#similar/adjacent time zones

[angelnumber27]

So many of my flop posts on here are (imo) better than the ones that ended up blowing up. Like nope. that one should have gotten 20k notes not 3 and the one with 20k should have gotten 3

[honoura]

Shaaloani: The Land of Enchantment Part One

Hello again! It's another lore-adjacent post from me about a niche special interest of mine. This time it's Shaaloani, the American Southwest/Northern Mexico inspired zone in FFXIV's Dawntrail.

I want to disclose a few things right at the start just to temper people's expectations: I will not be definitively ID'ing any of the indigenous-inspired structures or visuals as inspired by any specific tribe. That's not my lane! I'm going to link to things that they remind me of, for sure. But otherwise my hyperfocus is going to be on the physical environment, some animals, and the ceruleum as petroleum industry. It's what I recognize best! And what I know best, truthfully.

"Hon why are you doing this?" A variety of reasons honestly. After DT dropped I saw a lot of folks who did at least one of the following:

Commented on the Old West theme park aspect

Called it "miqo'te Texas"

Generally just called the whole map "Texas"

And if I'm honest... it bugged me! Not because I thought anyone was being malicious about it (it's mostly pop culture saturation I'd suspect), but to me it stung a bit that this zone, which I grew up on the fringe of, was... kind of flattened by a lot of people?

I don't know, the response to me just felt like people assumed they knew everything about it because they'd seen it already in movies or TV or Red Dead Redemption rather than the same open-mindedness about what was presented in places like Urqopacha.

This zone isn't just Texas -- yes there are some bits and pieces here (because it's pulling from the Chihuahuan Desert and the Sonoran Desert), but so much of it reminds me of New Mexico, Mexico, and Arizona. There's some Colorado, Utah, and Nevada there too! And the background story going on there is something that still happens in a lot of those states, by both the government and corporations alike.

That variety deserves to be celebrated! So come learn with me about the inspiration for Shaaloani!

Shaaloani Geography

Shaaloani has three major regions in the zone -- Eshceyaani Wilds, Pyariyoanaan Plain, and Yawtanane Grasslands. To get this out of the way, I'm going to tell you the one that reminds me most of Texas.

Ready?

Lake Taori of the Pyariyoanaan Plain.

It's river-fed, with canyons on both ends of the Niikwerepi. The trees crowding around it are cypress trees, as you can tell by the little nubby off-shoots called knees. To compare, here is a photo of cypress trees along the Frio River:

This is also reminiscent of places along the Rio Grande and Pecos Rivers, two significant water sources in West Texas. I also would not call them bayous! Bayous typically have brackish water, are slow-moving, and are way too far east.

However, it could be partly considered a ciénega -- which according to its wikipedia article:

"Ciénagas are usually associated with seeps or springs, found in canyon headwaters or along margins of streams. Ciénagas often occur because the geomorphology forces water to the surface, over large areas, not merely through a single pool or channel."

As a caveat, ciénegas generally don't have trees around them, but I also know that you can't really drown a cypress and they love sunshine. Regardless -- if you see trees in the desert they are typically growing along a water source. Balmorhea State Park has some cottonwood trees native to the area that are going strong.

Yawtanane Grasslands reads as a mix of the Chihuahuan Desert and the Eastern Plains of Colorado. Both are rather arid and home to a variety of grasses that can thrive in such a climate -- which has historically made both areas home to large cattle industries (whether or not this was ever a good idea is debatable, since cattle are very thirsty animals).

Meanwhile the Eshceyaani Wilds looks similar to the Sonoran Desert -- the red-hued soil and rocks, the abundance of cacti with the scrub brush and some drought-tolerant grasses. Here's a shot of the Sonoran within Saguaro National Park in Arizona:

Saguaros also only grow in Arizona in the States! As well as the organ-pipe cactus, which you see in Tender Valley. And prickly pears grow just about anywhere they can get a chance -- as well as barrel cacti, both of which we see in Tender Valley (along with what could be agave!).

You could probably make a case for it being a piñon-juniper scrubland -- everything's very short compared to those cypress trees, including the juniper trees! Piñon-juniper scrubland's found throughout the Southwest. There are also piñon-juniper savannahs and persistent woodlands intermixed in the same places. The difference lay in what plants you find with the piñon pines and junipers.

Visually, aside from the Sonoran Desert, I can also see a lot of New Mexico, like the Ghost Ranch in Rio Arriba:

It matches up with the mountains you can see, and both Yowekwa Canyon and Tender Valley. And of course, Tender Valley is likely a Grand Canyon reference, going by the sheer height of the cliffs. But you could also make a case for Canyonlands National Park in Utah.

There's a shot from Grand View Point Overlook within the park -- the closeness of the canyon walls and the warm earth tones also evoke Tender Valley!

There's also a lot of these sandstone formations in Utah that better fit Shaaloani -- like here in the Valley of the Gods:

Shaaloani Structures

I also at this point want to call attention to one of the two sites with cliff dwellings & adobe structures. We just saw Tender Valley above, which is confirmed to be old Yok Huy structures. But check out these Tonawawta buildings below.

As I stated before, I don't want to state which tribe these two styles remind me of. But I do want to say this again strikes me as another New Mexico and Arizona callback; both the Gila Cliff Dwellings and the Puye Cliff Dwellings are found in two different areas of New Mexico. And the Gíusewa Pueblo, also in New Mexico! Montezuma Castle is found in Arizona, and is pictured below! Look at that rich reddish earth color.

I also want to call attention to the place of worship for the Tonawawta in Yowekwa Canyon:

When I saw it my kneejerk response was to call it an ofrenda. But that's ultimately an incomplete response -- that was just the vibe I felt after seeing them during my life! What it also reminds me of are pictographs and petroglyphs. You find these all over the Southwest (the climate helps preserve them!), but I'm going to link some really great examples. I won't provide images to all though!

Crow Canyon Petroglyphs:

Piedras Madras Canyon at Petroglyph National Monument (New Mexico) Petroglyph Point Trail at Mesa Verde National Park (Colorado) Petroglyph Panel at Canyon Reef National Park (Utah) Nampaweap at Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument (Arizona) Horseshoe Canyon at Canyonlands National Park (Utah) and the Hueco Tanks State Park (Texas)

In contrast, I don't want to spend a ton of time on the boom town structures in this zone; they are pretty straightforward references to mining towns during the different resource booms (gold, silver, copper, oil).

Similar blocky shapes, built out of wood. One thing I noticed as a neat addition are the decorative patterns painted on it -- again, I don't want to presume if there's a specific tribe tied to this. But I do think it's a neat touch and I want to think that's a design choice to convey the underlying theme that this is a zone at odds with advancing technology and wanting to keep hold of important traditions.

I WILL talk about the ceruleum wells and pumping though. Mostly because I'm impressed that they went with structures that so closely resemble early 20th century oil derricks. Those were also predominately made of wood (including the barrels, yikes!). The pump part of what's called a pumpjack were covered in the old days -- the ones we're most used to seeing now are made of metal and are thus left uncovered.

However, as you can see from this century old rig, even the wheel's made of wood:

I don't think ceruleum gushes the same way oil did -- it seems to behave more like natural gas. However, most natural gas pipelines do burn off excess, which can be seen as a little spout of flame atop.

Oil's occupied an awkward spot in the Southwest, and still does. Aside from the heinous crimes committed in Killers of the Flower Moon (where members of the Osage tribe were murdered for their oil shares in Oklahoma) and the Teapot Dome Scandal, oil is just... well.

Bear with me, I'm about to rag on Koana a moment.

The people who make the most money and have the most power over the average roughneck's life never live in the Southwest. They work in the c-suite and have more money than sense.

I find it very fascinating that DT chose to recreate this dynamic, this uncomfortable push-pull of a region rich in a resource, and it's being harvested at the suggestion and behest of a power that is physically removed from the area. And to some NPCs it's with a certain level of disregard to traditions and practices in place before, with the focus on the nebulous quantifier of 'progress'. Progress how? It depends!

But the folks at the highest seat of power never have to grapple with those questions, because to them it's a fairly cut and dry answer. This is the way to proceed, and if they want to take this nation into the "future", then this is the clear way to do it. It speaks to Koana's fixation on foreign technology to the point he de-values his own (partly due to his childhood trauma, which kind of prepped him to be susceptible to it).

Meanwhile the locals are the ones grappling the most with this change -- how it affects their plants and animals. Sometimes pits open up in the earth and ceruleum burns (which, Santa Rita New Mexico sank multiple times into the earth thanks to copper mining). On the map there's even discolored plants -- and they only occur in the vicinity OF the bulk of the ceruleum pumps.

This is at odds with core beliefs, keeping up with traditional practices. It puts people in the place of 'do I participate in this system, which promises work and the means to take care of my family, even as it pits me against my cultural heritage?'.

Growing up in West Texas, one of the weirdest things to me (to this day) is how many people will claim they love the land. They do! They love the outdoors, they worry over how certain species of animals have become scarcer. But they also work in the single most damaging industry because it pays the most money. It lets them cover bills and give their kids what they never had.

That same push-pull is in Shaaloani narratively; when progress has been thrust upon you, how do you survive it? How do you make sure what's dearest to you comes along with you?

In Conclusion

I want to call it here for Part One -- Part Two after this will cover more observations I had regarding flora and fauna in the Shaaloani zone, and how that also shows the attention to detail given this zone! It's a good time! There will be dinosaurs!

[dclovesdanny]

DcxDp prompt

I want an au where the GIW did something when trying to recreate the Fenton portal, and upset the entire balance of the world. Their universe became so stabilized that very few people managed to survive, i.e. members of Amity Park had a 50-50 shots of surviving, Jaz, Danny, Tucker, Sam, Ellie and Valerie all survived, but were injured. Fix this and how’s the new souls, most of them were sent to be reborn with no memories of their past life in Gotham. However, Danny and his people stay in the zone for a while, each of them getting training from different people.(Danny, getting training for becoming the ancient of space, undergrowth, training, Sam, Tucker dealing with the whole reincarnation thing he went through the first time and figuring out his powers, Jaz training with the yeti and frostbite, as well as with a few other psychologists in the zone, Valerie, maybe going to train with Walker? IDK they just have some vibes to me. Allie definitely traveled throughout the entire zone and Indered herself to everyone.)

I don’t know why, maybe the zone needs them out, maybe they’re human needs are being hindered by the zone, but they have to leave the zone and go to the Gotham world, where almost everyone they knew has been reincarnated and does not know that or anything about them.

I want them to arrive in Gotham, and then find out that most of the people who they knew are either villains or heroes, with a few scattered people who are not technically involved, but are adjacent.

I want everyone who is reincarnated to meet these people and have a strange feeling of déjà vu and maybe maybe even treat them a little bit similar to how they were treated before. Like Vlad being reincarnated as Ra’s Al ghul, and when he sees Danny, he has the overwhelming urge to adopt him.

It’s even better if they all have their ages messed with for some reason, so now Jazz is 25, Val is 12, Sam and Tucker are 10-11, and Danny and Ellie are 3-5, bonus points if they are seen as the same age.

Idk but I think this is just neat

[stealingyourbones]

TW for mild unreality

So in a lot of DP x DC crossovers I notice that everyone instantly makes the connection of infinite realms = ghosts. But what if they didn't? I mean, to most humans ghost equals dead person. Not everyone in the infinite realms is dead.

Instead, what if everyone thought it was a realm similar to the Fae Realms? A place where everything is only as real as you want it to be, where the land itself lives and breathes and changes it's form every which when. Perhaps that's why the Fentons think of ghosts as mischievous semi-sentient tricksters, they misread some older texts talking about them.

And they could be right in a way. What if dead ghosts are actually the souls of people who caught the attention of the realms/someone in them and so the realms grabbed their soul upon death to keep. If liminality means you're a guaranteed ghost then maybe that's the realms' way of keeping track of Interesting People so they know when they're up for grabs (they were patient and let you live out your life without interference, it's only polite).

But then, why are ghosts so quick to jump to fistfights now instead of battles of wit? Well that's because of Pariah Dark. The older kings were all the cleverest, the smartest, and perhaps Pariah was clever in a way (he turned a battle of wits he would surely lose into a battle of power after all, and that takes some wit in and of itself) but he valued power and physical might more and so the realms changed to reflect that. And then Danny came along. A small baby child who beat Pariah AT HIS OWN GAME. A child who employs both might and wit in equal measure because he knows the value of both. That small child, king of Ice and Snow, Little Prince, Boy King, a Strategist, a Warrior, that tiny kid is now the King. And the realms change once more to reflect that.

So when Danny is crowned King the ghost zone goes back to being similar to Faerie, only with more fights because Danny is not afraid to straight up punch someone (he's kinda feral like that).

So on the DC side of things maybe there's a summoning (accidental or cult induced), or Danny ends up in the watchtower/Gotham/important place, or maybe the League decide they have enough time to scout out Amity Park and figure out what's going on. They meet Danny, who calls himself a ghost, and are like "You're not like the other ghosts I've met but I don't know enough to refute that" and eventually it gets back to Constantine about this "ghost" boy, and he FREAKS OUT. This is an Infinite Realms denizen, a people similar to Unseelie Sidhe in all the legends, him being a ghost just means he was (or would be, time likes to wander in the realms. Sometimes the present is the future and that past has Not Yet Occurred) interesting enough to nab when he died! And they've been TALKING to him?? That's how you get their attention! You don't want their attention! It's bad enough that Red Hood has a guaranteed fast track there with the sheer amount of Realms Energy swirling around him ever since his resurrection he doesn't need any more people putting up massive I AM HERE signs willy nilly! Just because most denizens are willing to wait until you die to try and steal you away, that doesn't mean that all of them are. And now that Pariah Dark is gone, and the New King is perfectly willing to entertain wit and humor in his court once more, well. It's free real estate.

TLDR the Infinite Realms are Fae-Adjacent and Constantine is Terrified.

I-

this is just incredible. I have no words. I am in awe.

[rntoshi]

— isagi needs his cock sucked more than he thinks.

☆ yoichi is what you’d call himbo adjacent. he's not a full-fledged himbo but he has tendencies. like how he forgets that he has this absolute bombshell of a girlfriend at times. we’re talking... a cherry lip gloss kind of girl— an effortless beauty who enjoys going the extra mile to look pretty not just for herself, but for him as well. Pretty acrylic nails, glossy lips and a sweet perfume that will linger in a light trail. It’s the perfect amount to make any boy to turn their head. there’s something sweet but that was you: isagi’s pretty girlfriend.

it’s so cute because you wear that title with so much pride. you’re isagi’s girlfriend. it doesn’t get better than that. even walking through the halls with him feels like you’re his trophy wife. he got you this dainty little gold necklace with his initial on it for your birthday and to you, it’s the equivalent of an engagement ring. it hangs right above your cleavage— right where you spritz a bit of your perfume. it’s pretty. when the sunlight catches it, the small diamonds that trace the along the cursive "I" lettering twinkle and reflect like the moonlight does bodies of water at nighttime.

isa can be so... you don’t want to say “uptight”, but he definitely forgets to have a little fun when he’s so caught up in his soccer. of course, it’s his passion— he feels as though it’s his purpose to become the best striker in the world, but you have to remind him of balance, because yoichi is certainly the type to fall off the deep end. you like to think of it as there being a switch in isagi’s head, and once it’s turned ON, it will stay on. It’s hard to turn it off.

these days it's rare to see your little lover boy, but when he has his weekends off from blue lock you can't help but to chew on your acrylic nail, pupils practically blown into heart shapes as you watch him fiddle with whatever. when he comes to visit you turn into a complete damsel in distress. you ask your boyfriend to help you with any little thing when you're fully capable of climbing kitchen counters to get a can in the pantry and lifting your furniture when you're in a mood to rearrange your space at 3 am after watching an aesthetic home tiktok.

this time it's the little light bulb above the stove? it went out weeks ago but now your dear yoichi is changing the bulb for you while you watch sipping at the starbucks he also was so generous to treat you to. it’s such a silly little task you could have easily fixed yourself but there’s just so much more satisfaction watching your boyfriend do it for you. while he’s doing it, he’s going on about how its “dangerous” to cook without a light. you’ve been doing it for nearly a month— it might just be boyfriend talk, you know? similar to how fathers speak to their daughters about oil changes. you're not listening though.

he’s so fit. it's ridiculous. that tiny waist makes something within you scream. not to mention he's parted his hair today; you think you'll pass out if he looks at you like that one more time. isagi has this habit of looking at you directly in the eye when he's speaking to you-- he's always been good with eye contact in regular conversation but with you he wants to make sure you know he's listening to you, as well as you're hearing what he's saying.

it's obvious you're zoning out, but you can't help but to think it's been so long— so long since you've had his cock in your mouth. you miss it and you miss him. the feeling, his taste, the sounds he makes. the sex is great, but there's nothing quite as fun as sucking his fucking cock. there's just something about it that sends stupid amounts of serotonin and dopamine to your endorphins-- sucking his dick rewired your brain since the first time you did it. he deserves it because he’s isagi yoichi.

which is precisely why you sweet talk him out of his panties. it’s not that hard.

isa doesn’t even realize how pent up and tense he is until the moment you’re on your knees, hands moving up his muscular things until your fingers curl over the waistband of his joggers and boxer briefs (specifically). he brings a hand to your wrist for a moment, stopping you just as you're about to pull down. you look up at him with curious eyes, head tilted as you silently ask what was wrong.

“I haven't gotten the chance to.. you know— trim down there.” which then leads to a reply of: “Isagi, as if I care about your happy trail right now.”

In his defense, the blue lock program is both physically and psychologically demanding— he may have let some maintenance slip. after all, he doesn't have access to the frilly skin care and lotions he used when he was with you as frequently as he was. so naturally he took a bit more care of himself with you.. but it's not like a bush is going to get in the way of you sucking his dick.

is it too much to say his natural saltiness from his cock and the sweetness of the iced coffee still clinging to your tongue pair quite nicely together? because it does ♡. your hand holds his cock at the base, and you take your tongue to lick one long stripe on the underside of his shaft all the way up to his tip, where you then swirl your tongue around his glistening head. you bite your lip as your eyes light up in excitement, taking his cock so you could cheekily slap it against your tongue. it makes a wet little noise. it feels good for him too, he can't seem to suppress the butterflies in his lower belly as he looks down at you.

“Come on..” isagi says just above a whisper, his eyes lidded in pleasure as he gazes down at you. the pleasure he’s already feeling is making him feel a bit antsy as he replaces your hand with his, guiding the tip of his cock at your lips. his other hand rests on the crown of your head. “Suck it good..”

it’s now that he remembers just how much of a luxury it is to have a pretty girlfriend. not that he took you or the relationship for granted to begin with you, but it's really put in perspective for him right now. blue lock gets quite tough— there’s nothing but the huge egos of men and raging testosterone. he can't remember the last time he's cum, which is probably why he feels so close to blowing his load already.

“That feels good— ah..” he sounds to breathless as you practically swallow his dick whole, your nose brushes his patch of hair every time you bob your head back down. it's so hot that you can feel his throbbing and pulsating in your mouth, his hips also jerking involuntarily from the pleasure.

you know when he's close. his abs start to flex and contract, and his moans start to become a little higher pitched. isa's head is thrown back as he relishes in the feeling of the onset of his orgasm. he can't hold it anymore and his body starts to tense.

“Hah.. hah..” he looks down at you while he does it. “i'm cumming..” he pumps his load directly into your mouth. and suddenly he feels refreshed, like all the stress pent up in his body disappeared.

the takeaway from this is:

sucking isagi cock = therapy.

[mufos-photo-album]

The Swordmaster, dressed up as her primary design inspirations

If you like reading, I've included some commentary about the Swordmaster's inspirations (including ones not depicted above!) as well as one (1) kinda funny picture below the cut.

When thinking about how to design Mufotsuki/Piripu into the Sword/Spearmaster, I knew from the beginning that I wanted them to be based on magical girls and super saiyans respectively. When it came to actually designing them though, I ditched the Swordmaster being based around magical girls specifically. There might be an inkling or two of meguca in there, however most magical girl designs I found online (as well as from media I like) were waaaay too feminine for my liking. So, I looked to my favorite girlprince, Utena Tenjou from Revolutionary Girl Utena. The Swordmaster takes after Utena in mainly visual aspects, inheriting Utena's pauldron thingies and hairstyle (to some degree). I knew that I wanted the Swordmaster's hair to be different from Mufotsuki's, however I couldn't bring myself to get rid of Mufotsuki's braids. So, I amped up the braid length and gave the Swordmaster some bangs adjacent to Utena's. Utena was also one of a few characters who encouraged me to take a "knightly" approach the the Swordmaster's design.

Up next is Mami Tomoe from Puella Magi Madoka Magica, who actually had zero bearing on the Swordmaster's design but contributed mainly in vibes. For those unfamiliar, Mami Tomoe is the oldest girl in the main cast of Madoka Magica, and she serves as a role model to the others as well as being the ideal image of a magical girl. In whatever story the Swordmaster and Spearmaster are in, I want the Swordmaster to have a similar role/vibe (though maybe not as tragic, ahem...) Mami Tomoe also serves as inspiration for how the Swordmaster carries herself in and outside of a battle. She acts rather dainty most of the time, however she knows how to hold herself up in a fight, and her often soft nature serves as a contrast to her stern moments. No doubt a show-off, but she does it with the flavors of elegance and poise.

These characters have less of a bearing on the Swordmaster's design/personality, but were nonetheless ones I thought about while designing her.

Sayaka Miki, also from Madoka Magica: Probably the first magical girl I looked to when I wanted to base the Swordmaster's design purely on magical girls. Sayaka is probably why I decided to make Mufotsuki the Swordmaster. Similarly, Sayaka's counterpart, Kyoko Sakura, might've been why I made Piripu the Spearmaster. +1 to knight inspiration.

Diamond, from Land of the Lustrous: No direct design influence, some personality influence. Diamond has a soft way of speaking that influences how both Mufotsuki and the Swordmaster are heard in my head. Some of the ways Diamond fights also serve as inspiration for how the Swordmaster fights, but the techniques I think about aren't wholly unique to Diamond and kinda belong to Land of the Lustrous as a whole.

Ludovica Bonnaire, from Tiger Tiger: Ludovica as a character probably has the least influence on the Swordmaster. Her influence is actually based on how another character described her, calling Ludovica the "princesscaptain". This title tickled me, so I kept the words "princess knight" in my mind while drawing the Swordmaster.

...Lookit you, reading all the way down to the bottom! Guess I owe you that funny picture, HOOAH!

Color theory is my passion! (Context: When I color, I use a LOT of layers to make the process later on easier/neater. Splitting color zones into parts also makes some aspects of shading easier. Laying down these ugly colors first helps me distinguish other color zones from each other.)

[freckled-koi]

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

𝒏𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒂𝒓

summary: you've known gojo since your training days at jujutsu tech. you were inseparable - as thick as thieves. so, what happened?

pairing: satoru gojo x reader (feat. nanami x reader).

cw: angst, emotional manipulation / mental spiral, mature themes. 18+ / minors dni.

wc: 3k+.

a/n: this is just the first chapter, but i wanted to give some fair warning for content!! this is also my first jjk fanfic i'm steadily working on, so tread lightly.

( ◡ ◡ ♪ ) ｡

you can also read here on fanfiction.net!

001.

The lone cigarette hangs over your tiers loosely, mindlessly staring off into space. You were pondering a thought for a moment, but you couldn’t bring yourself back to whatever it was that made you zone out. Your arms cross just below your chest, leaning into the brick of the office building. The ash at the end of the cigarette was progressively increasing the more you became idle.

What was it that you were thinking about?

“He’s not back yet?”

The lowly registered voice breaks your subconscious fixation on whatever it was far into the distance, eyes now flitting up to the taller, blonde haired man that appears adjacent to you. You purse your lips together, lithe fingers reaching up to remove the cigarette from your lips to tap the excess of ash after realizing just how much of it there was. 

“Of course not.” You respond with a hint of annoyance in your tone when you remember what you were thinking about – or who, for that matter. 

Satoru Gojo.

He was off completing another assignment – one that he completely dismissed the offering of help from the other known sorcerers in the branch – even though Ijichi insisted on following along after as a support system. And he hadn’t returned yet. It wasn’t out of Gojo’s character to do such a thing, so when you hear him complaining outside of your office audibly to ‘taking on the job himself’, it doesn’t come as a surprise.

That doesn’t mean it never brought a tinge of annoyance every time he was performatively cocky.

And not only that, this had become something of a recurrence. He was gone for far longer than he needed to be today, though.

A similar sigh of annoyance expels from the man, fixing the ocular frames along his face that you always found so oddly shaped. You can’t help the amused smile tugging at the corner of your lips to his reaction, taking a slow drag from the cigarette only to exhale a short laugh of cloud.

“Kento.. You can’t be surprised by that, you know,” You comment in a murmur, allowing your arm to hang off the one bent under your bosom as your gaze now settles on the other. 

His features were stoic, the strain of his work days idle on his features, but the way he carried himself was far from exhausted through his built, taller stature. You can see the shimmer in the glass of his frame when his head tilts towards you, offering him a raise of your brows. 

“He’s too arrogant.”

“Again, not surprising.”

There’s a growing silence between the two of you. This conversation was becoming a common one, Nanami somehow finding you outside more and more with the same pack of cigarettes in your hold; same position; same time and place. It was almost as if it was a routine.

“.. Have you spoken to him at all?” He asks, and you don’t know if it’s out of curiosity or of concern.

It’s only then that you ponder a response after a moment of trying to recall the last conversation you had with Gojo.

He had been brushing you off every time he caught your glance in the office, every time you walked past each other with a few centimeters of distance between you in passing. Granted, the last time you were even in the same vicinity as Gojo, it wasn’t pleasant and all you wanted was to block it out of your memory for as long as you could. It was only a couple months ago, but it was still fresh on replay in your mind.

Nanami inquires about Gojo everytime he finds you outside. The history between Gojo and yourself wasn’t that too farfetched to understand – all of them having been in the same technical school, gone through the same training, known each other for what seemed like years. You knew Gojo best, even with how closed off he seemed to other people, but you were someone that saw through his bullshit a lot more than just surface level to anyone else who would just brush it off as him being consumed by narcissism.

“Y/N,” Nanami says with a weight that’s delicate even with how deep his tone was, breaking you away from your trailing thoughts that cause your gaze to travel once more, looking back at him. 

He holds your gaze with a hesitance, hands neatly tucked into the pockets of his trousers just as he expels a breath through his nostrils, still waiting on an answer that he knew was the same.

“You know him, Kento, he always comes back.”

You see a small sense of tension release Nanami’s shoulders by your words, and that’s enough for him to not press forward. It’s almost peculiar in the way he doesn’t pry. Part of you wanted him to keep prying. 

He turns away from you, both of your eyes now settled into your surroundings a bit of the way across from you, settling into the silence between the two of you.

“You know you should quit doing this.”

“Smoking? I know.”

“That’s not what I meant.” Nanami’s larger frame leans back into the building beside you, still giving you a couple feet between the two of you.

Of course, you knew what he meant. You let out a sigh, blindly pressing the end of the cigarette to the brick to put it out with a twist of your fingers. 

“It’s complicated, Nanami.”

“Which is more of a reason to stop. If you know how he is, Y/N, you’d stop giving him this much grace.”

The weight of Nanami’s words were heavy on your chest, but you knew he was right. He didn’t know the full story between you two, but he didn’t need to know. It was the way you carried yourself, the energy you possessed at the mentioning of Gojo – it was all too obvious.

You decide to avoid a response to his words, turning your head to look up at him with a playful smile that feigns innocence, now returning your arms back to their crossed positioning.

“You know you don’t have to care about me so much~” You say in jest, just enough to get a small inkling of a smile from the taller man.

And you do, the corners of Nanami’s lips turning up into a slight smile that resembles sunlight between cumulus. It’s enough to make the somber moment much more lighthearted than it needed to be. 

“I’d be a fool to not care as much. Any decent man would want to be worried.”

There’s an airy chuckle that leaves your lips, just before your attention is drawn away from each other to hear the slam of a car door. 

Nanami’s smile is now dissipated, settled back into his stoic expression just as your own resets, even with your brows still slightly lifted to the sight of two men walking up to the building. 

The much taller, white haired man emerges from the vehicle, tugging down the dark bandage over his eyes and brushing the dirt and non-existent gravel from his dark attire. His appearance is disheveled, looking as if he scrapped with someone in a ditch with remnants of blood littered in his hair, across his pale flesh and fabric clinging and distressed to his frame.

“Yo, Nanami!” He exclaims, tone a tad exhausted while a slightly shorter, dark haired gentleman trails behind him soon after. You hear a disgruntled breath leave Nanami, catching from your peripherals his hand lifting in greeting.

“Satoru.” Nanami calls out, eyeing over his appearance as he’s leaning off the building and your own body straightens up. He glances over to you for a second, seeing the discomfort in your stiff appearance, now taking two steps forward when Gojo begins to walk over. 

“You look like hell.”

“Hey, I’ve fought worse~ This was lightwork.” Gojo says with a smitten grin plastered onto his face, Nanami only sighing hopelessly.

There wasn’t an ounce of acknowledgement of your presence when Nanami and Gojo spoke to one another. It doesn’t bother you, but it does bother you. It makes you realize that you really don’t need to be here after all. 

‘If you know how he is, Y/N, you’d stop giving him this much grace.’

The quote replays like an echo in your head. It sinks deep and it’s now something you’re completely stuck on. It’s enough to bring your feet to step away from the two of them, crossing behind Nanami to head back into the building. You need to be away and in your office anyway and you got the reassurance you needed that Gojo was still kicking. 

It’s when you step away, does Gojo’s attention follow you for a split second before it returns back to Nanami. And Nanami can clearly see it, no matter how short of a fraction it was, his own gaze trailing behind you before he turns back to the white haired man. 

You’re no longer in earshot of the conversation, but the feeling of dread is still there. Why was it consuming you this badly? What purpose did it serve to wallow in it? You tousle your tresses in dismay, huffing to yourself.

“This is so fucking stupid..” It’s something you murmur to yourself.

Every time he goes on a mission, you worry; every time he isn’t back in the fit time frame, you worry. How much more did you need to worry about a man that wanted absolutely nothing to do with you?

You weren’t expecting a ‘hey, hello, Y/N!’ or a ‘were you waiting on little ol’ me~?’ that he would casually throw in just to annoy you, to which you would retort with something along the lines of ‘glad to see you not dead’.

You don’t know what you were expecting. 

The moment you enter your office, you close the door immediately behind you and lean back into it, the back of your head pressing into the glass. You feel a slight sting behind your eyelids when you close them for a moment of clarity, you already know your eyes are welling up by just how frustrated you were.

You settle into the memory from years back.

It’s as if you’re reliving it. The momentary glimmers of your youth with Satoru, the stolen glances, the teasing that traveled into your later years that were still juvenile just more refined with age. Late nights after trials and training. Off days where you’d hang around his place; where he’d hang around yours.

Then, the memory starts to build up. 

Being employed under the same group of sorcerers for the academy. Taking assigned missions with each other with ease, celebratory drinks after to congratulate each other on coming out alive of each one.

The memory starts to boil over.

Letting you in on his Infinite. 

It’s scalding.

His Infinite.

It’s hard to control – hard to breathe.

The day you realized he denied you access to his Infinite.

It makes your stomach sink the more you think about it, the more you ruminate in it–

“Lost in thought or are you spiraling?”

The familiarity in that tone of voice sends a shock through your frame and makes your gut once sunk low jump straight back up into your throat. 

Your eyes shoot open, immediately darting to the glimmer of the white haired figure sitting at your desk, sitting back comfortably with one leg settled over his knee.

“Jesus fucking Christ–” You let out a weary gasp, palm pressed to your heart as if to check if it was still beating. Gojo expels a short laugh in response and your brows twitch together.

It was the first thing he’s said to you in months, and it didn’t feel as comforting or fulfilling to be finally addressed by Gojo as you thought it would be. 

You wear an irritated expression as you glance over him, standing up straighter against the door. 

“Can’t remember the last time I popped in on you like this,” He remarks with his hands folding together on his lap, mirth playing on his tiers with his head cocked towards his shoulder, using his heel to lean back into the chair. “I almost forgot how jumpy you get when I do it.”

You couldn’t remember the last time he did this either. Gojo would play this game with you quite often, mostly to ask you a measly question about something that could have been simply sent through a text or just to get under your skin when you weren’t expecting it. Most of the time, it was the latter.

“Why can’t you just knock on the door like a normal person?” You respond with a sharpness in your tone that just causes the grin to stretch further on his lips.

“Mmn, I’m not normal, remember?” He purrs lowly.

“Clearly,” A sigh leaves your lips, your facial features now relaxing after taking a small glance around your office before it returns back to him. You ponder what to say next, but the words come out less polite than you initially wanted. “What do you want, Gojo?”

It’s quiet for a short moment before the grin is softening on his lips into more of a cocky smile, sitting back up again and swiveling in the chair to face you.

“Come over to my place tonight.”

You stare blankly. You don’t respond.

Gojo exhales a dry laugh to the delay of a response he receives from you, only causing your shoulders to tense.

“What?”

“Do I really have to repeat myself again, Y/N? You heard me.”

“I heard you–” You echo back to him, scoffing under a haughty breath as you push yourself off the door, shifting to stand in front of your desk. You lean over to snatch up a few papers that were laid out on the surface, turning to your filing cabinet to store them where they needed to be. “--but lemme guess.. You don’t have some other girl to occupy your space tonight, so you have to turn to me as a last resort?”

“Oh, please, Y/N~ You know me better than anyone else, and you know that I can scoop any random girl in a millisecond to do my bidding if I chose to~”

Your jaw tightens to that. 

But, he wasn’t wrong. 

Gojo had a knack for hooking up with just about anything that had a pulse, and they’d surely fall into his palms just with a glance. You’ve walked in on him a couple times when you would merely visit and a different girl every time was scrambling to get their clothes on and rush out as fast as possible, never to be seen again.

“Tonight’s different. I want you to come over. For old time’s sake.”

“I’m busy tonight.”

Gojo grimaces with a twitch of his nose, even exhaling a snort to the quick admission.

“You’re lying.” He chimes, head following you as you close the filing cabinet and turning towards him again. 

“And?” You place your hands on your hips, facial features stern when speaking – definitely trying to shield yourself. “So what if I’m lying? Why do you want me over?”

“For old time’s sa–”

“Gojo.” You raise your voice to stop him, the sound bouncing off the walls as you hold a hand up to press into your temple and close your eyes to calm yourself for that small pause, quietly, deeply sighing.

You’re mildly hesitant when your mouth opens, the following words hardly summing up how you felt in that moment.

“You haven’t spoken to me.. In months,” You begin with a worn tone, much quieter but still audible enough for him to hear you. It was only the two of you in the room after all. “And.. you want me to come over to your place? Just like that? You want me to just say, ‘yes, Satoru, I’ve been waiting for you to reach out like this, I’ll definitely come over!’ and just do it?”

You play up the performance by exaggerating your words – even when there was so much truth behind them – hand falling to your side as you stare a hole into the white haired man perched in the seat. 

All the while, Gojo’s smile is still fixed on his tiers, lightly clicking his tongue soon after before he’s standing up from the chair to walk around your desk, leaning his hip into the edge of it.

“Honestly, knowing you, I figured you wouldn’t be too thrilled by it,” He gives a shrug of his shoulders, rolling his head to cock once more. “But.. You haven’t said no.”

You blink once, coming to the realization that you really haven’t denied it. He wasn’t really asking either. 

He just simply said it. 

“Come over to my place tonight.” Gojo repeats, now lifting himself off of the desk to stand tall and a foot away from you. He towers over you, so you have to crane your neck just enough to get a good look at him. “If you don’t show up, I’ll get the message.”

You don’t even have a second to reply, or even come back with a snarky comment, before he’s disappearing from sight.

The weight on your chest has somehow lifted, the tension in your shoulders soothed, but it’s not comforting in the slightest. You stare at the spot he was once standing in, mindlessly walking over to your desk to sit onto as your eyes wander the room. Your fingertips drag along the surface of the wood, quirking your lips to one side in thought. 

Why didn’t you say no..?

There’s a knock at the door that breaks you away from lingering far longer on the thought, your body back to its stiff state. Only then does it go away when you see it open and Nanami appear behind it. A sigh of relief leaves you, almost slumping forward with your palms bracing the desk.

Nanami doesn’t have to say anything. The look in your eyes says enough.

You break the silence after a moment, standing back onto your feet as you take a glance at the clock on the wall before looking back to Nanami.

“Dinner on me?”

[blazehedgehog]

If one decides to start a creative project about their favorite thing, be it fanart, fanfic, fangame etc. , which approach do you prefer, the creatives involved fully dedicating themselves to recreating and recapturing what made the original works...work, or make an active choice to be derivative (this doesn't mean artists are ignorant about the original material, not necessarily) How do you feel about either, and are there any other approach you can think of?

There's this guy who used to post at SFGHQ named Sam Beddoes who now runs Freakzone Games. He's made the official Manos: The Hands of Fate game, he did both AVGN Adventures, he's the project lead on that Toxic Crusaders beat'em'up, etc.

But he's an old guard Sonic head and I've heard him turn up on a couple of Sonic podcasts, specifically to talk fangames, and by his account he got really fed up with the Sonic fangaming scene when everybody became obsessed with perfectly replicating the Genesis games, because to him, all the creativity and magic went away.

I remember hearing that and both agreeing and disagreeing with him. And I have enough thoughts about it that I've actually considered doing a video about it, and about fangaming overall.

I think there is a stigma to replicating something perfectly that's very adjacent to people who are concerned about young artists who start out by tracing pictures other people have drawn. Plagiarism is a real, legitimate problem. But it's only a problem if you lie about tracing.

I'm of the mind that if you're starting out drawing, half the problem is just learning control. Tracing can be a valuable tool in helping you to understand hand motions and give you a perspective on the construction of an image. For the earliest beginners, I don't think there's any shame in starting out by tracing. It's building muscle memory. Just don't say you drew it.

Similarly, my game development skills went way, way, way up about the time I started to analyze and perfectly replicate existing games. Like, the long canceled Sonic Forever project used an early enough version of the Sonic Worlds codebase that I had to read the Sonic Retro Physics Guide and use their data on how to add Knuckles in from scratch. My code matched how he worked in the Genesis games almost 1:1, because it was largely me just interpreting the values into something Clickteam Fusion could understand.

Something similar happened when, in 2012, I started (and never finished) a remake of my famous Mario Blue Twilight DX fangame. That's when I started really paying attention to how the source games worked so I could get a better sense of how a Mario game needed to "feel" in order to be correct.

And that trend continued with every fangame project I worked on following that, like when I figured I could make my own version of Sonic 2's Hidden Palace Zone, since I wasn't happy with the Retro Engine version. The idea was to be accurate above all else. In some cases, I'd even watch recordings of official gameplay in slow motion just so I could see exactly how the game was created, and in some cases, count frame by frame the duration of certain actions.

And all of this just makes me think of when I showed a friend my game jam game, OverBite. He complimented me on how nice the controls felt, in that kind of backhanded way where he said "When did you learn to make games feel so nice?"

Because if you go back to those really early games of mine, they all feel like garbage to control. And I attribute it to putting in a lot of time pulling apart the nuts and bolts of real retro games and putting a microscope up to why they work the way they do. Deconstructing all of their little nuances and sub-states and then trying to put it all back together again in a different programming language.

You learn a lot when you're forced to stop and understand why a piece of code exists in the way it does. Why there are all these little edge cases that you never notice but still exist to make a game feel just a little better.

At the end of the day, yes, Sam was right. Games need to have creativity and seeking out the perfect replication of the Sega Genesis Sonic games can feel somewhat futile. Every SAGE for the last ten years, there will be at least three games that instantly vanish from my memory because they are basic, plain Sonic Worlds Delta fangames with no style of their own. They just want to make Sonic 4 and we've had a lot of different Sonic 4s by now.

But the thing about learning is, you gotta learn the rules before you learn why and where to break them, because breaking (or at least bending) all of those boring, standardized rules is where your personal style starts to emerge, and that personal style is ultimately what people are going to be interested in at the end of the day.

So I think it is vitally important to start at 1:1 exact recreation and once you've made a comfortable replica, only then should you start asking yourself what you'd change and why. Make sure you understand the material before venturing further. You gotta learn to do it right first.

[darkwingphoenix]

@loominggaia, Civ VI Ideas

So, I play Civilization VI, a 4X game. I don't wanna go too deep into the game, but people can Google stuff, right? We have TECHNOLOGY

And, with the new Kingdom Lore pulling up, I was thinking about making hypothetical Civ Vi abilities for the Kingdoms and their leaders. There's also a Sui Generis mod that makes civilizations parts of ethnic groups with abilities for those too.

Evangeline: Harvest Kingdom

Farms gain +1 production for every 2 adjacent Farms. This is boosted to +1 for each adjacent Farm by Feudalism, and gain an additional +1 food for each adjacent Farm. You can build Farms on Hills once you unlock Feudalism.

Farms are a common improvement in Civ Vi, so why not boost Farms to an insane level? This ability is very similar to the Incan ability, but modified to work like an early game Feudalism with Production.

Queen Indiga: House of Humanity

A Holy Site adjacency bonus grants Culture in addition to Faith. All Encampments gain +1 Gold and Production from all adjacent Farms, and grant major adjacency to Holy Sites. Finishing Encampments and Encampment districts grants a free melee unit with no maintenance cost.

This ability is very similar to parts of Byzantium's two leaders: Theodora and Basil II. The Holy Site adjacency to Farms merges well with the Evangeline's ability to make Farms, and the Encampment part is based off of Byzantium's unique District, the Hippodrome, but modified for Encampments.

Unique Unit: Kelvingyard Slaver

Unique Unit that replaces the Man-at-Arms and is unlocked at Feudalism. Stronger unit than the unit it replaces, and cheaper . -10 Strength when fighting outside of your borders, +5 when fighting against a unit from another Religion. Has a chance to capture enemy military units as Builders.

The Kelvingyard Slaver is replacing the Man-at-Arms as Evangeline's Medieval melee unit, and I fused several other Melee units for it: The Eagle Warrior of the Aztecs (The capture units for Builders part), the Spanish Conquistadors for the boost to Strength when fighting a unit from another Religion. I also put a major nerf when fighting outside of Evangeline's borders, putting a higher emphasis on staying within your borders, as a reference to how they don't really act openly outside of Evangeline. It also helps a lot if you get attacked/invaded, as they'd be super OP the entire time and even help your economy by getting you a couple Builders from it.

Unique Building: Slave Auction

Unique Building that replaces the Market, and is cheaper to build. +1 Trade Route, and +2 Production and +2 Gold if this city has an Encampment, and +2 Faith and +2 Culture if this city has a Holy Site.

The Slave Auction really isn't much, just a slave auction.

Evangeline Overall Strategy

As it may be clear to see, Evangeline's ability, as well as Indiga's, makes for a powerful farming empire, turning every available tile into Farms, while having a powerful homeland defense. Farms give Production, and Encampments and the Slave Auction do as well, and combined they're designed to basically remove Industrial Zones from the equation, as enough Farms with an Encampment and Market will do well.

The lack of any way to boost Science using Abilities isn't a bug, it's a feature: Evangeline is notably low tech, so having no Science Boost works out.

I can also see Cobalt, Cerulea, or even Azura as potential alternate Leaders (Azura can work as two leader have had two nations, and one married into another: Eleanor of Aquitaine for England and France, and Kublai Khan of China and Mongolia). I'd say Cerulea's knuckles down on Holy Sites, possibly via giving Gold equal to a portion of a city's Faith output, Cobalt is something I can't really figure out until I know more about his potential reign, and Azura would likely have an ability that boosts Gold output from Markets and Harbors while having the ability to train Spies earlier and gaining Gold and Culture from successful Spy Operations.

Matuzu Kingdom: First Kindgom

All cities gain additional Culture, and Science equal to 20% of their Gold output. All Luxury Resources give Amenities to 2 additional cities, and give 1 Housing and +2 Gold to the city they're worked in when improved.

Matuzu's obviously pretty into Gold, so why not make an ability all about that money? Luxuries also make sense, as they're valuable and worth gold.

Marghan: Frivolous Spending

Cities gain an additional +2 gold for each unique type of Luxury Resource worked, and Trade Routes give +2 gold for every Luxury Resource improved at the destination.

Marghan... would NOT be my first choice for a Leader, as he really isn't much of a good ruler. However, as High King, he needs to be included. So, his ability taps into his cross-continental DoorDash orders and his love of being an ass and doing drugs, by making that a massive Gold making ability. I strongly believe this is a bad thing, but I needed a good ability.

Unique Unit: Uekoran Archer

Unique ranged unit that replaces the Crossbowman and is cheaper. Uekoran Archers give Gold equal to the Strength of a Unit when they defeat the Unit.

Uekoran Archers are a pretty significant thing, right? So, having them as a UU makes sense to me.

Unique Building: World Atheneum

Unique building for the Government Plaza, available with a Tier 2 Government. Grants the city the Government Plaza is in +15% Science and Culture, and can hold up to 2 Great Works, which are automatically themed when completed.

I'm using the World Atheneum for Matuzu's Unique Infrastructure (Districts, Buildings, and Improvements have ALL been used for this) because it's a significant part of Matuzan culture. The Government Plaza also has like 1 Unique Building in official Civilizations and Leaders (That being the Queen's Bibliotheque for Kristina).

Matuzan Overall Strategy

Overall, Matuzu is built for a ton of Gold, Science, and Culture while improving every possible Luxury Resource and making a ton of Trade Routes for that Gold.

I'd say Azura, Jelani, and maybe Uzoma make for solid Matuzan rulers. Azura would have her ability for both Evangeline and Matuzu, Jelani would have some sorta ability focused on the military (Maybe a Leader Unique Unit (Like Rough Rider Teddy Roosevelt or Empire Victoria)), and Uzoma would probably have a good diplomacy ability.

I ain't doing the rest because this is already so long. I'll do Damijana and Zareen next tho

[fountainpenguin]

Minor Fanfic Updates

- I'm slowing Life of a Loser's posting schedule down to just Wednesdays and Saturdays [my time zone] instead of every other day. An update will go out Thursday so the end note can inform readers of its schedule change, and the next one will be Saturday.

-> Update schedule was so frequent because I didn't see the point in holding out too long when the whole 'fic is already up on FFN (and I'm not familiar with best schedule for chapters that average 3k words or less, and this 'fic is summer vibes so I didn't want to take forever), but I do think the every other day schedule is overwhelming. Slowing down is smart.

- I have several Hermitcraft-themed 'fics in the anonymous Guess the Authors collection that will have authors revealed on Monday. I spoke more about what that means for subscription emails and plans HERE.

- Updated my Pinned Post to include a What's Going On? section. I added the FOP 'Fics page link, the MCYT 'Fics page link is there but currently unlinked, and I updated my Currently Updating section.

-> You can check that any time you want to see the update schedules for my current projects.

- I've been making Frayed Knots progress, but it's still slow (I have a big, personal thing happening IRL that takes lots of my attention; everything I've been updating throughout the summer is stuff I'd prepped in advance).

-> I was hoping to post consistently in June or July, but I think sometime in August/September is more likely, as I would rather have multiple chapters on hand before I post. My big thing ends early August, so I'll be able to give more attention to writing new content then.

- I've been thinking of finishing Come What May before posting more Frayed Knots. It has 6 chapters left and then I can finally wipe my hands of it after starting it in 2018. I'd love to finish it before 2025. Thank you to everyone for being patient with it!

- I recently added new headers to Dog's Life, Origin of the Pixies, and Frayed Knots that include links to their chapter-by-chapter recap info, so that's there for anyone who wants a recap guide as they go. I've prepped a more detailed recap for the next Frayed Knots chapter that recounts what's happened thus far in Act 3 since it was on hiatus a long time.

- Drafted a series page for my MCYT 'fics (similar to my 130 Series Table of Contents page). It will be up on Monday after Guess the Author is revealed. The purpose of this page:

-> To be linked in my Pinned Post for easy access to people browsing my Tumblr (as previously my only AO3 link there was my multifandom Personal Faves list)

-> Help people see what I write and direct them to series so they can customize the content they receive AO3 emails for

-> I was linking to every other series on my individual MCYT series pages, and there are a lot of them. Every time I added a new series, I had to edit every series page and it got annoying. I'm planning to redirect people to the Tumblr page for series info, which mirrors my current set-up with the 130 series (as of my recent footer update).

-> After the author reveal on Monday, I'm going to update the footers for all my MCYT 'fics (as they are currently inconsistent) to link to this page. I'm working on some more detailed descriptions for series content as well, which will also be linked there to help people decide if they're interested in reading.

- Factor It In still on hiatus for now. I was hoping to update it again in August, but my IRL busy-ness has slowed my ability to get Frayed Knots up. Factor It In is not abandoned; just paused while I work on a 'fic that's older.

-> /cry smile as I think about how Frayed Knots is only one year older than Factor despite them being posted online 6 years apart

-> I promise I have not lost interest in Factor, lol... It's my baby, but it's also my middle grade-adjacent style experiment and it's important to me that it feels a certain way, so I don't want to rush it.

-> Might finish some little WordGirl one-shots I have sitting around, though. They've been sitting with me since 2018... I've just been nervous to post them because. idk. Feelings about them.

- I have been sitting on a far-future Inside Out draft since the movie came out, and now that Inside Out 2 is out (it was lovely! Seeing it a second time today with family), I'm tempted to finish it... You might see that or maybe you won't.

-> It's about the inherent awkwardness of trying to control a body and flirt with another's emotions you know exist but will never meet, especially if you yourself are an emotion and aren't getting the physical sensations that other parts of the body are :') Anxiety and Ennui also getting dropped in my lap, my beloved...

All righty! Thanks for reading my work!

[makowo]

As a much longer follow up to this post, here's this... My Ideas for Two Minecraft Mods ^_^ this got really long so it's under the cut

Circle of Life: Rudimentary mod that adds a basic ecosystem, with as few mobs added as possible but enough to stand out as a bare bones animal mod.

Rather than mobs just existing independently of each other with the player as the focal point, focus in on more instances of stuff like wolves hunting sheep. Foxes hunt rabbits + rabbits are more widespread, wild cats/ocelots should spawn more plentifully and have birds and wild mice to hunt, polar bears should have seals to hunt, etc.

These prey animals can have their own niches, like eating plants and spreading their seeds (making grass/ferns/crops grow naturally and make grass more lively), seals eat fish and may be difficult to kill on your own but with the help of a polar bear, but they can be easily killed and drop seal fat that acts as coal or dried into leather.

Bears and foxes should be tamable as alternatives to wolves and cats respectively. Bears are focused on combat, as they hit harder and have more health (could be mounted as well?), as well as have a faster swim speed. However, they aren't useful in smaller areas, and you can only have two at a time or they get territorial with each other. Foxes are similar to cats in that they don't do combat but maybe could help find buried items or something, tying themselves into archeology. -

Darker Days Ahead: A larger progression mod that adds the Deep Dark as a secondary endgame zone to follow up to the End, and not a glorified treasure zone with a scary guy in it. (I know there's already kinda one of these that adds a deep dark dimension but I hate that mod bcs it's very aimless and bare bones atm)

This mod would have new structures, new types of crops that only cultivate with the aid of sculk, new items for scaring mobs away from you with the call of a Warden Horn, a new set of armor with a focus on utility, and potentially a new dimension which the sculk infection originates from. Definitely more but that's what's off the top of my head

The Ancient City is larger and has more signs of having been a city rather than just a castle sorta area. I'm imagining tying it into villager lore, so there would be decrepit but more advanced forms of villager buildings scattered around or above deep dark biomes, with the Warden hinted at being the basis of the iron golems villagers make.

The main new crop could be a fucked up form of glow berries that spread darkness instead of light, and will give darkness/wither when eaten. They could also be crafted into a 2x2 grid and made into a bundle of berries that can be thrown and make mobs in a small area around the landing point unable to lock onto you and take wither damage for a short time. They only grow on walls made of sculk-infested stone/deepslate, which is made by crafting stone/deepslate in the center of a crafting table with a sculk vein on each space directly adjacent to it. They also spawn naturally in the deep dark villages, but crumble into nothing unless mined with silk touch.

The Warden Horn isn't obtained by killing the Warden, but is crafted with a goat horn, a sculk shrieker, and an item that's dropped randomly by Wardens randomly after taking damage, maybe a part of its flesh or one of the things in its chest. It has a very limited amount of uses (repaired with experience via natural mending) but can be used as a defensive tool to temporarily scare and de-aggro any hostile/neutral mobs in a radius around the player, making them run like skeletons with wolves or creepers with cats. Doesn't work on Nether mobs as they wouldn't know about the Warden naturally.

The armor set would be primarily focused on utility, to not compromise on netherite being the endgame armor. Each piece of armor has its own ability, similar to turtle helmets. The helmet allows the wearer to highlight mobs around them and through walls when they make noise, the chestplate provides temporary Resistance 1 and a small damage boost whenever you gain experience, leggings give Speed 2, Jump Boost 1, and small attack speed boost after taking damage, and boots make you walk without making noise. Wearing the entire armor set gives you Absorption 1 in areas under light level 0 and you can get closer to aggro mobs without them spotting you, with the Warden becoming entirely passive to you unless attacked. There could be tools as well, but I don't have ideas for them right now. I think this would have stats slightly lower than diamond to balance out its strengths, since you can mix it with stronger items for certain benefits.

The new dimension is kinda a point of contention for me because I'm not sure of what it could offer. Definitely a new boss, NOT a new faction for trading, but it could relate to enchantments/magic considering experience plays such a large role here and enchants have no present origin point.

That's all I have for now. one day I will make these ideas or commission them when i get money.

[cosmicseaofgender]

Hello! I’m looking for a roleplay partner!

-

ABOUT ME

My name is Juno. I’m 32 years old, and I’ve been roleplaying for a full 20 years. My current time zone is EST (or UTC-5). I mostly write 3rd person, past/present tense, limited perspective. I tend to write however much feels right to me- that said, I do tend towards multi-paragraph replies. I’m bisexual, intersex, and genderfluid, and perfectly happy to write any and all types of characters, gender sex and sexuality notwithstanding. I am multiship and polyamory friendly.

9 hours of my day are taken by work and I also have a few minor disabilities that can drain my energy and make replying difficult sometimes. As such, I also understand when other people experience something similar. I may gently check in with my roleplay partners every so often, but I don’t find it helpful to pressure anyone to push a reply out when they aren’t feeling it.

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REQUIREMENTS FOR PARTNERSHIP

Age: 20+

Writing Styles: Third person is necessary, past or present tense.

Location: Discord, Email, Google Docs

Reply Lengths: Whatever feels right in your heart! The important thing is the content.

RP Content: For original content I will be very interested in worldbuilding- I like to make sure I’m fully invested in the universe before I focus on characters. For fandom content, I’m fine with canon-adjacent and AUs both. SFW and NSFW are both fine by me, as long as discussed beforehand. I am kink-friendly within certain limits, which can also be discussed.

Other Considerations: I will not engage in pro-vs-anti discourse on either side of the line for any topic. If someone having a stance on that is very important to you, it would be better not to contact me.

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WHERE TO CONTACT ME

Message me here for my Discord. No passwords required, just let me know that you’re interested, and we can talk about it!

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CURRENT FANDOMS

Kamen Rider (Decade, Kabuto, OOO)

Natsumi, Yuusuke, Kagami, Eiji, Ankh, Date

Lord of the Rings

Legolas, Faramir

Hades (Game)

Nyx, Hypnos, Zagreus, Chaos, Aphrodite, Artemis, Hermes, Achilles, Patroclus

Yuri on Ice

Viktor, Phichit, Yuri P., Mari, Minako, Emil

Outlast

Waylon

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EVERGREEN FANDOMS

Homestuck

Too many to list

Hetalia

See above

Harry Potter

See above

[zizz-asdf-re-r-o-u]

soooo does this mean that Saia is like a prediction of what Klein might become?

SPOILERS FOR RUSTED NATION.

also ft theories for the future

So it looks like in year 58 during Kuya's flashback , Saia was already turned into the Dead Zone, but adamantite still allowed humans to thrive, at the cost of contaminating/stabilizing essence & the elemental spirits. Then 100 years later in Rei's flashback, the mushrooms kinda confirms that essence in Saia is almost nonexistent and humans have found a way to eat Dead Zone mutated food rather than adamantite contaminated food.

And now that Kuya has seen what Saia looks like 100-200+ years later, do you think he'll just observe or try to help solve the situation?

Also as an loosely adjacent theory. Huey seems to be interested in places with no essence or magic and Saia seems to have become that place by the time he disappeared 20~ years ago. It's probably easy to assume he hopped into our/Eiden's world but what if... Klein and Saia is our/Eiden's world but like thousands of years in the past? After all, if Saia (and Klein if Kuya doesn't stop it) continues to "progress" how Huey is speculating it to be, would it not be even more similar to ours/Eiden's (thriving on technology with no essence or elemental spirits but having adapted the environment).

[crystalelemental]

I have begun FF8, and am about 2 hours in. All I have done is beaten Ifrit, and immediately began what I do best: optimizing.

I have a problem.

So okay. All I remember about this game is that it has level scaling, where enemies (maybe just bosses) scale to your level (or Squall's specifically? Unclear). You overcome this not through leveling, but by Junctioning your magic spells to stats in order to ascend to higher levels of power. As part of that, converting enemies to cards via the Card command is essential, as it negates EXP gain but keeps the AP for upgrading your summons.

So I looked at my summons, and went okay, I need to upgrade several things on Quetzalcoatl right now. Like the ability to turn things into Cards, and the ability to upgrade basic spells to mid-level spells, as well as all three summons' abilities to convert items into Fire, Ice, and Lightning/Wind spells. The end result is that now I'm grinding out basic skills and refining to T2 spells like Fira, which takes forever because you need like 500 basic spells but can only hold 100 at a time, so you draw from enemies until you hit cap then refine them, then do it again, until you have 100 of all of them.

I'm going to be honest, the remaster's 3x speed is a godsend on this. I am perhaps being overly focused on immediate optimization. There's no requirement for me to do this, after all, and those spells will undoubtedly become available later on. I also don't intend to avoid all levels by converting literally everything to cards. I'll probably do it for bosses, but mostly because those are the really good cards. We'll see if I keep it up, though. I'd like to avoid Triple Triad forever if possible.

The main issue this situation raises is one of creating a blockade to player progress. Yes, I do like having the option to overpower myself in a game. However, when the main blockade to that is one of time, it becomes frustrating, because I know I can do this and frankly, I'd want to anyway. But having only time block you if obnoxious, because now the exchange is one of real life hours.

To give an adjacent example: Atelier. I've been shilling this a lot lately, but the Atelier games, in many situations, allow you to overpower yourself in mid-game, with equipment that can carry you through the end just fine if you know how to rotate your materials and combine traits. In the Arland games, this track to becoming overpowered does take time, but mostly it takes tracking your materials and traits, and cycling them into creations that eventually land on forging materials for conversion. It's an active, cerebral process. The Dusk trilogy is a bit different, mostly requiring you to have arcane knowledge of where the good items and traits can be dug up, which is a bit frustrating but can be circumvented with persistent exploration over time. You're not meant to immediately know how to do this stuff, after all.

But then there's the Mysterious trilogy, which removed the time limit mechanics and allows free exploration, where the early overpowering set in Atelier Sophie requires...running around a zone collecting a shitzillion materials, until you reach search level 5, when you can start to find the good stuff. It's effectively the same outcome: around this point in the game you can overpower yourself if you know how. But one of these focuses on the main ingredient being innovation, one focuses on foreknowledge, and one focuses on your time. Guess which one I like the least.

There's a quote that I've heard a lot, but couldn't attribute it to whoever said it first, that goes something like "Given the option, players will optimize the fun out of the game." The general takeaway being, you have to avoid letting players optimize by constantly resetting or aiming for a perfect outcome right away. You have to incentivize playing through your failures. Because absent a real reason to...no one is going to. And I think this kind of optimizing falls in a similar category. Unless there's an internal incentive not to...I'm probably gonna do it. Especially because you don't know when it might be necessary.

That Sophie example? Yeah, shortly after that point, depending on how you progress, you run into really strong enemies that will beat your shit in without better equipment. Doing this process is tedious, but it does turn the tables from really hard, to completely manageable, in little time. FF8 is similar. The long, visceral memory I have is that this is the only Final Fantasy game I couldn't beat the first time. I didn't know enemies scaled to your level and hit 99, and I didn't consider the card game relevant, not knowing about card conversion to items conversion to spells. When you don't know it won't punish you later, the sensation is "I can put in the time now to overpower myself and have a smooth ride, or I can be forced to put in the time later while tearing my hair out." If you know that's a transition that's coming? You're probably not going to replay that game very much.

Fortunately for 8, I don't know it's going to happen, I could've just sucked at video games as a kid (I did, still do). But it feels like it will, and the speed setting at least makes this a tolerable amount of time. I can't say much about the game, but I'm having a lot of thoughts about this so now it's everyone's problem.

[tanadrin]

How common are those hellish grid suburbs that urbanists like to post? I feel like anyone who's living there probably has the money to go to a city or different suburb, and if they're there it's probably for some reason besides money like safety or a local school.

How common are they where? In the U.S. they're very common. They're mostly found around big and mid-sized cities that have the economy to support them--you need somewhere for people to commute to, and a source of services like hospitals and shopping areas. Most U.S. Americans live in or near mid-to-large-sized cities:

As of April 2020, just more than 86 percent of Americans live in metropolitan areas, counties that include or are adjacent to major cities with populations of 50,000 or more, an all-time high.

(source)

Urbanization patterns are approximately similar in most developed countries these days, and tract suburbs aren't unknown in them, either: what to do with all the "ghost estates" (tract suburbs built during the real estate bubble) in Ireland was a pretty big issue after 2008. Areas of low-density development are part of the normal urban ecosystem everywhere (you can find them here in Berlin!), it's just that the U.S. and Canada build them to excess, and in the least useful ways, because zoning rules often make it difficult or impossible to build anything else.

[subzeroparade]

Creeping into your inbox with the great joy that we have such similar taste in horror! I was wondering what your favourite horror movies/shows/books are? I'm always on the lookout for more stuff :D

Oh! Well. *◡*

Some off the top of my head (shoving this under a cut for the long, rambling opinions in which I hope you find something useful). 

Movies: My current, contemporary favourite is definitely The Witch. It’s peak everything - period-piece, atmosphere, folklore/religious horror - everything I love. Absolute masterwork of minimalist horror.

As for what’s stuck with me, The Mist - took it like a fist to the face and still think about it all the time. There’ve been some other decent religious/folky horror stuff I’ve like over the past few years - Let the Right One In (book and movie both) The Omen (excellent buildup) and more recently Antlers (doubles as a monster movie), because I am obsessed with Wendigo lore. I know they’re kinda spoopy now but when I was a tween I was also a big sucker for The Village and Signs, ha. Again, mostly for the atmospheric buildup of dread, and The Village for its evocation of folksy, Puritanical horror. 

I’m a sucker for some monster movies as well, even semi-trashy ones like Cloverfield. I love the big monster-reveal moment. Prometheus, for the same reason. More interestingly, The Host (which is Korean) but adjacent to that are some of the classic Japanese horrors like Ring and the Grudge, especially The Grudge - both versions - which changed me forever. 

Series: Midnight Mass (just a Bloodborne modern AU honestly) has some interesting ideas on life after death, and Hamish Linklater’s performance is to die for. I’ve watched it twice and loved it both times. Archive 81 for the spooky ancient-god/slow burn dread. Huge fan of The Terror series which I think you know (I love Jared Harris, the best modern-day Cassandra if you take Chernobyl into account, and nice to see Tobias Menzies playing someone way less pathetic than Edmure in Game of Thrones lol). The book is a little more dry but still good, and I just started the series’ second season (Infamy) and love it already.

 Also worth mentioning a French series called Zone blanche (translated as Black Spot of Netflix), a little under the radar, which was great. Very much the subtle “the forest is a dark place beyond human understanding” vibe. I’m actively still going through Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities but enjoying the variety of episodes so far: "The Outsider" (which frankly I just read as a queer/lesbian awakening story) and "Pickman’s Model" in particular (cannot avoid Lovecraft lmao, I’m so sorry). 

I don’t know if I can add the absolute incontrovertible masterwork that is Dark here, though it has some very, very itty bitty inconsequential minor horror elements. But I will watch it again and again until I die. 

In addition, some looser, genre-defying or multi-genre “horror” works like Get Out, Attack the Block, and the Southern Reach Trilogy (book only, the movie just couldn’t capture the peak high concept eldritch horror).  I would add the recent film The Wonder to that which has very subtle religious horror elements but is not supernatural whatsoever. I adored it. 

For books, any goddamn thing by Joyce Carol Oates but especially "Poe Posthumous; or, the Light-House" as I’ve made abundantly clear already; also I’m currently going through this excellent treasure trove of short horror stories collected in this post here (there is a second list somewhere too, if I recall, and they are even sorted by sub-category!) 

At the top of my must-watch list is Lamb right now, and eventually The Ritual and Midsommar, as well as The Lighthouse for obvious reasons. Any other recs are always welcome! I took two classes in CEGEP on Gothic lit and horror films and learned, fundamentally, that the horror genre is an incredibly useful and dynamic way to chart humanity’s anxieties over the past two centuries or so. (Dr Kris Woofter if you are still out there, you absolute hero, those were the greatest classes of my then-short academic life and I carry them with me always; or tucked neatly under my floorboards, where they writhe and groan ominously.)