#further explanation in the tags

[certainlyathrill]

i’ll find you in every lifetime (threat)

[burningcheese-merchant]

Alright, so. Now that we have official confirmation for how Awakened Hollyberry looks (she's gorgeous btw, slay queen), I'd love to take the time to talk about certain design motifs I've noticed in every Ancient - namely, that they all seem to incorporate aspects of their Beast counterpart into their appearances upon awakening.

Let's look at Dark Cacao first.

Obviously, he has an awful lot more white in his design now. "The balance of black and white is key," he says. And he demonstrates that with his hair as well as his attire: a pleasing mixture of black and white, perfectly split down his middle, in such a way that they mirror each other exactly.

Next, Golden Cheese.

It can be said that the reddish tones were added more to her surroundings than to she herself (fucking LOOK AT THAT BACKGROUND); however, it remains clear that the most important part is her Soul Jam. Upon awakening, it becomes a striking mix of gold/yellow AND red, both of which seemingly melting into each other. There are also red accents in her crown/headdress now, making it look like that red hue/glow that's in her Soul Jam is spilling outwards. (Not to mention the red triangle on her spear.)

Third is Pure Vanilla.

Smaller detail is how his brooch now more closely resembles Shadow Milk's, with those teensy little dual prongs (or whatever they're called) on the sides. Bigger detail is how the underside of his cape/cloak is not only a dark blue, which was previously nowhere to be seen on his person (but everywhere on Shadow Milk's), but there are eyes in it. Exactly like the eyes in Shadow Milk's hair.

And finally, Hollyberry.

Holly has adopted an even more unique and interesting change than the other 3 have: her Soul Jam has outright changed shape, now more closely matching the angular shape of Eternal Sugar's Soul Jam. Furthermore, there are wing shapes/designs not only in her helmet, but on the back of her shield, as well. (It can also be argued that the golden holly leaves on her helmet resemble a halo. Who else has a halo?)

Why do these details matter? What do they tell us? In my opinion, they demonstrate a specific aspect of the Ancients' enlightenment: their understanding and acceptance of their Beast counterparts and their vices. In being briefly touched by apathy, Dark Cacao remembered who and what it is he must be fighting for; it is thanks to it, and to Mystic Flour by extension, that he overcame his flaws and awakened. Through her battle with Burning Spice and the suffering he inflicted upon her, Golden Cheese came to see the merit in destruction, in that it is what she wanted and needed to carry out in order to defeat him and save everyone; destruction as a form of justice and protection, not aimless cruelty. In his time in the Spire of All Knowledge, plus his brief but willing descent into corruption and despair, Pure Vanilla came to truly grasp the meaning behind both his own actions and Shadow Milk's; embracing deceit in the pursuit of truth. And it will likely be that Hollyberry realizes the folly in her chronic desire to run away from and ignore her problems while trapped in Eternal Sugar's jewelry box, and remember who she raises her shield for and why, thus regaining her true passion while wallowing in sloth.

Resolution cannot exist without Apathy, Abundance cannot exist without Destruction, Truth cannot exist without Deceit, and Passion cannot exist without Sloth. While they may not explicitly state this understanding through words (minus Pure Vanilla), it is nevertheless conveyed through these other details. Dark Cacao, too, once knew apathy through his own bitter withdrawal from the world; he just retreated behind walls and not into a cocoon. Golden Cheese was also a victim of the cycle of change, and had everything she worked for ruined; instead of bitterly forsaking all life and letting everything go in acceptance of brtual nihilism, she just chose the opposite extreme of clinging too hard to what remained of who and what she loved and refused to let go, to the point of severe delusion. Pure Vanilla also knew the pain truth and knowledge often bring - most notably in learning what truly became of White Lily - and recognizes the desire to obscure these things in favor of amusing, comforting lies. The Ancients understand their other halves completely, their hatred and pain and sorrow, and the virtues turned vices they now stand for. And thus, they quietly embrace the power and importance of these skewed ideals, for it is they, and those fallen heroes that champion them, that finally made the Ancients become who they needed to be. They finally became whole.

In essence, they say, "you are a part of me, now and forever, for better or worse. And I accept that. I accept you."

I've been wanting to make this analysis post for a while lol. Thank you all for coming to my TED Talk, I look forward to when and how White Lily incorporates Silent Salt into her design

[mynameismad]

designing my ideal video game

[feral-bird-enjoyer]

Pictures of a sapling love

[onemillionfurries]

For anyone worried about the FurAffinity hack: Y'all don't need to panic and delete your FA's or anything. The only thing that was compromised was the domain name system (DNS). That in no way affects the actual stored server information.

This is basically the equivalent to that cartoon gag where someone sees an arrow sign pointing to a pile of treasure, and flips it to point instead to a rubbish dump. Or if someone were to replace the number for your local pizza place in the phone book with a butcher shop. People looking to call the pizza place would accidentally call the butcher shop, and people looking for treasure would accidentally be lead to a rubbish dump.

Both the treasure and rubbish dump are completely unaffected. Same with the pizza place and butcher shop. You are just being lead to the wrong server when you try to go to furaffinity.net.

[thatnoulguyorsomething]

Wait hold on. Wormblr, I think I've cracked it. I figured it all out. It makes sense now.

Biter is a he/him lesbian.

[meamiki]

[reverse entry AU]

so glad the work week is over!

no more meetings!

what do you mean its only tuesday.

[crumbledtoast]

I absolutely adore it when people talk inside the tags

Like I don't know, it's just nice to read

[insinirate]

a second wedding venue has hit the satsukana

[identityquest]

redesign of my simple country lawyer

[lethal-highway]

something im really enjoying about chapters 3 and 4 as i rotate them in my head is the influence of touhou on the story. darkners as objects becoming animate when exposed to a supernatural energy (darkest dark) and the existence of a world where mysterious spirits live and there's magic (dark world) is pretty clearly inspired by gensokyo and the various youkai inhabitants.

while i do not think this is where toby fox is actually going with the story, i find the idea that the dark world is essentially a gensokyo-esque 'spirit/fantasy world' where the souls of objects live to be an interesting prospect. the worlds only intersecting when dark fountains are made reminds me of how sometimes people fall into gensokyo and maribel's being able to see the boundary of gensokyo

anyway all of this is really just to set up the following joke:

gang, we've finally done it. we have a male touhou boss fight, and it's tenna

[thorough-witness-enjoyer]

Hi hi!

I loved your rants on the Traveler and read your pinned post and was just curious to hear about your destiny OCs (or anything else you want to talk about honestly)! Please ramble as it's always a good time to read to have someone go on in detail about their interests.

Light be with you!

Greetings!!!

This was such a sweet message and I’m delighted that you found an interest in the things I discuss on this blog!!! Thank you so much for the kind words and for wanting to hear about my ocs!!

Okay so we have- *I fall down a comically long flight of stairs with my box of ocs as they go everywhere* Sorry, sorry!

Truth be told, I have a LOT of ocs from all the different species and societies of Destiny as I have been into the game for practically two-thirds of my life, more than I can possibly disclose in just one post (especially because I can talk forever about these things!!)

So, I thought it would be fun if I described my many characters and their stories as silly blog/news titles and opening statements! This is only a small handful of my ocs, but if you guys want more or see one idea you’d like to hear more of, I’ll consider posting additional content of them!

Here we go:

Infamous deathsinger-school drop out meets agoraphobic Eliksni captain at Eliksni-Hive bar, requires his and his sardonic, elder dreg‘s protection against her vengeful knight sister.

Small Uluran girl tends to her family farm with her Psion in-house caretaker, finds out the only thing more troubling than a poor harvest is Torobatl politics as her caretaker brings his fragile partner into the household.

Local Last City ghost sees success at the opening of her new therapy café despite not having hands and only employing other guardian-less ghosts.

Top ten activities to do with the goat your Witness does not approve of, but your acolytes adore! (Number 4 will certainly unleash its rage!)

BREAKING: Awoken guardian and her exo best friend are kicked out of Spider‘s Palace after starting a drunken fight over a gambling dispute for the 20th time. “I remember being young, desired, out until dawn, and unbothered by responsibilities” says their middle-aged Psion fiduciary.

This Vex harpy enjoys listening to a vagrant exo hunter play his flute and doesn’t enjoy Minotaurs at all according to the vagrant hunter that menacingly approached us.

EXCLUSIVE: We interviewed the Young Wolf on why they continue to slay gods and they said “There really isn’t much else to do and my only friends are Ghost and Crow”.

Hundreds dead and thousands more injured after a fairy betrayal in the Court of Understanding left the Great Navigator paranoid that necromancy was spreading amongst his closest circle (A fairy is a Hive class I invented that is akin to court jesters for the upper class, especially the Osmium siblings. They are light-weight and agile, possessing the ability to float, while also wielding long-range weaponry. I definitely plan to explain this concept in the future and perhaps provide artwork for them!)

Long lost sibling of the architect of The Witness found in reclusive cabin with non-verbal child, told us to “Fuck off” and “Tell that disturbed prophet I want nothing to do with them”.

How to answer your young child when they start asking questions like “Why do our neighbors have four arms?” and “If the Final Shape happens, do I still have to go to school?”: A guide written by an average Last City dad with a curious daughter.

Whats better than the daughter of a baron and a cynical knight running away to live a life of piracy and blasphemy together? Studies show it’s the daughter of a baron and a cynical knight doing all of that AND being lesbians.

Renowned Hive romantic novelist takes acolyte playwright under his wing after their work reaches acclaim in the Court of War for its depiction of the Eater of Hope’s trials with redemption and love. “This will definitely win back the hat loving wizard that I had spawn with” the novelist claimed as he flipped his decadent cape.

Old Psion yells “All paracasual beings need to die in their rotting entitlement, especially that red bloated bastard and that big eyed freak he calls ‘My Mistress’!”and immediately dies after telling his aids about his time spent directly under Nezarec.

HEARTWARMING: This Lubraen stalker welcomes newcomers by giving them a tour around the city and making their bigotry apparent.

Is this the style of the summer? Qugu person sports new curled tendril mane as they embrace the end of everything.

She’s a beefy wizard, he’s a scrawny knight, they are irritating rivals: The couple that fell in love again after becoming lucent thanks to their devoted spawn.

Potential assassin of the Witness found and held under that black liquid it comes out of until their will falters. “I had to do something to protect them. No one protected my planet. I didn’t care how much I’d pay for it” stated the now-disciple fish creature.

I have tons of concepts remaining and I thoroughly love all these characters, but I don’t want this post to be too long!! I adore expanding on unexplored areas of Destiny lore and I wish I had the time to make content for my ideas!!

Thank you again for the question and I hope I adequately answered it!! Light be with you too!!

[xx-j4nu5-c4t5-xx]

WARNING: INCREDIBLY LONG POST AHEAD

The Sims 2 Fitness System: Proposing Reworks and Slowly Going Insane

I. Introduction

The Sims 2 was absolutely revolutionary, both for its time, and even into the modern day, as a life simulation game. The level of detail put into seemingly basic systems and interactions and the love that was poured into every part of the game make it stand out even among titles that released years later.

However, the passage of time halts for no man, and The Sims 2 is no exception. The graphics are often described as looking rough and rudimentary, some of the references haven't aged spectacularly, and it is very clearly a product of its time. Despite this, most aspects of the game translate perfectly fine to today's audiences, except for one system that I've noticed is less than spectacular: the part that dictates the shape of your sim's body.

The fitness slider is a pretty simple framework: work out, and your sim gains muscle, and their body changes to reflect it. Eat too much, and they'll put on some weight. Do neither, and they stay skinny.

Simple enough.

But why is being skinny the default? And why are muscle and fat treated as mutually exclusive, like a human being can't have both?

And why are they in that order? Why would you have to lose muscle to gain fat? Why is being skinny a step you have to go through at all, when someone could realistically transition from muscular to fat or vice versa without ever fully losing either?

Well, a large part of it, I'm sure, was the 2000's and the focus on skinniness, especially among teenagers and young adults (which seemed to be the target audience when TS2 released). Skinniness being treated as a default somewhat lines up with the culture of the time. But it shouldn't have to work like that, right? Especially not now? There's got to be a better way of going about it all.

II. The Proposal

A muscular frame and a heavy-set frame can both be considered extreme values on a scale, and a thinner one can be considered neither. Simply put, if you've got fat, you're chubby; if you've got muscle, you're beefy; and if you've got neither, you're skinny. But that doesn't mean that skinniness is a midpoint between the two other states like on a simple scale, number line style.

In reality, muscle and fat aren't positive or negative values of one variable. They're two entirely separate variables that can be toyed with to create an entire spectrum. Thinness is now no longer a midpoint, but a third state that the body can fall into.

You can be fat, and you can be muscular. You can be neither.

And now, you can now be both. Or a mix of all three states, go nuts.

With this setup, you've got less of a line and more of a triangle, with any point falling inside it corresponding to a different mix of variables. None of the points cancel out or directly oppose one another, and none is treated as the default value of the system.

So what's the default, then?

III. The Catch

The three extremes have to meet at one point in the center, right?

So what do we do if a sim is right in the middle? Does any fluctuation immediately send the poor thing careening into an entirely different body shape?

No. That's a bit much. What we need now is a middle ground between the extreme values. Something that doesn't lean too hard into being muscular, fat, or thin. A nice balance. A default or average body shape.

Would this require adding a fourth, entirely new body morph to the game? Would it even really solve the problem? Would it be worth any of the trouble of setting it up?

Yes, maybe, and probably not, if I'm honest.

But as long as we're dreaming the dream, let's imagine it.

The cool thing about equilateral triangles is that you can divide them into four equal triangles that are congruent with the original one. So, if we take a standard triangle and divide it into fourths, we get our little zones.

A sim, based on some outside stuff I'll get into later, will be assigned a point in the triangle that falls into one of these four zones, assigning them a different body shape. As the sim's point moves through the space, it may land in different zones and change their body accordingly.

But computers can't just look at a cute little diagram and understand it. We need a way to communicate to the program that hey! this does actually make sense and isn't just a bunch of nonsense. We gotta speak their language, and they speak the language... of math.

IV. The Math Jargon

Stick with me. I don't know what I'm talking about either, so I'll try to explain what I'm doing as well as I can.

The cool division thing about equilateral triangles also applies to right triangles as well, specifically the one we're using. Basically, what we need to do is make a graph all math class style so the computer can interpret it into usable data.

To do this, we need a series of steps.

Step 1: Make a graph. Let's say the Y axis is muscle and the X is fat. A Y-value of 1 is entirely muscular, an X-value of 1 is entirely fat, and the origin (0,0) is entirely skinny. Cool.

Step 2: Make the triangle. Let's add our X and Y values together so that, if the result is ever greater than 1, the point is invalid. This means that the point (0.25, 0.75) is valid, but (0.26, 0.75) is outside of the triangle and is therefore a nonsensical value. This makes it so that any point defined must land within the triangle to make any sense.

Step 3: Define the regions. Now we do the thing where we split it into fourths again, creating our zones (and making sure they match the variables we set). I've attempted to work out the math below but I'm a notoriously shit mathematician so don't take my word for it.

If x + y < 0.50, set the body type to Thin.

If .50 > (x + y) > 1, then check the variables.

If x > .50, set body type to Fat.

If y > .50, set body type to Fit.

If x and y are both < .50, set body type to Default.

(I've also tried my hand at writing something that could correct the values if they get out of the triangle.)

If x + y > 1,

If x = y, set both variables to .50.

If x and y are not equal, average both values with .50 over and over until the point is valid.

Step 4: Now, all we have to do is link up the zones with the different body shapes and, if all the math works right, we're good to go!

V. So what does this do actually

Having this system in place not only allows for more realistic and balanced weight and fitness changes, but also for more control over the changes themselves.

A sim's body type is no longer a single variable; it's a dynamic value that can be skewed in more specific directions based on their actions and lives.

For example:

A sim that gets pregnant could have their fat value increase slightly.

A sim that has recently been very ill or has died and been resurrected could lose points in both their muscle and fat values, making them skinnier.

A sim that successfully wins a fight could have their muscle value increase slightly.

A sim that stops working out regularly could gradually lose muscle points over time.

A sim that frequently eats things like takeout and pizza could have their fat value increase over time.

This system would allow for not only more variation in bodies among sims, but also for more realistic reactions to their habits and environments. Would it be tricky to implement? Yes. But maybe it could be worth the trouble.

[man-me--a-sand]

it’s been like a month now since I finished reading new mutants but. I received vague interest so these r my sparknotes feelings. I had varying levels of familiarity with these characters previously bc I’ve read a lot of xmen. so I had some biases going in.

however the biggest thought I walked away with was. demon bear was disappointing. It was hyped up a whole bunch and like. the art was stunning!!but the actual story? I liked the scenes where you just see the team Caring Deeply for one another. but the actual fight scenes were. fine i guess. I expected more Dani focus but illyana managed to sneak in there. Sam wore a hat and I really liked that.

there’s the whole thing I’ve heard of like. oh demon bear is the darkest arc or is the first thing to start taking it down a different route. which I don’t really agree with bc there was messed up stuff happening the whole time and I think my biggest ‘holy shit they’re doing this that’s insane’ happened before demon bear?? idk id have to double check my live reacts

in terms of like. individual characters.

rahne. unfortunately my first memorable experience with her was xfi. so I was biased against her going in. I still find her annoying but I want to put her in a blanket and keep her safe. baby girl.

Dani is so cool. I have no real thoughts she’s just a Cool Girl. I liked her spear.

Roberto was less than I anticipated. I love him I’d kill for him but he didn’t really stand out super often. tbf he gets his moment in fallen angels. everyone was too mean to him though. everyone was so mean to him all the time and while he was insufferable at points. it was so uncalled for?? need a new trial of magneto where he gets in trouble for not being nice enough to Roberto.

Amara. im sorry I hate her she’s so annoying she has no redeeming qualities. i wish i could like her. I cannot bring myself to enjoy her I was glad when she left. also her with the hellions and empathwas the most interesting I found her.

Xuân. im shockingly neutral on. somehow I’ve never really read anything that’s *about* her. and this kinda felt the same way. she’s fun I guess. but im so neutral on her.

illyana is fun and I enjoy her. she suffers a little bit from Wolverine syndrome I think where im SO exposed to her all the time that I can’t love her the same. but I do like her. she took over stories but like she’s pretty op and has a fun background to work with so I get why it happens.

Doug I read a lot of him on krakoa so I think a lot of my caring about him sprouted from that. bc he’s cute but also really annoying at points. his death. surprised me in many ways because holy shit it was depressing and messed up the stuff that happened afterwards. but the death itself felt so. anticlimactic. I was thinking as I read it like ‘oh this one isn’t the permanent death right?? bc that was so.’ and then it was. he’s sweet.

sam. listen sam was the character I was most familiar w going in. and he’s the one who’s appearances post new mutants I’ve been following. I have talked about guthries. I like him :)

I think I liked Magneto as a teacher better than Charles. more freedom, more conflict. it was more interesting and I really enjoyed the specific relationships between magneto and the kids

I had not anticipated the amount of personality the hellions had. I didn’t know they showed up that much and were like. real people. but I really liked them. catseye especially :)

however. this was much more racist than I knew. it was not ever mentioned to me how much they’d say things. they just. kept saying things. they didn’t stop. and also. there were a lot of changing shots. why did we see them in their underwear so much even as they emphasized how young they were. that bothered me.

overall it was very good. technically speaking I stopped reading during inferno bc that was where I had already read it all recently. but I think personally the weakest point was pre-inferno. I didn’t like the gosamyr stuff. and maybe im biased bc i love xforce but getting some new characters in there was great for it. anyways i really liked new mutants and while. im sad it took me this long to read it. I don’t think I would’ve enjoyed it the same way a few years ago :)

[crimeronan]

a few days ago i got an anon asking about devin's ethnicity... just wanted to say i'm not ignoring the question (and also, the answer isn't going to be some kind of major plot spoiler). it DID, however, make me realize that 1) i need to write myself a proper worldbuilding bible, and 2) from there, i need to talk to my qpp about devin specifically for..... probably like. Several Hours.

so. there Will be an answer. but it'll be after i've done those rather time-intensive things 😭

[whimsicalcotton]

open it, open it, open it