#very pettable robots

[verdemoth]

Marie and Themis! Two intelligent spider shaped robots Odyssey designed to accompany the field team in Otherworld exploration. They’ve since been retired from that duty and now act as guide animals for Odyssey, workplace mascots, and general moral support.

-> Their programming is smart and capable of learning, but more in the way a well-trained dog is smart than how a person is smart. And they lacked that sort of ‘spark’ that characterizes living things. Their intelligence allowed them to develop some traits could be attributed to ‘personality’ but it was more the case of picking up and self-reinforcing some quirks that weren’t detrimental. Odyssey’s programming couldn’t produce ‘consciousness’ or ‘awareness’.

-> Something changed, however, when the robots returned following the storm in which Opportunity was lost. They came back different. Odyssey repaired the mechanical damage they’d suffered, but their coding had been altered in ways e couldn’t understand without potentially destroying them in the process of trying.

-> Whatever happened, the changes didn’t seem to be adverse. And the team could all agree that ever since, the duo have been much more ‘lively’.

-> The smaller, golden robot is Themis. It’s light enough to carry under one arm, and it was designed to record and store visual and auditory data. Its cameras see in the visible wavelength as well as infrared. She was with Opportunity when the storm hit and seems to have a stored recording from that time, but the file is heavily corrupted and can’t be accessed. She likes to be held and handled, although only the ends of her limbs and her fingers have a mechanism that replicates a sense of touch. She has a habit of ‘spacing out’, going still and hardly responsive as if she’s taking a moment to think. She searches around the headquarters for Tune sometimes, who was her favourite person besides Odyssey.

-> Marie is the large, indigo robot. It’s designed to collect and contain potentially hazardous samples, as well as transport supplies and equipment. Its long and study legs are well equipped to traverse uneven ground, though it’s too heavy to be good at climbing sheerer surfaces than a slope. She’s equipped with sensors to monitor data like air quality and radiation (in both the sense of the traditional kind and potentially a reality fuckery bullshit kind). She’s very protective of the people she likes, especially her favourite person, Curiosity. It was with Curiosity in the storm, and used the bulk of its large frame to protect her from the debris being thrown around in the high speed winds. Marie has a tic of tapping her legs when she’s otherwise stationary. Odyssey named her after Mariner.

[octahedral-chaos]

Okay so it's the new year, so I decided to make a pretty long post with shoutouts to a bunch of blogs that I love, whether general art stuff, funny stuff or science! I also made a masterpost of cool blogs on @octastims and @spritebloom as well! Let's get into it!

@aria-greenhoodie : Very cool artist with LOTS of awesome object head ocs, angel ocs and more! Also very rad in that they really like eldritch angels.

@shirecorn : Made lots of somewhat famous memes on Tumblr (High Geologist, etc). Also have a very good turtorial on making better fictional animal hybrids.

@agentkirin : Awesome art style AND is making a game with a very cute hippalectryon protag! Please follow because I think Ashes to Ashlyn should be a reality.

@min-play : AWESOME art style and very charming designs + characters! Also think the fact that you want to get a Dancerush Stardom cabinet is rad. 11/10 go for it! That looks like a really fun arcade game!

@tk-sketches : Adorable robot designs and a really good comic series!

@lowpolyparrot : Very awesome low poly models AND drawings! Also very rad in general.

@meanya : Runs two stimblogs, a art prompt blog AND several other sideblogs! Very rad and 11/10 go check out neon-glowing-rainbow.

@sunnibits : Makes really cool stimboards, have PEAK aesthetic and posts a LOT about their blorbos. 11/10 it's worth it.

@christerious : OCTAHEDRON (and other indie games) speedrunner. Holds the current world record and makes awesome chiptune covers + originals. Also post funny stuff.

@charseraph : AWSOME spec evo stuff AND the crowns are adorable. Most pettable sophont design EVER.

@delta-hexagon : INCREDIBLE alien + creature designs and awesome art style. Also have a very cute sona.

@alexriesart : Awesome spec evo and worldbuilding stuff! Vividly remember unintentionally coming across their art on Deviantart back in mid 2010s and falling in love with the birrins.

@revretch/ @humansbgone : AWESOME bug posts, biology stuff and rad series about big sapient bugs! What's not to love?

@todaysbat and @loveisinthebat : Both posts about bats! They're absolutely awesome with lots of batty stuff, whether real bats, ways to help bats or art pieces with bats!

@fyanimaldiversity : Blog about mutations + colour morphs in animals. Surprisingly useful for spec evo stuff, especially with genetics.

@odd-animals-daily : Blog about weird and wacky creatures! You can browse here if you want to get wild ideas for creature and alien designs.

@mothmyspace : Lots of cool moth species! Really good for unique fairies/ bug based ocs!

@ultrainfinitepit : Cool angel designs and very cool art style! Also hosts angeltober.

@lesserkey : Also draw angels! Very rad art style and angel designs.

@strayhorn: Very cool writer who have a bunch of writing/ worldbuilding tips! Absolutely great for anyone who's slightly intimated with their first story.

[powdermelonkeg]

My BO2W Wishlist

There's a lot of hopes that I have for the new BO2W game, and a lot of things I'm excited for. Some are a lot more ambitious than others, so I've taken the time to put together a list, half so I can get my thoughts out on paper, and half so that when some of them DO happen, I can run circles in my room screaming with happiness.

So without further ado, let's get right into it.

Pettable dogs. This is by far the LEAST ambitious of all of them, since Nintendo's basically confirmed it themselves. But it would still be nice to have Link interact with animals more, and give him a bit more personality.

Cooking mechanics expanded. I am a SUCKER for cooking mechanics in video games, not for their complexity, but because it feels like I'm actually making something cool in game. It's one of the biggest draws for me for Genshin Impact, where you can make all kinds of dishes with specific ingredients and buffs. My hope is that, in BO2W, we get new ingredients, new recipes, and maybe even learn some ancient Zonai or Skyloftian foods from old texts or new characters.

Worldbuilding. I'm an author. Worldbuilding is my JAM. Anything new to the game that shows sign of culture--alphabets, food, architecture, clothing, historical events--is going to make my gay little heart happy.

A new house. In the original BOTW, you have the option to buy and fix up a house. It's a small place, but it's pretty, so I like it on a surface level. But the stable at the side of it is purely decorative, the house doesn't have any storage functionality besides weapons display, and the two construction guys camp out in my front lawn. I want a bigger house. I want it to be able to do things, like store cooking ingredients or let me hang pictures of myself or take a bath, and I want it to be AWAY from people. Ideally, in the sky isles

Loftwings. This is one of those ones that's more far out there, and I'd be very surprised if it came true. But Loftwings are BEAUTIFUL creatures, and given that we get sky isles, I'd love the option to be able to fly on one whenever I like, even as a later-game mount. And the idea of being able to sneak up on wild Loftwings like you do horses in BOTW, maybe with a little minigame for hanging on while they try to throw you off in the air, gives my the happy chills.

Playable Zelda. This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, because it's about half of the fandom's wildest hopes. I would LOVE to be able to play as Zelda for different segments of the game. Maybe she has a subterranian adventure while Link's up in the sky, and the two of them have to activate different parts of Zonai tech to advance the plot. And maybe when she cooks, she gets different buffs than Link does, because she's more of an alchemist than a chef. Do I think it’ll happen? At this point, no. But I can hope.

Ancestry lore. The Zon-eye symbol reminds me of the Sheikah and Yiga, and the architecture reminds me of the Twili, Lanayru Robots, and the Tower of the Gods. I want to know if the Zonai are related to any of the above things--were they the ancestors of the conflicting clans? Are they gone because they were banished for dark magic? Were they around before Skyward Sword? Please link them to established lore, Nintendo, I would die!

Three more levels of Hyrule to explore. I don’t mean dungeons, though I do want those and will get to that. I mean in the sense of exploration; we’ve already got the sky, but I want to be able to explore underwater and underground, too. Tunnels with ruins of old dungeons, underground mushrooms to forage, the Lakebed Temple, things far out in the ocean...I also want the sky isles to be EXPANSIVE. Give me more islands than just the Skyloft cluster.

Dungeons and items. Another popular one by the fanbase, but I want to give my reasoning. I LOVE puzzles. They’re the reason I hold the Zelda franchise so dearly; it feels really cool to manipulate the area around me cleverly enough to discover secrets or progress. We sort of had that with the Shrines; if EVERY Shrine had given you a rune, I wouldn’t be so upset (even though 120 runes is ridiculous, but I was expecting less shrines back when it got announced), but in the game, you get four cool abilities, and then everything feels...same-y. The themes of the shrines didn’t change; we never got a shrine that was overgrown by invading plants, or had lava seeping through cracked walls. It was always “the monk is over here, do mini-puzzle to win.” I want DIFFERENT puzzles. I want THEMED dungeons. I want BIG motivators. Maz Koshia’s shrine was PERFECT. Give me more of that.

Timeshift stones. These were my absolute favorite mechanic in Skyward Sword, and I would pay literal money to have them implemented again. When I was playing Skyward Sword for the first time, they were INCREDIBLE, and I thought we were going to get one as a key item. BRING THAT BACK.

If anyone else has wishes for the game, feel free to shoot me an ask! I’d love to hear about them!

[sonntam]

In the last two sessions of Via Fate the group LOOTED THE CAVE AFTER THE BOSS FIGHT. The boss was some odd Drow who apparently got lost and moped around a lot. Also killed some humans, because why not.

We found a small empty bag. Upon closer observation (aka putting your hand into it) it turned out it had fuzzy balls inside of it. As it turned out fuzzy balls can be tossed somewhere and A RANDOM ANIMAL WOULD APPEAR. In our case: lion. Friendly, obedient and very pettable lion. Problem? We were in a cave and the elevator was broken.

My orc barbarian Graza tried punching the lion in the face to make him into a fuzzy ball. Instead the lion got sad and also scared of Graza. Dominance established.

EITHER WAY, through a lot of shenanigans the group got the elevator going and the lion was secured.

(As it turned out, it was completely unnecessary, since after a day the lion poofs away and can be summoned again through the fuzzy ball bag. Oh well, it would probably have been scared and lonely in the cave for a whole day.)

GAVE IN QUEST FOR THE DROW BOSS, YADDA-YADDA, GOT A NEW QUEST FOR A BANSHEE.

There were some more interesting quests on the town board, but my orc just took the one with biggest money reward (800 gold spread over 5 people is not so shabby).

Went over to a town, talked to the asshole Frost priest (who was not overly fond of having a minotaur, orc, tree-robot-druid in his temple) and got confirmation for the quest. Then Graza tried bullying a fisherman, but got told off ever since he’s busy with salting the new catch. (”Dumb fish. Dumb man”)

Banshee fight was pretty uneventful. Sure, elf mage almost died. Tons of fuzzy balls got thrown around. Will-o-Wisps Will-o-Vanished. Banshee turned out to be a pushover. Graza completely owned every enemy in her vicinity. The usual stuff.

Upon return, it was still night and the priest was sleeping. Judging soundly that if they are not getting any sleep, then neither will the priest sleep till morning, Graza poked him with a javelin. For once, with the blunt side. 

VERY SURPRISINGLY the priest threw a spell at her, but once again Graza showed her orcish dexterity and speed by dodging out of the way. 1 for Graza, 0 for the dumb priest. 

AND THEN THE PRIEST REFUSED TO GIVE MONEY, SINCE HE NEEDED TO WAIT TILL NEXT NIGHT TO KNOW IF BANSHEE STILL IS SCREAMING AROUND. Well, fuck, my orc said. MONEY NOW. Intimidation fail, said priest.

So she went to the tavern and gambled her sorrows away. Everyone else followed her, but like a bunch of nerds decided to sleep soundly through the night (and to level up). Graza in the meantime won through dicing WHOLE 5 SILVER OH MY GOD. Time well spent indeed.

After getting money from the priest, we went back to big city and got AMBUSHED BY A BIG SNAKE DURING THE NIGHT. The druid told it to leave (or else), the snake left and everyone went back to sleep.

In hindsight, I should have rolled Survival to check if I could make some good boots out of that snake skin. 

Conclusion:

swamps rock

lots of ambushes by watery creatures

really awesome in my books

I need to win more intimidation checks

I literally fail like all of them

constantly try to bully quest givers AND FAIL

disgusting