#which mind you is still 300 something achievements

[g0dtier]

hey im like 2 years late but Hades is really good lol

[no-name-publishing]

Tiny Book? Tiny Book. Pt1.

Idk yall I just felt like writing a little how-to of how-I-do my tiny A9 books! So if you've ever been interested, I hope this will be helpful. This will be neither a beginner typesetting nor beginner bookbinding tutorial; as I go through my process I will only be showing my process and providing a few tips, assuming you already have the basics understood. We can worry about the rougher technical skills in another post.

Also keep in mind that this guide includes images of fic I've bound, and you're zooming into these fics at your own discretion. I am not responsible if you read something yucky. I know you have a lot of options out there but thank you for flying No-Name Publishing.

Tiny books part 2; Tiny books part 3

Just like with regular ficbinding, there are layers, and they are:

1 - Typesetting and Imposing 2 - Printing 3 - Cutting, Folding, and Sewing 4 - Gluing, Rounding/Backing, Endbands 5 - Building the Case and casing in 6 - BOOK

In this part we will be focusing on steps 1 and 2. Please feel free to skip to the area you're interested in most.

1 - Typesetting and Imposing

Okay, so this area has some nuances that you don't have to consider so closely with typesetting for more traditionally sized books. To me, these tiny books are not about readability, they are about novelty. As such, I do not prioritize readability. Instead, I try to achieve something that is closer to scale. That said, neither do I want these illegible. But we'll begin from the top.

You want to make a tiny book, but you're wondering, what would be an appropriate word count for a tiny book? Tiny books are the perfect medium for the ficlettes, the shorties, the one-shots. They are also perfect for the mid-sized, 10-15-20k fics, in my opinion. Here we can see,

On the left we have a fic that is exactly 12,771 words, typeset on a 1.5" x 2" (37 × 52 mm) document, with .3" margins, 6pt Garamond font, and 5pt line spacing. This book is only approaching 1/2" (13mm) wide, and only took 5 sheets of Letter paper to print. On the right we have a fic that is exactly 1,939 words, typeset to the same specifications. This book is only 4-5mm wide, and took only 1 sheet of Letter paper.

In my opinion this format of book begins getting unruly around the 300-page mark. However, making any combination of margins, fonts size, and line spacing will yield different page results for different word counts. For example:

Like the above, in each of these examples I typeset in Garamond font @ 6pt size and 5pt line spacing. Typesetting on an A9 page, this is about as small as I felt comfortable sizing my font while still being legible. But notice the rivers between the words--the rivers of white space bisecting the lines, due to the Justified alignment battling the admittedly tiny work surface. At this scale, with the font at this size and alignment, those will be unavoidable. Over time I began disliking this in my own work, so I pursued a different method, which was typesetting on a quarter letter page (4.25" x 5.5" / 108mm x 140mm), and allowing my imposer to scale the PDF down.

Have you ever seen anything sexier. THIS looks like a tiny book. Little to no rivers, still legible (hand-wobble), and preserves the novelty feel that I desire from a tiny book. This method of scaling down (specifically from quarter letter to A9) does change the final shape of the book, from A9 to A9-ish in this case. Specifically, from 1.5"X2" (37 × 52 mm) to 1.625"X2" (41.3mmX52mm). You're achieving something closer to a square shape, which is delightful to hold. All this to say, you have some freedom with word count, with font size, with page size. I've done as many pages as 376 and as few as 17. The fantastic thing about tiny books--their structure will not be load-bearing, meaning--the only thing stopping you are your tastes.

Quickly, some more examples of features in a regularly sized typeset and their tiny counterpart after the imposer has scaled them down. First, scaling half-letter down to A9, a little-over 4X shrinkage:

And from B6 to B9, smaller by 3x:

You notice the compression of every element, and too how entirely unparcable the text in the first example is, sometimes not horrible, sometimes very. Make your decisions dependent on your tastes!

You have decided on the fic you'd like to bind into a tiny book. I will be using my own fic as the typesetting example, and I will be using Word 365 for PC. I'm sure many of my pointers during this process might not apply 1-to-1 if you are using a different word processing software, but hopefully you can adapt the concepts to your program of your choosing.

Kay, next you will do your typesetting. Since this is not a typesetting guide I'm trusting that you have your preferred methods, but I will go through my key steps for setting up a tiny typeset:

First, for every typeset I delete each default Style, create mine own, and dictate the document size. For this example I will be doing my preferred quarter letter method, setting the custom page size to 4.25" wide and 5.5" tall, and .5" page margins all around (except Gutter; leave 0"). On the Multiple pages dropdown I will select Mirror margins (however, as all my margins are the same size, this is redundant, though may not be the case for you). My body text style will be Cardo font @ 11pt size and Exactly 15pt line spacing, with a .2" first line indent and Justified alignment.

You can use whatever body font you like, I only encourage you to do many many test prints to refine your preferences. Your favorite font for half-letter books might not translate to tiny books. After ~30 tiny books I've found I like Cardo at this size and spacing. And if you're using A-paper sizes, consider doing quarter A4 instead of quarter letter, which is technically A6--4.1"X5.8", or 105mmX148mm. Follow your heart~~nyah 🐱♥

Now I will go to my fic and download the HTML file. I hugely prefer copying from the HTML file rather than the browser itself. It kind of standardizes any goofy formatting that might try to make its way over otherwise, while still preserving the italics and bolds, etc, and makes for an easier editing process. It was important I made my body Style in Word first, so that once I paste the text into my document that Style is automatically applied in one fell swoop (if not, you can change that in your Word settings. Advanced -> Cut, copy and paste -> Merge Formatting. It is a huge time saver.)

Now you've gone through your typesetting process, you have a liddle quarter letter Word document that you're happy with. Gets real close to you. Listen to me--listen, you're going to Export as PDF. Not Save As PDF. Not Print to PDF. Export. It's in--listen--it's in File, then Export, then Create PDF/XPS. You need to Export. Especially if you selected Bookfold instead of Mirror margins in your page settings because we need an unimposed PDF in order for this to work right and exporting to PDF is going to solve 99% of your pdf formatting woes with Word. Okay, I love you 👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨

Now, your EXPORTED pdf should look something like mine. Straight, unimposed.

Now what we're going to do is take this PDF back to my penthouse and freak it. Go to this link for the Renegade Bindery-created and -curated imposition tool. This has been will be is such an incredible FREE asset to you, maintained by a crew of intelligent, skilled Renegade Bindery members who understand the importance of community and accessibility. If you find someone hiding this link behind a paywall of any kind it is not with the creators' permission, so shame on them.

Anyway I will be assuming that you know what imposing your document means. If you've never used this site before, it's very straight forward, and here are my settings for making Tiny Books.

1 - Upload your unimposed exported pdf. 2 - ignore 3 - Select the paper size you will be printing on. This is not the FINAL size of the book, this is what paper you are printing on. These instructions are for Letter sized paper. Don't change any of the other settings right now, I will explain more about the Single-sided vs Duplex option in a bit. 4 - Skip aaalllll the way down to Signature Format. Under Wacky Small Layouts, click on the bubble next to Little. You'll notice there are a lot of options here. I encourage you to play with these settings later on as well, there are so many things you can make with this tool.

Once that's done, scroll down to the very bottom. You'll see the Signature Info area, telling you the results of your imposition. In the case of using the Little option we've selected, 1 sheet of our paper will make 40 book pages. 3-signature-sets of 3/3/4 folio configuration. That's a lot of pages per page.

Anyway for our document today it will cost us 2 sheets of Letter paper, and will make 6 signatures. Math says that's 80 pages. Now, you may be concerned because your typeset PDF is not formatted in a number equally divisible by 40. And why would it be. The imposer is doing that math for you in the background, organizing your pages regardless. In my case, my finished typeset is 62 pages, which means that from my second page, I will only be using my 3 folio segments, and discarding the 4 folio segment. This will make more sense later. Click the Generate button, and save the zipped folder wherever you want. Don't change the name of it.

Unzip that baby, and inside you'll notice 2 files--(filename).pdf_little_packed_backs, and .pdf_little_packed_fronts. Appropriately named as one file contains one side of the sheet that will be printed, and the other file the other side.

And when you open them up, they will look like:

2 - Printing

We are manually duplexing this bad boy, because working at this scale amplifies and compounds every millimeter of difference. Manual duplexing will keep printer skew to a minimum, as the printer will not have to perform gymnastics in order to print on the reverse side of your page. Here are some examples:

Two auto-duplexing examples of skew, one horizontal and one vertical, dependent on which direction my paper was loaded into the feeder. There is significant skew. Not a horrible issue on full-sized books but these will matter much more on our tiny books, the key issue being that we do not have much to work with in the margins department. Trimming 5-6-7mm of margins of your half-letter sized textblocks might not be much of an issue; however, here, in order to remove all the trim lines during the cutting process, you will be significantly impacting the margins of your tiny textblock.

Now here is an example of the skew from manual duplexing:

MUCH subtler. Your skew with manual duplexing will range from this--less than .5mm--to no skew at all, and you will have to cut off far less of each page to remove the trim lines, maintaining the consistency of appearance of your tiny, beautiful pages. This is why during step 3 of the imposing process we selected Single-sided (which is MANUAL duplexing), and not Duplex (which is AUTO duplexing) appropriately. This will result in you either getting two files for manual duplexing, or one auto duplexing file.

Your next consideration when it comes to printing your liddle book will be whether you want to use an inkjet printer or a laser printer. I've until recently only had a laser printer available to me. I can say after about 6 or 7 little books on an inkjet printer that I prefer the laser printing on tiny books. Here is an example of why:

On the left you have a tiny book printed from an inkjet printer printed on the highest quality setting, and on the right is a tiny book printed from a laser printer. These were both printed at the same scaling, same font size, same line spacing, everything. The inkjet printer, printing at this scale, introduces pretty glaring feathering on the letters, whereas the laser printer is crisp as can be. I've said before that to me tiny books are more for novelty rather than readability, however I do still want to make out the word I'm looking at, you know what I mean? For this reason I prefer printing my tiny books from a laser printer. Use what you got though, you'll get a tiny book regardless. Make sure you're flipping on the short edge with these tiny books too, and double check to make sure your page numbers line up. And when you're done you got...

BOOK(-adjacent).

Continue on to part duex.

[lizzaneia-elizalde]

I'm so glad you're doing well!

Could I perhaps ask for Damon and his darling nerd? Maybe something really good happens to her that she's excited about and when she tells Damon about it, she hugs him without thinking because of how happy she is. I'd imagine him getting drunk off of the physical contact and just wanting more

Yandere! Jock x Honor student! fem! reader everyday tidbits: achievements

Damon was nervous.

He's rarely nervous.

And, the fact that he's nervous for another person is weirder.

But, at least he's nervous for you. That made it more excusable as he watched you from afar on the bleachers, biting his nail while praying to whoever God that still didn't give up on him.

Sweat riddling down his temple, he watched as you raised your whiteboard with the words "300 to 3,000 Mega Hertz". Your eyes focused on the screen projector up above the University stage, with the question reading "What range of frequencies are usually referred to as the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Band?"

It was your University's Intramurals week, with today being the Academic night. You were assigned to be the representative of your college's individual science quiz bowl, and that meant that Damon didn't get to have that much tutoring off of you.

Other than being pissed that you just had to join the quiz bowl, he felt somehow proud. You, the academic genius, the introverted yet blunt student of the Education department, is in a competition in front of such a huge crowd like this? It was unbelievable.

And yet, his unfounded jealousy trickled down his spine when the people cheered for you once the proctor beside you raised the green flag, signaling you got the right answer.

He may be cheering for you, but others are too. Just thinking about how other people can see your brilliance other than him was boiling his blood under his skin.

"One more round..." He whispered, gripping his fist. "Just one more, and she's for my eyes, and my eyes only once again."

His muttering scared his friend beside him, not used to seeing Damon so... ??? What is Damon's face projecting? He doesn't know. It was foreign to him.

Damon's heart jumped once he realized it was the last round. This is it.

The projector flashed once more, with the last item of the hard round. If you got this, then you'll be the champion of the individual science quiz bowl. If not...

"Which prefix is often used with scientific terms to indicate that something is the same, equal or constant?"

Hmm? Why did language studies came here?

Anxiety riddled his body for you.

What is it?

Whispers got out on the surrounding stadium and from the bleachers, wondering what the answers are. Some students are trying to mouth the answers to their representatives, but to no avail.

He found himself clasping his hands together, eyes wide as he leaned forward and bit his tongue.

"Come on, y/n... You know this... Wait? Do you? Whatever...." He whispered under his breath, watching you turn the gears click and clack on your pretty head.

Then, your hand started to move on the whiteboard you're holding.

As the timer ran out, you put your marker down with a shaky breath and an unsure frown, making your college groan in defeat.

Damon almost lunged at them. How dare they? How can they not believe in you, sighing in defeat-- do they not know it affects your morals too?

As murder plays on his mind, the projector flashed, showing the answer.

"iso"

His breath hitched, watching you put up your whiteboard marker.

iso

"OH MY GOD!"

"YES!"

"LET'S GOOOO!!"

"LET'S GO EDUCATORS LET'S GO!"

As the College cheer and the defeaning beat of the drums wafted from the bleachers, your eyes widened in delight, covering your mouth from disbelief. You actually got that right?!

Damon was suddenly buzzing with energy. His eyes wide, mouth a small "o". He stood up, and as if time stood in a slowmo, he vaulted over seats, and down from the bleachers. Ignoring the shot of pain on his feet, he ran through the barriers and ran past shocked people.

But before he could scoop you up in a hug, your eyes found his and with a huge grin, you ran to him and embraced him first.

Your soft body on his hard one, your arms giddily wrapped around his neck, your head buried on his shoulder.

He froze, not knowing what to do.

"I-I did it! Damon I did it!" You giddily whispered. Your voice, usually laced with shyness and a bit of ridicule, was full of elation and happiness. You felt so light, free from the pressure that you were placing on yourself. Tears of happiness trickled down your cheeks.

Damon trembled. His senses were overwhelmed with yours. Your scent, your body, your warmth... It was too much.

His arms shakily wound around you, gripping you tightly as his nose buried on your neck, inhaling your scent and calming down.

He can't be too worked up. After all, he's in front of countless people.

He reluctantly let go of you, wiping your tears away from your cheeks.

"I'm so proud of you, y/n." He whispered, eyes filled with so much affection that even your blindness to his advances got shunned away for a bit, making your heart race.

"Thank you, Damon..."

Meanwhile, everyone at your college were shocked, and other students let out high pitched coo's and aw's, thinking that you and Damon are together.

"What the fuck? Damon?" His friend was bewildered. Sure, he knew that Damon had the hots for you. But this?

It was too cheesy for him. Blegh.

Sure, maybe Damon took advantage of the crowd, vaulting over people to hug you and make it seem that both of you are dating. Will he deny it? Nah. Maybe even vaguely insinuating and egging these people to believe more.

At the very least, with him being your "boyfriend" nobody will try to snatch you away from him now that people saw your brilliance.

And as he buried his face on hair once more and spun you around happily, he knew the next few days and weeks will be one hell of a ride.

[fairytale-poll]

SEMIFINAL ROUND, MATCH 2 OUT OF 2!

Propaganda Under the Cut:

Bug:

Their a bug that falls in love with a human they rescue and becomes human, but even when they don't get to keep their human body, they still get to be with their love. It's a sci-fi fairytale musical.

Little Mermaid meets Starship Troopers musical starring awesome puppets and the most trans coded main character ever. Please. Please vote Bug Starship I love him. Go watch Kick it Up a Notch from Starship. Go watch Status Quo from Starship. You will understand.

He's a bug and he lives in space on a bug planet but he really wants to be a starship ranger which you can only be if you are a human and then one day a spaceship lands on his planet and so he goes to an evil bug called Pincer who then helps him become a human. And Bug falls in love with a human on the spaceship and it's very sweet. The musical and storyline are based on the little mermaid story, the creators themselves called it "the little mermaid but in space". Bug wanting to be a human/a starship ranger and achieving that and falling in love with a human is very much like the little mermaid

Starship is a musical that can only be described as The Little Mermaid meets Starship Troopers. It follows Bug, an alien bug who dreams of being a Starship Ranger, a galactic explorer/soldier, but the rigid confines of bug society keeps him trapped in a job he hates. He reaches a Starship Ranger named February from the hive and immediately falls in love with her. In order to be with her and pursue his dream, he makes a deal with a giant scorpion named Pincer who through sci-fi bs gives him a human body. Near the end of the second act he sacrifices his human body and returns to his bug body, and saves the day and wins February's heart. It's truly the ultimate Little Mermaid. He has multiple songs, and his bug body is portrayed by a puppet!! Vote for Bug!!

“It's a big, big, universe So many dimensions And unanswered questions Not to mention Life What an invention Life There's no choice involved in what you are given One mind, one voice, one body to live in It's a short, small thing we lead With so much potential Pointless or essential Which one can I be? Where do I fit? Where do I stand? Who are they to say what I am? And how can I stay inside this awful world I know? I need a way out I need an escape I'd rather be dead than to live in this place I wish that something or someone could just take it all away Someone take me away” dear god….. can anybody hear me…. (song from starship)

They are the purest little mermaid adaptation done in the most unuque way. An alien insect gets turned into a human, a race he has always loved and admired, to be with the woman he fell in love with. Also just a great musical.

Bug's whole arc is so so in tune with that of the little mermaid. He is an alien who has fallen in love with humanity through a crashed spaceship and trades his place in the hive for a chance to be with both with the human he's falling for and to be a Starship Ranger. He body swaps with human in a cryogenic pod! It's literally sci-fi Little Mermaid!

Original Fairytale:

The OG, she suffered so much more than Ariel in the Disney version, and gave up her love for Christianity. When she's turned into a human her feet are in agony with every step, but she dances anyway to enchant the Prince. The Prince marries a princess who found him after the Little Mermaid rescued him. The Little Mermaid is distraught at the prince marrying another, so her sisters give her a dagger from the Sea Witch that will turn her back into a mermaid if she kills him. She refuses to kill him, and then she turns into sea foam and dies, but because she was a good person she becomes a spirit of the air and does good deeds for 300 years until she dies again, gains a soul, and goes to Heaven.

[beardedmrbean]

Hey zoomer Huey, oh my god ac red is going to be HELL when they finally revealed Yasuke is going to be the second playable character

https://x.com/oliverjia1014/status/1768104847071719880?s=46

My thing with Yasuke for the upcoming game that they acknowledge he a OUTSIDER. Hell I did some dna research in Southeast Asia and it stated many communities are East African descent so they can say post main story Yasuke settled down and retired to one of those places

Also I saw people said Japan achieved more than those 54 countries….sigh….

People forget that modern Japan is HEAVILY westernized due to American military there (mainly because we don’t want more batshit crazy soldiers like imperial Japanese ones)

And we took care of most of military might because we all know how fucked Japan would be after China got it shit together right?

So Japan was able to rebuilt faster than most countries

We just didn’t pull a British Raj and let Japan keep most of their culture. Okay okay it more complicated

Not to mention our knowledge of japan is due to american occupation there thus the culture exchange for 80 years.

Like my Yoruba thing, yes I want to show more Africans stories. But I swallow the hard pill that I can set the foundation for more better and accurate African stories. But will die before seeing African warriors be treated the same way as Samurai warriors

Also the inferiority complex, look yes African cultures are still shit on

But just grow the fuck up and stop acting like Twitter discourse is everything

I mean I recently bought the Ramayana after finding a mutual who like a naughty character Twitter see as the devil.

Just saying there are good African AND African Americans stories we can tell.

Actually have fleshing out the chimera republic in mind. I think I started to realize an issues with the knights and samurai shit. Wanna read in an another anon?

Did a reverse search on the image here, nice to see most everyone is on the same page, which is Yasuke was real and the only black samurai that's known

Fellow from Japan suggested checking this site if you're looking for dark skinned people, not sure if he means African or not, Spain and Portugal did lots of trading might have had some African slaves or something like that with them. I dunno.

My thing with Yasuke for the upcoming game that they acknowledge he a OUTSIDER. Hell I did some dna research in Southeast Asia and it stated many communities are East African descent so they can say post main story Yasuke settled down and retired to one of those places

I can believe the East African bit, these are the "bad guys" from 300 from India to Ethiopia and they were big on moving people from one place to another in order to keep them from creating a large enough community to pose a threat.

They've become pretty westernized over there in Japan ya, not all the way the commercial with the company apologizing for raising the price of a ice cream after like 25 years is not a western thing at all, we'd say fuck you and then increase it again.

Arizona Ice Tea is a outlier there.

And we took care of most of military might because we all know how fucked Japan would be after China got it shit together right?

We took care of military for the same reason we did with Germany, don't want to have to deal with that shit again so you can have a very limited military that's geared for self defense, someone attacks we'll come running and cover you.

Like my Yoruba thing, yes I want to show more Africans stories. But I swallow the hard pill that I can set the foundation for more better and accurate African stories. But will die before seeing African warriors be treated the same way as Samurai warriors

See if you can find the Shaka Zulu series they made, man literally changed warfare in that part of Africa.

Big issue with sub Saharan Africa is I don't think there was any groups that could field a 10,000 man army, not many at least, not till after islam showed up and gave a unifying identity to different groups. This is just from what I know I may be wrong though.

Just saying there are good African AND African Americans stories we can tell. Actually have fleshing out the chimera republic in mind. I think I started to realize an issues with the knights and samurai shit. Wanna read in an another anon?

True dat, and ya that could be a fun read feel free.

[rayadraws]

Sorrel things rotating in my head:

- Sorrel is 300-something years old which is still young by a dragon's standards, he's basically the equivalent of a young adult fucking around and doing whatever before deciding what they want to do with their life. But for him, that phase is going to last for uh, up to a couple thousand years

- One of the things that differentiates him from humans is that he he more even-keeled than most of us would be in any given situation. He's very expressive in human form but rarely feels any overflowing emotion, he's in an even content mood most of the time and it takes a lot to truly upset him. A lot of things that would bother/frighten us don't affect him at all, they're just not concerns to him. While in dragon form he isn't capable of much emoting, he looks pretty intimidating even while calm.

- Once pushed to true anger he can be VERY aggressive, "I will delight in ripping out your intestines with my teeth" levels

- He does genuinely like humans (his definition of "human" is very loose btw, this includes elves, tieflings etc) but he doesn't truly understand them all the time. This is something that'll improve over the centuries with experience

- On that note, he IS very supportive; he truly sees beauty in everyone (who's not evil) and he, again, genuinely cares about people. Just in a somewhat distant/strange way sometimes. But if you're feeling down and need reassurance he'd give the BEST positive feedback, perhaps with a bonus Bless to send you on your way

- "Soldier, Poet, King" is a song that fits/summarizes him well I think, currently he is at the "soldier" stage, he will fight evil with his sword, relying almost entirely on his physical strength. Give him a thousand years and he'll learned to achieve greatness with diplomacy instead/as well. Another thousand years and he'll have the wisdom to guide and/or lead a kingdom, should the need arise

- He is social and outgoing while in a settlement but dragons are solitary by nature and he does not suffer from being alone for extended periods of time, which he often is while travelling. He doesn't crave friends or a family, it's just not in his nature to wish for that, but he doesn't mind adventuring with others if someone asks him to go with them and he will protect/care for the people around him.

- His motivations are the fight for justice, good vs evil and honourable actions, these are qualities he encourages in the people he meets

[gogogogolev]

The 2023 Grand Prix de France men's FS results, final results, and Stephen's protocol.

So keeping in mind that Stephen had three days of prep coming into this event we will discuss these results, and speak in general about his season.

To start off let's acknowledge that Stephen got two different quads out and two triple Axels done. For some reason he just popped that 3Lz which was costly considering how close the scores were. He is still having multiple pops per free skate which is really hurting his technical score. He also missed a combination for the second straight event. He did well to hang onto the Euler combination. He also got another level 4 step sequence, which is great. The starting 4T was really nice. He should definitely consider just doing a 4T3T in the FS as well, like he is in the SP. It would mean less pressure for him to get the 4S in combo, and maybe that would keep him from popping it. He could do a solo 4T instead of trying two 4S and popping one or both.

Someone was saying Stephen needs to work on everything. His jump consistency, his GOEs, his PCS. He's popping jumps at every event. He has had some of the lowest PCS scores of the field in his two events. Canadian judges give him even lower PCS scores than he gets internationally so it's looking dire. Even if he skates clean in terms of jumps his PCS score is going to have him around at least 20-30 points back of the top men (this problem is not exclusive to him). He has been relying on his choreographers to improve his PCS, but the top men work with the same choreographers as him. That's not it. The question that arises next from the fans is that - does Stephen want to skate? They get the sense he does not care to improve because his heart is not in this sport, that he is only being forced to do it. Which is concerning, but how are we to know what's really going on with him?

For what it's worth I think Stephen still wishes to skate, it's just not as enjoyable for him anymore. Nobody puts their body through the hell of training these jumps without a desire to achieve something, and he still has that desire. His environment is just not allowing him to produce the results he wants and that's demoralizing. I mean he has gone to two major international events in 2023 without a coach - WTT and now Grand Prix de France. I am not sure why Skate Canada is ok with this, but this is not going to help him. I'm grateful Benoit was with him, and he could get a better result with him than he had at Skate America, but it's kind of ridiculous that a top Canadian skater is going to events without a coach. I would not find this acceptable for any skater, let alone Stephen who really needs the guidance and support of a coach.

You have to wonder sometimes what level Stephen would be at with a coaching team that helped him thrive like when he was younger because his potential is so high. At this event 2/3 of the guys who competed at 2018 JGPF were competing, and the guy who finished 4th back then won the event with a score of 300+ to put things in perspective. But you can't live in the past or in a world of imagination.

Looking on the bright side Stephen finishes this GP season with a higher score than he put out all of last season and he also picked up some points and moved up to 31st in the World Standings. He will probably go down a bit by year's end but hopefully he's still top 40. He also picked up a new personal best tech score for the SP. And seventh in this field is a respectable finish for a guy who found out he was going to compete a week before.

I hope Stephen is able to return to Granite Club and get some training in before Nationals during UCI's winter break. Otherwise I am really not sure how Nationals will go for him. He'll be skating 16th in the SP there. You can view the schedule here. The media is going to be focusing on the men's event with the unpredictability and the possibility for a new National Champion so it's going to be a little bit of a circus but I'm sure these guys will survive.

Thanks for your hard work Stephen and for doing your best to improve your results. Keep your head up, stay healthy, and keep going into 2024.

[mbti-notes]

Anon wrote: Hello, I am INFX, 21 y.o. After reading your blog, taking some tests and understanding functions (hopefully) a little better, I narrowed down my options to INFP and INFJ. If you are able to, I would gladly use your help in determining my type. As for important information: I have a generalized anxiety disorder, I had depression for several years and I am still prone to depressive episodes. English is not my first language.

I will start with INFP functional stack. Fi Dom: I have a fuzzy sense of identity, which is why I often don't know what I like or dislike, get stuck, don't trust my gut feelings, rely on others a lot in decision-making processes. I do tend to judge things as either good or bad depending on my beliefs, but the beliefs are weak. I don't trust them unless they are built on a solid framework of knowledge and evidence. I need to know rather than believe. My emotions emerge seemingly from nowhere. I can't identify what's the reason for them and how to deal with them. But for some reason I still think I make decisions relying on my emotions, it's just that if I always relied on them it would do more harm than good.

Te Inf: I have trouble understanding Te. I know Te is about external structure. Actually I rarely encounter extremely messy lifestyle as in Fi extreme and I can plan things decently, even if I don't like doing so. Structure helps me and I need it in order not to become chaotic, so I always have an agenda and don't like it when plans are cancelled. Especially in recent years I got better at structuring my life. Most of the time I know what to do to solve my problems, I just don't want to do it. So I don't think I've ever encountered Te grip (at least not from what I'm aware of). At my lowest points I did have trouble to take care of myself but I attribute it to depression.

Ne Aux: Ne is one of the few functions I can decently use and understand in a positive way. I often look for new activities to participate in, new hobbies (especially creative ones). I have 300+ tabs open at all times because I research many different topics at once. I can generate creative ideas (usually for my art) with the help of sensory experience (such as music). Often manifests in unhealthy ways - I use daydreaming to escape responsibilities.

I can find a lot of opportunities but I don't indulge in them or follow through, which makes my interests shallow. I like making lists (of albums to listen, movies to watch, stuff to draw, things to do in general), but I rarely do what's in those lists. I'd rather daydream about it than actually do something. This is one of my greatest struggles, because I have ideas and inspirations but they always stay in my head or on paper and never come to fruition.

What makes me think Ne is my Aux rather than Dom is that I am very risk-averse and not very extraverted (I know ENXP are the most introverted extraverts though), I have never been very positive either or extremely chaotic either.

Si Tert: I am prone to not stepping outside of my comfort zone. I want new experiences but at the same time I'm afraid of them. As I've mentioned before I am very risk-averse, not taking even calculated risks. Fear of failure holds me back. I'm afraid that the status quo may change not in my favor (it will all go downhill if I make a mistake, so I'd rather do nothing at all).

Moving onto INFJ stack: Ni Dom: I struggle with perfectionism because I have an ideal image of things I want to implement and I'm too afraid I will fail to achieve the ideal; I have a perfect version of myself in mind which I strive to be one day (but often fail to come even close to it). I don't have a clear picture of my future though.

I know that many people equate Ni with "insightful" thinking, which I cannot relate to. I "predict" the future in a negative way, always expecting a catastrophe and feeling paranoid at worst. I often jump to pessimistic conclusion way before anything bad happened. I keep telling myself that it's better to keep expectations low in order not to get disappointed.

Se Inf: I cannot engage with physical world because of escapism. When I'm outside I don't notice my surroundings at all. I go through life on autopilot. Even when I try to be present and focus on the current moment, my sensing is dulled, almost muted, and the engagement feels shallow. I'm always in my head, made-up scenarios are more comforting to me than the real world. I reflected on it for some time and decided depression is not to blame because my Se was unhealthy/unused before that as well, it just escalated.

--------------------

You've made it clear that dominant Fi and inferior Te don't fit. That is more than enough to rule out INFP, so I'm not sure why you're still considering it. The info you gave for dominant Ni and inferior Se sounds fine, but I'm not sure why Fe and Ti are missing. Did you not send them? Did I not receive them? In any case, I can't draw a firm conclusion without information about the entire stack.

[eazy-group]

LaKesha lost 129 pounds

New Post has been published on https://eazydiet.net/lakesha-lost-129-pounds/

LaKesha lost 129 pounds

Transformation of the Day: LaKesha shares how she lost 129 pounds. This proud mom is determined to live a long, healthy life for her son. She also wanted to prove to herself that she could reach her wellness goals. She has achieved impressive results by working with her trainer and committing to a healthy lifestyle.

Social Media: Kesha Marie on Facebook @keeshmarie83 on Instagram @mbakeesh on TikTok

What was your motivation? What inspired you to keep going, even when you wanted to give up? My motivation has always been my son. He is the reason why I keep going. I would never want him to have the burden of losing me early in his life. I want to do this for myself as well, to prove to myself that I can do it and overcome the struggle.

How did you change your eating habits?  Sugar has always been a huge problem for me. I love pizza, pasta, and bread. This is not my first time on this journey, so I know what to do. It’s just a matter of telling myself daily that I have to do it. Eating more protein and getting the right amount of healthy foods is still something I find myself struggling with, but I’m better than I was before. That’s what makes me confident that I will reach my goals. 

I know that food intake is the biggest part of weight loss. I realize that my meals have to be filled with fruits, veggies, and lean meats if I want to see real results. 

What is your workout routine?  The first time around, I did it on my own. I lost motivation and found myself regaining 60 lbs of the 80 lbs I lost. 

I realized this time I needed help. I work out with a trainer (Brianna CroMartie of CroMartie Fitness) which was the best decision I made for myself. We come across trainers who are there but not there, if that makes sense. She really cares about every single one of her clients – Not just our physical health but our mental, spiritual, and emotional health. It all plays a part in our success. 

How often did you work out? Bri offers 1:1 sessions online and in person. She also does three weekly boot camps (please get with her if you are ready to change your life). 

I work out six times a week, depending on my schedule and my son’s schedule. I do three 1:1 sessions with Bri and three Bootcamp sessions with her other clients. She recently started offering a Saturday circuit Training session that I attend as well. I also work out at Planet Fitness to get some extra work in sometimes. 

What was your starting weight? What is your current weight? My highest weight was actually 387 pounds. The first time around I lost over 80lbs. I went from 355 lbs to 275 lbs. I gained weight back and found myself back over 300 lbs when I started training with my trainer. I am currently down over 125 pounds and my current weight is 258 pounds. 

What is your height? 5’8″ 1/2 

When did you start your journey? How long did your transformation take? This is my second time at this, so it has been a journey for me. I am years in the game but I’m determined to finish this up in 2024. Losing weight and then gaining it back after a few years was one of the hardest things ever. Putting all that hard work in and then seeing myself slip and gain it back wasn’t easy to accept. 

Is weight loss surgery part of your journey? No, weight loss surgery is not a part of my journey. 

What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned so far? This is an ongoing process; I have to make a conscious effort daily to make the right choices/decisions. Some days, I pass, and some days, I fail. It’s not about perfection. It’s about progress. That’s the biggest lesson I’m learning as I continue on this journey. 

If I want to truly reach the best version of myself, I have to understand that every day will not be easy, but it will be worth it.

What advice do you have for women who want to lose weight? Get ya mind right! Mind over matter is a huge part of the journey and one of the biggest struggles to overcome. Deep down we know what we need to do to be the healthiest version of ourselves but we have to get our mind to follow. 

Many of us also struggle with self-discipline. Once the motivation to keep going is gone, you have to have self-discipline to carry you through.

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[kvetchinglyneurotic]

Do you have a process with your writing? It’s so good

Thank you! In practice it's not quite as neatly divided into steps, but the writing process basically looks like this:

Step 1: an idea approaches

I'm going about my day when suddenly I'm struck by a scene, a bit of dialogue, or — and these are usually specific to original fic ideas — a setting/magic system/historical event. Fanfic ideas can also come from questions about canon: The Hedgehog's Dilemma started with me asking myself 1) how Jamie would react to something like Wembley in season 1, and 2) how the relationship he's shown to have with Georgie in season 3 fits with what he says/is implied about it at the ghost bonfire.

Step 2: the world and characters

This step is definitely a bigger part of the writing process for original fic — this is where I flesh out the setting, the history, cultures, laws, and magic systems, draw the maps, create broad strokes character profiles, ect. — but it is also part of the writing process for fanfics, although it usually happens concurrent with or after step 3. The fanfic version is basically making a note of the timeline, coming up with or deciding on an interpretation of character backstories (depending on how much canon evidence there is), and just generally making sure I have a clear idea of who everyone is, what motivates them, how they see the world, ect.

Step 3: plot and character arcs

Before I start outlining, I let the fic percolate in my mind for a couple of days. If it didn't already happen during ideas phase, this is when I figure out what I'm trying to say thematically and get a sense of how the handful of scenes or the premise I have floating around would fit into a story. Once I have the main plot beats, and ending, and character arcs for the leads, it's outlining time.

Step 4: turn step 3 into an outline

If I already have a pretty good idea of the plot, I just get right to it and write all the scenes into a checklist, which is divided by chapters if it's not a one-shot. If I'm still working out some of the finer plotpoints, I write out everything I have so far in a list and then break that down into scenes. My outlines are usually general descriptions of a scene with notes on dialogue or the characters' emotions, and I'm not really strict about following it as I write, although I will go back and rework the outline if things are really going in a different direction than anticipated.

Step 5: write

For me, a lot of writing is about momentum: I enjoy it when I'm doing it regularly but I have a hard time getting back into it if I've taken a break, so I try to write every day, which I accomplish this by having a very low daily goal of 300 words. I'll often write more than that, but it's low enough to feel achievable when I'm busy or tired or just don't feel like it. Otherwise, my writing process is just to go through my outline in order and check off scenes as they're done.

Step 6: edit 😕

When I write fiction, I'll usually edit a chapter once or maybe twice before I post it. In my academic life, however, a solid 40% of the writing process is just editing, so here's how I do that in case anyone is looking for an editing process:

The read through: after I finish writing, I let it sit for a day if I have time, then read the entire thing. I'll usually fix minor grammar/spelling mistakes just to keep myself paying attention, but the goal here is to make note of structural problems. Is there a natural flow between scenes/ideas? Are there any parts that are repetitive or extraneous or, alternatively, is there anything missing?

Structural edit: fix the things I noticed on the read through.

Repeat steps 1 and 2 until I'm satisfied

Line edit: this is where I clean up the writing itself — spelling, grammar, making sure there's variation in sentence structure and word choice, ect.

[subliminalbo]

A couple days ago I mentioned that Carpenter State would split off into two main storylines. I was referring to Assimilation and Alphas. It would take a bit longer for Alphas to materialize as a full series, but Captured is essentially the first Alphas story. Captured was first conceptualized as a prologue to Corbin's Story, which would have followed student reporter Corbin Arroyo's internship with a now very brainwashed Santiago Cruz.

Corbin was actually the very first Carpenter State character that I developed, appearing in a promo for another series that was never realized a full month before Gabrielle Peerman and half a year before Lacey Stafford. Despite that, I struggled to fit Corbin into anything, and the longer it took to find a series for her, the more it felt like it had to be something big. I had been hyping up this hardboiled reporter thing for so long by the time I started Captured.

I don't remember why I thought there needed to be an extended prologue before jumping into Corbin's Story. If I had to guess, it's probably because I wanted readers to be familiar with her before the mind control. That's definitely why Captured is set up the way it is. I had to create an entirely new character to be the victim of the mind control so that I could show Corbin in action. Before Captured, almost every chapter was this self-contained thing where we follow a protagonist who becomes enslaved within that 300 to 1,200 word stretch. Following a character for this many chapters without them getting mind controlled was an entirely new concept for me and I had a lot of anxiety when writing it, which you can see in some of the choices that I make in this chapter.

The common problems are still present here. We get the massive wall of text with little regard for topic changes, but my experimentation with first person also raises questions about the narration. I've joked that Captured is my Great Gatsby because Corbin knows a little too much about events that she wasn't around for.

Ultimately, Captured is still a relic of an older era, but it's a bit fresher than the old old stuff. There's a lot of ideas that I like in it, but the execution is still way too sloppy for me to fully enjoy the read. I've been working on a rewrite of this series for way too long now, but it's not dormant. I've nailed down a lot of new ideas and I think I've gotten the series to a place that I really enjoy writing.

Some more thoughts:

The Tip is another one of those chapters where the biggest issue is that I cover way too much plot in way too little of space. I lean on Corbin's voice a little too much to achieve that: instead of seeing the events unfold, Corbin tells us about the events like she's having a conversation with the reader. It's a lazy technique that's unique to first person narration.

"But I know you're not here for my background as an investigative blogger. You want to hear about my internship with Santiago Cruz, about how she turned me into her brainwashed slave, another loyal fashion blogger who mindlessly dismisses the dubious ethics behind Obedience By Fleur. You want to hear about the pleasure I receive following my Mistress' commands. How she took the champion of social justice that I used to be and molded me into a compliant puppet begging for my next command."

And here's the obligatory "Corbin totally gets mind controlled in future, guys, trust me" bit. I just included this line because I was feeling really insecure about writing from the perspective of someone who isn't the sub. It really was a new concept to me.

"I didn't think much of it when Piper volunteered to investigate rumors that a sorority on campus was forcing pledges to wear Obedience by Fleur lingerie."

But why? Corbin is way too nonchalant about sending her friend into an obvious mind control trap. I think this behavior is a bit more understandable prior to Freshman Haze, which reveals that Corbin has a past with consensual hypnosis. I wrote this story without the knowledge, so I think Corbin's perspective is a lot more skeptical than it should be. Just another weakness of writing these chapter to chapter without a clear path forward.

For being such a major character in the series, Madison's introduction is really low-key.

I've always struggled to bring together a lot of the disparate elements of this series. It starts as a kind-of-sequel to Obedience by Fleur where we have the tie in with the mind control lingerie, but later we learn that Madison's actually using VR headsets to brainwash these girls, and later still that she's a very gifted hypnotist. I've got the series in a place now where I think these elements all connect in ways that make sense, but in this first draft of the series it really feels like I'm just throwing darts.

I basically created Piper to stand in for Corbin. I had always wanted to do a detective who stumbles naively into a mind control trap, but that's something that you can really only pull off once before you've burned the idea (or risk making your competent detective the absolute dumbest in sexy mind control lit).

Captured #1: The Tip

Originally published Jun 21, 2016 This series is being revised

When I started investigating crime around Carpenter State University, I didn't think it would be that big of a deal. It was just a small blog that I ran out of my apartment, but word spread fast and soon I had students all around campus sending me emails asking for my help. Since I learned to read I've wanted to be a journalist, and I knew as a student that I wasn't powerless to act. I could be the voice for the voiceless. I could use my talent now, while I'm here. That's why I started blogging. I made enemies quickly too--the fraternities, the athletics department, eventually the college administration. Remember the Carpenter State football scandal? The coach who gave hookers to recruits? I broke that story after the administration thought it was safely buried. I've been the bad guy, I've been the hero. But I don't care what you think of me. I'm only doing the right thing.

But I know you're not here for my background as an investigative blogger. You want to hear about my internship with Santiago Cruz, about how she turned me into her brainwashed slave, another loyal fashion blogger who mindlessly dismisses the dubious ethics behind Obedience By Fleur. You want to hear about the pleasure I receive following my Mistress' commands. How she took the champion of social justice that I used to be and molded me into a compliant puppet begging for my next command. But that's not where this story begins. First, let me tell you about Piper.

When I met Piper she was a biology major with zero background in journalism or writing. But Piper had been inspired by my blog, and she volunteered to help me. She became my first employee. By that time I'd built up quote the reputation around school and investigating leads was becoming difficult. Piper could slip into any party, event, or class unnoticed. I have to admit I envied her--I loved the chase, and I often felt relegated to the computer when Piper was out doing the real work. But that was the price I payed for kicking this particularly hornet's nest. Piper admitted to me that she hadn't been passionate about social issues until she started reading my blog, but ever she'd plowed through all of my articles in a night and felt a call to action. A few friends in her circle had started their own watch groups, but Piper wanted to be involved with me. She wanted to see change in action. She was loyal, devoted to nothing but bringing justice back to Carpenter State. She had a great heart.

I didn't think much of it when Piper volunteered to investigate rumors that a sorority on campus was forcing pledges to wear Obedience by Fleur lingerie. Stories about the product had been popping up around campus, but it was difficult to investigate anything. Many of the girls who wore the lingerie had done it willfully, and I suspected the ones who didn't, like the Alpha Delta Theta pledges, were too brainwashed to say anything. That's why this story was a great opportunity to finally take on a growing issue in the community. It wasn't just a feeling anymore, I'd been given names, locations, even testimony of what the Alpha girls were doing to the pledges when they were under. My source said it had begun with menial tasks like cleaning house and tending bar. But the older girls had grown power hungry, and soon they were taking their pledges to bed.

Pledge season was over, but Piper slipped in as an outsider, making friends with one of the Alpha Delta Theta girls at a prohibition era-themed St. Patrick's Day party. After expressing an interest in pledging in the fall, Piper's new friend took her to Madison Wells, the sorority president. Piper learned quickly that Madison was the mastermind of the whole Obedience by Fleur hazing, and she was getting the most out of her slaves. Madison was sitting on the couch, two slaves on either side of her. They didn't seem to have much to do other than cuddle up close to her, but Piper got the impression that they were more a part of Madison's ego trip than actually serving a purpose at the party. Another girl stood by her at all times, arms at her side, eyes staring forward in that robotic expression waiting for her orders. "Another drink, Abigail," Madison would say, and her slave would reply, "Yes, sister," before marching off to fetch her another cocktail. "Are you enjoying the party?" Madison asked Piper as the young investigator took a seat on the sofa across from Madison's couch.

"Yes," Piper replied. "It's very classy," Madison smiled and nodded. "I know the roaring twenties isn't the most original theme but I'm a literature major and I just can't get enough of Fitzgerald." The girl returned with a glass and Madison took a sip and continued to speak to Piper. The young girl by her side looked hurt to be ignored by her mistress, but she returned to her statuesque stance. "Have you had a drink?" Madison asked Piper. "No," Piper replied. "Not yet. Are they...?" She pointed to the two girls cuddling close to Madison. "My slaves, for now," Madison continued to smile. "Before we just had pledges dress up in ridiculous outfits and run down the street but I think this is the best hazing I've ever come up with." "How long are they going to be like that?" "Oh, just for the semester," Madison stroked the head of her left slave. The young girl returned a desiring whimper. "Once they've learned loyalty to our sisters, I'll release them. Of course they're free to think on their own outside of the house, so they can attend classes and work and I give them proper time for homework too but they have to do their chores first. The house has never looked this nice. And the party, they're such great decorators, aren't they?"

Piper nodded, trying not to look too disgusted.

"So what makes you want to be an Alpha girl?" Madison asked. "I've been looking for a sorority to pledge to since I started last fall," Piper lied. She despised everything about Greek life, and she wasn't even a freshman. "But so far I just...haven't liked the culture. Nothing fits for me."

"Oh?" Madison raised an eyebrow. "Of course, you know that membership isn't the only thing you pledge to Alpha Delta Theta." Madison turned her attention to her right slave, reaching around the young woman's body and squeezing her breast. A tiny squeak escaped from the girl's lips. "Some of the girls were reluctant, but Tina here, she couldn't wait to pledge her mind to the sisters." "Sister," Tina said in her quiet voice. "Are you going to play with me?" "Not now, Tina. Remember that patience is a virtue," Madison looked back to Piper and continued, "I like this one so much that I may have to keep her when the semester is over. I don't think she'll mind."

Piper's eyes darted to the floor. Her heart must have been jacked as she watched Madison's display of power over her pledges. "To tell you the truth," Piper began. "I want to feel the pleasure of serving Alpha Delta Theta too," More lies, but Piper knew that she had to say what she had to say to keep Madison dumb.

Madison's eyes scanned Piper's body and she concluded with a kind smile, "You're cute! I can't wait to have you as one of my sister's."

Piper broke away from the crowd at her first chance, finding a closet to hide in and message me. She sent me one text: "Got some good stuff. Snuck some pictures. Getting out of here." Piper hit send and heard the squeak of the doorknob behind her. She spun around to face the open door, the bright lights of the party, and a disappointed Madison standing before her. "Oh shit," Piper said.

The next morning I awoke to find no new messages from Piper. It was alarming, but I figured that she must have passed out when she got home and I left my apartment to track her down. Her place was just around the corner, and when I got there I buzzed for her to let me in but there was no response. She wasn't answering my texts, her phone went straight to voicemail. I told myself that it had been a late night and she was still in bed, so I sat down on a bench and waited. Regardless of what I hoped, I was starting to get the feeling that Piper had never made it home. And when I get a feeling, I'm almost never wrong.

Back at the sorority, the girls had passed out after a long night of partying. But in her bedroom, Madison was wide awake training her newest pledge. "Don't you feel so much better?" Madison asked, admiring her slave's athletic body. "Yes, sister," Piper replied, standing at attention for her mistress, stripped down to nothing but her new pair of Obedience by Fleur lingerie. "You were trying to get me in trouble," Madison frowned. "I'm sorry, sister Madison. I was a bad girl." "Mmm, that's right," Madison hummed as she slipped her hand down into Piper's panties. "Now I'm going to have to punish you." "Please," Piper breathed. The once independent girl had nothing on her mind now but the wishes of her mistress, the desire to be punished and the rewards she would receive through obedience. Piper was a strong woman, but even she couldn't fight the powerful waves of pleasure circulating through her body, and Madison had promised more pleasure if she submit. So she did. "Please, punish me." Piper repeated.

Madison smiled. "When I'm through with you, you'll be my masterpiece."

[sayruq]

who do you think is the bigger foil for the martells - lannisters or tyrells? or are they on the same level? (the targaryens are another conversation)

I would say the Lannisters. The Martells have a lot of dysfunction inside the family but that's usually caused by external factors and not something that they purposely inflict on one another with the exception of Oberyn who gave Obara lifelong trauma by separating her from her mother like that. Quentyn being raised by the Yronwoods happened because Oberyn was involved with Edgar Yronwood's death. This separation dealt a heavy blow to Doran and Mellario's marriage because Doran had to keep the peace but the act of fostering is alien in Norvos. Elia's murder has hung over the family like a dark cloud leading to Oberyn's obsession and Doran making moves with both revenge and avoidable mass death in mind. These are things the Martells don't have complete control over. It makes them tragic.

Compare that to Tywin deliberately breaking his children for not achieving a level of perfection that not even him can reach. The way the Martells accept everyone in their family- including and especially the bastard children is a world apart from Tywin holding his children's gender and disability against them. No Martell would ever think to subject their children to the kind of abuse Tyrion and Cersei endured.

When Doran paraded a group of old men before Arianne, not only was her refusal respected, it was expected because Doran never had the intention to marry her off. Meanwhile, Cersei is a queen and treated like a broodmare by her father still. Tywin only see Cersei as a womb and while Doran didn't confide in Arianne until she was 23, it was less to do with her gender and more to do with his paranoia. Once they got past that, Arianne was effectively his right-hand person. She's the one helping Doran plan against the Lannisters and she's the one sent to Aegon. Tywin would never dream of treating Cersei with such respect.

Doran sent Quentyn to Daenerys and while he knew the journey was going to be dangerous, Doran doesn't know how quickly the situation in Slaver's Bay deteriorated. In fact, the only reason he insisted on a small retinue for his son is so that Quentyn isn't found out which could lead to open war. The main conflict Doran deals with is between the needs of Dorne and the needs of his family. This is something Tywin (and his kids) doesn't care about because he'll put his pride and ego above the lives of millions without looking back.

The Martells also inspire loyalty. Oberyn came to King's Landing with 300 men and women, and thousands went to receive his body. Quentyn's companions followed him to his death and it's obvious that avenging his death (whether justified or not) is something Archibald and Gerris are going to be focused on in TWOW. Arianne got Orphans reporting to her, and her friends went with her during the Queenmaker plot- a treasonous plot designed to start a war. Doran was losing control over the smallfolk because of the anger the Sand Snakes inspired in them. Areo is wholly loyal to Doran and so is everyone else in his employment.

Compare that to Tyrion being left to die after Joffrey's death because no one wanted to fight with him. Cersei is Queen Mother and Queen Regent and she is forced to rely partly on sex to get people to do what she wants. She is also forced to do the Walk of Shame- the most powerful woman in Westeros. Jaime was a hostage in Riverrun while his father planned the Red Wedding and when he was captured, his father's men were critiquing his commander skills. The reason the Tyrells were able to encircle the Lannisters easily is that the Lannisters don't inspire loyalty. While his kids are at fault, it's mostly Tywin's fault for preferring brutality over soft power.

[eye-of-tichodroma]

“Oh but AI art is just like photography!”

EDIT: Actually I thought of a way shorter way to phrase this drawn-out essay: If using an AI to make art makes you an artist, then by the same logic commissioning a human artist makes you an artist too. After all, it was your basic idea. You told them “Draw a wolf in the forest at sunset for me”. They just did the “grunt work” of planning out the details and creating the actual picture (i.e. 99% of the work).

---

I see this argument around that AI generated stuff is to both digital and traditional art like 100 years ago photography was to paintings: a recent technological invention that will automate certain procedures that were traditionally done by humans. Cue outrage by people who were left behind by history. Bummer. I suppose the argument has some truth to it - you don’t need the technical skills of drawing anymore and can still “create” a nice image - and as someone who does photomanipulations I can’t disagree with the idea that using computers to help you create art is legitimate, but there is still the huge difference that all human-created art - including photography, at least the more artistic stuff, as I will explain below - is created from scratch in accordance with an artistic vision and AI stuff generally isn’t.

To me, if your prompt to an AI is a 300 word description of the precise thing you imagine in your mind’s eye, down to the details, the colours, the image composition, and then the computer generates that for you, I would actually be open to calling that “art”. You still have the moral/legal issue of image scraping and copyright of course (though there could be an AI that only uses open domain pictures and other pictures where the artist has given consent), but that doesn’t impact whether it’s art, just whether it’s moral/legal to make art this way. If the problem you are solving with AI is that you lack the technical skills to make your ideas a reality, I would be fine with that. But if you just enter a general twenty word description into a prompt window (at worst including the name of an artist or a word like “beautiful” or “trending”) and sort through the results, that’s a very different matter, and to me that is not art.

I looked up how “prompt engineers” craft their prompts currently, and they’re much closer to 7 than to 300 words, not big on details, and use words like “magnificent” or “trendy” - which means that the computer does the actual thinking and decides how to achieve the wished-for effect. (Disclaimer: There might be AI systems that actually use 300 word prompts and artists who already use the level of control that I’m citing as a pre-requisite for “real art”. If so, please direct me to it, because I haven’t seen it.) An artist thinks “An eagle is magnificent, I will add an eagle to make the viewer think my image looks magnificent”. That’s creativity. These prompts say “Put in something that is magnificent”. See the difference? But even when the prompts are more concrete, they’re still leaving out most details. They say: Generate a wolf in a forest. What does the forest look like? The machine decides. Is that creativity? I don’t think so. Clearly a birch forest in spring evokes different emotions than a fir forest in winter. A fir forest in winter at dusk vs. at dawn evokes different emotions. Are the needles brown or green? Different emotions. Is there snow on the branches? Is the forest on a slope or on a plain? Are there branches only high on the trees or do they extend to the ground? Different emotions. An artist has to make dozens or thousands of decisions, depending on the complexity of their project, or there will not be an image.

I recognize that books have been written on the question of “What is art?” and everyone has a different answer to it. Maybe all of them are self-serving to a certain degree. Maybe I would have a different definition of the word, one that doesn’t put the concept of “vision” in a central place, if my own work hadn’t in the past been praised (if and when it was) most often for its “originality”. Maybe if the predominant praise had been that was “beautiful”, I would criticize AI stuff for being “tacky” instead. All those fake little details that look intricate but are really just swirls! And it takes its cues from so many different artists that there’s no visual coherence to it! But if “what is art?” is a question that has had thousands of answers in (probably) thousands of years, I might be forgiven for having my own. Creativity and self-expression matters for art.

Also this “AI is like photography” argument implies that nowadays everyone sees photography as equivalent to a painting/drawing, which is entirely not true. There are plenty of art websites that don’t accept photo submissions, and photography has to generally live up to a higher standard to be seen as art because of a general awareness that, in principle, every moron with a hand (or a nose) can press a shutter release. No one claims an idle snapshot has the same artistic merit as a painting that took 30 hours to complete. Serious, “artistic” photographers do a lot more than just take snapshots, there’s plenty of planning involved. You have to know about the effects of different lenses, lighting, make-up if you’re dealing with a human model, just the general staging of the scene. Serious photographers are generally able to edit an image after pressing the button as well, again in accordance with their plans, or “vision”, for the photo.

And also, photographers generally don’t pretend to be painters. It’s its own category. In analogy to that, if you autogenerate a landscape painting based on an open domain collection of Romantic era paintings, that is of course an entirely different matter than if you can replicate the style with your painting skills. Again, I make photomanipulations. If I pretended to be a painter, I’d get undeserved praise for how photorealistic my work is. But of course it’s photorealistic because there are, say, 30 different photos involved in the picture you see. Also, to return to the moral implications of AI image generation again, in general all the photos I use will be stock that is legitimate for me to use and I will link to each and every one of those if I didn’t take them myself. Because it’s the decent thing to do and because the DA photomanip groups I’m in wouldn’t even accept my submissions if I didn’t use and credit legit stock sources exclusively. Contrast that with how AI “art” is made.

So, in conclusion: I, personally, would see AI generated images as legitimate art if they are (1) planned out by humans, (2) based on willing/open domain source material, and (3) clearly marked as AI-generated. And currently, for the vast majority of AI-generated images I’ve seen, none of these criteria, or one at most (usually number 3) apply. And perhaps over time there will be more regulation that will make point 2 and 3 more common. I don’t think number 1, the point I consider the most important for the question whether it’s art or not, will become more common. In my best case scenario, in a year AI art uploads will have captions that begin with words like:

Created with Open Domain AI DreamBurst using the following prompt: ...

People who make fractals already write captions like this, so it’s not like it’s impossible. I think a lot of it will be up to how much of a “community” solidifies around AI image generation, and what the values of that community are. There are, after all, different types of people everywhere. But considering how much art theft there was on the internet even before AI images, I’m not holding my breath for it to become very common among people who use AI to generate images.

[itsclydebitches]

I kinda wonder, what could bakugou do (hori write bakugou to do) to make him less popular with the "anti" crowd. Like He was a horrid child no doubt and people who try to put blame on Deku or lessen the terrible shit bakugou did aren't great. But as we don't rly see it, we have to assume bakugous behaviour wasn't stopped, we only ever saw his mum "punishing" him when he was being rude after getting kiddnapped. Nothing will excuse what bakugou did, but he has stopped? He's overall a harsh person but he's not harrassing and bullying people anymore, specifically not deku, he's trying to attone for what he did to deku and has now apologised for it. His behaviour was never viewed as justified or good in the series, he's a scary figure in middle school, we're not meant to like his behaviour, so the series itself hasn't justified his actions.

As someone who relate to both bakugou and deku more than I'd like to admit (never told someone to jump tho, that's fucked lol) so I can 100% understand not liking or even hating bakugou but as someone who's not 15 anymore, looking back I also made a lot of really shitty decisions and like bakugou have tried to make up for it, and like deku I was 'friends' with people who hurt me.

Is there anything he can do for the "antis" to just dislike him rather that be "anti"?

(I'm very sorry if you've talked about this somewhere, you can just tell me to look for it if you have, I'll continue to look for your posts on the subject)

Hey there, anon! I think I’ve spoken about this only tangentially and/or in my main Bakugo meta, which is too big for anyone sane to read. So yeah, let’s chat here!

For me personally—and that’s all I can ever do: speak personally. I think it’s important to keep in mind that there is no single solution to please the “anti” crowd. Each fan will be looking for something slightly different in Bakugo’s character, much of which might contradict what a “stan” is currently enjoying. Given how charged a character he is, I'm not sure it's possible to get the entire fandom to like him—what I’m looking for hinges on having a different reading of the story than you seem to. Meaning, I think the series does justify his behavior. Not in any overt, super obvious way like having all the characters go, “Wow, Bakugo! I sure do love how you threaten people all the time. That’s super cool and heroic!” Things are rarely that straightforward. Rather, it’s in a more subtle, but consistent manner that paints a rather conclusive picture across hundreds of chapters.

Simply put, Bakugo is continually rewarded for his actions. Or, if not outright rewarded, his actions are ignored in a way that implies silent acceptance. Characters may not always like what he does... but they're willing to let it slide because Bakugo's heroism was always treated as a given, not something he had to earn and prove.

With the ever necessary disclaimer that I’m not fully caught up yet, here’s a list of some of the things that stood out to me in the first half of the series:

Bakugo’s bullying made him the most popular kid in school.

Bakugo’s bullying was ignored by/outright supported by the teachers.

Bakugo’s bullying did not hinder him from getting into U.A., one of the most prestigious hero schools around.

Despite acting horribly throughout his time at U.A. too, this behavior was continually ignored by the teachers and other authority figures around him.

Bakugo’s struggle to realize that other people aren’t “trash” doesn’t hurt his achievements in any way. He still gets top scores, still wins the tournament, etc.

Bakugo’s behavior gets him special attention from All Might, the greatest hero and Bakugo’s personal idol.

His behavior doesn’t make others dislike him in any manner that’s taken seriously. Everybody is still willing to not just put up with Bakugo, but—in time—start treating his behavior as a quirk (no pun intended lol) that they’re secretly fond of, rather than something he should legitimately be striving to change. Kirishima is the most overt example of this.

This is compounded by his behavior constantly being framed as humorous. Much like with Mineta’s perverted actions, characters might superficially go, “No, that’s bad!” but the story never demands any significant development because then we’d lose the “joke” of Bakugo screaming in rage at the slightest inconvenience, threatening to murder someone over nothing, constantly belittling everyone around him in a “funny” manner, etc. When fans talk about development of a manga character as archetypal and extreme as Bakugo, most don’t really want to see significant change to his base personality. Because then that would result in someone who doesn’t look like the “real” Bakugo: someone nicer, more even-tempered, more mature, etc. But for those of us who were never drawn to that personality in the first place, the continued acceptance of his rude, egotistical, and violent behavior is discomforting. The easiest comparison I can draw is between this and Bakugo’s mother slapping him. That slap is meant to be another “joke”—we see it constantly in shonen anime, something "humorous" you shouldn’t take too seriously because haha, it's just an overprotective mother—but many fans do take it seriously, using it as the basis for a whole “Bakugo was abused and this explains his behavior” reading. Well, I take the “joke” of Bakugo’s threats and insults seriously, especially in a story that starts with something like telling Izuku to jump off the roof. In the same way that many fans want others to treat Bakugo’s mother as a serious topic that has had a negative influence on his development, I want the series to take Bakugo’s everyday actions seriously as a negative influence on… well, everyone around him. But it doesn’t. His base personality is grudgingly adored.

The above two points are seen most overtly in Izuku, who never wavers in his respect for Bakugo despite how Bakugo treats him. Not just prior to U.A., but during their training too. Izuku, as the protagonist, is the emotional heart of this tale, so when he talks about how inspiring Bakugo is, it encourages the reader to see his behavior as inspiring too. Rather than, as said, something that needs to change. Izuku's continued friendship with Bakugo, his adoration of him, and his acceptance of the way he's treated has severely warped how the entire story sees Bakugo's actions. After all, if #pure Izuku can see the good in Bakugo, why can't everyone else? He must not be that bad after all.

I could get into detailed analyses of all the above—like how Bakugo was the one comforted after attacking Izuku outside the dorms at night and how the messed up relationship he has with Izuku is upheld as something to nurture; how the remedial courses he had to take were made to be rather silly, thereby undermining their supposed importance to his development; how Bakugo’s kidnapping had nothing to do with his flaws, but much of the fandom uses it as a way to dismiss any appropriate consequences because, “Hasn’t he suffered enough?” etc.—but in the interest of keeping this within a readable length, I’ll leave it at that. The point is that Bakugo has always been privileged when it comes to his behavior, resulting in others either outright praising it, ignoring it, or demanding that he change a miniscule bit, which always keeps him far below the standards of both his peers and the expectations of a hero. Everyone in 1-A must learn to be even better than the good people they already are... Bakugo needs to learn that other people aren't dirt at the bottom of his shoes. It's never been a particularly impressive development when pit against the rest of the class. All of which can make something like an apology feel pretty hollow. Yes, he’s apologized and I say with all seriousness that that’s great! But how does that apology stack up against 300+ chapters of content? As Bakugo’s words highlight, he's been a really awful person up "until now": he was consumed by Izuku being “miles ahead of [him],” he “looked down on [him]” because he didn’t have a quirk, he “didn’t want to recognize that,” he “hated that,” “grew distant,” “tried to beat you down,” “opposed you and tried to show my superiority over you,” and ends it all with, “it probably doesn’t mean anything telling you all this” before finally getting to the “I’m sorry.” This is basically a laundry list of how horrible a person Bakugo has been for the entire series, with an acknowledgement that this apology is coming really, really late. This is the moment where I could START to like Bakugo, depending on how he acts form here on out, but that pivotal moment arrived after six years of content and in the final arc of the story. It’s too late. Bakugo needed this kind of self-reflection and positive action 250+ chapters ago so he could (hopefully) grow into a better person across the story, not at the story's end. What we got instead is 322 chapters of him being a really horrible person, but the story going out of its way to excuse or even praise that behavior the majority of the time.

As a quick comparison to end on, I think what Bakugo needed was what Soo Jin got in True Beauty. You don’t need to have seen the drama to follow along. The tl;dr is that she has a lot of the core qualities of Bakugo: an all-consuming drive to win that was created due to abusive parents with high expectations, resulting in her bullying a peer to a pretty horrific extent. The difference between them is how the story frames their actions. When Soo Jin becomes the bully she loses everything. Rather than succeeding academically, her grades plummet, making it clear that this anxiety and self-doubt (things the fandom keeps insisting Bakugo is struggling with, but that rarely ever show up in the text) is actually impacting her day-to-day life. Her best friend drops her because she’s not going to support her choices. The boy she likes rejects her. She’s eventually forced to start over somewhere new - which importantly separates her from the girl she was bullying - and get some distance from her parents, resulting in the growth needed to become a healthier, happier, good person again. So when Soo Jin apologizes to the girl she hurt, it feels earned. The story continually recognized how horrific her actions were and put her into a place where she either had to change, or continue losing at everything else that was important to her. Bakugo? Bakugo doesn’t lose. Oh, he claims he does because he’s comparing himself to Izuku constantly, but that’s just him thinking in extremes. He still wins academically. Still wins many battles. Still wins at having friends. Still wins by maintaining the prestige of being a U.A. student. Still wins by getting All Might’s attention. Still wins by receiving Izuku’s respect and an agreement to maintain this rivalry that Bakugo is so obsessed with. Bakugo comes out well 99% of the time, he just thinks he's "lost" because he can't stand not being the absolute best.

For me, the story needed to have Bakugo face consequences for his behavior, not receive rewards and/or have others ignore it, and that revelation/apology needed to come way, way sooner. For me the issue is not a specific action that Horikoshi can have Bakugo do in the next chapter and them bam, I like him now. The problem is Bakugo’s entire concept, how he’s received by the entire cast, and his run across this entire series. "Entire" is the key word there. Which is why the “But he’s apologized. What more do you antis want?” reactions don’t sit well. What we wanted is a better written redemption arc across those 300+ chapters, not a single scene that’s meant to have us forget all the other problems inherent in the story. At this point it’s a far more complicated situation than, “Bakugo just needs to do X, Y, and Z and then we’re golden.” At the end of the day, Horikoshi failed to make me like him as a person and I’m pretty sure he isn’t going to change Bakugo enough to make him likable to me. Bakugo was never the sort of character I’d be inclined towards without a serious, nuanced redemption arc, but sadly, a core, crucial part of that redemption arc took six years to arrive. At this point there’s no way to change the problems in Bakugo’s writing for that huge chunk of the series and not enough time left in the series, it seems, to do the work we should have seen across the entire run. Honestly, idk if the Bakugo we'll get going forward is someone I can just dislike as opposed to being really uncomfortable with, but my money is on there being too little story left and too much investment in upholding Bakugo's base personality for that to happen. I could absolutely be proven wrong! But I think the problems are structural and needed to be better dealt with from page one, not hastily patched over in the final hour.

[samueldays]

Thea: The Awakening guide to the Piece of Cake achievement and AAR, part 1/2 (turns 1-99)

As this is written on my personal blog and not GameFAQs, I'm going to indulge in some rambling alongside the guide, for the benefit of followers who have no idea about this game but might be vidya-curious.

(Continued in Part 2.)

Thea:TA is a pretty good Slavic-fantasy post-apocalyptic game about gathering survivors to build your village, hunt monsters, raise children, collect resources, craft gear, do quests, and save the world. It's somewhere between CRPG and 4X -- maybe a 3x, there's no "Expand", you just have the one village and perhaps explorer parties. Difficulty is adjustable. Today I'm going to talk about turning the difficulty almost all the way up.

"Every Decision Counts" is the hardest achievement shown by default. "Piece of Cake" is a hidden achievement that I'm going to describe how I get here as I play along and explain. I had it already; this is a repeat for demonstration.

The maximum difficulty rating with everything turned up is 350%, so the first question is what you most want to turn down to 300%.

It's tempting to turn off "Bloodbath" (stops characters from going below 0 HP, vastly increasing their survival chances after a hard fight). But that eats your entire budget, and you're still going to be getting into lots of hard fights due to the combination of world progression speed, high monster aggressiveness, and small groups of villagers. Better to win the fights by a large margin, by having larger groups with better gear.

Here's my setup for 300%:

World Size: Small (0%)

World Progression: Normal (10%)

Group Limits: 16 (10%)

Other items as in screenshot

If I were to suggest something else, it would be reducing Realism for the gathering carryover.

Once the game starts, there are three strategic points to keep in mind:

Keep ahead of the difficulty curve. Thea has a little bit of rubberbanding in that your population growth decreases with your population, but if your gear is trash, or you haven't got advancements, or you haven't got resources, the game is not going to hand them to you. Tougher monsters will show up over time.

Keep gathering. This ties into the first point for gathering the resources that will provide your gear and advancements, but also means that your expedition should know when to not move. It's easy to get distracted picking a little shiny here, a little shiny there.

Know the game. You should be aware of the important quest components, like leshys, dragon, avatar, zmey, and which can be dealt with how. You should be familiar with the tech trees and the build requirements. You should know not to burn rare woods for fuel. Thea has enough randomness that you need to be able to adapt based on your situation, which requires an understanding of what your options and tools are. Imitating me is nowhere near enough to get the chievos.

And one technical point: you can use the autosave feature to reload -- this does not require crashing the game or file editing, so I consider it merely very cheesy as opposed to outright hacks. "Saves Off" disables the normal Save and Load buttons, and restricts you to one savefile. The autosave function saves to that file every 5 turns, not after every action. You can still use the Load Autosave button, and the Save And Exit button which also uses the autosave slot. If you save and exit at the start of a turn, load back in, and fight a battle, then loading again will take you to the pre-battle start of turn, so you can retry it.

For patron deity, I suggest a L3+ Perun, L5 obviously preferable. Perun is best god, but also the hardest to unlock. If you don't want to slog through all that yet, L5 Morena for the advancement points is second best. Failing that, L3+ Mokosh for the extra food. You'll be sitting in the village gathering a lot, and rerolling several starts with this approach, and food variety provides important buffs. Suggested village focus: Gatherers.

Start the game, skip Theo's Tutorial, put your starting advancement points (assuming Perun) into Wicker, Elfwood, Monsterbone and Quartz to unlock the maximum amount of visible resources. Move your starting villagers around, and check if you have good resources within 3 tiles of the village. 3 tiles is the gathering range after building upgraded Blessed Paths. You also need to have at least one craftable resource within 1 tile that you can use to generate advancement off the bat. Nice bonuses: 2 food so you can get a variety of cooking going, coal, resources within 2 tiles to get midgame.

If your start is good enough, use the Load Autosave command to un-move your villagers and un-spend your points, returning you to the start of the turn. If not, reroll! And look for the resources that let you build Blessed Paths.

Blessed Paths is important to my strategy - it lets you sit in the village and grind the gather -> craft -> advance cycle more without having to risk splitting the party or going outside the walls, if you have relevant resources nearby. It's found in the east branch of the Construction tab, behind Watchtower and Palisade. Here are its construction requirements:

Something that's not obvious from this screenshot:

The "Dryadwood" slots accept only Dryadwood. Not Ancientwood.

The other slots accept the shown resource or better of same category. "String" accepts any thread. "Silver" accepts silver or mithrill. "Amber" accepts any gem.

Dryadwood + Ruby + Dryadwood is probably the cheapest way to get +2, but it depends on what you have nearby.

Here's the start I'm going to be using for the example run:

Advancement points after the reset: Spidersilk, Quartz, Granite, Light Armor Crafting. (I'm going to ignore the vines, they're entirely surplus.)

That means I can grind spidersilk armor, netting (ha) better equipped dudes and more advancement points. But first I'm going to check starting gear and explore the surroundings a little more - if I find Coal nearby, I would have everything I need for Blessed Paths +1.

A child grows up while exploring and I pick Gatherer class. We need to be harvesting wood and food to keep the village warm and fed, we want to be harvesting spidersilk and crafting armor, and the village started with 2 Gatherers 1 Craftsman, while the expedition started with 2 Gatherers 1 Warrior 1 Hunter.

Exploring shows Clay, Steel, Obsidian to the east. (All locked.) I wipe out the easy monsters en route, and find Coal further east. The little problem is, Coal takes 414 gather points for one load, and I have skill 4 + 4 + 3 = 75 gather points in my current exploring group. What I could really use now is a wicker or cane resource to make gathering baskets. Failing that, Amber + Coal as a fallback to make gathering jewelry.

Theo shows up with the tutorial hints once I've cooked food, awarding some random resources and asking me to make a village building. Since Perun starts with village buildings, Theo shows up again the next turn, awarding more random resources. I got some Clay, but sadly, no wicker, so I call the exploring party back and go west, stopping at the village to deconstruct spare loot and exchange food.

Let's talk about food a bit.

This screen and subsystem are a pretty good piece of game design, IMO, because you can entirely ignore it and still complete the game just fine. Entirely optional subsystem that you don't need to interact with or think about. Nor does it gate any gameplay content.

At the same time it shows a clever, sensible mechanic to encourage you to interact with the cooking system for buffs, instead of just hammering "gather more mushrooms". Every variety of food your party has available gives an incremental buff up to 10 kinds, shown on the right. In this case I started with meat in storage, picked mushrooms near the village, picked fruit and seaweed on the expedition, and cooked some stew to get up to 5 kinds, giving the first bonus movement point.

Also, cooking meat + mushrooms to get Bigos produces more units of supplies than just eating the ingredients raw. Cooking is great!

The exploring party randomly looted many fine sandstone blocks from a group of skeletons (don't think too hard about it), so bringing them home makes it easy to start constructing a proper pasture without consuming precious wood needed for fires in this cold, post-apocalyptic age.

Also, a proper crafting tool[kit] from Iron and Clay for my crafter.

The exploring party finds Cane to the west, so that is going to be my next advancement point use, which will be coming up soon thanks to my crafter work. On Turn 20, the advancement point rolls in, I unlock Cane, the crafter at home starts a cane+clay gathering basket with the freebie, and the explorer party starts gathering more cane. Current status: 8 people, 5 researches.

Once the exploring party has harvested cane twice for 12 units, they head back, drop off the cane to be turned into 3 new gathering baskets (oddly, cane+clay is better than cane+spidersilk), pick up the premade basket, join the village for a turn to assist the gathering, and leave again to gather more cane until everyone has superior baskets. Cosmic Tree quest appears during this time, and I'm going to be ignoring it. Getting the baskets is far more important to get the economy going.

With a pasture up, I'm pulling in Mushrooms, Meat, Fish regularly, and cooking more foods. I get another advancement point from basket spam on turn 35, and unlock Cabbage Patch. (This is where babies are found. I figure it's a Slavic equivalent to the stork.) More children means more villagers eventually, now I have baskets and spidersilk, so I'm going to be heading for the Blessed Paths next. On turn 40, a random crafter joins my village, not from a child growing up but from the pasture's "Attract Humans" modifier. He'll sit at home since crafting on the move won't be implemented until Thea 2: The Shattering. On Turn 41, the Hangedman appears to curse my people, and I do my first savescum reload (not counting the initial map rerolls) to avoid that since I don't want his curses, taking me back to 40 still with the crafter.

My expedition leaves again to acquire Granite for a better cabbage patch, while my village is getting food and spidersilk clothes. A lot of End Turn happens with only minor adjustments to optimize gathering under realism constraints. By turn 50, I've gotten the Cosmic Tree, Divine Quest, Herbalist, Dziody, Smith locations popping up and ignoring all of them.

Then another kid matures enough to undergo the rites of passage into adulthood, and I wonder for a while between my class options: Crafter, Warrior, Gatherer, Medic. Eventually I settle on Gatherer, but I'll want a Warrior next - tougher fights are starting to appear. Still there's spidersilk needing 360 gather points for one bag (6 units). She joins the expedition, so now I have 5 at home and 5 abroad.

Some random events occasionally provide more resources.

One of the many tiny optimizations for high difficulty is that this bird meat should immediately be restricted and then cooked to provide both more food and more varied food.

Bandits show up. I track them down and beat them up for my stuff back. Some spider nests have spawned to the west, and I aggressively hunt down spider packs (on the offense you can use Hunting instead of Combat, which doesn't sap real HP) while leaving the 2-skull nests to spawn more spiders that are relatively weak and provide good drops (more spidersilk). While the expedition is out, I visit the Smithy with the lovelorn dwarf and then go to see the Rusalka about some children, picking up whatever resources I can gather in 1 turn on the way when the expedition camps.

The names are so I can easily keep track of who belongs at home, who belongs abroad, because the expedition rejoins the home village often to do a little work and then split again.

Orcs are easy enough to take down with Social Combat, picking up 4 human(ish?) kids and red ribbon. One of the kids matures while traveling, and this time I promote to Warrior, and promptly equip him with the gear I get from the dwarf smith. At this point my explorer group is up to 11 food types, zipping around the map with +2 move, taking fights easily with the +5 health +3 damage benefits of a varied diet and good morale.

Palisade researched on turn 80. The Attract Human %chance buildings draw another Warrior to sit at home defending the village, and I'm up to 12 people. A child matures and I take the rare chance at a Sage, hoping for magic skill - nope. Did have medic skill though. The Sage Borzymir is given a gathering bucket and set to gather.

I roll a Crow joining my group from a random event. I split it off from the group and send it to go die alone. This is because Thea has rubberband mechanisms: your population goes up slower when you have more people. The cute crow that can't wear armor or weapons, and has crappy HP and skills, counts as a people.

I go to see about the next step of Cosmic Tree quest. Leshy 1 has an elf and wants me to go kill the allegedly corrupt Leshy 2. When I find him, Leshy 2 says "no u" and offers me a payment of Ancientwood to take a few flakes of his tree and lie to the allegedly corrupt Leshy 1. I accept the payment and a social blessing, and set off to lie -- a funny thing about the Social Combat implementation in this game is that you lie better with more people in your party, even if they are individually unconvincing. So I move a Sage and Warrior from village to adventuring party temporarily. Leshy 1 is suspicious, but eventually accepts that I killed Leshy 2, and hands over the plot-relevant elf with the infodump.

The elf starts explaining, then offers me the option to skip the textual cutscene. Thank you, developers, thank you kindly!

I get a random loot drop of enchanted bone and use it to start a spidersilk+bone vest that gives +magic for my sage, which will let me access several useful options in encounters.

The expedition comes home to help gather and craft a bit. Blessed Paths is unlocked on turn 94 and I start construction with spidersilk + granite + coal. This only provides +1 radius, but it's a good start. +2 radius requires one of Nimblewood, Diamond, Ruby or Mithril in the construction. I don't even have the prerequisites unlocked to see those, much less gather them, since I rushed BP so hard. It's going to take a while to build. My traveling expedition goes to hit up a few more sidequest sites meanwhile. The next steps in the main quests are facing Perun's Avatar and the Dragon guarding the cosmic tree clue, neither of which I am even vaguely ready at this stage, the explorers being seven guys with pointy sticks.

I get lucky and have another Sage join me in a random event of an old man at a campfire, this one with native magic skill, so now I have two!

Continued in part 2 due to post image limit.