#troll spores

[fulltime-bigtoe-remover]

@kirchefuchs we have an idea

[days-drawings]

the art i made to represent the royal knights that serve my character vasilissa. they’re called the Eventide Knights, my other character Lesha is the other member of their order.

their names are (in order):

Payanya (undead owlin monk)

Babella (myconid spore druid)

Dor’En Stoneskin (rock-troll barbarian)

Snoh Dryden (night eladrin rogue/ranger) (night eladrin is basically an astral elf)

Mirror (changeling rogue)

[beforus-for-real-justice]

</ Did something happen while I was gone? Why do we have so many notifications? /3

[faydingrain]

Maia

Beneath the sea of glittering stars, Maia's shining, silvery hair swayed as she turned to gaze at the sky. In the far distance, rising high above the desert they rapidly passed by, was a bright star. It was much larger and outshined all the others—their guide in the night.

At her other side, the black-eyed Fallen stared off, lost in thought.

"Hey, Icarus?"

"Mm?"

"Why do you think the Skyward Goddess created the Xerxes' Compass?"

"...'Cause he got lost?"

"I'm serious!" She nudged him.

He laughed.

“I mean, probably to help guide people, right?”

“Was there any specific reason? Why that star in that direction?”

He cocked a brow. “Why so curious all of a sudden?”

After a moment, her lips pursed, and she sighed. “If I really have a connection with her…I want to understand her.”

“If I may,” Dealvve, the main attendant of the Steam Train, interrupted. “It was placed as a blessing to those that worshipped her in the old days." He paused to think. "Rumour says it was the orc peoples' devotion specifically, and it was gifted to help guide them where stars reign. With this, she also blessed their race with night vision, hence why they're a nocturnal species today."

The two nodded. Maia's expression twisted slightly as she began pondering this goddess more.

"Are you still curious about it?"

"Yes, I am."

He smiled. "Then perhaps the Train shall bring you to where you may find the answers you seek."

He wandered off with hardly a sound, leaving the traveling pair alone. Icarus spoke first, "Well…ready to meet some orcs?"

"I guess I'll have to be."

"Might as well if it's another key to your memories."

"Of course."

They rode in silence, swimming in their own thoughts until the train finally screeched to a halt.

[sillylotrpolls]

(Context/credit below poll)

Today's poll comes from a very serious question asked by Gail Simone on Bluesky. All options taken from replies to her question with only light paraphrasing to fit the format. I'll put links to the original... ::checks notes:: "skeets"? That can't be right... in the eventual results post.

[writingwithcolor]

[Running Commentary] Zombies are Zombies: Cultural Relativism, Folklore, and Foreign Perspectives

She obviously started getting into media in Japan, and (from my research into Japanese media and culture), Japan’s movies about zombies are mostly comedic, since due to traditional funerary practices the idea of zombies bringing down society is ridiculous to a lot of Japanese people. 

Rina: OP, this you? https://www.tofugu.com/japan/japanese-zombies/

Marika: Counterpoint: Parasite Eve. Resident Evil. The Evil Within. 

Rina: Literally all the grody horror game franchises that people forget were developed and written by Japanese people because the characters have names like “Leon Kennedy” and “Sebastian Castellanos” 

~ ~ ~

Based on the reception we received the last time we did one of these, the Japanese moderator team returns with another running commentary. (They’re easier to answer this way) (Several of Marika’s answers may be troll answers)

Our question today pertains to foreign perspectives on folklore—that is, how people view folklore and stories that aren’t a part of their culture. CW: for anything you’d associate with zombies and a zombie apocalypse, really.

Keep reading for necromancy, horror games, debunking the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, Hong Kong jiangshi films, Japanese disaster prep videos, and Vietnamese idol pop...

Essentially, in my story there’s an organization who wants to end the world. They think this one woman in particular, a woman of mixed Vietnamese (irreligious, Kinh) and Japanese descent who spent her formative years in Japan, is the person to do it because she’s (for lack of a better term) a necromancer; powers are semi-normal in this world. She prefers not to use her powers overall, but when she does she mostly talks to ghosts and spirits that are giving people issues. She could technically reanimate a corpse but she wouldn’t because she feels that would be morally wrong, not to mention she couldn’t start a zombie apocalypse in the traditional sense (plague, virus, etc.) in the first place. 

(Marika (M): Your local public health officials would like to assure necromancers that reviving the dead will not provoke a zombie apocalypse. This is because necromancy is a reanimation technique, and not a pathogenic vector. Assuming that the technique does not release spores, airborne viruses, gasses, or other related physical matter that can affect neighboring corpses in a similar way, there should be no issue. However, necromancers should comply with local regulations w/r to permitting and only raise the dead with the approval of the local municipality and surviving family.)

M: I think it makes sense for most people of E. Asian descent, including Japanese and Vietnamese people, to find it culturally reprehensible to reanimate the dead. I imagine the religious background of your character matters as well. What religion(s) are her family members from? How do they each regard death and the treatment of human remains? Depending on where she grew up, I’m curious on how she got opportunities to practice outside specialized settings like morgues.

M: It’s true, space in Japan is at a premium, even for the dead. You note that most of Japan cremates, but, surely, it must have occurred to you that if there aren’t that many bodies in Japan to raise…she doesn’t exactly have much opportunity to practice with her powers, does she? I yield to our Vietnamese followers on funerary customs in Vietnam, but you may want to better flesh out your world-building logic on how necromancy operates in your story (And maybe distinguish between necromancy v. channeling v. summoning v. exorcisms). 

She obviously started getting into media in Japan, and (from my research into Japanese media and culture), Japan’s movies about zombies are mostly comedic, since due to traditional funerary practices the idea of zombies bringing down society is ridiculous to a lot of Japanese people. 

Rina (R): OP, this you? https://www.tofugu.com/japan/japanese-zombies/

M: Counterpoint: Parasite Eve. Resident Evil. The Evil Within. 

R: Literally all the grody horror game franchises that people forget were developed and written by Japanese people because the characters have names like “Leon Kennedy” and “Sebastian Castellanos” 

R: And yes, the Tofugu article uses Resident Evil and those games to support its theory, with the reason that they are set in the West. But that only suggests that Japanese people consider zombies a Western thing, not that Japanese people consider zombies nonthreatening if they were to exist. 

M: Same with vampires - series like Castlevania also use Western/ European settings and not “Vampires in Japan '' because vampires just aren't part of our folklore.

(M: Also, realistically, these series deal with individuals who quickly perish after their bodies are used as hosts for the pathogen in question, rather than the pathogen reanimating a corpse. Although the victims are initially alive, they soon succumb to the pathogen/ parasite and their organic matter then becomes an infectious vector for the disease. It should be noted, infecting ordinary, living humans with viruses to grant them elevated powers, is not only a major violation of consent and defies all recommendations made by the Belmont Report (in addition to a number of articles in the Hague Convention w/r to the use of WMDs) and is unlikely to be approved by any reputable university’s IRB committee. This is why the Umbrella Corporation are naughty, naughty little children, and honestly, someone should have assassinated Wesker for the grant money.)

R: wwww

From what I know Vietnam didn’t have a zombie movie until 2022. 

R: Do you mean a domestically produced zombie movie? Because Vietnamese people have most certainly had access to zombie movies for a long time. The Hong Kong film Mr. Vampire (1985) was a gigantic hit in Southeast Asia; you can find a gazillion copies of this movie online with Viet subs, with people commenting on how nostalgic this movie is or how they loved it as a kid. 

M: “Didn’t have a [domestic] zombie movie” is not necessarily the same thing as “Would not have made one if the opportunity had arisen.” None of us here are personifications of the Vietnamese film industry, I think it’s safe to say we couldn’t know. Correlation is not causation. It’s important to do your research thoroughly, and not use minor facts to craft a narrative based on your own assumptions.

(R: …Also, I did find a 2017 music video for “Game Over” by the Vietnamese idol Thanh Duy which features… a zombie apocalypse.)

(R: The MV has a very campy horror aesthetic and zombie backup dancers (which I love, everyone please watch this lol). But the scenes at the beginning and end where people are biting their fingers watching a threatening news report clearly establish that the zombies are considered a threat.)

So at one point, she laughs about the idea and remarks how ridiculous it is to think zombies could end the world. What I’m struggling with are other ways to show her attitude on the issue because I’d assume most non-Japanese readers wouldn’t get why she thinks like that. Are there any other ways to show why she thinks this way, especially ones that might resonate more with a Japanese reader?

R: The problem is this does not resonate in the first place. Your line of thinking is too Sapir-Whorf-adjacent. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, otherwise known as linguistic relativity theory, claims that language shapes cognition—that you can’t conceive of something if you can’t express it in your language. This is a very weak theory that you can easily bring evidence against: think of the last time you felt an emotion you had a hard time putting into words; just because you didn’t have the language for it doesn’t mean that you didn’t feel it, nor does it mean that you won’t be able to understand or recognize it if you feel it again. Similarly, it’s not a sound assumption to say that if some kind of subject matter does not exist in a culture, then people of that culture couldn't possibly conceive of it. This excerpt from linguist Laura Bailey sums it up quite well. 

M: Just because ghosts may be more culturally relevant doesn’t mean that zombies (or vampires, or whatever) are nonexistent in a Japanese or Vietnamese person’s imagination when it comes to horror and disaster.

R: Really,  if anything, Japanese people are much more attuned to how easily a society’s infrastructure can be destroyed by a disruptive force without adequate preparation. Japan is natural disaster central. A Japanese person would know better than anyone that if you aren’t prepared for a zombie epidemic—yeah it’s gonna be bad. 

M: Earthquakes, tsunami, typhoon, floods: Japan has robust disaster infrastructure out of necessity. 防災 or bousai, meaning disaster preparedness is a common part of daily life, including drills at workplaces, schools, and community organizations. Local government and community agencies are always looking for ways to make disaster and pandemic preparedness relevant to the public.

M: Might “zombie apocalypse prep as a proxy for disaster prep” be humorous in an ironic, self-deprecating way? Sure, but it’s not like Japanese people are innately different from non-Japanese people. Rather, by being a relatively well-off country practiced at disaster preparation with more experience than most parts of the world with many different types of disasters (and the accompanying infrastructure), it likely would seem more odd to most Japanese people within Japan to not handle a zombie apocalypse rather like might one handle a combination of a WMD/ chemical disaster+pandemic+civil unrest (all of which at least some part of Japan has experienced). Enjoy this very long, slightly dry video on COVID-19 safety procedures and preparedness using the framing device of surviving a zombie apocalypse.

M: Living in Los Angeles, I’ve often experienced similar tactics. We do a fair amount of advance and rehearsed disaster prep here as well. In elementary school, the first and last days of class were always for packing and unpacking home-made disaster packs, and “zombie apocalypse” simulations have been around since I was in middle school for all kinds of drills, including active shooter drills, like the one shown in this LAT article. The line between “prepper” and “well prepared” really comes down to degree of anxiety and zeal. So, it wouldn’t be just Japanese people who might not be able to resonate with your scene. The same could be said for anyone who lives somewhere with a robust disaster prevention culture.

M: A zombie apocalypse is not “real” in the sense of being a tangible threat that the majority of the world lives in fear of waking up to (At least, for the mental health of most people, I hope so). Rather, zombie apocalypse narratives are compelling to people because of the feelings of vague, existential dread they provoke: of isolation, paranoia, dwindling resources, and a definite end to everything familiar. I encourage you to stop thinking of the way Japanese people and non-Japanese people think about vague, existential dread as incomprehensible to each other. What would you think about zombies if they actually had a chance of existing in your world? That’s probably how most Japanese people would feel about them, too.

[blockgamepirate]

idk if anyone has done this yet but I just wanted to share close-ups of each of the custom signs Richas, Pomme and Bad made, with individual alt-text descriptions (the descriptions are a bit subjective but I wanted to make them as vivid as I could because I feel like these designs deserve that)

I might include my own feedback in a reblog, to get extra subjective, but the main gist of it would be that these are super cute and much much easier to read.

Note that these are not the final designs! Richas, Pomme and Bad said they're still working on them and asking for feedback, especially in regards to the accessibility aspect.

The same descriptions under a cut, just in case the alt-text doesn't work for some reason:

1:

Pomme's custom canvas sign on a wall. This will be the most detailed description since it's the first: The sign has a wooden frame that surrounds a red canvas. The canvas has a very subtle patchwork like texture and is slightly darker on the edges than in the middle. The text is a slightly transparent white (effectively beige) and reads Pomme in all caps.

The custom texture pack version is a much darker shade of red, which makes the contrast between the text and the background much bigger and thus the text much more readable. The frame is also decorated with a little French flag in the bottom left corner and tree branches with green leaves and apples on the right. The leaves and apples overlap the canvas portion slightly. The overall vibe is very classy and makes you think of a roadsign advertising a French vineyard. Or I guess more like an orchard in this case.

2:

Sunny's custom sign: The colour is a much softer and lighter orange than before, almost more like a warm yellow. The text is black like in all the lighter coloured signs. The frame is decorated with sparkly blue diamonds, a small diamond shaped one in the lower left corner with sparkles almost as big as itself, and one big one in the lower right corner which is in the princess cut shape. The general vibe is like a pre-teen girl's notebook decorated with glittery stickers.

3:

Chayanne's custom sign: The colour is a very soft and pale lemon yellow. The frame is covered in subtle vines on the top and the bottom. In the lower left corner there's a small orange pumpkin among the vines, and in the lower right corner there's a little yellow rubber duckie, also partially covered in vines, which does blend into the background a little bit where it overlaps the yellow canvas. The vibe is very cottagecore but also very childlike, this could be a sign for some kind of family vacation location with cabins and gardens.

4:

Tallulah's custom sign: The colour is medium pink, somewhere between her original pink signs (now used by Pepito) and her current magenta signs. Clearly lighter than the latter, but darker than the former. The frame is decorated with poppies in the lower right corner, and some kind of blue flower, maybe a blue lily, on the lower left corner. One of the blue flowers also sort of peeks into the frame on the right between the poppies, right in the corner. The flowers are of course framed by their leaves, which reach out towards the middle around them. This definitely has the vibe of a sign for a flower garden, probably one maintained by a little old lady who loves pink.

5:

Richarlyson's custom sign: The colour is a deeper indigo blue than his original signs, like deep blue denim. The text colour is the same light beige as Pomme's signs and as all the darker coloured signs. The frame is decorated with a tiny Brazilian flag in the lower right corner, and red-cap mushrooms in the lower left corner. The mushrooms seem to be releasing little white spores into the air, some of which can be seen in the top right corner as well. I can't quite pin down the vibe. There's something a bit fairy tale like, like a storybook maybe. You half expect a little troll creature to show up. But also… random Brazilian flag I guess lol

6:

Empanada's custom sign: The colour seems to be the same soft beige as before, I can't tell if it has changed at all. The frame is covered in golden syrup in the top left corner, which spreads out all over that side of the sign, dripping down in big goopy clumps. It looks delicious and I don't even care that much for syrup. The lower right corner across from it is decorated with white flowers, maybe white cherry blossoms? The flowers are stemless and leafless, just the flower floating over the frame and the canvas. One big one and one small one. There seem to also be small petals floating in the other two corners of the sign, over the canvas. One petal is even floating on the syrup where it drips down on the left. This would definitely be a sign for a small independent bakery.

7:

Ramón's custom sign: The colour is the same white as always, I don't think it has changed at all. The frame is very simply decorated with copper-coloured gears in the lower left and lower right corners, with one particularly big gear on the right side. It doesn't bring any particular vibes to mind but it is cute. The gears look very shiny and it fits Ramón very well. I guess the thing that it most reminds me of is actually Ramón's elevator shaft with its white walls and coppery create machinery.

8:

Dapper's custom sign: The colour is a darker grey than usual, I would honestly call it black rather than grey. The lower edge of the frame is decorated with what looks like darkened blotches of blood, with white ghostly spirits rising out of them towards the left and right edges of the sign, framing the canvas and partially overlapping it. The ghosts are similar to the souls that rise from soulsand in Minecraft but whiter, with only a hint of blue. The vibe is very Halloweeny of course.

9:

Leonarda's custom sign: The colour is a much deeper purple than before, you could even say a more royal purple. In the lower right corner there's a beautiful sparkly cluster of amethysts which are a lighter pinkish lilac colour and which look absolutely gorgeous, just masterful pixel art crystals. There is an amazing sense of depth and transparency in such a minimal resolution. There are also some pinkish sparkles in the lower left corner to balance out the composition a little bit. I don't know how to describe the vibes but it's beautiful. It's like a much classier version of Sunny's sign (not an insult to Sunny's sign, just a neutral description. It's like the cliché of the nouveau riche versus old money. Sunny's gems make you think of glitter stickers, Leo's look like she just happened to place the sign next to an actual cluster of amethysts with perfect artistic composition. Or maybe like she hired a professional painter to decorate each sign.)

(Okay sorry for the rambling, I just can't get over how pretty these amethysts are. Sunny's diamonds are also very pretty but they do look more like stickers to me)

10:

Pepito's custom sign: I think the colour is a softer and lighter pink than the original, it looks like freshly washed baby clothes. The sign is decorated with a tub of popcorn in the lower right corner, with the classic red-and-white design, which sits partly on the frame but mostly overlaps the canvas. Some popcorn seems to have fallen out and is scattered across the lower edge of the sign. There's also a stripe of alternating red and white on the right (over the edge of the canvas rather than on top of the frame itself) which vaguely makes me think of film reel, probably because of the popcorn. I should note that the white and red on both the tub and the "film" are a bit desaturated and dark, technically the white is more like light grey, which gives an effect of shadow and contrast compared to the very light pink canvas which looks very cool. There's also some subtle white flakes across the sides of the canvas; I'm not sure what they're meant to represent. They're very similar to Empanada's petals. The overall effect of the sign is very retro to me. It makes me think of the sixties.

11:

Gegg's custom sign: The colour is a softer version of the lime green of the original sign, and slightly lighter. The canvas is decorated with a little Gegg pixel art sitting in the lower right corner. Otherwise the sign is undecorated, but there's a subtle effect on the canvas itself that makes it look a bit goopier, like there's a thin film of slime over it. And there's a tiny reflection of light in the upper left corner which adds to the wet look. It's very subtle though, it could very easily be missed if you didn't look at the sign closely. The overall vibe is: Gegg

[maniakminis]

If you have to go in those woods stay well away from those damn mushrooms! They're no good for eating and neither are the creatures that tend them. Malnourished loons, they don't even eat any trespassers they find! They just leave the dead bodies for the spores to grow! Listen well, if you hear the sounds of croaking or see any of those mushrooms start moving, you either shoot at it or start running!

It's gnome time! I finished painting up my gnome themed regiment for Turnip28, the 140 Warty Madcaps!

The Toff is made from a fancy resin base from Scibor Miniatures and a dwarf from Massive Darkness that I sculpted a huge growing mushroom. The Toadies (heh) are frog/toad miniatures from Reaper Minis that I glued some bits on to give them gnome hats.

This Lump (I love that the new Big Dude unit is called a lump) is made from a troll from the game Bloodrage. I added a gnome hat, some growing mushrooms, and a ton of grass tufts and mud texture.

Brutes and Fodder were made from Massive Darkness Dwarves with some mushrooms sculpted on. I have another 12 of the smaller ones I'm going to give mushroom muskets!

Ballistic Weapon Fodder were made from Goblin Archers from Massive Darkness. No fancy conversion work here, just glued on some tufts to fit the aesthetic.

Bastards and Welps were converted from more Massive Darkness models and Flail Snail models to create these Snailtaurs!

I'm very happy with how this project turned out! Despite getting into Turnip28 for over a year this is my first fully usable army! All of my other armies are missing one or two units before they can go on the tabletop. I'm hoping to change that soon however! Hope you guys like them, happy hobbying!

[seventeenlovesthree]

Digimon and Fairy Tales - an ongoing thought experiment

This will just be a draft, because @jamesthedigidestined and I have been discussing the idea that... Digimon's creators may or may not have been inspired by Fairy Tales a LOT while writing their plot and characters.

(As mentioned, this will be an ongoing analysis, because I am pretty sure I haven't even grasped all of it yet.)

Let's begin with the most obvious ones:

Kizuna / Peter Pan

This one is pretty on the nose, because the term "Neverland" is quite literally used within the movie - and the analogy makes perfect sense. Peter Pan is described as a "free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythical island of Neverland as the leader of the Lost Boys, interacting with fairies, pirates, mermaids, and occasionally ordinary children from the world outside Neverland".

Menoa's plan is to lure all Chosen Children to Neverland, righteously convinced to fulfill their dream of never wanting to become adults and spend the rest of eternity with their Digimon partners... To her, this is an ideal world, an island of bliss and without pain - when in reality, it's nothing but escapism, unable to face reality and pain, forgetting about everything else and thus dooming them all to be lost in a world without change forever... Which is a fate almost as cruel as "death" itself.

On a different note, the Digital World itself - or at least File Island - may be compared to Neverland as well, as it allows the Chosen Children (= Lost Boys) to interact with all sorts of outlandish creatures as well.

Also, it may not be a coincidence that Menoa and Disney's depiction of Peter Pan share red hair...

Ken Ichijouji / The Snow Queen

Unfortunately, I couldn't find the screenshot of Ken getting "hit" by the Dark Spore, but... For the purpose of this comparison, this shall still do. In the fairytale "The Snow Queen" it is said that "the devil, in the form of a troll, has made a magic mirror that distorts the appearance of everything that it reflects. The mirror does not reflect the good and beautiful aspects of people and things but magnifies their bad and ugly aspects. The troll's minions take the mirror all over the world to distort everything, then carry it up to heaven to mock God and the angels. As they approach heaven, the mirror trembles and falls, shattering into billions of pieces. Some become windowpanes, some spectacles, and some get stuck in people's hearts and eyes, giving them a cold and bitter disposition."

A boy named Kai gets one of these shards stuck in his eye and turns, as mentioned, cold and bitter - and only his childhood friend, Gerda, after going out on a journey to find and bring him back from The Snow Queen, is capable of thawing the cold that has engulfed him.

"Ken" is already pretty close to "Kai" - and while he is somewhat becoming the Snow Queen himself by turning into the Digimon Kaiser, there are higher forces that influence him into taking on a completely different personality; namely, the Dark Spore (= the mirror shards) in his body that turns him vile and cruel in opposition to his naturally kind attitude. (One might also call Daisuke his personal Gerda in this context.)

Koushirou Izumi / The Little Mermaid

If you know my blog, you know I've been having fun with this comparison before, but let's start with the story. I'll try to summarize just the most important points:

"The Little Mermaid lives in a Utopian underwater kingdom with her widowed father, the Sea King, her paternal grandmother, and her five older sisters (...). The Little Mermaid is fascinated by the world above the sea, and human beings (...). Lonely and feeling isolated from her family, she yearns to explore the world above, and constantly asks her grandmother to tell her stories of humans. (...) The Little Mermaid, longing for the prince and an eternal soul, visits the Sea Witch who lives in a dangerous part of the ocean, surrounded by a forest of polyps, mud, and whirlpools. Although the witch warns the Little Mermaid that her attempts to win the love of the prince are doomed, she willingly helps her by selling her a potion that gives her legs in exchange for her voice (her tongue)."

Thus, we have a young, curious soul that not only feels isolated from their family, but also longs to learn more about another world... This already does sound familiar, doesn't it? In episode 24 of Adventure, Koushirou is caught by Vademon and told that his "desire" will lead him straight to hell - similarly to how the Sea With tells The Little Mermaid that her own desire is doomed. Granted, Koushirou's desire mainly refers to his endless curiosity, his "inquisite heart"... However, he IS also searching for a person (and depending on your interpretation of his urgency, him looking for Gennai indirectly also means that he's looking for Taichi, who had gone lost). In the Digimon Adventure novels, Koushirou isn't just throwing away his inquisite heart for the sake of achieving blissful ignorance and not getting drawn into hell - he loses the alphabet and thus, the ability to talk. The similarities are pretty striking there...

Additionally (similarly to Menoa), most people might be familiar with Disney's redheaded version of The Little Mermaid anyway, so I feel like the comparison fits even better.

The Seven Chosen Children (Plus One) / The Seven Ravens

While trying to research whether or not "Jack and the Beanstalk" has comparable elements to The Beginning, I stumbled over this one by chance - and was absolutely flabbergasted at the fact that it actually kinda works:

"A peasant has seven sons and no daughter. Finally a daughter is born, but is sickly. The father sends his sons to fetch water for her to be baptized. In their haste, they drop the jug in the well. When they do not return, their father thinks that they have gone off to play and curses them and so they turn into ravens.

When the sister is grown, she sets out in search of her brothers. She attempts to get help first from the sun, which is too hot, then the moon, which craves human flesh, and then the morning star. The star helps her by giving her a chicken bone and tells her she will need it to save her brothers. She finds them on the Glass Mountain but has lost the bone, and chops off a finger to use as a key. She goes into the mountain, where a dwarf tells her that her brothers will return. She takes some of their food and drink and leaves, in the last cup, a ring from home.

When her brothers return, she hides. They turn back into human form and ask who has been at their food. The youngest brother finds the ring, and hopes it is their sister, in which case they are saved. She emerges, and they return home."

Granted, we are talking about Seven Sons and not Seven Children in general - but the fact that the eighth sibling is a daughter and sickly already stuck out to me. Then of course there is the fact that the seven brothers disappear - and get turned into ravens, the equivalent of getting sent into another world, a MOUNTAIN (Infinity Mountain? Spiral Mountain???) of all places... And instead of them looking for the eighth child, the sister - our resident Hikari - is the one looking for them, with a ring being a key to finding them. (Also, the youngest brother HOPING to be found by the sister? Takeru? Is that you???)

The Beginning / Jack and the Beanstalk

I initally came up with this idea even before the movie came out - simply by looking at the poster and the giant golden tentacles that kinda reminded me of a beanstalk... Especially because eggs seemed to play a role again. The story itself doesn't share that many similarities, however, one could loosely relate them to one another:

Both Jack and Rui come from a - assumably - poor family and gain the chagrin of their respective mothers. Some magic beans that Jack received turned into a giant beanstalk - similar to how Rui's wish towards Ukkomon caused it to turn into a giant version of itself, containing thousands if not millions of digieggs.

Jack climbing up the beanstalk and turning towards an unfriendly giant's wife to wish for food is also reminiscent of the wish fulfillment aspect - his continuous wishing does get him in trouble with the unfriendly giant though, ending in a fight... But eventually, he gets a golden egg (!!!), gets out of trouble thanks to his wits, defeats the giant and will live happily ever after.

... Like I said, it's very loose, but I couldn't help but think about this.

Mimi Tachikawa / The Princess and the Pea

This one is also very loose in comparison to the previous ones - but the theme still fits: "The story tells of a prince who wants to marry a princess but is having difficulty finding a suitable wife. He meets many princesses, but is never sure that they are real princesses—until one stormy night, when a mysterious young woman drenched with rain seeks shelter in the prince's castle. She claims to be a princess, but the prince's mother, the queen, has doubts. She decides to test their unexpected guest by placing a hard uncooked pea in the bed she is offered for the night, covered by twenty mattresses and twenty featherbeds. In the morning, the mysterious woman tells her hosts that she endured a rather restless night, kept awake by something in the bed that made her feel uncomfortable. The prince's family realizes that she is a princess after all, since only a true princess could be so delicate."

Episode 25 of Adventure tells the story of Mimi getting welcomed into ShogunGekomon's castle, getting treated "like a princess" by the Gekomon and Otamamon, as they hope that her singing will wake their lord from his slumber. However, all the luxury is getting to Mimi's head, so she actually acts like a spoilt princess to the point of even throwing her friends into jail - until Sora reminds her of what's right and that she's actually a good, pure and delicate girl. Realizing her wrongdoings, Mimi's Crest of Sincerity (!) finally starts to glow. However, instead of marrying a prince, Mimi has to fight against ShogunGekkomon alongside Taichi and Jyou in the end...

[beatboxing-puppy]

saw some posts on this website discussing what sort of videogames the dunmeshi characters would play and i think everyone is wrong. everyone is wrong except for me so im going to spell out exactly who plays what. putting it under a read more because im going on a damn tangent.

Laios: He's not a gamer he does not play games on purpose he will only ever play video games when his friends ask him to join them in their multiplayer things. One day tho Falin told him about Monster Hunter and now thats the only thing he plays aside from Spore and he has sunk countless hours into that damn game. Also he probably has played Some pokemon but he doesnt like PLAYING it he just likes it in concept he knows the name of all the pokemon

marcille: people keep saying she would be a cosy gamer playing animal crossing and stardew and other cute games ^-^ its so lalalaaaa NO!!!!!!! no she does not. Marcille plays games that stress her out on purpose marcille plays overwhelming micromanagey games like lobotomy corporation and rimworld and etc. She also likes games with deep lore and mysteries to discover. The only thing that doesn't fit in this category that she plays is Minecraft shes always in there CREATIVE MODE building virtual dungeons and other crazy shit. Also she plays on her work laptop with trackpad ok

Chilchuck: This one is for me. This one im just basing off my own dad ok. Chilchuck used to be a hardcore gamer in his youth but specifically he was playing stuff like world of warcraft and old school runescape he had really big setups so he could run several instances of the game at once on all his alt accounts so he could beat a boss by himself and he was really good at it. But then he had kids and didnt have time for this sort of thing so he stopped playing videogames aside from occasionally helping his daughters beat a super hard mario level. Later in life he probably discovered some shitty little low-commitment phone game like pokemon go or pikmin bloom or some daily sudoku puzzle thing and he plays it every day but its not that big a deal. He has been pressured by his friends and daughters to make a roblox account but he hasnt played it at all.

Senshi: THIS guy is the one that plays animal crossing. He logs in when he can but hes not on that every day grind. Also he doesnt play the newest one he doesnt play horizons he plays one of the DS ones. Wild world probably. He either doesn't like or doesn't know about the nintendo switch. Whenever one of his villagers say that they want to leave he'll nod solemnly and say smth like "Well... I suppose it'd be selfish to ask ye to stay, friend... Just promise me you'll stay safe and never forget me... Go and explore the world. Wish ye the best." Plus his island would be covered in weeds. He also has some mobile games he enjoys angry birds and candy crush and crosswords (gotta keep the brain in shape!) but other than that he doesn't videogame much because he prefers board games and tabletop stuff he isnt too jazzed about all this modern technology plus a console or a laptop and all that gaming equipment is a lot to lug around and hes a nomad he would NOT have that shit

Falin: Now FALIN is the cosy gamer. kind of. Falin plays animal crossing new horizons sometimes and has fun making a bad island on purpose. Very mildly "bad" tho the worst she'll do is use the drawing feature to hide a giant penis on the beach or whatever. Or she'll give her villagers silly outfits. She also plays minecraft (either skyblock or she makes a new world and explores and builds a couple houses and then forgets about it and makes another new world) and roblox (likes 'trolling' strangers by dressing up funny and acting kind of strange in roleplay servers but she's never actually mean or anything.) But the big thing she likes is story-driven indie rpgmaker games. She's the person who will say shit like "Yeah I played Blums Booglies the quest for Big Dinners and it was so good I cried for 9 hours" completely unironically.

kabru: social gamer like laios but the games he plays on purpose are the sims (he likes to cause them problems) and online multiplayer games (he likes to peoplewatch). I can also see him doing absurd and tortrous challenge runs of games like No items no pokecenter one type hardcore nuzlockes. im correct

izutsumi: ACTUALLY trolls people on roblox. And she plays needlessly gory flash games. Maybe she calls people dumbfucks over valorant voice chat sometimes

[dingodad]

Can we hear about some buwai'i culture, maybe some before and after contact with the trolls?

it's hard to speak of a unified "Buwai'i culture" because they are so widely spread geographically and varied in their social groups. but there are a few broadly unifying features stemming from their shared biology.

Buwai'i are born in clutches contained together in one thick, leathery sac called a birthskin. while the exact practise surrounding the release of young Buwai'i from their birthskin differs from group to group, the emergence from the prenatal microcosm into the world at large bears great cultural significance in a Buwai'a's life, and the preserved birthskin is a significant artifact to the Buwai'a.

as such, leathers or skins are sacred material to the Buwai'i. within the broader Buwai'i society, groups of Buwai'i collect together in complex kinships called "Hides" or "hide groups" - but the name Hide can also be used to refer to the symbolic hide structures that are central to each group. by gathering together in one skin, the Hide become symbolic clutchmates. adding to, subtracting from or altering the communal Hide can be used to symbolise birth, death, marriage, ostracism, or any number of cultural events important to the hide group, and the practise of sewing two or more adult Buwai'i back into their birthskins can similarly be used to emblematise kinship or rebirth.

because Buwai'i optic nerves run through electrosensitive sledges either side of their head on the way to the brain, a Buwai'a can also essentially 'see' disturbances in nearby energy fields, which similarly plays a role in their spirituality. differing electromagnetic regions on the sea floor have been used as one basis for socio-political borders since time immemorial, and common Buwai'i lore asserts that the Hide is just one small part of a great skin - or "Brane" - which separates one world from the next, and that the spirit of the young Buwai'a struggles through various such layers on its journey from the primordial spirit world into the realm of the living.

it is difficult also to generalise the colonial Buwai'i. for many hide groups, like those dwelling primarily in the deep sea, culture hasn't changed, or is at least only just beginning to change. the coastal peoples, however - particularly those custodians of the areas around the primary settlements of Bitizgaki and Pumptunnel - have endured sweeping disruptions and even the total annihilation of their traditional hunting and fishing calendars, and thus been forced to adapt to the industries that now dominate Gracilia. the Alternian Schools established by the Sisters of the Outer Caverns early on in the colony's history provide opportunities for Buwai'i to become involved as labourers in the extraction and shipment of the planet's signature palm spore oil, but other roles more suited to traditional Buwai'i knowledge - such as the native police who use their ancestral wisdom to enforce Alternian law deep in the Gracilian rainforest, or the trawlermen who fuel the growing colony's ever-expanding hunger for cheap seafood - only push urban Buwai'i deeper into conflict with their kin.

[voparwave69]

Your name is KAHANET AMNAK. You are the SELF INSERT TROLLSONA made up by the girl who created you to vaguely reflect their PERSONALITY, INTERESTS, EXPERIENCES, and APPEARANCE. You have the same horns as certain CANONICAL CHARACTERS because your creator likes the uniform appearance of the original HOMESTUCK cast's CASTES. But you don't really think about that. Instead, you see that you are a PURPLE BLOODED TROLL who likes to PARTY. You decorated your hive to remind you of GAMES, as you love playing with whoever will tolerate you. You have a soft spot for sugary beverages such as BIG K GRAPE SODA and COTTON CANDY FAYGO, along with FIREWORKS and a particular CARD GAME you discovered recently, where you make decks intended to ENRAGE your FRIENDS. Your PRANKS and desire to DESTROY THINGS are about as beloved as your ANNOYING CARD DECKS. You are very SOCIAL and try to MAKE NEW FRIENDS every day. Your success rate with this is dubious. Your hive is littered with SOPORIFICS that you think make you even better at PARTYING, DANCING and telling JOKES. Your MATESPRIT insists you should take yourself more seriously, but you can't seem to take much of anything seriously, other than HIM and the RELIGION you both ascribe to. Because you don't take yourself seriously, you took your SIGN off your clothes and painted another one of your stupid JOKES onto it instead. Because you take your RELIGION seriously, your skirt is decorated to remind you of the BELOVED CARNIVAL that is CELEBRATED by YOUR KIND in the SWAMPY part of the planet you live in, and especially by you. You cannot wait for the DARK CARNIVAL where you will eternally PRAY and ENTERTAIN the masses. You paint your face to remind you of the masks worn by certain attendants of the GREAT PARTY of the AFTERLIFE and also as an inside reference to your DUAL NATURE, as if anyone will ask. Your LUSUS is abnormally aggressive and so you are THANKFUL he is often gone, but his AGGRESSION threatens to affect your FUN LOVING personality. How boring, you think. You enjoy making MOLDY ART to post online for other trolls to LAUGH at and your hive is a bit infested with BLACK MOLD, but you allow it because the spores affect your think pan in a pleasing way.

> Give the black mold a taste

[horrorartist23]

Oh god I got another Au brewing inside of my head. I hate my brain honestly. I havent even continued on the Dentist au

Ok get ready for the most cliche thing. Ever. Trolls 3 Au that plays in Mount Rageous but there is a massive Fungi infection and lots of spores and shit.

Worse off all I got a really cool design for Fungi infected Veneer that I want to draw

[vilevenom]

All right, I need to just...get this out into the world and out of my head, lol

I have been trying to figure out troll reproduction, and exactly how I headcanon it for a little bit now, since I've been actively writing about John having an egg.

It gets ever so mildly explicit, so I've put my thoughts under a read more. Sorry if anything seems jumbled, it was a bit stream of thought.

First off, I do believe that someone on one of the movie crews mentioned trolls reproducing via spores. I like that idea, since eggs develop in their hair, and it's a weird and wild world, so that's what I'm sticking with.

Trolls are incapable of having eggs too young. Their bodies need to reach a certain age (sometime in their twenties) in order to have the appropriate levels of hormones and the ability to produce the required spores in the right amounts to make eggs. As well, a troll needs to achieve certain levels of serotonin and dopamine while releasing spores in order to create a viable egg.

This means, a troll need to be truly and unequivocally happy in order to produce an egg. Babies only get born into loving families ❤️

Some trolls can achieve these levels all on their own, and reproduce asexually. They do not need a partner to create an egg.

Gender is boiled down to a couple of minor physical appearance differences (long eyelashes being a main one), voice octave and clothing choice.

Trolls do have genitalia, but I like to think that all trolls have the same junk. I also prefer to think that what they do have is more reptilian in nature, with whatever they have being retractable and not visible unless they're actively using them (sorta like homestuck trolls, if you're familiar with that. If not, think of it like a hidden slit with a vagina & retractable penis type situation)

Which all brings me to - yes, trolls can have sex. However, most trolls view it more as a particularly enjoyable experience to share with a partner, more than anything really to do with egg production. It certainly aids in reproduction, as it helps boost the dopamine and serotonin, but it's not required.

[windsroad]

ummm so I've never done a like writing challenge with prompts before and i'm sure you're supposed to do the one for the day it currently is but I'm writing anything from any of the previous days as I feel like because it didn't occur to me to try until yesterday!

this is something that happened to Sacha earlier in the campaign!

01 - panic attack

Obli flew through the air, jumping to the significantly taller troll’s height. With a strike almost too quick to see, the troll’s head slid backwards, away from the body, hitting the ground with a thud and slowly rolling to rest at Sacha’s feet. 

It blinked a few times, and the tongue lolled about in its mouth like it was trying to say something. Through the myconid’s telepathic spores, Sacha heard a few fleeting thoughts. 

Sacha’s vision tunneled. 

“They say after decapitation, you’re still aware of your surroundings for 30 seconds before you really die,” said someone in Sacha’s memory. 

It was her own voice. The memory, from maybe two years ago, was of Sacha explaining with some fascination the new modern theory that the brain was still active for a period of time post execution. 

“Gods, Sacha, I hope not,” said Cecil. “That would be—awful. Do you want to just be a head?”

“Only for 30 seconds,” said Sacha simply. “Maybe next time I’ll ask whoever it is to talk—oh wait, no lungs, right—blink for as long as they can afterward…”

Sacha returned to herself. The troll head rocked back and forth quietly at her feet.

The conversation continued to play in her head on repeat. She stared, and a parade of five years of executions danced before her eyes, one in particular lingering clear and crisp.

Oh, my god, Sacha thought. It was true.

“Sacha!” she heard, muffled in the background. It was like her ears were stuffed with cotton. She breathed heavy and quick; she could see nothing but the head and the dead boy pleading with her in her mind’s eye.

“Sacha! Sacha!” More shouting. Sacha’s breathing quickened further and her vision started to blacken, then—

A hand on her shoulder.

“Gah—!” Sacha jumped, instinctively moving her shoulder away from the touch.

“Sacha, are you okay?”

Not Cecil. A woman. Sacha blinked hard and turned to look. Borte. She was looking at Sacha, confused and concerned. “What happened?” she asked. 

Sacha briefly turned back in the direction of the troll’s head, but did not look at it. “Um,” she began, not making eye contact. “The troll—I—I used to be an executioner, and—”

“Does that happen… every time?”

“I don’t… I don’t know. I’ve never—maybe?”

“Okay, well… Take it easy.”

“Hm,” nodded Sacha. She turned away, trying to seem cool, but a voice in her head repeated: 30 seconds. 30 seconds.

[silvermoon424]

I don't know how much Sailor Moon fandom history you remember, but I'm having a "did that happen?" moment about it. Have you heard of or perhaps recall if in the mid 2000's there was a very vocal anti-Chibiusa hatedom in the English speaking Sailor Moon fandom? I FEEL like it was a thing that happened but I wasn't active enough in the Sailor Moon fandom back then to recall for certain. My apologies if that wasn't something you kept tabs on, I know you'd have been probably in elementary school at the time I think.

I'm in kind of a weird position because I joined the fandom in the late 2000s and so missed out on a lot of early fandom history. However, I also religiously trawled fanmade sites that were often from an older era so I got a good feeling for it.

That being said, you are 1000% correct in remembering that Chibiusa- or "Rini," as she was often called due to the dub- had a very vocal contingent of haters in the SM fandom. I remember stumbling across hate pages or even entire hate sites dedicated to bashing her.

They also used a lot of demeaning language to talk about her; now it highkey gives me r/childfree vibes. They didn't call her a "crotch goblin" or anything but they did call her a troll and I think even "Pink Spore" was coined to insult her back in the day. In fact, if you search for Sailor Moon and Pink Spore you'll find some old hate pages and drama.

Looking back on it, it's all pretty weird. Like yeah, Chibiusa can be annoying in the series, but she's also a literal child who went through a hell of a lot of trauma. I'm glad today's Sailor Moon fandom seems to be a lot more accepting of her.