#since they function so differently at this point

[hyperions-light]

A home in life, a berth in death, a house of many mansions: the Necropolis fucks

Before the game came out the Necropolis was one of the top five places I was hoping they would let us visit in Thedas and I'm so thrilled it did not disappoint! The architecture, the atmosphere is impeccable, the reactivity everywhere (cleansing the Vault of the Beloved, the secret room that appears, the skeleton workers that begin cleaning different areas as the game progresses), the detail in everything. Did you know that in the room where you get the codex entry about the flesh-eating beetles, you can look down and see them running across the floor? Love it!

But the environment itself is only an aspect of what makes the Necropolis so much fun; the insight we finally get into Nevarran culture is possibly the most important thing that comes out of it. The only Nevarran we've really met before was Cassie (love her, she was not very informative, though), so to actually get to meet people who serve as stewards to one of the most sacred cultural rites is incredible and exactly what I wanted from this game. I loved discovering their unique perspective on magic, and how they handle their Templar Order.

It's also a fascinating lore point to discover that Emmrich can speak to the dead; we've never actually encountered a REAL ghost in DA, I don't think. There have been things which appeared to be pieces of once-living people, but it could always be explained by 1) weird magic causing them to live past their normal lifespan 2) a spirit acting as a dead person. Emmrich makes a distinction between speaking with real dead people and imbuing a once-living body/articulated skeleton with a spirit. This is so cool and interesting! And they've been doing this consistently and regularly, to talk to the late King Markus! All the magic applications in this game make the South seem so boring lol (but that's for another post).

And I love that the Necropolis itself is considered alive by the Watchers! It moves and rearranges its own configuration in accordance with some sort of unknown will; is it partially built inside the Fade? Is it imbued with magical energies, like Arlathan was? How old is it? Is the reason it functions this way because it's so old that it predates the separation of the Fade from the material world, or is it just that the Veil is thin there? Are the Lichlords the ones directing the Necropolis? How? So many interesting implications and questions brought up by just the building itself!

I think my favorite thing about the Necropolis and the Watchers, though, is how they present death. Most of the cultures that we've encountered so far in Thedas view death as a universally negative thing, but the Nevarrans celebrate its place in the cycle of existence. In the gardens, which are such a beautiful, peaceful location, there's a puzzle you can do where you have to turn on a series of meditation bells in a specific order to get into a treasure room; when you put together the poetry accompanying each bell in the correctly, they describe (metaphorically) the movement of a person through life and into death. It's such a gorgeous little detail, and I love the way the Necropolis is designed to encourage the player to think about death (it also folds in so neatly to Emmrich's personal plotline!), especially since it is so integral to the game as a whole (yet another different post).

Visiting Blackthorne Manor and picking up mementos in the Necropolis shows that, this death positivity is, in fact, a pervasive cultural attitude. Nevarrans believe that they have a duty to each other that persists after they die; that the body can keep being useful; that the living should honor the dead. It's such an interesting perspective that was missing from the DA series; people die all the time, and, of course, it's intended to make the player sad, but DA has never seriously discussed death, its implications, what it truly means or how it affects those left behind. They've never really made you sit and look at it as the player. There are some sad lines after Leandra dies in DA2, but it's mostly in the narrative to give Hawke a reason to hate blood magic and stuff. There's no funeral. There's a few lines from Gamlen, Hawke, and your companions, and then the game moves on. It's always like that; the game gives you a moment to be sad, and then it moves on. There's no mourning. But this game is partially about mourning! It's about people being gone, and it being too late; it insists you look at death and deal with it, and the Necropolis is the epitome of this.

The game asks the question over and over what you think the characters should do in response to their own losses, and the Necropolis represents are really interesting, nuanced, answer to that question. They're not gone; they're right there. They're still with you. You can go and visit them and celebrate who they were in a place that honors and cares for them, still. It's so beautiful and interesting and full of love, for the living and the dead.

I didn't even talk about Emmrich's plotline or the class differences in the Necropolis, or how everyone there is a weird goth nerd and I love it so much, but I think that's really the important point: the symbiosis. The living; the dead; the spirits; the corporeal, all finding a way to be together.

[cozymochi]

Okay gen question, how are you so good at anatomy? like I know its a mix of years of practice and experience. Mayhaps you can spare some tips on how ppl can improve theirs? Always looking forward to your works btw! Even the scribbles you think aren't decent are always such a nice treat to see <3

It being drilled into my system years ago in a drawing class specifically for that 😭 Then a character design class the next semester that added on top of it. BUT FOR CARTOONSSSSS (I have not accomplished anything in my life to utilize any of this.)

My main point of knowledge reference is this book though (OMG FREE INTERNET ARCHIVE PDF? Yes. Though I personally have a physical copy.) We didn’t really read the walls of text so much as just practiced the proportion stuff in the early pages ad-nauseam and some skeletons (not hyper detailed ones just making sure bones were where they should be). Tho admittedly I’ve been neglecting any studying. (This book came out in 1943 brrgh) DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I HAD TO DRAW THIS DIAGRAM? MORE THAN ANY PERSON SHOULD.

But hey, it works. I still sometimes end up referring back to it if I think I’m sucking (disclaimer: i think this often )

As far as I’ve come to know, how something looks visually doesn’t matter so much long as basic proportions are correct. Cuz even people without trained eyes for this sorta thing can recognize when something is proportionately wrong. Like, I guess on you know where everything is supposed to go, you can kinda do anything from there?? I think. It translated well when we were drawing real people who were not the “ideal” presented, and when moving to more stylized stuff with their own rules in a completely different course. So what if that leg doesnt look exactly like u think a leg looks anatomically— IS THE KNEE IN THE CORRECT SPOT? Yes? Then u did it.

Also that eyes are in the center of the face. Not the nose. JUMPSCARE!!!

Aaaa, this isn’t really an interesting answer. If I ever figured out better streaming outside if private discords I could probably make my points better rather than pulling a “here’s a textbook, figure it out” CUZ ITS LIKE. ITS OVERWHELMING WITHOUT A GUIDE AND 😭😭😭

I don’t know. I don’t think I have “anatomy” correct, just “proportions.” Cuz I wouldn’t be able to tell you what something is, just where something goes. Which… I think is a little more important and also a distinction I don’t really see anyone making in drawing.

Though, as much as I wanna be helpful in a more effective way, it’s really really really hard for me to articulate how anyone could improve theirs if I don’t know what the alleged problem areas are 😭 I find all this stuff to be case by case. I kind of do better if i can directly point things out and offer info from there instead of blank slate tips. If I ever figure out streaming outside of private discords it would probably be easier (literally doesnt own a functional up to date enough computer)

I guess focus less on “anatomy” and focus more on proportions since that does more of the heavy lifting? Unless ur a med student, then you probably should focus on anatomy

someone could die because you couldnt identify their coccyx

OKAY THATS IT THANKS AND SORRY

[tired-salty-vampire]

This hit way too hard. I came out to my mom late last year for similar fears. My parents aren't bad people, per say, and they love all of their kids - myself tentatively still included - very much. But it has always felt like there were strings attached. I told her that I'd been with my partner now for over a year and we plan to get married eventually. She said that while she and my dad would not shun me from the family, they would not be celebrating my relationship. Most of my family are very religious so I was amazed that I wasn't cut off on the spot because my parents had shunned my older sisters (who have since been welcomed back into family functions) for years on end for far less. I was proud of them for that and it showed growth and while I wasn't expecting them to be elated and jumping off the walls in excitement for me, I am sad that they will never be happy for me and that I've found someone I love, loves me in return, and that I want to spend the rest of my life with.

We spent our last Christmas with our respective families before moving out of state and neither my partner nor I were able to spend it together at each other's famiy homes because they are both incredibly pious and have forbidden the other from being at their house. So we are allowed to still be with our families on the condition that our partner is not with us. This just drove home even more the "loved with strings attached" aspect of family who isn't awful, but definitely not great.

"It's just so sad." This something my mom has always said about people who are LGBTQ+. Especially about my uncle, who has been married to his husband for three decades at this point, but I didn't find out by that he was gay until I was fifteen. He'd been a part of my life with his "roommate" who'd occasionally come to Christmas or other holidays. It just wasn't talked about because of the homophobia and essentially the homoerasur from my parents and their parents.

Whenever she would say things like that, I'd always think, "No, what's sad is that you think it's sad for people to love someone of the same sex. Or to realize that they identify as someone that they weren't originally assigned at birth. It is sad that you can't accept or respect people who have different beliefs than you and don't adhere to the rigid system you do, and you reject them on principal."

My only hope is that after my partner and I are married, my parents at least will allow me to bring my wife to family gatherings. Because I have every right to do that just as much as a heterosexual family member would.

To come back to what OP said, most parents of queer people usually aren't just straight forward good or bad, kind or abusive. It's very often some confusing and emotionally trying combination of "We still love you, but with conditions" and because of that you never know where the line is or what is safe to mention or talk about before they go off on you about "life choices".

Overall, having parents or family members who are passive aggressively "accepting" of your being queer is likely more far common than media shows and that aspect, as much as it sucks and is complicated, is still worth sharing.

I feel like we always see parents who are 100% super supportive allies, or parents who are horrible and cruel.  At least in media or in the most popular stories.  But I feel like that ignores just how many people have parents where you just have no idea?  And even if you think they’ll accept you on a surface level, you don’t know if they have a breaking point.  Especially if you need to go on hrt, or request they change the way they think about and refer to you.  Sure they’re liberal and all, or centrists, or “tolerant”, but how far does that stretch?

I think most closeted LGBT+ kids live like this, wading around in the grey area.  I’d like it of more of us knew that was normal, I’d like if we talked about it more.

[icewindandboringhorror]

finally finished all of one character's entire quests/optional dialogue/questions/etc.... 100,000 words... .... aughhh

[totaleclipse573]

Thought about Starleon for too long LET ME OUT

[laugtherhyena]

Playing Bomb rush cyberfunk has been a crazy experience so far because i feel like I've been enjoying the game just as much as I'm not doing so

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

one thing i don't think i ever actually said is that much like canon su fusions, warden fusion au critters can like. stack. like the two guardians of a region (the noble-warden fusions) can fuse together to make one super-guardian, etc. and they follow the same naming pattern as the base fusions, so the regional guardians are obsidian, crimson, cobalt, coronet, and alabaster probably.

but while with the base fusions it's basically up to the noble-warden duo how often they bring it out, the higher-chain fusions are really only for emergencies where they need a Lot of firepower. in part bc naturally as you get more people and pokemon involved it gets harder to keep them all in harmony. there's also probably been a weird cultural thing in the past about diamond/pearl interclan fusion as well. there's also the potential for a fusion that involves all of them, of course, which would just be called straight-up Hisui. but this has probably never been necessary bc it would be so fuckoff powerful that it'd be both difficult to control and also complete overkill

[regallibellbright]

So, I mentioned previously that Fashion Dreamer represents a significant improvement in the men's fashion over syn Sophia's past games, even if it still seems to be a lower priority compared to the women's. (It is sounding like there are fewer items for them on the whole, and I would not be at all shocked to hear there are fewer items for specific fashion niches than those equivalent niches in the women's fashion, but it is still meaningfully more diverse than what it was before.)

I promised examples.

Unfortunately, I only have one really good screenshot from my own 3DS, because I tend to take pictures of dialogue rather than inviting random characters to pose with me, and of the ones where you can clearly see what a guy is wearing, it's usually a character who's intentionally dressed as a sort of dorky scientist at best, and at worst...

Well, the best picture I have ALSO includes Johann, so you get to see him!

For those not reading the alt text, I feel it's important you know that that jacket of Johann's has TAILS. Also big gold buttons, I didn't note those because they're not really visible at all, and pants with a very gaudy floral pattern. So yeah, he's an Eccentric and Tortured Musician, so he dresses Like That. It's clearly intentional and not representative of the average character in the game (though he also has a student who dresses basically like him, with basically the same Eccentric and Tortured bit, who we see in a side quest.)

Oliver, on the other hand, is pretty much representative of how men in this series dress. He's a model, and as you can see, his default outfit (I checked the Style Boutique wiki to confirm, this is it) is... uh, kind of bland. He's not alone.

(Shout outs to the Style Boutique Wiki, where I got these screenshots.) This is Ricky, shown in his default outfit. (While there technically IS a menswear section in Fashion Forward, it's an extra you can only access from the title screen to dress up NPCs, and very limited. In the summer he'll take that jacket off, but that's it.)

I believe at least one of these outfits of Florian's is user-designed - they're both from Trendsetters, which is the game I've played the least of the four. Either way, not suits! But still not particularly interesting. But okay, maybe it's just that this STYLE is on the bland side? Let's try some others!

(In order: Vincent, Melvin, Ethan Quinn, Jim.)

I swear I didn't go looking for characters who are exclusively wearing T-shirts except Ethan, I am a bit limited in what the wiki has here. But also... yeah. I think Jim might be supposed to be a fan of bold fashion, given the belt and the hair? But you wouldn't know it from looking at the plain black t-shirt. Vincent and Melvin are a bit better - Vincent helps run the live music venue that opens midway through the game, while Melvin is in fact a nerd who doesn't take that much interest in fashion and only shows up to support one of the three central idols of the game, who also happens to be his best friend. Is it unfair to include him, then? No. Because at least his outfit is actually indicative of his character!

(Daisuke, Chad - though I believe he's renamed Brad in the North American release, and MC Mode, two photos. Tarquin, at the bottom, is one of my own screenshots.)

The same hat situation here is a bit amusing, but they were designed for different games and it makes sense to reuse fashion items like that between games - it let them add onto the wardrobe as the series went on, so there were a lot more items with different silhouettes and such by Styling Star. For the women. I think at least a few of these characters got to gain and lose jackets depending on the in-game season, and MC Mode here is a fashionable guy who gets to wear TWO outfits.

And the chic look isn't too bad - both Mode and Ethan wear it, so as you can see, there's definitely some range. I think Vincent might get to wear a leather jacket during the in-game winter, but I couldn't commit to it; I can't remember off-hand if Daisuke loses his jacket in the summer, though I hope not.

But yeah. You'll notice looking at all of these that even the rocker's outfit is a t-shirt and jeans. There ARE slightly more interesting options - those jeans might be distressed, there ARE leather jackets, and there are some pants with excess belts among the men's, I think - but not nearly as much as the women's fashion in the punk rock style. Tarquin's "lab coat" is clearly a suit jacket, and while it makes some sense not to make an entire unique item for one character, this game didn't even have men's fashion. I'm pretty sure they just used an existing suit jacket from Trendsetters. On the other hand, at least THAT ONE is reflective of his character. Daisuke's outfit is the closest the games come to athletic wear until Fashion Dreamer.

The characters in the later two games in particular were REALLY fun. There's a reason why I didn't have many screenshots just showing a male character facing forward, and none without dialogue - I actually really enjoy the writing here. Ethan wants to conquer the world with music, and multiple characters comment that this makes him sound like a supervillain. Tarquin is an endearing nerd who has a bunch of cute comments about all the items you bring in to make fashion items from. Florian likes bad puns.

But their outfits don't really tell you much about their personalities, where the female characters all do.

[persephonaae]

Hrm

[transfaabulous]

Hi! I've been on testosterone for several years, now. With the disclaimer that this is completely anecdotal: Yes, ever since I began HRT, it has gotten much more difficult to cry.

And, this is really difficult, for me! Crying is a really important way for me to regulate my emotions. I've had to adapt to new regulatory mechanisms, and I still struggle. It's almost a relief when I am finally able to cry.

This is not something that has changed from my much lessened dysphoria. This is not something that has changed from my much more liveable life circumstances. This is, as far as I can tell, and in agreement with extant literature, just...something that happens.

It's not "biological essentialism" for me to discuss my experience. It's just... Not everything is an attack. We do need to be careful about how we might say some things, but that's all of science. Yes, there are gender essentialist myths about starting HRT: As a transmasc, I was told to expect to become more violent and angry. This is false. I became more confident and the way that people treated me changed.

...And the way that I processed and expressed my emotions also changed on a chemical and physical level.

My saying this doesn't mean that I believe that men can't cry easily, or succumb to violence in the absence of other ways to express emotion; nor that women are biologically engineered to cry and experience hysteria, or whatever.

Trans people are put in the difficult position of existing in a deeply sexist society, and our transitions are viewed within that context. But...we don't...exist?? to validate nor destroy any sort of essentialist rhetoric?? There is more evidence to suggest that a binary sex distribution in humans is false than there is evidence of discrete sexes. Yes, hormones impact bodily systems. Yes, those on hormone replacement therapy see different effects that may mirror deeply sexist beliefs. No, that doesn't mean that this is universal.

Some cisgender (intersex, often: Remember what I said about the falsehood of the sex binary?) women become healthier and more stable on testosterone. Some cisgender (intersex, often: Same note as before) men become healthier and more stable on estrogen. The ways in which hormones affect us may do so one way on average, but human beings do not exist in accordance with the average.

The sex binary is flawed to the point at which it is incorrect. The gender binary is flawed to the point at which it is incorrect. Trans and intersex and all varisex people do not exist to prove or disprove some bigotry or another. In mainstream spaces, yes, of course, as previous: We may need to phrase some things delicately. However, this means not that we must hide or minimize those things which we do experience! It is not shameful, nor is it submitting to bigoted ideals!

HUMAN BEINGS ARE COMPLICATED MULTICELLULAR ORGANISMS AND THE PURPOSEFUL CHANGES THAT WE MAKE TO OUR MULTICELLULAR FUNCTIONING DOES CHANGE OUR MULTICELLULAR FUNCTIONING. Whether it be genderED hormonal changes or thyroid hormone replacement or whatever.

Half baked thought but there's something in the way queer people themselves continually downplay and deny the effects of HRT, including the mental effects

[lupismaris]

I really wish I'd been medicated/encouraged as a child and given the chance to learn more languages because there's a special kind of joy that comes with linguistic variety in life

[famewolf]

last day working full time for the foreseeable future, here we come!

[the-stranger-of-the-hidden-world]

Curiously, Stranger watched as he conversed with his mother. She could see that they had their doubts, but it made her happy to see him so upbeat and optimistic about this. Either way, her demonstrating her capabilities to draw made him happy, so that was surely good, right?

Just as Hiccup dashed away towards Toothless, Seabreak nudged Stranger with his stick, pleading at her with his big green eyes and pupils dilated into wide ovals. She couldn't help but snicker, rubbing his face and nuzzling her cheek against his forehead as she purred and crooned to him. Give me a moment. We'll play in a little bit, but...I wanna try to see if we can find a way to talk.

Streak, however, left Sunchaser and Valka's sides to pick up the stick that Stranger had left on the ground, poking Seabreak with it and getting him to play. Now that they were getting used to the environment and they no longer felt overwhelmed and cramped, they could be a bit freer as the brothers started to play fight, trying to hit each other with their sticks. Of course, they weren't quite as good at it as their sister, given that she had thumbs and a proper grip, but they had learned from her.

Hiccup returned and showed her his pencil and sketchbook, items that were completely foreign to her before he then proceeded to draw in it and then show her - and it was her! He drew her!

She couldn't help but smile widely, gently tracing the lines with her fingers as her cheeks creased her eyes. So this was a uniquely human skill she had retained...even after all this time, she still retained her humanness despite being raised by her dragon family. Much of her humanness was a point of shame for Stranger...but not this one. Not now that she realized just how useful it was right now and that it was shared.

Taking it from him, she had an idea. She didn't know how to explain to him who they were or ask who he was...but maybe if she started, maybe he would understand and follow suit.

Sitting back down on the ground as her two brothers continued to chase each other around the cove with sticks, Sunchaser gently padding over to sit beside her and let her lie back against him, he got comfortable on the soft ground. Now that they knew that they were accepted by the alpha and the humans, he wasn't as nervous. Still wary...but able to relax.

Dragons didn't have names for each other in the ways that Stranger did. They had a specific sound that they assigned to one another that sort of functioned as a name, but that was different than the names she assigned to them in her own head - which she more thought of as visual associations rather than words, since she barely knew any. But maybe she could convey as such.

It was a bit more difficult to draw with a pencil on a small sketchbook than it was to draw on sand, but she was slow and careful. Though her pencil sketches were a bit sloppy, holding the pencil a bit like a small child would, she was careful in trying to make her illustrations as clear as possible.

The first was a drawing of a dragon chasing the sun, the familiar shape of a Light Fury dashing after and reaching for the circle in the sky surrounded by fire. She marked the drawing with a small vertical dash to try and convey that he was the first hatched between the three, showing it to the humans and then pointing to her oldest brother laying beside her to try and be as clear as possible. She wasn't sure if she was getting her message across, but she hoped that this would be decent enough of a start to try and get a working method established.

Because if this worked...then they would be able to talk to each other in a language they could both understand.

Hiccup's eyes widened as she repeated his sentence, a wide grin growing on his face. "Hey! Look at that! It's--it's certainly a start!"

Valka wasn't so sure. "Just because she can copy our words doesn't mean she can understand them yet, son..."

"Well, no, but...I see this as a good thing! We can teach her some simple phrases to start, and then move on to bigger things when she's ready!"

Dashing over to Toothless, Hiccup pulled a blank sketchbook out of his saddlebag, and his spare pencil.

Showing it to the woman, he opened it up, doing a quick sketch of her on the first page.

Holding it out to her, he gestured towards the open book. "It's yours now. Take it...use it!"

[crystaltoa]

And now for something completely different.

This is the ADHD Teapot. I made it in a ceramics class a few years ago. I use it to explain executive dysfunction to people who haven’t come across the term before (and those who think of ADHD mostly as Hyperactive Eight Year Old Boy Syndrome).

So, most people’s brains are like a regular shaped teapot with a single spout. Let’s say that your time, energy, focus etc is the liquid you have in the teapot. Your executive function is the spout, that directs the tea into the specific cup you want to fill-aka the task that you’re meant to be doing. Spills happen occasionally, but generally most of the tea goes in the right cup.

If you have executive dysfunction, (a symptom of ADHD, trauma, autism, schizophrenia etc.) you have multiple spouts going in different directions. You can try pointing one of them at your chosen cup and you will probably get some liquid in there, perhaps you will even fill it right up (finish the task). But meanwhile, tea is also pouring out of several other places and not going where you want it. If you have another container nearby, perhaps some of it will end up in there. But quite a lot of it is going to end up on the floor and accomplish nothing.

And at the end of the day you’ll have filled one or two cups ( or sometimes not even one) compared to the five or six that somebody with the same sized teapot (but only one spout) has filled, and everyone wonders why you’re so bad at getting tea poured, and why you make such a mess in the process.

One day I’d like to spend more time learning pottery and create a really technically good fucked up little adhd teapot. But that’s a long way off since i currently live in the outback and the nearest pottery workshop is some 400km away. But I figure that for now, it might be a useful or interesting metaphor to somebody even in its rough draft form.

This post is the cup I filled instead of cleaning my house btw.

[crabcrabcrabmeat]

i got a traveller's company* pencil 2nd hand for a few bucks today (they retail at like $30) so im very happy to have a steal of a deal but i also know that sounds deranged outside of all but the nerdiest stationery circles lol

[arolesbianism]

You know if anyone ever thinks that I maybe go a lil overboard with my Olivia characterisation sometimes just know that it could be so much worse. You could be reading abt my alternate timeline Olivia thoughts