#stirring up trouble

[stirdrawsandreblaws]

got stuck on the toilet earlier and my inner monologue started coming in cookie monster's voice for some reason

[stirdrawsandreblaws]

read part of this post aloud to my partner and their take was (paraphrased):

Say you want to play Candyland, but all you know is the pieces move around the board somehow. Then, instead of looking at the rules, all you do to "play Candyland" is move the pieces around. In that case, you're not actually playing Candyland. So if you go to someone's house, and they get the game out and help everyone navigate the rules, and you get upset because you can't simply move your piece around while everyone else follows the rules you refuse to engage with? That's on you.

I think an important part of the "D&D is easy to learn" argument is that a lot of those people don't actually know how to play D&D. They know they need to roll a d20 and add some numbers and sometimes they need to roll another type of die for damage. A part of it is the culture of basically fucking around and letting the GM sort it out. Players don't actually feel the need to learn the rules.

Now I don't think the above actually counts as knowing the rules. D&D is a relatively crunchy game that actually rewards system mastery and actually learning how to play D&D well, as in to make mechanically informed tactical decisions and utilizing the mechanics to your advantage, is actually a skill that needs to be learned and cultivated. None of that is to say that you need to be a perfectly tuned CharOp machine to know how to play D&D. But to actually start to make the sorts of decisions D&D as a game rewards you kind of need to know the rules.

And like, a lot of people don't seem to know the rules. They know how to play D&D in the most abstract sense of knowing that they need to say things and sometimes the person scowling at them from behind the screen will ask them to roll a die. But that's hardly engaging with the mechanics of the game, like the actual game part.

And to paraphrase @prokopetz this also contributes to the impression that other games are hard to learn: because a lot of other games don't have the same culture of play of D&D so like instead of letting new players coast by with a shallow understanding of the rules and letting the GM do all the work, they ask players to start making mechanically informed decisions right away. Sure, it can suck for onboarding, but learning from your mistakes can often be a great way to learn.

[danisunshine86]

Play time…👀😹

[mattsmemes]

[bevanne46]

Stirring Up Trouble - Free Pattern Quilt Size: 64" x 64"

[stirdrawsandreblaws]

hmhm... @inflagrante-delicatessen @cheshiure @batsintheshadows @toravii @theredfoxof9 @acesaru @masked-deity @asexual-thot @iwouldliketoeatrandy @chaotic-aro-incarnate @lunosamentelunitoo @raenef @queerkimi @anais-ninja-bitch and whoever else wants to share a random picture

Everyone post a random picture from your gallery,this is a tag game yes

@fymo-blogs @the-real-gmail @totally-china @dhampirdreamerz @france-unofficial

[stirdrawsandreblaws]

if you could add your reasoning and an approximate age (or generation you belong to) in the tags, that'd be cool

[thatsbelievable]

[stirdrawsandreblaws]

you're supposed to reblog directly from who you're replying to; please do that next time.

and uh, this is what you said:

please, feel free to elaborate on what you meant if you feel misunderstood.

y'all cannot be fucking serious about believing that ao3 is being hacked by a "sudanese extremist group" be fucking for realllll i think you guys are just racist

[timothyslucy]

*AHEM*

that is all.

[aphel1on]

nah the fandom does acknowledge it’s because of his abyss powers he became like this. they believe it more especially after seeing the effect on chasca etc

YEAH everyone acknowledges he became this way because of the abyss but what i'm talking about is like. his character stories make it sound like he gained some sort of cognitohazard Strife Effect that makes chaos constantly break out around him and i've never seen anyone talk about THAT.

Specifically these lines:

In those three months, the swordswoman taught Tartaglia how to pass through the Abyss unhindered, and more importantly, nurtured the ability to stir up endless havoc from within Ajax's trouble-mongering nature.

Shocked by Ajax's great strength and curious about how he invariably became the eye of a vortex of discord, Pulcinella inducted Ajax into the Fatui under the pretext of meting out punishment, ordering him to start from the bottom and take up the duty of serving the Tsaritsa.

Kind of make it sound like it's not an effect of his personality but rather some sort of passive aura he's exerting.

Of course, the reason no one talks about this could well be because it makes no fucking sense, when his personality itself is already quite sufficient to explain all the fights he gets into.

...Could also easily be a case of me interpreting lore way too literally again lol

[wiirocku]

Proverbs 10:12 (GNT) - Hate stirs up trouble, but love forgives all offenses.

[stirdrawsandreblaws]

this is the worst way you could have called me out and I will get revenge for it later you horrid little plantbear

anyway, OP, with the disclaimer that most of these are older bc I live under a rock these days, I do have some suggestions:

Mononoke - monster of the week type supernatural series where a medicine seller solves some grotesque problems. warning: the animation is incredible, but it can be eye-straining for some, so be aware of that going in

Natsume Yuujinchou/Natsume's Book of Friends - I would put this one in the horror-adjacent slice of life category. this series pulverized my heart multiple times--no summary, but I'll say as a xxxHolic fan I think you'll also enjoy it

Mushi-Shi - a gorgeous supernatural monster-of-the-week slice-of-life. the pacing is very intentional, though to some it feels slow and doesn't keep their attention. (despite my ADHD I did not have this issue, but thought it worth mention just in case so you were prepared)

Kyo Kara Maoh! - boy gets bullied in school and a swirlie sends him to the demon world where he accidentally becomes king of the demons, and even more accidentally gets engaged to a bratty prince who he was trying to fight with. there are a lot of good shonen demon battle antics but also a lot of slice of life comedy and absurd characters.

Dororo to Hyakkimaru-den - cyborg son of a samurai violently collecting his body parts from the demons who stole them, with the aid of a young thief.

Poco's Udon World - dude moves back to his small hometown in the wake of his father's death and ends up accidentally adopting a shapeshifting tanuki. wholesome supernatural slice of life.

Tsuritama - extremely anxious high school boy gets dragged into fishing by a self-declared space alien. shenanigans ensue.

Recs with caveats:

The Morose Mononokean - basically xxxHolic if Yuuko were a grumpy high school boy and Watanuki was slightly more chill. I haven't actually seen a ton of it yet but it seems up your alley enough I'm putting it here anyway.

Nabari no Ou - shonen series about a war to control an apathetic ninja with a powerful secret technique, which is good, but this series also has a fair bit of genderweirdness and a canon intersex character that might add another layer of interest. I have only read the manga though and, while I've heard the anime is a good adaptation, I can't say for sure.

Fruits Basket - if you watch it, please consider watching the 2001 series before the 2019 reboot. The reboot is a fuller and more accurate adaptation overall, but it skips a lot of character moments early on that were handled more completely in the 2001 series.

Special Rec (problematic fave) beneath the readmore bc god did i ramble:

Saiyuki - a loose adaptation of journey to the west (though the kanji for this read more like journey to the extreme), featuring four prettyboys with angsty backstories and a dragon that turns into a jeep fighting hordes of bloodthirsty yokai and overcoming their traumas, with an interpersonal dynamic that's half bastard coworkers, half found family.

it compels me lol. some parts of it aged poorly (esp given one of the core themes is exploring taboo) but overall I still find it to be very solid.

in my honest opinion, you should read the manga instead of watching the first few anime adaptations, due to how heavily they were censored. BUT, if you're an anime-only type, then just make sure you aren't watching the English dubs (unless you wanna hear someone shouting 'fag' every 20 seconds I guess.) also, Saiyuki, Saiyuki Reload, and Saiyuki Reload Gunlock especially are not known for their animation quality...

the anime adaptations that I think are definitely worth watching are the movie (Saiyuki Requiem), the Gaiden OVAs, and the later series Saiyuki Reload Blast. (Zeroin also seems pretty and solid, but I haven't been able to get around to that one yet)

Hope something here tickles your fancy

Hey weebs that follow me, I've been out of anime and manga circles for some time and outside of a few titles I'm starting to run low on things to try. If I give examples of what I've liked in the past, can you give suggestions on other things that are out there?

What I've liked over the years seems to be:

Samurai genre (Kenshin, Kurogane, Sword of the Stranger)

Supernatural/Horror-lite (Descendants of Darkness, Noragami, Beyond the Boundary, Inuyasha, Yu Yu Hakusho, xxxHolic, Jujutsu Kaisen, Shaman King, Shounen Omnyouji) (preferred genre I love this shit)

Fun Shounen Things (My Hero Academy, Pokémon, Haruko no Go)

Cute Shoujo slice of life things (His and Her Circumstances, Free!, Super Gals!, Land of the Blindfolded)

[stirdrawsandreblaws]

hate that i have the brownie curse where i can't do shit if people are around

[epickiya722]

"Ugh, I have to block these BakuDeku shippers, even though I don't watch the show."

2025, please learn to just stay in your space and not be an asshole.

[stirdrawsandreblaws]

my sea wolf is named Thorgeim Merlskyfkyn; since roe surnames are gendered by -syn/-wyn suffixes (meaning son/daughter), i did some linguistic research and decided -kyn would be the most likely gender-neutral suffix (derived from 'klin/klind' meaning child, but not -klyn, as 'klyn' already means 'small')

so! they chose their current name! per my character notes:

They were born into a pirate's life as Ofangeim Merlskyfwyn. Always on the heels of their father, Merlskyf, they were a formidable little Sea Wolf since they were old enough to carry an axe, unafraid of much larger opponents. However, when they elected to change their surname from Merlskyfwyn to Merlskyfkyn, a rift began to grow between them and their traditionalist crew-family. Eventually the tension became too much, and, so far as their family knew, they simply vanished at the docks one day.

they replaced 'ofan' (clear) with 'thor' (pronounced 'tor', meaning torn, symbolizing their choice to tear away from their family), but kept 'geim' (meaning jewel)

common nicknames include 'torgi' (with torgy/torgie as valid permutations) and 'shark'. it's also fine to address them as 'captain' since that's their rank in the maelstrom. they'll roll with almost anything they recognize as referring to them though

sorta the same deal with pronouns; any pronouns are fine, but they don't particularly like being referred to as a woman or man (or worse, boy/girl). the only time that's allowed is if it's For The Bit, or if they're dealing with literal children (and even then they'll correct it before they draw their axe)

Roegadyn players, tell me about your character's name!

What was your thought process behind it? Does it mean something important? Does it follow Sea Wolf/Hellsguard conventions or does it draw on other cultures? Is it the same as their birth name or has it changed? Can other people pronounce it? Do they go by any nicknames or shorten it for convenience?