#I may be in the process of drafting up an animation for his ending

[skydigipaint]

Currently doing some studies on our rizzard. Is it silly that I want him to be a disney prince?

[gallusrostromegalus]

I've always said that kubota did orihime soooooooo dirty >:( she literally has god powers and they get diminished so harshly... I've always viewed her power as her having the ability to Reject phenomena. In canon she rejects the fact that people are injured. What would happen if she rejected the fact that someone was alive? That someone was in her way? Reject the injustices that led to her and her friends' world being turned upside down. Anyway I love that your hime has the spine she deserves and I'm so excited to be completely normal about aeiwam

Some Important facts about Orihime from canon:

Orihime is the #3 student in her entire (fairly large) high school. Girl Ain't Stupid- if anything, the fact that she's wildly unorthodox in her projects and STILL pulls those kinds of grades and test scores suggests that her teachers are grading her like that because her weird-ass approaches to assignments demonstrate a thorough understanding of the material, so she may actually be smarter than Uryuu, the #1 student who gives me very strong "I'm very good at taking tests and telling teachers what they want to hear, so I can pull good grades even if I have no clue what the subject is" Vibes.

Orihime cooks weird damn food, and enjoys it. She also has strange ideas about what's cute, exceptionally brightly colored clothes relative to everyone else, and does things like get lost following dragonflies for hours on end. Screams sensory processing Weirdness to me. Maybe I'm projecting a bit here, but Sensory processing disorders come with sensory euphoria too- I get to enjoy a huge variety of strange foods and the sound of rain gives me physical joy.

Orihime's best friends* are: -The School's Self-affected "weird boy who might be a delinquent or possibly just insane" guy -A Butch Jock With Anger Issues -The Crafts Club president who has So Much Gender Happening, and also sort-of grew up in a cult -The Giant, scary-looking guy who keeps smuggling small animals into school. -A Genuine sociopath whose family probably has Yakuza Connections -An extremely powerful supernatural being who is like five times her age -Keigo. This is not the friend group of a "Normal"

Taken together, these points form a constellation of THIS GIRL GOT AUTISM. LIKE SO MUCH. LEVEL 999 AUTISM MAGE. She's full of strange joy and magnificently weird and experiencing reality four steps to the left of everyone else AND SHE IS SO, SO SMART.

So in the fic, when she sees Ichigo freaking out because Rukia has been Kidnapped back to Soul Society on Bullshit criminal charges, Orihime does what every autistic person I know does, and immediately begins drafting a Solution.

Namely She begins drafting an extraction plan. She gets slightly in over her head with details about what data they need, how much and what kind of resistance they'd be facing etc. etc. until she realizes she needs some concrete answers and, without regard to social conventions like "time" and "Personal space", more or less kicks in the door to Urahara's shop at 2AM, marches directly into his bedroom and starts interrogating him about the civil services in soul society, yes it's weird you sleep naked with your cat sir but I'm not here to pass judgment I'm here to get answers you can put pants on later.

After the resounding success of their operation in Soul Society, the hardest part when Ulquiorra comes to kidnap her and gives her the completely insane circumstances of "you will be invisible and go through walls for 12 hours, prepare yourself." is not vibrating with the absolute mania of the chance to go to Los Noches and FUCK. SHIT. UP.

[dduane]

Ok so

1. I’ve only ever read one book you wrote (So You Want To Be a Wizard) but it was very good and I love it. Big fan.

2. Both out of curiosity and on behalf of my sister, as a writer of Barbie Fairytopia, did you invent Bibble. Because my sister has Bibble as her Home Screen and my whole family had a conversation about Bibble yesterday.

Thank you. Ur books are cool.

Thank you! Glad you liked SYW... . 😊

Now, about Bibble (and a nod here to @the-best-of-the-geeks, who also inquired about this):

The answer is... maybe. At this end of time, it's hard to tell.

I took a few moments off from today's* graphic arts work to go digging in my archived project files. What I can see from a quick glance at them is that Bibble (or the character who'd eventually be Bibble: there were a lot of name changes throughout the writing process) doesn't appear in any of the drafts of the worldbuilding bible I wrote, or in other associated background material. If it had, that would've been—not absolute, but at least fairly strong circumstantial evidence—that I was the character's creator.

The problem is that when you're working on a big-IP project like this, there are so many people involved in the creative process that it can become really difficult to accurately trace any one character's or story element's "lineage". It's possible Bibble originated in a note to me from one of the creative team, which would have been one of hundreds of archived emails. Or it might have been something suggested to me in a phone conversation... of which there were many. Without sifting through all those emails (and please forgive me, that's not something I've got time for at the moment) it's tough to say.

What I am sure of is that Bibble definitely turned up on my watch. I have a premise file dated 30 December 2003 which does not contain the character, and then a second-draft premise dated 10 January 2004... in which, with a slightly different name, Bibble first appears. Bibble (as Bobble) is also in my first draft screenplay, which was turned in in early February 2004.

So that much, at least, we can be sure of. Bibble's personality and speech style is clearly spelled out in the script (as is the suggestion that Bibble be voiced by Frank Welker. It's a shame that didn't happen: I'm a huge fan of his).

But this still doesn't constitute proof that I invented the character. Bibble could very well have been suggested to me by someone else—and suggestions and notes are so free-flowing in a project like this that it's possible we'll just never know. (sigh) Such is life.

What I do want to emphasize here was how extremely pleasant this whole project was, from beginning to end. There are screenwriting projects that will make you shudder decades after the fact just on hearing their name. But there are others that unfailingly make you smile when someone mentions them... and this, for me, was one of those.

The giveaway of how much fun I was having lies in some stuff that happens in the script and would, to those unfamiliar with tropes in animation writing, look like nothing in particular. But a recurring joke among animation writers back then (and maybe still) was designating a character's speech as a walla. In this case, it means not just a description of some kind of crowd noise—the usual definition—but of that particular character making speechlike noises. It's the kind of thing you don't bother doing if you're not feeling playful. (Or at least I don't.)

...Anyway: hope this has helped, at least a little. :)

*This post was written at the very beginning of May 2023, around the time the WGA strike was starting. During the strike period I haven’t been comfortable with doing long posts about my screen work… but the strike’s over now. 😄 Thanks to @violet-yimlat and @the-best-of-the-geeks for being so patient.

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

Hi, I'm wondering what your take on combining animal features together in a cohesive way would be? Especially in the case of animals that look vastly different from each other or aren't even in the same sort of groups (ie say, cephalopods with mammals). I'm trying to achieve the "looks like one singular animal" type of thing that has been mentioned in your centaur posts, but I keep ending up with creatures that look like they've been frankenstein-ed together.

I answered a similar question before

I need to make a full tutorial on this as well i think, but the tldr is this:

pick your creatures

identify their visual similarities and differences

identify the most iconic parts of each creature that you want to preserve in the final design

smush em together like clay and redraw them as many times as it takes for things to look more cohesive (sorry)

example:

(image description: two collages of animal photos; a pig, porcupine, and pronghorn antelope. the second image includes notes pointing out similar features between them and a few distinct features for each. hooves for the pig and pronghorn, round bodies for the pig and porcupine, and sharp defenses for the porcupine and pronghorn. the distinct features for each are the snout of the pig, the quills and orange teeth of the porcupine, and the horns and coloration of the pronghorn. end description.)

(image description: colored simple drawing of a new fantasy animal combining the features of the pig, porcupine, and pronghorn. it looks like a wild boar covered in large quills, with orange tusks, and the coloration and horns of a pronghorn. end description.)

sometimes in the process, you find that one of the creatures you picked just has a stronger effect on the design than the others, and that's fine! with more draft sketches, I would probably end up changing the shape of these horns to be more unique, maybe give it shorter legs and lean into the porcupine's arboreal nature. or I could go the other way and try to lean more into the pronghorn body shape, make this a running animal. it all depends on the role i want it to have in whatever setting i'm designing it for, and which features will best serve that role.

I also used very random animals here, but for an actual project i would plan it out more and have an end goal in mind. why is this pig-like creature covered in sharp quills? why does it have quills, horns, and also tusks? what's its diet and habitat? etc etc. you need to not only work with the visual design, but also the world design. it's a living thing in your setting, so it needs to fill a niche. your final design may abandon many distinct features from your original creature inspirations in favor of making a more unique creature that suits your setting! you have to be flexible with it and redo it a few times before you find the sweet spot.

[tenpintsof-sundrop]

Nisha, did you know I would step on some legos barefooted for you? Anyways can’t wait to read for another fandom I have never stepped foot in and would probably never engage with the canon in just because you decided that’s what to make, and I’ve decided to read it anyways. Home cooked meal. -Rotten Anon

The opening line of this message made literal cartoon anime hearts appear above my head, just so you know <3

Also you have inspired me to post a rundown of my WIPs because I am really excited about what I have been working on. And for two of these fandoms, I know you have said you know nothing about the canon, but for the third, I am not sure, so we'll see.

My Current WIPs April/May 2024

Heaven's Gate (for The Walking Dead) - Daryl Dixon x GN!Reader. Strangers to Lovers/Soulmates/Lovers Reunited. Angst, Fluff, Hurt and Comfort. Set during Season 1 to Season 5. 17k in counting (will be a oneshot). You can find a preview here. In this fic, you and Daryl get separated when the Governor attacks the prison, and though you both believe the other person is dead (or long gone) you find each other at the most unlikely time, in the most unlikely place.

I am super excited about this fic, and the themes of hope that I have woven into it. Because yes, I unironically love writing about hope and how the human spirit can persevere - which is something that my favourite moments in The Walking Dead show. This is first draft complete and just needs to be edited.

The Jaws of Life (for DC Titans) - Jason Todd x GN!Reader. Sequel to Emergency Contact. Lovers Reunited. Extreme Angst, Smut, Hurt and (some) Comfort. Set during Season 3. 21k in counting (will probably be a oneshot - if it needs to be split up, it will be put in two parts, but I hope I can get away with a oneshot). (I highly recommend that everyone go read the original in the meantime, because it is one of my best fics ever.) In this fic, you and Jason struggle with the new meaning of your relationship after what happened with Deathstroke - only for this tentative change to be harshly disrupted by the Joker. And you're still heavily mourning when a red hooded stranger breaks into your apartment one night, seeking medical care because apparently - you owe him one.

Everyone give Jaycen @nctzenkane a big fucking round of applause for this one, because he was randomly talking to me about Jason Todd today (we were having the 'some characters are only fuckable in costume' discussion) - and I got talking about how this version of Jason from Titans makes me so passionate to write about the character. And it is solely because of him that I opened up this fic and took a good look at it - I have been thinking about this fic for months, wanting to finish it because I know I am gonna be proud of it, but I kept hesitating because I thought I had a way bigger mountain to conquer with it. But the conversation I had with Jaycen really inspired me and I wrote 5k on the fic just today, and I realized that with this momentum, I could have the first draft done by the end of this month. So I am promising myself that this is gonna be done soon.

Speaking of which - when The Jaws of Life is first draft done, I wanna host a poll so you guys can decide which of those two ^^ fics goes through the editing process to be posted first. Both will be posted (hopefully) by the end of May, but I do wanna know which one you guys wanna see posted first. Which leads me to:

Nasty (for Stranger Things) - Sub!Eddie Munson x Dom!Fem!Reader. Established Relationship. Smut/PWP. 3k (this is gonna be a shorter fic lmao). In this fic, you and Eddie have been dating for a while, but you don't like that all of his attempts to have sex with you have him taking on a (seemingly fake) dom persona. When you finally tell him that you prefer to be more dominant in bed, he isn't disgusted like you thought he might be - he loves it.

This is one I have been sitting on for a while, and right before it was ready to be posted - my brain lost interest in it like tiktok does micro trends. But I think this is gonna be really great to post while the poll for those other fics is cooking because it's short and sweet and for the past few days, whenever I have seen the cover for this in my drafts, I have gotten excited about it again. So I am excited to finish it and show it off to everyone!!

[canonicallyobserving911]

Buck & Eddie: Wedding rings and traditions

(Clearing drafts and GIFs before the end of season 6.)

I think I found something…

Traditionally, married couples wear their wedding rings on the ring finger of their left hands but some couples choose to wear their wedding rings on the ring finger of their right hands too.  There are various reasons why some couples choose to wear their rings on the right hand instead of the left and it could be something as simple as they don’t want to follow traditions.

Before I get into this, I need to mention I also looked at scenes that included Bobby, Athena, Hen and Karen to see which hand they wore their wedding rings on and all of them wear their rings on their left hands.

After 6x12 “Recovery” aired, during the mini hiatus, I was in the process of making GIFs and I noticed Connor’s wedding ring was on his right hand when he went to visit Buck.  At first, I thought he (the actor) may have been in a hurry and he put it on his right hand instead of his left but I quickly dismissed that idea when I remembered how particular 9-1-1 is about their metaphors and foreshadowing.

Therefore, I reviewed Connor’s scenes in 6x4 “Animal Instincts” to see if he wore his wedding ring on his left or right hand and that’s when I realized I might have found something. After carefully reviewing Buck’s scenes with Connor and Kameron in 6x4, I saw both of them were wearing their wedding rings on their left hands. So, I wanted to know why Connor moved his wedding ring from his left hand to his right but since the three-week long hiatus was in progress, I waited to post about it because I wanted to see if Karen’s comment to Hen in 5x17 “Hero Complex” would come into play and it did.  While they were discussing Jonah, she told Hen, “Once is a mistake, twice is a coincidence and three times is a pattern” followed by Athena mentioning coincidences again in 6x7 “Cursed”.  After she and Eddie finished their conversation with Felisa, Athena said, “You know what I believe in even less than a curse, COINCIDENCE”.

Based on their comments along with all the foreshadowing and metaphors that have been included in season 6 alone, it appears 9-1-1 doesn’t do coincidences and after the mini-hiatus, I saw the second instance of a married man wearing his wedding ring on his right hand.

In 6x13 “Mixed Feelings”, the husband in the last emergency call wore his wedding ring on his right hand just like Connor did in 6x12 even though his wife Patsy wore hers on her left hand.

The third instance, which makes this a pattern instead of a coincidence happened a few seconds later. When Eddie asked the husband what they were doing when the pain started and if they were doing things “the old-fashioned way”, the husband started to explain but when Buck said, “Oh, yeah…” Pasty screamed to get their attention and both Buck and Eddie held up their right hands to cover their faces.

I still wasn’t sure why the two married men wore their wedding rings on their right hands until I remembered two things.  First, Buck was involved in both conversations and he talked directly with both men. That may not seem like it matters but during 6B, the show hinted heavily at a Madney proposal which means those conversations could have happened with Chimney instead of Buck since he was the one who was going to propose before 6x17 “Love is in the Air”.  Also, Chimney doesn’t know Connor and he wasn’t involved in the call with the husband and wife like Hen, Buck and Eddie were; therefore these two instances can’t be related to Chimney. The second thing I remembered was the question Eddie asked the husband during the emergency.

He asked him if they were doing things “the old-fashioned way” and that’s when I realized both husbands were in situations where things were not “traditional”. Connor and Kameron did not go the traditional route to conceive a baby.  They asked Buck to be their sperm donor which means Connor wearing his wedding ring on his right hand is related to Buck. The husband in the last emergency was using a “non-traditional” method to try and please his wife and he was talking to Buck too.  While they were talking, Buck realized he wasn’t as skilled with his “Firehose” as he originally thought (I’ve already posted about his woodworking skills and it’s linked here). Then in 6x17, Buck started looking for a ring cutter that he apparently, keeps in his kitchen to remove Maddie’s engagement ring but when she asked him why he had one, he avoided answering her question.  He doesn’t wear jewelry of any kind so why would he have a ring cutter, especially since he doesn’t wear rings (at least he doesn’t wear rings that can be seen👀👀)?  If he has worn a ring on one of his hands before then it’s possible the ring cutter was used to remove it but it’s also possible it may have been used to remove a “non-traditional” type of ring. Reminder, the 118 has responded to several emergencies this season with couples who were involved in “non-traditional” situations when an injury occurred, i.e., in 6x2 “Crash and Learn” a husband found out about his wife cheating with their neighbor, in 6x8 “9-1-1 What’s Your Fantasy?” the couple on top of the firetruck and 6x13 “Mixed Feelings” the couple with the misplaced pleasure item.

The point is there were two married men wearing their wedding rings on their right hands and both of them talked directly with Buck along with the last one talking to both Buck and Eddie.  This could very well be far-fetched speculation but it also might not be that outlandish when everything that’s happened during this second half of the season is considered. Marriage has been a huge topic during this part of 6B and there’s also been speculation about Buck and Eddie having a fast wedding sometime around or after 6x18 “Pay it Forward.”  When that speculation is combined with the comment Bobby made in 6x16 “Lost and Found” while the team was riding in the firetruck, it’s possible all of these things are related.  After Hen explained the way she and Karen were planning to propose during their weekend get-away, Bobby said, “Couldn’t ask for a clearer sign that you two were meant to be together”, it was followed by the camera panning to Buck and Eddie instead of it being directed back on Hen.

Is it possible the two married men wearing their rings on their right hands was foreshadowing and could it be related to Buck and Eddie’s relationship?  Only the showrunner(s), writers and producers know the answer to that question.

[archoive]

I GOT A HYUKA SOFT THOUGHTS YIPPIEEE [from drafts 240409]

animal caregiver!hueningkai

tw: fluff, strangers to lovers?, shy kai 😋

you joined on a club where it usually do volunteer work once each month. teaching, farming, beach cleaning; you’ve done a lot. it’s a new month and this time it has been decided that the club are going to animal shelter for animal care.

the day, you and your club got there and then you met him. haired dyed in blue, slightly faded; surely he attracts attention, you thought. you just couldn’t stop looking at him, not just because of his striking hair but also how gentle he looks taking care of the puppies.

fortunately, you got to work together with him on feeding the canine buddy. you learned that his name is huening kai and slowly you get to know that he usually volunteer at the animal shelter. you heard what he’s saying, do you? because he seems a bit flustered that you kept gazing at him. can’t blame you, he just looks so attractive while being focused and attentive.

months went by and you kept going to the animal shelter by yourself, you fell in love with how cute the little friends are and definitely not because to met him there too. to be honest, it was kinda hard at first to approach him since he’s such a shy guy you ever met but that’s what makes you keep going.

he’s opening up to you; slowly, but you enjoyed the process. conversations that used to be started by you turned into him who initiates it first. guess it won’t be surprising if one day he confessed to you.

but it does still feel unreal. that day came, he asked you out; shyly while holding the pup friend. “sorry i’m not used to this nor i ever done this before but… i’ve been wanting to ask you; would you go out with me…? may i?” his voice’s getting smaller for each word indicating his shyness, but you love that about him.

yep i mentioned before and here it is 🤪 i have never done voluntary work before so i have no idea how it works plus it’s not that common in where i live so forgive me if it’s all wrong but let’s just think it works like that;;;; also abrupt ending? i just don’t know how to end it well 🥲 maybe part 2 if i have more idea on this…..

[ap0stle]

WIP questionnaire tag game

THANK U FOR THE TAG @astramachina

umm the wip in question is TMNTDT aka Tell Me Not to Do This aka teenage mutant ninja turtle...dookie time

What’s the first part of your WIP that you created?

oough that was back in like... 2016? 2014? and i started with the first chapter right away which ended up being the fourth chapter and then became Nothing At All because i have wrecked this thang beyond recognition <3

If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

definitely Burn a Church by Coma Cinema bc it's been in my mock-soundtrack playlist for years and fits the vibes really well :3 the playlist in question is kind of a mess and old as hell but i'll link that too just in case ^_^

What are your favorite characters that you made? Why?

curtis definitely, i think i get caught up on the details of everyone but he is the most wholly developed and also umm. very similar to me so i love him dearly. he is the worst.

What other pieces of media do you think your fanbase would share?

if you like weird indie movies about young mentally unwell people that may or may not be queer and/or on da spectrum... you will enjoy my garbage and such movies as I Am Not a Serial Killer, As You Are, Super Dark Times, etc. ALSO magnus archives fans maybe bc of the whole Mold Cult thing that is still under development

What has been your biggest struggle with your WIP?

settling on a format was and is still my number one struggle lol. i have switched between a book, comic, videogame, screenplay, website... i have like 50000 drafts scattered across different websites and applications and if this thing ever comes to life i think i will actually fucking ascend

Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

ssssssssssort of. there are a lot of dead animals. and fungi. and mold. there have been some minor pet ideas thrown around for the more. Safe Environment characters but for the time being no actual lovable creatures :/ maybe eventually!

How do your characters travel/get around?

Juno's car because mr. dumbass dumped his murder truck into a river ^_^

What part of your WIP are you working on right now?

....yes. in all seriousness i have so many different versions in different POVs and tenses it's a toss up as to what i work on and if it will even make it to the next round of editing LOL

What aspects (tropes, maybe?) will you think draw your audience in?

its not quite explicitly queer (in the latest version) but heavily HEAVILY implied and i feel like the stories that are sort of ambiguous about their queerness tend to draw more people in ?? or they're more popular anyway LOL. so trope: queerbaiting ????

deeply unwell man who has not slept properly in 600 years. the ladies love that shit

^ unreliable narrator ?

religious horror sort of?

bury your gays except. is he actually dead?? .....

What are your hopes for your WIP?

to settle on a fucking medium LMAO. i cannot for the life of me stick to one, or a point of view, OR a tense so um . makin a goddamn decision would probbaly make the writing process like 600 times easier

tagging UM. shaking my brain for writer mutuals ik ive tagged yall before but i cannot think rn so @hammity-hammer @aether-friskets @xxdrowninglessonsxx @deviantartidentitydisorder

anyway if anyone else wants do this just pretend u have been personally tagged ily THANK U AGAIN MITCH ♡♡♡

[ravenstargames]

✦ Lost in Limbo Devlog #2 | 02.28.23

It is time for our second devlog! 💜 🎉 We made it!

Sadly and as we anticipated, February has been a hell of a month, and March is promising to be the same. I'm mostly glad we made it through. We have a lot of work to do as the trimester comes to an end and there's a considerable amount of things due to before March ends in regards to our intensive master. The team and I are a bit on the stressed side, but we'll make it.

Let's see what our overworked and exhausted souls have managed to pull off this month, shall we?

Warning: Seyl is lacking sleep. The amount of typos and oopsies in this devlog may be higher than usual. Apologies in advance!

Raquel started to fix some sprites this month as we had planned, starting with Neela, the second supporting character you'll meet in the demo, who needs a bigger revamp than the rest of LIs. The three characters left without a sprite already have their character sheets and moodboards done, so that's something! We do not want to spoil anything from the character department as we think it's cooler to meet them with their info sheet and with their sprites polished and pretty, so we are hoping we can speed up the process during March!

One of our goals this month was to do some promo art for Valentine's day, and we somehow managed! Special thanks to Raquel who was very excited and invested on this wonderful piece of Xal! 💜

I also worked on the Valentine's cards last minute and just for the funsies, so I really didn't expect them to be as well received as they were! Thank you all so much!

A bit of lore here: Raquel, Astro and I have a class assignment due in March where we have to fully design and render two backgrounds—one interior and one exterior. It's a ton of work, but luckily both Raquel and I have had the chance to orient at least one of those backgrounds to Lost in Limbo.

Raquel is working on Amon's office (and it's looking so great already!) and I'm doing an isometric view of Ara's room. We are always looking for ways to work on the game while doing our master's assignments, but it's not always possible. Hopefuly we can also work on two exterior backgrounds for the demo with this assignment!

A very simple man, Amon is. Can't you tell by how minimalist his office looks already? *cue laugh track*

This is just a sliver of our flowchart's power! You shall tremble!

This month has been more about planning than writing for me. Remember last devlog when I said I wanted to do some tweaks to the demo script? Well, I have at least been able to properly think about it and draft it. The only thing left is writing it down and implement it to the current script to see how it flows. There'll be even more changes (again) because I have some THOUGHTS (again), and I'm really excited about them. It's adding more content of each LI to the demo to balance things a bit.

I have also been doing some cleaning to our lore documents and I have finally sat down to write every little piece of story from Lost in Limbo in 'chronologic order', more or less. It will help me to always have the bigger picture in mind when writing the routes, and I would love to have everything important settled before the demo release. It's a loooooot of information—not only about the characters and their past overall, but about the world, its many systems, its people...It'll be equally fun and stressful!

In the programming department it has been all about adjusting positions, sprites and definitions to make all the characters fit properly in different scenarios as I code more of the script. Solo, with two characters in screen, with three, with four... It has been a ride (and still is, because I have not finished yet) but it's very rewarding to see everything starting to fall into place. I have also tested more things, like the CGs, the animated backgrounds or some cool transitions! I can't wait to implement the GUI when it's done, uuugh!

Just three besties going to the forest in the middle of the night. Nothing to see here.

This month we have an amazing preview of our GUI! It's still cooking, but we hope we can show you the finished version very very soon! We are soooo excited about it, it's looking perfect so far. There's a few changes to make, but we wanted to at least show you a screen so you can have an idea of how the game will look like!

We want to add more options like a dyslexic font, a skip mode that jumps directly to the next choice without having to wait for all the text to be skipped, and more utility / accessibility options!

Lost in Limbo and Ravenstar's color? Not purple, of course. Why do you ask?

This month hasn't been as productive as we would have wanted it to be, but we have managed to still get some progress done. We are begging for March to give us a bit of freedom, specially mental because we honestly need it. It has been difficult to deal with the pressure of our studies and the weight we place on our shoulders wanting to dedicate as much time as we want to LiL. It's frustrating! But we'll get there. Baby steps, as they say!

Exciting things are on the horizon, that is for sure. This devlog has been a bit short and I'm honestly exhausted, so I'll free you! Thank you so much for reading and for your unending support. We are incredibly thankful for all of you! 💜

[speedofsoundsketches]

All the writing is done you just need to make the pages?

Hmmmm if you mean the story overall, Yes and no.

I vaguely know what’s going to happen but I don’t actually write the text or sequences out until I’m drawing the first drafts of the pages themselves. I’m a visceral writer so I like to write the actual text as the scene naturally unfolds thus I don’t always know exactly how it will go until I’m in there drawing it as it happens. This is how Hayao Miyazaki makes his movies and storyboards. His team will start animating before he even knows how he’s going to end it! (Which if you’re familiar with how most animations are made, this is not a thing anyone does and is insanely bold of him)

It should be mandatory for any creative to watch the documentary “Ten Years with Hayao Miyazaki”. It was a wealth of inspiration!

He’s a bit extreme for me since I prefer having some idea of what ending I’m working towards but it’s a good technique to help develop a natural story that is driven by the character’s actions and decisions they’re likely to make versus have a pre scripted “this is what they MUST say and do!” It may not feel right once you get to it and start to understand the characters more. This is why I believe it’s so important to really know these characters so their presence just makes sense and people will feel it as they read it. It’s both a cerebral and spiritual process.

That said, my first drafts will usually be pretty different from the finals because I often end up refining the dialogue, adding more pages or cutting panels that interrupt the flow too roughly. Rarely is anything perfect from the get go. 😅

[mpwrites]

because it wouldn’t leave my brain as soon as the idea was planted, may I present:

The Quantum State of Adam “The Beast” Beauty-and-the-Beast

So you know how, in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, the last petal of the enchanted rose will fall on the Beast’s 21st birthday? And in Be Our Guest we establish that for “ten years [they’ve] been rusting, needing so much more than dusting”?

That means Adam was 10 or 11 when the witch cursed them all to be a big furry slab of meat and various inanimate objects respectively. Yeah, turning away someone in need from your literal castle full of servants is a shitty thing to do at any age, but it does seem harsh; he was a kid!

…but he also wasn’t a kid.

Despite this frequent talking point among Disney fans, the image of Adam in the stained glass prologue is a grown-ass man, complete with crown and scepter.

And if he had been turned into the Beast as a kid, how would there be a portrait of his *adult human face* in the West Wing for him petulantly slash?

You could reasonably argue that everyone in the castle is locked in time. Chip wasn’t birthed as a teacup; he was turned into one as a kid and stayed a kid for all that time. But everyone else are inanimate objects, they wouldn’t grow or age. Adam, on the other hand, is still a living mammalian creature with no reason to be frozen in time. More than that, if he were stuck in time, *why would they be counting his birthdays*? Rose petals don’t fall in a closed time loop.

Now, we’re having a lot of fun here trying to George Lucas our way out of a plot hole in a kid’s movie about a fairy tale, but I think it’s important to remember that telling stories is hard. Making a movie, particularly an animated one, is a long process, and sometimes the years of decisions you make telling a story layer over and obscure one another.

In some ways, this makes Beauty and the Beast a pretty accurate depiction of what it’s like to try to find a “definitive” version of a fairy tale that would have been altered over and over by time and the teller.

My guess is that they didn’t want Adam to be significantly older than Belle or to age Belle up to him (whether for nonsense sexism reasons or maybe legitimate demographic ones), and the curse only lasting a couple years wouldn’t have carried the same weight. In the end the job gets done either way; fairy tale’s gonna fairy tale.

It’s often a beautiful thing when you glimpse the person behind a creation, and mistakes should be part of that. Just because something has an error or inconsistency doesn’t mean you can’t like that thing or you have to focus on the piddly problems it has; how much we love this movie and how rarely this plot hole comes up is proof of that. It doesn’t matter whether Adam was a kid when he was cursed, by the end he learns to be a person who wouldn’t do that.

We don’t need every little thing to make sense or to headcanon our way out of a plot hole most of us didn’t notice.

But…there is one way that might work. I think it would go a little something like this:

The winter winds howled around the castle, just as the forest howled with its hungry creatures, filling their bellies to best the cold.

Prince Adam pushed his plate aside and wandered toward the fireplace he never lit himself. Before his plush robe could meet his plush armchair, a knock came at the door.

He looked around; if any servant had heard the door, they made no move to answer. A blustering wind blew snow up the windows, and another, more insistent knock followed.

His silence threatened, the Prince stalked down the stairs and opened the door.

At that moment, presumably in a lull from their eternal bickering, Lumiere and Cogsworth were passing the foyer when they heard their master’s voice and felt the draft of an open door.

With a look at the Prince and one at each other, they could sense their master’s mood, but curiosity gripped them.

“Please sire, once I enter, your home is large enough you’ll never see me again,” they heard over the creak of their tipped toes.

“I won’t see you again, lest I be more ill than this cold would make me.” Lumiere stifled a chuckle for his master’s barb.

“Beauty is only skin deep, as my lord must well know from his mirror, that being the only thing to reflect beauty on him.”

The servants’ eyes went wide, first that someone would speak to the Prince in this way, then with the understanding that as the voice spoke it changed—it grew younger, louder, more terrible in its confident lilt—and a flash of light knocked Prince Adam to the ground.

As they reached the end of the hall, the pair glimpsed the enchantress at their doorstep and ducked behind the swung open door. Adam’s eyes met Cogsworth’s then rose to Lumiere’s; fear and silence gripped them—and silence had never once fallen over the pair of serving men.

“For your unfeeling heart,” the witch cried, “you and your castle will be cursed…”

The wind stood still, the snowflakes held their place in the air.

“Until your twenty-first year.”

Adam hadn’t a strong grasp of numbers, but he was fairly certain he was near two decades if not past it. His fingers were locked to the floor and so unavailable for counting.

The ageless witch looked down at the chiseled young man, “Is there a problem?”

Lumiere found his voice, “Sire, listen here—more women have cursed me than they have their washboards; I know what to do.”

“Nonsense, Lumiere, there’s no such thing as curses.”

“Then what do you call that?” Lumiere cranked Cogsworth’s head to the crack in the door.

“…a witch.”

Lumiere somehow grew more smug, “With a face like yours, I’d assumed you’d met one before.”

“Lumiere!” Adam whispered, “Speak!”

The enchantress held her chin on her wand, surveying Adam on the floor, “I’ve lived for centuries, you see, so ages are difficult. You must be—what—ten, eleven years old? A decade being cursed seems sufficient.”

Adam’s confusion was wrung upon his face, but Lumiere nodded so hard his chin dug into Cogsworth’s scalp.

“Yes?” Adam said. “Oh. Yes! Oh no, my twenty-first year—so far away!”

“Very well,” the witch said, and as she wove her hands ‘round, snowflakes gathered and grew verdant until they formed a thorny stem in front of her.

“Yes, sire, well done! Now spring it back in her face,” Lumiere said, “tell her she’s been duped.”

“No, you fool,” Cogsworth clocked Lumiere in the shoulder, “she’ll just change the curse. Let her finish and leave us in peace.”

Still more snowflakes gathered to her, now sanguinating and attaching themselves to the stem until a rose floated before her; a bloom made of winter.

“I needed to know how many petals I needed,” she said.

Adam’s face had almost found relief, but it grew tense again. “How many?” he said. And the tension spread into growing discomfort as his jaw clenched and his teeth seemed to grow larger in his mouth.

“Yes,” the enchantress said, “one petal for each year. Ten years, as I said.”

Lumiere and Cogsworth didn’t see the rose fly to the tower, didn’t see the enchantress fade into the resuming snowfall or their master fold into himself in pain and anguish. Their minds were filled with the growing sensation of change in their limbs and how the castle seemed to grow around them.

“All that time…” Cogsworth said.

And it was written on his face.

[emilydaisymasters]

Pre-Production Overview & Thoughts on Year 1 MA PT

It feels odd to conclude this part of the blog for now, but as the deadline for pre-production is looming, I thought it best to cover (in words) all that I have managed to achieve thus far, what I missed out on, and what I will continue with into second year.

Pre Production Overview

Character Designs -

I managed to complete all of my character designs to a degree that I am very happy with, concepts and turnarounds included. Of course, there will be wiggle room as some assets may end up changing in the animation progress, but as it stands the character designs are all finished.

Backgrounds -

I wasn't able to complete all of my backgrounds (including blurs and filler shot backgrounds) in time for the pre-production deadline, which is grating on me a little to be honest. In fairness, I haven't had very much time to do so and my mitigating circumstances are reflective of this, but this is something I will be working on heavily in the gap between this academic year and the next.

Script -

I reached a draft of the script that I was very happy with in the end, after 4 complete rendition changes, and so I would class this portion as completed. Again, the script is subject to change in the animating process, and I did go through the motions of thinking about rewriting and changing up the animatic, but time restrictions made this an unlikely achievement. I still think it holds up very well as is though.

Animatic -

The animatic is fully completed, minus sound of course, though this is something I learned that animatics don't normally include anyway, which gave me some relief. The timings are almost final with some wiggle room, but I am very pleased with the base I have created for myself going into the animating process.

Learning Agreements & Blog -

This isn't just pre-production of course and will be upkept throughout the next year also, but as it stands, I am pretty well happy with both of these things. My blog is a contentious one, as I tend to draft all of these posts over time and then upload them in one fell swoop so they don't appear as often as they should, but I'm aiming to break this habit. Come next year, I want to draft even more frequent learning agreements and to do a lot more inspiration delving on my blog.

Thoughts on the Year

This part is one I was considering skipping entirely, as I'm not sure how personal I actually want to get with this, but in all honesty, my thoughts on the academic year and my personal experiences meld into one at this point. Incase I hadn't stated previously at any point on this blog, in December of 2023, my stepdad was diagnosed with an agressive and rare form of cancer, and in May 2024 he passed away. Everything that occured in this time frame has honestly become a sharp blur to me, if that makes sense. University work wasn't on the forefront of my mind, though I tried to maintain normality as best as I could. This project began as a way to express my childhood experiences and to describe the feeling that is difficult to portray through words, though it has become more than that since. It now serves as a way to keep me grounded, to bring back the joy I used to feel when doing the things I love, though now without some of the people I love, and that's a hard balance to strike.

Given all of my circumstances, I am still proud of the things I have achieved this year, and I am even more proud at how much I managed to get done despite my personal life. I didn't feel a dip in quality, which I partially expected from my lack of focus, and that's something I intend to retain moving forwards into the animation process.

My stepdad was one of my biggest supporters, he loved to see my work and his reactions of shock and pride always felt so genuine. He's the person I would go to when I needed a pep up, or needed to be reminded that I am capable, and that I am a creative, and missing that, missing him, is going to be something that simply heals in time.

As such, I am going to dedicate this film to him, to his nurture, and to his words that helped to shape who I am today.

My film will be for you Antony, thank you for everything.

[drfoxdoeshistory]

The creative process is a nightmare. Since I more or less know how the middle is going to play out, I’m trying to figure out how to start my short, which is the opposite of the typical writer’s struggle. I know I have the tea loving fox, but how do I generate the spark that leads him to the history lesson? What gives him the idea and what inspires the decision to use tea beyond the fact that he likes it? Clearly there needs to be some sort of visual storytelling in place, so a cue like him looking at a teabag, a glass, or a tea container seemed organic. The other thing I wondered was: since I’m going to discuss what I’ve learned about Assam in India, could that be on the tea container, and get his investigation started? It seems organic enough but I worry that may be too convenient. Another possibility could be something like “a product of the British Empire”. This could be useful because a lot of the historical chunk is going to be examining what it means for something to be the product of the Empire, but then I’m also not giving away too much too soon.

Another issue I’m having is how best to introduce the raccoon friend that’s going to show up and motivate McFluffen in that final section before he gets all the research together and figures everything out. It occurred to me that McFluffen could be out on a walk and past a trash can and wave to the raccoon, Newt, as he walks by. It could be funny, but it could also risk undermining the idea of having a deaf character with dignity if I have him dumpster diving. Another possibility would be for them to be having breakfast or a tea, but that might be TOO eccentric. There’s also the chance that Newt left something valuable in McFluffen’s den and he needs to come get it, and while McFluffen is digging around for it, he could knock over the tea container in all the chaos and come back to it after Newt is gone. Since my plan is to get out a script by the end of tomorrow, I might just try this approach and see how I feel about it because it feels like it sets things up without making things too convenient. Either way, the first draft will be done tomorrow, I’ll get a second opinion, and hopefully be animating before too long.

The writing needs to be over so I can get to the editing. Yawn.

[copperpipes]

Okay so with the biblically accurate turtles, would them having more turtle DNA make them more dangerous? As in, more unstable? That reptillian brain just kicks in sometimes and raph will open his mouth and wiggle his tongue at random times to try and "lure" prey in, or donnie hisses and snaps and his brothers if they annoy him too much, and especially things like mating season for turtles some get especially aggressive and territorial (poor splinter prolly has so many scars from when they were babies)

Buckle up, this is gonna be long.

Let's start off with the fact I'm not changing anything, so I won't call this an au (that's just how i like to draw the turtles) i'm merely deepening the existing lore and making sense of it, at least for myself.

To explain how their brains came to be and answer the first part of your question I'll start at the beginning. I'll start with Draxum, what his goal was and how he planned to reach it, what he did, some canon related theories and from there and in the process I'll answer the rest of your first ask. 

I don't have many headcanons actually, most of what i did was explaining things with my existing knowledge, this ties to my theories and my love of realistic sci-fi and worldbuilding.

Read this however you want, I'll call this an essay.

Draxum has been planning on the turtles long before he found Splinter. We know he schemed against humanity for years or possibly decades, maybe even a century (He is stated to be a couple hundred years old). With counting on the genocide of the human race he may have gone through countless drafts that for some reason didn't suit him (I could have suggested more efficient ways but then the turtles wont be born), In the end it led him to come up with the idea of warriors for mass destruction. Draxum could have created beast mutants, but I understand the ways in which intelligent fighters could be better, for example they could be taught magic when mindless animals couldn't.

We know that he has been looking for a powerful warrior to act as a surrogate DNA donor to perform the mutation, the moment he found one he would have done it, at least i believe these were his intentions, which must have meant the base subjects, or at least the plans for them, were already done. 

(Mutation diagram)

[base subject/base/base entity/base creature]= the original specimen the mutation is performed on.

[surrogate DNA]= the additional genetic material which when infused into the mutagen can react with other DNA, the form doesn't matter, and replace up to 70% of the base’s dominant genes.

This may result in a cancerous outbreak and or death.

As in, he removed everything that he deemed unsuitable in his base subjects. He probably had years to do that, to nitpick gens, essentially directing and speeding up evolution, creating a special kind of turtle with both physical, hormonal, and behavioral traits he wanted even before he found a creature to mutate them with. Getting rid of some traits and strengthening/ adding others, heck, he may have even involved prehistoric gens that have gone recessive or added gens that were not in the base creatures at all.

I'll elaborate; part of the instincts were bread out due to being no longer necessary or a hassle in general. The brumation season was removed, but not the turtles ability to brumate, let me explain:

Yokai (I assume Draxus thought to find a yokai DNA donor) are homeothermal, meaning warm blooded. while turtles, our dear ol’ reptiles, are ectothermal, meaning cold blooded (I'll also assume you know what is the difference between them, if you don't, that's what Google is for). Draxum needed to combine these two, making a type of bi-blooded creatures that can slowly adjust to their environment’s temperature. But, if the difference between the internal and external temperatures is too big, they will brumate to minimize the strain on the body and adjust, obviously this takes longer.

About the breeding season you mentioned, the issue in it was it lasted just a month or so and made the subjects aggressive more towards each other (earlier in the research two died of injuries caused overnight) which he really didn't want, so he cut it out their yearly cycle.

 he didn't know he would find his suitable warrior to be a human, but let's say he found splinter as soon as he was shown in the battle nexus (would make sense for him to check there regularly), he would have another 16 years to adjust his base subjects for binding with human DNA until he re-kidnapped Splinter. I also think there were things that were pre-set in the mutagen infusion (you can ask and remind me later, there is much there and here is already enough).

It took Draxum about 13 years to reach the correct formula of mutagen after his lab (and I'm assuming all his documented research) were destroyed by Splinter when he ran with the turtles. And I think the second version is much much different from the first, let's start with the obvious, the second mutagen is already infused with different kinds of surrogate DNA and is inserted by the oozasquitos directly into the bloodstream. It does not affect the general silhouette of the base subject and most importantly, it doesnt change the nervous system.

The first version doesn't just do that, it is its foremost purpose, it is meant to bind the human anatomy with the turtle base in a way that it would make a human shaped turtle, not a turtle shaped human. It essentially packs the human neuronal-cells to body mass ratio compressed into a reptile skull. Only, the reptile brain doesn't go anywhere, it just expands to the point it is capable of comprehending the universe. there are instincts left, they are just drowned out by everything else. there are instances where you are more likely to see them, like in moments of extreme emotional instants, overloads, shutdowns, meltdowns and the such, but also, in their fighting/ defense styles.

there was a major reason Draxum chose to mutate baby turtles, baby turtles he molded into something that can stand the mutation by selectively breeding them for it. baby turtle brains that would forget how painful the mutation was and would likely not suffer from PMSD (post-mutation-stress-disorder) and the likely following after that depression, and they won't need to walk and move all over again because they didn't know that yet.

there is seriously still so much i gotta tell, like, i cut out of this answer so much, about how the mutagen works, what else did draxum do to the turtles, and so so so so so much details i left out because this was getting long and i need sleep

to all the people who have sent asks, i didnt forget about you! i will get to everything, it just takes me time because i want to make an effort

thanks for the ask :D

[dallonwrites]

THE RABBIT KNOWS HOW TO BURY ITSELF 

I am so delighted to share my short story The Rabbit Knows How To Bury Itself, which was selected for the White Pube Writer’s Grant and published on their site! I haven’t known what to post on here for a long while, but I wanted to share this one because it was blogging about my messy first draft of Revelations, Revelations, that really got me back into writing and connected me with people who are now dear friends. I don’t plan to publish Revelations, Revelations anymore, so I’m super stoked to have a short story inspired by it featuring my favourite disaster twins out in the world! If you’ve followed the RR updates and have a v good memory, you may notice a lot of the lines from the OG draft were recycled into this story 👁️

I can’t thank Gabrielle and Zarina at The White Pube enough for believing in this story and selecting me for the grant this month. If you are a UK based writer/creative who would benefit from financial support, I totally recommend submitting some work! There’s no formal rejection process (I submitted in May and got selected in August) and the two were lovely to work with. And I def recommend checking out the other grant recipients because there are some super cool artists there!

Whilst I haven’t left Writeblr completely I don’t feel like it suits how I want to share my writing at the moment. I’ve been very slowly getting into Instagram and have started to post on there more, so if you want more consistent writing updates from me then you can follow my Insta @dallonwrites!! 

--

content warnings for the story: drug use, pregnancy imagery, animal death, allusions to death, religious imagery, drowning imagery

[image descriptions: a series of photos and screenshots of writing. the first image is an excerpt: 

Her brother snorts cocaine in the bathtub, so she pretends he’s asleep. Arms over his chest, knees drawn, body curled. Brunette curls feather over closed eyes. Jacket for a pillow. In this reality, she’ll avoid the door only to not disturb him. He’ll be safe, half-wombed in porcelain, won’t hurt himself – and she won’t hurt him.

the second image is a cropped photo of an orange tree, with dark green leaves. the third image is another excerpt:   

This is how she knows him: he’s sixteen and doesn’t know how to hide the stench of cigarettes; he’s five and doesn’t know how to grip a pencil. He’s fifteen and can recite Revelation chapters with his eyes closed; he’s nine and terrified of the sheepdog. He was a better Christian than her because he knew how to worship, how to fear. But he still snuck out with her to read magazines about rockstars and horoscopes. Sometimes, after Church, they plucked clementines from trees and ate them out of their hands. Their first routine, first ritual.

the fourth image is a cropped photo of two hands against darkness, with a strip of light cast over them. the fifth image is another excerpt: 

Before the cocaine, he wanted to look at the stars. They’d grown up on farmland cratered in a pine forest, where the night sky was so clear, stars winked at them. At twenty-three, clouds and city polluted the sky. The moon filtered through like a car headlight. Streetlights and buildings constellated the city. The skyline jutted up and down, up and down like a heart monitor and he asked her, is this what being free looks like? Cold air prickled their skin. He gave her his jacket, she gave it back. She told him, you should get some sleep. He told her, I gave you my jacket because I love you. But isn’t loving someone, she almost asked, just your capacity to be hurt?

/end id]

[zedecksiew]

Stalagmite-folk + Process Notes: Overloading the Random Table

Some orientation:

Stalagmite-folk are living, ambulatory speleothems. (They don’t have legs, but glide over mineral surfaces like ice on a floor.) They are organised into families: sibling sets, issue of a local stone-spirit father and the divine Mother Water.

Blind Elephant is a stone father whose marriage has come to a Bad End. So his children, the Blind Elephant family, are exiles.

+

BLIND ELEPHANT, REFUGEE FAMILY

Maybe they’ve met flesh-people before. Or heard stories about daylanders. The novelty that you are distracts them from their troubles.

They know you to be:

Sightless, underground. They keep trying to sneak up and startle you.

Wild and murderous. He treats you like he would a dangerous animal.

Exotic specimens. “Your hair is so pretty! Can I touch it? Wow, stringy!”

Fascinatingly disgusting. “So you cry from your crotch? Can we see?”

Inferior in every way. She will speak over you, and never let you finish.

Poor, malnourished. They keep trying to feed you stalagmite-folk foods.

They have:

A peridot afro so big it messes with their balance. They indulge in too much olivine candy.

Shoulders sprouting jagged carbuncle spikes. The new pyrope supplements are working.

Corrosive breath. They have lava-folk friends, and love the taste of their acid-rich cuisine.

Painful joints. Every move, they grind like a rusty hinge. They drink too many bug slurries.

Rusty skin, streaks at a touch. They bulked up on iron ore, but have stopped working out.

A glowing body, searing hot. Torch resin is a narcotic to stalagmite-folk. They’re an addict.

They travelled with few belongings. Including:

A pet – a rock-porcupine. Will sniff out and try to steal metal objects, to chew on as snacks.

A club of ensorcelled citrine. Any spot it impacts transforms and shatters into yellow jewels.

A set of vials, filled with condiment powders. Any would lacerate your lungs, if breathed in.

A set of finely carved wooden serving platters. Easily scratched. Utterly impervious to heat.

A sword of witch salt. The first flesh creature it touches immediately mummifies. It shatters.

An unfinished younger sister they’d been sculpting. Without parents she will never be born.

Back in their own halls they made their living:

At a crystal farm. They can show you a clear path through the fields. Their family is known for fist-sized amethyst grapes and extra-sharp salt lilies.

As a glassmith. Their workshops were hells of fire and unbreathable fume. They made toy figurines so fine these come alive at their command.

Angling moonfish. The best fishing spots are always in the loneliest caverns; they could lead you down shortcuts or detours known to nobody else.

Practising the gut art. Using their stomachs as chemistry labs, they’d guzzle ingredients, and regurgitate potions. They kept stores of rare materials.

In a crude-oil mine. A nasty business. That liquid demon-stuff harbours all manner of perilous horrors. They are scarred, and trained in fighting arts.

At the creche. Not everybody in a family is interested in caring for younger siblings. Their creche-hall is full of nooks, to play hide-and-seek in.

Few will admit to you the terror they are all feeling. They blindly followed their stone father in his retreat. Without a home, with a wrecked family – who are they, really?

+++ +++ +++

PROCESS NOTES: OVERBURDENING THE RANDOM TABLE

As we crawl to a complete draft for REACH OF THE ROACH GOD, the problem I’ve had to solve for most often is space.

Word count => Ballooning page count ==> Added dimensions and weight ===> Shipping costs we may not be able to afford.

I blew much of my word budget on ROTRG first three sections. Not a bad thing, considering these are the full adventure modules. But it does mean things are getting tight, space-wise.

The random NPC generator up-post appears in our stalagmite-folk gazetteer. It is the only set of random tables that chapter gets. It has to:

Generate individual NPCs (who are these stalagmite-folk refugees?)

Detail a specific community (what is the Blind Elephant family like?)

Model non-specific communities and culture (what are stalagmite-folk like, in general?)

+

World-building via random table, I guessss?

A powerful RPG design technology. Brian Yaksha discusses it a lot; his Rakehell is an object lesson for how the principle works.

Swathes of Luka Rejec’s Ultraviolet Grasslands are conveyed via random table. Emmy Allen’s toolbox setting books, Gardens Of Ynn and Stygian Library. The most robust RPG settings tend to do this? It simply makes the most sense.

My favourite recent example is Scrap Princess’s inspired-by-Shadowrun-and-2020s-Muskian-disaster-capitalism NooFutra:

A book of tables and tables and tables of bonkers ideas that mutate play and its world in wonderful ways. (Is it NooFutra or NooFutura? Anyway: it really is wonderful.)

+

One thing that I like to do with the random generators in A Thousand Thousand Islands, because it fits the setting’s themes of porousness, anti-taxonomy, “one thing is always in relation to another thing”-ness –

Which I am now forced to do with ROTRG, out of necessity, simply because

I Just Don’t Have SPACE A R G H !

Is this: all the random generators in the book are consciously written as multiple tables, spliced together. Tables that, in a different, better-delineated RPG work, would exist as separate things / lists / rolls – designed for separate purposes and to output separate results.

+

Presented here are the rough thoughts I had in mind, as I was making these d6 tables:

1: Sightless, underground. They keep trying to sneak up and startle you. 2: Wild and murderous. He treats you like he would a dangerous animal. 3: Exotic specimens. “Your hair is so pretty! Can I touch it? Wow, stringy!” 4: Fascinatingly disgusting. “So you cry from your crotch? Can we see?” 5: Inferior in every way. She will speak over you, and never let you finish. 6: Poor, malnourished. They keep trying to feed you stalagmite-folk foods.

This a reaction table + personality generator. (But then it’s a poor reaction table that isn’t also a personality generator.)

Also it’s a micro-aggressions table, meant to communicate how the stalagmite-folk are inclined to treat flesh-based persons. They aren’t Racists. They simply belong to a Superior Civilisation, you know? In a way it is their Burden.

1: A peridot afro so big it messes with their balance. They indulge in too much olivine candy. 2: Shoulders sprouting jagged carbuncle spikes. The new pyrope supplements are working. 3: Corrosive breath. They have lava-folk friends, and love the taste of their acid-rich cuisine. 4: Painful joints. Every move, they grind like a rusty hinge. They drink too many bug slurries. 5: Rusty skin, streaks at a touch. They bulked up on iron ore, but have stopped working out. 6: A glowing body, searing hot. Torch resin is a narcotic to stalagmite-folk. They’re an addict.

Physical attributes generator. (Meeting a minimum standard of gameability, because those are the “cosmetic” details players remember. So not “big afro guy”, but “guy with afro so big it makes him a liability while we’re spelunking”. Stuff like that.)

Plus a list of foodstuffs – detailing the stalagmite-folk’s general relationship to food, and alluding to their relationship with other groups (torch resin would be supplied by the pale-folk).

This here’s an example of word-count constraints determining creature design. The stalagmite-folk have this “you are what you eat” thing going on, mainly because I realised I could merge two random tables together if they did.

1: A pet – a rock-porcupine. Will sniff out and try to steal metal objects, to chew on as snacks. 2: A club of ensorcelled citrine. Any spot it impacts transforms and shatters into yellow jewels. 3: A set of vials, filled with condiment powders. Any would lacerate your lungs, if breathed in. 4: A set of finely carved wooden serving platters. Easily scratched. Utterly impervious to heat. 5: A sword of witch salt. The first flesh creature it touches immediately mummifies. It shatters. 6: An unfinished younger sister they’d been sculpting. Without parents she will never be born.

Simple treasure / magic items table.

But treasure tables aren’t simple anywhere, are they? Info on what the NPC has; what they can do, in play; material culture; what’s valuable versus what’s not in this culture; all that good shit.

1: At a crystal farm. They can show you a clear path through the fields. Their family is known for fist-sized amethyst grapes and extra-sharp salt lilies. 2: As a glassmith. Their workshops were hells of fire and unbreathable fume. They made toy figurines so fine these come alive at their command. 3: Angling moonfish. The best fishing spots are always in the loneliest caverns; they could lead you down shortcuts or detours known to nobody else. 4: Practising the gut art. Using their stomachs as chemistry labs, they’d guzzle ingredients, and regurgitate potions. They kept stores of rare materials. 5: In a crude-oil mine. A nasty business. That liquid demon-stuff harbours all manner of perilous horrors. They are scarred, and trained in fighting arts. 6: At the creche. Not everybody in a family is interested in caring for younger siblings. Their creche-hall is full of nooks, to play hide-and-seek in.

Professions table. Generates an NPC’s skill set.

It also tells you what their work-space was like. Considering that our stalagmite-folk gazetteer strongly suggests a “go explore the Blind Elephant’s home caves and figure out what’s going on” adventure – this tells where a particular NPC could be useful, should they tag along.

And those spatial descriptions also mean that this conveniently serves as a generator for Blind Elephant geography. You could roll on the table a coupla times, look at the spread of your results, and determine whether the Blind Elephant are a family of fisherpersons or miners or artisans.

Also meaning that, possibly, maybe, in theory, you could roll up any stalagmite-folk settlement, since the professions list is meant to communicate typical economic activities that the culture engages in.

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In my mind I see this stuff as an extension of Brendan / Necropraxis’s overloaded encounter die. That’s a keystone bit of design, in service of RPG procedure and its streamlining.

Could you do the same with RPG setting / adventure design?

What if your weather table was your location generator? What would that look like?

You’d lose granularity. (You’re removing a roll; setting certain weather-to-place relationships in stone). But what would you gain in terms of building the character of the world? (Hail always falls around the region’s stone megaliths, wonder why?)

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Does any of this work? Is any of this useful for anybody but myself? Don’t know.

Definitely these splicings push towards more specificity – so designers who are trying to make more toolbox-y things would find this dumb / counterproductive.

Is it useful to me?

I know I’m susceptible to overburdening a text. Not information-dense, just dense? Prose that does too much implying, and has left too much unsaid. Descriptions with too few explicit guardrails for players’ / GMs’ imaginations, they just never bother getting onboard.

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It has been useful, so far. I’m reasonably happy with our draft of the stalagmite-folk gazetteer. I think I experienced something not entirely unlike fun, while writing said draft. (Writing sucks ass; I never have fun writing.)

And I didn’t bust my word-count limit, this time. So there’s that.

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(Art by Mun Kao. The stalagmite-folk are part of REACH OF THE ROACH GOD, our first book; preorders are open.)