#the “traits” category is a wip…

[dawns-beauty]

WIP Masterpost: Skyrim Elf NPC Overhauls

Heya! I'm still SassiestAssassin from the Nexus. Making this a pinned post, as this project will be consuming my foreseeable future. For my other modding projects, check out this masterpost.

For more pics of this project, check out the codb tag.

I am currently working on 3 mods that will cover each race of elf NPC in Skyrim: Children of the Ash (Dunmer), Children of the First (Altmer), and Children of the Green (Bosmer.) Additionally, I plan on updating Children of the Pariah, my Orc NPC overhaul, to take advantage of the assets I'm using for the other mods. This overall project has the working title "Children of Dawn's Beauty" (a reference to the translation of "Tamriel" from elvish.)

My goals for my mods is to keep to the spirit of the original NPCs, and bring in new elements to freshen them up. I research each NPC's page on UESP to glean traits I want their designs to reflect. Style-wise, I am shooting for a little bit more than Vanilla+, but not super realistic or super fantasy. They use High Poly Heads and Expressive Facegen Morphs. Some of the specific attributes I want to emphasize are:

Cultural References and Enhanced Racial Features

I wanted to work in aesthetics/cosmetics from the other games for elves. To make elves more distinct from humans, I am trying to make some of their non-human characteristics more prominent. All three races have brow ridges; large, almond-shaped eyes with colored scalara and large irises; more saturated and varied skintones; and more prominent ears (still pointed, of course.)

Dunmer NPCs will tend to wear a lot of earrings/other piercings, tattoos, and may have ornamental scarification. I've also invoked images of the Good Daedra and the Temple Saints where I can fit them in.

Bosmer NPCs might have horns or sharpened teeth. They also have eyes with star-shaped pupils.

The Altmer NPCs, for the most part, are a little more separated from their culture (as most NPCs are Thalmor, or likely have a reason they left Summerset.) Individuals of higher standing will wear pearls or moonstone, and be well-coifed and wear makeup. Thalmor tend to be more subdued, with sleeker, darker looks.

Age and Lifestyle Influences

I wanted to reflect aging in a way that default Skyrim only kind of touches on with humans (having an Elder race) and have 4 stages of aging via custom textures: Young, Mature, Middle-Aged, and Elderly. These are based on Tempered Skins for Males and Reverie Skins for females. Textures will be available for Vanilla and CBBE bodies. Women and men will have some body hair.

Young is the smallest category, with the distinct feature being smoother, fuller face textures:

Mature uses the same body textures as Young, but with less baby fat on their faces:

Middle-Aged textures are somewhat wrinkled with stretch marks on the body:

Elderly textures are the most wrinkled, with stretch marks and liver spots on the body:

There will also be two sets of muscle tone. Laborers and warriors will have more prominent muscles (but not unrealistic six packs.)

Mixed-Race Individuals

There will be a few NPCs with mixed heritage, which will show up in their features.

Outfit Addons

I am also working on adding the outfits seen in my screenshots to NPCs via Skypatcher.

[pawborough]

February Check In

Hello, all!

Closed Beta's been open for nearly two weeks now and we’ve been busy at work, and excited to share with everyone some of our progress!

First, let’s look at some art!

Gilded Helm Recolors

We are currently working on the Gilded Helm's recolors, here are some previews!

Recolors by Emma.

New icons

We’ve been busy with icons!

Take a look at the renderings for our eye type and eye palette metamorphic items—lenses and prisms!

We also have the white marbles ready, which allow you to adjust the white coverage of your cats.

Moreover, we’ve created icons for our various shufflestones, which change a cat’s colors to completely random ones or to colors within a specific range.

Last but not least, we have several new food and supply icons ready!

Eye prisms, Shufflestones and marbles by Hydde. Food and supply items by Remmie, Tybaxel, and Nik.

New decor

We also made some progress on decor!

WIP roundable by Remmie and Giulia.

Development Check In

See the initial UIs for our in-development item database and achievement system for archetypes!

Archetypes, as introduced in our January update, are a specific combination of traits which, when fulfilled, mark the cat’s profile with a badge and reward the user as an achievement fulfillment. Below are the initial UI for the achievement part of this mechanic.

Browse through all available items in the game with our item database. Filter by category, rarity, color, or obtainment method to find exactly what you're looking for. Whether it's food, supplies, or metamorphics, everything is at your pawtips!

How is Beta going?

We’ve had a great time with Beta! Over 1100 users signed up! 

While we did have server issues, we opted for optional  maintenance downtimes that lasted between 1 to 5 minutes each to implement solutions. But the server did not and never did crash, which we are very happy about. 

Halfway into the first week, we found a way to optimize, and since then the server has only had issues when we deploy fixes, which is expected during the application’s infancy. As we grow, deployments won't have these consequences, and patches will come out in big batches rather than small deployments. But it works for now as we make steady progress.

We do really enjoy this environment of testing. The amount of QA we get from the test is huge in helping us crack down on issues, and it's monumental in us improving the application. For the first two weeks of Beta, we did a lot of straight grinding to whittle down on the biggest issues, and we're very excited to get back to this pace. The energy has been a blast and a half, and we're happy with the progress we're making.

As we planned, we're doing less in the next two weeks before March. Our developers are taking a brief reprieve, and we’ll be making small updates in the meantime, but not nearly as frequent as the first two weeks of the test. 

Myself (Blue) also needs a few days of rest, and I greatly appreciate the patience with our planned catnap. 

But Beta has been fun as we make progress. That's a huge uplifter! There are a lot of ways in which development can feel thankless, demoralizing, or frustrating for the team. But the engagement from users and the community's joviality has lifted our spirits significantly. It’s great to feel so excited to keep working!

And the feedback has been juicy! There is a lot of very thoughtful criticism that has been sent for us to really sink our teeth into. We couldn't ask for anything better. This dedication will help us improve the application, and we love the time and energy put into feedback tickets. We care a lot about them, and value how much a user must care to send them.

Our projection of running through the summer is holding true based on our progress. We expect to see a very different application by the end of Closed Beta, and one which we’ll listen to the community on with how it's feeling. As we promised, we will not be moving into Open Beta until it feels good and we’ve gotten through our list of update priorities. 

The biggest thing we've learned since the Closed Beta launch is to be more proactive and prepared with our communication. We apologize for the ways we have fumbled in making sure information is readily accessible, sensible, and concentrated, and for not adequately relaying both our intentions and easy instructions for users. We have learned, and we take responsibility for the initial frustration. We deserved the criticism. Thank you for expressing your concerns to us, and we'll employ everything we have learned going forward.

To summarize: We shared decors, Gilded helm recoloring, icons, item database and closed Beta update.

What to expect next month: Further asset and development updates. Check-ins for how closed Beta will be going.

[tony-veis]

4t2 Garlic that repels vampires

a WIP that has been lying around for an indecently long time

Being near garlic, vampires begin to lose vigor points. And garlic stinks. Located in the category - household appliances -> miscellaneous

Thanks a lot for helping @lamare-sims & @jellymeduza Without you, I wouldn't have been able to do anything at all

Why this object was not released earlier and what problems are still unresolved: 1. Garlic has a very strange placement, it is supposed to hang on the wall, but you can place it anywhere. 2. Vampires don't faint after reaching 0 percent vigor. 3. For some reason, garlic does not affect vampires who have come to visit. 4. It was assumed that vampires at a party, feeling garlic, would run away from it as well as from the sun. 5. The stench of garlic in the fourth part is visible only to vampires, I could not realize this in the second part. 6. @jellymeduza also suggested adding a character trait "protection from garlic", as in the fourth part, but I never managed to implement this mechanic, so there is a character trait, but it is useless :(

Download / patreon

Thanks to my patrons and donaters, for supporting the release of this сс

You can make a one-time donation on ko-fi  - https://ko-fi.com/tonyveis 

You can long-term support me on Patreon  - https://www.patreon.com/yony_veis

[noahthehyperfixated]

My girlie. My dude. My beloved WaveSurfer

Extra facts/writing character background lore below the cut

Don't tell anyone but she IS actually a hybrid, just very… diluted…

Coming at this as the omniscient creator of WaveSurfer, and how I drew her and the fact she was put in the hybrids category for the RP I’m using her in, she’s a diluted Night/Sea. Somewhere along the line, most likely her father’s side since the hybrid traits are non-existent outside her colors and slightly thicker tail, a Seawing is found SOMEWHERE. Which is funny given she was FOUND by Seawings in the middle of the Bay of A Thousand Scales and raised by them. It’s assumed the Seawing is probably either a great great grandparent, or great grandparent on her father’s side given how little is in her.

Now do we know who her father is, because who would miss a BRIGHT Nightwing with some.. ”weird traits” to every dragon? Not at all! But he’s probably still out there, maybe with the Nightwing he had WaveSurfer with…

Who knows, maybe there’s some Nightwing bums somewhere in the Seawing kingdom living a quiet life, or they moved back to the Nightwing kingdom. Either way, they don’t know what happened to their egg that ended up as WaveSurfer.

Fun Trivia

- There is much speculation in the village she grew up in amongst the Seawings there, and her adoptive parents. Half the village says she was purposefully abandoned, and the other half says her parents lost her at sea.

- She wears fake fins on her arms and tail to help her swim.

- One of her most cherished items is a pearl bracelet her adoptive parents saved up to buy her one hatching day.

- She is stronger than most other Nightwings unless they’ve been through extensive training due to needing to swim through the ocean, and easy access to an abundance of food from fishing.

- She is also smaller than most Nightwings her age, but is, in turn, larger than most Seawings her age.

- She can open her eyes underwater just fine.

- Her lung capacity is some of the best out of any dragon if we exclude Mudwings and their ability to hold their breath for an hour. It’s a lot like a free-diver’s breath holding, just maybe a bit longer for a dragon’s case.

- By the real life definition as basis and compared to the other tribes, she’s a Pescatarian. She actually really hates other meats after growing up almost eating exclusively a seafood based diet over other meats.

- Her favorite past time is body surfing

- (unseen on back) some Seawings that believe in the spiritual that see her say the starfish markings on her chest and back, right at the base of her tail, is a sign she is meant to be in the Seawing kingdom.

Bonus WIP screenshot

[cripplecharacters]

I'm on the planning phase of my WIP and I recently found out I probably have OCD (I'm just recently learning about it). While analyzing one of my OCs, a man who used to be very famous but lost most of his fanbase after a misinformation spread, I noticed he might have some obsessive thoughts about not screwing the fanbase he re-grew and has compulsively entered a new job and post too much on social media to protect his popularity, and this made me think of writing him as having OCD, but I'm not sure he could fit in the condition.

The problem is that he's supposed to be very vain and have excessive (and genuine) pride on his looks, saying stuff like "I know I'm gorgeous!", but I don't know if it's possible to make OCD only affecting his career-based thoughts and actions but never affecting how much he thinks he's hot. Do you think it could work to make him worry about if people really like him while he's sure physical appearance is not a problem?

@bertosenn:

I asked the question about the vain character with OCD but no insecurity about his physical appearance (April 14th 2024), but I realized I sent it as anon from force of habit. I thought it might be useful to send this ask not anonymously in case I feel like I need more information later, so if you think it'd be useful to tag me in the post, it'd be okay for me.

Hi!

OCD comes in a lot of different types/categories of intrusive thoughts, and each person with OCD will have a different experience.

It is totally reasonable for him to have OCD related thoughts about not “jinxing” his popularity, and that these thoughts never cross into insecurities about his appearance.

Mod Rock

Hey, I think that his OCD focusing on a traumatic/very stressful experience is very realistic.

If you want to include his focus on his appearance in his OCD, he could have compulsions around making sure that he still is as attractive as he is in his head. So he could compulsively brush his hair, or wash his hands (I know it's a stereotype but I do it myself, it's very much real), or check his clothes, for example. OCD can make you have intrusive thoughts that go against the things you 100% believe in - in his case his looks - I think that it would make sense if it was included, and it wouldn't undermine his pride. For readers who have some knowledge on OCD, it could even strengthen this trait.

But I also agree with Rock - he can have zero connection between the two, and it would be completely fine. I think that whatever you do here should be alright.

I hope this helps,

mod Sasza

[mystxmomo]

Would you do 2, 8, and 19 for Ilphaer please? 🙏❤ Thank you!

Name five songs they would listen to/enjoy.

I can do more than that. I will give you categories of her music taste. I don't think her music taste is good (She would listen to anything, she likes Noise) but it IS something I've actually put a lot of thought into because she is nothing if not the woman she is (She does actually like music a lot just as a character trait. Imagine this is a modern setting for this question.)

First category. 2000's-2010's pop. Blow by Kesha is the first song on her actual irl playlist. Rihanna. Shakira. And you know what. Guess what. Britney Spears as well.

Now. Completely contrasted to that. I actually have a WIP somewhere of her playing a guitar and singing Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Guns n' Roses. Twisted Sister. Queen.

Music that is objectively kind of bad and you can't really recommend to people in good faith unless you know they are a VERY specific type of person. 100 Gecs. Ayisha Erotica. S3RL. Issue is she's listening to it loud enough that you can hear it bleeding through her headphones and destroying her ears so like. Enclave also is VERY familiar with this.

I don't know if she'd listen to it yet, she might like more noise. But I think about her while listening to Instruments of Retribution

She loves Noise

Would you trust them to look after: A small child? A houseplant? Your sandwich?

A small child: Weirdly, like... Yeah? But only after she's older and has spent time in Eilistraee's church. For all the trouble that she gave them, she did actually come out of it learning how to handle... community? Which. I think Vhaeraun's church also puts emphasis on, but in a completely different way.

I think she'd be a little mean to kids when she's younger and more bitter, but specifically because she's uncomfortable with them and doesn't know how to handle them and not because she's going out of her way to be. Which is always the core of her being who she is.

A houseplant: No she'd kill it. She'd forget to water it and remember she has it 3 weeks later. And then shes just like. "Aw. Man." about it.

Sandwich: Yes but it's with the understanding that the bitch WILL take half off it and isn't even sheepish about it. BUT she will leave enough for a perfectly enjoyable sandwich to be indulged in upon return. She just wanted a taste and "That's the cost of guard duty ;P <3"

Many characters are shaped in part by trauma. Name one happy memory that helped shape your character.

I think a lot of Ilphaer's happier moments that shape her when she's younger are little mundane moments of happiness that she doesn't register as happiness until she has hindsight to look back on it. Little things like trying good surface food for the first time, or watching the leaves turn or tree's flower. She's a character who, at her core, is about coming into self-fulfillment and learning to embrace the world around you, and I think being able to have those things really means a lot to her!

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

What are the four factor of regeneration, exactly?

What are the four factors of regeneration?

1️⃣The Core Being/Foundational DNA

Each Gallifreyan pops into the universe with shiny, new triple helix DNA formed from either a template or biological parents, setting the stage for their core physical and personality traits.

Although the DNA will change and dominant/recessive alleles will remix themselves to change up physical appearance, psychologically each body is just emphasising a different aspect of that original core personality, like the same song with the lyrics in a different order.

Additionally, some core physical and psychological characteristics will just 'stick' throughout many incarnations. This category also includes memories and experiences potentially subconsciously affecting the look of the new body.

2️⃣Skill Level

Regeneration is an art, and not every Gallifreyan is Van Gogh. While some will create a masterpiece every time they try, others need centuries of practice, and a few might never learn how to pick up a brush. The higher the level of skill, the greater the control, and the smoother the transition.

Especially in the case of the unskilled, bodies can and will rely on ‘what it knows’. For example, if you’re an unskilled Gallifreyan who has been inhabiting bodies that are continuously male, chances are the regenerative process will generally stick to that format because it’s familiar, and significantly lowers the risk of regeneration abnormalities or severity of post-regeneration sickness, like choosing the same character in a video game because you know how to play it.

3️⃣Environmental Vibes

Where you regenerate is as important as how. A calm, supportive environment, like a TARDIS Zero Room, can make a significant difference, offering stability and aid. Regenerating while your companion is having a meltdown and you're crying cos you don't want to be Peter Capaldi, on the other hand? Not really ideal for focus.

As a rule of thumb, regenerating bodies try to adapt as best they can to the environment it’s in. Ergo, if you regenerate in space, your body may just try to adapt to living in a void ... 🫠

This category also includes other influencing factors like drugs and radiation - the presence of certain hormones or biochemical agents in the body at the time of regeneration could influence the process.

4️⃣Random selection

Even taking all of these factors into account, there is still a degree of random selection, as in humans. Some things (are your earlobes attached? Can you roll your tongue? Do you like pears?) can be truly random.

Related:

What counts as a safety hazard for regeneration?: Risk factors in regeneration.

Why does a Gallifreyan get ‘superpowers’ straight after regeneration?: Why Gallifreyans ‘explode’ on regeneration and are overly energetic.

Factoid: What happens to the old body when a Gallifreyan regenerates?

How do Gallifreyans deal with regeneration disparities?: How Gallifreyan society perceives and deals with those unable to regenerate.

Hope that helped! 😃

More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A →😆Jokes |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[dhr-ao3]

With Your Head In Your Hands (you're nothing more than his wife)

With Your Head In Your Hands (you're nothing more than his wife) https://ift.tt/fHLQFSy by noctisx Pansy turned, ready to manoeuvre her way towards the petite blonde she had seen earlier, but one of the mirrored columns momentarily captivated her attention. She paused. Pureblood families were renowned for particular familial traits. For the Parkinsons, it was obsidian hair, the Malfoys platinum blond. In the Blacks it was their silver hued eyes, and for the Weasley’s it was a particular shade of red. Not quite copper and definitely not orange by any standard, but resembling the fiery hues of a blazing sky - as if a smouldering ember from the sun gently caressed the crown of their family’s head. Pansy would recognise her anywhere. -or- This was the quintessence of falling in love. But everyone always said that honest feelings and bad timing made the most painful combination. And for Pansy Parkinson, falling for Ginny Potter was like staring at a puzzle without its last piece — she would never feel complete. Words: 12941, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M Characters: Pansy Parkinson, Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy, Luna Lovegood, Neville Longbottom, Theodore Nott, Original Muggle Character(s) Relationships: Pansy Parkinson/Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom/Theodore Nott, Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy, Blaise Zabini/Everyone Additional Tags: Infidelity, Affairs, Married Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, POV Pansy Parkinson, Explicit Sexual Content, Gratuitous Smut, Lesbian Sex, Oral Sex, sapphic lesbian romance, Secret Relationship, Sexually Experienced Pansy Parkinson, inexperienced when it comes to women Ginny Potter, because she’s married, And A Cheater, Coming Out, Angst with a Happy Ending, Getting Together, Falling In Love, Guilt, Rough Oral Sex, Lots of Sex, Porn with Feelings, my girls are pure brain rot, Pansy falls first but Ginny falls harder, Shameless Smut, Dirty Talk, long-haired pansy parkinson, Quidditch Player Ginny Weasley, thigh riding, back on my thigh riding agenda, let me introduce you to my, the golden era needs more gays, agenda, Casual Sex, Once again this is a wip that the author had no business writing but here we are, music references, all hail Billie and Chappell, This isn’t outlined so I will update tags as I go, LGBTQ Themes, Post-War, Post-Hogwarts, Post-Battle of Hogwarts, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Pureblood Culture (Harry Potter) via AO3 works tagged 'Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy' https://ift.tt/mnWhfox October 01, 2024 at 07:34AM

[thatndginger]

Hi! :D Shapeshifting is so cool, can you tell me more about how it works in your wip?

Can I tell you more about the concept that’s been haunting my every waking moment (and some dreams) for like 8 years? Absolutely! It goes under the cut, though, because I can’t possibly be normal or concise about this lol

Broadly, shapeshifters are split into two categories: human-orgin and animal-origin. Human-origin shapeshifters are those like werewolves, were-animals, naguals, or erichtu. Animal-origin shapeshifters are those like selkies, huli jings/kitsune, or swan-wives. They all operate on the same ‘rules’, but can go by various names depending on culture or region. I use ‘shapeshifter’ as a catch-all, but in-universe they can be called all manner of things. In the scientific community, the term ‘metamorph’ is used in relation to shapeshifters.

Animal-origin shapeshifters are much more rare than human-origins, and tend to shy away from human settlements and societies. All shapeshifters have been vilified at some point, but animal-origins tend to be seen as more savage and strange, because they can only pretend to be human. On the flip side human-origins are seen as sneaky and unpredictable because of their animalistic traits and instincts

The magic behind shapeshifter is very poorly understood, in large part due to laws about human experimentation, and as such there is a lot of misinformation about it. One of the few things most scholars can agree on is that each shapeshifter is only capable of transforming into one animal species. Stories of a single shifter holding multiple forms are baseless stories. Within human-origin shapeshifters there is a further split between ‘born’ and ‘turned’ metamorphs. Born metamorphs are, obviously, born from shapeshifter parents, and thus inherit their genetic magical markers. Turned shapeshifters have been bitten by a shifter and undergone a painful, dangerous transformation. There isn’t a hard-and-fast rule about born shapeshifters inheriting their parents' animal forms - ie a werewolf having a werewolf child - but there is a much higher probability if both parents have the same animal form. There have been stories of some shapeshifters spontaneously presenting as such even if both parents are normal humans, but that is usually chocked up to latent genetics that have been triggered by exposure to specific magical influences.

Most human-origin shifters have an animal form that is some sort of predator species. It’s been theorized that this is due to whatever magic creates shapeshifters leaning towards an ‘evolutionary advantage’ and thus selecting for strength, ferocity, or some other trait that is predominantly seen in predator species. Still, there are enough accounts of shifters with non-predator forms that no one can claim all shifters have a predator form.

In terms of how shifters change their forms, this is something that falls under the “we can guess, but we can’t know for sure” category. It’s known that shifting is a general painful process, and requires a great deal of energy from the shapeshifter. Frequent repetition can ease the pain, and make it easier for a metamorph to ‘trigger’ their transformation process, but nothing can be done to circumvent the energy cost of changing one’s entire physical makeup. There has been a great deal of discussion about the fact that whatever articles of clothing or accessories a shifter may have been wearing in human form ‘disappear’ when they shift, only to ‘reappear’ when the shifter returns to human form, but no one can say for sure. A phone that ‘disappears’ will cease to function entirely, as well as any technology that could be used to trace where these items go. 

The last note I will hit on is that there is no consensus of how much control a metamorph has over their transformation. Some assert that a shifter has perfect control, while others say the shifter has no control at all. The generally accepted theory is that control is a sliding scale, or bell curve. Some metamorphs have more control than others, while some have less. Most shifters exist somewhere in the middle, where they can trigger their transformations at will, but may also have their transformations triggered via intense emotions or unconscious responses to certain stimuli.

[aurorawest]

2 and 13!

2. What are some common elements of stories you are tired of seeing? What would you avoid writing about?

I'm tired of the romantasy boom. Which is not to say I don't like the idea of romantic fantasy—I in fact want everything I read to be romance—but I'm sick of the same cookie cutter books blowing up. You know the ones. The main character is a Strong Woman™ and her love interest is a Lovable Rogue. They have a whole Han and Leia thing going on. The book is titled "A [Noun] of [Noun] and [Noun]." I guess that's not really an element so much as an entire marketing category.

Oh okay, I thought of one. The Angry Woman. Anger isn't a personality. Write better, thanks.

I personally am uninterested in writing heteronormative stories. I also categorically will not write Women's Fiction. As far as other genres or tropes or whatever, I'm up for most things. My goal is to write a gay romances in every genre. Except Women's Fiction I guess.

13. What traits do you share with your original characters or what traits do you wish you shared with them?

My main characters are almost always anxiety-wracked nerds, so...that. They usually like animals. They're almost all college educated (something I'm intentionally trying to break out of doing!).

I'm not sure if I really want to share a lot of traits with them. Being a dude? My life having a narrative arc? Gordon in my current WIP is going to inherit a bunch of money, so I wouldn't mind that.

Okay, a real one: I wish I was good at taking care of plants as Tad in Strangers to Husbands. I'm turning into a plant person but it remains to be seen if I can keep my plants alive.

Thank you for asking!

unique writing asks🖋️

[anakabura]

Worldbuilding Spotlight: Witches

Biology and Magic

WIP: Unnamed (doc 3)

Biology:

Witches are humanoids whose origins sprung from the bridge between Velsaid and the mortal world. Though their physical traits do not differ from the variations displayed in the human genome, their lifespans are much longer and they possess greatly versatile magic. The average witch is expected to live around 200 years.

Contrary to common connotations, "witches" refer to the entire species and both sexes, rather than strictly female witches. However, since some magic is passed matrilineally (through mitochondrial DNA), the most commonly-spotted witches in the earlier centuries tended to be female, partially because they were more likely to leave their covens and venture into human settlements.

Magic:

The two main categories of magic are Common and Clan magic. Clan magic is a unique form of magic that manifests differently in each family. As previously stated, Clan magic is matrilineal, as it is passed through the mitochondrial DNA. This means that while all witches possess magic, witches that are male in sex are unable to pass clan magic onto their offspring. Clan magic cannot be learned or obtained through other means beyond genetic inheritance, though spells or potions with similar affects might exist. These substitutes are typically much weaker and less efficient than the inherited version. Clan magic typically manifests as traits or qualities, but those that manifest as abilities exist as well.

Within the subset of Clan magic, the two branches are Active and Inactive. "Active" Clan magic are traits and qualities that can't be "turned off", and are therefore constantly "active" such as enhanced durability or rapid healing. Those that are "inactive" must be intentionally used, such as telepathy. Clan magic is often the most instinctive and first to manifest in witches. However, it has its limits. Inactive Clan magic has a tendency to be more dangerous and difficult to control. However, it also tends to be more powerful than Common magic. Active Clan magic is safer and doesn't require control. It doesn't "drain" a witch the way Common or Inactive magic can. However, it tends to be weaker than even Common magic alternatives of the same ability (though not always).

Common magic is the magic that all witches are able to wield. This can come in a range of forms, from elemental to utility to combat-based. Most witches use Common magic in their daily lives, from healing injuries to making their tea stay warmer for just a bit longer.

Magic, being so untameable a force, requires much practice, skill, and control. Therefore, in order to learn how to properly control their magic, young witches are taught using wands, which serve as conduits that focus and strengthen their magic control, much like a metal rod for electricity.

Once strong enough, witches will abandon wands and perform their magic on their own. However, there are still occasions in which they will opt to use a wand, typically when casting magic above their own caliber, as the wand will serve to amplify their own magic and lessen the burnout. If performing a particularly powerful and/or dangerous ritual or spell, they might choose to use a staff, which is far stronger than a simple wand.

(Picture isn't mine)

[nahkalaka]

my current favorite method of plotting: the (adapted) snowflake method

Originally created by Randy Ingermanson, the snowflake method is one of the ones that I have jived with most when it comes to plotting my stories. It's simple and straightforward and allows you to work into your story on progressively deeper levels, building it from the ground up.

Feel free to check out the link for more explanation, but here I'm mostly going to be talking about how I use it. I do take some things more directly from the method.

Step One: one sentence summary. Your most basic logline. You may already have a concept or a lot of ideas, but this is where you identify what the core of the story is.

Step Two: one paragraph summary. Your opportunity to actually talk a little bit more about your plan for the plot. Broad strokes--leave out details.

Step Three: major characters part 1. Identify your major characters and give each of them five bullet points.

One sentence summary of that character's storyline. I generally include not only plot in this summary, but also some information about reasons/emotions. For example: X runs away from home because of this fear, then eventually does this and this.

The character's motivation (what they want abstractly, in an overall sense and as it relates to the story).

The character's goal (what they want concretely).

The character's conflict (what stops them from reaching their goal? If you don't have a conflict, you should probably come up with at least a little one.)

The character's epiphany (what do they learn, how do they change by the end of the story?)

The method also includes a one paragraph summary of the character's specific storyline, but I moved that to a different step.

Step Four: one page summary. Each sentence from step two becomes a paragraph. This is your chance to begin filling in more information about how things happen. If there were any gaps that need to be filled from step two or things that need to be fixed, you can do that here as well.

Step Five: major characters part 2. For each major character, I give:

a basic physical description, plus whether any of their physical features are plot or story-relevant

basic description of important personality traits

The aforementioned 1 paragraph summary of each character's story. This follows their specific perspective through the plot. If you don't know what they're doing during the major events that they're not involved in, now is the time to figure it out. give your characters a life outside the main story, because it enriches everything you write and gives you opportunity for more depth.

Step Six: two page synopsis. Feel free to take a lot of time working on this one. You're continuing from step four, fleshing out more and more details, threading things together. At this point I develop chapter breaks--one paragraph is one chapter.

Thus far I have tended to plan/write shorter books--my longest is 50k words. In the original method this step is a four page synopsis, and you may need that for a much longer or more complex stories. In my second draft of my main WIP, I added 8 chapters of content that I hadn't originally planned because i had missed important moments and needed to further flesh out some that were already there. For me, the snowflake method is what i use to get me writing quickly, effectively, and sustainably, so i don't go crazy on the planning up front. there are always drafts.

Anyways, back to the process.

Step Seven: major character charts. All important/relevant information about your main characters. Age, sex, birthdate if such things are important, etc etc. The categories I use might vary a bit for different stories, but here's one example:

Family, Self-Opinion, Education/Intelligence, Preferences, Most likely to impress them, flaws, hobbies/interests, reactions to stress, secrets, physical gestures/habits, sound of voice, most common facial expression(s), introvert/extrovert.

From here forward is where I deviate most from the original method.

Step Eight: minor character sketches. outline each of your minor characters. include important details about them, like appearance, likes, purpose in the story, relationships, unique traits, etc etc. This step is very unstructured for me.

Step Nine: notes. If there are things that you find important that you haven't included in any of the other sections, this is the place. Things you don't want to forget, dialogue ideas, inspirations. This is also a good place for lore and the most basic of worldbuilding. The snowflake method isn't really designed with any setting/worldbuiliding in mind, so it might be good to do a separate process to develop that further if it's something you care about. I've been developing my world further through my subsequent drafts.

Step Ten: first draft!

So this is the snowflake method! Make it work for you, and happy writing <3

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

Absolutely! This is a good one 😃

Are Gallifreyans mammals?

To get our bearings, let's just start with what typically defines a mammal and whether we can apply Gallifreyan physiology to these characteristics.

Hair or Fur: Providing insulation and sometimes camouflage. → ✅ Although they're not Wookiee, Gallifreyans generally have head and body hair.

Endothermy: Commonly known as being warm-blooded. → ✅ They regulate their own body temperature, in fact, much better than humans can.

Neocortex: A brain structure associated with higher cognitive functions. → ✅ Not only do Gallifreyans possess all the components found in the human neocortex, but they also have additional brain parts or lobes for advanced functions.

Live Birth: Many mammals give birth to live young rather than laying eggs. → ✅ Gallifreyans can reproduce just like humans with a pregnancy and ickle time babies.

Mammary Glands: Essential for nurturing young with milk. → ❓(but probably) ... Gallifreyans have secondary sexual characteristics and the ability to birth just like humans, so you can almost bet your bottom dollar they can use the breasts to feed babies with special, err, time milk.

🔄 Gallifreyan Unique Traits

In addition to these, Gallifreyans have several unique biological features:

Binary Cardiovascular System: Two hearts pump their blood.

Regeneration: They can change their physical form and heal from fatal injuries.

Longevity: Their natural lifespan spans centuries.

+ and the other five million things.

Classifying them strictly within any of Earth's existing animal categories is a bit restrictive, and they could be considered a separate category altogether.

👽 Alternative Classifications

Mammalian+: One approach could be categorising Gallifreyans as "Mammalian+" or "Advanced Mammals," a subgroup that acknowledges their mammalian traits and their additional biological capabilities.

Gallifreyan-Specific Class: Given the unique traits, it might be more scientifically accurate to classify them as a distinct group specific to their planet. This new class would acknowledge that while they share similarities with mammals, they're a distinct evolutionary outcome of Gallifrey and its evolutionary pressures.

Xenomammals: This classification could be used for mammal-like beings from other planets who exhibit both standard mammalian traits and extraordinary abilities, but that's highly unspecific.

🏫 So ...

Gallifreyans are certainly more mammal than anything else, and we wouldn't be wrong using that term, but it's a little bit simplified. We should probably consider them a highly specialised or evolved type of mammal, but there's no name for that yet. Ideas welcome.

Related:

💬|🧬♀️♂️Why do Gallifreyans have secondary sexual characteristics?: Why and how Gallifreyans have secondary sex characteristics.

💬|👁️🌡️What is a Time Lord's ideal environmental temperature range?: Comfortable temperature environment ranges for Gallifreyans and a look at extreme temperatures.

💬|🍼👶How do natural Gallifreyan pregnancies work?: Details on the possible gestational aspects of a Gallifreyan+Gallifreyan pregnancy.

Hope that helped! 😀

Any orange text is educated guesswork or theoretical. More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →📢Announcements |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts → Features:⭐Guest Posts | 🍜Chomp Chomp with Myishu →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

Having a normal time (debating on whether or not time lords can be classified as mammals)

[youngster-monster]

personally i phrase my working titles like joke articles, which is good because a. i get to simplify the plot of the fic for peabrain future me who undoubtedly will read the 3000 words of absolute nonsense and not understand a single letter of it and b. i get to add it to the pile of silly working titles. case in point, " pro gamer KABEDONS unsuspecting minimum wage worker, KILLING HIM INSTANTLY " which i will not be explaining because it is frankly way funnier that way

my little plate in front of my enclosure just reads "The Loathesome Poor Organizer" and when you look inside its just me on my hands and knees before a giant digital billboard of the drafts category in my discord server

im literally this close to giving in mark my worms

there are a few rarepairs i like that have as few as 1 (i dont want to talk about the 0 fic tags... my pairs will be so damn rare that theyre still raw) fic in the whole fandom and im (INTERNALLY, i dont interact with things i dont like) beefing with like 12 different authors because of how firmly i believe that He Would Not Say That

me liking your fics is good because youre like that entire tag. when i realized how many were yours i was like HELL YEAH!!!!!! IM EATING GOOD!!!!!!!!!

ahem, now for tag time! you get to have One of my funny working titles for the time being :) most of them are highly contextual so theyre less funny unless you get 300 dms about the precise context and frankly im subjecting you to plenty rants as is so that one i shared is, incredibly, the one that needs the LEAST explaining

I WANNA TELL YOU ABOUT HIM SO BAD oh my god everytime i get the chance to talk about him i about go nuts. i hate him so much but hes kind of iconic. he wasnt always a god and he became one because it was funny for the rp. he canonically has a one way trip to the abyss in his house and i still dont know how to explain that in lore. i want to share more about him and i Will, hopefully, but that involves removing my masquerade mask and i am still a Little too scared. SOON. YOU WILL KNOW HIM SOON

its so awesome having friends who are abnormal about things in the exact same way as you.. like youre gripping eachothers shoulders and going YOU GET IT!!!! YOU GET IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

beastly noises on hold until internet gets better!!!! The Animal Is Hibernating

Silly title gives nothing of the plot away, all the vibes, more at 6

I am throwing fresh fruits into your enclosure. and a pumpkin for enrichment.

I also don't interact with things i don't like because i wasn't raised in a barn but. being a hater is good for you actually. @ some authors in some tiny fandoms i'll read you but like i'll be a judgmental bitch about it

my toxic trait is that i am very proud of being so much of that tag and everyday i think about getting so much worse about it. sorry to the haters you are so valid but unfortunately a few people said they liked my stuff so now i want to feed them Forever with (unearths years-old wip ideas) peacock kael'thas au i guess???

oc has that one way trip to the abyss at home that minecraft lava pit for convenience that Pet Oblivion

[realjoearts]

Joe Soup’s Little Guys Masterpost

yes you read the title and yes i will provide an explanation as to what i’m talking about.

when i was in p6/p7 in primary school i would get bored and so i decided to start making these little alien creatures out of paper who i dubbed “Little Guys”. i made a lot of them and i would play with them at home too and it got to the point where me and several other people would just make them in class, originally it was just me and my friends but then two others thought they were cool and started making some too!

when making a little guy you were basically able to go wild with their design! there were some rules to abide by though with those being the common traits all of the little guys share. to demonstrate what i’m talking about i’ll be using the first ever little guy i created as an example:

all little guys started out with that exact shape. it didn’t matter how big or how small they were they were all this gravestone kind of shape.

they all featured one big eye with two little eye sparkles that are circular and typically connected.

each little guy also featured a triangular bib that featured their name (most often comprised of random syllables slapped together)

the early little guys featured a bib and eye being stuck onto the base but due to lack of glue at several points most later ones have their eyes and bibs on the same piece of paper.

not every little guy is as plan as the one shown above some have cool patterns and others look like other animals or wear accessories!

and that’s honestly all of the common traits of the little guys. they were just a fun thing to make to pass any free time i was given in class with my friends.

since this is an archive i’ll be posting all of the little guys i made and still have. they won’t be in order of creation but instead in little groups organised by category all of which will be linked below!

(links wip)