#wanders ask hour

[wandering-free-and-queer]

perchance you’ve already answered this somewhere, but what are some of your favorite witchy projects? any that you’re particularly proud of from over the years?

feel free to gab i’m curious

HAHAHAHHAHHA you're in for it now Cheshi

I love love love love LOVE making witchy jewelry, and using witchy themed fabrics for making messenger bags, and just in general crafting things for my practice. My personal practice is very aesthetic based, because I am an artistic person, NOT because I think witchcraft needs to be a perfect aesthetic to practice. I spend time lovingly crafting my tools and spell jars because I want them to look good WHILE ALSO serving a purpose. The purpose comes first, the aesthetic is built up to serve the purpose, not vice versa.

Is it a quilt, or is it a protection shield? Is it a bracelet, or a piece of well-thought-out devotion? Is it a bag, or has it been enchanted to make all contents findable? The answer is always both! When working on a project, I think about my intentions, what I want the results to be, and that in turn enchants the final product. What I personally find is that the act of creation itself is most of the intention. I don't need to deliberately think "this is knot magic and I'm going to turn this crocheted shawl into a glamour" while I'm working, because the act of creation is an act of love, and that itself is such a powerful tool in my repertoire that I don't need to focus on my intentions while creating, I can just create. Art is love, whether it's a love for the self, a love for the other, a love for the act of creation, a love for the message you want to send. Art is love, it is passion, it is devotion and praise and humility and divinity and whatever else you can think of, because art is, above all else, a human act of bringing about Something where there was once Nothing.

Art and magic go hand in hand for me because they BOTH are a process of making Something from Nothing. They are at once inseparable, because to me, one cannot be without the other. Magic is an art form just like any other act of creation, why else would we call it The Magical Arts?

Humans are drawn to create. We find a gap in what we have and what we want and we find a way to fill it. Whether it takes the form of art or magic is entirely up to you, but it's regardless YOURS, your act of creation, that brings about change. Art is change, magic is change, and it's your act of change. Even removing the act of creation, you decide you want to grow and change because you're tired of standing in the same stagnant waters. You are yourself, in that moment, becoming an act of creation. You are art, you are magic, and you are enacting a change in yourself because you WANT it that badly.

Art, magic, self improvement, they intertwine in such a way for myself that I could never dream of separating them. Life is an act of creation. I aim to treat it as such. We don't live on a planet of some Divinity's creation, we live on a planet that we have molded, for better or worse, to our own ideas of creation. We have made art, and culture, and magic, and science, and everything about this world, because we have decided to engage in creation. Not because a deity came along and said "do this in my name". We did it because WE wanted to.

This, to me, is the foundation of my art, my magic, my life, my everything. Creation is divine because we made it such, not because the divine told us to create.

...

Went off on a hella tangent, reread your original ask, and hot damn did I get off topic. I think my fave witch-crafty projects have been in the "turn spells into wearable art" category, whether it's turning a spell into a wrap bracelet or making a blanket that also doubles as a shield or making an item of clothing specifically worn during magic and rituals. More photos will come as I finally (!!!!!!!!!!) get my craft studio set up and the rest of my projects from my parents house lol.

[arcane-wanderers]

Are you guys still stuck in the arcane? Or did it drop you somewhere?

[wolfsuggest]

AU where Stiles becomes a streamer (I low-key have an entire AU which also includes a scene where Peter invades his room during a stream cause he smelled and heard Stiles get really sad suddenly and when he gets in there Stiles is sorta sitting there taking a moment to think while staring at his chat and he asks why Stiles is sad and Stiles just sniffles and tells him he got to level 100 in the skull caverns in Stardew and then later on in the day dropped a bomb in his greenhouse and now him and his chat are trying to figure out if he should restart the day or if he should sacrifice his ancient fruit stock to use the seed maker and refill the greenhouse tomorrow and honestly Peter has zero idea what any of that means) and one day he’s streaming on his usual week night… but he’s doing it at the Hale house and what none of them realized was that Peter and Derek won’t get out of their full shifts today and they keep wandering in and interrupting his stream to demand forehead kisses before leaving again and the chat is desperately trying to figure out why he’s got fucking WOLVES demanding kisses every ten minutes like where did you get those?????? ‘Umm… well, I’m in a different location today and that location is inside a wolf preserve… these two domesticated themselves and won’t leave????’ Peter comes back in at that point and demands more kisses, and is very good when Stiles shows him off for the camera and shows him that this one is very much domesticated. He didn’t realize til later that he could have said they’re indoor wolf dogs and now he’s still face palming about it.

[ranchwamen]

I WAS GONNA MESSAGE YOU ON YOUR MAIN BUT IT WOULD MAKE MORE SENSE HERE

I know Luca did this but I love the idea of fish being treated domestic cattle? Like idk something about having a group of fish just. Grazing. Idk

Our grunts were doing this earlier and I thought it was silly like that’s a herd not a school

ANYWAYS in your mermaid verses does like. Aquaculture/agriculture combination exist?

Yes yes yes it does!!! Tending to domestic schools of fish is one of the biggest food sources of merfolk, though I've only really brought it up once in a singular comic panel:

Aand admittedly I haven't figured out all the logistics of it ^^' There are domestic fish subspecies for sure, pikes and several species of sharks for example, but the livestock of the sea are a different matter. I like the idea of fully domestic fish subspecies that live with humans all the time but I also like the domestic reindeer approach where — despite the prefix "domestic" — the reindeer spend a large portion of the year in the wild and only come to humans' care for the winter. I guess it'd be tricky to keep fish in a single place without having any escape (3-dimensional space and all), but also, I feel like domestic fish would be accustomed to merfolk and would wish to school near them anyway due to the protection they offer.

Actually, the domestication of fish seems like a very natural course to take place. Merfolk are big to most fish, medium shark-sized, and do not pose an immediate threat, so they're good to school near. Merfolk change their environment in all sorts of ways, they expose prey to eating when obtaining materials, they build things, and then those things grow tasty algae and polyps and mussels to eat. Merfolk eat a lot themselves and leave cooked food scraps to enjoy. Merfolk don't like predators near them and therefore chase them away, giving the fish safety, and once they start building little barns for the fish, well, then they'll be extra safe!! Perhaps then, merfolk settlements (located near coasts) would keep these fully domestic schools, and more nomadic groups of merfolk (who travel in the uppermost levels of the pelagic zone) would have semi-domestic schools of fish to keep instead.

Huh, yeah, fish livestock must come in very handy in taking care of biofouling matters, snails and slugs and other grazers can't do it all by themselves. Oooh not to mention the possibilities for aquaponics!!!! Domestic fish graze on algae and tasty delicious things to them, their waste fertilises the big plants (and worms) delicious to humans, humans eat both as they grow, profit! Although just how nutrient-heavy the water must be in these aquaculture farms due to the large amount of fish livestock, ehhh.... balancing how close to settlements you can keep the livestock in the name of food delivering efficiency vs how far you need to have them be to keep the water clean, what a tricky matter. Excellent for worldbuilding though :D I bet it's a really pressing issue regarding the eutrophication and species loss of the environment, merfolk settlements being located so far away from their agricultural areas for comfort and cleanliness reasons, inadvertedly causing their spheres of influence to be much bigger, forcing natural ecosystems to grow smaller, more fragmented and more nutrient-heavy, and causing disruption in the ecosystems' natural processes. Nevermind how much food exporting must've caused aquaculture farms to grow massive, especially in the modern age where the demands of billions of people must be met!! See, just because they're in the water doesn't mean they're more rudimentary or more in-tune with nature, lol.

To make a long story short, yeah !!!! Merfolk keep fish, but also other groups of animals like reptiles, crustaceans, mollusks and annelids to eat... and also to have as buddies and do jobs! Not all fish are livestock, very few fish species are "fitting" enough to be domesticated, and even then wild and domestic populations of the same species exist, but some species are livestock and serve as a major cornerstone of the merfolk diet!

[aieroartstudios]

RAIN WORLDDDDD YAAAAAAAAA

Peak game

YAAAAA IT IS PEAKKKKKK OMG

I’m really bad at it tho😭

[mothcpu]

OUGHG WAIT YOU KNOW ABOUT MARBLE HORNETS ?? SICK

yeah! the quintessential slenderman media imo, its amateur quality only adds to its charm. also have not drawn anything for it in a while, let me remedy that with jay

[autumnhobbit]

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[telesodalite]

Thinking about KrokFire...

Thinking about them sparring in the cargohold, because it's a long trip, and cabin fever is setting in, and Misfire is gonna pop a gasket if he doesn't do something about it soon, since flying in open space gets real boring real fast, and it's making everyone a little nervous, but Krok has time to kill, and maybe, quietly, he's also two steps away from doing something stupid just to feel alive again after cruising around pointlessly, mindlessly, endlessly, for so so long... (It's barely been a month)

And sure, Misfire is a terrible sparring partner. He has no technique, no concept of proper balance, or an inkling of how to use the weight of his own frame. He rushes headfirst like he's more bull than fighter jet, he talks too much, he spits, he bites, and he can't stand losing. But, in a roundabout way, it almost makes him the perfect partner in Krok's eyes.

Crankcase won't spar, "can't" he claims flatly, gesturing at the gaping hole in his helm, but Krok can respect his want for distance. That occasional flash of fear and frozen unease in Crankcase's visor in close combat doesn't go over his head. He knows that look. He gets it. He won't push.

Fulcrum... well, a streetlight might be a tougher fight, or at least it would stay up longer and complain less. So much for a once respectable officer of the empire. What was Deathsaurus' command thinking promoting anyone without any actual combat training? It would almost be pathetic if Fulcrum didn't find a way to put the vitriol of thrown fists into his words instead. Now there was some swears Krok hadn't heard in a couple millennia, it would be inspiring if it wasn't his own spark Fulcrum had been damning to the pits and back through a bloody nose.

Spinister? Now Spinister was a good fighter, a better fighter, Krok wasn't so prideful to deny that truth. He'd tasted the dust of the cargohold floor enough to know it was a definitive fact. But Spinister held back, he was careful, he matched Krok's pace, his movements, he held himself defensively, any attack was quick, simple, and merely restraining. It was less a fight, and more a waiting game until Krok finally gave up, and that... well, that did sting a bit.

But Misfire? Misfire was a different beast all together. Sure Krok could dance circles around the flier all day, but it wasn't totally effortless work, he had to stay sharp, Misfire was so predictably unpredictable, he kept him thinking, moving, on his toes, and maybe it felt good to sidestep another stupid headfirst charge, easily grabbing and swinging Misfire around by his arm, so unbalanced all Krok had to do was let him go, and the weight of his own frame would send him careening into the crates stacked around them.

Most days, Misfire would give up by then, pull himself off the pile of overturned cargo with no small amount of burning shame and frustration, as he avoided Krok's optics and stormed off into the bowels of the ship before Krok could say something to ease the sting of losing again and again. Misfire didn't want his apologies though, and even as a pang of guilt ate at him over it, Krok knew he'd be back eventually.

But today, too pent-up and bored to quit now, Misfire pushed himself back onto his feet and charged back in again, and again, and again.

And Krok moved with him again, and again, and again. It was almost repetitive, but lively enough that he could feel the energon pumping through his head, a thrumming beat in his audials that reminds him of deafening battlefields and roaring stadiums, and oh, he'd missed this feeling, the adrenaline, the movement, more so than he thought he did.

Maybe it's the overconfidence that gets him then, or the memories pulling him out of the present, but Misfire's fist suddenly comes slamming down into his mask, and for a moment everything becomes a blur, until he finds himself on the floor, clutching at the shattered metal falling from his face in disbelief.

Faintly he can feel the twinge of broken mesh, of pain pinching dully across scarred flickering sensors, and maybe it's the adrenaline that pulls a suprised and breathy laugh out of him as he stares down at the pieces in his hand.

Maybe it's also the disbelief, the sudden shock at being struck hard enough to break his mask, by Misfire of all mechs. Or maybe he's cracked his helm, finally snapping something important deep in his processor, some vital function that kept him sane all these years.

Either way, an old familiar buzz of heady energy fills his chest, loosening his joints and straightening his struts as he stands back up, brushing off the broken remains of his mask as he stares back at Misfire, barefaced and bleeding and amused as the flier's optics go bright and wide.

And all Misfire can do for a moment is stand there, wide-eyed and breathless, his own adrenaline filled frame and hammering processor still trying to make sense of the broken plating of his knuckles and the energon trickling down Krok's scarred lips.

But connections are made, and it's a panicked realization at first, a cold dread, a 'ohhhhh fuck oh primus I fucked up I'm dead I'm so fucking dead-!' sort of feeling, as Krok's marred face breaks into an energon stained grin. But then there's another feeling, growing somewhere underneath the panic, a sudden curl of heat in his chest, a flush of pride, conviction, a sort of frenzied joy at the sight of broken mesh and fresh energon, and another rush of hot anticipation as Krok began to move again, circling, waiting, an unspoken question in the air as he rolls his shoulders back and flexes his hands.

And Misfire answers eagerly, suprising himself almost as he charges foward again, wanting more of that feeling, wanting to win again.

It's not really sparring past this point, and somewhere in the back of their minds they both know that. Every strike, every kick, every punch, it's all thoughtless instinct, each clash of plating, and bite of denta, and scrape of fingertips, is part of a mad dash for victory in the gladiator pit of scrap and debris they've built around themselves.

Of course, it can't last forever. They're no real gladiators, no phase-sixers, no primes, and movements get sluggish, vents rattle and wheeze as coolant pumps reach their limits, and building condensation slides powerless punches right off of scuffed metal and mesh.

Even like this though, worn out and bleeding from more scrapes than he had half a mind to count, Krok is still better, and Misfire is still predictable, and it's no great feat to sweep his legs out from beneath him, landing him flat on the floor, wings spread out and chestplate heaving.

Overworked joints sharply protest as he goes to pin the flier down bodily, and finally Krok faces the fact he has to consider how to end this, so he might let his own beaten frame finally still for a moment to breathe.

But as Krok catches one flailing arm in his grip, scoffing at the desperation, still goading Misfire on even as he tries to end this, a hand stubbornly catches his throat, but stops before it can truly squeeze.

And once more they're not really moving, just staring, watching, but it's less wired and tense now, rather, its shaky, a little unfocused, as exhaustion filters out in heaving puffs of hot air between their frames.

Someone's plating is rattling, Krok isn't sure if it's his own or Misfire's, but the cost of adrenaline is painfully noticeable now. His grip loosens on Misfire's arms, and the idea of total victory is less sweet as his cables begin to ache throughout his inner-framework.

But Misfire's hand slides up to catch his jaw before he can lean back and relent to a truce, and he's pulling him closer, and Krok starts to push him off, call it quits before either of them breaks something past repair, but a flash of energon on Misfire lips catches his eye, and that hadn't been there a moment ago?

Before he can even begin to ask what that was supposed to mean, Misfire is pulling him down again, angling his helm upwards to feverishly meet his lips half-way.

Although the mesh of Misfire's face was throughly bruised and scuffed, Krok had frustratingly failed to return the favor of a busted lip. So, it had to be his own, smeared across Misfire's face at some point in the scuffle, it shouldn't have been interesting in the slightest, but Krok's processor was hazy, slow, and his optics trailed Misfire's glossa as he licked his lips and made an odd curious sound.

And maybe it was a stupid move to make so impulsively, one he'd regret making probably, but still too caught up in the waning heated high of the fight, Misfire figured he could worry about losing such a hard-earned battle later. Right now, this seemed far better than actually winning, and the taste of Krok's energon felt like a victory and reward nonetheless.

Bracing himself as Misfire wriggled his other hand free to splay out over his thigh, holding him desperately against his frame as he tried pulling him even closer, Krok considered the heat dispersion warnings flickering distractingly in his peripheral, and the very noticeable strain on his back and legs, even his arms.

It's not a great position to be in right now, after all they've done already. He'll regret it, he knows he will, his body will make sure of it, if Spinister doesn't first.

But then Misfire's glossa is sliding against the jagged edges of his teeth, and he's making hoarse little pathetic noises into Krok's mouth that stoke some sort of ego at having the flier so desperate beneath him, and Misfire's hands are warm and heavy over aching plating and seams, and really, on second thought, after weeks of boredom, why the hell not?

They've got nowhere to be.

[gynandromorph]

Are you familiar with Disco Elysium? It is a great game and I started imagining Jessie dressed as the main character.

Yeah, I tried it out and legit could not figure out where to go on the map to progress past the starting area so I never got to play much of it 💀

Jessie disco Elysium RP is a wild concept I feel like it could work

[nami-moittli]

I’m relating to ending prologue-early book 1 Ace very hard right now because I too have had a very long day and am very tired and very hungry and just want something to eat before I go to bed

[vangh17a]

Congratulations on 1 year, Vane! I love the glitchy aesthetic of Wanderer; the colors are gorgeous! Could you elaborate how Donnie interacts differently with his tech (bo, battle shell, etc.) now while he’s stuck in-game? Are they more limited in function, reduced to game weapons/armor? Could they be… more fragile? (angst haha) Or is their appearance just a cool design choice? Either way I adore their look!!

Ahh thank you so much! Gonna put a cut here because I have a feeling it's gonna be a long, image filled post :D

In a way it's kind of... All of the above. Ty for the ask, it's helping me flesh it out a little more haha

One thing I can 100% point out is that it is most definitely NOT Ninpo! All of the lil text boxes and weapons appearing? That's the game. This is pre-Donnie vs Witchtown, he'd flip out if you suggested anything he was doing right now was mystic haha

The first time we see him use his gear, it's through a game command.

So it's definitely taking on the role of the game's weapon/armor.

It's also very much so the same kind of "material" that his brother's avatars are made up of!

(Odd, Donnie's gear has a darker outline while everyone else has a lighter outline... hmmmmm)

But as we've seen with Leo's swords, they're *very* real. He hasn't had a chance to use any of it yet!

During the next arc we'll be able to see him change things up as he sees fit, and that means his gear too ;)

Thanks so much for the ask!

[eternalnostos]

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[suddencolds]

~ /delete later/ ~

[thevioletcaptain]

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[telemna-hyelle]

is it so hard to believe that Julius Caesar was wrong?

[whats-9plus10]

I'm sorry is Jackson Publick okay cause like

(he's talking about S6 here)

Did he just

Forget P.R.O.M and SPHINX rising? Also literally the last episode of S1?

I vary specifically remember him killing guys in those, and killing the Dean and Hank in S1 (which I count because even tho they came back he did actually kill them)

I didn’t get this until I watched the commentary for the first time.

In the show they made a couple of references that Gary didn’t actually become the scary, murdering henchman that people think he is. That’s just the reputation he created for himself by quietly letting people go or covering his tracks really well.

Doc and Jackson are really good at developing a whole universe for each character that we only see if they decide to elaborate. For example, the Morpho Mobile was NOT covered in the blood of their enemies like I, and I’m sure many other people, had assumed until the commentary clarified.

Doc says that while Gary was the cause of many deaths, he could separate himself from the actions. Now objectively, as the viewer, we know that if you release a snake into a vent after putting snake pheromones into a guy's coffee, it’s your fault if he dies from the snake bite. But Gary’s probably like “Well it wasn’t me it was the snake :)”. He killed the boys in season 1 by accident, he’s a blunderer, but he also knows they can’t die for some reason so that’s a way to justify “killing them”.

They LOVE to only show the before and after of the action. It would be very Venture Bros to have half of those guys from PROM wake up and have to call a cab home because Gary only knocked them unconscious. I don't know how Gary justifies killing the kid and the Long Division henchman. Cognitive dissonance. As a hero maybe he feels the rules are different and it's not murder if you're saving the day. Obviously, that's not true but our boy is doing some compartmentalizing lol

He can’t do that with Horangutan. It was just them, face to face, and Gary punched him so hard his head spun around.

So Gary goes back to tweaking his narrative by stashing guys in the downstairs bathroom. They seemed like they also wanted to play around with him not actually killing Wandering Spider either, but I THINK he actually did. His buried corpse was haunting Gary’s dreams. Who knows though they could explain that one away too. In the same episode, we see Gary as a babe taking credit for killing someone that died accidentally so that he could get his wings, but now the audience knows he never had the guts before.

I kind of love the confusion the audience feels because it’s almost like we’re experiencing what the people in that universe are experiencing. Especially when we see things through The Moanrch’s POV. He doesn’t find out Gary isn’t as tough as he pretended to be until season 6.