#the obscura bracket

[rottenraccoons]

Will all the characters be put into a set ranking list after the bracket is over to show their overall popularity with the fans?

Yes! In fact, this ask is the perfect opportunity, so here we go (all ties were broken by match-ups, and then by the percent of the vote they got in the match they lost).

At the bottom in joint 13th place, we have:

Lave

Shale

Knife Guy

Lord Valentine

In joint 9th we have:

Friendly Stranger

Eve

Wolf

Halo

Sharing 7th place is:

Rufus

Griff

Bruna takes 6th place! While she and 5th place were tied in tournament results, Francesco beat her in the tournament proper to break the tie and earn 5th!

Cirrus came 4th, Oleander pulled a shocking (or lucky) move and netted 3rd, Keir came 2nd, and you all can guess what that means.

In first place, Tumblr's favourite Obscura character is Vesper, the MC!

Behold, your champion! Also, clearly we have the best fans if they're voting for the MC to the top of a favourite character tournament❤️ For those who just want to see the plain results, I've tucked them under the readmore for you.

[fictional-twink-bracket]

Propaganda

(PT: Propaganda)

Jeffery

No propaganda submitted

Venti

Classic anime twink everyone thinks is a girl. My mother calls him "poofy pants" which i think is her knowing I'll get mad at her if she calls him a slur. Is literally a god but is allergic to cats and spends his time day drinking without the money to pay for it

Kou Mukami

Kou is awful but also has a dark past and nightmares so he's very mysterious… Lots to learn.

Sin Kiske

This is kind of a joke because to guilty gear fans if a man isn't the size of a semi truck he's a twink

NEW TWINK CHARACTER SIN KISKE

(PT: new twink character Sin Kiske)

Hyoma Chigiri

Just look at him... prettiest man in the show. And sportsball anime men are fruity by default; I don't make the rules.

Francesco

No propaganda submitted

[most-datable-undatable]

[dimestoretajic]

MAGIC FACTIONS BRACKET, ROUND ONE!

In our eleventh bout, we have New Capenna's resident magical sneakyboiz versus Ravnica's group of people who are basically mostly Hulks and Hulk-enablers. ... with a bit of environmentalism sprinkled in for spice!

Make your choice!

[blagueofchaos]

Oh hey Stiffy Green! Our good pal Stiffy Green!

⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️

[theeighthdoctoradventures]

What is Tumblr’s EDA Ranking?

the EDA ranking tournament you’ve not been waiting for! this is not an elimination bracket! this is to determine a ranking of 1st to 73rd place.

ROUND THIRTEEN: POLL ELEVEN

Camera Obscura by Lloyd Rose

vs…

Escape Velocity by Colin Brake

[most-datable-datable-bracket]

Hey, sorry if I’ve just missed it but is there a list somewhere of all the games that have characters in this bracket?

There is now! I've done it for the first bracket but not for this one, so here it is:

Fire Emblem: Three Houses (x12)

Baldur’s Gate 3 (x9)

Mystic Messenger (x8)

Arcade Spirits (x7)

Obey Me (x7)

Stardew Valley (x6)

Dragon Age: Inquisition (x5)

Monster Prom (x5)

Persona 5 (x5)

Coral Island (x5)

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist (x4)

Persona 3 (x4)

Boyfriend Dungeon (x4)

Romancelvania (x4)

Fire Emblem Fates (x4)

Blooming Panic (x4)

The Arcana (x4)

Potion Permit (x4)

Uta no Prince-sama (x3)

Arcade Spirits: The New Challengers (x3)

Mass Effect (x3)

Hooked On You: Dead by Daylight (x3)

Fallout 4 (x3)

Infinite Blue (x3)

Trouble Comes Twice (x3)

Fire Emblem Engage (x3)

TOUCHSTARVED (x3)

Tri City Monsters (x3)

Fire Emblem: Awakening (x2)

Code: Realize (x2)

Court of Darkness (x2)

XOXO Droplets (x2)

My Time at Sandrock (x2)

Cyberpunk 2077 (x2)

Our Life: Beginning and Always (x2)

My Time at Portia (x2)

Dragon Age 2 (x2)

Tears of Themis (x2)

Doki Doki Literature Club (x2)

Mass Effect: Andromeda (x2)

BUSTAFELLOWS (x2)

Titan Arum (x2)

Harvest Moon: A New Beginning (x2)

My Candy Love (x2)

The Witcher 3 (x2)

The Divine Speaker (x2)

Divinity: Original Sin 2 (x2)

Baldur's Gate 1&2 (x2)

Later Daters (x1)

Fallout: New Vegas (x1)

Monster Camp (x1)

Rune Factory 3 (x1)

Our Life: Now and Forever (x1)

It Lives in The Woods (x1)

Scarlet Hollow (x1)

Stray Gods (x1)

The Fernweh Saga (x1)

Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life (x1)

It Lives Beneath (x1)

The Soul Stone War series (x1)

Seduce Me The Otome (x1)

Fields of Asphodel (x1)

Blood Moon (x1)

The Royal Romance (x1)

The Golden Rose (x1)

Re: Alistair++ (x1)

Persona 2 (x1)

Long Live The Queen (x1)

Dragon Age: Origins (x1)

Magical Diary: Horse Hall (x1)

My Horse Prince (x1)

Gilded Shadows (x1)

Obscura (x1)

Café Enchanté (x1)

Inuyasha: The Secret of the Cursed Mask (x1)

DRAMAtical Murder (x1)

A Villain's Twisted Heart (x1)

The Sims (x1)

GreedFall (x1)

Cryptid Crush (x1)

Postknight 2 (x1)

Sun Haven (x1)

Loren the Amazon Princess (x1)

Hustle Cat (x1)

A Date With Death (x1)

The Ssum (x1)

1931: Scheherazade at the Library of Pergamum (x1)

Dandelion -Wishes Brought To You- (x1)

Persona 4 (x1)

Intertwine (x1)

How Not To Become a Queen (x1)

Thorn for the Villain (x1)

Villainess Idolized By Everyone (x1)

Assignment Due: Project Blue (x1)

Silhouette (x1)

Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns (x1)

Mr Love (x1)

Heart no Kuni no Alice (x1)

Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town (x1)

Harvest Moon DS Cute (x1)

Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town (x1)

Number Days Sim Date (x1)

Cupid Parasite (x1)

Amnesia (x1)

Lover Pretend (x1)

Untold Atlas (x1)

Witches x Warlocks (x1)

OZMAFIA!! (x1)

Pokemon Black and White 2 (x1)

Blades of Light and Shadow (x1)

Life is Strange: Before The Storm (x1)

Life is Strange (x1)

Cinderella Phenomenon (x1)

Endless Summer (x1)

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (x1)

Planescape: Torment (x1)

Changeling (x1)

The Good People (Na Daoine Maithe) (x1)

Heaven's Secret (x1)

Andromeda Six (x1)

Dracula: A Love Story (x1)

Path of the Valkyrie (x1)

Arcanum (x1)

Nameless ~The One Thing You Must Recall~ (x1)

Dialtown (x1)

Infamous (x1)

Crimson Spires (x1)

Birushana (x1)

The Wedding (x1)

When Life Gives You Lemons (x1)

Pillars of Eternity series (x1)

//TODO: today (x1)

Heart Fragment (x1)

[queenofalpaca]

WIP Folder Game

RULES: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

@voidcat-senket tagged me because they wants me to SUFFER, go thank them

Why are there so many

Splitting them by fandom because otherwise this would be a huge mess (I say, as if it isn’t regardless). With that said, in no particular order:

Jedi Fallen Order/Survivor

Cal’s Sith Buddies

Baby Cal’s Sith Buddies

Medic Cal

Reverse AU

Sleep Dep

Haunting

Came back Loving

Big Sis Trilla/Inquisitor Cal

Ponchos

Gods

Injured Villain

Bode’s Force Background

Go to Sleep, Scrapper

Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss/Mansplain, Manipulate, Malewife

Bode kidnaps a Padawan

Tanalorr’s Child Protective Services Or: how Bode opened up a daycare on Tanalorr

Mermaid Bode (concept)

Duty Calls

Duty Calls: Bode edition

Bode from HR

Sekiro Plunny

Trans Bode

Little Omega, Big… Omega?

Dooku/Bode

Hades AU

Big brother Raj (Candela version and Star Wars version) [Jedi Survivor and Candela Obscura]

Trans Bode and Rajan [Jedi Survivor and Candela Obscura]

DC (Green Lantern)

Marie does a magical oopsie

Oblivion (one shot collection)

The De-aging Incident

Parallax/Kyle

Oblivion and Parallax

Definitions

Knight au

5+1 White ring

Blind Kyle

Oblivion!Kyle

DC (other)

The Omelette (Jason* gets a dragon) *Jason Blood, that is

The Gray Sons

The case of the fake guns

Marvel (Mysterio)

X times Tony flirted with Quentin

Mysterio Witch Edition

Enter Stage Right: Mysterio

Miscellaneous (fandom in brackets)

Apparently HFW now? [Horizon Forbidden West]

Zodiac [Zodiac, as in the movie with RDJ and Jake Gyllenhaal]

It’s Rain(ing) [Mortal Kombat, Rain]

Do I have too many wips? Yes. Have a touched most of them within the past six months? Nope. Am I ever going to write all of these? Probably not. Do I love and cherish every single one of them regardless and could be convinced to write/continue most of them if you ask real nice and throw in a treat? …perhaps.

I don’t even know enough people on tumblr to tag as many as I have wips so I’m just going to inflict this on @azu-mog and move on <3

[xtruss]

Life-Saving Tool or Torture Device?

The Answer, Once You Learn the History of the Speculum, is a Little of Both

— March 15, 2024 | Kirstin Butler

1847 Specula. Source image: National Library of Medicine.

Many iterations came before and have gone since, but the most controversial version of the speculum started out, in 1845, as a bent spoon. That was when an Alabama-based doctor named James Marion Sims set out to treat an agonizing medical condition, and in the process established precedent for the practice of modern gynecology—in more ways than one.

Sims was attending to a patient who had been thrown off of her horse, and in landing on her pelvis, developed uterine retroversion (a tipping, or tilting backward, of the uterus). In the process of attending to her, Sims was struck by the insight that a custom-fashioned tool would allow him to see better into the vaginal canal. His first foray into speculum design was a doubly bent spoon that allowed him to separate and hold apart the vaginal walls. “Introducing the bent handle of the spoon I saw everything, as no man had ever seen before,” Sims later wrote in his unfinished memoir, The Story of My Life. “I felt I was on the eve of one of the great discoveries of the day.” Sims’s first experiments with that speculum were all done on enslaved women.

An Engraving Demonstrating the Sims Speculum (Bracket-Shaped Metal Instrument). Wikimedia Commons.

He ran a small private hospital—a “Surgical Infirmary for Negroes,” read an 1852 ad in Montgomery’s Weekly Advertiser, where he was “enabled to offer his professional services to his friends.” “It's really impossible to talk about the beginning of gynecology in America without talking about slavery because they were so deeply entwined and dependent on each other,” says Rachel Gross, science journalist and the author of Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage. Sims himself had slaves, and, Gross adds, “worked with other slaveholders to experiment on enslaved women in order to develop techniques that would help them continue to give birth, and continue to work.”

Sims used his new speculum to perform surgery on vesicovaginal fistulas, abscesses that often developed during difficult births, where the pressure of labor damaged tissue between the vagina and bladder or rectum. His surgeries on enslaved women were conducted without the use of anesthesia. Sims noted in his memoir that he operated on one woman, named only as Anarcha, 30 times.

He was lauded for his work, becoming the president of the American Medical Association in 1876 and then the founder and president of the American Gynecological Association. In a tribute written after Sims’s death, the American doctor W.O. Baldwin breathlessly wrote that the eponymous Sims speculum “has been to diseases of the womb what the printing press is to civilization, what the compass is to the mariner, what steam is to navigation, what the telescope is to astronomy.”

Baldwin’s encomium conveniently overlooked one historical aspect, however. “The speculum has been around for a really long time,” historian Deirdre Cooper Owens tells American Experience. “You can go to Ancient Greece, and Ancient Rome, the site of modern western medicine, and you'll find specula that existed.” What changed with the popularization of Sims’s design were the mores around gynecology. “Most men did not perform vaginal examinations, or pelvic examinations on their female patients because of the gender ideals of the time,” says Dr. Cooper Owens. “Now, these things become a bit more nuanced when we’re talking about enslaved people, or poor people, or people who were institutionalized in asylums. They tended to be the ones that were exploited, as doctors experimented and used their bodies literally as canvases to learn from. That kind of paints the picture of American medicine that we know today.”

The 19th-Century Metal Cusco Vaginal Speculum Still Closely Resembles the Design of Most Specula Used Today. Science Museum Group, C. Firmin Cuthbert Collection.

As for the speculum itself, others refined Sims’s design in the decades that followed. In 1870, Edward Gabriel Cusco introduced a two-bladed instrument that featured a screw mechanism to hold the blades open inside the vaginal canal. Cusco’s bivalve construction was further iterated upon by T.W. Graves, a Massachusetts-based doctor. It was Graves’s duckbilled speculum—which combined elements of Sims’s curved design and Cusco’s double-bladed device—that eventually became most popular within the medical establishment.

Then a century after Sims’s crudely fashioned cutlery, the speculum came to play a central role in the battle against cervical cancer, at the time the deadliest form of cancer for women. Dr. George Papanicolaou conceived of taking a swab of cells from the cervix for examination under a microscope; the speculum made it possible for physicians to gather the cervical tissue from patients. Thus was the pap smear born, drastically diminishing the numbers of casualties as a result of cervical cancer.

However, today the incidence of advanced-stage cervical cancer is on the rise again, in part because fewer women are getting pap smears as a preventative measure. According to the National Institutes of Health, the percentage of women overdue for cervical cancer screening went from 14% in 2005 to 23% in 2019. Some of that reticence, perhaps, has to do with the long reach of Sims’s paternalistic legacy. “A pap smear is not done in a neutral environment,” Gross asserts. “When you enter an office with a doctor, a very real power dynamic becomes established where you feel like there is sort of an authority of your body.”

Vaginal Specula Today Tend to be Single-Use Plastic. Image by Whispyhistory, Wikimedia Commons.

The burgeoning “femtech” industry (a term coined in 2013 to describe technology geared toward female biology) aims to change that by making the experience of cervical cancer screenings feel less invasive—and that includes reimagining the speculum. But updating a 150-year-old design is only part of a larger picture. “People have really bad experiences getting pelvic exams and pap smears where they feel their body was violated, they weren't treated with respect or dignity,” says Gross. “That's not quite a problem with the tool, itself. That’s a problem with the culture of medicine, and the place of healthcare in our society, and how we communicate to women what this is for and what they’re allowed to know about their own bodies.”

— A Vaginal Speculum is a medical device that allows physicians and health providers to better view a woman’s cervix and vagina during pelvic exams. Most specula are made of metal and plastic, and physicians insert a portion of the speculum into the patient’s vagina to separate the vaginal walls.

[ilovegaam]

🌟🆕📅 Self Destruct Sundays @ Obscura 🌟🆕📅 📢 From the organizer - Self Destruct Sundays is home to Jacksonville's own local gaming talent who dominate the North-east Florida Smash Brothers Ultimate scene.Obscura Competitive Gaming Cafe is open from 3pm to 2am on Sunday, with the tournament bracket beginning at 5pm! 🔗👆🏽More info at the link above

[rottenraccoons]

Winners Round 2

Oh, this one is a tough one.

Cirrus is the top-seeded character in this tournament and while he's probably not the most popular love interest overall (Keir tends to win those polls by a little bit, though we'll see if we get that match-up later), he definitely has the most intense devoted fans.

But the Vesper Sweep phenomenon has demolished one love interest already. Does the MC of a romance game have the power to topple a love interest?

[most-datable-undatable]

Virgil from Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

Added!

[dimestoretajic]

THE MAGIC THE GATHERING FACTIONS BRACKET

HELLO EVERYONE! Oh, this is gonna be a fun one! I have semi-randomly set up a 32-faction bracket to see who is the greatest faction in all the Multiverse. What does "greatest" mean? That's up to you! I'm just here to facilitate the squabbles and watch with popcorn in hand, honestly. Can't wait to see what you all decide!

And... yeah, reblog if you like. No pressure, but this is so much more fun when more people participate!

Here are the seeds!

Quandrix College vs. Clan Atarka

House Dimir vs. The Mirrans*

Lorehold College vs. The Sultai Brood

Simic Combine vs. Silverquill College

The Cabaretti vs. The Jeskai Way

Boros Legion vs. The Maestros

Clan Dromoka vs. Izzet League

Selesnya Conclave vs. Clan Kolaghan

Abzan Houses vs. Cult of Rakdos

Orzhov Syndicate vs. Prismari College

Obscura vs. Gruul Clans

The Phyrexians vs. Witherbloom College

Clan Ojutai vs. Golgari Swarm

Brokers vs. Temur Frontier

Mardu Horde vs. Azorius Senate

Clan Silumgar vs. The Riveteers

Have fun, everyone! I know I will! Get voting!

*I know there's a typo on that one. You can't edit polls after you post them and there's SIXTEEN and I was doing them in reverse order, okay? :P

[dasozelotvonnebenan]

Valoop boss fight :3

Already done but I have a cool idea for Gekk instead!

Well Gekk isn't actually fighting, he delegates. The fight is obviously taking place in his own fight club, so you get fancy forcefield walls, traps in the floor and the occasional chair to pick up.

Gekk would be sitting at his desk overseeing the whole thing and occasionally activate mechanical parts of the arena. Or argue with the commentators not to cheer for the players.

The first encounter is Big Guy, the golem Bouncer. Big Guy employs tons of knockbacks, pulls and other cc which can be dangerous as he may knock you into one of the traps, but in otherwise mostly harmless.

The second encounter are the arena champions. As the Arcana Obscura is a fightclub for magic fighters there are "weight classes" that delineate the degree to which magic is used.

Toogruk is the champion of the physical enhancement bracket (Fighters who do not use magic actively but are somehow empowered through magical means. Most in the bracket are Norn who fight in their spirit forms). A Grawl whose prayers to Balthasar Badazar have given him unmatched strength and endurance. He leaps impressive distances and smashes into the ground with enough force to send shockwaves through the arena.

The White Menace is the champion of the Defensive Magic bracket (Fighters who use magic to distract, deflect or block attacks but do otherwise use only use physical weapons to attack their opponents.) They wear an outfit that looks similar to the armor of white mantle knights, though it is purely made from leather and cloth. They fight with a spear and place blinding clouds of smoke on their location. Below a certain health threshold they gain the projectile reflecting orb that bandit executioners have.

The Vinewrath is the champion of the Offensive Magic bracket (anything goes). It is a former Mordrem Guard that digs it's roots into the Arena floor and tries to grab und crush unsuspecting victims with them. Players who do not dodge this attack must struggle to break free while they are dealt massive damage (like the ice prisons in bitterfrost or some of the mechanics where things swallow you). It summons jungle tendrils that fire poisoned barbs at it's enemies.

Vinewrath stays fixed in the center of the arena and Toogruk moves on a fixed path so only TWM needs to be kited. If Toogruk is the last remaining champion he will instead jump at the players directly and with higher frequency.

The Final Encounter is Lugard. He's got his wrench and his metal fists, no more no less. He is going to stomp you into the ground in the most mundane and efficient way. He uses the Arena walls to bounce him towards players and his attacks apply the "broken bones" debuff which continously applies crippled, weakness, torment and bleed until the player activates one of the heal-o-trons that now litter the arena. Heal-o-trons remove the debuff from all players in around them but have a long cooldown forcing players to rotate around the arena.

Once Lugard has been dealt with Gekk has obviously already made his getaway.

[theeighthdoctoradventures]

What is Tumblr’s EDA Ranking?

the EDA ranking tournament you’ve not been waiting for! this is not an elimination bracket! this is to determine a ranking of 1st to 73rd place.

ROUND THIRTEEN: POLL FIVE

Camera Obscura by Lloyd Rose

vs…

The Blue Angel by Paul Magrs & Jeremy Hoad