#so cliche it is lol

[glowing-wasteland]

Dade-County Factions

What was Miami-Dade is now but a shadow of what it once was. The Dade-County area has been mostly reclaimed by The Glades and Wilds. The area’s total population is much less than its Central Florida counterpart. It’s isolated from Orange County due to The Wilds separating the two areas. Trade with the rest of the country’s wastelands is harder to establish because of the dangers of The Wilds, leaving spiked prices and short supply for import goods. While there are many smaller, lesser known tribes in the area there are nine major factions of varying sizes.

Black Dust Gang | BDG

HQ |  Piña Health Hospital {Baptist Hospital}

Leader | Lorenzo Myers

Although the Black Dust Gang could be labelled as raiders, they are actually neutral and not outwardly violent to the other factions and smaller tribes. The Black Dust Gang is the second largest faction, however that’s mostly due to the fact it handles a lot of the trade and importing of exotic and rare goods. The gang is best known as chem dealers and chem manufactures. A lot of Black Dust Gang members live and operate in New Law Order under treaty agreements. 

Brotherhood of Steel | BoS

HQ | Florida International University

Leader | Julia Roberts

A medium sized faction, that what sent to settle in the Glowing Wasteland. However, due to the factions already established in the Orlando area, The Brotherhood of Steel had to relocate to Dade County. If the Brotherhood had tried to establish a base in the Orlando area, they would quickly be wiped out by the much larger factions such as by the Caspian Company. The Brotherhood have some knowledge about the existence of the Eclipse Republic, however that information is labelled as classified. The core purpose of preserving and reclaiming advance technology still is maintained. 

Eclipse Republic

HQ |  NAVAIR { Naval Air Systems Command Interim Supply Support Facility}

Leader | Eclipse

The Eclipse Republic is an all synth based faction, founded and led by pre-war synth Eclipse. The faction is secretive and not widely know, preferring to work in the shadows and focus on infiltration and sabotage. A small few members originated from The Institute in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The main belief is that humanity has degraded over time and that synths are the path forward. They aim to free all synthetics from humanity. Most Eclipse Republic synths are heavily modified to achieve “perfection”. Despite being made of different generations of synths, the faction is medium size-- rivalling that of The Brotherhood of Steel due to the continued production of developing new synths. 

Gator Wings

HQ | US Armed Forces Military Base {Doral}

Leader | Enrique Gomez ; Gatorhead

A small, but widely infamous, raider tribe that is know as slavers and conquering standalone smaller tribes. They are extremely aggressive and merciless, and are to be avoided at all costs due to their complete savage behaviors and tactics. The gang is lead by its leader, Gatorhead. 

New Law Order | NLO

HQ | Miami International Airport

Leader | Gino Balliol

The New Law Order is the largest faction in Dade County. They maintain justice, and enforcement of the law among majority of the settlements. They provide protection for citizens of the NLO. They often prefer not to get involved with other factions, and try and maintain neutrality. They accept anyone into their settlements as long as there is no malicious intent and remain peaceful. The NLO allow settlements to function independently, as long as peace is kept. 

New World Syndicate

HQ | Vault 55 ; Lil Havana

Leader | Sabina Gomez

A small faction base in an open trade Vault 55. All of the members are vault dwellers, not just of Vault 55 but other members of other vaults. They are rather puritan and while they preach about the new age of Vault-Tec, the New World Syndicate still practice Vault-Tec’s inhumane human experiments. While they hold belief that vault dwellers are still ‘pure’ compared to the parasitic wastelanders, they still practice open trade and establish it’s own caravans. 

The Cleansed

HQ | Bythel Memorial Hospital {Jackson Memorial Hospital}

Leader | Lola Martinez ; The Enlighten One

The Cleanse originally was a branch of the Children of Atom, however broke off when there were conflicts of beliefs. They still are rad eaters and are a religious movement around radiation and nuclear weapons. However the Cleanse believe that radiation can cleanse the body, enlightening one to a new pure form. The faction is very militant, and are solely made of ghouls-- most are self-made ghouls, as in they turned themselves into ghouls by voluntary over-exposure to radiation. Those that survived being turned without dying or becoming a feral ghoul, have been considered ‘cleansed.’

The Flock

HQ | Seasons Surfside Club

Leader | Sera Oliver ; Overseer Oliver

A very small, but dangerous settlement that is isolated from the rest of the world. The Flock is self-sufficient settlement, and not much is known about it. It is rumored that The Flock hold cult-like behavior and increases its population by buying slaves and condition them to accepting the faction as home and family. 

Warheads

HQ | Riton Grove {The Ritz-Carlton, Coconut Grove}

Leader | Adrian Samuels

A faction that is made up of bounty hunters, and mercenaries. They’re neutral, in that they won’t attack or provoke other factions unless they have been wronged in someway or are paid enough to cause trouble. While they are known to be the best of the best, and high efficient, commissioning a Warhead is far from cheap. 

[notherpuppet]

I laughed so much while drawing this 💖 anime overlord high AU

[flintbian]

There's a disabled angel in good omens 🥺

[side-of-honey]

waiter waiter!! more sharpshootin' clover au!!! (real talk you've combined my two favourite things and i love you for it. your art is super awesome!! keep it up tiger!!)

Aaaaaa thank you so much!!! I didn't expect so many people to enjoy it but I really appreciate it haha :D

And, well, since you asked... have this :)

I wasn't planning on making a whole comic whoops.. but here's Martlet! Clover's guardian who runs a woodworking shop. She does here best to set a good example and be supportive, but in doing so can sometimes accidentally put pressure on them.

[sqtorux]

im all for badass reader being able to defend and stand up for themselves but sometimes, maybe once every blue moon, i want to be pathetic and weak just so i could have big strong characters standing up for me

[walkingstackofbooks]

"Are you happier? Now that the war is over?"

It had been meant as a serious question, but from the look on Kira's face, she hadn't caught onto that. "What sort of question is that, 'am I happier'?" she asked, laughing a little as she spoke. "Of course I am! Who isn't?"

Shrugging, Julian forced himself to smile back at her. "No, of course," he agreed. "Silly question."

His smile clearly hadn't been convincing: Kira's own smile had faded as she looked at him more closely, her eyebrows creasing into a frown.

"Have I done something to make you think I'm not?" she asked sharply. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"No-- no, nothing like that," Julian said hurriedly. "I mean, obviously Odo's gone now, and Keiko and the Chief, and Worf, and... and the Captain... But that-- That's different, isn't it, I guess. You can be sad and happy at the same time, right?"

He cringed, knowing that he hadn't quite managed to make sense there: years of practice had made him very good at recognising Kira's 'baffled' expression.

"All these years," said Kira, slowly shaking here head, "and I still don't understand you, sometimes. Of course I miss Odo, and the others -- and while we're at it, of course I'm still angry and-- and upset about the things that happened during the war..." She made a face, banging her fist lightly against the table. "Damn you, you know I'm no good with feelings, that's... there's a lot more there, besides," she added. "And I'm sure as hell not going into that right now...

"But if you're asking whether I'd rather be here, now, living without the threat of the Dominion or the Cardassians, knowing my friends are alive and safe -- and if they're not, at least being able to mourn them in peace, not having to make decisions that could get us all killed if it goes even slightly wrong... or if I'd rather be back there, in the war -- well. It's no contest, is it?"

"In theory, no, of course--"

"In theory?" Kira asked incredulously. "Julian, are you saying you were happier in the war?"

"No!" he exclaimed: that hadn't been what he'd meant at all. "The war was-- it was... Well, you couldn't be happy during the war, could you? Everything was too awful, it was impossible."

"A lot of the time, yeah," Kira said softly. "And that's gonna stick with us for a long time -- but they're only memories, now. We made it."

"We did," Julian said quietly, his eyes fixed on the table. "I just... I thought I'd be happier, I guess. Now that it's all over."

Kira reached forward, brushing her hand over his. "That's what this is all about?" she asked. "You aren't happy?"

"I never said I'm not," Julian objected hotly, looking back up at her -- but a sigh slipped out of him as he realised he didn't actually have an argument, and he shook his head, slumping back into his chair. Kira watched him, not saying anything.

"No, you're right," he admitted, pulling his arms across himself, almost too tight. "I know I'm supposed to be-- I know, after everything, it's so stupid... But, Nerys, I don't-- I don't think I am?"

Stopping to swallow the lump that had risen in his throat, he noticed he eyes had grown wet, which for some reason made him chuckle. "Isn't that silly?" he asked, leaning forward again. "We won the war, but I'm still not happy."

"No, Julian," Kira replied slowly. "I don't think that's silly at all. It's just... It's just very, very sad." She took a breath, reaching out to hold both his hands this time. "I'm sorry," she continued. "I didn't know."

"It's not your fault," he said, squeezing her hands tightly. "For a while, I just thought everyone else was pretending, too, so I just went along with it... And then I started to realise that no, you were all actually at least a little bit okay, and so I had to keep pretending, because happiness is so fragile and I didn't, you know, want to make anyone else feel bad just because I..."

He trailed off, shrugging a little. "I don't know, Nerys. I guess I just wanted to check that it wasn't just me, but it is just me, and now I've told you, and I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you feel bad--"

"Julian, no," Kira interrupted. "Thank you for sharing this with me -- I'm glad you told me, okay?"

Ears growing hot, Julian ducked his head, not quite sure to do with the wave of emotion spilling over him. Now that he'd told her some of it, he kind of wanted to let everything out. Distractedly, he started tracing patterns on her hands, pushing into them with increasing intensity.

"It's just-- I'm just..." He stumbled over his words, struggling to give voice to the one thought that he'd been trying to ignore for months. "What if this is it for me? What if I'm like this forever? It's been years, Nerys--"

To his horror, his voice cracked, and he covered his mouth, trying to hold back the sobs that were threatening to burst out. Hoping that no-one else had noticed, he looked around the replimat; thankfully the other diners seemed more interested in their own conversations than in him and Kira.

"Would you like to go somewhere less public?" Kira asked. Not quite trusting himself to speak, he nodded, and together they left the replimat.

As they walked down the promenade and up to the habitat ring, Kira steered clear of their previous conversation, chatting about the station, her week, her latest grievance with Quark, and Julian was grateful for the respite. But as soon as they were sat down in her quarters, she turned to him with a most serious expression.

"It isn't right, you feeling like that, you know," she said. "I don't have the answers, I don't know how it gets better -- but we both know someone who would. You haven't tried telling Ezri any of this, have you?"

Julian's stomach tightened: Ezri was the last person he wanted to have this particular conversation with. "Oh, yes, because that would go so well," he retorted sarcastically. "Hi Ezri, I love you, but you don't make me happy. Don't worry, it's not you, I'm just unhappy most of the time. Most of the time? Yeah, it gets better when I'm around you, because then I just kind of feel... nothing. What an improvement!"

"Julian..." whispered Kira, but it was all coming out now and Julian couldn't make it stop. He rose from the sofa, starting to pace as he spoke.

"Did you ever make me happy? Maybe, sweetheart, but I'm not even certain of that. I might have been so desperate for anything even resembling happiness that I just deluded myself into thinking I was in love... Do I even love you? Who the fuck knows, Ezri. Is love even real, or did it die in the war along with every-fucking-thing else?"

His voice had risen louder than he'd intended, condemning him with every word it pushed forcefully into the air. He'd made Kira cry, he thought, but he couldn't quite be sure, his vision being clouded by his own mess of tears.

"How could I possibly tell her that?" he asked, sitting back down heavily, his voice dropping to a hollow whisper. "Kira, how the hell do I tell her that?"

"Come here," she said in way of a response, pulling him against her and holding him tightly, so that he could feel her lips move against his hair as she answered him. "I don't know," she was saying, "but you have to, Julian. I can be there with you if you want but, Prophets, Julian, you have to. How could you not?"

How could he not?

Julian closed his eyes and let himself fall apart against his friend, not even bothering to try to answer her. It was terrifying, after all this time, to finally allow someone to see how broken he really was, but he was far, far too tired to keep it in any longer.

[moominvalley-state-of-mind]

yo some head cannons about eyes:

zuse kids: littirally stormy eyes. the rain and lightning brings out color in them

posidon kids: their eyes tint to the color water around them

demeter kids: eyes are more vibrant, more full of life (even if the kid isn't) when its summer or spring

ares kids: tint red when in combat / argument

athena kids: pupils can littirally focus in on something, looks like a camra

apollo kids: the sun makes their eyes absolutly gorgeous, and they sublty glow in the dark

hepestus kids:more vibrant when accented by metal (metal earrings, glasses, pircings)

aphrodite kids: at a quick glance, or in a blurry camra, their pupils look like hearts

hermies kids: can really, and i mean really, move quickly. also very expressive. feel like that would be good for the trickster part of hermie's kids

dionysus kids: look like pools of whatever drink they prefer or wine, kida look crazy

hades kids: a bit foreboding, always look like their in shadow

iris kids: rainbow tint when in the sun

hypnos kids: always look cloudy, like their zoning out

nemisis kids: looks a bit crazy when they have a

nike kids: glow when they get the upper hand at something, making it very difficult to form a poker face

hebe kids: always look full of energy, no matter how tired

tyche kids: more vibrant with luck charms / tools of chance around (can be more 'modern' luck charms, like rabbit's feet earings, luck socks, ect)

[mintjeru]

i am neither easy nor immune o(-(

open for better quality | no reposts

my shop is open!!

[swanmaids]

Some of these Takes… do some of yall even actually like the silmarillion?

[icewindandboringhorror]

Some fantasy traveler inventory details (like what they would carry in their bags), based on two of the recent costumes I did.. love finding random little scraps and items and putting them together lol

[peachblossomdrama]

How Ryan feels:

Reality:

Bonus:

[softpine]

character/story inspiration tag

rules: write up a blurb or make a visual collage of the people or characters (from books, TV shows, movies, etc.) that inspired your story and/or OC, either visually, personality wise, or just a general vibe

tagged by @morrigan-sims & @goldenwaves ♥

FROZEN PINES: Strange Trails by Lord Huron with lyrics from Frozen Pines // The Wall by Pink Floyd // The Sixth Sense (1999) // Life is Strange // Supernatural s4ep1 "Lazarus Rising" // lyrics from Kin by Radical Face // a magic 8 ball // It (2017) // Stand By Me (1986) // Lovers of Modena // SYFY article on black holes

CASPER MAYFIELD: Montero by Lil Nas X // French Exit by TV Girl // Troy Bolton from High School Musical // Carmy Berzatto from The Bear // lyrics from Off My Mind by Joe P // Brian O'Conner (+ Mia Toretto) from Fast & Furious

COCO ARIAS: Lyrics from My Own Dance by Kesha // Fiona Gallagher from Shameless // Back to Black by Amy Winehouse // adult film star Angela White // Lyrics from Gimme More by Britney Spears // Who Really Cares by TV Girl // Xena from Xena: Warrior Princess

ELAINE NGUYEN: Fearless by Taylor Swift // the record by boygenius // quote from Lang Leav // lyrics from Seventeen by Sharon Van Etten // Juliet Capulet from Romeo and Juliet // Jackie Taylor from Yellowjackets // lyrics from Let It All Out by COIN

STEVIE DONOVAN: Lyrics from Big Fat Mouth by Arlie // unknown artwork // Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn // lyrics from Space Cadet by The Technicolors // Broken Bells by Broken Bells // Dreamland by Glass Animals // Nomi Marks from Sense8 // climbing by Lucille Clifton

JADA CAREY: Lyrics from Hush by The Marias // quote from Frank Bidart // When the Pawn... by Fiona Apple // Raven Baxter from That's So Raven // Mystery by Jesse Jo Stark // unknown artwork // quote from Margaret Atwood

ALISA MARCIANO: Lyrics from Under Your Skin by Aesthetic Perfection // Carrie White from Carrie // artwork by griefmother // You Forgot It In People by Broken Social Scene // So Tonight That I Might See by Mazzy Star // lyrics from Desire by Meg Myers

[2hoothoots]

Revisiting P2 since the docu epilogue dropped and your AMV (<3) popped up as a sign for me to ask something that hopefully you haven't already spoken about years ago: What did you think of the in-game psych explanation for Maligula, that she's the primitive savage part of the mind? P2 is a weird mix of sketchy Freud/Jung concepts that Tim likes meshed with modern psych, and Maligula's deal seems like something they probably wrote a lot of different versions of but never quite solved elegantly

yeah, i think you totally hit the nail on the head - it's always felt like one of the parts of the story that they couldn't quite give enough polish to before they had to finalize it and move on with development. like - i went to go get my artbook to see if it had any insight into the writing process, and did you know that Nona and Maligula being the same person was apparently added way later in development? that's wild! i didn't know that until literally right now! i may or may not have skipped straight to my favourite characters when my artbook arrived and then put it on my shelf without reading the whole thing

ANYWAY, retrospectively i think it being a twist that was added later actually makes a lot of sense in the context of everything you mentioned. the Maligula problem, to me, is the fact that they're trying to juggle a bunch of different things that she has to be in the story. there's Maligula, the ruthless big bad, and Nona, the beloved grandma, and if you suddenly have to also make them both the same person... well, it ends up being kind of a thorny writing problem to make that work, haha.

here's some art i made so this isn't just a wall of text, rest of the answer under the cut

i think one thing they could have done when they needed to rehabilitate a mass-murderer into a lovable old lady was pull back on either end of the spectrum. make your villain softer and more sympathetic, or give grandma a mean streak like she's one bad day away from a tragedy at the crochet club. and to give the story credit, i'm really glad they didn't. Nona is relentlessly sweet and endearing - and that's great! she needs to be in order to make the audience care about her, otherwise the emotional beats are never going to land. likewise, Maligula is a great villain, she's vicious and ruthless and at the culmination of her arc we see she simply does not give a shit about murdering hundreds of people. i love that for her, honestly, you go girl

but then, like - how do you connect the dots? how do you frame grandma having a violently murderous streak in a way that doesn't make the ending of "but she's over it now" feel kinda weird and hollow? and how do you do that while also being sympathetic to the game's themes around mental health? Maligula's informed by the traumatic things that happened to Lucrecia during the war, but she can't just be a manifestation of trauma, because the moral of the story being that trauma makes you a mass-murderer (until you beat up your trauma and shove it in a giant pit) would feel... really tonally dissonant!

so i think you're totally right that the sprinkling of pop-psych concepts we get ends up feeling a little bit like an awkward band-aid. Maligula's story is about how the horrors of war can shape you into a terrible person, who does terrible things - ...but there's also, like, special circumstances, so it doesn't feel weird that she goes back to being Raz's sweet grandma afterwards. special psychic circumstances! she's not just any war criminal, she's the fight or flight response gone out of control!

which - i dunno, i think that line in particular always stood out to me, because that's not really what the fight or flight (or freeze or fawn) response is, right? it's a temporary boost of adrenaline to the system to rev you up for getting out of a dangerous situation. an overactive fight or flight response is called chronic stress and anxiety. i know the games are pop-psych and not actual science, but it always stood out to me as a little awkward.

if it were me in the writer's seat - with the benefit of all the time in the world to workshop it, and no looming deadlines, and the hindsight of having a full completed game in front of me to think about - i might have tried to frame it around connection. i think you could swing the lens to instead focus on how violence, stress, trauma etc., make it harder to understand and empathise with the people around you. the tragedy of Lucrecia's story is that she came home to try and help her countrymen, the people she cared so dearly about. but the more time passed, the less she cared, the less she was able to see them as people. after Marona's death, the Maligula that remains is one who's unable to even care about killing her own sister. the alternative is too raw, too painful - instead, she sheds her last vestiges of remorse, and throws herself into the easy relief of violence. (we see this again, when Nona "awakens" as Maligula - when confronted with the baggage of her past, she chooses to wash it all away with force, unable and unwilling to care about the people she used to call friends.)

and i think shifting the focus like that ties it in thematically, too. a big theme (of both games, but especially the sequel) is how important connection is, how being able to understand and reach out to and rely on other people is a lifeline during hard times. PN2 touches on how there aren't really "good people" and "bad people" - everyone has the capacity to do wonderful or terrible things, and i think Raz's line to Maligula about how "everybody's got something like you" works. Lucrecia was never a monster, no matter how everyone tried to pretend she was. she was just a person, the same as everyone else - and just like everyone else, she could be pushed to extremes under the right circumstances. it just feels kind of odd when the implicit context is "everybody's got a mass-murderer hidden in the primal recesses of their brain", hahaha.

but like, again, that's the privilege of hindsight, right? i've definitely also been on the other side of the creative process, stuck with something i suddenly need to make work in a story and having to come up with a solution that feels like a band-aid. sometimes you just gotta call it good enough, and move on. and i think the game is overall much stronger for having Nona and Maligula be the same person - it plays into the wider themes, it sets up some great emotional beats, and i think it's overall well-executed, even if there are one or two hiccups in the writing.

anyway, great ask! thank you for the invitation to ramble, this is something that stuck out to me on my first playthrough of the game and it was fun to sit down and get my thoughts in order

[zvaigzdelasas]

"just because what china is doing with BRI is better than colonialism doesn't mean it's not a form of colonialism"

"just because free ice cream and puppy dogs dancing through meadows is better than burning in fire for 513 years doesn't mean free ice cream and puppy dogs dancing through meadows aren't a form of burning in fire for 513 years"

[gachagen]

Reverse 1999 will be releasing next week so I want to go and put a list of characters I WILL be trying to get my hands on when the game comes out. I am judging purely off of the fact that they look cool. One thing I love about this game is that the characters are wearing real clothing that an actual person could theoretically put on, and not uncomfortable body suits with a million belt buckles and endless corsets that do nothing (coughHoyoversecough)

[fruitytiff]

Aight did I cook on this one?

So basically, I decided to combine Antasma and 1000-THR Earthmover and pass it off as a big ass machine that Antasma built in his…un….”spare” time. while he was trapped in The Dream World.

I mean, we did see in game that Antasma can make machines via the Antasmatons, so……why couldn’t he make this?