#urchins are just so rad

[violethursday]

A thought

Since we're going to get Inkopolis Square in the second wave of the DLC, that means we might get another urchin to fill in Murch's spot since he's now in Splatsville. Because of this possibility, I got a few ideas of various species this urchin could be.

Colobocentrotus atratus, known as the Helmet Urchin

Tripneustes gratilla, known as the Collector Urchin

Heterocentrotus mamillatus, known as the Red Pencil Urchin

Pseudocentrotus depressus, known as the Pink Sea Urchin

[honourablejester]

I’m realising as I browse around that I really love lore when it comes to ttrpgs, games and game worlds. And by that I don’t mean I like to obsessively learn lists of dates and wars, and the names of leaders of factions, I mean …

I like learning weird, juicy details about the worlds of games. I like finding little nuggets that say things about the set-up and culture and assumptions of the world. I like finding fragments of ideas to hang whole story and character concepts off.

I love that in D&D 5e’s Spelljammer, the Astral Sea is full of the corpses of dead gods that you can fully sail up to in your ship. Just. Floating out there. Waiting for you to rock up to them.

I love that in Sunless Sea, the king of the drowned is the way he is because he fell in love with an eldritch sea urchin from space, and successfully married it. His niece is an angry sentient floating mountain whose mother is a goddess-mountain and whose father is a face-stealing humanoid abomination. This is fine and normal.

I love that in Starfinder, there are mysterious bubble cities in the surface of the sun that the church of the sun goddess discovered and cheerfully occupied despite having no idea who the hell built them or for what purpose.

I love that in Dishonored, the entire industrial revolution that has built the empire we’re in the midst of saving or destroying was built on the properties of whale oil harvested from eldritch tentacled whales that live half in the oceans and half in an eldritch void personified in the form of a weird-ass black-eyed shit-stirrer of a deity who was formed from a murdered and sacrificed child. And this is largely a background detail.

I love in the Elder Scrolls that the dwarves up and fucking vanished, as a race, at some point in history and absolutely nobody has any clue what happened to them or where they went, but their technology is so insane that ideas like ‘they time-travelled’ or ‘they erased themselves from existence’ are absolutely on the table.

I love that in Numenera, so many incredibly advanced civilisations have risen and fallen on this world that it’s absolutely littered with bonkers science fiction artefacts that have caused the current medieval-esque society built over top of them to develop in bizarre ways, and also you can find a mysterious artefact that absolutely baffles and delights your character, but that you the player will fully recognise as a slightly-more-advanced thermos flask.

I love that in Fallout, an irradiated post-nuclear apolocalypic hellscape, there’s a cult that worships the god of radiation as they have come to understand it, and they are mysteriously immune to radiation with absolutely no explanation whatsoever. They’re not ghouls, the usual result of fatally irradiated humans with some resistance, they’re perfectly normal humans who can somehow just tank rads all damn day. It could be a mutation, but Lovecraftian gods apparently do also fully exist in this setting, so it’s also possible that maybe they were on to something with this Atom thing.

I love that in Heart The City Beneath, there’s a mass transit train system that they tried to hook up to the eldritch beating god-thing buried under the city so that they could metaphysically chain the stations together more easily, which went horrifically and metaphysically wrong in entirely predictable fashion, and now there’s a whole order of train-knights who have to keep people safe from the extradimensional weirdness magnet the network has become.

That, and all the fantastic little details you can stumble across. There’s a biotech augmentation in Starfinder called an angler’s light that gives you a little angler-fish bioluminescent antenna on your forehead, and it was developed by asteroid miners who needed light but also both hands free for work. In Dishonored there’s a festival that everyone pretends is outside of time so nothing you do during it can be held against you. There’s a god of snuffed candles mentioned in a single line from Heart The City Beneath who has pacifist cannibal priests, and that is literally all the information you get on him.

While things like the history and geography and timeline of a world do also fascinate me, I’m not really here to memorise stuff like that. I’m here to find weird little nuggets of information and worldbuilding and delight in them. Give me funerary customs and weird myths and oddly specific circumstances and baffling little objects and absolutely bonkers cosmological implications. Give me the corpses of dead gods, and aesthetic movements with highly specific backstories, and bureaucratic fuck-ups of titanic scale, and mysterious things that seem to break all other rules of your setting with absolutely no explanation because people in-universe have no fucking clue how they work either. Why are the Children of Atom immune to radiation without ghoulifying? Not a clue, but Confessor Cromwell has been cheerfully standing in that irradiated pond that kills the player character with about 10 minutes of exposure for the last year and he’s still absolutely fine.

I just. I really love lore. I like my settings to have some meat in them, some juicy details to dig into, some inexplicable elements to have fun trying to explain. Particularly that last bit. I feel like a lot of people when building worlds feel like the rules have to be absolute and everything has to have an explanation, but nah. Putting some weird shit in makes everything immediately feel bigger, more real, because we don’t have even half an idea of how our world truly works, there’s always something we just don’t fully understand yet, and you can put that in a fictional world too. Some mysteries, some contradictions, some randomness, some weirdness. There’s a line, obviously, this depends on execution, but a little bit of mystery really does help.

Lore is awesome. And weird lore is even more so. Heh.

[dead-lights]

grand occult baking championship || episode 1.7

Just a little interlude before judgment!

In case you haven't seen it, I've been posting little interviews with the cast. Please feel free to send me questions, anonymously or not! I'll put them up in batches between posts.

first // prev // next

Most characters have canon origin stories! It's just Elle, L, Brandy, and Morgyn who don't. Caleb isn't wrong about how long it would take to get through it all, but I can make some space at the bottom of the post :)

canon

Most of this comes from dialogue from Werewolves, which I put up here.

Celene & Lou: attacked by Greg while on a date after Lou provoked him - she took the cure, he thought he could ride it out.

Lily: fled into the tunnels when Vlad tried to turn her, where she was bitten by a rabid werewolf. Spent years wandering around feral before Kristopher found her.

Caleb: turned by Miss Hell in a bar bathroom with the door on backwards. It's unclear whether he asked to turn or not, but I'd say most likely not.

Jacob: got lost in the woods as a small child after being traumatically separated from his family. He was hunted by a werewolf and a vampire, and then rescued by Kristopher.

Wolfgang: visited Moonwood Mill to escape the rat race in San Myshuno, decided he liked the werewolf lifestyle, and asked Kristopher to turn him.

Inna: turned by Caleb in the official trailer. Based on promotional material and the paintings from vampires, she seems to have been a thrall for centuries before that, possibly as early as the 1600s.

Darrel: born a spellcaster. Because he has the strong bloodline trait, he must be at minimum a 3rd generation caster.

Emilia: recently ascended according to her household description, presumably by Morgyn, since they're the only sage she knows by default and they're both friends with Grace and Tomax.

deadcanon

Elle: born a vampire during the first half of the Century Conflict. Her parents were former spellcasters who were turned during Operation Eternal Flame.

Brandy: attacked and almost killed by a member of her girlfriend Samantha's coven of origin. Samantha turned her to save her life.

L: an orphaned street urchin. Was accidentally transported to the Magic Realm after pickpocketing a spellcaster and taking his Glimmerstone. She met Keisha and immediately started badgering her for power and secrets.

Morgyn: a teen runaway. They found instructions to get into the Magic Realm in a library book, thought the whole thing sounded extremely rad, made their way to Glimmerbrook, and immediately started badgering Tess for power and secrets.

I wanted a Century Conflict veteran, which is why I made Elle so old. Brandy possibly has a mundane brother, so I didn't want her to have been born vampire. I love foundlings in stories (yes, I'm a big Mandalorian fan, fuck off) so yeah Morgyn and L are foundlings.

[eruhamster]

like breaking down xie lian to his simplest form of what kind of god he comes across in the novels, considering that it's canonical that gods can change on a whim based on how the people who pray to them interpret them, he really is like. a rad idea

he's called the scrap god and insulted but if you just purely look at his actions and how he lives he can so easily be interpreted as a god of truth and peace, and a god of the downtrodden - the god to protect people in poverty, people with 'lowly' jobs like busking and garbage cleaning, people dealing with misfortune, minorities(particularly sexual) or colonized people, people who are chronically ill(qianqiu as a child), people who think they're unlovable due to their appearance, personality, or past crimes

it feels very reminiscent of the themes you see consistently in pantheons. multiple themes covering a single god, and the theme of that sort of god being married to someone who represents evils

EDIT: thinking further on it, I wonder if praying to give one's bad luck and bad experiences and pain to Xie Lian would work. He is so unlucky that those who pray(probably for prosperity and good fortune) only get bad luck too. maybe the reason for this is revealed later and I'm not aware yet or maybe it's simply that there's a trick to praying for xie lian. that it works the same way his swordfighting works - he takes the injury in lieu of its intended target.

additionally, hua cheng has his own version of what i was talking about. people pray to him as a god, too - a god of crime and of evil, but he's also a god of mischief and of youth, particularly naughty children and street urchins who have to steal to eat. in the revisions, we learn that he fulfills the wishes of those children that pray to him.

[gubbles-owo]

Railgun Reached 100 Downloads!!

Well dang, my funney little game reached 100 downloads, wild! In celebration I thought it'd be a rad opportunity to pull back the curtains and show my approach to creating the bedroom scene, with a few lil hidden things thrown in. So let's go ahead and… listen to me ramble about dev things for a few minutes, I guess, it'll be cool I promise.

Vertex Colors!

When it comes to making N64-esque environments, vertex colors are the hidden secret to make them look lush, colorful, and just plain gorgeous- as well as period-accurate!

Generally there are two ways to light a scene in 3D: you either use dynamic lights, or static lights.

Dynamic just means the scene is lit in realtime. You can manipulate the lighting at runtime to change color or brightness or angle, and use it to create cool effects, like a day/night cycle that slowly changes over time. The main issue is that dynamic lights take up processing power, and that was fairly limited on older hardware.

Static lighting, on the other hand, captures the lighting at a single point in time and bakes it right in. However this has its own downsides. You can't re-light anything, so you have to commit to it. Plus, static lighting in modern day rendering uses separate lightmap textures, which eats up a lot of memory. It's not really something you'd see on the older consoles we're trying to emulate here.

Sooo what are we left with? How do we light our scene without slowly having to calculate dynamic lights for every pixel on screen, and without cranking out a whole second set of textures for the scene?

Well, why not bake the lighting right into the model itself?

3D models are made up of a collection of points, called vertices. Two can be bridged together to form an edge, and a third can connect to both of those to form a triangle-- your basic polygon! While you can take a flat image and stretch it over polygons to give them texture, there's an oft overlooked bit of data you can store in each vertex: color!

The three different point colors of a triangle will interpolate into one another, offering a smooth, if fairly limited, color gradient. Typically this will be multiplied over the base texture, giving you the detail of a texture and the depth of lighting!

It's easiest to demonstrate with a visual example, so here's a shot of the bedroom in Blender:

Let's break this down a bit: what can we see? Well there's a bright window to the left, which seems to be casting light onto the ceiling, fan, closet door, and desk. There's also a bookshelf on the left wall and a mattress below the camera. Given the orange glow of the sun from outside, it's safe to assume this is either early morning or late evening, just before the sun sets. And while the room isn't unkempt per se-- if anything it seems fairly tidy and organized-- the mattress is notably resting on the floor, without sheets or a blanket. There are several monitors on the desk, all blaring light onto the ceiling, and presumably into the face of whoever sits there. Other than that, the room is rather bare. Already we can start to infer a few things about Urchin's character: where their interests or comforts lie, how they take care of themselves and their space, and so on.

Environmental storytelling! Well, a light version of it anyway. But what does this all this have to do with vertex colors?

Let's disable them and see the textures underneath! Get a good look at the texture-work, and…

…oh no.

The detail is there, since we can still tell the brick from the wallpaper, the bookshelf from the mattress. But the mood is seemingly nowhere to be found! The idea of the sun or any sort of local light source has been obliterated, and what we're left with is a fully-lit room that appears flat and lifeless. Dramatic, I know, but this is what we're left with when we're rolling with just textures alone. It's hard to look at, difficult to discern where things are.

What happens if we reverse it, look at the vertex colors without texture?

So the surface detail is gone, we're not entirely sure what these shapes are. But we can infer a fair amount solely by the size, shape, and placement of them, as we have a solid sense of where everything lies in 3D space. While the detail is gone, we still have the depth.

Thematically, it seems Urchin's room is usually kept fairly dim. The evening sunlight pouring in, while contending with the stark light in the corner and perhaps unwelcome, does cast a rather warm glow into an otherwise cold space. You get the feeling that once the sun sets, the harsh sting of the monitors will be the sole light source illuminating the room.

The mood is still here, despite taking away most of the details!

The mindset behind my own approach to N64-esque environments is this:

Textures carry the detail. Vertex colors carry the vibe.

Of course, there are a number of approaches and methods for using vertex colors, and this is just one of 'em. Ultimately, the two work together to create a rich, detailed environment!

Here's a couple more examples from different angles:

You may've noticed that the sides of the computer case don't actually have textures on them, only the front panel. If they're going to be mostly flat textures anyway, why waste precious (artificially) limited memory? That's one of the fun things about thinking with vertex colors: sometimes textures aren't even necessary! The same goes for the ceiling light as seen below.

While it's possible to generate vertex colors from realtime lights in Blender, personally I hand-paint all of them in myself. Is it slow, time-consuming, and tedious? Why yes it is!! But it's work I very much enjoy, and I love seeing an environment slowly come together, one vertex at a time.

I could babble on all day about how much I love this sort of thing and all the little technicalities involved, but ya get the point. If you want to discover more examples of this, try checking out noclip.website! It lets you view a bunch of environments from a variety of older games, and in some of them you can do fancy things like disable vertex color or textures individually, or reveal developer objects normally hid in game. For some cool low poly lighting shenanigans I personally recommend checking out Diddy Kong Racing, Banjo-Kazooie! And while it's not on noclip, Vagrant Story on PS1 is just… an astounding mastery of old-school rendering infused with bold style, it's WILD.

Fog!

Another relatively simple trick used on older hardware-- oftentimes out of necessity-- was fog. Originally used as a more graceful transition to mask short draw distances, it can also be used to set mood and tone with great effect!

Moving over to the game engine (Godot in this case), this is what the scene looks like imported from Blender after a lot of headache and hassle:

It's alright, but we can do better. We want to go for a hazy summer evening, so let's try a bit of orange fog applied to the whole scene:

It's subtle, but it does a lot! It's most noticeable in the darker corners of the room, lifting several colors and textures into a unified tone the further they are from the camera. Especially when combined with the shaft of light from the window and dust particles swirling along with the fan, it gives the viewer a nice sense of "boy I sure don't want to open up that window, it must be hot and agonizingly humid outside"

Extras!

Let's end it off with a couple random bits to mention! First off is this uh… well admittedly I feel it's one of the most rushed textures in the game:

See, the idea was for Urchin's closet to be missing its door, so they hung up a curtain over it as a soft-doorway. As I am still fairly new to texture painting I have no idea how to render cloth or fabric, and I think it shows here pretty clearly!!

…and yet, I've had several players point this out to me as an example of really good texture-work??

In all honestly I don't understand it myself, but I think it does highlight an important aspect of the N64 aesthetic: when your output resolution is already so low, sometimes you can get away with things you otherwise couldn't. Sure, it looks a bit shit, but mangled through 240p and an NTSC filter you can barely tell! A crummy cloth texture isn't going to ruin your game xD

And lastly, honestly, one of my proudest things on this project… and it is never seen in the final game. I present, the lightswitch:

So yeah, I think 32 x 32px is a bit much for a small lightswitch texture, this could stand to be 16px and probably work fine. But! While most of the textures were painted or filtered noise of some sort, this one damn texture I filled in pixel by pixel. And I adore how it turned out. You've got the interesting colors from all the surrounding ambient light mixed in, the switch for the light is flicked down while the ceiling fan is set on, and the lil shadows formed by the switches. It's good stuff… and because the the script was only finished with 24 hours to the jam deadline, I had to throw together the camera angles rather hastily. Ah well, maybe next time!

Wrap Up

I'll end it there, though there's still a lot I haven't touched on: Urchin's model and animation, the ocs and script, the tangled spaghetti code slapped into place for a 2 week jam, etc. If folk are interested in more of this type of thing I might do another one? I dunno, let's see. Thanks for reading and/or playing!! >w<

And if you haven't played this silly little vn but interested to, you can grab it here! https://gubbles.itch.io/they-built-a-railgun

[artsy-hobbitses]

ZOOMING INTO YOUR FEED it’s Mobian Enjolras a very rad hedgehog! The Les Mis soundtrack came on while I was working on Sonic here, and my brain goblin was all “Dress him like the revolutionary hero he’s meant to be DO IT” so let’s just HC that the sweet, sweet vest is a Friendship Gift from Antoine, to which Sonic is like “Dude this is bougie as fuck, but also NO TAKE BACKS awww I knew you liked me ❤️” 

Sonic’s (I’m going with ‘Sonntag’ as his birth name) speed is a bit of an enigma in-universe, though it’s proposed that one or both of his parents came within radiation vicinity of a particularly powerful chaos emerald prior to conceiving him on one of their sojourns into an unexplored region of Mobius.  However, they didn’t manifest until he was quite a bit older, specifically around nine when Robotnik’s forces were seeking out Charles after the coup, and Charles told him to run, RUN SON AND DON’T LOOK BACK.  And so he did.  Using his newfound powers to evade capture on the streets in the search for his uncle once he’s strong enough to defend himself from Swatbots. he strikes up a lifelong friendship with another street urchin, Bunna-Marie ‘Bunnie’ Rabbot, with whom he starts out a little gang (including Mina Mongoose and Tails) stealing supplies and food from Robotnik’s forces to deliver to underground refugees and liberating prisoners during transport runs.  When Bunnie herself is captured during one of these missions gone wrong, he’s unwilling to lose someone again the same way he lost Charles (deciding this time he wasn’t going to run away from, but towards the danger) and on this rescue mission, runs into Sally and Antoine who were conducting their own rescue mission for Rotor.

Initially he wants nothing to do with these noble-class newcomers, but relents to joining them momentarily for Bunnie’s sake (the aid she needs is the kind he nor his gang have the capability to provide) and eventually ends up staying as their saboteur when he sees how Sally’s a genuinely compassionate princess of the people and how Antoine helps Bunnie through her recovery.

He isn’t aware of what exactly happened with his dad, and Rotor is quite reluctant to tell him, considering Charles’ unnwitting role in what happened (but Rotor will eventually, since he’s owed the truth).

[promiseiwillwrite]

Getting to know You Ask Game

Tagged by @a-witch-named-crow - thank you so much! I've never gotten tagged in one of these before!

Rules: Answer the questions and tag nine people you want to know better.

Favorite Color: Green. But not just Green... The color of moss after months of steady rain. The color of THRIVING Life.

Currently Reading: I am currently between books. I was Thinking about reading this anthropological deconstruction of the Northern European Bear Cult that pre-dated the Viking era, but I am not sure I have the bandwidth. Maybe I will read something silly next. I know there are multiple "Adventures of Ms. Pollifax" books, and if you've not read one, go Look her up. They are novels about an old widow who becomes a successful spy.

Last Song: Not sure. What I am sure is that there is a Non-zero chance that it was "Show Yourself" from the Frozen II soundtrack. Otherwise it was some random crappy country song that was on in the carpool I was riding with out to the place where we went hiking yesterday. Not sure that counts for these purposes.

Last Series: Locke and Key, Season Three. They rounded out the cosmology, tied up the loose ends, and threw away the key. At least it got an ending... Many Netflix Series aren't so lucky. (squints in Netflix's general direction with consternation for having failed to mention whether or not they will Bother with more Sandman) I have Also recently concluded watching "The Orville" and if Hulu doesn't make more of that I may go burn something down. Guilty Pleasure, and series still in progress, "Gargoyles". They never let me watch as a kid, and now no one can stop me. Some of it is AWFUL. (should have remained in the 90's) Some of it is surprisingly well done for a Kid's show of that era... (lots of crazy pagan magic stuff in there, no wonder I adored my sneak peeks as a kid)

Last Movie: Soul. Yes. Disney. I watch by myself in my basement where no one else is harmed by this destructive habit.

Sweet/Savory/Spicy: I Love Flavors. It is Impossible to innumerate them all. Much shorter list of things I hate: Steamed Artichoke Leaf, Sea Urchin Sushi, and Kababoli Relish. These foods, in my opinion, taste like wet cardboard, the layer of fish poop at the bottom of the rocks in a dirty fish tank, and vomit, respectively. I felt very seen when they talked about the combinations of flavors that created synergistic enhancement in Ratatouille.

Currently Working On: Therapy and the development of skills involving coping with anxiety and managing trauma while moving toward successful task management and task conflict tolerance in relationships and at work. This blog. Learning about Foraging. Getting my Master Sergeant Stripe. A Gardening Project 7 years in the making. I've honestly written a lot of things... But most of them have involved the voices in my head, and I'm pretty sure my therapist is dead set against this as maladaptive daydreaming, and does not consider it a legitimate coping skill. I am not so sure. At very least, I think abandoning it entirely feels like leaving a lot of creativity on the table. I will still likely eventually end up writing one of the ideas, if I can convince myself they are unique enough. The Tree and Door stories seemed pretty solid to me... maybe I will get those together one day. At least, if nothing else, I am pretty sure it would make a Rad D&D game.

Tagging: @solostinmysea @sickened-things

Sorry, I don't really know very many people here that might answer a silly thing like this. Most of the people I follow are kind of doing their own thing and don't interact with others personally...

[ethersierra]

Oh! You're doing character bingo too!! :)

How about... Oksana and Urchin? :3

this is perfect simply peeeerfect ayehehe *villain hand thing,🙏*

Oksana:

She is.. layered. I love her. Yes reluctantly many of my Oksana feelings are not explicitly canon but that's okay cause a girl can dream.

Small dot on the "work better as part of a dynamic" cause I mean I like her on her own enough but she's like not really a Character without her relationship with Amber which I can appreciate.

"They've never done anything wrong in their life" yes, but she probably has considering her job, but it's okay she hasn't ...

She didn't get enough screen time but also she did I'm happy with what we have this far in the story and I'm glad we didn't like.. develop more around that cause it gives us room to work with and to expand! If season 1 was standalone and we weren't returning I think I'd be a tad heartbroken with it though.

Also she looks so cool. No bones about it. Fuckinnn shiny white armor and long curly hair and in my headcanon like fish fins on the side of her face? I love her. Amazing. Plus she has a glowing red eye on her face, that's rad as hell.

She's also very much a workaholic who forgets to live her own life and has made compromises she's not happy about in order to do her duty and live up to the responsibilities she has. Which is... me core. And also like best friends with banter are they dating are they not? Exes to [how do I begin to describe the relationship she and amber have]? Something my life is on track to for sure. She can party, but she throws a mixer, she has duties but wants to steal your danishes, what a woman. What a woman.

Urcho

WOW not the one I'd expect to get a bingo on!

Urchin is fun. He's funky. Why is he there? I love him. I hate him. He's my everything. He's in your walls.

All in all what I like most with urchin is how the crew responds to him and kind of adjusts around him, and how that changes as they change.

I also think it's real funny that he just shits in their walls.

He's both deeper and less deep than he seems. I can't explain it. Why is he there? Nah fam it ain't deep he just lived there already, nothing you can do. But he has emotions. He's three dimensional. He has a beating heart. He's a fully realized creation. Fuck!

Ultimately, he's unhinged and I appreciate him for adding the weird factor to the ship. Not that it wasn't already there. Just... Bringing it on board more in your face.

[pirate-kwazii]

Either

Rad. I’m gonna do hcs cuz I think of em faster

After RoF, Kwazii and Tweak had a lot of scrapes, bruises, and Tweak broke a rib

Also smoke inhalation problems

Kwazii was looked down on for being a pirate. No matter what happens, if he gets into a fight with someone (before he became an Octonaut) they would take a look at his attire and assume it was his fault. A lot of places won’t let him even enter because they think he’s a bad person. He considered quitting being a pirate, but decided he could take people being jerks to him, he was honoring his family

Barnacles has really bad claustrophobia, and tries to stay in wide open spaces. The Octoshoots were a bit of a problem at first, but he was able to use them just fine if he focused on getting from one place to another. It also helped that they weren’t white

Peso is terrified of failure. If a patient died in his care, he’d never forgive himself. He’s either force himself to work harder than ever, hurting himself in the process, or quit working altogether, saying that if he wasn’t a medic he couldn’t hurt anyone else

Shellington is very ashamed of his allergy, and does not plan on ever having children. He feels like a failure of an otter because they are supposed to eat the urchins and he can’t

Dashi loved reading, but only for the escape from her life. She’d read for hours on end, just so she didn’t have to think about anything happening to her sister. She’s worried that Koshi will go down the same path now that she’s moved away from home

Tweak is absolutely terrified of any of her machines breaking down. If something in ten Octopod breaks it could kill everyone. Same with the Gups. She’ll stay up all night if she hears a small out of place noise. Sometimes she stays up playing video games and listening in case anything goes wrong. She’s also terrified of the OctoAlert not working and someone gets hurt or even worse.

Inkling is also terrified of something going wrong in the Octopod. If it floods, he’ll probably survive, along with the Vegimals, because they can breathe underwater. He is scared that one day he’ll have to tell the crews family that their child/sibling/grandchild is dead and has to see their reactions

[retphienix]

ohhh youre at that part. i love that shit and honestly luigi having lightning powers is so rad. im so upset that they never brought it back, luigi being a thunder user while mario uses flame gives them so much more distinction i love it

It’s a bit early for me to say for certain but at the moment this is my favorite part for multiple reasons lol.

For one, just what you said- Something about giving them fire and lightning feels so right- expands combat, expands puzzles, feels natural because it plays into RPG norms without cranking it to 100 and saying “Here’s Mario’s magic list :)”, and it’s COOL.

Genuinely, I REALLY like that. And it’s so smart to make it one power each instead of sharing it because this is basically a two man party and it’s more fun when they differ instead of like a double “Default Warrior” run in a game.

The other being this is a fun water area? Maybe others disagree but I’m psyched swimming around and the fights here are sick? When I kill the sea urchins revealing the bean baddie inside they just float out off sight while clearly protesting their buoyancy? This is such a fun place so far.

[inikavulpixelreviews]

Let’s Talk About Pokemon - Pincurchin

871: Pincurchin

I feel like a sea urchin was another animal I should've put on my wishlists. They're neat little creatures, and have a lot of creative monster potential despite being just a ball with barbs, more or less. Which is why Pincurchin just feels like a big letdown. I like it and all, it's cute in the same way Pyukumuku is, but. Really? Just an electric sea urchin? That's the best they came up with? Yeah, it's another Pokemon that feels “unfinished” it me.

...I'm really struggling to come up with talking points about this thing.

Its name “Pincurchin” I assume is meant to be a fusion of “pin cushion” and “urchin”, that would've rad! An urchin that's also a pin cushion. But alas, it's just a name. Now if that idea ever gets made into a Pokemon, English localization will be kicking themselves for already using that name.

Also for whatever reason, it's mono Electric type instead of Water/Electric, just like how Clobbopus is mono-Fighting. What's with the holding out on Water all the sudden? Are they getting self-conscious about the population of Water types? I already said it's FINE that Water is the most populated type in the game! Most of Earth's creatures LIVE in water!

In fact, I was so grossly underwhelmed with Pincurchin, I almost immediately got to thinking on how to make a cool urchin monster and made my own. I'm not posing the “Barbarbian” family here as a Pincurchin redesign mind you, just. Urchins are cool and neat! And really fun to design monsters after. So I just wish Pincurchin could’ve been more fun or interesting to talk about.

Personal Score: 6/10

It gets by on a good score anyway cause it's competently designed enough. I just feel like our first Urchin Pokemon should've wowed me a lot more than this.

[Archive]

[in-arlathan]

What Friends Are For

Hey people, I’m back with some writing. This time with a short piece about Lavellan after the battle with Corpyheus. Solas does not make an appearance in this one, instead Sera joins in to cheer her up. Hope you enjoy it. <3

Characters: Sera, Female Lavellan (Alis Lavellan) Chapters: 1/1, Length: 2,158 words Pairing: Solas/Female Lavellan Rating: PG-13, Teen And Up Audiences

Summary: Corypheus is defeated and the Inquisitor’s fight is finally over. But victory came with a cost. After losing Solas, Lavellan considers her plans for the future. Not sure where she might go, she is all but overwhelmed by grief and fear. Fortunately, there is a Friend of Red Jenny who still cares about her.

A/N: This is an updated version of the story that I posted over @old-arlathan​.

You can read this on AO3, too.

______

The party continued long after the sun had set over the Frostback mountains. From her place on the balcony, the Inquisitor could hear her companions as they filled the dark corridors of Skyhold with laughter and cheerful banter. She never thought she’d live to see them in such a great mood.

If there ever was a time to celebrate, it was now. They had accomplished the impossible: They had defeated Corypheus and his forces, at long last. And although the cost was high, it would have been an insult to their fallen comrades to not enjoy this moment of peace.

A small part of Alis wanted to go back downstairs to join her friends in the faint hope the lose herself in the moment. But the rest of her simply wanted to withdraw from the world and pretend that things were different. That is why she had retreated to her quarters, leaving her companions and advisors to themselves. They had fought as hard as Alis herself to bring Corypheus down. They deserved to enjoy themselves without her curbing their mood with her gloomy thoughts.

Of course, she was proud of what the Inquisition had accomplished. It had stood against the chantry, sealed the breach and brought peace to Orlais and Ferelden. It had prevented the assassination of Empress Celene and hindered the grey wardens from raising a demon army. And in the end, it had brought down the madman behind this entire mess. And yet she couldn't help but wonder what would happen next. All her thoughts had been fixed on one thing, and one thing only: stopping the enemy from destroying the world. There hadn't been much room for anything else. The only thing that she'd allowed to distract her had been Solas.

For a time, she had hoped to leave Skyhold with him once her fight was over. She had imagined herself walking by his side, sharing his bed as well as his dreams in the Fade. It had been a wonderful fantasy that kept her going despite all her injuries, the sleep deprivation and the lurking horror that was Corypheus. Dreaming of her future with Solas had been something to look forward.

But now…

Now, he was gone and she could feel his absence like an abyss in her heart, a dark spot in her mind. He had become such an integral part of her life in such a short time that she couldn’t think of a future without him.

The worst part though was that he had left without a word. After what had happened between them in Crestwood, after he had taken her vallaslin, he had promised to talk to her. To explain why he didn’t want her. As it turned out he never intended to say crap about any of it.

May the Dread Wolf take him, she thought and clenched her fists.

“You gotta stop that, y’know.”

That was Sera’s voice. Alis turned around in surprise and found her friend standing at the top of the stairs, her arms crossed in front of her chest. She hadn’t heard her come in.

“Stop what, exactly?” Alis asked.

“Being all sad”, Sera said with a beaten look upon her face. “Makes me sad, too. But we shouldn’t feel sad, right, after defeating Coryphisus and everything?”

“Yeah,” she replied slowly. “Maybe ...”

Sera came closer and stopped in the doorway as if she was unsure if she could join Alis out on the balcony. Encouraging her friend with a wave of her hand, Alis said: “Come here. Let’s hang out for a bit.”

The younger elf stepped out onto the balcony, taking in the panorama of the Frostback mountains. The sun was nothing more than a golden glimmer in the distance, as the dark of the night slowly covered the world like a blanket with thousands of stars to illuminate the sky. “Woah,” the younger said. “It’s quite the view.”

"Yes, it is."

Sera turned to look at the Inquisitor. Suddenly, her eyes seemed darker than usual. Alis knew that look. There was something gloomy on Sera’s mind and she would need to get it out of her system before she could return to her playful self.

“Care to share your thoughts with me?”, Alis asked encouragingly.

Sera’s lips twitched. For a moment, Alis thought her friend would shake her head and pretend that everything was alright. Instead, Sera gestured towards her face. “He did that, didn’t he?”

It took her a moment to realize what her friend meant. Slowly, Alis brought her hand – the one without the anchor – up to her face. Her fingers traced the parts of her skin where June’s blood writing used to be. Not that her skin felt different. It was warm and soft and smooth as usual, except maybe for the scar under her left eye. Sometimes, she simply forgot it was no longer there.

“Yes, he did,” she said at last. “He told me what the markings meant and I allowed him to remove it with a spell.”

“Didn’t know it’s possible” Sera mused. “Removing the Dalish ink stuff, I mean.”

“The vallaslin” she corrected, more out of habit than real interest in being right. “Yeah, me too.”

“Why did you do it?”

Alis blinked. She’d expected her friend to ask her how Solas had removed the vallaslin or why he made the offer in the first place. But she was wrong about Sera – again – and she was glad about it. It felt good to have someone care about her most of all things.

“Getting the vallaslin is considered as a rite of passage among the Dalish,” she explained and noticed the undertone of sadness in her own voice. “When it was time for me to get mine, I didn’t think as long about it as some of the others. I told our keeper to give me the markings of June because I recognized myself in him. He's a practical god, a god of the people. Not unlike Andraste, I suppose. Anyway, Deshanna gave me my vallaslin and I wore it like a piece of clothing. After a time, I forgot how my face looked like without it. My vallaslin marked me as Dalish and I was proud to be one of them.

But when I arrived in Haven and joined the Inquisition, I felt the need to become … well, more. People had begun to form this mental image of me that had nothing to do with who I really was. It gave me nightmares, even thinking about it. How could I be more to these people than I was?”

Her heart ached, as she thought about Solas. He, too, had seen so much more in her than an ordinary woman, and through him, she had discovered that she was more than a Dalish elf. More than she could ever have imagined. A champion of her people, all of them.

“You have a rare and marvelous spirit. In another world …”

Alis took in a long breath, then sighed deeply. “When Solas offered to take the vallaslin away, I didn’t do it to abandon my people. That would have been a foolish notion. No, in removing the blood writing, I hoped that I might become the woman I needed to be in order to defeat Corypheus.”

“So, you didn’t stop being Dalish after all?”, Sera asked.

“No.” Alis tried to smile but failed miserably. “I could never do that. They made me who I am and I’ll be forever thankful for that.”

Sera’s gaze flicked from Alis’s face to her own hands. “Wish I would feel the same way about Lady Emmald”, she said in a low voice. “Not so much to be proud of there, though.”

Alis took Sera’s hand and squeezed it gently. “Those days are gone”, she said. “We have changed, both of us. We are no longer who we used to be. You are not the street urchin any longer, just like I’m no longer the first to my clan’s keeper. We’re more than we were, stronger.”

“You’re right,” Sera said, returning to her usual glee. “Let ’em think we’re still weak and elfy or whatever. We are better, you and I. Because of us, no one else.”

“Because of us.”

“Know what’s weird?” Sera looked puzzled. “I came over here to cheer you up, but instead you’re treating me all friendly and stuff. Don’t know how that happened, really.”

Alis laughed. “That’s what friends are for, Sera. We cheer each other up.”

“I guess you’re right.” Sera scratched her head, leaving her hair in a bigger mess than before. After all this time with the Inquisition, she still wasn’t used to having someone to share her feelings with. Maybe she would never be perfectly comfortable talking about herself.

“I thought the inky stuff looked nice on you”, Sera said after a short silence. “Pretty rad, to be honest.”

Alis smiled sardonically. “It’s not made of ink, you know that, don’t you?”

“Sure.” Sera snickered. “I just don’t care.”

“I should have expected that,” Alis replied. “Anyway, thank you.”

Another silence fell between, but it was less heavy than before. They simply enjoyed each other’s company. And what unlike company it was. A Dalish woman bonding with a city elf over the cruelty of life. The two of them made have begun their lives under completely different circumstances, but in the end, they had made a deeper connection than any Dalish or city elf might think possible.

“His Elfiness never deserved you, y’know”, Sera said finally.

Alis stirred. The seriousness in Sera’s voice startled her. “What...?”

“Don’t know what you saw in him, to be honest. He made my head hurt with all his Fade talk. But it seemed like he appreciated you. Could see it in his eyes when he looked at you. But if he wanted you so badly, he should’ve treated you better. I hope he feels ridiculous for leaving you behind.”

A smile tugged at her lips. “Thanks for saying that, Sera.”

“You said it yourself,” she replied. “Friends say nice things to make each other feel good.”

“Now, you’re ruining it”, Alis said.

Sera chuckled. “Alright, I shut it then. All I’m sayin’ is, you’re fine as you are. And if we happen to meet His Elfiness again, you can count on me to put some arrows in his smug face. If you like.”

“That's very nice of you, Sera, but I hope that won’t be necessary.”

“As you wish,” her friend said and made an imitation of herself drawing an arrow from her quiver. “But if you change your mind, let me know, Inquisitor. I'll take him down before he knows what hit him."

Unwillingly, a broad smile spread across Alis’s face. When she had first met Sera, her dismissal of the Dalish culture had hit her like a kick to the stomach. It had taken time to understand Sera’s point of view. Now she wondered why she had been so close-minded. There were countless elves like Sera, trying to get by. For most Dalish they were nothing more than animals, too weak to stand against their shemlen overlords and for the longest time, Alis had shared their opinion. But thanks to Sera, she had come to see the error of her ways. The city elves were deserving of her help and support. And maybe, with time and a lot of careful diplomacy, she might bring the remaining Dalish to see them as their kin again.

Imagine the things we could accomplish, she thought and looked at Sera. Together.

In that moment, she realized that she might have grown to fill the role of Inquisitor, but there were still parts of her that were left unchanged. She was a resourceful woman, after all. She was a force to be reckoned with. It was best she used her powers to change the world for the better. Because no matter how terrible the past was or how many people she’d lost, the future was something she could still take control over.

A wave of warm energy washed over her. She was hurting, but she was alive. All she needed to do was take the next step, and the next and the next, until she had formed a new life for herself. Until then, she would see to it that the Inquisition continued to help people across Thedas as best it could.

Her new-found confidence seemed to be showing because Sera suddenly raised her eyebrows.

“You’re alright?” she asked in a baffled tone.

“I’m fine,” she said and meant it. “Or at least, I will be.”

Sera’s face lit up. “That’s good. Fine is always good.”

“It is.”

“So, where you gonna go, now that Coryphinas is gone?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I’ll go back to the Free Marches,” Alis said. “Deshanna, my clan's keeper, holds a seat on the council of Wycome now. It would be a good place to start over.” She turned to Sera. “When I go, would you want to come along?”

A bright smile tugged at Sera's lips. “Anytime, Inquisitor. Anytime.”

[viewfromthevault]

Fallout OC Interview

Thanks to the lovely @tarberrymentats for the tag 💜

Rules

Choose an oc

Answer the questions as that oc

Tag 5 people to do the same

I’ll tag @nonbinaryrobot @rogue-lavellan @drneverland @commonwealthcommoner and whoever else wants to do it because I never know if I’m bugging people by tagging them or not 🤣

Gonna do this with Lesley

Okay so I got waaayy carried away and thought maybe I should throw this under a read more for the sake of your dashboards.

1. What is you’re name?

“Lesley Elvira Mathews. Not a real fan of Elvira so don’t call me that unless you wanna get whacked.”

2. How old are you?

“Shit, I dunno. I was nineteen when I got the boot. How many years ago was that now?”

(Lesley’s timeline is a bit funky at the moment. I wanna say this takes place after main story stuff and before fo4, so she’ll be in her early twenties)

3. What do you look like?

“A fucking legend.”

4. Where are you from? Where do you live now?

“See, I thought I was born in Vault 101, but actually I was born somewhere in the wasteland then grew up in the vault. Not a fun environment to grow up in, to tell you the truth. A lotta assholes livin’ there, except Amata.

“I’m happy to say that now I live in my very own house in Megaton. It’s not a super private place, though. Gotta few couch surfers.”

5. What was your childhood like?

“Could’ve been better, actually. Like I said before, there were a lot of assholes in 101. Had a real hard time making friends. People liked to call me the problem kid because I got in a lot of fights, but I didn’t start all of them and those fuckers had it coming. Grown-ups complained about me all the time and the Overseer hated my guts, but that’s ok because I hated his about the same.

“I guess it wasn’t all bad, though. My dads were pretty great, even when James was too busy being James. Granny Palmer used to look after me when they were both busy, she was really nice. And then there’s my best friend, Amata. If it weren’t for her I probably would have went nuts in there.”

6. What groups are you friendly with? Are you allied with any factions?

“I currently do work with Reilly’s Rangers and the Regulators. I get to run around the wastes and kill bad guys for money?? They had me at ‘caps.’

“I used to be part of the Brotherhood of Steel, though I don’t remember actually signing up or anything. They dropped my sorry ass as soon as they thought I wasn’t useful anymore. Bastards.

“This one lady also said I could be part of this Railroad group if I didn’t tell this fancy suit where this android person went. Still waiting for them to call me back.”

7. Tell me about your best friend.

“It used to be Amata, but we went our separate ways. Good terms, though. The fella that fills that role now is the bee’s fuckin’ knees. Tall, knows his way around a gun, kinda cranky, but he has a secret softy side.”

8. Do you have a family? Tell me about them!

“Well, the family I told you about earlier kinda fell in on itself when James fucked off. Jonas was murdered and I got stuck with the blame, James zapped himself with enough radiation to ghoulify a super mutant. Last I checked, Granny Palmer was ok, as okay as you can be when your only grandson is killed. I don’t know if she’s still around. I also had a mom once, she died about five minutes after I was born.

“The family I got now? Pretty bomb. There’s aunt Cross, though I don’t get to see her much anymore, Butch who surprisingly is like a brother to me, Fawkes the coolest meta human around, Dogmeat the goodest boy, that little urchin from Lamplight that shows up now and then to drink all my Nuka-Cola, and Charon of course. I’d say Wadsworth, too, but he’d take offense to that.”

9. What about partner or partners?

“Oh man he’s fuckin’ great. Lots of people are scared of him, but he’s real sweet when you take the time to know him. A complete badass that I would absolutely die for. A lot smarter and funnier than people give him credit for. He’s one of the few people who actually listens to me and doesn’t get mad when I get to yakking too much. Is willing to stick his neck out for me, not that I want him to do that, mind you, but it’s real nice to know he’d never throw me to the wolves like others would. Nice ass... what were we talking about?”

10. Have you ever heard of the Brotherhood of Steel? What do you think about them?

“Uh, yeah? I just told you I was with them once. To be honest, though, they’re far from perfect. Sarah and the old man are pretty great, and Cross of course. But there’s a lot of shit that goes down without the old man knowing about it. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear the guy died under ‘mysterious circumstances’ and they put up some wet mop in his place.”

11. Who are your enemies, and why?

“Jeeze who isn’t? I don’t know who’s paying them, but the Talon Company is dead set on killing my ass. Their client could be slavers since they hate me with a passion. Arefu doesn’t like me for some reason (ooc: thanks for the gitch, game). I don’t have enough fingers to count this shit out.

12. What about the Enclave?

“Those motherfuckers are lucky I wasn’t at Adams Airforce Base. I’d teach them the meaning of the word slaughter.”

13. How do you feel about super mutants?

“They’re real fun to fight with, but it’d be nice if they didn’t always try to shoot you on sight you know? Why can’t they be more chill like Fawkes?”

14. Have you ever fought a deathclaw?

*points at stump* “The fuck do you think?”

15. What’s the craziest fight you’ve ever been in?

“Me and a bunch of folks took over a spaceship once.”

16. Do you like fighting?

“Does a yao guai shit in a landfill?”

17. What’s your weapon of choice?

“I’m a real fan of stabbing shit, so I mostly work with swords. I have this neat ass one I made myself from schematics I got from vampires, don’t ask, I like to call Shishkebab. That baby has a funky little function where the blade catches fire, which is pretty damn cool if you ask me. I also got a neat sword with an electrified blade from a weird pre-war bunker thing.”

18. How do you survive? Your wits, your charm, your skills, brute force, some combination? (a.k.a. what’s your S.P.E.C.I.A.L.?)

“I’m fast, strong and I talk real good.”

[S-7 P-5 E-7 C-7 I-5 A-6 L-5]

19. Have you ever been in a vault? What do you think of them?

“Yes, I grew up in one. Keep up! As for the others I’ve seen, I guess I should consider myself lucky that I was stuck with the one I was. Vault-Tec is fucked, man.”

20. How do you beat all the radiation around here? Has it effected you?

“Rad-X and Radaway are pretty expensive, so for the most part I just try to stay away from it. I did intentionally get super sick from radiation once, but as far as I know it didn’t have any lasting effects.”

21. What’s your favourite wasteland critter?

“Dogmeat. He hasn’t tried to eat me yet.”

22. What’s your least favourite wastelad critter?

“Fucking mirelurks. With their big meaty claws and their gross shells, swimming arounf waiting to get you by the ankle. I hear they have more legs in other parts of the country.”

23. How do you feel about robots?

“I guess they’re ok. I wouldn’t put a whole lot of trust in them, but if they don’t bother me then I won’t bother them.”

24. How many caps do you have on you right now?

“Not enough for you to wanna mug me for after this wraps up if that’s what you’re asking.” (she’s fucking broke)

25. Nuka-Cola or Sunset Sasparilla?

“Sunset Saspawhat?”

26. Do you do chems?

“Only when I need to, they’re too expensive otherwise.”

27. Do you ever think about the pre-war world?

“What is there to think about? They fucked up the world and now we have to deal with the consequences.”

28. What’s your deepest regret? What would you do differently?

“Maybe if I got to Dad sooner he wouldn’t have died. Maybe neither of them would have died. I don’t know.”

29. What’s your biggest achievement? Or what do you hope to achieve?

“I guess my biggest achievement would be getting to where I am now, finding a place and people who like me because I’m me. Learning that I can be loved. Mushy shit.”

30. What do you want for the future? For yourself? Your friends? The world?

“To be able to live freely and happily no matter how you look or act. To always have an adventure waiting around the corner. I just want us all to have a good time, you know?”

[vulpixelates]

D2, A5, D3, D4, Y3 for NC ;)

afejoafw I love you, thanks for the ask. :’)

D2. how would they decorate their child’s room?

She lets them decorate however they want to, though she did have the ship’s android go through and give everyone customized murals. That was pretty rad.

A5. what is their most impressive talent?

She’s is the best vers in Terminus Space, duh. 

On a serious note though, she can literally create matter from nothing and destroy it, which I’m pretty sure nobody else in existence can do because she’s a weird test tube baby that was created specifically to do it? So that’s pretty impressive, if I do say so myself.

D3. how do they decorate their own room?

The mural is probably the #1 thing. Also they recently hung up the signed guitar from the concert on ET’s birthday. But other than that, she keeps things really simple. She’s so used to moving around a lot that accumulating clutter and decorations has never really been worth it, but she’s trying to break herself of that habit now that they have more permanent living situations.

D4. what type of clothes and accessories do they wear?

Street urchin punk chic, of course. She wears almost the same outfit every day because she’s too busy fighting the good fight to worry about clothes: crop top, ripped jeans, combat boots, and her over-sized jacket. For accessories, pretty much just her hair haha, or jewelry if someone has gifted it to her. 

Y3. were they different when they were first created?

Oh, definitely. My only real concept for her was that I wanted to play an android/cyborg type character that didn’t know that they were a cyborg; nothing else was super clear. I could have never imagined what we’d have build up from that, especially all of the shit that you threw at her. She’s cooler than I ever could have thought she could be, and her story is so fucking emotional and sweet. It means a lot to me, and so does her little found family of misfits and mutants. 

[rosaiel]

Octo Expansion Mem Cake Starters/Prompts! 🐙

I was trying to complete the Octo Expansion when I was inspired to make this because of the Tentakook Mem Cake poem! I don’t think anyone has done this before. Anyways, thought they’d make for some really great roleplay starters and writing prompts, so have fun! ❤

---

“At last we meet, my so-called foe. But is our fate to spray this hate? Perhaps we'll learn in depths below...”

“With tresses pink and eyes a blank, A smile so faint, it hides your feint, You slip on past—outfoxed! Outflanked!”

“You paint the turf with graceful strokes. With watchful eye, I breathe a sigh. From sniper's perch, I go for broke.”

“The rolling column splatters all. A stray shot shakes the trees awake. The summer turns, here comes the fall.”

“You gaze seaward with azure hope. Between each blink you calmly think, As when you use a Splatterscope.”

“The world I knew seems like a trap. I'm drawn now to the strange and new. Would my old friends think me a sap?”

“The fat and heavy locks hang low They frame your face above a base Of stumpy leg and pigeon toe.”

“A hilltop picnic, friends and fruit. Your whirling blades provide us shade. I raise a hand in mock salute.”

“Destroy your troubles—bombs away! A tempting thought: bring all to naught. No wonder your friends tend to stray.”

“You face away, thinking me blind, Like I don't know what you won't show. Your love is still clear from behind.”

“So principled you might explode, But when you burst, who's really cursed? Your loved ones have to bear that load.”

“It seems to you a sly attack, But for your pains you make no gains. You only get shot in the back.”

“How loftily you float on high, Suspended there in starry air As you drip purple passing by.“

“How desolate this star-marked limb. Is what awaits me this same fate? I must not dwell; it's much too grim.”

“Though parted by the ocean deep, My oldest friend, we meet again. I touch your face; you rouse from sleep.”

“You overwhelm with crowds and throngs. At every turn, you writhe and churn. Why can't we simply get along?”

“Now nights grow long; summer abates. The tides recede as squids stampede. With fireworks, we celebrate.”

“Your motor whines; the ocean roars. No ink can halt your firm assault. Let these invaders know the score.”

“When problems stack too tall to see, Just chip away and, day by day, You'll grow to live a life carefree.”

“Where love could blossom, spite congeals. Faced with these thieves, I aim and heave A cluster bomb right in the feels.”

“The hunt leads down a winding path. Tightly coiled and well-oiled, These dirty squids could use a bath.”

“Erupting eel glimpses the sky. Its eyelids squint against the glint Of sun unseen by creatures shy.”

“A sudden drizzle bars my way. It's no hour for this shower, But light rain won't ruin my day.”

“Each glittered scale shines so bright. You're my last ditch to strike it rich And tilt my bank balance aright.”

“Finality's not what it seems. When your end comes, rise up and run. Don't let defeat dissolve your dreams.”

“I topple from the tower ledge And choke back tears to see the gears Eliminate our hard-won edge.”

“We're torn apart so many times; I must be bold and keep my hold To make their team pay for their crimes.”

“When four are one, they make a team. But one from ten? Uhh, come again? It's like some kind of fever dream.”

“You teach the virtues of the still, And yet I spurned the lesson learned. My problem is I have no chill.”

“Oblivious, adrift, and round, You hold inside a tempting prize. Who doesn't love that popping sound?”

“To plant a tree's its own reward After you're gone, it will grow on In memory, initials scarred.”

“The polished nozzle gleams and shines. Unblemished gun reflects the sun. A good day's match; victory's mine.”

“I shake the squeegee to and fro. As I do laps my color saps; A fair trade for a mighty blow.”

“Closer to pyramids than spheres— Let fly the bombs! A sigh, then calm. A pillow stained with ink—or tears.”

“Not everyone can be a scourge In tense combat. I toss this splat, A monument to my last surge.”

“Though it flies errant or amiss, Should its sly arc hit near the mark, Your fate is sealed with its kiss.”

“No stealth or guile, not for you. You pave the way as plain as day, Foreshadowing imminent spew.”

“Its friendly face, its easy stride— That's all a front. Let me be blunt; It leaves you with nowhere to hide.”

“The sickly sweet aroma spreads. Its stagnant arms bring only harm, Along with sluggish, looming dread.”

“"I rule," you said, "It's in my blood. Don't step to me — ESPECIALLY If you can't hang with my best bud."”

“They told me you had gone to ground, And your rad groove was concrete proof That you made it safe and sound.”

“Two friends who never are apart: One's always cool, the other stews. I love them both with all my heart.”

“I watch your tendrils undulate A blue bouquet that twirls and sways, As central mass swells and deflates.”

“Hmm, Slosher? Inkbrush? Curling Bomb? I'd gladly browse for hours and hours Your gushing ramble brings me calm.”

“Black, bulging eyes stare far inside. What does he see deep within me? From his sharp gaze, no one can hide.”

“How long must I wait in his line? Such tragic lack of Crusty snack... I'm almost there! It will be mine!”

“Behind his dour, one-eyed stare, Our urchin friend conceals a yen For making the most out of gear.”

“A patch of sun? A fresh-caught fish? No bribe will swerve your eye for turf, However desperately we wish.”

“Oh, what I'd give to be employed! Better, I'd say, to work for pay Than ride this subway through the void.”

“Our sweat dripping from every pore. The harsh, hot sun won't stop this run. We grit our teeth and ask for more.”

“I hate the sea but love the breeze. The sandy shore I will endure Just for that brisk, zephyrous tease.”

“A Skalop brand atop your crown Will turn some heads but really shreds When it is simply turned around.”

“Squids often wear this as they strike With bomb and brush. It's quite a rush. I wish I could know what that was like...”

“Your 'tude is righteous, as you say. Is your science as defiant? Prove that your battle rhymes can slay.”

“I see you standing in the rain. Within a storm—forever warm. Powerful as a hurricane.”

“Put down the phone go shelve your book. Get ready, champ—it's time to camp! We'll share a drink right from the brook!”

“Constructed of glass and concrete, A city stays in dull, drab grays Till we splash color on its streets.”

“Mistakes of youth teach us a lot. We skate too fast and have a blast And learn quickly not to get caught.”

“"When going through here, play it cool!" Or get a clue and don't go through! I won't bend on this! Them's the rules!”

“I pack my feelings in a box: A parcel stuffed with hope and love And trimmed with stamps unorthodox.”

“I've seen this, but I'm not aware Just what the splat I'm looking at! Is it a frog or a brown bear?”

“How I admire Li'l Max! The highest rank to be so swank That my rivals have heart attacks.”

“The tides go out and take the light. How will I greet you when we meet? It keeps me up on inkstained nights.”

“Your song inspired a blush of love. It gave my heart a fresh new start. Now I ascend to shores above.”

“I leave without ceremony. Don't be too sore; I wanted more. My sincerest apology.”

“When I get my hands on these fish I might exchange them on the range, Except that they look so delish...”

“A mystery rolled up and bound— Oh, what's the use? It's too obtuse. I'll dump it in the lost and found.”

“Beneath a summer sky I walk, Through valley, plain, and back again, Dreaming of what you might unlock.”

“The rhythm etched in little jolts Those idols sing and put a spring In my steps as I crank the volts.”

“Encased in a sturdy sphere of glass. It breaks my heart to see you caught With whiskers trembling as I pass.”

“Though slick with slime, I keep my grip. The chill seeps through my gift from you. I mustn't let this cargo slip.“

“I don't quite trust this stark white brand. It's more for squids or little kids... And where's the pop? It's oh-so bland!”

“This swells a stir of royal pride. In small or large, you lead the charge. The ink of nobles flows inside.”

“On colder days, I like these clothes. With other threads I'd stay in bed— It's too frigid to be exposed!”

“I see you walking down the street. You think you're slick in those lime kicks, But they'd look fresher on my feet.”

“The squishing footsteps trudge in muck. Their path revealed by heavy heel. My heart beats quick a stroke of luck!”

“Such devilfish-may-care couture— The colors clash and make a splash! Without a doubt, footwear du jour.”

“It keeps the elements away: No rain, nor heat, nor wind, nor sleet. But does it guard against ink spray?”

“No matter thickness, brim, or gauge, A well-done purl will awe the world. These handmade hats are all the rage!”

[junker-town]

The pets of Secret Base

They’re good boys and girls

Hello everyone. Ok, that’s enough preamble. Let’s get to the pet photos.

Jordan

Jordan is nearing his 14th birthday and still loves running laps around the house. He’s appointed himself sheriff of our household, and he demands order. If I’m at my desk at 2 p.m., that’s fine with him, but if I’m sitting there at 9 p.m., he squints at me and grumbles in a way that unmistakably comes across as muttering. Living with him is like living with an eccentric, weird, very short man. Every couple of months, he’ll start doing a new thing. The above photo, from earlier this week, documents his latest thing: if you cover him in a blanket, he’ll get up and walk around the house without bothering to shake it off, dragging his cloak from room to room like a sorcerer who accidentally transformed himself into a dog.

-Jon

Alfie

This is the light of my life Alfie out on a hike. Isn’t he something? I’ve had him for 11 years and I still haven’t gotten over it. Here’s a little about him:

Hobbies:

Frisbee Fetch

Madly barking at big dogs who think they’re so tough

Sitting in the sun

Likes:

Clara

a treat horrifically named “gullet strips”

whatever you are eating

Dislikes:

all bodies of water

haircuts

when Clara hugs too tightly

-Clara

Bumper

Say hello to Bumper. Now say he’s a good boy. This reformed street urchin made his name in the alleys of Coney Island. He learned how to show affection by watching the bumper cars greet each other. He’s rad. Bumper’s got a little cauliflower ear where he took a swipe, he’s on the smaller size, and he voted Kucinich in 2004.

Side note: Bumper’s got FIV, a fairly common virus among cats, which isn’t a big deal other than it often causes people to not adopt them. Day to day, they’re just like any other cat. Take them to the vet once a year, make sure they’re good, give them love, repeat.

-Will

Chauncey

This is Chauncey, who came into my life about a year and a half ago by way of my girlfriend, Lilith. The thing about Chauncey is that he is a shameless little freak for my sweat. Can’t get enough of the stuff. He likes my shoes in particular because his is a nasty kinkster for foot scent. I’m fortunate that my feet don’t have much in the way of offensive odor, but there’s something in there he really digs. Here he is pictured with his head fully buried in my running sneaker. He’d sleep like that if you let him. He also goes nuts for the pits of my recently worn t-shirts. He doesn’t do this with any of Lilith’s shoes or clothes; his fetish is for my pheromones and mine alone. In fact, when it comes to me, he could take me or leave me; he’d bite me as soon as cuddle up. But he’s a good boy and we like having him around.

-Ryan

Chicken (B) & Antigone (T)

Once upon a time in Paris, a prize-winning cocker spaniel had an illicit encounter with a beagle. Chicken was the unwanted result, and was sold out of the back of a car to a roommate who subsequently moved to Belgium and left Chicken behind. This dog has moved country three times, crossing the Atlantic twice. I don’t think she noticed any of them, because she is almost entirely indifferent to anything that isn’t Chicken. Yes, she’s very cute. She’s also lazy, selfish, vain and would gladly trade me and everyone she’s ever met for half a treat: basically a cat who happens to be shaped like a stumpy little dog.

Antigone, meanwhile, was adopted from a shelter and apparently had a hard time of things prior to arriving home. For instance, she didn’t seem to know what dog food was when we got her, and she was and remains terrified of everyone and everything. She’s also a huge sweetheart, and when you pet her she makes whale sounds. Nobody believes me when I say this, so I’ll confirm: when you pet her, Tiggy makes sounds like a humpback whale singing. It is bizarre and wonderful and sometimes unsettling.

MWRRRRAAAWWWWOOOMMMMWRRRRRRMMMMMMMMMMOOOOOO

-Graham

Elfie

Hi, this is my cat Elfie. Or more accurately, I should say it’s my girlfriend’s cat and my current roommate, Elfie. He is a one-year-old seal bicolor ragdoll boy who loves to eat (sometimes steal treats from closets), sleep and do destruction when we are not around. He is currently on a diet to trim down in weight because of my previous indulgence in feeding him. Thus, he’s been a little grumpy lately. But I think he is doing a fantastic job. You can find him normally in his natural habitat, our sink, shoe shelves or occupying my chair. Speaking of him, I actually feel extremely blessed because around the time that I’ve met my girlfriend and welcomed Elfie into my life, I was dying to have a cat, and coincidentally enough ragdolls are the breed I was yearning for the most. Now I get to enjoy his company and random mischievousness everyday.

-Jiazhen

Trudy

Trudy is my dog. She’s a good dog.

-Seth

If you want to introduce us to your critters, we would welcome the opportunity to see/read about them.