#that’s a totally valid source of information
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OMG THIS IS SO EXCITING, THE LAST SENTENCE I WROTE WAS ABOUT A CUT CHARACTER FROM THE LOST WORLD!!!
It’s a line of dialogue being said to Elliot Wu about him and Henry!!
“I take it you are [like your brother] which means that if you knew how things would have been, not even in the worst case scenario, but just in general, working for InGen, for Hammond, you would have declined.”
But back to your piece-IT. IS. AMAZING. THE DESCRIPTIONS ARE VIVID AND THE ATMOSPHERE IS PALPABLE!! THE DRAMATIC REVEAL OF THE FINAL PARAGRAPH IS EXCELLENTLY SET UP AND EXECUTED! I LOVE IT AND I HOPE YOU CONTINUE TO WRITE AND SHARE MORE!!
Anyone who sees this is welcome to participate!
Last Line Game
Rules: in a new post, show the last line you wrote (or drew) and tag as many people as there are words (or as many as you feel like).
Thank you so much for the tag @desfraisespartout !!!
I was actually trying to write something when I got the notification lol.
Listen I am not a writer so this probably isn't the best. 😅 It's mainly just descriptions.
The sour smell of mold eating away at any exposed surface, slowly encroaching through out the skeleton of an isolated wing. It’s doors barred shut from the main body of the building, wooden boards haphazardly nailed in place showing its age with their splintering grain. The tile, once spotless and waxed, now broken and crunch under each foot fall.
Deep clean sanitation chambers, revered for their excellent sterilization, harbor clouds of spores from the trapped moisture. Glass panels looking into the main room, all smashed long ago, long since dried blood littered what remaining shards still stood on the frames edges. Thin streams of rainfall finding its home in the crevices of high tech computers and machines left to rust away in the humid tropical weather.
Memories of snarling teeth and rotten meat still connected to something living. Loud screams and festering wounds, desperate pleads for help to no avail. Quick claws and cut lines. All still haunt the one remaining occupant of this rotting corpse that housed the products of genetic achievements. A single soul slinking through the backdrop of this waking nightmare
No clue if there is anyone I can tag but whoever is interested can participate!
#Tag game#Yes this is jurassic park related...#Yes this is related to the cut character from the lost world novel.#I wanted to at least give it a try. Probably won't finish it.#I’m SO proud of you for giving it a shot!!#Technically also based on this dream/nightmare I had last night.#I mean#that’s a totally valid source of information#Haha. I woke up so exhausted and sore.#:/#AL tries writing#<- sure lets go with that#Was listening to Portal 2 Old Aperture ambience while writing it to help.#The vibes show through the writing so well!!#Definitely wrote the DX virus closer to Chronic Wasting disease than just rabies. It's a prion disease. It's terrifying.#IIRC#that’s closer to cannon since it is a prion disease that’s caused by scapies in sheep#That’s what has all the characters in the story so worried when they find out what happened#And why Levine PANICS when he realizes he was bit by a compy since every animal is a carrier#It’s assumed he’ll “just have encephalitis” and be okay but to me that part of the ending was always concerning#dr henry wu#Dr Elliot wu#Writing#writing inspiration#writing ideas#writing community#Mutuals#participation#come join us#writeblr
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Welcome to My TedTalk
Hellooooo, I know I have been a little MIA lately... needed a little break after the energy shift from the rollercoaster last week. But I am still here lol and I have been marinating on quite a few things the last couple of weeks. So below are my thoughts. As always, everything here are just my thoughts and speculation from the information I have seen. Others might interpret information differently, and that is fine. Note: This will be another one of my long posts lol
Let's start with the obvious. October was a ROLLERCOASTER. It started off soooo strong, and the closest I think we have ever come to L/N publicly announcing they are in a relationship. And THEN... It was just total whiplash the rest of the month. Not a fun feeling right?? And I think a lot of people have started to feel like they can't trust L/N and have sooooo many questions on why October went the way it did. I think a lot of people are also feeling very frustrated because we have gotten so many clues/crumbs/Easter Eggs that haven't really led anywhere. All your various feelings around everything lately are valid. But L/N are allowed to do what they want (obviously) and if crumbs/Easter Eggs are all they want/can show us rn, we have to accept that. October was a rough month for me as well on this ship, which is why I took a couple breaks. We have to remember that we choose to be on this ship, we don't HAVE to be. It's totally valid if you're feeling overwhelmed/not having fun on the ship anymore, you can always take a break and come back if/when you want to. WE DO NOT KNOW L/N. NONE OF US. These are celebrities whose lives are very different than ours (which I know is obvious, but I thought it was important to note). They are human though and allowed to be imperfect, and we get to choose how much energy we give to them. And I have said this multiple times, but they do not owe us anything, and DESERVE to have a private life. We have so many questions related to them, and the fact is, we are never going to have all the answers. And you know what, that is how it should be imo. We are not owed every little detail of their life, and honestly, we got lucky we even got crumbs. THEY DID NOT HAVE TO DO THAT. They will go public WHEN they want/can.
People have talked about this before, but we got an AMAZING tour from them and sooooo much content. SOOOO MUCH. And we got addicted, and then were were cut off cold turkey, and papgate was a total grenade that threw everything into chaos. However, L/N were OBVIOUSLY hiding behind their characters during the WT (no one can convince me otherwise). And we talk about blurred lines between them and their characters, but L/N ARE NOT Polin (although there are a lot of similarities with their stories). There were definitely blurred lines between them and their characters yes, but neither of them are their characters and are a lot more complex and complicated. Lastly, I think because we got soooo much content from them, and they were obviously using their own personal relationship/feelings for each other to promote their characters and the season, L/N kind of lost control of their public narrative related to their private lives. I think that, and leaving everything open to speculation (STILL), was their biggest mistake. But like I said, everything has to be on their own time, and they do have good teams to handle this stuff.
I think we all know this already, but in case it's not obvious... DM has a personal vendetta against N, they do not like her getting positive attention, and I can't stress this enough, THEY WANT HER TO FAIL. 1000%. I think there are a lot of complexities on why this is the case, but you can make your own conclusions on why this is happening. But it IS happening. And you should never get your information directly from DM. They are a sensationalist, tabloid blog. THEY ARE NOT A RELIABLE NEWS SOURCE. THAT IS A FACT.
This fandom has turned INCREDIBLY toxic, and most of the drama is coming from WITHIN the fandom and in-fighting. We don't have concrete answers about ANYTHING related to L/N's romantic lives. Shipping should be fun and low stakes, because ultimately, who they are dating doesn't REALLY matter. That is their personal life, and they are not defined by who they are dating. But like I just mentioned, I think L/N leaving the wolves to mass speculation was one of their biggest mistakes, and has now led the fandom to where it is and this mass speculation and interest in their dating lives, which is feeding the tabloid frenzy and rumors.
Alright, now that I got that out of the way, on to my thoughts on everything the last couple of months:
Firstly, I HIGHLY recommend, if you haven't already, reading through this entire post by @fiamat12. It is incredibly enlightening and well laid out! Couple things I want to add/note:
The paparazzi are a money hungry machine, constantly looking for opportunities that will get them the most money. Ethics... out the window. Ethics/respect doesn't get them money. As long as there is a demand for "candid" photos/videos of celebrities' private/personal lives, and unless laws/regulations significantly change around them, this industry will continue being this way. This means though that the material they circulate is not always what meets the eye. It is just a moment in time with very little context, and in general, a total violation of privacy. However, unfortunately, it is a beast celebrities have to navigate, and sometimes they play games with them to protect their privacy.
L has not been seen in real time (via paps or people in public) since Sorrento. THREE MONTHS. And although we joke that L has just been holed up in their house (yeah I said it), L has definitely been out in public living his life. And y'all, people WANT to see him. I know he doesn't stand out as much as N and can blend into the crowd more, but there is NO WAY no one has seen him in three months. There is some strategy in place here where he has been able to keep a VERY low profile, and I think some of these side characters are part of that strategy. And no one can convince me that his low profile has NOTHING to do with the fact that him and N are together.
2. Alright, side characters... let's first get to the A of it because it's pretty obvious to me. I'm going to keep this short. She plays games. This isn't new. There are VERY likely NDAs in place. This isn't new information either. And she LOVES attention by stirring the pot. Therefore, any time we give her any engagement, we are feeding the beast.
3. Onto JD... this post basically summarizes my thoughts. NOTHING about JD has been private. There isn't anything to protect there from the masses. IF JD (and I'm not saying he is) was her serious partner, there wouldn't be so many public games with the two of them. There are a lot of games, and if this was a serious relationship she wanted to protect, she wouldn't be throwing him and her to the wolves. She just wouldn't. But L... she doesn't mess around about him. Although L/N have given us crumbs, they have obviously not been totally honest about their private relationship with each other (which is totally valid), because there is a lot there they want to protect from the wolves.
4. So if you have made it this far, you can see there is a LOT going on, and it's complex. And although L/N have maybe not been totally honest about everything, they don't have to be and there are reasons. And that doesn't therefore mean they have been totally disingenuous about each other and aren't to be trusted. I personally don't think they have. However, they want to protect their privacy. Even though October was a rollercoaster, in no way do I believe L and N are hot and heavy with A or JD. There is just too much evidence to the contrary that L/N are in a serious relationship BTS, and likely have been for a while. Here are some of the reasons I have come to this conclusion:
THE RINGS (everything about them)
The photo of L in her house while she was getting ready with a ring on his ring finger (we can argue all we want, those are his hands and that pic was VERY intentional)
N's TIME article
The October 3rd and BRB story from L (HE HASN'T DONE ANYTHING LIKE THIS ON HIS PUBLIC ACCOUNT IN A LONGG TIME)
The coordinated travel posts from L/N when they were going to NY
Chaos week from N in early August (that was about L, no one can convince me otherwise)
BLESS THE TELEPHONE (That was how I knew they were together and had been for a while likely... can't exactly explain it)
TalkTalk, Juna
The recent Polin pic they BOTH shared to their stories (they were both really emotional looking (N was absolutely beaming and looked like she had tears in her eyes) and the pic was VERY interestingly cropped 🤔)
All the "boyfriend" pics of L on N's IG page (I did a whole post about this that you can find if you scroll through my page)
The Polaroid(s)
THE WHOLE WT (which is why a lot of us are still here despite all the noise and emotional whiplash)
And trust me, both L and N know what people are saying and how people are interpreting the information they are putting out to the public. THEY KNOW. So if there was NOTHING going on between them, that would have been corrected atp and they wouldn't have fed the flames. But it hasn't and they have... They'll go public when they are ready/can. Until then, we just have to sit back, relax, and wait and see how everything unfolds.
And THAT is where I am with everything atp. Of course, we're all going to interpret the same information we are seeing a little differently, which is fine. This is just my interpretation of the information.
And if you made it to the end... thank you for coming to my TedTalk 😅
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I came across this paper:
https://www.academia.edu/71372307/Trans_masculinities_embodiments_performances_and_the_materiality_of_gender_in_times_of_change
I'm not well-versed in academic language so I can't really understand all of it, but it seems kind of gross and condescending, especially when it's using testimonials of transmasc's desire to be seen as men to, idk, prove that masculinity isn't really queer or something? I'm curious how other (smarter) people would interpret it.
I mean, your understanding of it is just as important as mine! I'm happy to add my thoughts, though.
My understanding is that their thesis is essentially "masculinity is related to maleness and the male body specifically, and we know that because transmascs want to have male bodies". They allow for some nuance here in references to other literature, and I agree with that angle of their argument overall, but their premise is fundamentally flawed in the exclusion of trans theory and trans narratives.
Like, yes, masculinity is in some way related to appearance and the "male body", and there are a lot of reasons for that! But is the dysphoria of trans people really ironclad "proof" of what maleness and masculinity are? And why don't they spend any time talking about what dysphoria actually is, what trans people think it is, why trans people think they feel the way they do, or what trans academics have to say about any of this?
I have a lot of other issues with this paper as well, and I could probably write a paper just as long as theirs going into all of the reasons for that. But I think that answers your biggest question; what they're trying to prove, how they're trying to prove it, and why that comes across so weird.
To your other question ("is it condescending?"): I think this is kind of subjective overlay, but the way they go about analyzing their data is pretty condescending, in my opinion. They tend to frame their participants' responses as kind of misguided or ill-informed, particularly Diniz- who they definitely discuss as "trying to justify his choices" to identify as nonbinary while also seeking medical transition, like this is inherently contradictory and must therefore rely on some kind of delusion or desperation. It's weird!
I do also want to point out, briefly, that they also really cherrypick which claims they bother sourcing, and how they try to back them up.
They argue that trans men have male privilege based on the opinions of, like, three of their 30 total participants- and then carry this as "fact" through the entire paper, uncontested. That's extremely fucking weird and super suspect in a paper like this! I just wrote my own qualitative research paper based on interviews (which is what this is), and it's pretty standard to acknowledge the limitations of your research, and to position your results as non-definitive. Like, that's been a major part of every discussion with everyone I've talked to about my research. I would not have been greenlit to receive my degree if I hadn't been careful to avoid framing my research the way these people frame theirs.
The other weird thing they do is cherrypick statistics- or rather, one single statistic- to "prove" that transmascs do not suffer as much as other trans people, or possess some kind of privilege. They only cite murder statistics from one source; apparently that's the only relevant metric for quantifying all oppression? They also fail to acknowledge any possible shortcomings of this statistic, like the issues of under-reporting and misgendering of transmasc victims.
I could go on; I have a lot of gripes. But I think your criticism is totally valid, this was a weird and frustrating read.
Also curious if @genderkoolaid has thoughts- you tend to talk about gender studies from an academic position more, and you probably have a lot more field-specific expertise than I do. I'll boost other additions too, I love a good academic discussion!
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i’m not here to claim that wyll doesn’t deserve more extra content or that larian’s perspective of him isn’t rooted in racism in any way whatsoever. however, i sincerely believe that it’s always important to list the facts first before misinformation continues to spread which only results in more needless outrage.
these are all of wyll’s scenes that exist in the game as of now:
meeting karlach, mizora, and his transformation, the tiefling party kiss, the dance scene, mizora visiting camp, another scene where mizora visits camp, and the proposal scene. additionally, mizora and uldred can join camp, if he is alive.
in strict comparison - this is the exact amount of scenes the other origin characters have:
Astarion has 9 scenes, 6 of which can possibly be romantic.
Lae’zel has 7 non-standard dialogue scenes, 3 of which can possibly be romantic.
Shadowheart has 6 non-standard dialogue scenes, 3 of which can possibly be romantic.
Gale has 6 non-standard dialogue scenes, 3 of which can possibly be romantic.
Karlach has 4 non-standard dialogue scenes, 3 of which can possibly be romantic.
Wyll has 5 non-standard dialogue scenes, 2 of which can possibly be romantic.
source: [x]
wyll is lacking one scene compared to characters like shadowheart and gale. lae’zel merely has another non-standard dialogue scene, while astarion has double the amount of possible romance scenes and 9 scenes in total.
here is a video of wyll’s entire story: [x] at a duration of 2:25:24 in total it’s very similar in length to the romances of the other companions the same channel uploaded. (minthara & halsin excluded)
i have also seen many people refer to the datamined voicelines as proof of how much content wyll lacks. this, however, doesn’t tell us much since those compilations include battle grunts, noises, and other repeated lines. if you want to check them out for yourself, here is chubblot’s playlist on youtube: [x]
wyll’s romance/approval-specific greetings also exist, they are merely bugged. although i have heard that some people have been able to trigger them. bugged content is something that also affects other companions – in fact, most of gale’s romance scenes and some integral dialogue have been bugged for months now with no fixes anywhere in sight. if you don’t want to look for wyll’s greetings in the files, i took the liberty of doing it for you:
alas, his general reactivity after act i remains the same as with the others. aka: he's barely responsive to his surroundings nor to any key decisions the player makes.
wyll also isn’t the only character who isn’t able to make his own choice on whether he agrees to sell his soul for his father’s life or not. in fact, the only characters who can decide their own fate are shadowheart and lae’zel. the latter option only now being added with patch 6.
so what exactly did wyll get after patch 6? the same amount of kisses like everyone else: 4 in total. as well as some new idle animations and polished facial expressions. the kiss where he invites tav for a quick twirl had already been added in an earlier update (patch 5, 30th november 2023). which means it’s understandable that certain characters who didn’t receive any new animations or other content before were now added with patch 6 as well.
wyll’s quest regarding ansur also didn’t get removed from the game. this is plain false. larian merely changed the subcategory in the journal (which larian had done previously with astarion’s gur-related quest as well)
if you have a gripe with this particular decision: that is valid. the quest, however, is still the exact same as it was before.
i see fandom heading in this really dangerous direction where people fully believe they have the right to attack others for pointing out the existence of false information. i understand that people are upset about wyll having less content than characters like astarion and i am in no way here to claim that you should refrain from calling out racism where it’s due. however, this hostile behavior directed at anyone who dares to disagree with you is creating a really toxic environment within online spaces, where people hesitate to engage with the wyll side of the fandom at all (out of fear of immediately receiving the racist card for merely correcting inconsistencies in logic). and in case it needs to be said again: it is never justified to harass real people or send death threats to others under any circumstances, much less if it concerns a fictional character.
i, much like everyone, really want wyll to receive more love from fandom and larian alike. but it is no one’s place to police other players on how they should engage with this specific character in their own game. if others simply couldn’t connect to wyll as much as you personally have – for whatever reason – that is on them. it's them who are missing out. this shouldn’t hinder your enjoyment of this character in any way or discourage you from creating more fan content.
TL;DR: it’s completely valid to request more wyll content, but please don’t resort to “demands” or public pressure directed at the devs. this is only doing more harm in the long run (to wyll’s, as well as his fanbase's reputation within the rest of the fandom instead of actually accomplishing much). don’t spread misinformation that he’s the only one of the companions who is continuously receiving the short end of the stick in terms of content, general reactivity, and bug fixes. if anything, the biggest difference is between him and astarion (again, much like every other companion).
🙏 please be respectful to each other 🙏
update, 19th february:
a user suggested providing an alternative to petitions on this post and linking directly to larian’s official feedback form, which you can find here: [x]
you’ll be able to add screenshots of the specific issue you’re reporting. keep in mind that you need to name your exact game version if you plan to send in a report. i’ve had larian ask me to send them the specific game files in the past, so it’s best to keep them on hand in advance.
larian also has a faq page on how to submit a general bug report [x]
here is an example of what to write:
(I’d like to address the disparity in content between Wyll and the other origin companions.) As of now, Wyll is lacking an entire scene compared to the rest of the characters, and his romance-specific greetings remain bugged as well. The lack of equal scenes makes Wyll’s story feel lackluster at times and undermines the pacing of his romance and overall character arc. It is very disheartening for POC players specifically to see racial biases reflected in his treatment and that Wyll didn’t receive the same amount of resources. Considering his narrative role as the Grand Duke's son he also deserves to be in the spotlight. When can we expect any fixes or additional content?
#bg3#baldurs gate 3#wyll ravengard#informational post#racism mention#fandom discourse#it speaks#i understand that i’m treading into dangerous territory here#but please keep it civil#meanwhile minthara lovers sitting in the corner with barely any scraps to go by: this is fine#updated
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I was gonna reblog my original post but I didn't wanna spam people with a long ass post (this post is already long enough) so instead I'll just link the previous post here and if yall wanna go look at it you can, but the short version is that a few days ago I made a post talking about HBs incredibly high turnover rate, and apparently within a few days it got enough traction to where it started spreading to the higher-ups of Spindlehorse, including Viv herself. I decided to make this update post just as a way to debunk what I can and as clearly as I can.
First tweet:
So for starters, they say this as if IMDB's numbers aren't publically available, it's not like I pulled these numbers out of my ass without merit, these are numbers I got off of IMDB. And I know some people might pull the high school English teacher card of “Anyone can edit that!!” and to be honest I dont feel like going into the semantics of one of the most non-arguments you can possibly use so all I’ll say is that the process of editing a Wikipedia or IMDB page is not as easy as your English teachers taught you to think it is. Sure you can edit it but it's another story if the edit will be saved. There's moderation, it's not a free-for-all.
Also, I find it interesting how this tweet was made (and subsequently deleted) mere days after their promotion to Animation Director, and if there's anything I've learned from Spindlehorse controversies it is that if someone is in any real position at the top of the companies proverbial food chain they shouldn't be allowed to speak for the experiences of employees lower on the ladder than them, especially when a lot of them seem to have a habit of denying certain claims despite the public availability of numerous pieces of evidence pointing toward the contrary
It's like if you visited a bunch of former employees of a restaurant with a high turnover rate with proof that they had worked there and for exactly how long they worked there and then the manager comes along and tries to basically say “NUH UH” despite information proving the contrary being publicly available (maybe not the best analogy but you get what I mean)
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Ok now onto the second one by Viv herself:
There’s a lot to dissect here so I’m gonna break it down bit by bit.
Firstly:
"They’re listing every single credited person in EVERY art department"
So the way I got my numbers was by going to the Series Animation Department section of HB's IMDB, highlighting every name from the beginning of the section to the end, and then pasting them into this website which gave me the line count of 444. Was that the most optimal way of doing so? No, especially after I learned after the fact that there's a way to just see the numbers straight up, but that hardly matters considering the fact that there are allegedly more people in the animation dept who were uncredited, however, I'm still waiting on some more info from my source as to the validity and the scale of these claims (How many people were uncredited, how little were they paid for their work, etc etc) to make a proper post about it, so until then ill just leave it at that as to not make accusations without merit.
So, humoring Viv, I added up the total IMDB credits for the Art Dept and Visual Effects Dept, as well as the Sound Dept since I qualify sound as a form of art and because I wanted to give Viv as fair a chance as possible and actually tally the total credits of “every art department” as Viv claims I did, and it still only equals 155 total credits, a little over a third of the credits in the Animation Dept
Secondly:
“That includes the TC and Chaos credits”
So these are in reference to Toon City and Chaos Emporium, 2 companies known as a source for outsourcing animation, and just to humor Viv I decided to go onto IMDB and tally up all of the Chaos and TC credits since according to her that's where I got most of my final number.
After doing so, Chaos Emporium had a total of 15 credits, and Toon City had a total of 45
So Viv is making it seem like the TC and CE credits make up a large majority of them, which is why I got the number I did, when in reality when combined they only equal 60 credits. 14% of the total (technically it’s 13.5% but I’m rounding to the nearest whole for the sake of convenience)
Thirdly:
“We dont even have 400 people. Simply Misinformation.”
You’re right Viv, you dont have 400 people, because I never said you did, nor did I imply you did. I said you've had 400. Of course you dont have 400 current employees, your company burns through them like paper because you underpay them while you go burning your Amazon and merch money on cruises and vacations and continuously post photos of you buying from zionist companies knowing full well that they're part of an active boycott.
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So yeah, that's my 2 cents. Sorry if this sounded like some shit you'd see on a Twitlonger but after Viv was made aware of the posts I made about the turnover rate (and subsequently blocked me within the hour after seeing it) I knew that it wasn't gonna be long before I had people DMing me about how wrong I was because “Viv said it was wrong so it must be wrong”.
One more thing I wanna add because I've gotten a lot of angry messages/asks about this, a lot of Viv stans seem to think I have this bizarre hate boner for Viv when I really don’t. I don’t hate Viv, I hate what she’s become. I hate how ever since the HH pilot she’s become a bully who can’t take criticism. And not just on the surface level of “criticism makes her upset”, because yea no shit, criticism makes everyone upset at least a little, and it's why I hate it when people see someone being upset at criticism and going “ERMM, CANT TAKE CRITICISM?”
When I say “Viv can’t take criticism” I mean she actively tries to shut down any convo about it without trying to learn from it. She blocks anyone who talks poorly about her or her company and makes baseless claims knowing full well her fans will follow her to the ends of Hell regardless of whether or not what she’s saying is even correct.
That’s all I got for now
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What each sign teaches us plus some hard truths each might need to ask!
KEEP IN MIND we all have all the signs in our birth chart; whether those houses are “empty” or not, they still have influence. We also all experience transits through all the signs, and we even have progressed charts that account for the archetypes we get more into learning later on. So take WHATEVER resonates for you with any of this!
♈️🐏 Aries teaches us action and that action comes from us with the least resistance when we know and trust who we are as an individual.
Hard truth: Aries, have you been seeing yourself or living your life as though you’re a one-man island? You might think you’re stronger than others for your hyper-independence, but at times the greatest strength for YOU is recognizing and embracing what others have contributed to your life and to who you are. It could also behoove you to think of others or to think more carefully through potential outcomes before you act sometimes.
♉️🐂 Taurus teaches us personal peace by aligning our focus on what we need for material and psychological stability.
Hard truth: Taurus, have your values, personal preferences, or your attachment to possessions become overly rigid? While honoring our values and preferences and ensuring we have the necessary items for material security and comfort are an important part of the process in finding peace, total inflexibility about these things can end up sending you in the opposite direction of peace.
♊️🌬️ Gemini teaches us to gather objective information from the world around us, and how to communicate information.
Hard truth: Gemini, have you been looking down so many avenues of knowledge, that you haven’t allowed yourself the time and sustained focus to sort out your own philosophies, or go more into depth or meaning, around the subjects you’re learning? At times you should also strive to keep better track of what you’re communicating to people, and to focus on understanding the meaning you project with your words, not just the information provided by them.
♋️🦀 Cancer teaches us how to emotionally support ourselves and others (self nurturance is key for support of others to be most functionally helpful)
Hard truth: Cancer, have you become so focused on protecting yourself or others, that you’ve started to see danger where it doesn’t even exist? Careful, paranoia is not a good look for anyone, but especially not you. There’s a reason you have instincts to build walls around you, not unlike a crab retreating into its shell. 🦀 But if this becomes a default action and not just used when it’s actually needed to protect your space or safety, the function of your energy to support and nurture can not be as well realized.
♌️🦁 Leo teaches us confidence in authentic expression of self. Where the first fire sign teaches us confidence in establishing self, the next one teaches us how to implement authentic expression of oneself.
Hard truth: Leo, have you been going out of your way to seek input from others that your self expression is valid? Well cut that out if so, because that would defeat the entire purpose of practicing YOUR expression. YOU decide if it’s valid. I could also advise something like “be less self centered!”… but honestly that’ll just start to happen naturally once you’re actually authentically relying on your own validation only. 🦁
♍️🌾 Virgo teaches us how to take care of things in the practical realm. We wouldn’t have a functioning world around us in this physical plane if it weren’t for Virgoan energy assessing all the details of structures, systems, and routines… makes sense I’ve read from at least one source that Virgo is the most common Sun sign!
Hard truth: Virgo, have you gotten so up in your head, Mercury style, about the details of your routines or the tasks you need to do, that it’s become challenging to actually successfully or efficiently attend to them? When Virgo energy gets dysfunctional like this it could really take a cue from Mars/Aries. “Just do it!” Also, whenever you start to find yourself being especially critical of yourself or others, you could stand to remind yourself of the big picture dynamics, concepts, or goals you have in mind.
♎️⚖️ Libra teaches us interpersonal peace by putting the focus on compromise and balance.
Hard truth: Libra, if you’ve been going out of your way to appease others, you might need to ask yourself if this is because you truly care about what’s best for them, or if it’s a behavior more connected to lack of rootedness in YOURSELF that makes you averse to conflict? It’s important for you to try to get to know and exercise your authentic individuality. The South Node currently in Libra with the North Node in Aries can help anyone who wants to make progress here.
♏️🦂 Scorpio teaches us how to face our shadows and ultimately how to integrate them so that we may transform.
Hard truth: Scorpio, have you been so obsessed on analyzing your past for answers to why you are as you are, that you’ve forgotten to just focus on finding some personal peace in the moment? You could take a cue from your opposite/sister sign Taurus if you find yourself in this position. 🖤 Also, when it comes to your trust issues, two big things will ultimately help: 1.) Build your SELF trust through giving yourself the opportunities to make and carry out your own decisions (Scorpio is Mars too and needs to act!) and 2.) Use/cultivate your deep instincts about people to ensure it’s supportive people you have most around you, while doing whatever you can to keep the toxic ones out.
♐️🏹 Sagittarius teaches us how to form our beliefs and find meaning however it encourages you to expand.
Hard truth: Sagittarius, have you fallen into the trap of thinking the philosophies that give YOUR life meaning are the same beliefs that others need to adopt? WHOA back up there buckaroo! It’d behoove you to remember that Sagittarius is a fire sign, so it deals with some personal aspects of our individuality. Not everyone will find inspiration to expand from the same designations of meaning as you, and you need to learn to not try to push your worldviews on anyone who isn’t receptive.
��️🐐 Capricorn teaches us how to build structure and commit to a long term goal/vision/plan.
Hard truth: Capricorn, have you become so blinded by your personal standards for quality or by what it is you’re trying to build to be a certain way, that anyone or anything that does not fit neatly into your structure appears as a threat or a reason to give up hope to you? At times you could stand to gain a little more flexibility and optimism. Setbacks do not mean the end, and if you could fast forward over your life you would see this, so if you’re having trouble seeing it now, try to see if you can regain a bit of the hopeful outlook from the sign that came just before you. I promise the capacity is within you. 😉
♒️🏺 Aquarius teaches us the ins and outs of society so that we may reflect on what we as an individual can bring to it or help liberate it.
Hard truth: Aquarius, have you been viewing yourself so much as an outsider, that it’s tempting to see yourself as separate from the rest of society? Well I have a hard truth for you: You’re not separate from it and not above it; no one is. And it’s especially dysfunctional for YOU to see yourself as a distinct and separate entity not influenced by society, or as too different from everyone else to be able to relate to them- society needs your insightful contribution!
♓️🐟 Pisces teaches us empathy and fosters our imagination through the understanding that everything is connected.
Hard truth: Pisces, have you been seeing yourself as the victim? You really need to hear that if you would just cut that out and start seeing yourself instead as an empowered dreamer with strong intuition you can continually cultivate, your ability to manifest* would be arguably the most insane of all the signs. (*Not that I support the idea that everything can be attained through manifestation alone.) Take it from a Pisces rising who learned the hard way and is feeling inspired to expand on this one: victimhood is The most detrimental trap for Pisces. Not only because it keeps your reality feeling like that of a victim, but also because Pisces energy is nearly functionally useless if it’s too self absorbed to ever see or act according to the Piscean message of interconnectedness. Learning the right amount to give compassionately of yourself, with the appropriate boundaries, is a crucial part of the Piscean journey!
Thanks for reading, and happy astrological evolution! 🌻
#astrology#zodiac signs#astrology signs#astrology observations#astro notes#astrology blog#astrology tumblr#astrology posts#astrology community#star signs
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verification source | verification source disclaimer: i do not vet/verify gfm campaigns myself. i can only share campaigns that have already been vetted by other individuals. (i.e. el-shab-hussein, nabulsi, 90-ghost, etc.). nesma's campaign has been vetted by sayruq, nabulsi, and el-shab-hussein (proof of verification linked)
for those able, please consider donating to nesma's campaign here:
current stats: $65,702/$80,000
regardless of your ability to donate- please read the following below the cut. thank you🖤
///
hello friends~ i would like to take a moment of your time to highlight the following gfm campaign for @nesmamomen. nesma has recently reached out to me through my inbox asking me to help spread the word about her campaign. here is the beginning of her message (text is also included in image description):
nesma story starts similarly to what i think many of us here can relate to: a 23 year old student gearing up to finish their degree. in nesma's case, her final year studying IT (information technology). for years- she has worked hard to make her family, 12 members in total + the best cat: lucy and the best bird: koko, proud. her home was full of love and joy- precious memories that are near and dear to her heart. however, nesma's joy has turned into unimaginable horror and immense suffering beyond our comprehension.
and it's been that way for almost one year.
at every turn, she has desperately tried to get people to listen to her story. to have the words 'help me' not be enough- to need to constantly validate yourself in order for people to care- only to be silenced is nothing short of deplorable. as nesma mentioned in her message: her account has been repeatedly suppressed. (the first verification link shows her old account)
the rest of her message to me contains some graphic imagery of the current state of her family. multiple members are injured. her father is in desperate need of medical care. her younger siblings sustaining wounds no child should ever have to bear. just reading all of that would make someone want to fall into a pit of despair. i am here to implore you to look beyond that grief and push against those feelings of hopelessness. we have been conditioned to turn away. conditioned to believe that there is nothing that can be done.
nesma's message alone is proof enough that there is hope. you reading her story, as devastating as it is, is enough to know that she and her family still need help. they still need us to be their voice in a time of crisis. because they are still alive. and it is up to the rest of us to make sure they get the chance to truly live.
to quote nesma herself:
"I do not know whether I will survive or die in this war, but know that your help for me will contribute to saving my family from death."
please follow nesma on her social media (@/nesmamomen on tumblr). she also has an instagram linked in her gfm page. please learn nesma's story in her own words- not mine- and read the campaign yourself. linking it again so you don't have to scroll all the way back up:
if you made it to the end: congrats! you've unlocked a secret poll ✨
#nesmamomen#not choices#signal boost#i hope this message reaches you nesma🖤#🍉#yall feel free to leave some love in the tags when you share this#not sure how much she'll see but it doesnt hurt to spread some love from your home to hers#art campaign boost
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Can I request a further rant on Alice Albinia's The Britannias please?
Anonymous asked: 'Further rant available upon request' here is my official request.
Aha. You are both prompt and accommodating. And it is my lunch break, so let's do this!
For context, this is the book in question:
This book was recently published, comes highly reviewed and (as I said) has apparently already been longlisted for some prestigious nonfiction writing/women's prizes. I got it from the library the other day and started reading it; I'm about 150 pages in. It has given me an increasing Itch to the point where lo, yes, here I am on Tumblr about to compose a Statement. This may be because of what the book blurb states upfront as its focus and goals:
Trespassing into the past to understand the present, The Britannias uncovers an enduring and subversive mythology of islands ruled by women. Albinia finds female independence woven through Roman colonial reports and Welsh medieval poetry, Restoration utopias and island folk songs. These neglected epics offer fierce feminist countercurrents to mainstream narratives of British identity and shed new light on women's status in the body politic today.
Okay... well. Basically, she wants to write a history of Britain as focused on its islands, which in itself is a perfectly valid thing to do. As she states in the introduction, focusing on the history of a place through its physically and geographically marginalized locations, its relation to the "mainland," the constructions of power and identity, how one resists and influences the other, is all a very interesting thing to do. It's just how she does it that gives me a twitch. Her clearly stated goal is to find a "hidden women's history" wherein these "fierce feminist countercurrents" are allowed to inform and eventually subvert a totally androcentric and oblivious mainstream British history that has apparently prevailed largely unchallenged ever since antiquity, and where the Male Process of History deliberately destroyed and excluded all female contributions. She is somehow, apparently, the first one to notice this and/or put it together.
Now I'll be honest, the Secret Magical Women trope also gives me a twitch wherever it appears, whether in saccharinely self-important historical or fantasy-historical fiction or in this case, attempted historical nonfiction. Albinia's thesis also seems, essentially, directly lifted from Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Avalon fantasy series in the 1980s: the pagan Celtic/British tribes were egalitarian, proto-democratic, female-led and/or female-centric, and the conquering Romans/Christians/Saxons were all virulently misogynist, masculine, authoritarian, and determined to stamp out this wherever it appeared. I have only gotten up to about the year 1000 (it goes chronologically), so I can't speak to what rationales Albinia comes up with for the later centuries, but let me just say: Hmm. It says a lot about the overall style of this book that I read the first 10 pages and then immediately picked up my phone to check Wikipedia and see if she was a TERF. As far as I can tell, fortunately, she isn't, but it does give me the same binary gender-essentialist vibe (men are from Mars, women are from Venus), and yikes. Basically, there are a lot of things going on here, and all of them are Not Good when it comes to the actual practice and investigation of premodern women's history:
First, while Albinia cites a few research articles (via endnotes) and translations of primary sources (thus far, mostly Roman and early medieval) we know nothing about her qualifications for using these sources, how she is comparing and analyzing them, whether they should in fact be taken at face value, whether anyone else has written on these topics (spoiler alert: yes), or why we are supposed to buy her narrative of this Hidden Female History of Britain. For example: she includes several passages from Roman writers discussing (reported) actions or (reported) mythologies of British women or British female-associated places. These are presented as uncritical and general fact, or something which we should apparently assume was really happening as described, even when she (occasionally, and shallowly) points to the issue of using exterior and non-contemporary male writers from far away. Her analysis also does not touch at all on the potential metatextual or political impulses these Roman male writers might have for presenting a freshly conquered imperial territory as corruptly or unacceptably feminine, and whether this correlated at all to an overall real-world practice or belief. Yes, as far as we can tell, the ancient Celts were in some ways more "feminist" than the Romans, in that Roman public culture was deliberately and exclusively masculine and patriarchal and any civic participation by women in other societies would thus appear as more than usual. But that is a whole can of worms for many reasons, none of which are highlighted or dealt with here. (Like... are we even going to talk about how the "Roman standard" for society was itself re-created by the Renaissance and how that shapes Western historical views, or...?)
As I said above, the book completely brushes aside any of the previous existing scholarship on these topics (done, you know, by actual historians) and presents it as Albinia discovering these issues or formulating these arguments for the first time. She does mention a few other people whose work she relies on or who are informing her hypothesis, but several times thus far, this is from the 1920s or some other clearly outdated argument. Nobody in the field is still treating arguments made in the 1920s as au courant, and while I can't say for certain, it reads as her being more able to access older or public-domain work (since more up-to-date publications require institutional access or paying for copies) and doing the equivalent of the people on Wikipedia who cite the 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia for everything: they can get that text for free, so that's what they refer to. Now obviously, we all support uncovering feminist strands of history, doing feminist history, challenging heteronormative or patriarchal narratives, etc. But also, we support doing it well and making some reference to the complexity of it!!!!
Likewise, Albinia is a white British woman whose previous books are based on her time living and traveling in India and Pakistan (both of which are, uh, previously British colonies). I have not read them, so I can't speak to how she treats it, but there's certainly an element of exoticizing them here, and while she does make passing reference to the British Empire's effect on those places, she does a sort of weird inverse here. She obviously knows about the basic facts of empire and colonization, but there's a notable amount of time dedicated to portraying ancient/Celtic Britain as the helpless victim of constantly brutal Roman colonization (she makes a few very brief and offhand references to cultural miscegenation and how this process unfolded in ways apart from violence, but they are clearly secondary to her main thesis of this as a masculine rape analogy). She is very clear about mourning for this "sacred divine [female] Britain" which was then destroyed by the unrelentingly violent and misogynist forces of Roman (cultural/military) and Christian (religious) colonization, and as I said, that is straight up Marion Zimmer Bradley. I haven't gotten past said first 150 pages, but I'm not terribly confident that her historical analysis improves much in the centuries to follow.
The book does have some bright spots: it's well written, it's engaging, she includes some colorful and interesting sociological vignettes about life on the margins of modern Britain, and there are certainly some things she's mentioned that I would like to look into in more depth. But yet again, this is being presented as an Authoritative or Revelatory History deserving of recognition and prizes, when there are real historians who have done so much of this work and in so much better ways. There is very little nuance to her thesis, no context or analysis or critique provided for her sources (yet again: why are we supposed to take Roman men as an authority on British women and why is she presenting them as obvious empirical fact while critiquing all other elements of their system/society?) and some squicky assumptions around gender and empire that really would need to be drawn out and examined in more detail. The Secret Magical [Pagan] Women Erased In History By Brutal Men gimmick is one that got a lot of traction with Philippa Gregory (sidenote: bookstore websites really need to stop recommending me Philippa Gregory for Women's History Month before I do crimes), and has been exasperatingly hard to eradicate ever since. Just to name one, we need to talk a lot more about the gender politics of medieval Christianity, any of the work done on this topic already, or anything else that would complicate her argument beyond the simplistic black-and-white state in which it currently exists. There are plenty of historians who would like to do that! Why don't you give some of THEM a call?!?!
Anyway. There is probably more I could say (and might), but I will leave it here for now. Thank you for the indulgence, etc.
#silver-dream89#anonymous#ask#history#women in history#ancient history#medieval history#british history
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what meaningful plenaration does "sane" add to "safe sane and consensual"? safe and consensual are both pretty intuitive as to what is and isn't and why they're important, but what is the aspect of this nebulous hypothetical insane sex (this would work better as a phrase if insane sex wasn't already a thing people said about good sex. much to think about) which is uniquely best to avoid but not already covered by safe or consensual?
i've been thinking about that one thing i saw a while ago about reevaluating ssc in the face of increased awareness of like, mad liberation and the ways that mentally disabled people are barred from sexual agency by ableism & the psych system and i genuinely can't come up with a reason why sane was in there in the first place
great question! let's talk about it!
but first: hey. what on earth does plenaration mean. I absolutely understand the question that you're asking but I don't know that word (unusual for me, if I may flex a little!) and google is giving me NOTHING.
anyway, moving on!
SSC was initially popularized by in 1983 by the New York group Gay Male S/M [Sadism/Masochism] Activists, and particularly activist David Stein. let's take a look at their full statement:
GMSMA is a not-for-profit organization of gay males in the New York City area who are seriously interested in safe, sane, and consensual S/M. Our purpose is to help create a more supportive S/M community for gay males, whether they desire a total lifestyle or an occasional adventure, whether they are just coming out into S/M or are long experienced. Our regular meetings and other activities attempt to build a sense of community by exploring common feelings and concerns. We aim to raise awareness about issues of safety and responsibility, to recover elements of our tradition, and to disseminate the best available medical and technical information about S/M practices. We seek to establish a recognized political presence in the wider gay community in order to combat the prevailing stereotypes and misconceptions about S/M while working with others for the common goals of gay liberation. (x)
GMSMA was founded three years prior in 1981, which is only important because that was also the year the first AIDS patients were identified. I don't know if you're familiar with a little thing called The AIDS Crisis, but suffice to say that during the 80s the public perception of gay male sexuality Was Not Good, particularly something double deviant like sex that was gay and also kinky. in a later essay reflecting on (and criticizing!) the mainstreaming of the term, Stein said he wanted to SSC framework to distinguish mutually consensual sadomasochism from "the criminally abusive or neurotically self-destructive behaviour popularly associated with the term 'sadomasochism'."
in other words: while I can't tell you everything that lay in the heart of David Stein when he first used the phrase, it's very clear that the GMSMA seemed invested in improving the public image of kink by separating it as much as possible from the notion that it was something only practiced by crazed degenerates - you know, something queer people have been forced to do for pretty much all queer sex throughout history? in the same 2000 essay linked above, Stein reflects on how many people took SSC as "a welcome validation for a type of sexuality still considered "sick" or "crazy" by much of our society."
is there still ableism baked into that narrative re: the notion that mental illness is a bad thing to be affiliated with? yeah, absolutely, and we'll get to that! spoilers: it's been a source of much criticism, which is why many people now prefer RACK over SSC. but give me a second to get there!
in the essay I've been pulling from, Stein freely admits that GMSMA never attempted to offer concrete definitions of SSC, particularly not the latter two: "We left "sane" and "consensual" much vaguer, "sane" because it's pretty vague to begin with once you get past the obvious meaning - able to distinguish fantasy from reality - and "consensual" because we didn't realize how tricky it is."
the idea of "sane" meaning a person is meaningfully able to distinguish fantasy from reality was echoed by Gil Kessler, a longtime kink educator and board member of GMSMA. rope enthusiast Tammad Rimilia defined it differently, saying that sane kink referred to a situation where "all parties are engaging in this activity by direct intention and can judge the effects of their actions." you can see that echoed in Stein's earlier statement about differentiating the kind of sex that GMSMA encouraged from "self-destructive behavior."
tl;dr, the "sane" is mostly there to specifically draw attention to the fact that some people engage in sex in ways that may be a form of self-harm and/or may want to engage in sex when they are experiencing reality in a way that prevents them from making rational, fully-informed choices, such as psychosis or manic episodes. per their own statement, it seems the GMSMA would discourage having sex with people in this category.
obviously that may already fall under the purview of safe and consensual, but show me an organization that's never gotten a little redundant in its mission statement and I'll eat my shirt.
now, back to that criticism! as Stein notes in the essay I've referenced heavily in this answer, understandings of safety, sanity, and consent have come a long way since 1983! the risk-aware consensual kink model (RACK) has gained popularity for many reasons, with much of the conversation centered on both the inherent ableism of SSC and concerns about the promise of "safe" and the unhelpful and unrealistic expectations it may set. hell, even notions of consent are constantly growing and evolving. and that's wonderful! SSC comes from a very specific time and place in the history of kink and may no longer be the pinnacle of best practices for everyone, but there's still plenty to be learned from its origins.
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5 Super Fun Age Regression Self-Care Ideas! - Age Regression Series
Originally posted to www.onlyfunthings.org on January 14, 2019
Ciao lovelies! Today’s post is for all the age regressors out there that read OFT! (Hi yes, I see you, you are valid and amazing!). You all seemed to like my last two posts on Age Regression (my post on What Is Age Regression, and Age Regression Journaling) and I got a lot of positive feedback, so I wanted to make you all more content!
If you are confused about what Age Regression is please see this post (click me!) regarding what it is, myths about it, and some regressor’s personal opinions as to why they regress and use regression as a coping mechanism.
A short definition is: Age Regression is a coping mechanism used by some to help with trauma, anxiety, depression, PTSD, and other mental illness, and some just use it to cope with stress. During age regression a person’s headspace becomes regressed to a younger age. A person who is regressing may act younger and more carefree and may have more “Childish” interests. Simply, age regression is a coping mechanism.
I am not a therapist nor a licensed professional, any and all advice and information given on this coping mechanism comes from a variety of sources such as: testimonies from age regressors, personal experience, and personally knowing some people who age regress.
So now that all that is out of the way, let’s get into the self-care ideas!
#1- Coloring! Many people use coloring as a stress reliever, and I know of many, many age regressors who love to color! Coloring can be fun because you don’t have to draw from scratch, you can just focus on filling in blank space with beautiful color. You can find all sorts of kids coloring books on sale at dollar stores for $1! Dollar Tree has a bunch! You can also print your own coloring pages if you don’t like any coloring books at the store. You could even make a whole coloring book binder completely customized to your interests!
#2- Treat yourself to a little something! Whether you get yourself a blindbox toy, some candy, or even an ice cream cone, maybe take the time to get yourself a little something, because you totally deserve it!
#3- Have a small day! Has life been stressing you out? Have you been busy with work, school, and other stressful things? Well, if you have the time, maybe take a day to just be a kid! (AKA- let yourself regress!) Take the time to make a nice little day out of it. Maybe plan a small outing to the park or to the mall, or if you’re more comfortable, spend the day at home. If you stay at home, maybe lay out a blanket on your bed or on the floor, wherever you feel more comfy, and make a small space with your favorite toys, stuffed animals, and coloring book!
#4- Blanket Fort! A great fun thing to do when you’re regressed that can be awesome for self-care is to build a blanket fort! You can use pillows and chairs and blankets and sheets to build the fort, and you could have stuffed animals guarding your fort!
#5- Make yourself a sticker chart! We have a whole post explaining why Sticker Charts are Good for Your Mental Health! Make yourself a sticker chart with all your daily to-dos, and reward yourself when you fill up a row!
What do you think of these ideas? Let us know in the comments! And let me know if you want to see more content like this! I figured since our last age regression posts were so well-liked, I should make some more content like it!
Remember to Stay Awesome and Love Yourself!
#agere class#agere classroom#agere daycare#agere school#agere#age regression#sfw agere#sfw littlespace#age regressor#sfw age regression#agereg#age dreaming#sfw little blog#agere blog#Ciao lovelies#Agere diys#Agere diy#Agere craft#Agere crafts#Agere learning
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Thing From Beyond Player Character Rules in Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy
Eureka has six playable "monster" types, and about ten total supernatural character options all together. Each supernatural trait is taken basically as if it is a normal trait like the ones you have been seeing us post. You cannot give a character more than one supernatural trait--and from what you are about to read, you probably wouldn't want to. Playing monsters is recommended for "advanced" players only, people who like a lot of "crunch" in their games, as require you to keep track of a lot more mechanics than playing a normal human.
Here is the Thing from Beyond Trait. This is going under a Read More because it's long as hell but we really hope that you will check it out and comment. This is, like, the whole entire ruleset for playing a thing from beyond in Eureka. This one might be the longest, it definitely has the most sidebars, because it's a wholly original creature rather than something recognizable from western folklore or pop-culture.
Thing from Beyond (Monster Trait)
Despite being inspired by many horror concepts from around the 20th century, this is the most wholly original monster in Eureka’s lineup, and requires a lot more explanation up front. Throughout the rules text for the thing from beyond, they will be referred to as “TFBs” in the interest of page space.[1]
[1 off to the side in the final formatting] A thing from beyond is very unlikely to call themselves a “thing from beyond.” They don’t know where they’re from, it could be anywhere.
[1.1. Off to the side in the final formatting] How lonely it must be to not even have a name for what you are.
[Snoop: A regular snoop with the two shapes that make up his or her trench-coat opening up to reveal sharp teeth and tentacles.]
A TFB was never human, but maybe they are now. Their “true form” is a large, flat blanket of membranous flesh that is smooth and skin-like on one side, and ever-so-slightly damp and mouth-like on the other side. The skin side is capable of changing color and texture to a high degree of detail, not unlike that of a cuttlefish. The mouth side is also capable of color-changing but to a lesser degree. Their only bones are dozens and dozens of sharp teeth. Unlike any transformation of, say, the wolfman or a fairy or witch, a TFB is not actually changing in any “magical” way, rather just disguising the same body to superficially appear more like a human.[1]
[1. Off to the side in the final formatting] This also presents certain challenges in writing the rules text for them.
Despite not arriving on flying saucers or having anything to do with little green men, a TFB is an alien beast, from places or dimensions entirely unknown to modern science.
They are highly adaptive mimics which typically lock on to a single prey species as their primary source of food from a young age, imitating either things the prey species finds non-threatening, or the prey species itself. Their metabolism is unique, capable of not only absorbing nutrients, but DNA and even intact neurological information which can be integrated into their own equivalent of a brain. They not only consume their prey, but their prey’s memories as well. In the wild, this helps them to better and more consciously mimic their prey species — on earth, when consuming humans, it has the unintended side effect of causing them to develop sapience.
TFBs start to think like their prey, and a TFB which has been eating humans will start to think much like a human. Their desires become human desires, their needs become human needs, such purpose, belonging, and love.
To this end, TFBs - or at least the ones who are valid to be investigators - will fold their flat body into a humanoid form, color and texture their outer skin appropriately, and attempt to participate in human society.
The consciousness and sapience of a TFB, alien neurology influenced by human neurology, can manifest in a number of different ways.[1][2] After the first few victims, these senses of self tend to be fixed, and a TFB will not experience a change from one to the other, absolutely not mid-adventure. Despite the frequent intake of new memories and DNA, their personalities are only marginally less fixed than human personalities.[3]
[1. Off to the side in the final formatting] These are not exhaustive or prescriptive options, just suggestions to help you in developing your TFB investigator.
[2 off to the side in the final formatting] A TFB’s memories of their animal-like intelligence before developing sapience are often fuzzy at best.
[3. Off to the side in the final formatting] But how set in stone are human personalities?
Gestalt Composite:[2] After their first few human meals, their mind may form as a distinct and original personality, a gestalt composite of those minds that they have digested, which is not significantly influenced by the personality traits of their latest meal,[3] at least not much more than a regular personality is influenced by human interaction. TFBs who develop like this will truly be outsiders to society, learning what they can about how to exhibit normal human behavior through fragments of digested memories and asking lots of unusual questions.[1]
[1. Off to the side in the final formatting] This conscious sapient mind will not fit the same template and mental framework of the average human mind, but neither do those of many natural-born humans.
[2. Off to the side in the final formatting] As the most common of the three, the majority of sidebars referring to the thought processes of TFBs in this section will be in reference to this kind of TFB consciousness.
[3 off to the side in the final formatting] “I’ve been thinking about Alan Rickman a lot all of the sudden.”
First Victim: They may “become” their first victim, the victim seeming to wake after a horrifying ambush in an unfamiliar, alien body that nevertheless they have some instinctual control of. Once devoured, they are now the TFB. Future victims will not override the base memories of their previous life. A TFB like this will obviously already have some grasp on societal conventions, their journey being more about adapting to what they are now than adapting to what they aren’t.
Both: They may develop something like a combination of the above two possibilities, with a gestalt composite personality formed out of multiple victims, but also a single early victim rising to the surface among them. These two minds share one body, and often communicate with each other by speaking out loud. In partnerships like these, each will be adapting to their new life and to each other.[1]
[1. Off to the side in the final formatting] While having one player play both investigators sharing this body is perfectly easy, this opens up some other interesting options as well, such as two players sharing the character and character sheet, one for the human and one for the alien. One of these could also be an NPC handled by the Narrator. If “one” investigator is being played by two players, you may even represent this with two separate character sheets, and track Investigation Points and Eureka! Points separately, just so long as they share HP.
Unfurled State
The Unfurled state is the default, natural state of the TFB. A large, flat body that slithers along the ground.[1][2][3][4]
[1. Off to the side in the final formatting] They may be circular, oval-shaped, star-shaped, square-shaped with rounded corners, or none of the above.
[2. Off to the side in the final formatting] Size ranges from around 7x9 square feet to around 12x14 square feet, sometimes larger if they eat a lot.
[3. Off to the side in the final formatting] Look up marine flatworms to get a sense of how they move when unfurled.
[4 off to the side in the final formatting] They are, thankfully, not slimy.
Suction Grip
While unfurled, a TFB can slither on walls and even on ceilings just about as easily as though they were floors.
Flat Body
While unfurled, a TFB can compress themselves enough to squeeze through any gap greater than about two inches wide.
No Hands
While unfurled, the TFB has no human hands, and thus cannot interface with complex devices such as firearms, vehicles, etc. The TFB does have two or more long, thin tendrils attached to their mouth side but these can only manipulate the most basic of devices such as simple tools. They cannot use weapons or make regular melee attacks at all in this form. For how a TFB can fight in this state, see p.xx “Homoiophage (Thing From Beyond True Nature)”.
No Speech
While unfurled, the TFB has no human mouth and cannot produce any human speech or in fact any vocal sound at all.[1]
[1. Off to the side in the final formatting] However, since they can change the color of their skin at will, it is not out of the question that they could display images or even words on their skin to communicate with humans. If this is done with use of a Charm, Comfort, Manipulate, or Seduce roll, apply a -2 penalty to the roll, at least when it makes sense to do so. Rolls towards a character who knows and is comfortable with the TFB in this state may not include those penalties.
All Muscle
While unfurled, apply a +3 Base bonus to the TFB’s Athletics for anything except Speed calculation. They are, however, not considered to have Superhuman Strength in the same way many other supernatural creatures do.
Disguised
Despite this not being their default state, a TFB will likely spend most of their time during the investigation - and any social interaction[1] - disguised as a normal human. They do this by stretching, compressing, and origami-ing their flat bodies into the shape of a human, with their “mouth” side on the inside, and then coloring and texturing their outer skin to appear like human skin, clothing, and other features.[2][3] Going from Disguised to Unfurled is effortless, but going from Unfurled to Disguised takes one Movement if time is measured in Turns and also requires a non-skill supernatural ability Composure roll. Most TFBs will have a specific human persona whom they disguise as regularly, and it is this persona which has a social life, a job, a bank account, etc. [maybe that art by dame can go here?]
[1. Off to the side in the final formatting] Unless their human friends are very cool about hanging out with a man-eating blanket of flesh.
[2. Off to the side in the final formatting] Getting false clothing to appear to hang correctly off of their disguise takes a lot of practice. They could fold into the shape of a naked human and then put real clothes over that, but most TFBs find wearing more than the slightest amount of real fabric uncomfortable and restrictive.
[3. Off to the side in the final formatting] Human hair is another highly difficult element for a TFB to mimic. Some TFBs may opt to mimic the shape and texture of human hair with their own skin and rely on nobody looking too closely or being rude enough to point this out, others may wear wigs, embody exclusively bald personas, or put all that DNA they’ve absorbed to use and grow out real human hair.
[3.1 off to the side in the final formatting] Some TFBs have thick clusters of little feelers they can use to represent hair.
[3.2. Off to the side in the final formatting] Elbows are particularly hard to get right as well.
While disguised, consider a TFB to be able to do anything a human could do, including speak and manipulate devices, however, this is quite a contortion act for the them, leading to mild discomfort and the outward appearance of a general lack of coordination.[1] Apply a -1 penalty to all Physical skills when a TFB is disguised.
[1. Off to the side in the final formatting] For the TFB, moving a body meant for slithering around on imitation legs using their imitation hands for things would be sort of like a human using their feet to complete daily tasks while walking on their hands. It can be achieved with practice, but isn’t intuitive. This struggle will often manifest early on as difficulty just walking upright, and then comes the challenge of not applying too much or too little grip strength with their hands, and moving each finger independently without making it look obvious that there’s no bones or joints inside.
[1.1. Off to the side in the final formatting] TFBs may use humans’ bodies in their stomachs to practice. If a motion locks out or breaks a joint, they know what not to do.
When disguised as a human, the TFB’s mannerisms will always appear somewhat off, though it will be hard for anyone to put their finger on exactly how. Apply a -1 penalty to all Charm, Comfort, Manipulate, and Seduce rolls made in this form while the TFB is within sight of the target. This penalty can be ignored if the roll is directed towards someone who knows and trusts the TFB, and is aware that they are a TFB.
A TFB can also disguise themselves as virtually anything of sufficient size, such as furniture or animals, not just humans, but this rulebook will not be statting out every object and animal in the world. If you feel unique stats are needed for a specific shape, then use your best judgment. Disguising as inanimate objects will typically be a Stealth check.[1]
[1. Off to the side in the final formatting] An intoxicated TFB may “loosen up” and have trouble holding their disguise together, literally. They may also get the colors wrong.
Disguising as Specific People
TFB’s have endless practice taking on their specific human persona that most people know them by, and can disguise as random fake people with no distinct identity just as easily, but disguising as a specific individual other than their main persona is another story.
A TFB can disguise themselves to look like any particular human they have gotten a good up-close look at. When the TFB is attempting to study a person, roll Social Cues.[1] This attempt can be repeated once per Scene to aim for a higher degree of success, so long as the thing from beyond can get an up-close look at the person they want to imitate. Add +1 Base to this roll for each type of DNA sample from the target they have consumed. (See p.xx “DNA Sample Types”.) If they have consumed the whole person within the same adventure, this roll is automatically a Full Success. Unless the TFB is able to study the human in-person or look at full-body photographs or videos taken from multiple angles, they can at most achieve a Partial Success on this roll.[2][3]
[1 off to the side in the final formatting] “You have such a lovely face. Do you mind if I borrow it for tonight?"
[2. Off to the side in the final formatting] In some cases, it may be a good idea for the Narrator to make this roll hidden from the players, as the TFB will not be able to confirm the effectiveness of their mimicry without putting it to the test.
[3. Off to the side in the final formatting] A TFB may be very proud of how much detail they can replicate the human form with, but have no one to brag to.
Full Success: From this point on, the TFB can perfectly disguise themselves as the human they are studying, down to all the fine details. Not even the human’s friends and family could tell the difference. This does not mean, however, that no one will notice if they act out-of-character.
Partial Success: From this point on, the TFB can approximately disguise themselves as the human they are studying. The disguise may fool people from a distance, but upon examination, anyone who knows the human in question could easily realize that this is not them with a Full Success or a Partial Success on a Senses or Social Cues roll. They may also be noticed if they act out-of-character.
Failure: The TFB cannot seem to get anything right about the person they are disguising themselves as, and no one will buy the disguise. Best case, people will just think it is someone else who kinda looks like the person in question.
Mimicking Specific Voices
A TFB can imitate human vocal cords and tongue on the inside of their human disguise, pushing air past them and through an opening in their folds they’ve made to look like a mouth, creating convincing human speech. Like with a visual disguise, making up a random voice is no issue. Typically, they will just use the voice they’ve decided on for their human persona for everything, but with a bit of effort they can alter these features to mimic any specific human voice and speech patterns that they have clearly heard and studied.
When the TFB is attempting to study a person’s voice, roll Senses.[2] This attempt can be repeated once per Scene to aim for a higher degree of success, so long as the TFB can listen to the voice they are attempting to learn to mimic. Add +1 Base to this roll for each type of DNA sample from the target they have consumed. (See p.xx “DNA Sample Types”.) If they have consumed the whole person within the same adventure, this roll is automatically a Full Success. Unless they are able to listen to the voice in-person or hear a very high-quality recording for at least 1 Tick and a large variety of different sentences, they can at most achieve a Partial Success on this roll.[1]
[1. Off to the side in the final formatting] Like with disguising, this can actually be done for virtually any sound, not just a human voice.
[2. off to the side in the final formatting] The Senses and Social Cues rolls are intended to be separate.
Full Success: From this point on, the TFB can perfectly mimic the voice of the human they are studying, down to all the fine details of their speech patterns. Not even the human’s friends and family could tell the difference. This does not mean, however, that no one will notice if they act out-of-character.
Partial Success: From this point on, the TFB can approximately mimic the voice of the human they are studying. When making any Interpersonal roll that relies on mimicry of the voice in question, apply a -2 penalty to the roll.
Failure: The TFB cannot seem to get anything right about the voice they are attempting to mimic. Best case, people will just think it is someone doing a bad impression of the voice in question. When making any interpersonal roll that relies on mimicry of the voice in question, apply a -4 penalty to the roll.
Mimicry from DNA Sample Alone
A TFB can also attempt to mimic the look or voice of a particular person based only on consuming a sample of their DNA but never having seen or heard them. When doing so, the Narrator makes a hidden 2D6 roll with a -3 modifier, and does *not* add the TFB’s Skill modifier. Add a +1 to this roll for each separate type of sample of the target’s DNA the TFB consumes. See the above results for the possible outcomes. The Narrator will not reveal the result of the dice, so there will be no way to know how accurate the mimicry is.[1]
[1. Off to the side in the final formatting] TFBs *are* what they eat. Over time, a TFB may come to conceptualize their tendrils as human fingers, their skin as human skin, their teeth as human teeth, their enormous mouth as a human mouth, they just have to remember not to yawn with it.
[maybe get the dame TFB tendril heart image to go here]
DNA Sample Types
For the purposes of this mechanic, the types of DNA samples a TFB can consume are considered blood, other bodily fluid, fingernails, hair, skin, bone, muscle, and organ.[1] Any sample must be more than a microscopic amount.
[1. Off to the side in the final formatting] So, a severed finger would be considered muscle, skin, bone, nail, and possibly blood if it’s fresh enough, totaling to a +4 Base to the roll. It would not contain enough hair to count as a hair sample.
The Ancillary
A TFB has a body part referred to as an “ancillary.” The ancillary appears as a five-foot-long off-white worm-like creature with six other shorter worm-like tentacles splitting off from the core body. For all intents and purposes, the ancillary is the same “character” as the main body of the TFB, and uses the main body’s base stats and traits (with its own set of base bonuses and penalties explained below), though it is capable of acting entirely independently, and will have its own independent place in a turn order when time is measured in Turns. The ancillary cannot make any Interpersonal Skill checks.
It is normally flatly embedded in the “mouth” side of the TFB, but can be ejected and taken back in at will.[1]
[1 off to the side in the final formatting] The main purpose, evolutionarily, of the ancillary is to scout out and ensnare prey for the main body to then come and devour, but a TFB investigator isn’t exactly in their original evolutionary niche either, and probably had an app for that now.
The ancillary can squeeze through gaps as narrow as one inch wide, breathe in both air and water, and climb on sheer surfaces, but cannot change color, manipulate devices more complex than perhaps a button, use weapons, or make any sort of communication.
There is a mental connection between the ancillary and the main body, meaning the main body knows anything the ancillary knows, but the ancillary does not know much because its senses are extremely rudimentary. Apply a -2 penalty to all Investigative Rolls made by the ancillary, and all Senses rolls made by it. The mental connection cannot be maintained outside of a distance of 100 yards, and if the connection is broken, the ancillary will shrivel and die. The TFB may choose to terminate the connection deliberately and kill the ancillary at any time, such as to prevent its capture and study.
The Ancillary and Composure and Combat
The ancillary has 2 of each type of HP. For the purposes of Composure rolls, anything that happens to the ancillary happens to the main body. For example, the TFB must make a relevant Composure roll if the ancillary takes damage. If the ancillary dies, the TFB must make a Death Composure roll. If the ancillary’s death results from a severing of the mental connection, the Death Composure roll is made with a comforting factor because the TFB is not experiencing the death as clearly.
If the ancillary is destroyed or otherwise lost rather than being returned to the main body, the TFB will grow the ancillary back as if it were a missing body part.
The ancillary is powerful for its size, and fairly thin and hard to damage. Add a +1 Base bonus to all of its Athletics, Close Combat rolls, +2 Contextual to its Stealth rolls, and apply a -1 penalty to any attack directed towards it.[1]
[1 off to the side in the final formatting] The +3 Base to Athletics that the Unfurled TFB gets does not apply to the ancillary, nor do any other bonuses or penalties from the main body.
Attacking with the Ancillary
The only forms of attack available to the ancillary are Grab and Hold. This Hold may be escalated to Submission.
Provided that the TFB is not wearing body armor, the ancillary may be launched from the main body up to a range of 10 feet when ejected, hitting a target in range only on a Full Success with an Athletics roll. This counts as 1 Action. If the launched ancillary hits the target, it may immediately take its Turn. Otherwise, it acts at the end of the current Round’s turn order.
General Abilities
Beyond this point, these rules will apply to both the TFB’s unfurled state and disguised state, unless otherwise specified.
Invertebrate
TFBs are largely ambivalent about which way any part of their body bends. Apply a +3 Contextual bonus to any Escape attempts. If the TFB has a human occupying their stomach, they lose this bonus unless they first make a successful Crunching attempt (see p.xx “Crunching”). A TFB also will not take any damage from being put into a Submission Hold.
Blunt objects, as well as crushing weights, can only deal Superficial Damage to the TFB.[2] Additionally, damage from falls is halved.[1]
[1 off to the side in the final formatting] The damage from falls is halved both by the Redundant Body Structure and by the rule above, meaning they take 25% damage from falling.
[2 off to the side in the final formatting] Due to being flat and boneless, or flat, boneless, and hollow when in the shape of a human, TFBs are soft and squishy unless they have a human skeleton inside them. Enough pressure could flatten them whether folded or unfolded, only for them to spring right back!
All Eyes
The entire “skin” side of the TFB is covered in photoreceptors, making it impossible for them to be snuck up on from “behind.” They don’t even have an actual “behind,” they see in all directions at all times.[1] TFBs see entirely differently from humans with their whole body being one big photoreceptor.
[1. Off to the side in the final formatting] A Disguised thing from beyond may also be able to see details of the environment that their human disguise’s “eyes” could not, such as an audio recorder stuck under a desk below eye-level. They see it from their disguise’s “feet.”
TFBs see entirely differently from humans with their whole body being one big photoreceptor. They cannot benefit from magnifying scopes attached to firearms, or anything of the sort such as binoculars. Additionally, there is no way for them to shield their photoreceptors from bright light unless they want to cover the entire body.
Natural Camouflage
The TFB’s “skin” side can alter its colors–and texture–down to the slightest detail, much like a cuttlefish. This is part of how they mimic human skin and clothing. This grants them a +4 Base bonus to Stealth when Disguised, a +5 Base bonus to Stealth when Unfurled, and a +10 Base bonus to Stealth when Unfurled and flattened against a surface, at least if they choose to change their color to blend into the environment. If time is being measured in Turns, this takes 1 Movement. The “mouth” side of the TFB is also capable of changing colors, but instead of being nearly instantaneous, changing the colors of this side takes at least 1 Action if time is being measured in Turns.[1]
[1 off to the side in the final formatting] Laying flat on a surface with the ‘mouth’ side up is extremely useful for lying in ambush for prey to walk over the thing from beyond and then snapping them up, though it would render them largely blind.
[1.1. off to the side in the final formatting] Be wary of new carpets.
All-Purpose Gills
The TFB has the ability to absorb oxygen from both air and water.
Prey Fear Response Suppression
Within a radius of about ten feet, the TFB influences the human mind through an energy field it produces. This field is tailored to the TFB’s preferred prey species, which in the case of any TFB investigator will be humans. This field exerts a calming effect over the human mind, suppressing the electrochemical signals that cause negative emotions such as fear and anger, intended to make them less likely to look for the small tells that could help give the predator away. Add a +1 Contextual bonus to all Comfort and Composure rolls made by anyone else within this field, and subtract a -1 penalty from all Reflexes, Senses, and Threaten rolls made by anyone else within this field. This ability is “on” by default, and can only be switched “off” on a per-Scene basis with use of a non-skill supernatural ability Composure roll.[1]
[1 off to the side in the final formatting] Many people may not appreciate this if they learn about it, but it is hard to stay mad when the signals which create “mad” in your brain are being blocked.
[2. Off to the side in the final formatting] When “on,” this strong field will be easily detected by an EMF reader.
Exposure to this field over a long period of time can alter the memories of humans. Technically, the humans are unconsciously altering the memories themselves, because long-term exposure causes a disproportionately strong feeling of familiarity with the TFB in question. This feeling may cause them to misremember past events, inserting the TFB into events they were not present for. Characters will feel like they have known the thing from beyond for twice as long as they really have; one year feels like two, five years feels like ten.[1]
[1. off to the side in the final formatting] Keep in mind the TFB will not know the content of these false memories themselves, as they are not consciously inserting them into peoples’ brains. The human brain is altering these memories itself to rationalize why it feels like the TFB has been around so long.
Learning by Example
TFBs gain an additional +1 Investigation Points from any Investigative Roll that involves inquiring about the motivations and emotions of human beings on an individual or societal level, and from any Full Successes on Social Cues, whether they are Investigative Rolls or not. However, they have a -2 penalty to Social Cues.[1]
[1 off to the side in the final formatting] Even TFBs that are their own first victim benefit from this, because they have to learn how to make their new body move and look like a natural human.
Redundant Body Structure
The TFB’s flesh is tough and their internal body structure is almost entirely redundant. With several exceptions (extreme heat, acid, nickel; see: Crawl Away from a Hot Needle for more detail.), TFBs take half-damage from all damage sources, the only exception being HP that results from loss of Composure. If a TFB wears armor that protects against whatever is dealing the damage, this damage is halved again, for one quarter damage, rounding up. Apply a -2 modifier to attacks against the TFB from 1-damage weapons.
[1 off to the side in the final formatting] It may be smart for the TFB to use their shapeshifting and color-changing abilities to simulate more human-like wounds on their human disguise.
Healing
Regular first-aide will work on TFBs in most cases within reason, but their bodies are also capable of an incredible rate of natural healing and regeneration. TFBs automatically recover 1 point of Superficial and Penetrative HP at the beginning of every game session, and 1 point of Superficial HP at the end of each day.
Additionally, if they took damage to either HP type during an instance of combat, they restore 1 HP of the same type as soon as the combat is resolved.
If a TFB’s Penetrative HP is full, instead of recovering Penetrative HP from any of the above rules, they recover from one Grievous Wound, permanent or not.
A TFB may spend 1 Eureka! Point to instantly recover all Superficial and Penetrative HP, and from all Grievous Wounds. This takes 1 action.
If a TFB is in their human disguise and has a “limb” severed, treat this mechanically the same way as if a normal human was missing that limb. Additionally, consider the TFB to have taken a Brain Injury Grievous Wound until they have recovered, no matter if they are Unfurled or Disguised.
Unkillable
Even when the TFB’s body appears to be torn to shreds, they are most likely just in a coma-like state while their cells gradually regenerate and their body self-repairs.[1] When reduced to 0 Penetrative HP, the TFB does “die” for all mechanics purposes and is out of the adventure same as a regular dead investigator, but may return and be played in any subsequent adventure. While in this state they cannot be healed by any kind of conventional first aid.
[1 off to the side in the final formatting] This may take days, months, or years, and may result in a much smaller TFB overall upon recovery.
[Snoop: The decapitated head of a TFB snoop that has sprouted legs like the decapitated head from The Thing and is slithering away in the other direction, while another snoop incinerates its dead body with a flamethrower.]
Revival
A TFB that has been reduced to 0 Penetrative HP and “killed” for the adventure may spend 2 Eureka! Points to revive with 1 of both types of HP, but only once a minimum of 5 Scenes have passed. A TFB may instead spend 3 Eureka! Points to revive instantly, so long as they have been “dead” for at least 1 round.
Scent Tracking
A TFB’s sense of “smell” is actually their sense of taste, picked up when air runs over their “mouth” side, but mechanically this should still be treated as a sense of smell. All of that surface area gives them a very sensitive “nose,” and they can pick up on trace elements of scents that a human would not be able to. Additionally, when they are unfurled, apply a +2 Contextual[or base? Look at other monsters] bonus to Senses rolls for smell.
Additionally, TFBs are capable of Scent Tracking. See p.xx “Scent Tracking”.
Low-Oxygen Origins
A TFB requires much less oxygen than a human. In a low or zero-oxygen environment, multiply the amount of time they can last without oxygen by 10 before they must start making Athletics rolls. When they do make Athletics rolls, the results are as follows:
Full Success: No Damage
Partial Success: 1 Superficial Damage
Failure: 2 Superficial Damage
Homoiophage (Thing from Beyond True Nature)
The TFB regains no Composure from eating normal food, but does gain Composure from sleeping. They will lose Composure as normal from skipping meals or skipping sleep.
Flat Composure Damage from Skipping Meals = Yes
Composure restoration from Three Meals a Day = No
Flat Composure Damage from Skipping Sleep = Yes
Composure restoration from Full Night’s Sleep = Yes
The primary food source of a TFB is whatever species they have disguised themselves as, and whatever prey species of sufficient size they first consume several of is usually what that disguise becomes. Thus, all TFBs that are valid to be player-character investigators are ones that disguise as and consume humans. The “default” appearance of some TFBs will be that of the first person they devoured, but they may “personalize” this look to make it more unique over time, either out of preference, or because they were discovered and needed a new look that wasn’t attached to any of the victim’s friends or family. TFBs who were later at developing full sapience will usually make up a persona entirely from scratch. The TFB has little if any memory of their life before taking on a human mentality.
The TFB can eat “normal” food,[1] but does not regain Composure points from doing so. The only food that restores Composure points for them is humans, the fresher the better. They have a particular fondness for brains, and this is because they not only absorb nutrition from their victims, but information encoded in their brains and DNA as well.[2][3][4]
[1 off to the side in the final formatting] When the TFB eats normal food in their human disguise, it doesn’t look terribly different from when a regular human eats food, except they may struggle with foods that must be torn off with the teeth, since their human teeth are fake and made of flesh.
[2. Off to the side in the final formatting] TFBs can live off of a vegetarian diet for their “normal” food, though they may struggle to digest it in large quantities, but most strongly dislike food that isn’t meat.
[3. Off to the side in the final formatting] Some TFBs avoid animal products like the plague unless they’re thoroughly cooked, and some avoid them altogether, fearing that if they eat too many rare steaks, they’ll start to become more like a cow and less like a human.
[4. Off to the side in the final formatting] Being alien creatures whose favorite food is human flesh, TFBs don’t always develop “normal” pallets in the first place, creating food combinations that would make others cringe, like putting BBQ sauce on pizza. These preferences may need to be ignored in favor of more “normal” food combinations if the TFB does not want to draw attention.
[4.1. Of course, “drawing attention” does not necessarily mean everyone will assume they’re an alien. How weird would somebody have to be before you’d question if they’re even human, and not think “what is wrong with me?”
[5. Off to the side in the final formatting] Whatever their hangups or lack thereof regarding “normal” food, a TFB can fake a more balanced diet by putting things in their mouths and spitting them out undigested later.
TFBs are built for digesting very large meals over the course of a very long time, not unlike a snake. They can subsist off of more “normal” quantities of food consumed several times daily like a human, but it is not as comfortable for them as one large meal. When eating humans, they will not restore Composure unless the human is consumed entirely at once.
TFBs also simply need more calories than humans daily. When eating normal food, a TFB can either eat three meals a day, each paid for with a -1 Wealth roll to represent the expense of a greater quantity of food, or eat all three daily meals worth of food at once with a -2 to the Wealth roll.[1][2]
[1. Off to the side in the final formatting] This is a -2 instead of -3 because eating it all at once is how their body is designed to handle it most efficiently.
[2 off to the side in the final formatting] They cannot choke, and could effortlessly “stretch” their human disguise’s mouth to a size large enough to allow virtually any meal past their false lips. Really though they’re just widening the gap between the folds that make up their persona’s face.
Enveloping Victims
TFBs can make two types of Grab attacks. The first is the normal mundane Grab that they can do with their “hands” while disguised. The second is an Enveloping Grab.[1]
[1. Off to the side in the final formatting] Narrators should assume that when a TFB’s player says “Grab” they are talking about a mundane Grab and not an Enveloping Grab unless explicitly stated otherwise.
Enveloping Grab.
For the purposes of Enveloping Grab, always use the TFB’s Unfurled Athletics Modifier.
An Enveloping Grab can be done whether a TFB is Unfurled or Disguised,[1] but cannot be done while they are wearing body armor or a helmet, and a Throw cannot be made from an Enveloping Grab. For the purposes of an Enveloping Grab, always use the TFB’s Unfurled stat bonuses, regardless of whether they are starting from Unfurled or Disguised.[4] This works exactly like a regular Grab mechanically except with a few important differences. First, the Enveloping Grab can be done as a regular attack, or as a Counter-Attack. Additionally, an Enveloping Grab can be done to up to 14 targets so long as they are standing close enough together.[3] If targeting multiple targets, make only one roll for the TFB, based on the least favorable Weight Class.[2]
[1. Off to the side in the final formatting] Though of course doing it while disguised will give away the disguise
[2. Off to the side in the final formatting] What direction the TFB actually appears to be facing is irrelevant for this. TFBs have no front or back, and the whole concept is something they must get used to when assimilating into human society. An inexperienced Disguised TFB may not turn their head towards sounds or even most things they’re supposed to be looking at because they see out of their whole body, not just where their fake human eyes are.
[3. Off to the side in the final formatting] Beware, this could mean up to 14 Counter-Attacks coming back at the TFB too!
[4. Off to the side in the final formatting] Their tendrils are very useful for holding prey still while the main body moves over them.
With a successful Enveloping Grab, the TFB has begun to wrap themselves around the victim, the victim is essentially partially inside their “mouth.”[1][2][3] When a TFB has a target in an Enveloping Grab, they may either Inject Venom or progress to an Enveloping Hold.
[1 off to the side in the final formatting] The “mouth” side of the TFB is covered in many dozens of sharp teeth which help cling to the victim, and may be painful but do not do actual HP damage inherently. If for any reason the TFB wants to make their “mouth” more comfortable for the person they are wrapped around, these teeth can be made to lay completely flat.
[2 off to the side in the final formatting] The teeth on the mouth side are scattered in many seemingly random patches, the pattern of which is actually unique to each TFB.
[3 off to the side in the final formatting] The “mouth” side of a TFB is surprisingly much less slimy than one might expect. It may be described as something in between the soft flesh at the roof of a human mouth, and the dry and scratchy feel of a cat’s tongue, leaning farther towards one or the other depending on the particular TFB in question. In addition to the teeth and venomous retractable spines, most of the interior of a TFB is covered in tiny prickles that assist in clinging to prey during the envelopment process. The interior may also be described as similar to–but slightly gentler than–shark skin.
Inject Venom
For the purposes of injecting venom, always use the TFB’s Unfurled Athletics modifier.
The TFB possesses a row of sharp retractable spines running down the center of their “mouth” side.[2] When they have a victim in an Enveloping Grab or Enveloping Hold, they may attempt to inject the victim with digestive venom by making a Athletics roll.[1][3] This is considered an attack and takes an Action. If the victim is wearing body armor, apply a -3 modifier to this roll.
[1 off to the side in the final formatting] The TFB is completely immune to their own venom and that of other TFBs.
[2. Off to the side in the final formatting] These are not the same as their regular teeth.
[3. Off to the side in the final formatting] They digest like a spider, if a spider’s cocoon was also the spider’s mouth and its stomach, and could secrete its own acid.
There’s a whole lot of spines, and the TFB can inject as many targets as they have Enveloping Grabbed or Enveloping Held using one single dose. Make a single roll for all victims, unless some victims have armor and others don’t, in which case roll those separately.
Under normal circumstances, a TFB only produces one dose of digestive venom per 24 hour period, usually when they sleep, to a maximum of 1 dose stored. Restore a TFB’s dose of venom each time they gain Composure from a Full Night’s Rest.
Full Success: The victim is injected with a dose of venom that is not only exceptionally painful but is very likely to be lethal. Applies poison (Lethal, OT: Immediate, DF: per round). There is no antidote.
Partial Success: Only a few spines manage to penetrate and properly inject venom, resulting in a dose that is less likely to kill the victim. Applies poison (Non-lethal, OT: Immediate, DF: Per Round). There is no antidote.
Failure: The TFB does not manage to get any spines in deep enough to have any effect. The dose is still spent.
If the TFB takes Superficial, Penetrative, or Composure damage while holding a person in their “mouth”/“stomach”, they must make a Reflexes roll if they want to stop themselves from accidentally injecting the person inside with digestive venom. Add +3 to this Reflexes roll if the person inside is wearing armor.
Full Success: The TFB is able to keep total control and prevent themselves from injecting venom.
Partial Success: The TFB is able to barely stop themselves from releasing all their spines, and the character inside takes a small dose of venom. Applies poison (Non-lethal, OT: Immediate, DF: Per Round).
Failure: The TFB is not able to hold back at all and releases their spines completely. The character inside takes a full dose of the digestive venom. Applies poison (Lethal, OT: Immediate, DF: per round).
Enveloping Hold
For the purposes of Enveloping Hold, always use the TFB’s Unfurled Athletics modifier.
An Enveloping Hold works exactly like a regular Hold, except the TFB does not suffer the regular penalties and caveats associated with using a Hold. They can still move around and act freely. (They have unique rules for that, see p.xx “Digestion”.) With a successful Enveloping Hold, the TFB wraps themselves completely around the target, essentially “swallowing” them. The TFB’s “mouth” is also their stomach. As long as there is only one victim inside them, they may choose to immediately return to the human disguise.[1] Doing so under these exact circumstances does not take a Movement and does not require the thing from beyond to make a +3 Composure roll for using a supernatural power, even though it normally would. It is part of the “swallowing” process. If there are multiple targets Enveloping Grabbed, the Enveloping Hold targets all of them. It takes only one roll and is made with the least favorable Weight Class for the TFB. A TFB cannot effectively Disguise as human at all if they are attempting to contain more than one victim. When a TFB is Disguised in this way, they are wrapped around their victim like a full-body suit. The victim’s arms are inside their “arms,” the victim’s legs are inside their “legs,” the victim’s head is inside their “head,” etc. A TFB wrapped around a person in this way can count as Armor, at least from things besides bullets.
When a Disguised TFB has a person in an Enveloping Hold it is nearly impossible to tell that a person is inside them just by looking, as if the victim is wearing the TFB as a skin-tight bodysuit.[1] However, if the victim is still alive, their screams for help will almost certainly be heard by anyone within about 10 feet that can make a Full Success on a Senses Roll. On a Partial Success, the listener may hear some kind of muffled sound, but not be able to pinpoint its source. If the thing from beyond opens the fake mouth of their human disguise, however, the victim inside will certainly be able to be heard by everyone around.[2]
[1 off to the side in the final formatting] The dimensions of the TFB’s Disguised form may appear slightly different than usual while holding a victim. They must at least somewhat mirror those of the victim inside.
[2 off to the side in the final formatting] “Hm? Did you just say something?”
[2.1. Off to the side in the final formatting] “No, sorry, must’ve been something I ate.”
Escaping a Thing from Beyond
If the victim inside a TFB is actively resisting them and/or trying to escape, apply a -1 penalty to all the TFB’s rolls per struggling victim.
For the purposes of any Escape attempts by the victim, always use the TFB’s Unfurled Athletics skill and modifiers.
Being surrounded by the TFB’s many dozens of teeth all pressing into them essentially means that the victim inside “chews” themselves by struggling too hard, saving the TFB energy. If the teeth are not being made to lay flat by the TFB, a victim trying to Escape from inside them takes 1 Superficial Damage for each Escape attempt, regardless of success or failure, unless the victim is wearing armor which covers most of their body as well as a helmet.
Chewing
Instead of Submission, an Enveloping Hold has chewing, which, mechanically, works exactly like Submission.[2] When a TFB has a victim in an Enveloping Hold, they may choose to “chew” their victim by squeezing and crushing them inside while cutting off their supply of air, and secreting acid to begin the process of digestion.[1] If there are multiple victims in an Enveloping Hold, this counts for all of them.
[1. Off to the side in the final formatting] Simply holding a person inside is not inherently lethal or otherwise damaging to the victim, unless the TFB starts chewing and digesting them.
[2. Off to the side in the final formatting] Maintaining Chewing each Turn takes an Action, just like maintaining Submission.
Crunching
For the purposes of Crunching, always use the TFB’s Unfurled Athletics modifier.
A third option TFBs have for subduing tumultuous prey is to just squeeze them until their bones are crushed, or bend them in ways humans can’t stand to bend. If time is measured in Turns, this takes an Action. Make an Athletics roll with a -3 penalty, and apply Weight Class. If there are multiple targets, apply the least favorable Weight Class On a Full Success, anyone inside the TFB’s stomach takes 4 Penetrative Damage. On a Partial Success or Failure, the TFB fails to exert enough pressure, and cannot attempt this again on the same victim.
Digestion
It takes, on average, 7 days for a TFB to fully digest a human,[1] and digesting more than one at a time does not slow this process. By day 2, no skin will remain. By day 5, only bones remain. By the end of day 7, not even the skeleton will remain. The digestive system of the TFB is capable of absorbing and utilizing every bit of a human body, and produces virtually no solid waste, though they may spit out tattered, acid-washed clothing and other indigestibles at the end of this process. The body of the victim may also be spit out prematurely at any time for any reason.
[1 off to the side in the final formatting] If the victim is an Unkillable monster, double the digestion timeframe. [stick this in the monster edge cases section later]
So long as the TFB is digesting a victim, they do not need to eat other food and will never count as having skipped meals. At the end of each day, as long as the TFB is digesting a victim, they regain 1 point of Composure as if they had eaten three meals that day.[1] This goes on at the end of each day until the victim is completely digested. If there are multiple victims being digested at once, the thing from beyond regains 1 point of Composure for each victim. Additionally, each time a TFB gains Composure from digesting a person, add +1 Composure each time for every 2 years the TFB has been friends with this person. A TFB can also completely skip the Composure roll for Death by immediately consuming the corpse of the deceased.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][1. Off to the side in the final formatting The victim does not have to be dead
*yet* for this Composure to be restored, as long as they have been chewed and/or dissolved by acid enough to be forced to make an Injury roll.
[2 off to the side in the final formatting] For some TFBs, the closer they are to someone emotionally, the greater their desire to consume them may grow, to absorb that person’s thoughts, personality, memories, everything into their own body. This may show as frequent hugs in the human disguise, or even particularly “mouthy” “hugs” by the unfolded form, if the secret is already out. Most friends of a TFB would hope it never escalates beyond that.
[2.1. off to the side in the final formatting] A TFB whose true nature is already known to their edible friends may struggle to keep these thoughts to themselves if they lack the social skills to know better.
[2.2. off to the side in the final formatting] If they are respectful of their friends’ desire not to be digested alive, a TFB with these desires may instead settle for learning “what makes them tick” by more conventional means, studying their every move and closely watching their reaction to everything. Still, bodies may go missing after death.
[3 off to the side in the final formatting] Because things from beyond absorb information from their prey, they eventually do start to develop a good idea of what being digested alive is like. However, they will typically still consider the ends worth the means.
[4 off to the side in the final formatting] “I hate you, I might even spit you out once you’re dead because I don’t want you in me, depending on how hungry I feel.”
[5 off to the side in the final formatting] “Sorry, I’m just so hungry.”
[6 off to the side in the final formatting] “I’m sorry, I know this is really going to hurt, but when it’s done you’ll literally be a part of me forever.”
[6.1. Off to the side in the final formatting] Some TFBs may not conceptualize this as being the same thing as death for the human. A TFB may experience the want to merge with a particular human in a way a human simply cannot. This will not always translate into the desire to eat them, but it easily can, because a TFB may see no other way.
[7. Off to the side in the final formatting] Regardless of these attitudes, most of a TFB’s victims will still likely be people they have no relationship with.
[8 off to the side in the final formatting] TFBs have no natural sexual attraction to humans but may develop a desire for intimacy through relationships with humans and through learning this feeling through human DNA and memories they absorb. Their actual means of reproduction is entirely unknown, and may be entirely asexual–they at least do not possess sex organs in any way that a human may fully understand. How they go about achieving this intimacy, therefore, requires some creativity and experimentation, but no matter the conclusion, any human participant should always always wear protection.
Digestion and Investigation Points
As mentioned earlier, the TFB not only receives nourishment from their victims, but information from their brain matter and DNA as well.[1] To mechanically represent this, the TFB not only receives Composure points from digesting the victim, but Investigation Points as well.[2] The TFB also gains 1 Investigation Point from a digesting victim at the end of each day, so long as the victim has been chewed/dissolved enough to have to make an Injury roll.
[1 off to the side in the final formatting] As a predator species, TFBs use information assimilated from their prey to adjust and alter their own equivalent-to-brains to think and act more like their preferred prey and thus better hunt them. When TFBs appear on Earth and start to consume humans, this has the unexpected side effect of causing them to develop sapience and a personality.
[1.1. off to the side in the final formatting] Over time, the default look to a TFB’s human disguise becomes more than just a lure, but a persona as well.
[2. Off to the side in the final formatting] These Investigation Points represent the jumble of random information a TFB starts to absorb from their meal almost as soon as the process is underway. Often, TFBs won’t be exactly sure where they learned something, whether it was something they heard, or something someone they ate heard.
Add 1 additional investigation point each time if the victim was alive when put in the Enveloping Hold.
Add 1 additional Investigation Point if the victim was somehow connected to the current investigation, no matter what “side” of it they were on.[1]
[1 off to the side in the final formatting] The TFB can tell if a victim is related to the current investigation or not by their taste after digesting them for at least long enough to gain a Composure point.
Add 1 Investigation Point if the victim was a fellow investigator, and additionally the TFB can take 1 Eureka! Point from an investigator victim each time a point of Composure is restored by digesting them. They also gain the ability to use a Eureka! Point on any previously failed Investigative Rolls written on an investigator victim’s character sheet. This means that a TFB can potentially gain up to 4 Investigation Points per victim per day.
Subtract -2 investigation points from this total, to gain a minimum of 0, for any victim that has been dead more than an hour before being “swallowed.”
A TFB only gets the aforementioned Composure and Investigation Points if they have been digesting the victim or victims constantly since they were ingested. They cannot just leave a dead body in their apartment and return home to digest it for a few minutes at the end of each day, nor can they just lightly nibble on a friend for a few minutes at the end of the day to count as a “meal” and restore Composure. Doing this would give them no Composure points nor investigation points. They must keep wrapped around their prey overnight to digest overnight, but this does not mean that they must remain in human shape the entire time they are digesting.
Digestion and Exact Memories
Once a TFB has spent at least three days digesting a person that is somehow related to the current investigation, add “[Person’s Name]’s Mind” to their On-Person Inventory.[1] So long as they have this, at any point, they may spend a Eureka! Point to “use” the person’s mind to learn a single piece of useful information that the digested person would know, similar to how any investigator might use a Eureka! Point to learn from a previously Failed Investigative Roll.
[1. Off to the side in the final formatting] TFBs do not absorb literally every piece of information held in a person’s brain, nor do they necessarily “keep” everything they do absorb. They aren’t hard drives. [Person’s Name]’s Mind will no-longer be in their inventory at the start of a new adventure under normal circumstances.
So long as they have this, add +1 to any Interpersonal roll targeting a person who knows the victim. They will also innately recognize people whom their victim knew, but may or may not know any details of their relationship, up to the Narrator. They also do not need to make a specific roll to be able to disguise their body and voice as this person’s.
Overclock Metabolism and Acid/Venom Spray
The TFB may spend 1 Eureka! Point to secrete an enormous amount of stomach acid from their “mouth” side in a very short time, regardless of whether they have a dose of digestive venom ready. If time is measured in Turns, this takes an Action, though it does not take an Action to keep this acid continuously coming until it runs out. If there are one or more living victims currently inside the TFB, each will immediately take 8 Superficial damage, and then take 8 Superficial damage on the TFB’s Turn each Round for 7 Rounds. Halve this damage if the target is only Enveloping Grabbed by the TFB and not Enveloping Held. This also advances the digestion process by 1 day on the TFB’s Turn each Round for 7 Rounds, including any Composure restoration, Investigation Point gain, and deterioration of the victim’s body that would entail. This, however, will not grant “[Person’s Name]’s Mind” until the victim is dead. Additionally, this allows for digestion of inorganic substances, though the taste and feeling of doing so are not at all pleasant to the TFB. This excess acid secretion may be ended early at any time, but another Eureka! Point must then be spent to start it back up again.
This excess secretion of acid may be used for other purposes too. If Unfurled, then the TFB may flatten themselves against a surface and dissolve a hole through it equal to their size and shape at a rate of about one half of an inch per Turn.[1] This does take an Action each Turn to continuously do.[2]
[1 off to the side in the final formatting] The dissolution rate of different substances may actually vary up to the Narrator's discretion.
[2 off to the side in the final formatting] The TFB will taste every moment of this.
In either form, 1 Round after the Eureka! Point was spent, the TFB is secreting enough stomach acid that they may pressurize it within their body and spray it up to 10 feet in any and all directions. Treat this mechanically as though a splash explosion had happened centered on the TFB, though they may instead choose any number of specific targets within range rather than hitting every potential target in range indiscriminately. Targets hit will take 2 Superficial damage each round until the acid can be washed away or wiped off.
A TFB is immune to its own acid, like its venom. They are of very similar chemical construction.
Inhuman Sleeping Patterns
Sections of a TFB’s body take “sleep” in shifts,[1] with their whole body only shutting down for a short period of time each day. Therefore, TFBs do not appear to require as much sleep as regular humans do. A TFB need only sleep for 2 Ticks to get a Full Night’s Rest. Treat 1 Tick of rest as equivalent to less than 8 hours of sleep, and 0 Ticks as staying up all night.[2][3][4]
[1 off to the side in the final formatting] This has no other mechanical effect, except that when a TFB says “my leg fell asleep,” it could be a very literal statement.
[2. Off to the side in the final formatting] Though TFBs are neither nocturnal nor dinurial, they will mostly try to keep up the act of a human sleeping pattern.
[3. Off to the side in the final formatting] Speaking of “sleeping patterns,” their skin may go through elaborate changes of color when they dream.
[4. Off to the side in the final formatting] Most TFBs are capable of maintaining a folded shape even while asleep.
Whenever a TFB sleeps, their photoreceptors do not shut down entirely. They will be vaguely aware of their surroundings even while sleeping. If a threat approaches them in their sleep, they may make a Reflexes or Senses roll and wake up on a Partial Success or Full Success.
Whenever a TFB sleeps, and the result would matter in any way, roll 1D6. On a result of 1-3, the TFB will wake up in an entirely different color combination than they were when they went to sleep.[1]
[1. Off to the side in the final formatting] Redoing their human persona’s tattoos and makeup on these mornings can be a hassle.
Crawl Away from a Hot Needle (Thing from Beyond Weakness)
TFBs are survivable, but not invincible. There are a number of substances and situations that their bodies do not react well to.
Regeneration Impediments
Damage from the following sources is not halved: Fire and extreme heat, acid, or nickel.[1]
[1. Off to the side in the final formatting] For example, a regular bullet would deal 2 Penetrative Damage to the TFB, but a nickel-plated bullet would deal the regular 4.
If any damage is caused to them by these substances during an instance of combat, they will not automatically regenerate 1 of both types of HP at the end of combat, nor at the end of the same session.[1] This damage may still be healed by other means.
[1 off to the side in the final formatting] They will continue to regenerate as normal from the next session and next instance of combat, as long as they don’t take any more damage from these substances.
Nickel Poisoning
Nickel is a highly toxic substance to TFBs, and if they start to digest it,[2] they must immediately expel the entire contents of their stomach, or make a Reflexes roll to more discriminately spit out only the source of nickel.[1]
[1 off to the side in the final formatting] Jewelry, buttons, and other metal apparel are commonly nickel-plated or use nickel as a filler. TFBs who don’t pay attention to what their victims are wearing may soon regret it.
[2 off to the side in the final formatting] If the TFB is not actively digesting, the nickel will not dissolve into their bloodstream.
Full Success: They can spit out only the source of nickel quickly enough to not suffer more than a very unpleasant taste.
Partial Success: They can spit out only the source of nickel, but not before becoming poisoned (Non-lethal, OT: Immediate, DF: per Tick).
Failure: They fail to spit out the nickel before it dissolves in their stomach, and they suffer from poison (Lethal, OT: Immediate, DF: per Tick).
Extreme Heat
TFBs must have “Extreme Heat” at some place on their Tiers of Fear. They make this Composure roll when exposed to temperatures greater than 100F/38C. Additionally, if they are Disguised, when exposed to temperatures greater than 130F/55C, they must make a Reflexes roll to maintain their disguise or else flop open violently.
Full Success: They do not allow their disguise to falter at all.
Partial Success: Their disguise falters slightly, gaps opening up and certain features slipping out of place for only a second or two.
Failure: They completely unravel into their unfurled state.
Alien Nightmares
TFBs have vivid dreams, and their nightmares are particularly distressing to the part of their mind that has developed human sensibilities.[1] If a TFB is at 3 Composure or below, roll 1D6 each time they sleep. On a 5 or 6, they will have a vivid nightmare. This means that they fail to gain any Composure points from this rest. On a 6, they will extend their venomous spines in panic, injecting or launching digestive venom into whatever their “mouth” side is touching.[2]
[1 off to the side in the final formatting] Is this from the last moments of their victims, or something long before that?
[2. Off to the side in the final formatting] Thimbles could be useful, maybe?
Misc. Tells
False Clothing
Many TFBs find any kind of human apparel uncomfortable and restrictive to wear. When the TFB disguises themselves as a human by folding into a human shape, their “clothes” are typically also part of the disguise, and are thus warm to the touch like skin, and may not hang exactly like actual fabric should.
Weight
While holding a person inside their human disguise, the TFB will of course be twice as heavy.
X-Ray
The TFB has no bones, but may pass an x-ray exam by holding another person in their body for its duration, if this would, like, ever come up. [maybe make this a sidebar in the Invertebrate section?]
Heartbeat
TFB do not have a centralized heart and thus do not have a proper heartbeat anywhere on their body.
All Stomach
Listening to any part of a TFB’s body while they are digesting a victim will sound like putting your ear to someone’s stomach.
False Mouth
Anyone into the “mouth” of a TFB’s human persona may see the TFB’s many rows of real teeth in the back of their “throat.”
How to Kill a Thing from Beyond
A TFB’s main body is capable of gradually regenerating so long as even a small scrap of flesh remains from it. In order to permanently kill a TFB, the damage that takes them to 0 Penetrative HP must be done with fire or an acidic substance, or all of their remains gathered and thoroughly burned or dissolved afterwards.
They will also die permanently if killed by nickel poisoning, though not if killed by a nickel weapon.
#the thing#ttrpg tumblr#indie ttrpg#tabletop#rpg#ttrpg#ttrpgs#ttrpg character#ttrpg community#the thing 1982#alien#eldrich oc#eldrich horror#lovecraft#lovecraftian horror#lovecraftian#the blob#supernatural horror#indie ttrpgs#blanket#eureka#eureka: investigative urban fantasy
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I won’t lie, saw your post about how things are scary rn in the U.S. and… idrk what’s going on. Been avoiding it like the plague bc i’m afraid of the information i’m currently ignorant to. As someone who dwells on “what ifs” it scares me to know what is going on but at the same time i wanna know what’s happening since i live in the U.S too. Just wanted to share this. I feel bad bc of the fact that i been ignoring it, so i do wanna know what’s going on. I just want someone to tell it to me in a way that doesn’t feel like i’m being attacked for avoiding it bc i’m too afraid to learn the information by myself. But there may be some people like me out there.
Hi there, that's absolutely valid, it's been a bit of a mess and some miscommunications have occurred already (as typical always every 4 years here) and wanting to avoid all of it isn't unreasonable. Acknowledging but avoiding a subject is completely different than denial, and that's totally okay, I don't judge. I'll do my best to explain in a way that makes sense and that's hopefully helpful
Before anything else, let me preface this by saying that I am NOT a political scientist, I am NOT an expert in anyway regarding politics in the slightest, anything that I share below is based on my personal experience and research so please keep that in mind, I highly encourage you to check out the sources below for any further information. Having said that, here's what we know:
According to The Associated Press, and other news outlets, the current president elect is Donald Trump with 292 of the electoral college votes, races have not been called in AZ, NV, ME and AK.
Harris is set to give a concession speech at 4 pm EST today.
Republicans have control of the senate with 52 seats, with democrats having lost 3 seats and currently have 43. 5 remaining races have yet to be called. Currently, they are projected to be filled by Democrats by Associated Press and 270 to Win.
The house is currently still a toss up, 270 to Win projects 209 (D) to 213 (R) for 20 of the remaining 33 uncalled races. Again, 13 races are still a toss-up at this point in time.
Sources for more information:
If you would like more information regarding live coverage, as well as general, unbiased reporting, Associated Press is (in my opinion) the most accurate and unbiased source of information.
If you would like to see current projections for the remaining races, Associated Press and 270 to win appear (emphasis on appear) to have the most accurate reporting.
If you want to see live coverage and discussion, or to see how things unfolded last night, CNN did have a broadcast going last night that was free to watch. It appears they've now taken it down. If I happen to find said broadcast I'll update the post with it as they do a good job of explaining things state by state, precint by precint. However, much like any other media outlet, they can be prone to bias (left-leaning) and potentially to fear mongering. Should you seek out CNN or any other news outlet besides those above please keep in mind that reporting may be influenced in certain ways because of this.
Having said all that, here's what I personally think this means and what can still happen, with facts mixed in for reference. Much of this is my opinion and should not be taken as fact unless it's cited. Again, not an expert, just someone with a very very basic understanding of politics and government.
With the win of the presidency and the senate, republicans are at the advantage. With senate control they will be able to assist with choosing the next presidental cabinet, and should there be a vacancy on the supreme court, assist with that.
However, if democrats can take control of the house, the win will be massive, and leave them able to have some say in the next 4 years, but nothing is for certain at this point in time
Democrats potentially have at least a little breathing room in the senate, they're not majority, but only 4 seats difference is better than nothing
We've gotten through a Trump presidency before, the situation then, as well as the feeling everyone has now is exactly the same. We made it through then, and we can make it through again
The senate is only guaranteed to be controlled by Republicans until the 2026 midterms, two years is a long time, but it's only two years
Having lived through the last Trump term in my teens and remember it well, yes he managed to do some pretty awful things, but he also undelivered in several ways, we can only hope the same thing happens this time around, this would be especially true should democrats take the House
He won't be back, if he makes it through the term he'll be too old and his health won't be great. Republicans didn't want him this time, they won't want him the next.
JD Vance and so many others will still be kicking long after he's gone though, and that needs to be in the back of people's heads when we get closer to 2028
Trump made a lot of empty promises he didn't keep before, and personally I don't think he beleves half the things he says, he just says it because he knows others do believe it. Giving up hope now for a better tomorrow won't make a better tomorrow, hoping despite it all will. Giving up also gives people like him exactly what they want, and I'm not about to do that, neither should you.
For now, be vigilant, stay safe, but try to relax. Doom-scrolling, wondering what might happen, and so on, is pointless because at this point, we don't know. Anything could happen, this election is a clear example of that.
Hope this was able to help, anon. We're all in this together, and as long as that remains true, we're going to be okay. Highly recommend after reading this to do what's best for you, be that choosing to find out more through the sources above or continue to avoid it. Personally, I'm getting together with some friends this evening to study, chat, and chill and decompress from it all, hopefully you can do something similar if you need to 💜
#did my best to keep my opinions void of misleading information#again I have no expertise#in the slightest#if you see post and are interested in engaging in discourse#please don't#this is just basic information and my opinion#it is not intended to influence people's views nor to cause arguments
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There is a pattern to these fandom freakouts that's quite frankly become exhausting. Every time L hasn't posted in a while, trolls come out of the woodwork, posting shit affecting his loved ones, hoping to spur him into action. This is what happened last time with the HBS likes. Every time there's info or even so much as a hint that he's still with A, a smear campaign against him is launched, without fail. But if he posts something about Bton, all is forgotten in seconds, he's suddenly uwu babygurl Lukey Newts, perfect boy. Every. Fucking. Time. This is what happens whenever a celebrity isn't doing a little monkey dance for the fandom. And it's such a weird thing - if they're obsessed with someone, it doesn't necessarily mean that they love or even like them. In which case, I would like to kindly ask - why are they even here? Like, what are they hoping to get out of this experience?
Personally, I'm tired of going into any Bton fandom space at this point, hoping to see what's new and hopefully have a good time, and getting bombarded with literal nonsense that will be disproven within hours yet will somehow linger in the collective fandom memory and become a building block of increasingly unfounded theories that have diverged completely from reality, yet get regurgitated as fact every time new info emerges. They always find a way to contort even the most benign piece of info into intractable timelines of things that have been given meaning that they simply don't bear. Literally if you were to pull a thread, the whole thing would fall apart. Yet, these same things get resuscitated every time the fandom is mad at L or N or whoever for not doing whatever it is they think they should be doing.
The entitlement is mind-blowing and the rinse-repeat cycle of chicken-littling over the minutest thing is sucking every bit of joy out of being in this fandom anymore. It has become more time-consuming just trying to curate my experience than actually consuming content I'd like to see. What is even the point anymore, folks, huh? Would your own lives withstand the same kind of scrutiny you're putting these people under? They're just trying to make entertainment and a living out of it, what's the point of ruining everything? Whence even the urge? None of this is that deep. Is everyone just a miserable fuck anymore? I'm sorry for ranting, but it's become not worth it for me anymore when May was such a blessed time. Why can't we all stay in that energy? What good could possibly come of this? Thank you for listening and take care of yourselves, everyone.
I totally get where you're coming from. Fandoms can become overwhelming, and it sounds like you're feeling really drained by all the drama and negativity. It’s hard when a space you used to enjoy turns into a battleground of speculation, entitlement, and frustration. Your feelings about how fans treat celebrities and the constant cycle of drama are completely valid. I've noticed this pattern as well. It’s disheartening when every action or inaction of a public figure is scrutinized and twisted into something negative. Luke might not have handled everything perfectly, but the extreme reactions often reflect a lack of empathy and misplaced expectations.
It’s also frustrating when fandom spaces are overwhelmed with misinformation and sensationalism. This is why I found myself rolling my eyes at the information coming out yesterday. People should be more mindful about the sources of their information and why it’s being spread. The effort to sift through and debunk myths can be more exhausting than just enjoying the content. Constantly having to defend yourself or distance from the negativity to keep your enjoyment intact is disheartening.
It’s tough when people criticize you for trying to view the situation from a different perspective and not just join in the attack without knowing all the facts (or at least a good portion of them). It’s definitely tiring. I was feeling this yesterday because of the asks I was getting.
Remember, it's perfectly okay to step back if the environment is no longer enjoyable or is affecting your well-being. Fandoms should be a place for sharing enthusiasm and connecting with others who feel the same way, not a source of constant stress and conflict. I hope you find a way to rekindle your enjoyment of the fandom or at least find some peace with it. Take care of yourself and focus on what makes you happy. ❤️
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Not culture, but q genuine question I really need an answer to: folks is it okay to self-dx and not wish a professional diagnosis but still consider you have NPD and say that to people? I have read multiple descriptions of NPD from trusted sources for and by pwNPD, I match enough criteria (I think, I'll redo that questionnaire again) to be considered pwNPD and I really relate to a lot of experiences and struggles of other pwNPD and NPD ruins my life <3 /silly
But I don't want to get a professional diagnosis because... What will it give me? I'll just waste money on an old man saying I'm narcissistic in the most codescending tone ever, a paper and eh that's it. I already know I'm narcissistic, the paper will only give me "I am not a faker" rights (I'm actually debating faking having a diagnosis to not look fake) and won't give me any other rights at all, if I go to therapy it's more likely that I'll just go to learn how to cope with my symptoms and life in general better and not to prove that I'm autistic or narcissistic
So uh. Should I get a diagnosis? Do I have to get a diagnosis to not be considered a faker and bad for the community? Should I lie about having a professional diagnosis during discourses?
Thanks for advice in advance folks
heyo! from what i've seen, most of the community is pretty accepting of self-dx as a lot of us are well aware of how hard it can be to even achieve a diagnosis and the trouble that might come from it afterwards. i would probably advise against lying about having a diagnosis, but a lot of people would probably advise against disclosing wether or not you're professionally diagnosed online in general as you really don't really owe people that information in general.
like you kinda mentioned, therapy should be more about improving daily life and coping with your personal symptoms than about finding the exact professional diagnosis that explains everything, but if you fit the criteria and have done proper research, personal self-diagnosis is totally valid imo.
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☆ i will be referring to this conflict as i/p as shorthand for israel/palestine. I recognize the war is between Israel and hamas im just using this term because its short and its common enough that people will get what I mean.
saw a video of a woman with a text overlaid with something about how something was finally over. I think she might have used the term war i just can't remember and I didnt save it even though I shouldve. point is something bad in her life had ended and she looked absolutely relieved and overjoyed and you could quite literally see a weight being lifted off her. whatever actually ended (there were no specifics) was clearly enough of a stressor that it felt incredible when it was done.
anyway there was nothing in the post nor the caption imply that this was about i/p. yet nearly all the comments were like "wait I thought this was about palestine" or "I thought palestine won" "you're misleading us" and other things of that sort.
first of all, how rude do you need to be to see someone celebrating and then get angry that they're not happy about the "correct" thing. how can you be so separated from human emotion that the simple expression of joy and relief is foreign to you. not saying you can't have false assumptions its totally normal to look at something online and have to reread it bc its about a totally different topic than you originally thought. what is messed up is saying the creator has to talk about palestine instead of her own accomplishments because they misunderstood her post. not because she mislead anyone on purpose or anything like that just because of a simple misunderstanding. she did not hurt a single person by making this post and yet instead of just congratulating her and making a little joke about misreading, they are acting as if she is a horrible person because she's not talking about palestine in this specific post.
second of all, this just shows how little people get their information from reliable sources. if the war ended and you were informed by a random post on Instagram because you do not look at anything besides that for information, then you probably haven't learnt enough to be discussing this conflict. of course you're gonna get info on social media that's just how the internet works. you just don't get big news from here without checking it because there's a decent chance its wrong. people lie all the time, people hide facts, and tbh social media politics are like a shitty worldwide game of telephone. if this woman actually was saying the i/p war ended, would these commenters have taken her word and assumed she was telling the truth?? would they have even looked at a single reliable source to see that it hasn't ended?? or are influencers somehow valid news sources now??
point is yall need to find shit to do outside of i/p and start focusing on your own lives and leave women who are just existing the fuck alone. also learn how to find reliable sources it is really scary how little some of yall know about that. I feel like I should proofread this i just am getting pins and needles in my hand so that's just not happening
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https://www.tumblr.com/twopoppies/764090869705031680/wouldnt-that-straight-indierocker-persona-make?source=share
I mean I totally agree he's been marketed wrong (this is an opinion based solely in vibes and public information because who the hells knows what's happening behind the scenes) BUT he's definitely has been more confident on the stage lately so how do your anon knows he's not being himself? It's totally valid if they don't like the new version of him but that sounds more like their problem, not Louis. But more important than everything, the indie/alternative/rock scene is full of openly queer artist so I don't think that has anything to do with coming out or not
He’s definitely been more confident as his tour continued. That’s been wonderful to see. I assume what that anon was talking about was the image he’s been presenting over the last year or so. Maybe? To me, it doesn’t feel entirely authentic, but those are my thoughts. I can’t speak for that anon.
And yes, I’m sure there are plenty of queer artists in the indie scene. I tend to think he’s just trying to get away from the boyband stigma and people are reading it as “trying to appear straight.” I don’t know. But I agree, if he wants to come out, he’ll do it when he’s ready. Regardless of what genre of music he’s releasing.
In reference to this
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