#this has been very long due

[k-yujin]

read the tags !! // officially quit

[serpentface]

Tigran: launching into a story about a time when he was 7 and watched a guy get eaten alive by dogs, completely unprompted and unnervingly blasé about the whole thing.

Etsushir: not listening, warming his hands over the nightly allotment of yams, smoking.

Palo: this is the tenth time he's heard this story, not listening, wondering whether Etsushir is smoking tobacco and where the hell he got it and can he have some?

[ganondoodle]

Kinda in regards to the Empress & BodyGuard 2-

Is Zaphira (sorry if I spelled her name wrong) an elf or do humans have pointed ears in your universe? If no elves, how do the pointed ears happen? Are there different length of ears and if so do they mean somethin?

Love your art & use of colours!

Thank you! and thank you for asking! (this sketch took me way too long .. and the colors still look washed out on my desktop screen but im not editing a third time ..)

Zaphira is human, there are no elves, as such, in this world, though humans tend to live longer than IRL and have differently shaped ears-

the shapes are rather diverse (example above) and culturally (so far) they have no significance, they are merely a trait just like different nose shapes or fantasy hair colors

the worldbuilding reason is that these are extremely diluted demonic influences- in the past demons were frequently in the human world, though largely in secret/disguised, and long time exposure to demonic presences can have varying effects, the most immediate and common being a longer life or wounds healing faster than normal; there might have been other long time effects but the only trait that stayed even after their disappearance is the ear shapes

(there was a mass extinction event of demons that wiped out all above a certain age, since demons generally dont die of natural causes their life neither depends nor revolves around reproduction so there were extremely few left and those were too young to keep most of their knowledge and culture alive, as they rarely wrote anything down; Shargon is of the current oldest generation and witnessed it happen, just like most now adult demons, Thor and Eadrya are both a bit older than him and thus the oldest living demons, which doesnt mean much considering the technically endless lifespans of them)

and to explain me including Shargon in a human appearance- hes the only demon that spends as much time in the human world as at home, largely to escape the others since they are not interested in going there and would otherwise attack him any chance they get (the human world is rather uncomfortable for demons to be in and they have better things to do than to chase him that far), while hes generally very weak compared to them, something he is very good at is shape shifting, mainly the speed of which, being able to shift between full demon and the smaller more humanoid form extremely quickly, or even mid forms that are a mix of both - even in motion! while for the others it takes them quite a bit and forces them to stop which is the main reason he keeps escaping them not able to keep up with his rapid shape shifting (though it does take its toll .. also a reason hes so skinny)

he is the first (only?) one that at some point will learn how to shift into a much more human looking one (depicted in the sketch) too, but its rather dangerous since it involves supressing and compressing his demon heart and system... which is what keeps demons alive (its somewhat like holding your breath for way too long) so the only time he would make use of it is in extreme situations, like avoiding detection by maschines that can pick up demonic energy or escaping shackles made of celestial silver (which drains their energy and can scar/hurt them permanently, like silver to vampires(?werewolfs?) in a way)

....the point is that if he shifts into a human form he has very long ears, meaning that is basically the extreme form that doesnt occur in humans and hints at the origins for those ear shapes being demonic exposure in the past

[averlym]

"now, doesn't that look nice?" [insp]

[20001541]

I find it fascinating how afo is able to understand others emotions easily and able to manipulate them through that understanding, but when it comes to his own emotions he's overwhelmed and struggles to process them. often leaning on the denial of them in order to deal with them.

[lilamala]

my gay son

[aplatypusshapedkite]

Team ranchers Week-Oct 27: Canary in the deep dark

There once was a thriving cavern city that had the ability to jump to another world. Over time something seemed to make people sick and violent. The town above destroyed any way for people to leave, hoping to stop, whatever came through the portal, from killing them all. Only tall tales and legends remain of its destruction, a warning.

Background

Under a town there was a huge city in a cavern, the massive portal was often on. It wasn’t until a canary bird flew through that it stopped shining. They caged the bird, hoping for answers unaware that something else had entered through the portal before the golden bird. Sculk. Sculk has made its way through the portal. It started covering parts of town, seemingly appearing out of nowhere (The infected people spread it). A group of traders had entered the city but when they had suggested to get rid of the sculk as it made them feel ill. Most were violently thrown from the town, somewhere never seen again.

Once the Town above heard of this they tried to investigate, however only 2 of the 3 recon team returned. Fearing an outbreak of whatever had caused their sister city to descend, they took every tool and sealed every entrance and exit. Some affected people of the city begged to be let out, others violently tried to make their way out of the dark. But as the final entrance was sealed they were left in the deep dark nothingness, except the light blue glow of the sculk. Any survivors either starved and or took desperate measures to eat the remaining sculk. Everyone else was already one with the Sculk.

Jimmy is from the portal, he came through in his canary form trying to escape the sculk that was consuming his world. He was trapped in a cage unable to shift back. Unable to warn them of the dangers on the other side of the portal. Unable to tell them of the  infection that they allowed into their world. He was trapped as they were sealed in. Someone came and picked him up. In the chaos the cage was dropped, breaking on impact. He immediately flew away from everyone and everything. (I.e. he found a hole to hide in so he could unshift safely.)

Jimmy tried to show the survivors soul fire but everyone soon died. Jimmy tried to culling the sculk back. Due to the lack of resources and him being one person he couldn’t stop the spread completely. He needed food and he needed to rest so desperately he set fire to the edges of the city before turning into his canary form one last time before he slept. There he stayed fixing the wall of fire anytime he woke up. He wouldn’t let what happened to his world happen here.  

Wardens are a mashup of the people who were infected, their bodies were torn apart and their souls screaming. Wardens always try to find a way out both from the people wanting to to get out and the Sculk’s need to spread. (‘baby’ Wardens are horrifying as they are mostly just torn flesh and broken bones as the sculk hasn’t covered everything yet)

Tango is the mechanic of an expedition team that consists of Pix (The leader and Anthropologist), TFC (Miner expert), Scar (The Naturalist), VintageBeef (The Cook) and Cub who is the navigator/ cartographer.

Plot Ideas

Pix learns of a City underneath a ghost town that is surrounded with warnings about a dangerous infection that took over the city. Along with the stories of adventures going missing looking for it.

Pix got in contact with Doc, Joe, Cleo, Vintage, and TFC for either them to join or help out. Cleo told him about Cub, Cub brung on Scar and Doc suggested Tango to go with them. Cleo and Joe couldn't go on the full expedition but they would check on them and help bring them supplies. (Joe is a medic)

After 2 weeks of mining they find a cave near the main cavern. Joe and Cleo stopped by with more supplies before they breach the cavern.(Last time they ever see some of their friends)

Tango meets Jimmy first. Jimmy heard something abnormal and went to investigate, he stole a bag of chex mix. As he was flying away Tango heard a bird. Upon investigating the noise he found a yellow feather and saw a bright almost glowing canary flying above a ruined city surrounded by blue fire. (There's no way a bird could have gotten down there, there was no way it could have with no one noticing)

After they discovered the cavern their tunnel collapsed trapping them (Alot of their stuff is back there)

Cub’s hand gets cut while they inspect the cave in

They officially meet Jimmy who tells them to go back and that its dangerous to be here. After explaining their situation Jimmy tells them where it's safe, and to stay away from the sculk while they try to get out (Light is an issues down here (Jimmy has a half working redstone lamp in his ‘home’))

TFC is trying to figure out how to get the tunnel open again without it collapsing, Pix is trying to get as much information from Jimmy about the town/ trying to get a closer look. Scar is trying to get a closer look at the Sculk with cub,Tango is helping Vintage prepare dinner 

Cub slipped where a fire had gone out, face planting. He and Scar laughed it off  as he pushed himself up and went to go eat with everyone. (They told Jimmy and helped him relight the fire, as he explained how it worked) (They didn’t realize the cut on Cub’s had was enough for him to get infected)

After meeting Jimmy/ the tunnel cave in: some of the fires that kept the sculk in check started going out (Jimmy is extremely low on resources to restart the fires, fires go out for many reasons but this is starting to be abnormal)

Someone suggests that if they got the tunnel back open and caused a cave in to trap the sculk then Jimmy could come with them. Jimmy is very against this as more people may come and find it only for the fires to be out, causing an apocalypse.

Scar is the first one to find out Cub got infected. He had noticed something was off about him but after being trapped for a while he brushed it off. It wasn’t until after he interviewed Jimmy about the sculk (Read: Bothered Jimmy about the sculk cuz he was curious) and the fires where being put out when he realized that something may be more deeply wrong with Cub 

Scar tells Jimmy about his worries and they go together to confront Cub (Telling no one smh). They find him at the edge of the city. Scar jumps towards him and asks a bunch of questions but Cub cuts him off. Cub confesses that he thinks he got infected when he fell a while ago. He tells scar he’s liked him for quite sometime. That he wishes they had said everything sooner but it's too late now. He says he loves him, he always will. With that Cub runs through a gap in the fire, into the city. 

Scar yells after Cub and tries to follow him but Jimmy stops him. At this point everyone hears him and rushes over.  They also help keep scar from running into the city (Jimmy couldn’t keep it up much longer)

Jimmy tries to tell him that Cub is gone.

Despite Jimmy being extremely against anyone going into the city, he’ll go look for Cub. Solidarity says he’ll see if he can see where he is and what he's doing (Some newly infected once tried to activate the portal. There's no way he could ever handle an outbreak like that. This is one of the main reasons he does go looking)

Jimmy gets injured/ attacked while looking for Cub (A Warden ‘woke up’ and heard Jimmy flying). The Pix grab him from the edge, saving him from being infected. (It's a very VERY close call) (Cub running into the city is what woke the warden up)

Pix gets infected while saving Jimmy and he discovers the soul sand under the sculk (He drops a normal torch on a patch of sculk and it turned blue. Killing the sculk around and leaving a patch of soul sand exposed)

They know they need to leave immediately, Jimmy is against leaving as the fires are going out and if they all got out, the Sculk would follow them. Vintage brings up the food situation isn’t looking good.

They try to figure out how to kill the sculk and or keep it from getting out forever

Cub isn't dead. Not fully. 

More Wardens wake up. They can't pass the soul fire but they do have ranged attacks. (Jimmy's 'base' is on the opposite side of the city however it is high enough to avoid any major warden attacks)

Their only saving grace is wardens can't see, the problem is Infected Cub still can. 

Pix tells TFC about his Infection. TFC Grabs Jimmy under the guise of the structure of the cave. They talked about Pix’s infection and the soul sand under the sculk. 

They talk about how if they could set the city ablaze it would kill the sculk, that's when they go get Vintage, Tango, and Scar to tell them of the situation and their idea.

Tango says if they can blow up certain areas carefully then it would almost kill all the sculk. They could go in soon after and burn it by hand. 

????

Jimmy stays with Tango after everything 

Scar moved in with Grian and Mumbo so he wasn’t alone after Cub died

Other things

Pix and TFC are old friends

Cub and scar are Roommates

Cleo and Joe almost joined but they had other commitments and couldn’t join/ They do supply runs

Doc was contracted to build machinery for the expedition 

Jimmy has a very limited amount of food. He tends to sleep most of the time (Your hunger doesn't go down when you’re sleeping). He also tends to stay in one form for long periods of time as shifting takes a bit of energy. His Canary form is much more convenient to travel through the deep dark and to keep an eye out. While he mostly only uses his human/ hybrid form to relight fires  

Both worlds have hybrids but only Jimmy’s world had hybridization (I.e. he wasn’t born with wing nubs)

Jimmy’s world is dead. Jimmy knows that at that point there was no way for the Sculk to have been stopped. If Jimmy had been there for a few more days, he would be dead. He knows this.

Jimmy hasn’t had a proper conversation with someone since a little before he went through the portal

Soul fire doesn't go out on its own- it needs to be punched and or water to extinguish it. (There is a huge reservoir of water above that dips down and occasionally puts out the fires)

Jimmy and Scar become really good friends after as Jimmy understands the horror of sculk and losing people to it

Jimmy stole his boots from a corpse (He's gone through a few pairs of shoes, one pair was gifted and the rest were stolen ) 

Tango used to be apart of a company called ‘The Boomers’. He knows his way around explosives, including how to make em

The Expedition team isn’t the first ones to find the cavern. Only about ¼ ever find the cave but very few of them leave. The first two times Jimmy didn’t find them till they were already infected. Some of them tried to escape so in a panic Jimmy pushed them into the soul fire. After that he started to look for people every time he wakes up

Art

From the initial page to my most recent for 4 am

*Not pictured the designing hell of Jimmy

[bacchuschucklefuck]

the boy-but-not-that-way-ism of riz gukgak send tweet

[dykedvonte]

thinking abt what you said with house viewing Benny as a son and I’m obsessed. Like. The man spent most of his life before the war presumably alone, and then after the bombs fell he was alone again, save for AI he himself devised. Then he decides to pull in some Tribes, and one kid shows promise! So sure, treat him well, train him, groom him to be his protege, then next thing you know UH OH he’s got developing paternal feelings towards this guy. Wanting some semblance of a family when the time has long since passed, yet fostering that feeling all the same seems so accurate for him. Benny meanwhile only views him as a boss, and not a particularly good one at that. makes me wonder how House must’ve felt when he found out about Bennys plans

I view it as House blames only himself for this, cause he kind of does in canon (strap in this is a long one).

When reflecting on the issue of Benny, House chastises himself first and foremost for not acting quickly enough when it comes to priming Benny. He describes Benny as being ambitious, ruthless and capable; compliments coming from a man like House. House has an ego and while he is logical enough to understand there was never any evidence Benny saw him as a father-figure, he lacks the humility to admit he let his own views on his relationship with Benny blind him to the activities happening behind the scenes.

I doubt that House was as aware as he makes out about what Benny was doing, he knew early on but certainly not early enough to stop Benny from hacking and obtaining a securitron along with getting the chip in the first place. I take it he was distracted by all the possibilities he was calculating of Vegas' success and growth with him steering and Benny as the new figure head, not because of any normal affection for Benny but the admiration of his capabilities. It's to be noted that House believed menial incentives (likely caps, booze, basic needs, etc..) were enough to keep Benny tame like the other Chairmen but, as evidenced by the Omertas and Mortimer in the WGS, this is not enough when it comes to more driven Vegas citizens. This implies he still undervalued Benny and created a space in which Benny felt the need to rebel.

House in my eyes is not sentimental in the traditional sense. I can imagine his pride was severely scorned as someone he certainly deemed dumber than him was, albeit only for a little, able to out-gambit him. It would definitely hit home seeing how his brother also betrayed him but I feel like that's why he's so apathetic when he tells the Courier to do as they see fit with Benny. I doubt the way he terrorized his brother brought him any emotional satisfaction other than a "Now who's in charge!" ego boost. Putting that same emotional intensity towards Benny isn't worth it because who does it benefit? Wasted time, wasted planning, and most importantly wasted potential are all he gets from continuing to be hands-on with Benny. I say the closest example is not being able to throw out old toys due to the memories attached but knowing it's necessary as they are broken or just taking up space for new ones, and then asking someone else to do it so you don't need to get caught up in the feelings of throwing something you put so much effort into. It's not Benny House cares about in my mind, not in a way that sounds healthy to any non-emotionally constipated individual, but what he could've represented for him, which is why he so quickly offers the same position to the Courier.

As for Benny's view on all of this, it was a long time coming. Benny didn't and doesn't believe House is a completely shitty boss. He admires what he's been shown and admits House knows how to run the strip, but disagrees with the directions. Ideologically, House is an anarcho-capitalist while Benny is just an anarchist. House wants to run the strip to profit, though money is not what he's concerned with being rich with anymore. Benny wants a free state that he wishes to become a place for the people, except for the Chairmen who would be on top (I like to remind people that Benny's motives were selfish but not for personal gain/power as was it for the people he actually saw as family). Benny was never looking for a father but a future. He was not interested in being adopted, or having the chairmen adopted, as bigger names still overshadowed in House's legacy.

Truly, it's easiest to summarize as House feeling strongly and thinking positively enough of Benny to start incorporating him into the future of Vegas (a huge honor actually) while Benny was so disillusioned by House's ego and indifference that he thought the only way Vegas could be the future is with House gone.

[crimeronan]

On the topic of How Do You Handle XYZ Comment, I've always wondered how you handle terrible responses on your toh takes. Like I know the toh fandom doesn't lack piss on the poor reading comprehension and they also really enjoy wildly out of touch takes, but I've never seen any comments on your princess luz stuff of that nature. I'm sure they must be there but maybe I'm too early? But anyway, how do you tend to deal with the "acktually shipping luz and Hunter is incest" and the "ur not a real lesbian because putting amity in a poly ship is lesbian erasure" and the "as a white person kinda sus you make the poc woman an empress" kind of responses? Ones that are technically not hate and maybe if you squint could be from people who aren't inherently trying to do bad but just lack the maturity needed to engage with the internet at large?

this ask made me giggle. honestly, i haven't received as much pushback as you might expect! way less pushback than i expected. in the princess AU, i've gotten a LOT more "this is actually too grotesque for me to stomach" comments than "this is problematic" comments, which is fine. horror-thriller isn't for everyone, those comments do not upset me.

i have had a Few run-ins with bad faith people, whom i mostly block. there's one prolific commenter in toh tumblr fandom who would repeatedly write angry essays on my humor meta posts -- essays that were all about how belos is too evil to be sympathetic and/or about how hunter is a soft gentle boy who shouldn't be jokingly referred to as evil. then they'd go "i can't help my active and conscious decision to type a bunch of rude fucking words and then my active and conscious decision to send those rude fucking words because i'm autistic :(((" around the fourth or fifth time this happened, i was fucking done with that nonsense and finally blocked them. shoulda done it after the first comment tbh!! no more autism exceptions.

as for the rest of it, my main management strategy is to simply.... preempt the bad faith comments?

i had a LOT more unpleasant and conflict-filled fandom experiences when i was in the raven cycle fandom. that was my first exposure to "you can't ship multi-gender polycules if anyone involved is gay" and "queerplatonic het relationships are just heteronormativity shipping that you're trying to get away with." having dealt with those takes before, i've found a few different ways to disarm bad faith readers before they get started.

first is to be super open and honest about my interests. i talk about what i find compelling in different relationships All The Damn Time. it's really hard for anyone to accuse me of only wanting hunter to fuck amity if they've seen, like.... anything i've said about hunter and amity.

same with hunter and luz. the only negative reactions i've really gotten to how they're written in the princess AU is like.... two people being squicked by camila thinking they're romantically involved. i REALLY expected more pushback on the touchyfeely bed sharing stuff, but from what i remember, there's never been Any....? not even from people who consider them siblings.

i expected a lot of pushback on how mean hunter and amity are to each other, since it's taken So much farther than the canon. but it turns out that there's a very large overlap between people who like dark horror AUs and people who like hunter and amity murdering each other. (in a fluffy fic i don't think this characterization would fly Nearly as easily.)

i find that being funny really disarms people, too. when you look at any of my toh meta posts that could be controversial, they're basically all funny. people are a lot more willing to listen to what you have to say if you make them laugh, and it's harder for them to get angry at you.

and then the last thing is that i think i'm in sort of a privileged position in toh fandom. i've written a lot of controversial subjects and relationships and characterizations.... but i've also written some WILDLY popular mainstream fic. and people who like the mainstream fic don't really want to beef with me about differing niche opinions, bc there's a level of respect there. which they might not have for a writer they don't like.

but anyway. when things Do happen, i almost always just block and move on. there are so many people here who get what i'm talking about that there's no need for me to try to convert people who don't, you know??

[the-sleepy-archivist]

Malware Torrents: The Telltale Signs

Be careful with piracy torrents you guys. The majority of them are legit, but every once in a while you'll find someone trying to use them to spread malware. Recently someone uploaded a torrent masquerading as an episode of a TV show I like, but when it downloaded I saw it was actually a disguised shortcut (.lnk file) with a crypto miner attached to it, with just over 1 BILLION zeroes added to the end to make the file big enough to look like a valid video.

The first warning sign was that the episode was uploaded almost 3 days before it actually aired. That's rare, really only happens with hacks/leaks and those are usually newsworthy. Second, my automatic media organizer software refused to import it because it was "not a video file". Again, weird; why wouldn't my software recognize a valid video?

However the BIGGEST red flag was when I went to look at the downloaded file, it had a tiiiiiiiny curved arrow on it indicating that it was actually a shortcut, not a video. When I hovered over it, it showed that it was actually pointing at a completely different file in a protected system directory.

When I viewed the shortcut properties, I could see that it was going to run a command prompt and execute a batch command that installed an executable that would run every time I started my computer (basically, do a bunch of shit it shouldn't be doing. A video file shouldn't even have a target field, let alone one with command prompt stuff in it).

I had to learn how to use a hex editor to delete the billion zeros and separate the .lnk part (the install command) from the actual malware, and the instant I did that Windows Defender flagged it:

So. How can I identify suspicious torrents ahead of time?

When I went to inspect the torrent, in hindsight it was easy to see it was bad because of the file extension, but you can only see that if you inspect the files in the torrent, not just the torrent name. Many piracy sites don't bother showing you a list of files in the torrent ahead of time, so be sure to inspect them once they're in your download client.

I recommend familiarizing yourself with common media file extensions and then inspecting your torrents for outliers; any file name that includes a non-media extension like .lnk, .exe, .cmd, .bat, .ps1, .sh, etc. is automatically a huge red flag!

Secondly, look for that little shortcut icon before you open anything you download from the internet. And finally, don't ignore suspicious things that are adding up (in this case, the fact it was posted before the episode's actual air date, and the media organizer software flagging it as "not a video").

I think Windows Defender probably would have caught it if I had actually clicked it and the malware had tried to install itself, but our goal is obviously to never get to the point of clicking on viruses at all! So be aware of the warning signs, use antivirus software, and sale the high-seas safely!

[thepatronsaintoffilth]

I love FNAF because even once you take out all the lore, the supernatural or sci fi elements, the dead kids, robots, etc. there's still so much horror left in because of bad business practices, corporate greed, cut corners wrt safety measures, and the ways kid's entertainment can be warped and weaponized by callous profit-chasing

[cator99]

I always get detained at da border because PROFUNC never ended but basically I'm like if a targeted individual didn't even care

[faaun]

ok let's catch up quickly

[seventh-district]

not even gonna tag this properly bc i don't wanna get Involved but i do have some Thoughts i need to get out into the void so here we go

(aaa quick edit: CW for mention/discussion of Boothill leaks)

[thepoisonroom]

i don't give a fuck that i'm getting older but seeing my loved ones aging does make me insane if im honest