camera to give disclaimers and talk about her character, there's an infectious joy and "I can't believe this is my job." She often compares it to D&D, which ohh the parasocial brainrot is taking so normally, but also there's an unapologeticness to it. If you don't like her character / the roleplay / etc, stop watching, whatever, this is fun for the rest of us. Her and other CCs have talked about the crippling pushback from playing antagonistic characters -- and there's no shortage of that in emp1, she has to put disclaimers on the RP portions! But unlike Life Series where she's constantly fighting demons (it's own post, really) Wizard Gem is having too much fun to care. I think that's why emp1 hits different, at least for us Gem girlies. She's taking this seriously, and she's having the time of her life.

I originally posted about Worldhopper/Watcher Gem because that adds an extra layer of spice to her in all series, but it's still really awesome by itself. Summoning the dragons from ANOTHER WORLD? Hello?? Don't think I missed her using the nether portal to change skins either. Giggling during convos with Xornoth, undaunted by the Empires Crown, the list goes on. One day someone will assemble all her characters into the same room to compare notes and that someone will either be me or Geminitay herself.

In short, Empires S1 Gem is a Wizard. She's a catalyst, she ultimately wants peace, she's loyal curious and moral, she's straight up cool, and she's having fun. And isn't that just the most magical joy of all?

Anyway, accepting empires fic recommendations in reblogs / directly into my inbox. What a privilege to get to watch so much great art. Thank you for reading!

[ahalliance]

i think the qsmp is very impressive for speedrunning the same love-hate relationship i have with the dsmp in under a year as opposed to the three it took for the other one

[ask-drflask]

Spotted! Pt. 3

⏬⏬⏬Part 2 ⏬⏬⏬

(I'm not counting these comics towards the jungle lab ask anymore)

[dcbutinamrev]

LOOKING FOR RP Partners in the Outsiders fandom I am cool with any ships (romantic or plantonic) and anything, there are no triggers on my end.

HOWEVER:

If you are under 18 and would like to RP with me on discord, it must be only PG-13

The only way I will RP anything R or adult theme related on discord, is that if you’re over 18.

If you are interested, please feel free to dm or ask me!

[gulliesforever]

ok, this might be a weird question but is anyone in janda tumblr into/interested in rp???

[imminent-danger-came]

Do you think the Demon Bull Family will enter the plot again? I think a lot of parallels between MK and Red Son have come around this season and it'd be interesting to explore

Oh please share your Red Son and MK related thoughts with me! I'm not quite sure what you're talking about specifically, but of course the DBK - Wukong / Red Son - MK parallel is always fun.

I don't think the Demon Bull Family will ever be shoved out of the plot entirely, at the VERY least we'll get something like how they were integrated in s4, but with Wukong, Macaque, and DBK all being previous members of the brotherhood I hope we get to explore their relationship a bit more!

I hold onto my crumbs, and so I remember Wukong's little "I've honestly missed that guy" from Revenge of the Spider Queen, and maybe deep down I want that to be explored. It seems like we're going to get into why Wukong stayed up on flower fruit mountain for all that time, and part of that might involve why he sealed DBK away/his feelings on that whole situation. And honestly if DBK is involved, then Red Son is involved. Red Son's admiration for his father is very similar to the admiration MK has for Monkey King, so maybe there's something to be explored there!

[orcelito]

Ok though its actually kinda nice to see some of my earliest rps... 15 year old me just having fun 🥺🥺🥺

Might go digging more later. Don't rly feel like getting That into it tonight lol

[fourfuckinghorsemen]

The next person that tries to invalidate my entire existence will cease to exist themselves. This is a warning.

[nihilistikal]

I cannot stress how frustrating it is to start writing again after a long while and feeling completely rusty. URGH.

[fandom-with-no-hope]

Vagueposting about a pokemon rp we've been doing with a friend for like. A year. But I'm broken. He broke me. "I could never hate you. You're my best friend" you could have said ANYTHING ELSE but no today we're destroying my feelings

[doggirlnarcolepsy]

I'm playing the New Vegas modpack Tales of Two Wastelands called Capital Punishment that starts in Fallout 3 and I b-lined to Arefu to do the Blood Ties quest so I could mediate the situation and become a vampire because it's an amazing trait in basegame Fallout 3 and I like the questline.. what I didn't expect was that I was playing with a mod that made vampirism an actual mechanic that replaces your thirst meter. So now I'm playing as a chaotic good Jewish vampire named Liora, who feasts on the blood of her enemies, but also sometimes have to forgo her morals and sacrifice innocents to satiate her unquenchable thirst for blood.

[thegreatyin]

alright, i have some good news and bad news.

the good news: i have completed the cufflink saga transcript!! after 2 gazillion years!!! you can behold it here, in all of its beautiful deeply chaotic glory. (and don't forget to check out the previous discordance adventures while you're at it, since this follows on from them!)

the bad news: it's over 27k words long, and contains major spoilers for pretty much the entirety of the "cricket, anyone?" exceptional story, as well as minor but still fairly notable spoilers for light fingers, vague bits of nemesis, and various assorted pieces of railway content. don't say i didn't warn you.

also featuring in this saga:

-an inordinate amount of running 🏃

-catboy killing himself hours 💥

-gay bats 🏳️‍🌈

-sad bats 💔

-bats that have complicated feelings (which happen to be simultaneously sad and homosexual in nature) 🏏

-one (1) snake 🐍 (that is arguably many many many many snakes. and also some rats.)

-and, of course, a very morally dubious snowwoman (who maybe shouldn't have gotten away with all of her various assorted war crimes, but then again, can't a girl have hobbies?) ☃️

full credits, of course, to @superoffbatter, who RP'd this entire bundle of looney toons hijinks with me. thank you. i literally couldn't have done it without you.

now if y'all excuse me, i have some laying facedown on the floor to take care of (⁠◍>ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)

cufflink incident when

what has the scoundrel been doing recently in the games

1) as soon as im done with it

2) currently? being a petty gay bastard. and also siding with the tigers in the intellect tournament so they win against their will (because the scoundrel must win)

[ooc-miqojak]

How do you feel about the Dragonflights as a whole?

"As a whole? I... am a bit biased, really. While serving in the Northrend Campaign, we worked alongside the Reds to fight both the maddened Blues, and the Scourge, and I became fast friends with the young drake I fought alongside. We were both defenders of life, with so much in common... and you often grow close to those you fight alongside in war, no? But we've saved each other's lives more than once over the years, and I have nothing but respect for him and his flight - and frankly, all the rest as well. Their jobs aren't easy ones - they probably have the most burdensome responsibilities one could imagine... and the Titans just fucked right off. They altered them and left... a feeling I know well. I don't share their love for their makers, and I think it was a shit thing to do... especially considering the ramifications for all life when Neltharion went mad, at the whispers of a thing unknowable. Did the Titans not know about the Old Ones? Did they not think them capable of turning such powerful creatures, if the Titans, themselves, could?"

Here, there's a long, slow sigh - and a roll of slender shoulders, "I don't blame the dragons for the hubris of the Titans. They were made pawns, and have been made pawns more than once in Azeroth's history, because everyone wants a piece of their power - so I respect them, really, more than any other mortal leader. Who else could have borne the charge that Alexstrasza has, since practically the dawn of time, at that, and could have remained impartial? Who could forgive, and help mend wounds to any being, regardless of race, politics, harm done... I may find them too forgiving, but I respect their capability to do so, all the same."

[ask-drflask]

Alright, Dr. Let's try this. I want to test the absolute limits of this Anon magic you speak of. And help out a fellow nurturer.

I want to give trashy all her children. Make them alive again. For however long is possible. Grant us the mercy and miracle of life for however you you are willing to allow, oh anon lords above!!!!

Trashy: my...my babies...

Children: MOMMA momma!! Mommaaaaa!!

Trashy: my beautiful babies!! And I get to keep them forever!? THANK YOU ANON, THANK YOU!!

Data_log_20.exe

==============================

I'm not going to tell her that anon magic can't sustain life forever, for the sake of myself and the other subjects.

Subject 01 is known for her erratic behavior. Who knows what will happen when the magic wears off.

For now, I have many more mouths to feed, unfortunately. Many small mouths...

==============================

End log

🐼: I'm going to make an intro for all of them soon :]

(Trash children 1/35)

(Jungle lab 3/10)

[amysky21]

I am devastated that I don’t have any friends that listen to Worlds Beyond Number, because the new episode (ep 33 The Witness) is the single best episode of a ttrpg actual play I think I’ll ever see (figuratively, because it’s a podcast).

The insane amount of trust between all of them to be able to let loose on each other’s characters in such an (understandably) volatile way was just awe inspiring. It evoked so much feeling, and such complex feelings. The characters are having a rough time (understatement) and to finally have the horrible emotional catharsis of release was horrible and beautiful. It had the vibe of ‘my parents are fighting’ in all the right ways.

Also the sound design was phenomenal. Taylor worked some kind of magic with all of the details, and (vague spoilers) Suvi’s identify spell was such an amazing experience to hear. It almost felt like the magic of seeing the scene in the boat from the old Charlie and the chocolate factory movie, just a torrent of feelings and sounds.

@quiddie’s rp was breathtaking. Literally, I had chest pain from how stressed I was (affectionate). Suvi is the most intricately complex character I’ve ever had the pleasure to obsess over and I adore her because of how humanly real she feels.

I literally don’t have the words to explain how much I loved this episode. This image just about sums it up.

Ps, I’ve watched all d20 seasons and some other stuff and don’t think I’d ever heard Lou raise his voice seriously before (“you lied” from Ravening War is the closest but that didn’t have the same vibe because it was about being slammed down big style) and I fully put my hand over my mouth like a shocked Victorian woman. God, they’re all just such good actors, storytellers, improvisers aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa