#so might post that sometime in the future

[hummingbird-games]

2024 in Review (Indie Games)

2023 | 2022 | 2021

Helloooo gamer friends!!!

I'm so tired.

Lol.

Anyhoo, y'all don't care about that!!! Y'all are here to see what games I played and what the heck I have to say about them! Reminders: I don't bash games I didn't like, and I try to post more in-depth thoughts and reviews and general yapping to Gem's Game Gems.

DEMOS

When Stars Collide - I am by no means a sci-fi girlie. I need a HEAPING dose of fantasy or fantasy elements to help me out. That said, y'all might remember how I went feral for Gilded Shadows, so I am locked in for this journey with WSC. It's just as mysterious and lore intense as GS, but also just as intriguing and engaging!

Love Me, Love Me Not - I looooove when a game charms me to pieces??? Our MC Addie, the introduced LIs, the story, the art??? Where do I begin?? Anyway, please check this one out y'all! I'm impatient for the full game (shocker, I know).

Threads of You: Beyond the Bay - So my thoughts and reactions for this one are on the side blog, but I really enjoyed the demo and I have eyes for Chris, Vince, and Alex hehehe.

Lost in Limbo - While I'd been keeping tabs on this game for what seems forever because of the character art that originally caught my attention, I almost didn't finish the demo because it was lowkey disturbing (I'm a wimp and not all horror is made equal). But!!! BUT!!!! I push through to the end, had a good time, noted that I need to play the full game in the daylight with the music turned down low. And I absolutely adore Ara and Xal so, so much.

A Simple Twist of Fae - Absolutely no one cares, but I read a lot of manga this year. Like, a lot-a lot. Like, ~180 books and 1/3 of that was manga. Anyhoo, When JMB announced she was cooking up this game, I was impatient to get my grubby hands on it. AND THEN I PLAYED IT AND IT WAS THE SHOJO INSPIRED GAME OF MY DREAMS?!?! Like.....I wish I could both have it on my computer and also on my bookshelf. Final build dropping when??? (Also the UI design is utterly delightful, I cry.)

The Summit Library (FULL DEMO) - The last time I reviewed this game, we got chapter 1 as a taste, and I was. Locked! In!! The full demo gives us the first 2 chapters as well as the previews for all the romance routes and while giving everyone a whirl I'm *still* undecided on who to go for in the future, I must mention this: TSL is so aspec friendly???? I do love a game with smut, don't get me wrong looks at College Craze but sometimes I have my moments of being overwhelmed/sliiiiiiightly repulsed and the variety of options you have to choose how you react and interact with the various LIs in this game is amazing. (I have more thoughts on this, so I'll try to remember to post to the sideblog, but please understand that this game is totally worth your attention and time imo!!!)

Fully Released & Played (at least 1 playthrough)

Rabbit Trail - This. Game. Is. SO. Cute. *punches the air* 😭🥹(Copy + paste of my review on the itch.io page -> This was so charming, so fluffy, so cozy, just delightful all around??? I've only reached one ending so far, but René is just the cutest protag to play as, and his interactions as he delivers his mail made me cheese so dang hard! (Also, I wanted to fight his parents for not properly appreciating their kid LOL))

Stuck by Design - I checked this game out because I was looking into games that fellow programmers had worked on, and this cozy game stumbled onto my lap. The music was perfect, the UI is beautiful and clean, and I thoroughly enjoyed the performance of the VA for the LI, Yuki.

Wake Me Up If You Need Me - I called this game older!HSDJY MC x Ryan coded and I'm still right. The voice actor MAKES this game, and the interactions the player has with Reed is so flippin' delightful?? All my love and adoration to the game developer. May they make more beautiful games.

CTRL FREAK - The developer team brought us The Faithfulness of the Universe which is a banger in its own right, and CTRL FREAK is the team's commercial, finished project that I also found delightful. The soundtrack and the animations are chef's kiss 💛

Breathless Winds - Ooo, baby, ooo. So. If there is only one game you play from this list and you have some spare cash to spend (at the time of writing, the game is on sale!!!) please, please, check this one out. It left me absolutely spellbound, both the orginal demo, and then the full game. While I didn't get to blog fully about this one, and I only tackled 2 of the 4 routes, this game is absolutely everything. This is my indie game of the year. Poppy and her journey resonated with me, and between the music and the art, everything just came together so perfectly.

Wake Up Magical Girl - Listen TF up, if miseri creates it, I'm gonna play it, idc, idc. That being said...this game had a kick to it that when I finished my first playthrough, I had to stare off into space and gather myself. It takes the concept of magical girls and heroism and gave me a teeny tiny existential crisis, but other than that, I'm fine, it's fine, play this game, thank you.

Sleeping Under Spells - God, I love me a game where I get to argue with a LI. I love it. Bonus points if it's lowkey stupid stuff we're bickering over LOL!!

Our Wonderland - Yeah, uh huh, you thought you'd escape me talking about this game this year, didn't yah???? Too bad. The fifth and final arc dropped this year and I played it and I cried and felt for the briefest moments that life was okay. To say something different than my review of last year, I love that this seems to be the game that helps fellow ace devs find and flock to each other, I'm not kidding 🤣 so thank you Carrot for helping us fellow aspec peeps feel seen and validated and understood!

I Watched a Full Game Playthrough and Highly Recommend

Replay Boys - Okay so technically at the time of posting, there's still one more video I'm waiting to watch (Naja of BlerdyOtome uploaded her stream to YouTube) but my Godddddd. I've had my eye on this game for FOREVER but I was lowkey waiting for it to move to itch.io (I'm still a lowkey Steam hater 🥹) anyhoo, watching this absolutely wild game made me go ahead and buy a copy for myself to replay at a later time, but it's just great. The summary only scratches this surface of what the game entails 🤣

Gemi’s Gushies

(a list within a list of games that have devs trucking along in the background and I want to spotlight for y’all)

Save the Villainess - Life got away with me and unfortunately I never finished my play of the demo BUT what I have played was fun and I hope to return to this in the new year!

Woman of Xal 2 - Plot Twist Studios is on that Sequel Train with the next installment of WoX!!! Which I'm VERY excited for!!! I've unfortunately only completed one playthrough of this game, but the first game is definitely a masterclass in replayability, and I hope next year I'll be able to do a second playthough as I wait for game 2's Kickstarter!

...

And that's 2024! Any shared favorites?

- Gemini 🫶🏾

[nondelphic]

creatives, please use alt text

one of the first things i learned in journalism school was how to write alt image descriptions.

at first, it felt tedious. every single photo or graphic required a description, and if we skipped it—or wrote a lazy one—our professors didn’t hesitate to fail us. at the time, i didn’t fully understand why it mattered. but now, i’m so grateful they drilled it into us. if i’d never gone to journalism school, i might have never known how vital alt text is.

for those unfamiliar, alt text (short for “alternative text”) is a written description of an image. it allows people who use screen readers to know what’s in an image, making content accessible to those who are blind, visually impaired, or have other disabilities that prevent them from viewing images. you're basically translating visual content into words.

as creatives, whether we’re writers, artists, photographers, or meme page admins, we have a responsibility to make our work accessible. after all, what’s the point of creating something if a huge portion of your audience can’t engage with it?

why alt text matters

it ensures accessibility - a visually impaired person using a screen reader should be able to understand the context of an image just as easily as a sighted person.

it’s inclusive - adding alt text isn’t just for people with disabilities. sometimes, images don’t load due to bad internet, and alt text helps everyone understand what’s missing.

it’s good practice - if your work exists online, you want it to be as widely understood as possible. accessibility makes your content stronger.

okay, but how do i write alt text?

writing alt text isn’t as hard as it might seem! here are some tips:

be concise but descriptive - describe the essential elements of the image. what would someone need to know to get the gist of it?

include context - if the image is part of a larger story, explain its relevance. for example, “a black cat sitting on a pumpkin, used to illustrate a halloween-themed story.”

don’t overthink it - you don’t need to describe every pixel. just focus on the most important details.

alt text and ai tools

in the era of chatgpt and microsoft copilot, we’ve got a major advantage: ai tools can now generate alt text for you!

while these tools aren’t perfect and often need a bit of tweaking, they’re a great starting point. platforms like adobe, microsoft, and even some social media apps have built-in options for generating descriptions. if you’re overwhelmed by the idea of writing alt text from scratch, let ai do the heavy lifting, and then refine it.

a creative responsibility

alt text isn’t just for journalists or big companies, it’s for all of us.

as creatives, we have the power to make the internet a more inclusive place. whether you’re posting a masterpiece, a meme, or a picture of your cat, take a moment to add alt text.

adding alt image description is SO EASY and quick and we all need to get better at adding it to our posts. i, myself, am not perfect. on here, for example, i've been really bad about writing alt image descriptions, and it's something i'm very disappointed in myself for. (i hereby pledge to do better, and please call me out for lacking in the future!)

writing alt text is not only about respecting your audience, but it's also about recognizing disabled people's right to engage with your work.

accessibility isn’t optional !!

[theresattrpgforthat]

Any low improv TTRPG's? as in low on the GM part, i would like to try some and see how it compares as I'm part of the improv scary crew

THEME: Low Improv Games.

Happy holidays folks! I'm going to try and get the last recommendation posts of the year out quickly, so you might get some more rec posts in the next two weeks!

As for this one friend, I tried to mix things up across game and genre, so I hope you find something you like!

Tunnels in White, by MeatCastle GameWare.

Old money siphoning new money from every corner of your city. An aging mansion, quiet and worn. An old corporation shifting its gaze from development to development, always hungry, always growing.

A warehouse bearing the name Singleton Solutions, small and unassuming in one of a hundred industrial parks like any other, takes in truckload after truckload but never sends anything out. It’s the same for the people. Sometimes, they arrive in towncars, other times in shuttle vans. None come out. Ever.

What you know is something strange is going on inside that warehouse and you are determined to discover what it is. What you cannot know is where and how far the mystery may take you.

Tunnels in White is an adventure for Liminal Horror, a modern-day horror OSR game about normal people being subjected to terrible things. A good number of adventures and mysteries written for these games come with locations, maps, factions, enemies and consequences for you to use as needed whenever your players enter a new location or attempt something dangerous.

I’m really interested in the use of these adventures for various OSR games, as the adventures seem to be what have most of the meat, rather than the rules. If you really want these games to sing, you’ll want your players to create characters that fit the kind of adventure that you’re presenting to the table - in this case, perhaps your characters all have loved ones who have gone missing recently. Once your players have character buy-in, they won’t need much prompting to delve deeper into the mystery, and the fact that Tunnels in White doesn’t have one single “correct” solution to the main problem means that your players’ actions will mean all the more.

I think I see this module as a stepping stone towards improv in that it gives you options to choose from, rather than a singular railroad to follow. What you’ll get out of this is a location that feels logically consistent and real to the players, while the story that happens will feel organic, and heavily dependant on what the group decides to do.

You can find more modules for Liminal Horror in the Tales from the Void Liminal Horror Jam.

The Doom of Macbeth, by leozingiannoni.

Famine. Execution. Oppression. Supernatural longevity that no one seems to quite understand or question. As King Macbeth’s reign approaches its 100th year, your knights receive a revelation in a dream.

It does not have to be like that. 

As an answer to prayers and cries, the god Lugh reveals to you the alternative realities that could be, if Macbeth is not allowed to move on with his coup. You wake up to 100 years in the past, before you were born. What will you do to stop this horrible future?

The Doom of Macbeth is a deep-dive into one of the most iconic plays of all time, where you fight  your way to avoid a future that seems inevitable. Using the Doomsday Clock mechanic found in Arc:Doom by momatoes, you simulate the feeling of the play creeping upon your characters, and must fight against it— or towards it. 

Using a narrative that is familiar to the GM and the players might be another way to enter a game without having to worry too much about improv. Even though this setting is only the size of a brochure, you and your crew can lean on your knowledge of the Scottish play to make things happen the way you want them to. In this version of the game, Macbeth succeeds in becoming a mad king, but you know that this can change, if you tweak the story.

One more thing: I think you might need Arc, by Momatoes, in order to play this game.

Kiss Me If You Can, by sdunnewold.

River is a notorious international art thief and cat burglar. Jules is a well-respected special agent in charge of art crimes. Jules is determined to find and bring River to justice. But maybe along the way… they'll kiss?

Kiss Me If You Can is a simple print and play two player cat and mouse romance game that you can play in under an hour. It features two unique decks of prompt cards, one for each character. Each turn you play a prompt card, answer its questions, maybe talk about a famous artist or painting, and get a little closer to justice and/or love.

Another two-player experience, Kiss Me If You Can feels very similar to games that are Descended from the Queen, in that the bulk of the game revolves around drawing cards and answering the prompts provided. You’ll come up with locations, personal motives, and reasons for your characters to end up getting closer to each-other, but the cards provide a lot of direction, so I don’t think I’d necessarily classify it as improv. If you want a cute romantic story about a will-they-won’t-they scenario, you might like Kiss Me If You Can.

Exalted Order of the Mystic Moose, by Jacob Marks.

The Mauvewoods. You can’t hope to see the crown of a mauvewood tree from the ground. It took a day just to climb to the top of the oldest trees. Look past the undergrowth and ghosts can be spotted on the old lumber paths. Every ghost you see used to live in a mauvewood tree. Knock on a healthy tree, and you just might hear a hollow wooden knock in answer.

This zine details a forest, a town, and a dungeon, all intended for use with the tabletop roleplaying game: Cairn. Explore a forest full of lumberjacks, maple syrup, and strange ghosts. Delve into an old mansion sinking into a marsh. Confront the Exalted Order Of The Mystic Moose.

Cairn has a few editions now: the link I’ve added to this entry is for the 2nd edition Warden’s Guide, and you can check out Yochai Gal’s creator page for both the Player’s Guide and the First Edition. This adventure has oodles of locations, three main factions, and a 20 room dungeon for your players to explore. Cairn feels like a very traditional fantasy game at its roots, but the Exalted Order of the Mystic Moose feels like like a unique take, with some flavour that feels very Boreal Forest to me.

Like many OSR adventures, this isn’t a linear adventure - instead is a series of connected locations and a broad description of things that are happening when the player group shows up. The setting has a natural conflict that is happening separately from the players’ choices or decisions, which will make the setting feel more real and important to your play.

If you want to explore more adventures for Cairn, you can check out the A Town, A Forest, A Dungeon Jam!

Totally Killer, by bloodygorgeous.

When you were kids, all the girls—and, certainly, some of the boys—wanted a Chrissy, the only fashion doll to give Barbie a run for her money. Chrissy was designed to be the woman every girl dreamed of becoming: stylish, smart, independent, and, most importantly, a total smokeshow. For a while, shelves exploded with Out of This World Astronaut Chrissies. Protect and Serve Policewoman Chrissies. ’80s prom queen Totally Killer Chrissies. Chrissy could do anything, all while her boyfriend Ben waited at home. Chrissy could have it all. Decades later, as Chrissy fever descends again on Deep Lake, a murderer stalks the night. The police have their theories, but only the Latchkeys suspect the truth: that this killer has long legs, an unstoppable smile, and a passion for fashion. Chrissy has come to life, and she’s come to slay.

Public Access is horror-mystery found-footage style game that relies on pre-written mysteries to give the table an organic approach to role-play. While typically PbtA games are considered very high in improv, I think the mystery format of these kinds of games takes a lot of weight off of the GM’s shoulders. Typically these mysteries provide a very strong starting point, introducing the table to the mystery and some key characters to look to for hints and clues. The GM is also provided with a series of clues to drop into the game where relevant - perhaps a headless doll is found where one of the victims went missing, or a mysterious silhouette lurking in the distance.

These kinds of games also typically come with some kind of track to help monitor both the progress of the latch-keys as well ask heighten the stakes to encourage the story to keep moving. In other games, I know that this track is called the mystery clock. I’m not entirely sure what Public Access uses, but the core rulebook looks to have quite a bit hidden within its pages, so I’m confident that it contains everything you need to run your first game.

You can find more mysteries for Public Access in the Degoya County Public Access Jam.

Auctōrātus, by M. Allen Hall.

You know why you are here. You are not a criminal. You are not a slave. You are an auctōrātus, a volunteer, and you will be paid well for your performance. Make sure your mech is ready. Select your components. Charge your batteries. Be prepared for the fight of your life.

Auctōrātus is a 1- or 2-gladiator game of mechs vs. monsters. The 3 files include the one-page (2-sided) rules sheet, the character sheet, and the map of the arena.

Battle monsters over six rounds to win the tournament. From the lowly Scale Wolf to the monstrous Crescent Wyvern, you will need to carefully choose your mech's components if you want to survive. 

Featuring a diceless, zero-luck mechanism,  Auctōrātus is an experiment in tabletop combat. Since this is a one or two-player game that focuses primarily on strategy, you might find a lot of satisfaction in simply immersing yourself in strategy. You can play the game solo and manage everything yourself, or play as two players who take turns playing the monsters in each person’s respective arenas.

A Good Plan Never Fails, by Deric Bindel.

A GOOD PLAN NEVER FALLS is a one-shot, gm-less roleplaying game for 2-5 players focused on infiltrating a TOWER and making off with THE GOODS held within. The group builds up with a tumbling block game, with each move taking everyone closer to collapse or success!

Over the course of play, everyone will create a member of the Crew from a set of Archetypes and receive a special Secret Agenda, dictating how they get their BONUS. You'll be bulding up the TOWER, dictating each obstacle and how you overcome them. When the TOWER inevitably COLLAPSES, it's time to shift from the HEIST to the GETAWAY!

A really strong feature of pulp-action genre games is that they’re typically heavily inspired by movies, like heists or cons. This means that the game has a pretty familiar structure, such as the infiltration or the getaway. You can rely on the hallmarks of these genres when playing these kinds of games to fill in the blanks, and it’s easy to figure out what happens next because the game builds each phase onto the last. In the case of this game, that means that the first part of the game, building the tower, leads into the second part, when the tower collapses.

Kill Him Faster, by Korvidae Games.

On May 8th, 2068, scientist Elisabet Rosenzweig answered the most pressing question in science fiction – “what’s the first thing you would do if you could travel through time?” - by killing Hitler. It took her precisely 5 years, 137 days, eight hours, and 12 seconds.

Fifteen years later killing Hitler is the hottest sport on the planet. The record stands at two weeks.

Competitive games are another great structure for play groups that want to build on something without needing a lot of heavy improv. In Kill Him Faster, the game is divided into three phases: pregame, game, and post-game, each composed of press conferences, the competitive portion, and interviews. There’s various additional phases for a longer game, including Trade Day (where athletes swap teams) and off-season vignettes, which allow you to slow down and focus on individual characters.

If you want a taste of the game before you buy, you can get the rules preview here.

Other Notes

A Complicated Profession by Always Checkers Publishing has a lot of guiding questions and a very structured order of play, and follows reformed bounty hunters running a cruise ship.

Tournament Arc, by Biscuit Fund Games, focuses on sports competitions, which may provide a structure that is easy to follow, as well as a more collaborative experience.

If you like what I do and you'd like to send me a token of your appreciation, I have a Ko-Fi page!

[starrysnowdrop]

Hali/Themis “Themis Lives” AU Headcanons

Well, no one asked for this, but my brain just will not let me be, so you’re getting a brand new Hali ship!

That’s right, this will be Hali x Themis (Elidibus), and this will be a part of an AU where Hali gets rejected by Aymeric and doesn’t have a relationship with him. Instead, Hali falls in love with Themis, and he ultimately gets to live on and stay with Hali.

Here’s a full list of headcanons about how this AU will proceed, with as much details as I have thought of at the moment. I might flesh this out into a full ship timeline in the future if necessary, but for now I’ve tried to explain it as best as I can here.

Beware of spoilers, particularly ShB, EW, and Pandaemonium. If you haven’t completed the MSQ through EW patch 6.0 and all of Pandaemonium yet, then I highly suggest to come back here once you’ve caught up.

Without further ado, the headcanons will be below the cut!

* Instead of Hali’s Azem Urania being in an on and off again complicated relationship with Hermes, Urania instead falls in love and eventually marries Themis sometime before the Final Days.

* All other aspects of Urania’s life are the same besides her love life, and she is devastated when the Convocation sacrifices Themis to become Zodiark’s heart before she has a chance to find an alternative solution.

* Once Hali has her first encounter with Elidibus in post-ARR, she begins to have strange visions and dreams about a beautiful, white-haired man with stunning blue eyes that seem to have an otherworldly glow. She doesn’t understand it for a long time, but she grows to have feelings for this man of her dreams.

* Hali soon meets Aymeric and all events of the Hali/Aymeric development are the same up until Hali is about to leave Ishgard to help the Ala Mhigan Resistance in Gyr Abania.

* Instead of keeping her feelings to herself, Hali confesses her love to Aymeric, but he tells her that even though he feels the same way, he cannot be with her because of their respective duties. Hali doesn’t understand why they can’t just be long distance and then she would return to Ishgard when she could.

* They have an intense argument where Hali runs away from Aymeric heartbroken, but not before Aymeric insists on her keeping his gift that he gave her: the snowdrop hair ornament that Hali always wears in her hair.

* From 4.0-5.1, Hali struggles with trying to move on from Aymeric’s rejection while also continuing to have the strange dreams of the mystery man. Because Hali’s echo allows her to see into other’s pasts while also seeing into possible futures, she is confused and can’t figure out if she’s seeing visions of the past, visions of the future, or just having weird dreams.

* When Elidibus comes back into the picture in Ardbert’s body, Hali feels strangely drawn to Elidibus more than ever, but they both don’t remember their pasts and don’t remember Urania and Themis’ love for each other, so Elidibus is defeated and imprisoned in the Crystal Tower in 5.3 as is in canon.

* Patch 6.0 proceeds just as it does in canon, and Hali defeats the Endsinger, saves the star from the despair of the Final Days, and returns home in triumph.

* Hali’s life changes completely once she is contacted to investigate Pandaemonium. She goes back to Elpis and literally falls onto Themis, and it’s as close to love at first sight as it could get, as she immediately recognizes Themis as the mysterious man in her dreams. She also recognizes his voice as Elidibus’ voice, which gets confirmed later into the investigation.

* Themis tells Hali that she looks just like a shorter Azem, who is also the woman that he’s secretly in love with. Hali can’t help but wonder if this confirms her dreams about him and maybe he is meant to be the love of her life.

* As she spends time with Themis investigating Pandaemonium, Hali finds herself more and more in love with him, but she realizes that it can’t lead to anything because he belongs in his own time with her past self. Hali encourages Themis to confess his love to Azem, as she at least wants him to be happy with her past self.

* When Hali returns to the present, she finds herself heartbroken all over again, first time over Aymeric, this time over Themis. She does, however, resolve herself in knowing that she ultimately did the right thing.

* Everything suddenly gets complicated when Pandaemonium itself suddenly pops up in the aetherial sea of the present Source. Hali soon finds herself face to face with a resurrected Themis, whom Hali frees from the control of Athena, but she is inconsolable when she realizes that she is going to have to watch him die in front of her for a third time when he must return to the aetherial sea.

* Before his soul begins to dissipate and slowly return to the aetherial sea, Hali confesses her love to Themis, telling him that she realizes that she isn’t his Urania and could never be, but despite all of that, she still loves him and doesn’t want him to leave her.

* Themis tells her that most of his memories of his life together with Urania have faded, but he remembers Hali very clearly, and their time spent together in Pandaemonium, and he realizes now that yes, he always loved Urania, but he also loves Hali just as she is, and he always had missed her after she disappeared following the investigation of Pandaemonium.

* He apologizes to Hali for making her cry, but he cannot stop his soul from fading away, and he dissipates before Hali can reach him, telling her his love will always be with her.

* As Hali is sitting there crying, Themis reaches the aetherial sea, and he encounters Hades and Hythlodaeus. They tell him that Hali shouldn’t be left all alone without any of them, and with their encouragement along with the Azem crystal in Hali’s possession, she will have the power to bring Themis back for good, and they ask him if that’s what he wants. He nods and says yes, more than anything.

* Hali then hears whispers of Hades and Hythlodaeus telling her to use the Azem crystal to wish Themis back to her side, and then Themis does appear before her hale and whole.

* Themis and Hali are reunited, and Themis tells her that he wishes to stay with her until her mortal days are over and then they can return to aetherial sea together, to which Hali tells him that he’d better stay this time, and they both laugh.

* Themis moves into Hali’s house in the Empyreum, and they begin to build their lives together, as he goes with Hali on all of her adventures and is her lover and constant companion.

Well, that’s it for now. Thank you for taking the time to read this!! Please let me know if you have any comments, suggestions, and/or questions!

[ssaluss]

Christmas dadow

Under the cut is just a little rant of mine, its about religion, christmas and myself so you can just not read, i just want to be brave for once.

Last warning, could be sensitive, just really personal under the cut.

Again its that time of year and i just don't feel it the way i did before, i can't say life is truly heavy cause i was blessed in a way not even other family members or even my parents were when they were younger, but it just lacks something? I guess childhood is finally over, and even tho i can still find some infant joy in life (wich is a thing im pretty afraid to see going away someday) i feel like i just lack the energy i had.

About religion i does have things with christmas, as a christian i have even more lack of energy seeing as its just a commercial holiday and all, i umderstand about the grattitude stuff and all, but what about the year long we lived till now? Shouldn't we be grateful? reach out to the people we care most? I guess i don't know, i feel tired constantly and after all im a coward in a way i want to make a change, share the love the Lord gives me everyday, share the love im so grateful ive learned at home even with its downs and things i may never talk about...

But im afraid and i don't know if its okay

Im afraid of changes, of the world,of the state it is in, of the future, of having a future, of not having one, of not doing enough, loosing those who are dear to me...im afraid of finally growing up.

I can't stop time, as funny as it sound cause of the post and all, i might not now our future but we can all try and change the past, and i want to be brave, maybe next year ill try and find ways to make it properly even to i have a hard time with interacting with people and touch (idk why but im already in my 20's so idk how helpful searching about it can be). Today i want to be brave by sharing this, and saying that this i feel i kinda like to see the paralels sometimes when i read the bible and pray, ecclesiastes is pretty good (my fave verse is this book, 4:2-3). And even if you don't believe, Daniel's book is kinda metal ngl, the writing in the wall? Booooooy it is rad.

Thats my rant, thanks if you reached here, be brave

Be nice

Bless u

And good night❤️

[karlachismylife]

I have been summoned from the pit of my depression to talk about Nikolai's political views by this post whether you want it or not.

Wholeheartedly admitting that I am fully biased on multiple levels, I am here to say that Nikolai is a firm socialist (bordering on communist but he does not like when any of his western allies call him that cuz 98% of the time they either think "commie" is an insult or think that USSR was a communist country or that every Russian is communist. Or all three. Graves calls him a commie once and never makes that mistake again on account of wanting to keep living his pathetic 'merican life without having to constantly look over his shoulder.)

I am also here to say that had he stayed in Russia to participate in war(s) in Chechnya we would have a full grown ancom here. These conflicts basically shaped Russian political landscape as it is now, and if we (I) think Afghanistan was what lead to Nikolai's disappointment in the cause he wanted to fight for and therefore the change in where his loyalty lies (always with his country, unlike the people he took orders from at the time), then Chechnya would create a much more radicalized version of Nik. His heart is already halfway there, but he didn't get to live directly through the circumstances that shaped that next generation that would fight in street wars all throughout Russia.

He grew up on socialist/communist ideals and sticks with those, and I am sure he took it close to heart when he witnessed their decline. But unlike many, he was able to recognize that it wasn't the ideas' flaws, but of those who carried the slogans while contradicting them in every step.

Nik is a patriot, a convinced, but quiet one - but also unlike many "quiet" patriots, he's not sticking to his "lesser homeland" or is a patriot of some non-existent depoliticized version of Russia. It's not birch trees or blue waves of Volga he's patriotic of, it's the country Russia could (and maybe, just maybe, his youthful idealistic heart still thinks can) be. He knows that a country is its people, not government or symbols.

And he most definitely has a disdain towards the military apparatus AND the police. He grew up on Soviet image of a morally righteous protector-милиционер, and seeing how actually corrupt all these forces probably landed a bitter wound deep at his core. He learnt the way of compromise, but I do think that he doesn't consider his career and choices the best. There's something to be said about how Farah is everything he always strived and sometimes failed to be, so while he obviously is the most loyal to John, he might be ready to go to even greater lengths for her. Farah has a chance to do for her country and people what Nikolai couldn't do for his, and he must admire how strong her moral compass is. She has to make compromises too, their circumstances are different, but he definitely thinks she's more capable at this fight than he is. Farah is his bet on the brighter future.

And finally I am here to say that unlike many, Nikolai has always enjoyed certain western attractions, from music to food to just, let's be honest, much better standards of living, but never deemed it a synonym to freedom. Capitalism could and will never seduce him.

Also he did eat black caviar for breakfast when he was a kid and definitely doesn't think that highly of it.

This is the most self-projection I could ever make on a character and I will gladly die on this hill, thank you for coming to my ted talk.

I don't think Nik and Price see eye to eye on politics all the time. Unfortunately, I think Price is a staunch monarchist and quite centrist - even centre-right - in some of his ideologies. But because he's a northerner he is also bitterly anti-Tory. Nik can't quite work him out.

They do agree on big things though; the hypocrisy of ruling classes, for the many not the few, the importance of and inherent nobility in self-sacrifice for the weak and dispossessed, pro-lgbt, pro-womens rights. You know, the important shit. Which is what makes Price so frustrating to Nik.

Their first big argument happened when Price overheard Nik call the Queen "parasite in chief". Two very stubborn men who are old enough to be fully entrenched in their particular way of thinking clashing horns; big words and raised voices, but no actual fists thrown. Nik is so frustrated that Price can't see the absolute hypocrisy in his position, and Price is frustrated that Nik can't see the importance of national symbols and patriotism, especially for the working class, and could be so disrespectful to something he cares about.

"But I am not disrespecting you, only your monarchy, John."

"My country is me!"

"They are not your country, your people are--!"

Price's loyalty to the crown and country (not just the land itself, but the people in it) is part of who he is. I headcanon he joined the army to run away from his home life, but there's also the inference from canon material and my knowledge of Men Like Him that leads me to believe the whole monarchist thing would be a sticking point between him and Nikolai.

It's not relationship-ending, because Nik also knows that there are two loyalties that surpass Price's loyalty to the flag: loyalty to Nik, and loyalty to the 141.

[teamunee]

wrio is aethers scary dog privilege

[bluespiritshonour]

"Not everything's changed" -Mai, Going Home Again

[sensei-twinkles]

I’ve been too busy for finished pieces and I feel bad not posting much so I’m gonna post more sketches if that’s okay! Just means you guys get more content ✨

Most will be Dadmight because literally peak duo I can’t stop drawing them, this is only one page of many 🫵

[hdusa]

printer zam.... would you ever consider uploading lore streams into clipped down vids for a second channel.....

fuuuuuuuck I should just continue the 2nd channel abyss stuff with just clips of the super important stuff with zero cuts unless it’s for a big jump 😭😭

[toastsartcornerthesequel]

An AU where Kon saves and befriends his many clones ( + Travv)

Context and rambles are in the tags

[serpentface]

Do you conlang? I was wondering if you had naming languages (or possibly even more developed ones) for pulling the words you use. I tried to search your blog but didn't find anything, wouldn't be surprised if the feature is just busted tho. Your worldbuilding is wonderful and I particularly enjoy the anthropological and linguistic elements.

Ok the thing is I had kind of decided I was not going to do any conlanging because I don't feel like I'm equipped to do a good job of it, like was fully like "I'm just going to do JUST enough that it doesn't fail an immediate sniff test and is more thoughtful than just keysmashing and putting in vowels". And then have kinda been conlanging anyway (though not to a very deep and serious extent. I maybe have like....an above average comprehension of how language construction works via willingness to research, but that's not saying much, also I can never remember the meanings of most linguistic terms like 'frictives' or etc off the top of my head. I'm just kinda raw dogging it with a vague conceptualization of what these things mean)

I do at least have a naming language for Wardi (and more basic rules for other established languages) but the rudimentary forms of it were devised with methods much shakier and less linguistically viable than even the most basic naming language schemes, and I only went back over it LONG after I had already made a bunch of words so there's some inconsistencies with consonant presence and usage. (This can at least be justified because it IS a language that would have a lot of loanwords and would be heavily influenced by other language groups- Burri being by far the most significant, Highland-Finnic and Yuroma-Lowlands also being large contributors)

The 'method' I used was:

-Skip basic construction elements and fully move into devising necessary name words, with at least a Vibe of what consonants are going to be common and how pronunciation works -Identify some roots out of the established words and their meanings. Establish an ongoing glossary of known roots/words. -Construct new words based in root words, or as obvious extensions/variants of established words. -Get really involved in how the literal meanings of some words might not translate properly to english, mostly use this to produce a glossary of in-universe slang. -Realize that I probably should have at least some very basic internal consistency at this point. -Google search tutorials on writing a naming language. -Reverse engineer a naming language out of established words, and ascribe all remaining inconsistencies to being loanwords or just the mysteries of life or whatever.

I do at least have some strongly established pronunciation rules and a sense of broad regional dialect/accents.

-'ai' words are almost always pronounced with a long 'aye' sound.

-There is no 'Z' or 'X' sound, a Wardi speaker pronouncing 'zebra' would go for 'tsee-brah', and would attempt 'xylophone' as 'ssye-lohp-hon'

-'V' sounds are nearly absent and occur only in loanwords, and tend to be pronounced with a 'W' sound. 'Virsum' is a Highland word (pronounced 'veer-soom') denoting ancestry, a Wardi speaker would go 'weer-sum'.

-'Ch' spellings almost always imply a soft 'chuh' sound when appearing after an E, I, or O (pelatoche= pel-ah-toh-chey), but a hard 'kh' sound after an A or U (odomache= oh-doh-mah-khe). When at the start of a word, it's usually a soft 'ch' unless followed by an 'i' sound (chin (dog) is pronounced with a hard K 'khiin', cholem (salt) is pronounced with a soft Ch 'cho-lehm')

-Western Wardin has strong Burri cultural and linguistic influence, and a distinct accent- one of the most pronounced differences is use of the ñ sound in 'nn' words. The western city of Ephennos is pronounced 'ey-fey-nyos' by most residents, the southeastern city of Erubinnos is pronounced 'eh-roo-been-nos' by most residents. Palo's surname 'Apolynnon' is pronounced 'A-puh-lee-nyon' in the Burri and western Wardi dialects (which is the 'proper' pronunciation, given that it's a Kos name), but will generally be spoken as 'Ah-poh-leen-non' in the south and east.

-R's are rolled in Highland-Finnic words. Rolling R's is common in far northern rural Wardi dialects but no others. Most urban Wardi speakers consider rolling R's sort of a hick thing, and often think it sounds stupid or at least uneducated. (Brakul's name should be pronounced with a brief rolled 'r', short 'ah' and long 'uul', but is generally being pronounced by his south-southeastern compatriots with a long unrolled 'Brah' sound).

Anyway not really a sturdy construction that will hold up to the scrutiny of someone well equipped for linguistics but not pure bullshit either.

[eggwishing]

CRINGE AND FREE CRINGE AND FREE CRINGE AND FREE I AM CRINGE AND FREE FOR EVER

[le-agent-egg]

Erm what the scallop

[sincapjelly]

Do you know why Lilly's name is written with two "L"s? Because the two "L"s stand for SILLY!

Sorta comic redraw? (She is listening to Geckle and Munce and how they don't like each other.) (I think they didn't like each other even before the whole blades stuff?)

Also yea, that's sorta still a child, she is like at most 19 here. (According to my most likely inaccurate calculations of timeline and I do believe it. You can't do anything about it.)

[puhpandas]

as someone who isnt super excited for sotm for certain reasons I am really glad that like. it's clear that since ruin theyve been setting up for carnival and sotm IS carnival. so now that carnival is finally coming out, afterwards theyll be moving on to other plotlines since the main villain stuff is sorted out

I'm just rlly happy to finally see a clear direction for how the story is gonna be playing out with like "okay these games were leading up to this so after this will be open possibilites" instead of like. absolutely no info about each upcoming game and being left guessing before it releases and just having to wait and see what's in it and if anything you're looking forward to will be in it

it feels like they have a plan and a solid direction for what they're trying to do and after carnival releases thatll be all that buildup coming to fruition. & we already know from the Scott interview that theres another release 'beyond sotm' that's 'super exciting' so maybe thatll be focusing on another big currently untouched (which is basically all of them) plotline, or even the big campaign game that dawko has been calling security breach 2