#I WAS THINKING MAYBE ID THINK OF A FACT FOR THE BUG TOO BUT. THIS GOT LONG TEEHEE

[sporesgalaxy]

Good morning Syd! I hope ur having a good day :^) Can you tell me your favourite part of One Piece or some fun facts abt your funny bug?

HIHI VAL I hope youre having a good day too!!!!! ^_^

My FAVORITE part of One Piece is its optimism!!!!

The world of One Piece is full of atrocity and treachery and inequality, we witness abuses of power again and again, but...again and again we are shown that those things can change. Those things can be fought against, and goodness and happiness still find their way into the world through people that love each other. However horrific an act of abuse is, however entrenched the power structure facilitating the abuse, the situation was forged by the deeds of People, and the deeds of People can therefore undo it.

Despair is seldom earnestly indulged in, not because awful truths of the world ever go ignored, but because One Piece strongly emphasizes that daring to hope and fight and LOVE, terrifying and perilous as it may be in a harsh world, is always worth it. Always has a meaningful impact. And it is the only way to change the world for the better.

It means a whole heck of a lot to me, because that kind of optimism doesn't come naturally to me. I fight it now, but I spent way too many years being proud of my ability to grin and bear it, to keep my mouth shut when things bothered me, etc. And I spent way too many of my younger years genuinely feeling like I was more trouble to love than the love I could give was worth. Those are both shitty ways to live that take a long time to unlearn.

I've made a lot of progress, especially in the last few years, but it's still deeply refreshing to see the optimism I'm fighting to achieve laid out with such clarity and purpose. It really feels like a breath of fresh air.

I fucking love yuo Monkey D. Luffy...........

[convoloutedinjoke]

Rating Disco Elysium characters based on how funny I think their kinks have the potential to be

Harry: the DSM of getting off on things. He likes piss he likes feet he likes the idea of being soooo small and tiny you could step on him like a bug, and while none of these things are funny on their own they are when he does them on account of his being a clown. He would also fuck a clown, incidentally. 8/10, knocking two points off because this lacks the element of surprise.

Kim: Leather and uniform fetishist. No wise guy shenanigans here. Will fuck you serious will fuck you professional. His strap is extremely normal, his daddy/boy dynamics are not a laughing matter. 4/10 because he wants to have relations with his car and is embarrassed about it

Jean: No idea what gets him off but he genuinely believes whatever it is means he’s evil and weird, making him the proud owner of The Worlds Funniest Kinks. 9/10, steals mustard from the homeless without remorse but has a moral crisis every time he cums while fantasising about getting gangbanged in a holding cell. Sad!

Trant: not funny. too passionately open about the things hes into. if you tried to make light of his trampling fetish, he would recite the wikipedia entry on cock and ball torture to you from memory and look delighted to be sharing his interests with you the whole time. 3/10

Klaasje: not funny to most on account of being conventionally attractive and good at billing her sexual encounters as suffused with romantic, literary ennui but it SHOULD be funny to be such a Lana Del Rey motherfucker in the sheets so I’m pulling rank and saying 7/10

Joyce: cringefail class dynamics fantasies. Bodice rippers and the opposite of CEO erotica feature heavily here. This wouldn’t be funny if not for the fact she literally owns a yacht. Also wants to get stabbed a little bit. 5/10, probably read the elysium version of lady chatterlys lover as a teen and still jerks off about it.

Garte: a normal man if there ever was one. has kinks but they aren't funny. wears a bra sometimes and it looks cute. 1/10 probably fun to hook up with and a decent communicator

The Deserter: given the 5 decades of loneliness, im willing to bet his brain has rewired itself into having some interesting potentially bug-related reward pathways but whatever he's got going on is too sad to laugh about. 0/10 :(

Sunday Friend: his kinks would be funny on anyone else, but he’s very very very boring. 2/10, you can pay a twink to do raceplay with you, but it wont dispel the grey miasma of being a mid tier government employee

evrart: I don’t know honestly, the lying and manipulating and petty power plays scrambled my brain despite the rube-Goldbergian elements of all his little tasks. Maybe he’d do predicament bondage? Uh. 3/10. Id let him hit, but he also has kind of a Wallace n Grommit thing going on so I can’t say 0

Steban: big on role playing but isn’t very good at it. Starts giggling halfway through when it becomes apparent how silly the fake muttonchops are. 4/10, less funny than it could be because he has a sense of humour about it

Ulixes: probably has a guro thing but also hasn’t had sex since he started focusing on reading theory and feints at the sight of real blood. This should be less funny than pretending to be Kras Mazov in bed, but he takes himself extremely seriously. 6/10 until he starts getting laid again, then still 6/10 but for other reasons

Gary: cuck chair. 10/10. I am not elaborating because I’m tired now, but someone else made a convincing post at one point

[loremaster]

happy belated mermay! i drew that final pic after i went with my family to the new england aquarium recently, and picked out something they had there for each of the nocturnal detectives - plus kurumi! more description (spoilers) under the cut:

kurumi - piranha! it fits her color scheme, and her little freckles… and well, you know *bites you*

yuma - emperor tetra. actually i lied this one wasn’t at the aquarium i had to look it up

yakou - anemone man. ouughhh so sillyyyy

desuhiko - tried to ID the guy I took a picture of and it looked closest to the crosshatch butterflyfish. could be wrong though.

halara, fubuki - i could not find the labels for either of these fish unfortunately

vivia - electric eel (yeah he’s there, look again)

———-

the mermaids were kinda based off these species, except fubuki changed to a betta fish. bred for glamour, not for function. she is out there living her best life tho!!! nothin gets this mermaid princess down!!!!

obviously squid shinigami (squidigami) is based off ursula. but also i liked her having squid tentacle hair. woomy!

i imagine it would actually be kind of a reverse ursula situation though (reversula?). poor unfortunate amnesiac yuma would go up to sea witch shinigami asking her for his memories back, but she reveals she was the one who took his memories in the first place, and they’ve actually already made a deal. which she’s not going back on, sorrynotsorry lol!!! of course he’s actually not a mermaid at all but a human under a spell to go investigate…. something underwater. idk. maybe the mystery labyrinths are still a thing in this universe?

vivia, i’m sorry to say, would be a hundred times more miserable than we ever see him in canon, because guess what. no books. he’d still have some sort of coping mechanisms like watching other fish, watching stuff above the surface of the water, wanting nothing more to join them and fly someday. (the dragonflies, of course, are a reference to the famous water bugs and dragonflies story.) he’d still find something to get distracted by… although if he had his forte he probably would ghost up to the surface and read whatever the humans are reading up above. i guess this would make him the real ariel of the story.

kurumi of course is still based on a piranha, because it’s cute. of course these fish shouldn’t all live together but whatever. it’s mermaids. she probably is still some kind of informant, and probably hangs out near yakou’s place a bunch.

i could see yakou running some sort of shop. or if he’s still into detective work, he’d probably need kurumi as an assistant since he’s uh. not much of a swimmer. (he claims he can too swim, but it’s really silly looking. google swimming anemone. you’ll thank me.) he considers those little teeny fish to be pests (or at least claims they are. they’re probably helping him hide some sort of secret in there.)

desuhiko is a wandering trader with a keen sense of fashion. he’s great at repurposing sunken sails into mer-clothing, not so great at making sales. also the fact that his hair is gelled is way more obvious when everything is underwater. he’s basically got a helmet.

halara of course puts up an intimidating front, but has a secret soft spot for cute sea creatures. i asked my irl friend what she’d consider ‘the cat of the sea’ and she said pufferfish. i do think they are very cute and make a lot of sense as an allergen. but i don’t think halara’s taste is limited to pufferfish only, no no no. they like anything cute.

fubuki has got to have been kept captive before the story - by humans? or other mermaids? but either way, now she’s free and having a blast exploring the deep blue ocean. she really wants to know what kind of exciting creatures live in the deep!!!

and that’s it. hopefully all this description makes up for being 2 days late to mermay LMAO. i guess now it’s merGAY

[ganondoodle]

Since you said it's ok to send you random ask, i've always found your "monsters" design to be really really gorgeous, and I wanted to know : in any form of media you've interacted with, what's PEAK monster design for you ?

i have been thinking about this ask alot bc ... i dont ... know? theres a problem with what counts as a monster really too, most are either some sort of anthro/furry or the horror gore type of monster that instills you more with disgust than awe

i guess theres some i really like but idk if thats what id call 'peak' (though its rarely JUST the design but their vibe and stuff too);

(its a lot of zelda.. sorry)

Eldra, Farodra and Naydra (engl Dinraal, Farosh(?)) though Eldra is def my fav one of them, i like how they are a little more less typical dragon- with the fur around the neck the floppy ears and kinda goofy face yet manage to be the most ethereal, awe inspiring creature i have ever seen in a game with how they act and are presented as (in BOTW!!! do not mention anythign sonau/zonai with stupid magic pebbles to me about them i will manifest worms into your tea)

Leunen (Lynels) (botw) -i could not find a better picture wtf, fav are white and silver ones) FINE they had some pretty neat new horn designs in totk- idk i just like them alot, rather simple if you think about it, horse lion plus horns- but its so well put together it just kinda scratches my brain in a good way (also how intelligent they clearly are, like the way they fight and act and also even their death animation is so??? huh?? you are just gonna treat them like any other mindless monste- *remmbers they treat ganondorf even even worse all things considered* .. nevermind you're good)

'Beast' Ganondorf (twilight princess) its my favorite beast ganon design (even if it technically is just kinda a man boar .. again) though if ww gan had a non puppet beast form that one would most definitely be my fav lol (i will not get over the fact that some descriptions call this a hideous beast EXCUSE ME???? WHERE???) (honorable mention here, darkbest ganon from botw, pig on fire but it looks cool as fuck)

Nimbusgarde (ww) .. (engl .. darknuts?) do i need to say anything? (i could throw alot of ww design here) not sure if it counts as monster but they are not human so ????

the pathless bosses- (here in order, Cernos, the Godslayer, and Kumo) all of them are rad as hell (except for the final version of the godslayer ... liek im sorry but it looks to boring compared to any other one lol) again not just the design but man do i love them

since i dont know what would count as a monster or no i could just list my fav characters here bfmjbfmjsbmj like radahn (elden ring) is just kinda a zombie, aurelion sol (league of legends) is a space dragon, the forest god in princess mononoke, Narisha (skyward sword- sky whale)- i could go on but this post is long already (honorable mention to Omus in nausicäa, weird bugs but also something divine, though it is much more how they are treated and the vibe etc)

in all honesty though i cant think of one that i would describe as perfect, what i want of a monster design is to be ... cool but also a little weird, big hulking monsters that have something off about them and something that makes them 'other', but also not, as much as i like bloodborne, just bloody gory messes of rotting flesh, AND not just as a monster to kill, i just crave a game or otherwiese piece of media where the cool monsters arent just there for you to kill- the perfect one i guess would be something kinda big scary weird and off but while non verbal clearly not a mindless beast?

and here is the thing; my own characters do not furfill that, my designs are really rather conservative, much to my dismay, anthro of a mix of animals, maybe an extra arm thrown in- Eadrya, one of my favorites, is really just a blueish furry (yes they have fur) and their demon form is a mix of seals and catfish with some extra arms, too many teeth and a mouth that goas wayy to far (if they want) - Shargon is a feather dude with extra arms and his demon form is really just a chinese type dragon crossed with a bird, throw some darts at the color wheel, done

together with my problem of my monster characters losing their 'otherness' vibe within the story rather fast bc the majority of my characters are non human and speak and you see them in all sorts of emotions and parts of life- they lose that divine, unknown vibe and i HATE that that happens, i want them more akin to the forest god in mononoke but thats not possible unless i start from scratch

and i really dont mean to make myself look bad to sound self depre- ... however you spell that; i really am rather dissatisfied with my own designs but mostly just roll with what i got bc i never seem to be able to actually achieve what i want

even my redesigns often really make things LESS interesting (unless maybe the og was just ... human, but they are blue eyed with golden hair and white so that makes them divine you seE-), the skyward sword dragons as i redesigned them made them much more classical dragon, in part intentional bc i was drawing a connection of them becoming the botw dragons at some point, but by all means the canon design is much more weird and unusual than what i did with them, you could apply the same to even demise, his canon design might seem a little uninspired but really what did i do? inject him with some classic satan spice like that makes it in any way less stereotypical evil demon ??? lol

im sorry this post devolved into whatever this is but i really am trying to answer sincerely, i am confused about it myself, what counts as a monster, what doesnt, there must be more that i really loved but why cant i think of them, why do i design characters like this when i really want something much more different, i dont know, i feel like my brain is in a cage, why do i keep making things less interesting in an effort to make it interesting, am i falling into the corporate trap of cool sells who am i what am i doing

(theres a zelda artist with a style so strikingly genuis in shape, color and just .. DESIGN that i want to chew my nails off bc i cannot design like them, their designs and redesigns are so different yet sensical and so full of crisp shapes i have never seen before it drives me nuts and i would want to give them a shoutout but i think they dont like me so aaaaarhekjbfhgdknbgdfklbg)

[juni-ravenhall]

If you take over SSE, what would be your first changes that you make? Like immediate things you want to do?

And what’d be your long term goal, how would you achieve it?

- ro-sso

this is the best ask ever thank u but u might not be prepared for this essay........ sorry :3

first off id need to find out exactly who are the current ppl for game director, art director, etc direction positions, and who of them are making the crazy decisions. is it directors and managers, is it the CEO, etc. ofc there might be many parts in this chain from an uncaring CEO down to a confused director down to a struggling game designer down to a coder/writer/artist that doesnt get enough time and resources, like, i understand its a complex chain but that doesnt change the fact that someone (or several) have been fucking shit up for all of sse's history. so i would do a lot of talking to staff respectfully and finding out whats really been going on in the chain, and who is not working in the best interest of the game's quality and the company's stability. map out where in the company theres the most and least problems.

(this to me is easy, im analytical and resistant to lies and manipulation as a person. i see through shit very easily and i have a long history of self-studying and analysing stuff related to running companies and making games, since thats my life goal... so to some ppl it might sound like "thats harder than you think" bc theyre just not me. some ppl arent passionate about running good healthy ethical game companies - i am!)

sse clearly has basically never had good directors with good direction, or if they did, those werent given enough power and resources. they shouldnt have been changing artstyle several times, they shouldnt have been abandoning storylines and areas, they shouldnt have been ignoring bugs in general, they shouldnt have been ignoring bugs and cheats in racing and champs, etc. so, its very important to get a good game director, art director, and so on, in place, whether its an existing staff member who just needs more power and resources, or its someone new who is a good fit.

then ofc take a look at all staff hired and see what everyone is there for. after the layoffs im not sure if they have many passive workers left but id get an overview and do some interviews w staff to find out how the efficiency situation is and if more/less ppl are needed in diff areas to actually pay ppl to work on the game itself. (as an example mb u need one less social media person and one more programmer, one less team manager consultant or other middleclass word salad jobs... etc.)

then overview of salary differences. this is a huge point to me. was the CEO that im assumably taking the job from, earning a lot more than everyone else a month? then thats not happening anymore. all salaries within the company would become more balanced, setting in place a system where the minimum salary and max salary at the company are tied together in a ratio so that to raise the top u must also raise the bottom. this will instantly lower much of the top and assumably raise some at the bottom (how much, i dont know from the outside). this ratio system would be clearly outlined and from now on a pillar of the company's structure. also, check that skilled senior staff has appropriate pay for their experience, etc, make sure salaries seem fair.

along with this ofc a good overview of costs, loans, earnings, the current office and all of this to know the situation. i think thats obvious but ill say it anyway to be clear. have a complete grasp of the economic situation, talk to the economics staff.

with staff interviews and salary checkups it would also be relevant to see if theres any gold star workers who should shift up in positions, for example a very good animator could become lead animator, stuff like this. sse has already done things like this fairly often (sometimes maybe not with the right people) so im not too worried about it but i would do another check. also just general talk w staff to find out who has hidden potential that might not be getting used. (i want to know my workers and be able to help them shine, this is good both for the workers, the work environment, and the company results.)

at this point, we should have balanced out some of the leaking money at the top (and hopefully made a few leeches jump ship while at it), boosted the happiness within the company (balanced salaries etc), and have a great overview of whats going on from the more economic and hierarchy standpoint. we should have gotten rid of some potential leeching staff that didnt actually help create a good product and run a healthy, ethical company, and we might have gotten new people in positions where we needed more skills (direction, programming, whatnot). compared to sse's 10+ years of being a chaotic mess, the company structure should look pretty good now, even if not perfect.

i would have a lot of talk with the directors and team leaders and senior staff to make sure everyone is on the same page from now on: we are making a good quality game, we are being consistent, we are not adding new random shit just bc ooh shiny or cashgrabs, we are going to impress the players and make them feel "oh god, finally sso is consistent and living up to its potential". everyone at the company needs to understand this goal and why the loyal players are disappointed with the game. there will still be new horses and item recolors etc ofc, we do need a certain degree of "ooh shiny" from the player side of things (hopefully good gameplay and good stories would also be ooh shiny though), but there needs to be a new focus on the Actual core and Actual pillars of the game, which sse failed to do bc they have bad direction.

most likely, we would change the weekly update into bi-weekly or monthly, maybe starting with bi-weekly to test the waters. in order to deliver a good quality main storyline and also good quality stories and updates to tie up loose ends, there needs to be enough time to do that. there would be very solid goals on the cadence at which major updates are released and no long stretches of time without main story, and no long stretches without other significant updates.

an important part of that is also the seasonal events - i think the 4 seasons of events is a good thing, but they need to be properly bug fixed and have some design and writing improvements, one new fun (more challenging) race for each of them, etc. so hopefully we can afford enough staff that we have a few ppl working on updating and finalising the 4 seasonal events to their more or less final form.

each seasonal event needs to have a cool and challenging race (similar to cloud kingdom rainbow race or some other recent races) that HAS A HIGHSCORE BOARD. this is a key thing to me. all event races should have highscore boards (and some crappy event races may be removed, or combined into a better version of all of them together). *everyone* playing would be able to just better their own score for a generic gold/silver/bronze score, which gives specific rewards for reaching the medal score on the event race(s), and those who are at the top of the leaderboard among everyone, would get a non-exclusive prize, like 1000js. its not a huge win - not to encourage cheating to get to the top - and mostly based in the existing "daily best" system. it would still encourage players to actually try their best at the event races and feel like there's some stakes in it. (active human moderation of suspicious race results is also necessary - we should be able to afford that now.) i also think, if someone has won the daily best, they should then not be able to get the daily best for at least another week, leaving place for other people... but this becomes a problem with alt accounts, so it needs more consideration, i dont have the full answer to that yet.

also, all the tack and clothes need a stats overhaul. the random top stats we currently have are stupid and they seem like they just didnt think about this at all. this is partially a dress up game, so you need to be able to dress up cute and still have top stats and be able to win champs. if possible, i would set staff to work on letting you upgrade any piece of equipment to max stats (which would be something like 5-10 in each stat i guess). this system might require starcoins to upgrade - a way for the company to earn money from cosmetic changes, that seems fair enough to me. (maybe there would be a way to pay with shillings and collectables, but just an easier way to pay with sc, it would be considered.)

we'd also need to sit down and take a good look at what all horses stats are, which horses seem to be boosted or nerfed in races for no reason, and make sure all horses at least function fairly and as intended. after that, to consider whether you should be able to train all horses to have the same max stats, or if we want to keep breeds unique and different, then those differences should also be well thought out and actually matter. right now, and for a long time, some horses are just better at races than others (pintabian, etc), and some (ardennes) seem to be shit for no real reason (other draft horses dont necessarily have the same problem). so it needs to be properly looked at and fixed so all horses at least have good reasons to be different, if they are different at all, and no bugs or unintended boosts and nerfs. horse stats should make sense for gameplay.

all the champs need to get their updated forms, so i also hope we could afford enough staff to have a few ppl working on updating the champs consistently until thats done. i do think a lot of sso's races also should be overhauled, because racing is the main gameplay we actually have (collecting light in hollow woods is not challenging and not really gameplay) and it should be satisfying, fun, and challenging, like playing a mariokart race (that doesnt mean it should play *like* a mariokart race, just that it needs to be fun). the highscore boards and the gold/silver/bronze medal systems are really, really neglected assets of sso's player motivation. if getting a gold medal score on a race was consistently actually difficult and required practice, and getting that gold medal also gave you a good reward (shillings, items) that motivated you to aim for it, then players might actually have fun challenging themselves for higher scores! the same goes for daily best / etc scores that should be looked into, what rewards they give, etc.

also, there should be a ban on adding any new npcs to the game if theyre not extremely necessary. sse has been adding new npcs left and right all the time, and it just clogs the game with random irrelevant characters that dont add anything to the game, it takes time and resources to make their model, give them a name, write their dialogue, and so on. instead, focus all that energy on actual relevant npcs and ones that players want to talk to and find out more about, hear their storylines, etc, and let races be handled with either existing npcs or with new and improved highscore board objects (make it obvious you click them to start the race).

of course, the art style of sso should never again change. art direction from now on is consistent and solid with an art director who understands their job, lead artists and lead animators who 100% understand what the goals are. directors who make sure that the quality of art, design, animation are up to the standards of the style we are using, that things fit together in the game. new models should not actually be "better" than the old ones - you end up in a destructive cycle where the art keeps changing. the style should be consistent with only relatively minor refinements over time. so, the art directors and leads need to make sure the style continues to be consistent, and update things that need to be. (im not sure how many areas of sso should really get the complete overhauls like silverglade village anymore - at some point you're also wasting resources on something less important than the gameplay and story, but some areas also look really outdated, so careful consideration needs to go into which areas to update and *how* to update them. maybe jarlaheim doesnt need a complete overhaul but a partial one. etc.)

the gen 4 horse needs to have very solid planning before release, which seems to have been the case so far from the little ive heard about it. if players can finally get a more custom horse with custom markings, mane and tail styles (preferrably available across breeds), and ability to pick coat, mane and tail colours separately, i think this would be great. it also relates to the whole thing with horse stats and just making sure that horses function properly and have reasons to actually have different stats and such, if theyre going to have that.

there also needs to be a decision made about sso's future - specifically, should we keep developing this game on this crappy messy engine for another decade, or should we eventually say, "this is sso 1, and we're finished with it (the story is finished, game isnt buggy, etc)" - and then go on to create a new game (while still keeping sso 1 running!) on a new, modern engine, where there is good direction and good planning from the very beginning? i dont know how far they got with project curie before cancelling it, whether theres much work to salvage, but i think that creating a new horse mmo set in jorvik (curie was supposedly not a horse game) as a more or less "sso 2" is a fair idea. the potential of customisable gen 4 horses might not really be that relevant for sso 1, or customisable player character faces and bodies like the sims. maybe this is stuff that should be in sso 2 from the very beginning, rather than patches trying to fix the mess that is the current sso? i think a lot of players wouldve been happier to see the old avatars and stuff remain in sso 1 and see the new, current artstyle we have be a separate game as sso 2 instead. (runescape classic etc.)

so, i would want to very carefully consider what really should be in sso 1 versus if we should be making sso 2. its possible to decide, actually we do want to just keep updating sso 1 and make it the best it can be, to basically keep adding expansions to it. but even if we decide that, the thing is, its hard to save the original story at this point due to the careless updates that have already been made for years. my question is, is it possible to give the loyal, old players a satisfying ending to this story and these characters' stories and this world's lore, within the current state of sso? or is it just too far gone off the track? so this needs to be carefully considered. maybe sso 2 could be a sort of remake of the story, starting with elements based on SSL, rather than the haphazard "uh these girls saved the world a while ago and now youre here i guess" that sso did start with. maybe its not too late to give the loyal long term players a satisfying end to the story. but its a complex issue that needs a lot of thought. (which should never have happened! the story shouldnt have changed the way it did, things shouldnt have been abandoned randomly, added randomly, changed randomly, all of this is just bad shitty direction and management without respect to the players, which is especially frustrating bc it goes right into "girl gamers dont matter, girl games dont matter,".)

there are more things, like a weather system, that i would have loved to see in sso but ultimately might be better to save for sso 2. or maybe sso keeps going with major updates and major expansions and then it would be relevant to consider for sso. the same thing for customising our home stable, getting a player home to customise, there are lots of fun ideas like this that i could talk about but that ultimately im not sure how much time and resources should be sunk into when sse have chosen to fuck themselves over for this long and caused this many problems with the game that need immediate attention to make it playable and enjoyable. so in this... essay... i focused mostly on solving problems and making the game a solid and fun experience, and what to prioritise to keep it that way, while these bonus new content like weather or customisable horses or customisable player faces/bodies and all that, would be great updates (or sso 2) but have to come as a bonus when everything else is under control.

so yeah thats covering both a lot of immediate stuff and long term considerations. this is like, a fraction of the stuff i've thought about. i have a lot more to say about a lot of things to fix in sso and other things that have to do with running companies too. and ofc theres a lot of things i just cant know from the outside, and so on, im not a perfect person who knows everything and never pretend to be (i have to say this bc ppl like projecting things on me just for being confident in my skills). getting to take over sse would still be a learning curve with finding out exactly where the problems are and how to solve them. i view this realistically. there are always unknown variables and things i'll have to figure out when i get to it, but you can do that if you have a strong core and strong direction that wont be swayed by capitalism or ooh shiny. i just know a lot about prioritising and directing and about ways to run healthier, better companies, and ways to be ethical and create good products instead of cash grabs - and i also value the skills and knowledge of others, which matters in finding the right people to work in the right positions. these are specific interests i have and spend a lot of time thinking about, analysing, studying, practising, etc.

if you or anyone else actually read all of this (im shocked) and want to discuss more about it or have questions about it, im all ears :D

[woso-dreamzzz]

Could you maybe possibly please share like short descriptions of your general WIPs? I dont mind how long the descriptions are id just love to hear or have a rough idea :) btw i love all of your fics

So I literally just did all of my Big Adventures WIPs so here's all the others

Shy (Aitana Romantic) - reader and Aitana being in a long term relationship but reader still being super shy about it

Power (Katie Romantic) - a bit of subversion between who Arsenal thinks is in charge of the relationship and who is actually in charge of the relationship

Difficult IV - Bebita and her biting phase and Mapi struggling to get everyone to recognise that she's Bebita's mother too

Surgery III - Cub misunderstanding a squabble between Mapi and Ingrid

Secret (Ingrid x Mapi x Baby) - Mapi meeting Ingrid's secret baby

Icy (Ingrid x Mapi x Teen) - Mapi hurting her knee and reader hurting her wrist and Ingrid being angry about it all

Grouchy (Katrina x Baby) - baby!reader being sad and sick after Harper brought home a bug from kindie

Torn (Kristie x Sam x Baby) - reader being upset because Sam's done her acl and no one tells her what's going on

Outburst (Leah x Jordan x Child) - reader dealing with the fact that her mums aren't together anymore and acting out with Leah

Broken (Wonze x Child) - wonze!reader being depressed after breaking her arm

Play Favourites IV - Bean being a bit out of character and Leah trying to work out why

Ausenal II - just some members of Arsenal being a bit protective on the journey to an away game

Nena V - Nena getting sick while Ingrid's away and Barca trying to look after her

Illness (Barca x Teen) - reader going on the pitch even after being sick for the week leading up to the match

Alcohol (Barca x Teen) - an intervention after reader comes back to Spain after partying too much over the break

[cleromancy]

Something has been bugging me recently. Do you ever notice how people (particularly Jason stans) go on about how Tim victim blame's Jason for his own death, but fail to mention how Alfred and Bruce are guilty of doing the same thing in the past? Why do these two (especially Alfred) get a pass?

LMAO LIKE... EVERYONES DONE IT. BRUCE ALFRED DICK BABS *SELINA* OF ALL PEOPLE ONE TIME... actually id have to double check that one idr exactly what she said about jason it might have just been that hes unhinged (<- also a thing everyones said at some point) but like. everyones freakin done it. or at least *implied* it.

tim is a special case for a reason though--and ill come back to bruce and alfred later--and its not just bc fandom wants a scapegoat to pin All The Victim-Blaming on. on a meta level tim was specifically created to be jasons opposite, and to ~rehabilitate the robin role and make robin palatable again to modern readers. (and to be clear this wasnt bc readers didn't like jason specifically--it was the idea of robin at all, and to a lesser extent just replacing the orig. jason just took on the mantle at a really unfortunate period in comics culture.) so the comparisons to jason are baked in right off the bat. and tim has to be "better". tim had to prove that a robin was necessary so that dc could keep having one, he had to justify it so that the blame didnt fall on bruce for getting a child killed (or yk even just out there fighting crime at all). theres also an element of class dynamics thats. i mean. jason was a homeless street kid and tims this fancy little distinctly upper middle class kid who replaces him, without derailing to get too deep into that the optics already arent fucking great.

but tims creation aside, just as far as how often it comes up... tim also takes the role of robin really seriously, and its everything to him, so he spends a lot of time thinking about it, what it means to wear the uniform & fulfil the role. so hes the one whos most frequently in the position to be thinking about jason, after bruce. so tim winds up being the one pushing the bulk of the bad/angry/impulsive robin narrative retcon dc wanted to push bc... its the most directly relevant to him. bruce doesnt have much narrative need to think about jason "failing" or not being good enough until under the red hood... except to be like "i dont have to worry about tim bc hes not like jason." lmao. and then you have tim who does not want to get killed, like jason did, so he spends time thinking about how to not end up like jason. which is a fundamental misunderstanding of how being a victim of murder works but i think understandable thing for a child replacement of another dead child to latch onto (particularly one as prone to arrogance & god-complex-itude as Our Timmy, lol). and both on a meta level and in-universe this is about shifting the blame off of bruce and onto the victim because tim needs to keep filling the role hes filling without it being bruces fault that jason died in the first place, bc reckoning with batman and child endangerment is not smth the comics had ever really planned on doing in a serious way.

but as for why singling tim out over bruce and alfred-- the kind of ppl who do this already generally think bruce sucks past the point of being interested in ~holding him accountable~ for absolutely anything... like "bruce sucks, everyone knows he sucks, enough said." i think the logic is generally like "if tims not a total shithead like bruce, then why is he doing shithead stuff like bruce does :/" and then pinning it all on tim as opposed to considering like "hey uhhh do you think maybe hearing stories about jason from bruce influences how tim thinks of jason over the years." if that makes sense

as for alfred. people do not want alfred to have any interiority or to ever have been mean or wrong bc then theyd have to actually think about the fact that bruce has a 24/7 domestic servant in his employ, which is just the. tip of the iceberg when you start thinking about alfred as a full character and not a convenient cardboard cutout to prop up whoever the narrative needs him to. also alfreds role in almost every batman narrative is strictly as support, almost no agency within the story to have a meaningful impact, and people generally respond to the character in kind.

finally i think tim mmmmight be the only character at least as of the reboot who ever talked *to jason* outloud style about certain things relating to jasons death... this answer is already getting too long so i dont want to get into depth about titans tower. but tt 2003 #29 is a great example of the comics pitting tim and jason against each other to make Jason look worse by comparison--for all that tim doesn't actually *say* anything victim blaming jason for his death, *and* for all that jason totally kicks tims ass in the fight and its not even close, on a meta level the story is 100% presenting jason as the bad robin, the robin who failed, Unlike Tim Drake, A *Good* Robin. (i accidentally reread the issue ... im going to make a post about it later probably. god i wish this fucking issue had been good)

but yeah i could probably go on and on even further but yeah, i think thats where people are coming from when they single timmy out. tim only exists at all bc of jason n would be fundamentally unrecognizable without having been crafted to be the anti-jason. and on top of that he has repeatedly been used by dc to make jason look worse (or rather jason was used to make tim look better), and a lot of my fellow jason stans understandably resent tim for it. i however am built different, and want them to kiss.

[dystopianam]

About the "Fake/Beta thumbnails syndrome" ...

For those who don't know of what I'm talking about, when you open the Capps and Montys for the first time, the thumbnails of Tybalt and Mercutio looks like this, with these funny faces instead of their real faces which are these:

But after a few seconds the thumbnails refresh themselves and change with the real ones (if this doesn't happen you have to make them change appearance in the mirror).

Now, the "funny" thumbnails They are the beta faces of Tybalt and Mercutio. But why are they so strange?

For Tybalt the solution is very simple. Tybalt Beta was not Juliette's brother, but as in the original story he was the COUSIN, son of Goneril and Albany, and for this reason "Tybalt Beta" nicknamed by us "Fakebalt" has this strange face. He has the genetics of Goneril and Albany. But WHY then, Tybalt Beta had red hair even if his father wasn't Caliban? How you can see, Goneril have brown hair and Albany blonde hair.

That's simple. Goneril real, genetic, hair colour Is red (recessive genes from a grandmother or great grandmother) but Maxis changed her hair without changing her genetic code.

BUT having then become Juliette's BROTHER, Maxis probably thought well of making him look more like his new parents: Cordelia and Caliban. The actual Tybalt looks much more like his new mother, but he has maintained certain physical details of Goneril such as cheekbones and lips (even if they are not annoying and make sense, he also resembles his grandfather Consort so, I have always appreciated this grandfather-grandchild resemblance).

But although having to recreate Tybalt's appearance was a must with the change of parents, and the fact that he doesn't look too much like the new parents is also justified by the fact that Cordelia and Caliban have corrupted faces... I don't understand WHY Mercutio was changed.

As we already know, Maxis is used to deleting Sims and letting other Sims overwrite the data of other Sims and therefore having to recreate many Sims. ALL the premade of Veronaville have been recreated, but Tybalt and Mercutio... they are special. They are not new sims, they do not (apparently) seem to have overwritten the data of other sims, but it seems that at most they have overwritten the data of themselves (miraculously?) or that Maxis has simply changed only their facial structure (even if I find it strange that their data remained intact given that all the others were destroyed with the change of neighborhood ID)

Or at least, they are not the only sims to have this different thumbnails perk. Romeo and Puck have this thing too. Except I've never seen the old thumbnails of Puck.

I don't know what happened, maybe at a certain point by changing the ID of the neighborhood they ended up with the corrupted face and Maxis had to recreate it?

Many sims have been recreated from scratch, but why have they been...fixed? Maybe it's possible that Maxis already knew about the corrupted faces and that they knew how to fix it but they never wanted to do it with the deceased sims because "they can't be resurrected" anyway? (or at least, you couldn't until the first expansion came out)

What do you think happened to these sims with the thumbnails bug? Maybe they have an old character file with a corrupt face that has been updated (with the face fix)?

While I can understand why Tybalt was changed (Tybalt was supposed to look like his new parents) but Puck, Mercutio and Romeo? The old Mercutio and Romeo (beta) have the genetics of Claudio and Olivia, while the new ones do not. Why change their appearance if Claudio and Olivia don't have any problems? They're not even corrupt!

[mamadarama]

same anon here to elaborate on some of the cats (and other pets) in the story:

every member of knights has a descendant of little john/nyaitsu. (only one i have details on atm: izuleo have a big fat cat named king richard who's dumb as rocks[though they both insist otherwise] and spoiled rotten. they didn't know it was a girl until after she was named that. later on they got another cat who they named maid marian before finding out that was a boy. their names have not been changed regardless)

shu adopted a Fancy Pedigree Sphinx (he makes it little sweaters/outfits to keep it warm). mika has a skrunkly black cat he found in a dumpster (alternatively, also thought it could be cool to give him one of those patchwork cats, where the pigmentation on their face is like. split down the middle yanno). anywho these cats are Bonded for Life

tetohina have a Stupid Male Orange Tabby. tetora thinks the cat is a Fierce Warrior while hinata calls it a stinky dum dum (affectionately)

kohiiai actually have three pets. first was the bunny, then the tarantula hiiro brought home a day later, then a while after that, kohaku found a stray kitten in an alleyway and brought it home (by this point hiiro has adjusted to the idea of domesticated pets, and it helps that the kitten was also on the streets [just like him ;;]) kohaku and the cat are both found regularly napping in weird locations (open to suggestions on cat breeds!! i keep going back and forth on what it should be,, i liked the idea of bingus, but also like the idea of fluffy,, currently tentatively thinking oriental long hair maybe? idk. kitten with ear too big for he gotdam head)

subaru (+the rest of trickstar by extension) has a direct descendant of daikichi

similarly, koga has at least one or two corgis, if not a direct descendant of leon. also probably like a bajillion foster dogs. hes using the rockstar money to care for as many dogs as possible

souma still has kamegorou. turtles live a long time,, (also maybe one or two horses as well)

given your Cat Knowledge, i'd love to hear your thoughts on these, or any other characters who you think should have cats! :3

Aaahh thats so cute . i can totally imagine leo having a cat named king richard thats just like that, if someone told me him and izumi have that exact cat back in italy i wouldnt even question it id just take it as fact

you could give kohaku a purebred, but it wouldnt be that realistic to do that. finding a purebred stray/feral at all, much less finding one alive, is so unlikely that the only thing keeping me from saying its impossible is my personal adversity to making absolute claims like that on the possibility of some bizarre freak situation. all strays and ferals are moggies/randombreds, any purebreds you see in shelters are animals surrendered by their owners (its rare, ive been rehabbing cats for 6-7 years now and its only happened 3 times)

however that doesnt mean you cant give him a unique cat !! mutations and weird patterns happen all the time in stray and feral populations . the bobtail gene is pretty common in japanese colonies (at least more common than it is in america) so you could give him a bobtail cat? i think a little high white calico bobtail would suit him :^)

but of course realism doesnt really matter too much, hell i have purebreds in catstars au and theyre all ferals

also hiiro would have either a tarantula or a stick bug or both. idk i can imagine him absolutely adoring stick and leaf bugs for how they look like sticks and leaves , he thinks its charming

depending on how far in the future were talking souma might still have saigoudon. souma grew up with him so its safe to assume theyre around the same age, meaning saigoudon is around 20 years old. horses can live up to 30 and occasionally even longer so theyve still got plenty time left together. if he moves out of his parents house maybe hed get his own horse though

the twins definitely have their own cats and tetora definitely tells young children that meet their cat that its part tiger.

SHU HAVING A HAIRLESS BREED IS SO REAL he would love having a pet he can make clothes for its too perfect . the split face marking youre talking about is most common in tortoiseshell cats , that would be perfect for mika :D

with daikichi and leon im almost certain theyre both fixed because koga and subaru are responsible dog owners but subaru would definitely stick with shibas . i can picture koga either with another corgi or adopting a shepard mix of some kind ..... when he retires hed probably start fostering dogs but until then hed probably be busy with life and stick with only one dog so he can devote all his attention to that one . fostering more than one or two dogs at a time is kind of a full time thing (believe me my step grandmother fosters dogs and owns 11) he definitely volunteers at some sort of animal place, either domestic or exotics or whatever he just loves animals in general (thinking abt the guinea pig card..... )

[limbuscompanysituations]

Thank you for answering my ask! If you don’t mind fun facts, I will just type random stuff and the readers can do with that what they will^^

While most cockroaches can glide, American cockroaches can fly. From what I’ve seen in the fandom, most people seem to suspect that the bug traits come from a German cockroach, I think the American one could be likely

However! That doesn’t go along with the way that little cockroach that accompanies him is drawn. See, looking as the back of it (no visible wings) and the coloring, it doesn’t match with my first point. It’s darker than the American cockroach. The thing is, it’s dark enough that I could even speculate that it is a female, which would be supported by the wing thing as well. Furthermore, this extends to Gregor’s right arm too. The colour thing. So, if someone is willing to trust a random bug lover on tumblr and really wants to validate their trans headcanon, you can run with this point I suppose

NSFW: there’s actually a lot of conflicting information about this, and after reading some articles and books (not solely on that matter, just bugs in general!) I can share some info. While the common consensus seems to be that cockroaches do not have a penis in our strict understanding (so that’s one headcanons for you) there are structures that we can call a penis and it will be perfectly fine to do so. However, if we are looking at penis-like structures, quite a few sources claim that in that sense, cockroaches have two. I prefer the version in which there’s none, but like you said, people can headcanons whatever. And uh. If you ponder what that could mean for the G corp ID. Yeah

A less intense fact (and one that makes me look less deranged) is the way Outis and Gregor’s hair is drawn. Let me explain. This is more of a neat fact than a ground for developing ideas though. So, as I come from an organisation (can’t really mention them, but uh, think about an intense and more serious version of scouts I suppose? Sorry can’t name it, but yeah) there’s a lot of talk surrounding hair. Traditionally older people go with the idea that hair should not touch the uniform. If you are serving your hair should be short or braided in a crown. However, with time it became more acceptable to only have it tied. It can never be loose, obviously, but most younger lads opt for tying it while serving. This isn’t probably about that, most likely they are drawn with their respective hairstyles because it fits them, but I think it’s nice that it can be explained away in a more reality-based way^^

This one is book based actually. Kafka detailed the way in which his man character’s tastes had changed. He specifically said that after being transformed, he did not enjoy fresh food. It didn’t taste right, so the protagonist resorted to eating stale, moldy food that appealed to him. In reality, that kind of food isn’t great grona real life cockroach, but older food does interest them more. Just don’t feed our six legged friends mold! I believe that while Gregor would not share that with the rest, he could also now enjoy somewhat less fresh food. And that trait was definitely something that, if given the chance, they would have given him. Looking at the history of the military (another interest of mine) from the rations perspective, soldiers don’t get the most fresh stuff anyways, at least it was like that in the past. So it would be deneficial to alter them in a way in which that aspect is not a problem to the leaders (I say this not as an example of a good idea, but more so because I think it goes along with the dehumanisation aspect. Like, people tried to have human-ape soldiers irl and one of the pros that was recited among them was that it would be cheaper to feed them whatever and avoid complaints)

Gregor canonically likes to sleep on his side, though in the book he cannot do that anymore after his looks change. So maybe that’s the case with his Limbus-ified version as well? If I remember correctly he did said it was the right side he liked sleeping on, if so, then it could very well apply

All in all, those are cockroach facts. He is a person and I’m not trying to dehumanise him further by claiming everything I say must apply to him because of his looks. Definitely not. Though even if it did, it’s all chill, he’s great and different habits nor changed anatomy take away from that^^ I just happen to like cockroaches and I remember that line about the bug-related features growing more prominent at times, so I decided to share things, it’s up to the readers what they pick (if anything) from the list. Quite frankly I have stayed up for way too long trying to convert my bug knowledge into coherent English. This is not checked for mistakes. I’m very sleepy. So, I’m sorry if the contents are not up to your standards or if people find it boring. I hope at least one person can use that info to make up something was cooler and more thought out than my list here

Also, hi to my friend who also reads your blog! It’s not very hard to guess this ask is from me, the cockroach facts give it right away hah

Bug facts! Bug facts! I love bug facts! And so comprehensively explained too! I didn't think about the likely difference between cockroach species, even though it should be pretty obvious that insects as common as cockroaches would have wild variations lol Thank you so much for the bug facts! As for my two cents, I keep brainstorming with a friend about the possibility that the bug Gregor becomes in the book is something closer to being a dung beetle than a cockroach, but at the same time it's sort of interesting because a cockroach is sort of a vermin? And the imagery in C1 is very... full of vermin, dirty animals, etc.

The information about haircut/hairstyles and Outis vs Gregor makes sense and fits their personality so well too, amazing.

I was actually discussing with a friend not so long ago about Kafka's Gregor eating softer foods, and they were tying it to the fact cockroaches can't really bite into harder things. I don't know, just something that I think about sometimes.

These are so comprehensive, thank you so much (once again) for the meal. I will bite into it and use this new information to be more insane about these fictional characters!

[carnalapples]

wip wednesday

Thank you @theluckywizard and @nirikeehan for your tags from last week! I've been bouncing between WIPs, but here's a bit from a Stardew Alex fic:

She’s lying in bed, watching the shadows grow shorter and longer against the wall. She’s exhausted herself of public access programming, and now it’s the weather report that drones on in the background, less for the entertainment than for the illusion that she hasn’t been left alone out here with only her own mind for company. There’s supposed to be a big storm rolling in from the south, he says. She welcomes it—she wants the crash of rain on the roof and the crack of thunder and even the bugs crawling up through the gaps in the floorboards.

Every time the breeze blows through the window, she thinks she can taste it, the damp and cool turn of the air. Some sort of change that’ll uproot it all. She's beginning to think that the weatherman is very handsome.

The shadow of her lamp is brushing the point where wall meets ceiling when her phone rings. MULL... reads the ID. She blinks, watching as the letters scroll by. He put it in, the first time he was here. How did she forget? Since the beginning, he’s been here.

She presses the headset to her ear.

“Hey,” she says. Too casual. It sounds fake even to her own ears.

“Hi.” On the other side of the line, she hears him take a deep breath. It echoes on the line, a little rattle of static. “I just wanted to call.” 

“I’m glad you did,” she says, surprising herself with the fact that she means it. “I’m bored as hell out here.”

He hums lightly. Noncommittal. Her body is tight in a way that has nothing to do with the injury.

“Harvey said I should rest,” she adds, feeling oddly defensive. The words cut between them. She lets the phone rest in the curve of her shoulder, settling back against the pillows.

“Well, what happened?” There’s a flatness to his voice, something she can’t identify and certainly doesn’t associate with Alex. 

“I threw my back out,” she says. There’s something wrong here, and she can’t tell what. Wronger than the tight little spasms under her skin and the pitying calls she’s been getting. You’re so young, Harvey had said. You’re so young to be putting your body under this stress. To be breaking your body like this, is what it sounded like to her. 

“I didn’t know that.”

“You didn’t ask,” she snaps.

“Hey,” he says again. It’s softer. Like an apology, or maybe it’s true, and all she hears is what she wants to hear. She closes her eyes. “Are you okay?” he asks. 

She tilts her face away, hot tears welling up in her eyes, and lets them slide away. 

“Yeah, I’ll be okay.” 

I'll tag @midmorninggrey and @rowanisawriter if you'd like to share anything!!

[evillillad]

Can we maybe get some character sheets for your ocs and id like to write about them!!

👉👈

AAAHH i really wanna do updated character sheets WITH personality and lore i just aint got time rn!! BUT thank you for being interested!! 😭😭

to make up for the lake of sheets, heres some facts and lore typed out lol

Molly: (based on persona) secret demon being attached to Nina

Mollys kind of a strange case. Not quite puppet not quite...other creatures. She popped into existence around the time nina was born, hence the shared birthday. Shes a bit scatter brained, very easily distracted but once she has her mind set on something, nothing can get in her war. She's quite inquisitive and is constantly asking questions. Her first day in the neighborhood was basically asking every neighbor she met the most wild and intrusive questions she had. Little to no filter, says exactly whats on her mind. Doesnt understand why that makes some people so uncomfortable. Isnt it good to be curious? To tell the truth? To be honest? Man these creatures are strange. Also doesnt have any boundaries, is an absolute open book and for some reason is suprised when not everyone else is too. Think of her almost like a more unhinged wally, very naive to the ways of the waking world, but well verse in the night time activities. frequently takes long walks alone in the middle of the night. she sees them. she knows them. she keeps them away. some have gotten a bit too close to the neighborhood for comfort, is it because of her? do they know shes one of them, if not atleast similar? shes suspicious wally knows whats going on, its not normal for these beings to be here, but what draws them in?

^ongoing plot line of Molly spying on Wally constantly. A bit obsessive with him-she cant tell WHAT he is but she knows he isnt like the other neighbors but hes also not like her. Constantly pushing and manipulating him to break, but he seems either annoyed or oblivious to her attempts. otherwise, general nuisance to Wally, Frank (eats his bugs), Eddie (stares at him thru the post office window), Poppy (constantly getting herself into trouble) and Nina (personal demon).

Also maybe kills the nighttime creatures?? it seems like shes protecting the neighborhood from an outsiders perspective but those that REALLY know her know its territorial...somehow isnt intimidated by home tho. maybe shes trying to work with home? two demon things band together?? idk lmao

clumsy but also graceful? very bendy. no bones...crawls around like a creep sometimes.

Nina: (self insert oc) regular spider gal with a knack for art

Ninas quite normal actually. She was raised by a normal family within normal circumstances, but found herself with the strangest imaginary friend. She was never quite sure why one day everyone was suddenly able to see Molly but shes glad she finally isnt crazy. Now she cant get rid of the annoying asshole. Stuck with this annoying ass demon puppet thing, Nina moves to the neighborhood to get a new start on independence. With her new home, Nina spends most of her days painting, sewing, crocheting, and sculpting. Of course she always has her music going on, its never quiet in the house. Wally spends lots of time with her, they will frequently setup figure drawing sessions where their fellow neighbors will pose for them. Howdy seemed more than happy to constantly volunteer, maybe a tad bit overzealous to show off his muscles. Nina was more than excited to have such an interesting subject to create art of, although with Wally by her side, he always seemed to end up drawing an apple. There wasn't even an apple in the set. Nina doesnt care, shes just happy to have her little darling with her!

Despite being easily excitable and down to earth, shes actually quite timid and easily flustered. Howdys first few advancements had Nina trying to come up with some sort of lie so she could hurriedly get out of the bugdega and hide her beet red face. After this its just the rom com do they like me pinning i love so much lol

Unlike the other neighbors, she is somewhat aware of what goes bump in the night. Shes not sure what exactly it is, but she knows its dangerous...and she knows Molly has too much fun dealing with it. Despite Mollys homicidal tendecies, Nina is NOT scared of her. Shes aware of the fact that without her, Molly wouldnt have a host to stay alive. She cant do anything to harm her and even if she did, Ninas not afraid to grab her by the tail and launch her into the sun (Molly is actually somewhat intimidated by Nina, so she shows some level of obedience).

and thats it for those two!! I also would like to add that I wanna work on an oc of my dog and make goofy content of him and barnaby being like dude tf are u doing. also i know i have other ocs but either they arent quite fleshed out (lilith, betty, batsy), they arent technically mine (tilly and mitzy), or im just really tired and its late rn.

but if u got this far wow ermgee thanks for reading my late night rambles im dying

TLDR: Mollys homicidal, stupid, cant read a room, and is a demon. Ninas just a timid, excitable, down to earth, artsy spider with a weird demon imaginary friend that came to life.

[theycallmeratt]

Zarys Reference

Overall:

Zhentarim rogue who is the leader (Swordhar) of the group in the basement of Waukeen's Rest. The group appears to be running cargo through the Underdark. If you use Speak with Dead on her, she says this location is a Zhentarim trading post and the tunnels lead "... Underdark... trading route... and graveyard both..."

When the player character arrives, she's waiting for a shipment that Rugan has. Once it arrives, she plans on destroying of their base (because the Fists are in Waukeen's Rest.)

Once the player character has her approval, they can purchase more stock from Brem.

She is described in dev notes as neutral toned, blunt, unimpressed. No bluster or boasting, several of her statements are described as "a simple statement of fact". For the most part, seems fairly even-keeled and able to put aside her emotions. She does have some moments of humor/jovialness, usually when she's threatened.

If the player character tries to sneak up on her, she has lines for first falling back and then trying to escape. Dev notes say, "the Zhent would usually run but choose to fight as the player got too close before discovery." There's also this note: "Her gang are preparing to burn down their hideout when they leave, and in some cases she'll give the order to start that process if she thinks we're a threat."

There's cut/bugged content around her. If you save Rugan and do not take the shipment, Rugan was supposed to show up in act 3 and tell you the rest of the group was framed and hung for the kidnapping of Duke Ulder.

Hardened professional:

"Couldn't you just be a professional? Do as you're told, no questions asked? Like so: Lads! Kill them."

"You've... opened the shipment." Dev note: Mute, neutral - she's not surprised by much, but opening this shipment means we've killed her and all her men.

Dev Note: "We told her we'd do a job, and she's not going to be giving us a penny until we complete it"

Dev note: "Shrugging, unconcerned - she's ready to kill anyone at any moment, it's not personal."

"That's Zhent business, not yours. You did me a service - doesn't make you one of us."

If a barbarian roars at her and succeeds in intimidating her, she says "A��� roar? That was unexpected" and the dev notes say "Initially a bit scared, then recovers composure".

Dev note: "Off-hand, as if asking you to kill an unarmed man she's known for years is a mere formality."

She does lose her temper here: "Actually, hells with this - the day I've had? You just lost your life too."

Smart

If you read her mind, she'll figure it out: "I never mentioned any cargo, and I don't care for people poking around in my head."

Calls that the Fist will frame them: "The Flaming Fist will want someone to blame, and I don't plan to leave anything pointing our way." (Player character says the Fist know they're there and don't care) "Maybe not now, no. But that'll change once the council gets involved. They'll want heads to roll."

Reacts to guts/bravery/threats with amusement

"You've got guts. I respect that."

Dev note: Genuine laughter - you're threatening her gang despite the odds being heavily stacked against you. She's won over by it.

"Hah! Of course - all you had to do was ask." - in response to player asking to skip to the killing. Dev notes: Genuinely amused - she likes your directness, and is all to happy to grant your request.

Speaks using a lot of commerce terms/phrases

"Trade with what? Your life was ours the moment you walked in here. But… maybe I'll let you buy it back. I have a job needs doing."

"Failure creates debt. And debt requires payment."

"And just like that, everyone profits."

The job over people:

"Some of our people are missing - more importantly, so is their cargo"

"I was glad to see Rugan, until he told me he lost the shipment."

"Keep them alive if you can. Failing that, just bring that shipment back."

"More importantly, that's the one who saved the cargo, Rugan." - said to Rugan after he IDs you as the one who saved him.

Rugan says, "If Zarys doesn't get that chest, she'll have us all killed" and he's right

Trusts no one:

"Then I'm in your debt - or will be, once I see him and his cargo. Didn't think you'd get your coin based on spinning some tale, did you?" Dev note: "Neutral - not unfriendly but we're telling her something too good to be true and until she sees evidence she's not interested in dealing with us"

Sense of humor, but sarcastic/mocking:

After Olly mispronounces Zhent as "Za-hent", she asks if he's "scared of gahosts?"

When the player says they're still looking for Rugan/Olly/the cargo: "Well I'll give you a hint, shall I? They ain't down here."

If a barbarian roars at her and fails to intimidate her, she says, "A… roar? That was… unimpressive." and the dev notes say, "Slightly bemused at the strange roar"

When talking to Olly's tortured corpse, she does so "almost cheerfully"

Relationships:

Roah says, "Never much liked Zarys, truth be told"

Zarys says in regards to Olly: "I do it because it makes me hate him less."

Dev note if player character delivers cargo to her unopened: "She looks on us as an equal - she usually views those she works with as messy or inferior"

Refers to her group as "lads". No clue if this is a just a phrase or if it's implying Vol is "one of the boys", a tomboy, or transmasc.

Rugan recruited her: "You're the one who recruited me, Rugan. You're the one who taught me rule number one, remember? (...) You're dead the moment you steal from the Zhentarim. No matter who you are."

If Zarys dies, Bellar seems genuinely upset

Vol says she's never seen Zarys work a day in her life

Rugan calls her a "black-hearted vixen"

Misc:

Not religious: "'Fellow Banite' might be a bit strong, but you're welcome among the Zhent."

Turns off the humor quickly: "All joviality dropped - flat and icy-cold."

Tends to start a sentence like it'll go one way and then switch it up:

Funny thing, though - I swear I told you not to open it.

You have a death wish, happy to grant it

Phrases:

--, shall I?

ain't

Didn't think [statement], did you?

Yeah? (as a greeting)

Well?

You know [statement], right?

Takes steel to - instead of "takes balls to" or "takes a spine to"  

toddle off/toddle in

I got a tingle for a second there.

Of course

And in no state to tell tales - instead of, "And not in a state" or whatever

Seems I recall

Funny/Funny, that/Funny thing

Actually, --

Does not shorten as many as her sentences as the other Zhents. Example: says, "I suggest you" instead of "Suggest you",

A lot of "I ____" - "I'll welcome you as a friend",  "I swear I told you", "I suggest you turn around", "I recall", "I don't like", "I won't."

So many threats to rip or cut out tongues - "That tongue gets any looser, Rugan, I'll cut it out"

Insults:

stlarning lunatic

Compliments:

a godsdamned wonder

Curses/Exclamations:

Beshaba's black bones

godsdamned

Gods damn it

bloody

Whoa

Hrast - a curse in common, means something like "damn"

stlarning - more harsh than hrast

Huh

Oof

hells/hells with this

Placeholders: None

[bonefall]

Couldn’t cats make pudding? I haven’t done too much research into it, but given how your cats have fire, they could make agar from algae and seaweed. Also I don’t know if somebody’s mentioned it yet but sausages would be easy for them- intestines moment.

By pudding if you mean British meat pudding, absolutely!

[ID: Meat pudding. Also here is a link if you want to try this recipe]

If you mean pudding, as in the American milk-based desert dish, then no. Clan cats don't have access to milk. ThunderClan alone is also the only Clan that pursues sweetness in their dishes, thanks to their population having a high concentration of "Sweetness Tolerance," which is a quirky little gene like human lactose tolerance which turns a cat's ability to taste sweetness back on.

[ID: American chocolate pudding]

So if I ever refer to 'pudding' in a Clan cat context, I am always referring to meat-based, cakey, loafy puddings. Not American sweet goo.

One of my little "white whales" lately, though, is the very very funnily named classic dish, Spotted Dick.

[ID: Spotted Dick, a meat-based pudding with fruit baked into it. Golden syrup is being drizzled on top.]

Just to begin with, Spotted Dick Funny Name. I am motivated by things that are funny.

But that aside, Spotted Dick is unironically something ThunderClan would LOOOOVE. It's made from suet, which is a type of hard fat found around an animal's kidneys, with a mild and delicate flavor. It's excellent for cooking pseudo-baked goods like this which look like cake, BUT THEY'RE MEAT BASED!! IT'S PERFECT!

And even more than that, you can suspend dried fruits right inside of it. ThunderClan loves to cook with blackberries and pour honey on stuff, maybe even toss in a couple ants or de-stinged bees for a good crunch. They'd go crazy for Spotted Dick.

Problem I'm finding is... suet is best collected from sheep and cattle. Those are too big for a Clan cat to handle, and obviously every resource I encounter is human-based. I wouldn't think rabbits (leanest animal in the goddamn world) would have any worthwhile suet around their kidneys...

Now, ThunderClan's special, as you probably know from Mr. Shredtail they're Pretty Good at hunting boars, so that's one way to get some workable suet. But it's a fix for one Clan, and really, it's becoming an issue that most Clans are having a hard time accessing fat for their cooking.

Soooo I'm trying to figure out what animals provide the most fat, so I can make a special note of how important that particular species is to Clan cats. Does that make sense? Fat's a really important ingredient, I need to know what small animals in this part of England provide the most of it, and get a general idea of how much of this important ingredient each Clan naturally has access to.

I know for a fact that WINDCLAN has a serious problem here, because rabbits are super low in fat. The way I dealt with it there is for them to rely on Grubcakes like a vegetable, which is a mashed bug fritter, because insects are surprisingly high in fats. But the issue for them remains that fat's a difficult ingredient to acquire.

Ducks and carp seem high in fats and oils, so maybe RiverClan has the market cornered on that... ShadowClan may also have lots of ducks because of the marshland. I wonder how much fat a squirrel has?

Anyway, that's something on the backburner of my mind

[strang3lov3]

https://www.tumblr.com/strang3lov3/756124460793348096/httpswwwtumblrcomstrang3lov37560971201483079

i’m so flattered i’ve been dubbed as bitey anon, it’s fitting honestly, i too have an oral fixation that’s why i was projecting LMAOO i also am a sucker for loss of virginity (def not projecting AGAIN)

im also glad you are into the idea!! if are ever up to write a fic about it yk id eat it up so bad, i’ve re-read the joel fic about biting way too many times LMAOO it’s too good i fear. I also just like to imagine joel’s shocked moans and groans everytime needy reader sinks her teeth into joel… he’s just so taken back by her need to chew on his flesh… he def gives her a hard time about it, i feel like he’d get a little worked up at one point and make her gag on his fingers (or better yet his cock n he’s a little mean when she uses her teeth D:) but also at the end of the day he’s joel so he’ll be MOSTLY NICE…

i’m giggling over the fact you like my idea, mwab mwah!

sincerely, bitey anon

Bitey anon!

What do you think about her biting him at inappropriate moments. Like at times she really shouldn’t be. Maybe she’d suck and bite his fingers during movie night in Jackson? He’s got his arm wrapped around her shoulders and she surreptitiously brings his fingers to her mouth to play with, he’d scold her and tell her to knock it off. But she never does. I think he’d probably drag her out of there and stuff something else in her mouth since she needs something in there so badly.

With love,

Bug 🐛

[greatpawtender]

can you imagine post case 4 laurent calling up makoto and being like "Hey Do You Want To Do A Con Again" only for makoto to turn him down so completely that it kind of forces him to reassess his own goals and priorities and what he wants out of life now that his grudges have been settled.

because he just kind of Assumed that his way of living would work for makoto and that working with team confidence would set him down that same path for life (see: the parallels between the way he and makoto are treated by team confidence when they first join), because why Wouldn't it? and he probably thought makoto's genuine desire to be a good person and make an honest living was a result of conformity more than anything. (and it's not even like an honest life is Inherently Better, more that laurent, as someone who was never really able to lead that sort of existence, can't really understand its value beyond it being Safer)

the difference is that makoto doesn't enjoy hurting people, even if it's for a good cause, while laurent (imo) has a very "the end justifies the means" approach and is, I would argue, a lot more childish and petty.

with hindsight and the context of his own treatment, the way makoto is treated by team confidence starts feeling like projection on laurent's behalf. "I saw people fake die in front of me, so it's fine" "I wasn't told anything, so it's fine" "I suffered, but because it's all fake it's fine". tbh it feels like laurent never allowed himself to properly process any of his trauma besides the stuff that was "real" (and even in that case, he only really processed dororthy's death after the score had been settled), so he just expects that makoto will do the same thing and be fine, which is. not how it should go

I just think laurent should be given the chance to kind of. Think about team confidence more critically upon witnessing makoto's post case 4 depression that's all. I think he should go bug makoto at his new job and when makoto doesn't react at all and makes it very clear that he wants laurent Gone, laurent has to confront the fact that this sort of stuff really can fuck people up, and maybe he's a little less okay than he thought. and then he goes and whines to oz about it and then they make out idk

hi op. hi. hey . can i make out with you? no? okay sorry

AOUFUGHHF YOURE SO RIGHT YOURE SO RIGHT OG MY GOD this has been my EXACT thoughts regarding makoto and laurent too god they are so insane

i swear to god its like generational trauma between them 😭 its like the children dealing with what the parents dealt with when they were younger LMAOOO

god i am a sucker for post-case 4 cause there is no way everyone, at least makoto, will be okay after that. i agree so hard with makoto just not reacting At All instead of the comical GRAHHH NOOO YOU CAN'T ROPE ME INTO THIS AGAIN!!! but only in my hc i feel like makoto would just comply because hes so Tired

anyway id love to talk more aboit this but i am stupid but thank u op youre so smart and correct and hot