#this was a super fun way to test my skills and i learned a lot doing it

[isawken]

so. i made a gnome generator

thank you to everyone who supplied me with gnome names (i am still accepting more in my ask box if you have one you'd like to share with the class)! i have been learning basic html stuff and have used my meager knowledge to create a clunky, yet functional, gnome generator. the gnome and their stats will change upon refreshing the page, but you can click the gnome gname button as many times as you like.

MAKE UR GNOME TODAY!

[oozedninjas]

Hey, Tim! If it's cool, could I please request what it would be like dating the 2012 boys? If you don't do 2012, then Bayverse please?

By the way, keep up the amazing work 💜

Got some free time today! Hope to post the others soon too. Ily thanks for staying in tune!

2012 / sfw / kissing/ninja guys are late 20's

Leo

Prepare to be protected. At all costs? You can bet so. Against your will? Probably sometimes.

He'd value your safety above anything else.

He would probably plan all your dates, which would always be incredibly thoughtful and romantic. Like rooftop picnics overlooking the city.

Leo always keeps his promises.

He might introduce you to martial arts, meditation, or his favorite shows. It's exciting to share his hobbies with you!

10/10 Leo is respectful and courteous. You will always be treated with kindness, care, and consideration.

The type of boyfriend who carries you bridal style.

His kisses might start hesitant, like testing if you're willing, but quickly overflow with passion if he's reciprocated.

Raph

He's very intense in the way he communicates his feelings. Deeply committed and fiercely loyal.

While he's always there to protect you, he loves that you can fend for yourself and adores seeing you kick ass.

Dates with Raph would be thrilling, often entangling action-coded activities.

His brutal honesty always keeps you leveled on where you stand with him.

Raph loves banter and teasing, so be prepared to keep up with him.

He probably shared with you the story of Spike, and honestly, wtf.

He's the type of boyfriend who carries you like a potato bag. You can't change my mind.

His kisses are always deep and passionate right from the start, biting and sucking at your lips, a bit of growling against your mouth if it gets too steamy.

Donatello

Your personal problem solver: He’d build or fix things for you, always using his skills to make your life easier!

He'd equip you with several tech tools designed only for you, and they're always incredibly mindful: Oh, your charger isn't working? Here! A whole-ass sun-fed battery resistant to water, dust, and hackers.

Donnie would be super supportive of your interests, always eager to learn more about them.

Dates always have a hint of science: aquariums, planetariums, museums, and the best part is the thrill of breaking in the middle of the night. Good thing he has a device to fool security cameras.

He carries you on his back, piggybacking or bridal style when he feels a bit more romantic.

His kisses are sweet and shy at first, eager and needy right after.

He cups your face softly and sighs when you pull apart.

Mikey

Mikey holds your heart in his hands with such heart-warming love and adoration it's almost too sweet.

He would always make his best effort to make you feel loved in the exact way you'd appreciate the most.

He learns your love language by heart and tries to complement the others. He's best at words of affirmation and acts of service.

Always there for you when you need him.

Also incredibly protective!!

Dates with Mikey are always fun and creative! You follow each other into your current hyperfixations or hobbies like painting, skateboarding, and graffiti… we don't talk about this one in front of Leo, tho.

You subscribed him to a cooking master class and everyone in the lair thanked you for it.

He carries you like a potato bag sometimes, and other times he lifts you up so that you embrace him with your legs by the front.

He loves to brush his nose with yours.

His kisses are playful and steamy, with lots of smooches in between. He nibbles at your lips, tasting every corner of them.

[benkyoutobentou]

How to study languages without studying

Whether you're just starting out and have had bad experiences with textbook learning in the past or are getting burnt out from prepping for the next proficiency test, it's never a bad idea to put the textbooks away for a time and just enjoy your target language. If you're new to the world of immersion, here are a few ways to get you started.

Follow along with the lyrics of a song. Spotify's not-so-new-anymore lyrics feature is great for this, especially since it has timed lyrics, but it doesn't have every song.

Expert mode: Write out the lyrics and underline/highlight/make note of all the words and grammar structures you don't know. Learn these unknowns until you can understand the whole song!

Extra challenge: Translate a song from your target language. I usually tend to stay away from translations in my study, but for those of you who aspire to be translators (or already are!), the poetic nature of song lyrics can be a fun challenge.

Watch a show or movie. Netflix has now introduced a feature where you can sort by language! If there's nothing made in your language that you're interested in, it also gives the option to sort by shows and movies that have the audio or subtitles available. Internet Archive also tends to have lots of foreign films that I'm looking for.

Easy mode: Watch with English or your native language subtitles. When doing this, try to still listen to what's being said and pick up on words and phrases that you know, or match new words with their translation in the subtitles. Note: reading one language and listening to another is a skill in and of itself! Don't be discouraged if you can't do both at the same time yet, you're brain is still making the connections in intonation and cadence of the language.

Hard mode: Watch with captions in your target language. This helps you connect listening and reading, especially in languages where the spelling isn't exactly phonetic, or it uses a different alphabet than what you're used to.

Expert mode: No captions or subtitles! But who knows, maybe you're better at listening comprehension than I am. Make sure you're getting comprehensible input here; some shows and movies are much harder than others. But above all else, watch what keeps your interest. A movie where you can catch half the dialogue but is super engaging is better for you than an "easy" movie that you're going to spend your time ignoring.

Polyglot mode?: Watch something in your target language with subtitles in a different target language. This adds just one too many layers of obfuscation for me, but if you're into the challenge, more power to you.

Watch YouTube. You can change your language preference on YouTube, and with that, the Explore section will give you recommendations in your target language. Going into the trending tab with your target language can give you a good idea about what people are interested in in the countries where your target language is spoken.

Read something. It can be a book, it can be a comic. There are plenty of webcomics out there in a number of languages! There's also probably an English language listicle with recommendations of easier to understand webcomics for learners, too.

If you're just getting started in immersion, you can choose whether you focus on intensive reading or extensive reading (this actually goes for all kinds of immersion, but is easiest to control with reading since it happens at your own pace). Intensive reading is reading with the goal of understanding everything 100%. If you don't understand a word, or a grammar point, or the reading of a character, look it up. Extensive reading is reading just to get the gist of things. Look up words and grammar points only if they stop you from understanding the general meaning of the sentence or section. And of course, the more you immerse, the less you'll have to look things up, but remember that difficulty varies between materials, even within books of the same age range, genre, and medium.

A small digression: If you decide that you never want to open a textbook on your language learning journey, more power to you! It can be done and I know people who have gotten to proficient levels of their target language without textbooks. If you want this to be you, extensive immersion is your best friend. You also might want to get comfortable with the flashcard program anki, because, if this is your goal, all those unknown grammar points and words will probably end up there. But at the end of the day, language learning is an intensely personal journey, and what works for others won't necessarily work for you. Finding what works for you is just part of learning a language.

Play a game. Lots of games are region locked (hint: Pokemon Sun/Moon isn't! If you start a new game, you can choose which language you want to play it in), but there are plenty of free online games still lurking in the corners of the internet. With a bit of googling, you can probably find something in your target language. Just the other day, I went out to find one of those hidden item games in Japanese and ended up finding an entire site dedicated to user made browser games.

If you're learning Japanese or Korean, picrew might be fun to look through as well. I noticed that plenty of picrews have basic anatomy vocabulary. I'm not super familiar with picrew myself, but the ones I've seen tend to be in Korean and Japanese

And lastly, don't fully give up on textbooks before trying them out. Don't be discouraged if textbooks truly aren't your thing, but studying a language on your own time can feel much different than studying for school. Don't put too much pressure on yourself and just have fun with your language. Additionally, if you'd rather learn in a video format, many languages have full courses uploaded to YouTube for you to try. Finding these can be difficult for some languages though, so don't hesitate to reach out to other learners and see what they recommend!

Got your materials ready? Great! Now go forth and immerse!

[rainbowcaleb]

If you need a goofy little fic distraction right now, here is 1.2k short and sweet words about surprises, costumes, Jester, Fjord, Beau, boats, bagels, baguettes, buns, breads and more 💙🍞

(Read and comment on ao3)

“Jester, this is an awful lot of bread.” Fjord pushes past the two heavy bags by the door, their canvas sides obscuring what’s inside but the heads of the baguettes peeking from the top are clue enough.

“Hellooo, I'm in the kitchen!”

He can hear her voice despite the well padded room muffling the sound; Jester’s skill at projection is the stuff of legend. He side steps another crate that smells suspiciously like yeast and a large sunflower patterned tote bag of buns as he gingerly makes his way through their house. “Beau is with me, she says she ‘has the stuff’ . Should I be worried?”

Beau’s sigh is audible even though Fjord doesn’t have eyes on her in this carbohydrate jungle. “What part of ‘need to know’ escapes you?”

“Kneed to know!” They’re close enough to the kitchen now that Jester pokes her head out of the doorframe giggling. “That’s a good one, Beau.” Miraculously there’s nary a crumb on Jester’s all-black lace outfit, incongruous to the room behind her piled high with crusty rustic loaves.

Fjord has experience in how to navigate this. “Wow, don’t you look lovely today, also, if you could perhaps tell me what is going on—”

“Can you hold out your arms?” Jester steps towards him and lifts her arms straight, a strange mimic of a hug as if one has never done it before.

Fjord does so, but continues his gentle prod. “My love, would it be okay if I grabbed a snack? It looks like we have plenty extra.”

“Whoa, your wingspan is so wide.” Jester looks at Beau. “You think you brought enough?”

Beau gives Fjord an appraising look. “You working on your traps and lats? Some pre-wedding routine? Looking good.” She grins at Jester. “Yeah, I have enough.”

“Absolutely not!” Jester rounds back on Fjord, taking advantage of his raised arms to wrap her own around his waist. “The bread isn’t for you. It’s not really for me either. It’s the theme , Fjord.”

Fjord knows if he doesn't or if he does asks it's a trap either way, but it’s a risk he must take. “Someone want to clue me in?”

“Fuck man, did you forget?” Beau laughs then covers her mouth to hide it. “He’s all yours, Jester.”

“Should I pre-apologize?” Fjord glances over Jester’s head at Beau. She shrugs but there’s a glint to her eye he doesn’t like.

“It’s fine , like totally, I know you’ve been super busy this week finishing up the whole ‘buying another ship for the fleet and hiring a crew thing’ but you really should look at a calendar once in a while.” She squeezes his middle then quickly shoves her hands under his shirt. Jester tickles like it's her mission to seek, destroy, and cause the most giggles.

“Mercy!” Fjord laughs. “I concede! Do I need to wave a white flag above my head?”

“Depends, are your undies white today, and can you take 'em off and wave those?” Jester pats his stomach and pulls her hands back out with a smile.

“Absolutely do not forget I am in the room right now.” Beau speaks from behind the safety of her hands shielding her eyes.

“Pbbfft, you’re no fun.” Jester sticks out her tongue but does take a step back. “It’s the costume party today! The neighborhood contest? All the kids are going to be stopping by for treats ‘cause I’m trying to bribe them to vote for us?”

“Oh.” Fjord inhales; some part of him knew it is today and that part of the chaos of this week had been decorating every surface with fall leaves, gourds of all sizes and painted face persuasions, and Jester’s insistence of sampling a strange but bountiful variety of baked goods. He knows it doesn’t look good that he forgot, but to be fair his makeshift panel for hiring new crew had included Marius for ‘reading people to see if they’re the right fit’— whatever he meant by that– and Kingsley who in their words ‘think the newbies need a bit of a test first’ which Fjord learned the hard way was just skirting the lacey edge of unethical. He is feeling exhausted after a week of too much peopleing and too little fire extinguishers on board a wooden ship.

“The party is tonight.” He says simply.

“And you, my lovely to-be, are just in time for the costume fitting. Have you been practicing your bat screech?”

“Ah.” It all comes back to him in a buttered bread scented rush. The half-conversation he heard Jester and Reani having. The craft night with Veth and Yasha. The suspiciously full bag Beau is currently carrying. “I’m not good at animal voices the same way I am with accents.” Fjord tries to shrug like he isn’t afraid of what is in store.

Jester sighs. “Just promise me you’ll do your best. I heard the best themed house on the street gets free cinnamon crunch rolls for a month .”

“Darling, my love, we are surrounded by rolls right now.”

“And that’s for the bribe! Keep up!” Jester smacks his arm lightly.

“Yeah, keep up, Captain.”

Fjord sends a lukewarm glare Beau’s way but he is intelligent enough to know when the battle is lost. He has to keep his eyes ahead on the war.

“Are our friends joining us?”

Jester takes the bag from Beau’s arms. “Duh, of course! Caleb is helping Reani teleport over and she’s bringing the headbands. Veth says she’s gonna try and get Luc to be a baby bat but he’s been really teenagery this week so who knows. Yasha and Caduceus picked up their costumes this morning so I bet they’ll be here any minute!”

“Do you need me to run out and get anything?” Fjord eyes the distant door, half-walled off by baked fences.

“Nope!” Jester pops the ‘p’ with her mouth. “Just put on the sexy bat costume and we can start the night with a bang!”

“I am right here. ” Beau repeats.

“Surely Beauregard, you’d want to be the sexy bat instead? Yasha would love to see you…” Fjord tries to think but it’s like the flour has seeped into his brain. “Flap around sexily?”

“I don’t need any help there.” Beau flexes and sends a wink to Jester. “No, this bat costume is made. Just. For. You.” She pokes his arm with each word like deflating a balloon with a barb.

“Captain Tusktooth, won’t you do it for me?” Jester’s voice lilts up and Fjord knows what he will see when he meets her eyes. Glossy, round, perhaps a little magically enhanced to be utterly convincing, but that may just be Jester’s natural charm.

“Just for tonight?” His willpower is crumbling like the pastry crumbs below his boots.

“Yes!” Jester hugs him again. “Just for the party!”

“It’s only a couple hours?”

“Maybe like four or five or maybe six,” Fjord’s sudden cough sounds strangled. “It might go past midnight, but yes just for tonight! My sexy little flappy Fjordy bat, please do it for me.”

“For you, always yes.” He doesn’t have it in his heart to say no. Fjord can suffer the embarrassment for a few hours. He knows the smiles and laughing kisses from Jester will be worth it. Plus, who are they to pass up free cinnamon crunch buns for a whole month ?

[foundry-fabrications]

Happy Halloween everyone! It is with immense pleasure and excitement that I present to you a labor of love, the long awaited rework of Flesh & Bone! Originally, I had intended to release this shortly after the absolutely stellar remake of Dead Space, but that obviously wasn't going to happen. So as to not repeat my last mistake with big projects and arbitrary deadlines, I took things nice and slow, took my time to give this work the true love and attention it deserved. Anything for my beloved Dead Space.

And I couldn't be more pleased with the result! Well, I can always be happier. There's always something I wish I could have added or done differently, but I won't dwell on that. "Don't let perfect be the enemy of done".  But it makes me so happy to see it in its full gorey glory after all this time. But that enough preamble, let's get into the changes from the original!

Being the result of a 3-week mad rush to release on time for Halloween, the original brew has a LOT of problems. I forgot a lot of details and made a lot of mistakes just by the nature of not having enough time to do it justice. Having had, what, 2 years, between now and then has given me a lot of time to hone my skills as a creator and figure out exactly what I wanted to do for the eventual rework.

The first and most obvious thing is the aesthetics. Flesh and Bone was the first time I ever tried to make a Homebrewery theme from scratch, so I had a LOT to learn in a very short timeframe. I got it most of the way there for what I wanted to do, but it still had a lot of issues, namely a lack of integrated stat blocks. Formatting was also just awful. I just couldn't get them to work quite right, and they always looked super off, so I elected for images instead. Since then, I've made my Xenomorph supplement which used that initial test as a starting point, and I was able to fix a lot of the issues I ran into. I also want to change the overall look of the theme itself. When I designed it, I was going for a design mix based on the Dead Space wiki and the holographic UI from the games themselves. The result was...not the most legible. I've taken a new approach with the rework, made everything MUCH more readable, and borrowed heavily from the aesthetics of the 2023 remake.

As for the contents themselves, turns out there were a bunch of really cool necromorph variants that I just completely forgot about like the Twitchers, those reanimator swarms from DS3, and the Ubermorph. With that last one in particular, I reworked the old Hunter into the Regenerator with Hunter and Ubermorph variants, like I have with the Slasher, Spitter, and now Twitcher. In general, most of the necromorph forms were in dire need of reworks up in one way or another, especially their descriptions. I pulled almost all of that text directly from the Dead Space wiki, and it showed real bad. Again, 3 weeks, all panic. All the descriptions have been rewritten to be more in line with my other writing.

I also removed that section at the beginning about the Markers. I originally included it to give context for the rest of the brew, and I just really wanted to talk about the Markers, but the more I looked at it that section honestly added very little to the rest of the brew that couldn't be done in other areas. And let's be real, the Markers are SO IMPORTANT to the Dead Space universe that they really need their own dedicated brew. So, I pulled that section out, and it will go in said dedicated brew another time.

And the final change is I actually included some form of boss necromorph this time! I hadn't planned to, but I started thinking more and more about it, and I was also asked by one of my lovely patrons about it, so I gave in and made stats for really the only Dead Space boss worth talking about: The Hive Mind. I actually had fun writing it, working out its abilities from both the original and the remake, as well as taking some creative liberties and giving it some fun new abilities as a result of it being a Nexus necromorph.

So that's everything! I hope this gruesome creation of mine brings you as much joy and terror as it has to me. Stay safe, stay spooky, don't forget to love each other, and m̵̧̈́ͅa̴̜͑̍ḳ̵̍ë̷͍͇́ ̶̖̾̏u̸̪̅͜s̷͙̟̓ ̷̬̩̒w̸͇͘h̶̠̳͆̽o̶̻̺͂̀l̴̛͍̦e̸̡̡͗. See you next time.

Enjoy my work? Consider leaving me a Tip or supporting me on Patreon! Patrons gain access to high quality PDFs for all of my content, weekly updates, early access, and more!

Want to hang out with other followers and myself, talk about games, and share ideas? Come join my Discord!

[ineffectualdemon]

I know the "it's never to late to learn" feels fake especially when you're younger

But I'm going to be 40 soon and:

I'm in my last year of Uni for my History Degree having started in my 30s

I'm learning Japanese on Duolingo for fun and have a 408 day streak. It's still super basic but I'm having fun and I am learning and getting better

I finally learned how to use chopsticks this year and every time I practice with them my control is getting better

I learned embroidery last year

I have taught myself enough sewing skills over the last 5 years that I hand sewed this bag:

Am I going to be an expert at any of these things?

No

But I'm not trying to be

And what I get out of it is that they have brought me skills and knowledge and satisfaction and contentment

They have enriched my life and given me skills and just because I'm almost 40 doesn't mean these new skills have no use

Learning anything at any age improves your life

I understand it can be hard to start. Especially if you're someone who if you can't get it right the first time you consider yourself a failure

But! Some advice!

1. Make a skill tree!

This tiktoker Trejayne has a video showing her skill tree that she made:

But it's a way to make it fun and less intimidating

2. First time is the tutorial

I made I think 4 versions before I made my bag? I made a very basic one with scrap material, then prototype 1 which was made out of slightly better material but still just a test. Then Prototype 2 which is a functional bag but smaller made out of the same material as the main bag

And then when I was confident I moved onto the final product

Also! When doing the embroidery when I was doing a new stitch I hadn't done before I got a bit of scrap fabric and practiced on there.

I just sometimes find it easier if I consider my first attempt the tutorial and then if I'm still not confident I practice the tutorial until I am

Then I can move up a level and I can replay that level (keep doing projects at that skill level) until I feel confident I can't tackle the next level

Idk. I remember at 20 feeling like I was a stupid failure who would never learn anything again because I was burnt out after highschool and didn't go to university

And it really made it difficult to believe I could learn anything later

And that's not how I want anyone else to feel because it wasn't true for me and it's not for you

Sometimes things take awhile to click

Yes younger brains are more easily able to absorb information but I know for me at least there were lots of things I tried to learn when I was a kid that didn't click together in a way that made sense until I tried as an adult

[illarian-rambling]

Hopping on this open tag from @kaylinalexanderbooks because I'm boooored at work!

OC Interaction Tag

Kaylin's OC: Rose is a twelve-year-old girl with dimensiokinesis, or dimension manipulation, though she mainly can just sense dimensions as she's working on the rest. Her mother has made her insecure about her weight and other parts of her appearance, but the one thing that makes her feel good is her art, outfits, and fashion designs, which she is very, very proud of. Though her personality has been repressed, Rose is actually very compassionate, friendly, and spontaneous. She doesn't let her emotions show, but she feels very deeply and strongly. Rose does like fun and excitement, she just hasn't had much of a chance to follow her impulses. Despite being more of an introvert, if her friend (and unrequited crush) Lexi is not there, she'll be the one at the lead making all the introductions and talking to others. She believes she can handle a lot more stress than she can, so she doesn't see the problem in, well, her problems stacking up. She likes doing things her way and defying anything that holds her back, though she is more patient despite going on impulse sometimes. It's not uncommon for others to see her as lazy or tell her she needs to do better at certain things. She's reluctant to accept the affection she craves, but when she opens up she's incredibly well-loved and charming. She doesn't stay angry and doesn't like arguing, even if she explodes when she does.

My OC: Astra DuClaire is a 25 year old human witch with vitiligo and a trademark ribbon coat she wears everywhere. She grew up on a debtor's farm and has worked her ass off to learn magic to support her family, even if she wasn't allowed to get a true university education on account of her low birth. This has given her a bit of a chip on her shoulder. From the outside, Astra is supremely confident, bordering on arrogant. She sings the praises of her infallible magic at any opportunity. This is a cover for a deep well of insecurity. Astra loves magic, but she's been told so many times that a debtor's daughter like her will never be a true mage that she's internalized that attitude, believing at her core that all her prized skills are flawed. Other than that, she's mouthy, with a crude sense of humor, and a deep desire to help people even if they're total strangers. Like all mages, her curiosity brings her to places most would never go. She also tends to act before thinking things through, probably on account of the adhd. This can result in her saying things she doesn't mean or even causing violence she didn't intend. Her hobbies include magic (duh), mechanics, and embroidery. Astra loves to sew and often incorporates runes into her designs. She is demisexual, but who needs a relationship when there's adventure to be had and massive amounts of emotional obliviousness to cloud your perception!

How they'd interact: Surprisingly, or maybe not, Astra has a soft spot for kids. I'm not saying she's good with kids (she will teach them to make fireworks and swear like a mechanic), but she does like them. That said, she would immediately want to protect Rose. Maybe fight her mom, idk. Given how good her relationship with her parents is, Astra despises people who treat their kids poorly. I'd like to think that seeing a woman with some extra curves be so confident in everything would help Rose with her body image a bit. Also, they can bond over fashion! They both design clothes and though I imagine their style is quite different, I think they'd have fun sewing together. Astra would be super curious about the 'dimension magic wackiness' and would want to run lots of tests. Probably, she'd be a little disappointed when this twelve-year-old doesn't hold the same rigorous adherence to the scientific method and also just can't answer half her questions. I think both of them might recognize the same emotional repression and explosive temper in each other. Astra would definitely try to help Rose admit her crush on Lexi, probably through some convoluted grand plan involving gifts and flowers. I think Rose would laugh to see just how deep in Astra is with her own crush, all while remaining painfully oblivious. They could wingman for each other, is what I'm getting at. All in all, I think these two would be great and Astra is still 100% trying to throw down with Rose's mom.

I'll tag @thecomfywriter @the-golden-comet @ominous-feychild @willtheweaver @mysticstarlightduck and anyone else who wants to play!

[neogandw]

Page 4 of 6, the rest can be seen here.

Honestly this is the part where I just get to have fun with the training montage and the reason of why I love Smash Bros like I do.

The gameplay IS fun even if I don't actually play online matches all that much (I'm not all that competitive, I play mostly solo or with friends exclusively), but to me Smash Bros is a toy box.

I love these universes and Smash Bros has introduced me to many more over the years, to me its an introduction to various things I could learn and play with, and even more fun to me its concocting how these series gel together and how you could use their elements as playthings to craft a story or a cohesive universe.

I explored this before with another massive comic I made, honestly kind of one this is a sequel to. Its "The Strongest Fighter".

To me, I am not interested at all in "who would beat who", I prefer to think of "Okay, if these two were to meet, how WOULD it go down?" or "If so was in this situation, what would they do?", the joke of the Strongest Fighter comic is not to actually decide who is the strongest in terms of made-up power levels, but rather an exploration of how these characters view and talk about one of their own in a context disguised as a poorly thought-out question.

A lot of people tend to miss this, sadly, even if Shulk points out "Anyone can beat up Kirby" rather blatantly at the end.

So, going back to Page 4, its also similarly an exploration of the question "how do you go on about getting strong in this context?".

With splatoon, there's not much other than "pick up the weapon and sink or swim, we ain't an helicopter parent, you figure it out". But when you introduce the idea of a MENTOR (specially one out of universe like Peach is) how would you go on about teaching something so abstract as getting good aim?

Its not so much that Orange needs training in weaponry at all, I did make it a point to show that she was Super Fresh with everything BUT the Chargers back on Page 1, but that her aiming skills with the Charger are so off that:

Speedy targets won't stay still (Joker just dodging out of the way)

Her shots are blantantly obvious (Samus just leaning her head to the side)

She's not using shooting at a range, so her aim is so off that she misses even in Super Flat World.

So the training montage is tackling these issues.

Study up and learn how the weapon actually works, as I said her first mistake was skipping up Sheldon's explanation, so the first thing Peach does is explain the basics of the weapon to Orange (if you notice, the billboard does show things like leading the shot as exemplified with the Rabbid, using bombs to flush out your enemies and the importance of things like Ink Saver). Basic stuff, but you do hit the books to learn your tool.

Learn in a safe envoirement that is somewhat predictable, and it is slow going (notice the timer of the Break the Targets), get used to shooting long-distance first and foremost, no matter how long it takes.

Then you introduce the erraticness (AKA: the ducks) and practice off that, Orange hit exactly half and Peach mentions as much. The dog may laugh, but its a start.

And finally, put it to the test. I specifically chose Sonic to be the target to be hit because he'd be the most erratic, fastest and would NOT allow himself to be hit that easily. Landing a headshot on Sonic has to be the hardest thing you could do.

I did mostly pick scenarios that would be funny, but I did want it to be a ramping up in getting good. Not just jumping from point A to point B and just skipping to "welp, you're a god at sniping now".

Anyway, the hidden jokes and references of this page:

I used to be a teacher (programming, if you're curious), so the panel of Inkling Girl going to school is reminiscent of my experiences as a teacher and a student. hence why Inkling Girl's set-up on the school resambles what I know rather than the desks you find on Garreg Mach. Such as taking special attention to draw the ever present ruler, using a square notebook for math, the pencil sharpener and erasers being the ones we use down here on México and the bag being a knock-off rather than an official product. Its just sort of the norm you see around here.

You may notice the random calendar on the Garreg Mach page on the top left. On the coloring process I decided to add to the joke of Inkling Girl going to school by imitating a Persona UI.

Originally the joke was to have it be styled after P5's, but the UI used wound up being Persona 3's instead. Not only is it topical thanks to Reload, but the reason I did it is that curiously -just as I was working on this panel- I hit this date on reload ( 8/10 ) and it just so happened that THIS is when you downright lose an entire week worth of days because Mitsuru decided to sign you up for summer classes without consulting you. Fitting for Inkling Girl sacrificing her own free time to learn and study.

Small thing, but if you actually read Orange's notebooks you may notice she's dividing by zero.

Just to show how much Inkling girl sucks at aiming, the break the targets timer is there to show how badly she's doing. Normally during Break the Targets you either get timed to your best time counting UP if you're doing it on the dedicated mode or counting DOWN from 2 minutes if you do it from Classic Mode. The timer instead reads 28:05.15, meaning that Peach had her do it at her own pace and its been nearly half an hour of just missing shots (since she's only been able to hit 1 target so far).

Also, the timer number may be random, but its actually Splatoon 1's release date. I love to hide significant numbers like that on my works. I forgot to mention it but Peach's player ID back on page 3 was also a release date.

And to add on to the cute factor, the platform they're standing on in Break the Targets is actually taken directly from Peach's stage. So she's lending her own target test for the practice.

Fun fact: on the Duck Hunt panel you can see the UI discussing how many ducks have been hit by Inkling Girl. Not easily apparent though is the blue bar below the ducks.

THAT is the minimum requirement. In the original Duck Hunt the UI for the duck tally would shift over to the left and be compared to that blue bar, if you didn't shoot enough ducks to go beyond where the bar was pointing at the game would end.

Essentially, Peach is asking for a bare minimum of 4 ducks to be hit, which Inkling Girl technically did as she managed 5, but she's still frustrated due to the dog's mockery.

Irregardless of how the montage was gonna go on the planning phase, I always wanted to have Sonic be the last test for Inkling's improvement because -once more- I like to think more in-character when writting down these scenarios.

Sonic is the fastest thing alive, he's capable of dodging whatever bullet or explosive eggman tends to throw at him (capable, not reliable, it depends on player input if he does so or not). So he'd be perfect for target practice, specially for something like Sniping.

Sonic's pride would NOT agree with being shot in the face, admittedly, but he could be talked into it if asked as both a challenge and a request. Peach wouldn't put anyone in danger and it is really just ink, so if its for the sake of helping others, Peach could reliably ask Sonic to do it and he'd at least take solace in helping someone else. Though he'd likely taunt and make it as hard as possible due to his ego.

To show that it was amicable and that Sonic agreed to it I had the two bits of Peach handling a tower and Sonic giving a thumbs up, to show that he was in on the plan.

I could have drawn Green Hill Zone again (in fact, the planning phase did had it AS Green Hill), but I instead opted to go with Seaside Hill as the background (kind of a mistake on my part since Ocean Palace is OBTUSE on its architecture), mostly because I wanted some scenery variety with Sonic, its not always gonna be on Green Hill Zone, you know.

The Loading screen that Inkling is having on her head while she realizes she passed the final test is from Sonic 06, which I shouldn't have to tell you that its infamous for its loading.

I originally wanted it to be Splatoon's loading icons, but those would have required animation since they're not visually understandable otherwise. So I just went with the Sonic theme and made it match.

The UI used for the last two panels are the stage clear screens for Splatoon 2 and Splatoon 1 respectively. Also, I didn't just copy-paste the assets from Splatoon 3 into the comic, every time you see the weapon icons like that its one of my recreation of those assets.

[offorestsongs]

Lysander ― fun facts ✦

context for people outside my follower circle: Lysander is my Yuu and since he's been living in my head very intensively recently, i've decided to put out some fun lil trivia about him that isn't included in his bio! some of those things i've probably mentioned before, but i thought i'd be nice to expand on them/have them all in one post [dividers]

as you may infer from most of my other posts about him, cooking/food is basically Lysander's special interest. his main way of expressing that he likes/cares for other people is cooking them food. while visiting new places during the events, his favorite thing to do is always trying the local foods and learning the history behind them. he often tries to replicate some of the dishes he tried after coming back home. despite that, he still has some texture issues and there's generally a lot of foods that he's willing to cook for others but that he probably won't eat for himself

he's also more experienced with cooking than with baking - he's using the fact that he has more time on his hands to finally get better at it... with varying results. he has the tendency to go off-recipe because "he just feels it". Ace and Deuce are usually the test guinea pigs for all of his baking experiments

he grows a lot of different plants and herbs at Ramshackle not only because he simply enjoys gardening, but also because it's cheaper than buying them at the store all the time. besides using them for his cooking, he also makes his own tea blends that he gifts to all his friends

speaking of tea - eventually every single one of his friends that regularly visit him at Ramshackle has their own cup in his kitchen. some the others just picked from the cups Lysander has already had, some Lysander bought specifically with that person in mind. he also keeps a detailed chart in his special notebook of what teas everyone prefers so he can always be stocked on them (and also how much sugar/what type of sugar do they take and if they put anything else into their tea. Lysander is very serious about his tea alright)

he gets the Disney princess treatment; it's not as strong as in Silver's case, but animals are still drawn to him, tend to approach him a lot and generally feel calm in his presence

while his favorite animals are cats, his second favorite animals are actually chickens! in his home world, he used to keep chickens and treated them like his fluffy little friends and always got sad when one of them had to be killed

he possesses a wide array of unexpected, but practical skills, mostly related to doing things around the house; he was never really discouraged seeing the state Ramshackle was in since he already knew how to fix a lot of things there. what is probably the most unexpected, tho, is the fact that he can pick locks - he's not super skilled at it, but he can still handle your basic front doors. it's not something he really boasts about and he doesn't remember how and why he had learned it (though based on some other memories he had regained, he can make an educated guess)

while he loves both sewing and dressing up, he's very picky about the textures of his clothes. he can never buy new clothes or fabric without being able to touch it first

while he's good at hands-on skills, he's not very academically talented and generally studying doesn't come easy for him. however, he feels like he has an obligation to be a good student since he's allowed to stay at the school despite having no magic, and he puts a lot of effort into studying so his grades are actually pretty decent. the one subject he's effortlessly good at is potionology/alchemy because "it's just like cooking but with extra steps!"

despite how he may look, he actually has a pretty good stamina and he's surprisingly strong for somebody his statue, mostly due to all the physical labor he did around his original home (and that he now does around Ramshackle as well)

he generally doesn't wear jewelry because he doesn't like the feeling of it against his skin. everytime he tried to wear a ring or a necklace, he was hyperaware of it and couldn't focus on anything else

he has insomnia; it's mostly caused by the fact that he's afraid of losing his memories again and since he can't remember how he lost them in the first place, he's afraid it may happen in his sleep + by the fact that some of his experiences since coming to NRC have been,, less than pleasant and left quite an impact on him. he is, however, able to fall asleep quite easily near the people he trusts and feels safe around (that mostly means Ace and Deuce, Rook, Vil and Malleus, if he ever got to sleep in his presence)

his favorite flowers are lily of the valley - each spring he could see from his bedroom's window that they were growing in his backyard. when he couldn't leave his room, he would look at them and imagine their smell; on the occasions he was allowed to leave, he would run and pick as much of them as he could, to bring back to his room and keep on his desk so he wouldn't have to feel as alone

since he doesn't remember his birthday, he chose the date of the day he came to Twisted Wonderland as his new birthday - it only seemed fitting. based on his "actual" birthday though, he's a Cancer

[oftlunarialmoon]

32 Summer Fun Ideas!

originally posted to www.onlyfunthings.org on May 14, 2017

Ciao lovelies! Today, let’s talk about fun things to do in the summer!

Summertime is a lovely season. The sun is shining, the sky is blue, the birds are happy and so are you! Well, maybe. You might be bored as well. But I’m here to help, with 32 super fun things to do this summer!

 Learn a New Skill!

Something great to do with your freetime is to learn how to do something new. 

Some things I’d suggest are:

-Sewing! Sewing is great because you can make yourself new clothes, accessories, etc!

-Knitting! Knitting is said to be very therapeutic and fun, and you can make clothes and scarves and hats!

-Music! Teach yourself to play an instrument. A great instrument for beginners is Piano! I learned to play piano as a child and it helped me with math and other logic skills! 

-Dancing! Teach yourself some fun dances to do! YouTube is a treasure trove to find cool dances you could try and replicate! 

-Writing! Brush up on your writing skills this summer and write poems, short stories, or even a full book! Or just keep a journal. 

-Cooking! Summer would be a great time to learn new recipes! You could learn to cook or bake new things and let your family test your results!

Arts and Crafts!

Summer is a great time to do arts and crafts! I suggest first going on YouTube and making a playlist of diy ideas you want to do, and see if you can do all of them before summer ends!

Some DIY Craft Ideas:

-Dreamcatcher

-Friendship Bracelets

-Slime

-Pressed Flowers

-Hairbows

Check out any free local events!

Check your local papers and library for free local events! You could find tons of cool stuff, like concerts for local bands, local small conventions, volunteer opportunities, or the chance to meet new friends!

I also recommend going to your local library anyway to pick up some books on new, exciting subjects to learn about, like interesting periods in history or books teaching you some of the skills from #1! My local library even has a chess table set up, free to use for anyone! It’s tons of fun.

Go to the Beach!

A traditional and super fun thing to do in the summer is to go to the beach! There are tons of fun things to do in beach towns, so go nuts!

You could:

-Collect shells and make crafts with them later

-Do a fun beach photoshoot with yourself, some friends, and some dolls, or even pets!

-Get a henna "tattoo" from a local shop!

-Buy one of those super useless but fun tourist knick knacks and put it somewhere fun in your room!

-Take pictures and get them developed and make a scrapbook!

-Go swimming!

-Sunbathe!

-You can fish if the beach has a fishing pier!

-Eat ice cream or snow cones!

-Go in cosplay or costumes and walk along the boardwalk. For extra fun, stay in character!

-Take video and make a vlog out of it!

-Bring an instrument and play some music!

-Go boogieboarding!

The possibilities are endless. Going to the beach is a great way to make memories in the summer time!

Spend time with those you love!

-Spend time with your family! Take lots of pictures of them and make a scrapbook of all your family memories!

-Call your extended family for a fun chat!

-Spend time with your pets! Take them on walks, give them baths, give them treats, play games with them, scratch their favorite spots.

-Hang out with your friends! Arrange a sleepover! Or arrange a big meetup of all your friends and go out and do something special! Hang out at a park or go out on the town! Maybe film vlogs or take pictures!

-Spend time with your significant other if you have one! It’s okay to not have one, and don’t feel rushed to get one. If you have one, plan a nice surprise date. Or just go to the park or beach and sit calmly and talk with them!

Stay awesome, please remember to love yourself and have a great day/night/etc!!

[seyoonlgc]

TEAM UNKNOWN - final meeting solo (697)

what was the hardest part during these five weeks? what about the easiest part?

"Learning a language from scratch was pretty hard. Unlike Japanese, which was another language that was part of my training schedule some months ago, Mandarin is completely unfamiliar to me. I had to take a lot of time outside of the workshops to practice on my own and asked my Mandarin-speaking friends for their assistance. I know for the evaluation, we only had to learn one song, but Mandarin is such a complex language with multiple tones that even one song was a lot of effort to get right. The easiest part must be the acting workshop. I tend to have pretty vibrant expressions in general and am not shy about presenting myself."

what have you learned about yourself during this time?

"I learned that I am smarter than I expected. Academically, I mean. How do I put this...Everyone's born good at some things and not so good at others. I was always great at sports, had fantastic stamina, and was overall socially competent...But like, I failed tests before. My handwriting was so ugly in elementary school that it made my homeroom teacher squint as if she needed a new pair of glasses. The point is, I really didn't think I could learn languages but I am totally doing it. Korean, Japanese, and now Mandarin. You guys are probably used to seeing smart kids who can pick up everything super fast like, but I am kind of proud of myself. Just a little. Guess you can do anything if you just try really hard - the impossible can be done, huzzah!"

how do you see yourself in the current type zero lineup if you are given the chance to debut? what do you want to accomplish from here?

This question sounded familiar. Kind of like the one he answered for NKND. It was so easy back then - words really just flew out of his mouth because he felt so comfortable trying for that opportunity. The reason? Well, they were all trainees. Seyoon didn't think any of the kids in NKND were necessarily way better than him and in fact, to this day, still believed himself to be a better fit than some.

Type Zero, though...That was a group of debuted idols. He'd be trying to cram himself into the big-boys league. What if...what if they hate him? What if Type Zero's loyal fans didn't approve of him? With an older group, the audience already had an expectation. What if he didn't fulfill it? What if he couldn't fulfill it? Maybe the coaches there would be really hard on him too because they'd be used to working with more talented, skill-honed boys and be less sympathetic toward his struggles.

Seyoon was kind of scared and usually when something made him nervous like this, he'd...run away.

But then again, they wouldn't be having this meeting with him if they didn't think he was good enough to have a go, right?

Right?

Ahhh, could somebody just reassure him? Anybody! God? Stepmother? The ghosts of Christmas past?

"I think skill-wise...I am a pretty good fit as a vocalist." He started off somewhat lamely. "I feel like I have proven myself to be a fast learner and as a part of Legacy since 2022, completed all tasks and challenges thrown at me. I am adaptive and can adjust to a pre-existing team dynamic." Probably. If the current Type Zero members would enjoy the company of a loud, overly energetic, hyper-extroverted dude who did not know how to do his own laundry. "Also, I think Coach Changbin mentioned something about Type Zero members needing to be...more entertaining. When it comes to that, I feel like I have a lot of potential. I just started doing more variety and hosting stuff recently, but I think I can become great at it! Maybe I can be on more programs where I am just showing off my personality and making sure everyone's having a good laugh. That would be fun, wouldn't it?" In the end, he just wanted to amuse everyone. Plus get a nice, heavy-ass wallet. Mmmyes, Burberry. Valentino and Givenchy.

[juice-enjoyer]

probably the coldest takes in the world but. (reasonings below cut)

god tier: 2-2 and 5-3 are two of my favorite levels just because they're so action packed and nonstop. they're also the two levels that i have a SUPER specific way of going about them and it makes it really fun for me. 5-S is there because i love fishing minigames. and i don't think p-1 needs an explanation honestly

very fun tier: 1-3 might be a controversial one, but i stand by it. i actually hated it when i first went through the game, but it really grew on me! it's very speedy and there's a lot of different routes you can take, so it's fun to explore. i don't think i really need to explain 1-4, the v2 fights are great. same goes for 3-2 and 6-2, the gabriel fights are phenomenal. 4-2 is really fun and is one of my favorites, but it does piss me off a little bit. i really like turning the sky off in that level and just walking around. 6-1 is just a really fun test of every skill you've acquired, i love getting my shit rocked.

very good tier: 0-2 was the level that made me go "ok yeah this game goes hard as hell". 0-5 is a really great first ""difficult"" boss fight, and i like to go back and play it just to see how fast i can do it lol. 1-1 is the same, it's really memorable for me, even if it's not the most fun mechanically. 1-s is there because i love puzzles, and 2-s is there because i think the writing is great. 2-4 is also super memorable for me, mostly because it pissed me off, but after getting the whiplash it made that fight a lot more fun. 4-4 is a tier lower just because that fight *really* pissed me off until i got good, but it really grew on me, like 2-4. 5-2 is a really neat level. it's got a generally slower pace with really great atmosphere, and it's fun to explore and hop around.

good tier: 0-1 is a great introduction to the game, and that's about it. it's nothing super interesting mechanics wise and it's not super fun to go through after getting good, but i can appreciate that it does a really good job at teaching the player how the game works. same goes for 0-3, it's a great first "real" boss fight. 2-1 is another "learning" level in my opinion, all about platforming and movement. i enjoy it, but it's nothing crazy and it's not a level i really go "i wanna play that one" to. 2-3 and 3-1 are there for similar reasons-- good levels, but i don't usually go "i wanna play that one" to them lol. 4-1 is there because it's a bit forgettable compared to the rest of the greed layer, but it's fun!! 5-1 is there because it's kind of a slog to me, but i don't hate it or anything. i really enjoy flying around in that level.

just okay tier: 0-4 is the most forgettable level in the entire game to me. it's straightforwards design doesn't do it a lot of favors. 1-2 is a slog of a level to me and loses momentum a lot. 4-s is there just because i don't like platformers.

genuinely unfun: i just do not like the leviathan fight. it feels clunky and weird, and is my least favorite boss level in the entire game.

bane of my existence: i don't actually hate these levels, nor are they unfun. i'm just really bad at them. almost comically so. i don't know what it is about 4-3 in particular that makes my brain shut off and forget everything i know about the game. maybe it's the dark.

[writingwife-83]

Hi,

You know what, I don't think I've seen people discussing Mycroft's admission that the Holmes children had their abilities tested.

Who were these people and what was their aim?

How did they find out about the Holmes children? And what were they testing, exactly? Intelligence? Intuition?

And in a way it almost implies that their powers of deduction are not so much skills perfected over a lifetime, but an innate ability they were born with.

It makes me wonder if Mark Gatiss/Stephen Moffat intended it as just as a little bit of fun to get fans, a little teasing hint that the Holmes are psychic. For a time they were at the heart of Doctor Who, and Gatiss has a passion for ghost stories and such, so it seems like something they would enjoy thinking about.

And, having seen the Jeremy Brett series, it would also a be small nod to that. In the later episodes of Brett's run the writing sometimes became a little odd, with talks of "third eyes" and visions of the future. Not unlike Eurus, maybe?

Do you have any thoughts on this?

Thanks

This is an interesting question, and I definitely have opinions. (This gets long 😅) I have to start by saying though, that I cannot for the life of me find the actual quote where Mycroft says that about all of them having their abilities tested as children. I would have liked to see the exact wording and context of the line, but I’ll still do my best.

Being a parent, specifically of a special needs son, Mycroft saying that doesn’t really make me blink. Evaluations of children are done all the time, for lots of reasons. It could be due to a learning disability, behavior problems, emotional issues, etc. But it’s easy to imagine their children also being evaluated simply for being very obviously advanced. The full scope of an evaluation includes general intelligence and cognitive ability, but also would include a psychological evaluation. It’s super easy to imagine the Holmes kids having that done, either because their parents requested it or because the school system recommended it. So in a way I’d say that was an incredibly realistic thing for Mycroft to say. And I’m guessing that was right before he said that Eurus was found to be a genius, beyond Newton. Which, again, makes the whole thing make sense.

So all of that is the reasoning for me saying, I definitely don’t think that statement was indicating anything in the realm of supernatural abilities in the Holmes kids. But in addition to me feeling pretty strongly that Mofftiss wasn’t hinting at anything like that, for me personally, I would just hate for that to be canon.

I love me some superheroes and characters who have superhuman abilities and stuff. That has its place and it’s fun! But imo there’s so much of that. Which is what makes the “normal” humans who have amazing abilities more special. Batman, for instance. One of the biggest reasons I love Batman is that he has no physical special abilities! No super strength or speed or mind control or whatever. Yes he has loads of money lol, but he’s smart. So he uses his intelligence and resources and drive to work for him. If anyone ever made a version of Batman where he is superhuman in some way, I’d hate that. (Which is exactly why I hated the live action remake of Mulan. They took a regular young woman who did something incredibly brave and self sacrificing and very easily could have been killed, and turned her into someone who went to war with special powers?? Thanks for killing the most meaningful part of the story lol.)

Sherlock, Mycroft, and Eurus are incredibly unique and special. And I do agree with you that partly that is something they were born with. Genetics are wild lol. But to me, what’s truly special about them is that they’re not superhuman. They took gifts they were born with and as they grew they fine tuned them into something that most people could barely comprehend. It’s almost unbelievable… but not quite. They’re still only human and it’s still just the amazing human mind at work. And I absolutely love that. 👌☺️

[woethehero]

Wyrd RPG Blog Post #1 !!! - Introduction to my Project

Hey Hero (: Thanks for taking a look! If you'll have me, I'd like to share a TTRPG (tabletop roleplaying game) project I've been working on for a bit after finally taking a plunge, and I wanted to document it in a fun way. So far, it's been about 2+ weeks of brainstorming and prototyping with my partner, so we're talking super early stuff.

Quick important foreword please read, I don't want anyone confused! I am exploring designing an RPG as a way to express my art, but I am not a professional game designer and can not promise this will become a full, polished, amazing new RPG at the end of the process. That'd be super sick, but this is primarily just a creative way for me to document exploring my interests of game design and writing alongside my art. I've wanted to do something more long term and dreamed of playing an RPG in my own art world, and no ones gonna try to make it but I.

TLDR: No promises of an actual game. Exploring for fun, documenting to share. Yay!

Now on to the post!

In this first post, I wanted to talk about my design goals, scope, expectations, and what I'm looking forward to so far!

Major Design Goals:

A singular core dice system of d12's being the most used die to determine the success of actions and their outcomes.

Player Characters take on the roles of Aspiring Champions, adventurer-types that wish to make a name for themselves. You are what you do. Your actions, the skills you focus on, and the people you walk with all have an impact on who you become as you grow in power and status.

Asymmetrical combat for GM's and PC's. Player Characters have a much deeper experience

Provide the tools needed for GM's and Players to create custom "home brew" content for their games based on templates so they grounded to the system but unique to the player.

Encourage GM and Player collaboration as much as possible

Classless Characters, characters comprised of Skill Levels and Traits that make up their core identity and capabilities. No EXP, No Levels. Character progression is awarded through play and during the Downtime Phase.

Different modes of play to break up the pacing of a game, examples being Combat, Exploration, Downtime, Social, and Meta.

Quick and lethal combat experience. Fighting directly isn't always the best solution, clever action to shift the odds more in your favor should always be preferred.

Dang Woe, that's pretty ambitious.

Uhh yeah lol. I tried to imagine my dream game for my art and it came out huge. I think it's just gonna be fun to try and explore a lot of different things and learning how to "gamify" things. Digital game dev has just too many barriers for me to explore, but I know my way around a TTRPG! I can't imagine having all these ideas written into mechanics and tested and everything flowing perfectly, but it's gonna be fun to try.

d12 System Yeehaw

The biggest thing I want to cover right away in this post is explaining the d12 action die pool system and how they work. Every Player Character will have a pool of d12s that make up your Effort.

What is Effort? Effort is your "action points," your Stamina, your Energy. You can give something your all, but you can't do it all the time. Effort is broken down into Regen, Stored, and Exhausted, which will be explained later in this post.

Internalize this now before moving on, in the context of rolling dice, 1 is good. 1 is the new slay. 1 is best number. You now love small numbers. When you come to a WyrdRPG post you will be pavloved into remembering 1 is best ever.

Your skills come into play when rolling your Effort. They determine what numbers on the dice count for successes and which do not. Skills lie on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being an absolute beginner and 10 being a renowned legend. Skills are displayed as "Skill #".

ex. Small Blades 8 is a decorated Knight known for their sword and shield mastery. They strike reliably and true.

ex. Small Blades 4 is an amateur or a young mercenary. They are competent and can cause deep wounds, but are far less reliable and strong, and thus require more effort to do the same damage.

Actions in this game have their outcomes determined by how many successes turned up in an effort roll. The max amount of successes you can get is up to how much effort you put in. As a brief example, if you want to swing a sword and have Small Blades 4 as a skill, every die you roll needs to have a 4 or lower to count as a success towards the outcome.

The fun part, 1's are Crits! They count as two successes!

You roll 5 Effort dice. You get 1-3-4-6-10. 1 counts twice, then 3 and 4, for a total of 4 successes. Gonna be a big hit!

12's aren't critical failures. They don't count against you or anything, unless something says otherwise. I'm currently thinking if you use a tool or item that's "broken" or "malfunctioning" then maybe that could apply. Could be cool idk!

Effort Explained More

Last important piece of this heartbeat is Regen, Exert, and Exhausted, the 3 states of Effort. Regen will show up like Regen 3 or Regen 4, meaning you have that number of Effort dice that cannot become Exhausted. You always get these back.

Exert is exhaustible Effort, that if used in addition to your Regen die as all must be used first, will be moved to Exhausted. You cannot use these dice until they are restored. In order to restore Exhausted dice, you have to underspend your Regen dice. For every Regen not used during a round, one exhausted is returned to Exert.

The idea behind this neutral-exert-rest flow is to give more long winded battles a chance to shift and provide risky opportunities to gamble a rest or full-sending an attack with more effort than you probably should, but you really wanna be sure you get this guy.

I appreciate you reading, I'm really curious to hear some of your thoughts as things are moving along. I have a lot of ideas for art and I think regardless of how this goes there's going to be something cool from it!

Okay bye hero!

Yours,

Woe

[hot-take-tournament]

Thank you so much for putting this together, it was really fun to do. These are the best answers I could come up with:

1. In ‘what the hair’ I believe it’s Gothel in the dream sequence right? Thats such a cool way to open a show I think, it really draws to you. But it is incredibly confusing if you didn’t watch ‘before ever after’ first

2. I think in the first opening it’s 3, I’m not sure about the other two. If I’m being honest the first season is my favourite.

3. A music box is laid out and when rapunzel plays it it activates the atomatons hidden in the gift boxes.

4. Okay that’s one’s really hard, I know for a fact Varian has blue eyes and I’m pretty sure Monty does, but I really can’t hunk of anyone else. Rapunzels are Green, Eugene and Lance’s are both brown. I don’t know, Faith? Maybe Frederick but I think his are green.

5. The one in the right I think

6. If I remember correctly, which is highly unlikely, Rapunzel starts the song so I’m going to guess Eugene finishes it as a part of the little back and forth they have. I’m more of a ‘nothing less to loose guy myself’, so I don’t actually remember that song much.

7. I think it’s in ‘Once a handmaiden’, but I could be wrong. That episode is really good for a number or reasons, but there’s something really funny about Varian canonically inventing a gun, good for him.

8. The left one?

9. Happily ever after, I know it’s a reprise of the first song in the ‘Before ever after& short movie but I’m not sure if it’s called something slightly different

I really struggled with most of these, clearly I’m a fake fan </3 it’s fine I tried my best, at least this makes good practice for when I do eventually have to go up against the devil to avoid eternal damnation.

It was really fun though :D thank you for putting this together it was super cool. (Not to be that really annoying guy but I do highly recommend TTS it is a very fun watch)

Also slightly related fun face Zachary Levi plays Rocky in the the new chicken run movie and you can really tell. He uses the same line deliver as he does with Eugene it’s pretty funny to compare the two characters.

it's no problem at all, one of the best parts of this blog for me is being able to learn about everyone's special interests!

besides, considering how much experience i have in combing the internet to research fandoms i'm unfamiliar with (mostly so i can make bad puns), it was kinda fun for me to try and put that ridiculously niche skill to the test under time pressure

though... in retrospect i maaaay have accidentally made some of the questions completely impossible

(also, i know i answered your asks out of order, it sounds weird but the genuine reason is that because of the times you sent asks i was worried you were losing sleep over the stress of not knowing whether your asks were anonymous or not)

anyway, here are the answers:

1. you're totally right, it's Gothel who speaks first - no one else has a line until the 2-minute mark, they just kind of make noises at each other. i know they did it because it's a dream sequence, but it's still inexplicably funny if you pay attention to it, it reminds me of final fantasy

i did watch the first episode in full to get an idea of what this show was about, and i do have a lot of questions - tangled was one of the only two disney princess films i watched when i was a kid and i still don't really understand how her hair has grown back or who cassandra is (she seems nice though)

2. yeah in hindsight this one is basically impossible to get from memory, and when i wrote it i didn't even realise that there were different animations for the later seasons

the first one has 7, the second has 4 (i think?), and the third has 3, though it's really hard to tell

3. i actually got that wrong, i thought the music box turned into the robot, but you're right, it activates the parts hidden in the presents that then assemble themselves

4. people make fun of disney for their disdain for green eyes, rapunzel is the only disney princess who has them

excluding tangled, i can't even think of two human disney characters with green eyes period

well apparently they decided to overcompensate by making it so that almost no tangled characters have blue eyes, and honestly it's kind of hilarious

even characters who had blue eyes in the movie had their eye colour switched to green for the series

i was only able to pick out five because i noticed the trend and started actively looking for it - and even then, it was like finding a shiny pokemon anytime someone with blue eyes appeared on screen

so the fact that you were able to think of five off the top of your head is crazy impressive

he does - so do varian, frederic, faith and monty, so that's five

5. the mirror is the one on the left

the one on the right is actually based on the broken plate from breaking bad

6. eugene sings last, i have no idea what the context of the song is though

i actually was originally going to use 'nothing left to lose' but i changed it like five minutes before the timer ran out because i realised there were a lot of questions about cassandra, she's just in every clip

7. yeah, it's 'once a handmaiden', i think once her imaginary british friend pulls the cloak off it never comes back

i may have got this one from the wiki

8. the yellow eye is her(?) right eye

9. you're right, it is just a reprise of the first song from before ever after

(though i found out just now that disney's official songlist technically calls it 'life after happily ever after', which is dumb, so i'm going to ignore it)

so, overall i don't think anyone can accuse you of being a fake fan, you definitely got most of them

still, i'm glad you enjoyed it <3

[natasha-in-space]

In a Pokémon AU, what do you think the RFA + Minor Trio's roles be? Like gym leader, professor, trainer, contest star, etc?

Oh boy, Pokemon au's are always a ton of fun to play around with! I am a bit rusty, but I did my best with my personal picks for their possible trainer classes. Some of them are pretty random and even weird, but hey, I had fun writing out my thoughts regardless :D

Yoosung

Ace trainer. Honestly? I see Yoosung as being a very competent fighter that you should not underestimate under any circumstances. Ace trainers mostly consist of teens or young adults in games, as far as I can remember, so they do fit his demographic quite well! Yoosung is someone who has a deep drive to better himself, which is why I can easily imagine him travelling around the world and taking regular part in Pokemon League competitions. His team is very well balanced and pretty hard to beat, as he does take pride in his fighting skills!

Zen

Gym leader. There's just something about Zen being in charge of testing beginner trainers and making sure that they're strong enough to continue into the Pokemon League that is so appealing to me for some reason. I always viewed him as a mentor figure of sorts, so it's fun to imagine him putting his hard earned skills to good use like this. It's a pretty harsh and unforgiving position to be in, but Zen's hard work always pays off. He's not just in charge of testing and training, he's also supposed to look after the gym itself, which is a tiring physical labor to go through. It's a role that requires a lot of responsibility, and that's something that our beloved actor takes very seriously.

Jaehee

Baker. Uhhh, this may be a weird choice, but I kinda just see her opening up her own cozy pokemon cafe eventually... I want her to live a peaceful life filled with yummy treats, warm coffee and her loyal pokemon buddies right by her side. So, the first thing that came to my mind is baker class. Still, don't underestimate Jaehee. She's an extremely difficult opponent to beat!

Jumin

Pokemon professor. Jumin is definitely someone who's reached the expert level with his skills and knowledge. I can see him being highly interested in research and working towards new improvements in the training field with the help of his company. It's also easy to imagine him being in the position of giving their first ever pokemon to new trainers. Jumin is deeply connected to nature, so I tend to think that he's a certified pokemon master in that regard. He'll be able to form a connection with any pokemon and, with time, he learned to pick the perfect ones at just a few glances.

Saeyoung

Collector. Okay, I was kinda conflicted between a scientist or a collector class for him. But, since the scientist class is usually aligned with evil teams, I decided to go with the collector class. I honestly imagine Saeyoung using super rare pokemon in his team, as well as finding joy in the process of learning everything there is to know about certain types of pokemon and planning the perfect way to catch them. Fighting with him would be quite a doozy due to just how unpredictable he really is in combat, and his pokemon team reflects that ideally.

Jihyun

Doctor. I always associated Jihyun with a healing role in whatever au I put him into. It just fits him y'know? He's someone who avoids conflict and doesn't like fighting, which is pretty fitting for the doctor training class who won't fight you unless you directly interact with them and talk to them. He's also definitely the type to heal your pokemon after the battle is finished, and he does his best to heal all injured pokemon he comes across.

Saeran

Pokemon breeder. Alright, I personally see Saeran as an animal person, even though he doesn't even realize that until someone directly points this out to him. He's able to easily form a connection with any pokemon and his tender touch is known to calm even the spunkiest of individuals. I imagine him both nursing young pokemon from birth and taking care of those who, due to unfortunate circumstances, have lost their former trainer. If you need to learn something specific about your little buddy - Saeran is the right person for the job. Plus hey, picturing him in his comfy overalls as he takes care of his little garden with a few tiny pokemon nestling themselves on his shoulders is just too cute of a sight for me to ignore.

Vanderwood

Pokemon hunter(poacher)/pokemon breeder. Okay. So, initially, they play the role of a pokemon hunter, and a very skillful one at that. Pokemon hunters are known for their powerful teams, and I always imagine Vandy being a particularly difficult opponent to beat. It's not a job that they enjoy doing, but they need to keep themselves stable in one way or another. They join Saeran as a fellow pokemon breeder once they're free to choose whatever role they want for themselves. Like Saeran, Vanderwood has a natural talent at building close connections with their pokemon, and additional farm work is something they enjoy to their hearts content.