#I'm one of the main organizers for the new wiki

[chronosabyss]

Baten Kaitos Spirit Week Let's GOOOO!!

I'll try to do a little bit of art and maybe write some articles for the new fan Wiki. BY THE WAY DID YOU KNOW WE'RE MAKING A NEW (non-fandom) WIKI?? If you're looking for some fun ways to contribute to the fandom that aren't drawing-based maybe check it out??? :eyes:eyes:eyes:

Hey everyone guess what's back?

To celebrate the one-year anniversary of the remaster, we (the fine folks over at the Baten Kaitos fan Discord) are bringing back Spiriter Week! And now it's bigger than ever: we're going multi-platform!

So mark you calendars for September 15th-21st!!!

Wait, what's this now? Back in ye olde golden age of Tumblr, we used to have an annual thing we called Spiriter Week, a week-long celebration of our favorite card-game RPGs.

What do you mean, "multiplatform"? Due to fandom no longer being fully (or even mostly) within the confines of one website, we figured it'd be a good idea to have folks participate wherever they want to. Tumblr, Twitter, Discord, or wherever. Still have a Pillowfort? Go crazy there too.

Ok, how do I participate? It's super easy- just post something Baten Kaitos related every day. Could be a fic, art, videos, whatever. Wherever you're posting it, use the tag #Spiriter Week I am not blessed with creative prowess Neither am I we're all just bullshitting Doesn't have to be anything skillful like art or writing. Could be fan theories, a personal anecdote, ranking your favorite xyz or even a haiku. Like this example I stole borrowed from No's original post:

Holoholo bird All my apples are rotten Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck

This sounds great but I'm super busy there's no way I can post every day. Again, same here friend. No worries, even just one or two during the week is fine. Let's face it, we've all aged a number of years since these were last a thing and life has a way of stockpiling responsibilities.

On what authority are you organizing this? Alright ya got me I'm just some rando with a Gibari pfp. But come on, why not have some fun and build some hype around these games we love?

That's a nice banner where'd you get it? Damn right! Credit goes to No, who still had the old banner and managed to change some digits :D

How can we follow for updates? Here on Tumblr, I (and of course anyone else who wants to say something on the topic) will be posting in the #Spiriter Week tag. Some major updates might also be posted in the baten kaitos tag but I don't wanna spam it too much.

But yeah, that should cover most of the major stuff, feel free to reach out with any questions!

[leafy-m]

So I hit my 700th edit for the WHA wiki today, because I am a totally normal person

[hellsite-proteins]

also, do you know any other fun proteins where the amino acids react with eachother to form a new chemical? like residues 65-67 in GFP cyclysing to form the chromophore?

to start, i had a bit of a hard time finding the right search terms for this question, and a lot of what i found is more focused on synthetic or enzymatic methods used in labs, rather than lists of natural examples. if anything is wrong or missing as always pls lmk! i rambled a lot so that info is going to get hidden under the cut, but here is the tl;dr of three relevant PTMs

one takeaway I had from trying to find things is just how unique GFP actually is! it has been important enough for studying biological systems that its discovery was awarded the nobel prize in 2008, and a lot of incredible chemistry went into modifying its structure to make other fluorescent proteins in different colours. this is important if you want to look at more than one thing by fluorescent microscopy, and was done by altering residues around the chromophore to influence its protonation state/pKa through the local environment.

disulphide bonds:

so many proteins: insulin. RNAse A. chymotrypsin. etc.

isopeptide bonds:

the collagen-binding domain of S. aureus Cna and probably several bacterial pili have intramolecular isopeptide bonds

Vibrio cholerae, which causes cholera, makes isopeptide bonds to cross-link actin in its host

there are more examples of isopeptide bonds on wiki

biaryl ethers:

a lot of these are not made by ribosomes, and it looks like all of them are fairly small and funky looking peptides, but i think that has to count at least a little bit. here are a couple:

patellamide A

telomestatin (the wiki page on this one is so short and as far as i could tell, we aren't even sure yet if this is made by ribosomes or not so i'm really pushing things here on what counts)

letter sequence in this ask matching protein-coding amino acids:

alsdyknwanytherfnprteinswheretheaminacidsreactwitheachthertfrmanewchemicallikeresidesinGFPcyclysingtfrmthechrmphre

protein guy analysis:

for all the time i spent on this post, the protein itself is kind of underwhelming. its a shorter one with three alpha helices and a small, two strand antiparallel beta sheet, with some loops in between. this could be a real peptide, or it could just be the confused ramblings of an algorithm trying to make shapes out of an input. the confidence score is pretty low, so as usual my bet would be on the latter option, but who knows? maybe this could stably exist in real life? dream big and all that

predicted protein structure:

the main keyword i was using was 'protein cyclization', so i'm sure i missed a lot, and most of what i found is focused more on synthetic methods, but i was still able to get some good information.

this first article here gives a nice overview of protein cyclization, and a lot of different and super neat ways it can be done. if anyone wants me to give a more detailed breakdown of this article i would be happy to, since i'm not sure how clear it is to people without much of an organic chemistry background.

this next article gives an overview of post translational modifications, and also looks like a good resource with a lot of information. there are so many different PTMs out there, so if you'd like me to discuss one in particular a little more, let me know as well.

this gave me a few specific PTMs to find examples of.

the first and most obvious is disulphide bonds, which are what you are describing, but far less unique, so i also want to give some other examples

another example is isopeptide bonds, which are formed between an amine and carboxyl group just like a regular peptide bond, except that these amine and/or carboxyl groups are part of the side chain, not the peptide backbone

and finally, i found biaryl ethers, which i had never actually heard of before, and are only made by microbes and scientists, and are interesting for pharmaceuticals

there are more examples that involve cyclization with the backbone, and other types of PTMs beyond cyclization, but i've already spent too long on this, so if you want something more specific then you have to ask for it

[aviivix]

Hey guys its been a while, I'm so sorry I have fallen pretty much completely out of Splatoon, become hyperfixated on Kingdom Hearts, and now have made an AU I am extremely invested in, in which Roxas rejects Sora in the simulated mansion and Sora awakens as a Heartless. Hijinks ensue.

As is I guess in character for me I immediately started thinking about the gameplay of a KH2 with this very strong divergence from canon. Ramble incoming, though this is pretty early days in this fixation so I feel like this will change over time. I just kind of wanted to crystalize it here.

AUDIO VERSION OF THIS RAMBLE (I have ADHD and big blocks of text are hard for me so audio version may be easier to digest)

Disclaimer: I have "played" (read: watched my gf play on stream) KH2 and have both watched the "movie" version of Days and the recent 2 hour breakdown of everything the movie version left out. I know a few events of ReCoM from skimming the wiki but we haven't gotten around to actually watching/playing it and I expect I'll have to tweak this AU to include specific ReCoM details. I also importantly have not seen anything about KH1 which is hilarious and will undoubtedly lead to funnies in this AU. :) Also we haven't touched Dream Drop Distance, Birth by Sleep, Coded, 3, or anything else not mentioned.

So far what I have changed about the initial conditions is that Sora's brief time as a Heartless weakened his heart's connection to his body. Imagine his heart is just scotch taped to his body and it seems totally fine there until it suddenly isn't. The logistics of ReCoM is a little rough without knowing exactly what happens in it, but the main idea is that Sora's physical body is separated from his heart, with the physical body immediately becoming Roxas and the heart experiencing ReCoM and being solely what is put in stasis. Potentially the issue could be less that Roxas is hoarding Sora's memories and moreso that Roxas just straight up has his body and Sora can't wake up without one, but technically I don't think the memories thing needs to change so I'm tentatively leaving it alone. I also don't know how Dumb and Dumber factor into the ReCoM side of things but it's whatever.

In the prologue of KH2, it's almost exactly the same, except for one teeny tiny insignificant little detail - instead of saying, "Sora... you're lucky." Roxas stares Sora in the face, contemplates for a moment, and says, "Sora... I'm sorry. My life belongs to me."

This act of defiance, Roxas's rejection of Sora like a body rejecting an organ transplant, causes DiZ and Riku's whole setup to fall apart, booting Roxas out of the simulation where he now has to break out of the mansion. Rejected by his body and being kept from half his power, Sora's heart is now isolated, and as the pod breaks down, the only thing left for him is the memories of the Heartless, Ansem, the Organization, and the pent up rage at what they did to him and took away from him. This creates a Heartless form around the now-abandoned heart.

As the system shuts down, the pods open, and the heartless Anti Sora emerges from stasis - voiceless and angry. The two Disney idiots awaken from their stasis as well, undoubtedly shocked and wary of Sora's new form. But Sora's rage is very, very targeted. He has no quarrel with Donald and Goofy - but he has a massive quarrel with the Org-hooded Ansem-faced Riku that comes down to try and secure Sora and Roxas before they escape.

I'm still toying with how this jailbreak could go. Riku and DiZ don't really have common goons to fight, and it wouldn't feel right to put Nobodies or Heartless here, so it has to be a Riku fight most likely. Perhaps some explosions from the system freaking out, or hastiness in his actions to justify his weakness. Or, perhaps, just the fact that Roxas and Anti Sora fighting together is roughly equivalent to A Whole Sora (plus the Anti Dramatic Tension Devices aka Donald and Goofy) so they could probably keep him back enough to escape which is what the two of them really want to do. Roxas could probably intuit that Anti Sora is Sora, but there is no chance Sora understands who Roxas is. (Though the Org coat could be an issue for Sora immediately assuming Roxas to be an Org member and targetting him. Sora is rowdy and unpredictable in this form so that's not a complete bad thing but for gameplay I would like a reason to have this be a cool team fight - especially with a RC to switch between playing as Anti Sora and Roxas.)

Outside the intro, there are a few things I definitely want to explore but just haven't yet. But one I have is the idea that, although KH doesn't really do split endings, this would be a great opportunity to run that as I can absolutely see a "Save Roxas or Save Sora" dichotomy. Roxas, of course, can be killed to reunite Sora's heart with his body, allowing him to be whole again - we all cry over Roxas in this house, that's not new. But consider...

Heartless are held together by rage, hate, and darkness. With Sora, that anger is very targeted at the Org and the Heartless. Once the day is saved, though, and Sora's heart is put at peace... there's no hatred or anger left to hold his form together. So, if he doesn't have a body by then, his options are to let the world be broken so he can maintain his rage (obviously not a very Sora thing to do), or save the world and disappear forever.

...so, the Sora and Roxas fight still exists in this AU. But rather than Sora being a very very very passive participant in someone else's story (as beautiful as the scene is and as much as I understand Sora being a brick wall is thematically relevant, it just takes away from it for me. Sora needs a little more agency here imo, as it stands it just makes me root against him and make it feel frustrating that Roxas accepts his fate), Sora here learns in advance about his own fate of disappearing. Probably in the same scene where he learns this, he also learns that the only way to stop that is to find his "Nobody" and take it out so his heart can reinhabit it.

At this point then, Sora may still be unconvinced that his Nobody could even be a person - everyone around him assures him that Nobodies are, well, nobodies. But the fight with Roxas, rather unfortunately for Sora, cements the fact that his Nobody does in fact have capital-d Determination. That Roxas has a will to keep living, a strong one, fighting with the desperation of a cornered animal. He isn't just a meat suit for Sora to put back on, he's a person that Sora has to find it in himself to kill in order to stay alive himself.

If you choose to spare Roxas, then Roxas gets to be an ally and gets his happy ending. But Sora will die in the ending with Riku. But if you choose to kill Roxas, having Sora slash him down with his own claws, then Sora must confront the fact that he is willing to cut Roxas's life short for his own self-preservation. That guilt will stay with him as his body is restored and his friends rejoice at the return of Sora.

Axel absolutely has parts to play here, and in fact the plot itself is probably quite different as Sora kills Heartless without a Keyblade while other characters like Mickey have Keyblades capable of sealing the McGuffin keyholes. And now every important character is scrambling to adjust to Sora being a Heartless and Roxas still being alive. But those come later because my gf is the ultimate Axel fan and I want to do right by her lol

Also the Round Room is canonically a discord call in this AU

[scolop98]

WTF IS WRONG WITH THE STEVEN UNIVERSE MAP: Pt. 1

An Broad Overview By Your Local Ecology Nerd & Cartoon Fan

I am once again thinking about the ecological implications of the Steven Universe map

Now I didn't watch Steven Universe until after the movie came out, so I have no idea if this was major discussion point during the height of the SU fandom. If so, I haven't seen any of it. But I can't help but look at this map and think about on how the world of Steven Universe must look completely different from ours outside of Beach City.

I also don’t have the time or energy to trawl through the entirety of Steven Universe or its wiki for every single reference to wild animals/plants for reference (and the warp pads make global travel so easy that it's really hard to guess where in the world any given location actually is) so the only real "canon" constraint I'm following here is that North America should roughly resemble real life (as the alternate worldbuilding in Steven Universe is rarely noticeable in the day-to-day life of Steven and the rest of Beach City)

(not gonna touch the potential differences in human history because frankly I don't know enough world history to speculate. tbh I feel like I don't know enough bio and ecology to be able to tackle this question to the depth it deserves but oh well)

There are two main possibilities here:

SCENARIO 1: the SU!Earth was just like ours up until the Gems arrived circa 6000 years ago and started terraforming the planet. Gem Terraforming was responsible for ALL of the differences in the map—the crater in Siberia, the presumed relocation of Western Africa (and parts of Central Africa) onto South America, the separation of the Americas, etc etc.

To put this in context: 6000 years ago, most of the charismatic Pleistocene (Ice Age) megafauna are extinct, with a few exceptions (namely the woolly mammoths on Wrangel Island and the Caribbean ground sloths). Horses might not've been domesticated yet but dogs, pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, cats, and chickens had. The Austronesian Expansion also hasn't happened yet, so humans haven't reached most of the Pacific Islands or Madagascar. Under this assumption, the world would've been pretty similar to ours, and we can probably assume the SU!Earth's biosphere was pretty similar to ours when the terraforming happened. My major questions/concerns are:

what the FUCK is up with Greater Afro-America. Unless the gems sterilized that half of the continent before they moved it, a lot of African wildlife are now present in South America. Who knows how this is gonna change the ecosystems—for starters, elephants will probably survive and thrive, which would radically change the South American landscape. I imagine other African wildlife without South American counterparts (gorillas and baboons come to mind) would probably survive as well. As for organisms that have African/South American counterparts, I have no idea what'll happen. Maybe lions and leopards and jaguars and pumas all find slightly different niches and coexist on the same continent. Maybe the old world vultures of West Africa will outcompete and displace the South American vultures. Perhaps none of the monitor lizards survive the exchange because they can't compete with tegus. I'm not gonna listing all the interesting African-American counterparts that would occur here because it'd take all day, but I am particularly haunted by the fact that the number of large ant-eating mammals has doubled (aardvark, giant pangolin, giant anteater, and giant armadillo) and the number of mid-sized arboreal ant-eating mammals has jumped from ~3 to 5 (anteaters vs pangolins, but treating the silky anteater as one species instead of a species complex).

The map in the screenshot doesn't show topography, which raises the question of whether smashing West Africa into South America created a mountain range in the Smash Zone, or if the Gems combined the two landmasses in way that didn't create a new mountain range (a pickup-and-drop strategy, perhaps). Regardless, I'm really concerned about South America's ecosystems. Did you know that the Amazon Rainforest is heavily dependent on windblown dust from the Sahara for nutrients? I doubt that system would remain unchanged even without a hypothetical mountain range on the eastern border of the Amazon.

North and South America are no longer connected, which is absolutely gonna fuck up the marine ecosystems. If we assume a reversal of what happened when the Isthmus of Panama first formed, the Pacific Coast of South America would warm up and the Caribbean would see a big influx of nutrients. Very real possibility that manatees would've spread to the Pacific Coast. Coldwater species on the Pacific coast like seals, sea lions, and Galapagos Penguins might've disappeared.

The removal of West Africa also leaves the Mediterranean a lot less isolated than it used to be—which will almost certainly cause a whole lot of extinctions. (Normally) the Mediterranean's only connection to the Atlantic is the Strait of Gibraltar, a tiny chokepoint that cuts it off from most of the Atlantic's business. Reconnecting the Mediterranean to Atlantic currents and tidal action will certainly fuck things up, but I frankly don't know enough about the Mediterranean to have any idea of what the specifics would look like

The massive fuck-off crater in Siberia really intrigues me because the only body of saltwater it's connected to is the Arctic, and I doubt most Arctic species would be able to colonize the warmer southern regions of what I'm calling the Siberian Sea. Without an obvious place of origin, I imagine it would be colonized by a random mix of adaptable Arctic species (like Harbor Seals and porpoises), salt-tolerant freshwater Siberian fauna (like sturgeons and Baikal Seals), and whatever saltwater species hitchhike a ride on migrating birds.

Not to mention how the crater would affect terrestrial ecosystems. The Central Asian Migratory Flyway is gonna get massively fucked up. I would not be surprised if the creation of the Siberian Sea somehow destroys the rest of the Eurasia's steppes, taiga, and tundra through the some type of large-scale disruption of climate cause-and-effects. Even if that doesn't happen, any species with a pan-Siberian distribution will be split into western and eastern populations.

What's up with the new archipelago(s) in the South Atlantic? They don't seem to line up with the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, maybe they split off of West Africa when it got moved? Maybe the gems just dumped the leftovers from some other terraforming project at a different part of the planet? I genuinely have no idea what to expect here, but whatever ecosystem emerges here will probably be unusually impoverished for an island ecosystem on account of being only 6000 years old. It would probably stifle any Atlantic-Antarctic ocean currents, though

SCENARIO 2: The other explanation for this weird map is that at least some of these difference predate the Gems' terraforming efforts. This is probably a less likely explanation IMO, but it's also where the speculation gets really fun! I have no idea how and when these changes would've occurred, but we're probably working on the scale of tens millions of years at minimum, which gives plenty of time for life to adapt to these changes, so here goes!

To start, a lot of the previously addressed points are gonna have some major impacts. The Mediterranean is a lot more exposed to the Atlantic and would probably look completely different. The geographic changes to South America and Africa would probably mess up the distribution of rainforest and grassland habitats. Of particular interest to me is that the Siberian Sea would've stifled a lot of faunal and floral migrations between western Eurasia and the combined eastern Siberian/North American region, assuming it's deep enough that it doesn't periodically dry out like the Mediterranean and Bering Seas did. This would probably have massive repercussions throughout the Cenozoic—the Holarctic as we know it probably wouldn't exist without a continuous swathe of terrestrial habitat across the Northern Hemisphere. But TBH, the no-longer-called-West-Africa and Siberian Crater issues are such major changes to Earth's actual geography that I have a hard time reconciling them as anything but the result of Gem terraforming. Even aside from those, a lot of the "smaller" changes on the map (which wouldn't cause too many differences if they only changed 6000 years ago) are gonna cause some major differences if they're old enough to predate the Gems.

The new archipelago in the South Atlantic! If this is a relatively recent island chain created by an alternate version of the Mid-Atlantic ridge, its wildlife might be vaguely similar wildlife to those of other South Atlantic islands like St. Helena and Ascension Island. Rails are inevitable. Alternatively, it might've bfffffeen colonized by wildlife that rafted across the sea from Africa. Monkeys, rodents, and tortoises got to South America this way, so maybe this archipelago is inhabited by giant tortoises and not-capybaras in addition to whatever flightless birds end up there. I wouldn't be surprised if the island ends up with its own ratite, since those flew to every other major Gondwanan landmass before they evolved flightlessness.

Alternatively, the new archipelago could be an old remnant of Gondwana, in which case it'll probably have a fascinating assemblage of relict taxa in addition to whatever rafts its way from Africa. Whatever reptiles or amphibians can deal with the colder climate will certainly be weird and unique. The flora will probably be roughly similar to that of Aussie/NZ/SouthAmerica (Nothofagus and such). It probably has a lot of weird metatherians and marsupials too, maybe some weirdo crocs if we're lucky. I'm imagining a fauna with predatory sparassodont-like metatherians, and a megaherbivore guild consisting of giant tortoises, ratites, big marsupials, and endemic hystricognath rodents of various sizes; maybe even monkeys! Non-therian mammals like monotremes, multituberculates, and/or gondwanatheres probably held on until the rafters arrived in the Eocene and might've included the last surviving members of their groups, but probably didn't survive to the modern day

New Guinea is a lot further away from Australia than it is in real life. In scenario A, the southern half of New Guinea was probably an unfortunate casualty of Gem Terraforming but in this timeline I'm gonna assume that the Australian Plate/greater Australian continent was just shaped differently. With the increased distance between Australia and the Southeast Asian archipelago, I doubt there'd be any substantial interchange between Asian and Australian wildlife. New Guinea would be part of the Indomalayan Realm instead of the Australasian—no cassowarries, no echidnas, and no tree-kangaroos in New Guinea. Perhaps rodents (including the "Old Endemic" Hydromyini) never make it to Australia, and their niches are instead filled by a family of possums or bandicoots.

Speaking of Australia, the Western half looks like it's isolated from the rest of the continent by sea, and will probably have a lot of unique species not found in the Eastern half. Two species of emu (western and eastern) perhaps? I don't know enough (any) Australian geography to know if Western Australia would still be mostly desert. They were probably connected during the Ice Ages, though, but if that's enough time for the SE Asian island wildlife to speciate, it's certainly enough for the Australias to do so.

The southern third of the Indian Continent is an island! This could mean that Southern India never collided with mainland Asia, but the island's proximity to mainland India makes me think it's more likely a New Guinea/Sahul situation, where the island connects to the mainland during the Ice Ages. The Western Ghats are already a biodiversity hotspot that houses a lot of relict lineages from the days of Gondwana, so if insular South India remained separate from the mainland most of the Cenozoic it probably retained even more unique wildlife.

There are a couple other minor details—the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean appears to be a single island, The Philippines are really close to Borneo, Sardinia and Corsica are once again a single island (or perhaps never disconnected)—that might just be due to the limitations of drawing a map for a kids cartoon, and thus might not reflect actual differences.

And saving best for last:

South America still isn't connected to North America! I am a big fan of South America's native Cenozoic fauna, so this is absolutely huge for me. I'm actually splitting this part off into a whole 'nother post because I have that many thoughts on the hypothetical ecosystems that would evolve on an alternate, isolated South America and I want to skim a few more papers to make sure I'm up-to-date on my understanding

[discord-lurking]

Dungeons and Daddies Wiki Drama: A Greek Tragedy Told through the Medium of Forum Posts (Part 1)

Prologue

Greek tragedies are typically formatted in three or more acts interspersed with choral interludes, beginning with a prologue, and ending with an exodus. In these, protagonists often meet their downfall due to their fatal flaw, or hamartia: the ways in which the protagonists are their own undoing. Our own human failings are the things that bring us the most pain.

When considering a three-act Greek tragedy structure for this, my first thought was to use the Oresteia as a framing device, a trilogy of plays written by Aeschylus about Agamemnon's family in the aftermath of the Trojan War. Upon reflection, though, the themes of the Oresteia (revenge vs. justice, perpetuating a cycle of violence, honor and punishment) didn't quite fit the story I was trying to tell.

No, this is a classic tale of hubris: excessive pride and its ultimate downfall.

After all, what position could come with more power than that of wiki moderator for a Dungeons and Dragons podcast series?

Act One: The Beginning of the End

The D&Dads wiki has historically been... unhelpful, at best. (Source: Myself.) Trouble had been brewing for a long time.

Forum posts from spring 2022 began noting issues cropping up around the wiki. First, it was a complaint about anonymous users "disrupting" the wiki (specifically on Jodie-related pages) while also fixing mistakes in articles.

I'm unsure what specific "disruptions" were meant, but the proposal to ban anonymous users didn't garner much traction.

March 21st, 2022:

After little activity for months (only one forum post, related to infoboxes), wiki user TwoRatner had a radical proposition: wiki migration.

December 17th, 2022:

TwoRatner suggested an alternate platform that would have different editing options, then made a potentially-prophetic statement: the wiki might be cursed.

This warning went unheeded.

December 27th, 2022:

Ten days after the migration suggestion, TwoRatner came back to ask if there were any recent changes. This went unanswered for months until new user Penguinwithafancytophat reported adding art to character pages (including Glenn, a main season 1 character since the start of the podcast in 2019, who incredibly might not have had any official art on his wiki page before March of 2023).

Spring of 2023 seemed to bring along a revival of the wiki, with new editors coming in, engaging with the forum, and attempting to make suggestions on how to improve wiki organization.

March 31st, 2023:

May 27th, 2023:

July 17th, 2023:

October 2nd, 2023:

Interestingly, the only administrator seen to be interacting with these enthusiastic new editors? Gaycowboyrats. Let's put a pin in that.

Enter: the drama.

It started out simple enough- a forum posts for administrators to discuss changes that needed to be made.

November 3rd, 2023:

76 replies.

Seventy. Six. Replies. Each deeply interesting in its own way.

However, this is a Tumblr post, not an Hbomberguy video essay, so I'll keep it brief.

The discussion started out as one might expect a wiki admin discussion to start:

Mods discussed blocks, deleting stub pages, spam, etc. Standard wiki business.

The first reply to ping my interest:

Removing cast pages from a wiki about their work seemed like an odd decision, in my non-wiki-editor opinion, but the last line is what really stuck out: "Besides, I hate the idea of someone vandalizing the pages to defame them."

Several questions arose for me:

Was this a known problem? Were people constantly vandalizing cast pages?

Would a vandalized fandom wiki page really defame somebody?

Isn't the point of wiki editing to remove vandalization on articles?

The administrators began to stand out to me as deeply invested in a very specific sense of wiki justice.

Users TwoRatner, Brazil86, and TheOneTrueGod41 agreed with Honic's take.

Another thing to ping my interest: these users seemed to share a similar odd, slightly stilted, writing style. Almost Tommy Wiseau-esque.

Brazil86 expressed optimism about users engaging with wiki pages, something that would begin to set them apart from other administrators.

As I read, themes began to emerge: wiki justice, and incongruous one-liners.

Quoth Honic Washington: "I just found a wave of nonsense fish. My backyard is full of them. Hey, TOTG41, do you like jazz? I like jazz."

Truly, modern poetry.

Administrator Marth8204 suggested giving people more time. More time for what? Unclear. It seems a plan was afoot.

TwoRatner came in with a hot take: "I feel like we need a community more right now, than adding links that people can search for in the search bar."

Brazil86 agreed: Changing the navigation was less important than getting people editing and making friends.

Another theme began to emerge: wiki community as more important than wiki functionality.

Gaycowboyrats had some (incredibly reasonable) objections to this, pointing out that the wiki was a resource for many visitors who might not participate- something that is generally true of wikis as a form of content.

Honic Washington responded to this, the signs of wiki-related stress beginning to show.

Honic posts a long rant about the thankless task of moderating a wiki, which goes largely unacknowledged.

Notable TwoRatner quotes:

"You can't crack open a few omelets without punching a few egg-rolls."

"Now Freddie will get more money. What do you all say? I think I helped quite a bit."

Another theme emerges: discontent in the wiki moderator ranks.

Honic reaches full Joker mode. Again, this goes largely unacknowledged.

Honic: "I am leader. I am a painter! Keep your rules. Keep your status. Keep your friends."

"Keep your status"- words that will reverberate throughout the rest of this tale.

The final theme? Wiki moderator status, and the maintenance of it.

After Honic's bomb drop, conversation about regular wiki moderation continued, with mods considering the addition of a bot to make edits.

Admin Discussion Zone, first started by Honic Washington, ends not with a bang but with a whimper.

Over nearly a year of forum posts, patterns emerged.

Firstly- users attempting to engage in the wiki, wiki administrators not engaging with these new users, then wiki administrators bemoaning the lack of user engagement.

The notable exception was Gaycowboyrats, the only wiki administrator to engage with new users in the forums. Gaycowboyrats, the administrator whose (incredibly reasonable) suggestions ended with Honic Washington's villain-esque monologues and denouement as a moderator.

Secondly- administrators putting forth large-scale, drastic solutions to real or perceived wiki problems. This includes Cheesoid4 wanting to ban anonymous users, TwoRatner suggesting site migration, Honic deleting cast pages to prevent vandalism, and more to come.

Thirdly- wiki administrators seeming to share similar styles of speech and occasional non-sequiturs. Interestingly, this mainly seems to include the wiki administrators who agree with each other.

Funny how that happens.

Chorus

Stay tuned for Part 2, where the forum drama really starts to heat up.

[tinirainboom]

MY TINY LIGHT HSR FANFIC by tinirainboom

HELLO EVERYONE! I'M BACK WITH A LITTLE NEWS ABOUT THIS PROJECT!

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OK… First of all I'm going to do the whole index of the fanfic so that it's as… organized as possible and with a small synopsis so that I can write each chapter later according to that idea and be able to develop it, also to order the main missions of trailblazer along with their continuations (like for example, the Topaz future market). Of course, I separate everything by sagas because otherwise it's a huge mess due to so much information from the canonical story, although there will also be non-canonical chapters that should give more prominence to the isekai reader of our world to adapt to the HSR universe.

God, I've already done up to chapter 31 finishing with the sagas of the ship of Herta and Jarilo-VI. I still need to do the one of Loufu (I won't do the current continuation mission, since that is after Penacony) and then the most anticipated saga of Penacony.

Now comes the question of Aven and Veri's ages… oh god. I feel (it's an opinion and a small observation from a fan) that currently Kakavasha is around 22 years old and Veritas is around 25. What do you think? Since at one point in the story, I have to put ages because I want to write something related to a "time skip" so to speak.

In the case of Rine, in his past (which is shown in his slave flashbacks where he is downcast) he is a teenager, and I think he would be 17… I searched everywhere to find canon information but there is none 😭😭😭!

Since the year amber is not technically a year but it would be like saying "we are in the 21st century" but not specifically saying like "hey you are in the year such and such :D"… because the tragedy of Sigonia-VI happened in the middle of the current 2157 before the awakening the trailblazer (reading carefully the hsr wiki timeline) but not the exact year 😭😭. If someone knows about that, you can send me a comment here or in private I'll appreciate it!!

In a few days (maybe) I'll be able to publish a preview of the first chapter of this fanfic! YEIY!! ☆*:.｡.o(≧▽≦)o.｡.:*☆

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That's all the news guys! I was really surprised by the amount of likes on the previous post about this project along with the feedback from some comments and I can see that you like the idea so I'll try hard!

Have a nice day, afternoon or night ♡(>ᴗ•)

~Reiko Yukimura~

[teadragondreams]

Thoughts on Nicole Maine's Secret Six (Organized [kinda])

Now that I've done some preliminary information gathering from stalking the appropriate tags and wiki articles, here are my thoughts on each member of the new Secret Six lineup! Keep in mind that I barely read the greater DC comics whatsoever.

Jay Nakamura (Gossamer)

Positive Asian representation in the Secret Six!? FUCKING FINALLY--Mostly with him and the other new members I'm anticipating some sort of soap opera style drama happening alongside the main plot-- and that isn't a detriment, it would be an active bonus.

Jon Kent

From what I've seen, much in the style of Dick Grayson temporarily taking on the Batman mantle, Jon *was* Superman for a while. Does he have a hero name specific to him or is he Superboy again? How many Superboys are there actually? (From what I've seen it seems to be just as complicated at the Batfamily-- but GOD am I SICK of the batfamily--) Anyway. I doubt they're going to have any continuity with the 2011 timeline but just imagining the interactions he could have with Black Alice or Catman if so--"Hey weren't you guys teammates with that guy that shattered my Dad's bones?!"

Dreamer (Nia Nal)

Read a part of that scene she has with Waller (I believe it was from Dream Team but not sure on that), but the fact that she actively scrambled Waller's memories and now this new series is in the aftermath of that ? Whoo boy is going to be fun! Especially becausefrom what I've gathered--Nicole Maines *is* Nia Nal, and probably has a clear direction with where she wants to take the character, right?

Black Alice (Lori Zechlin)

I love Lori! She's always been one of my favorites, especially because she is always accidently pushing the found family agenda with other members of the six. I know she'd made a few appearances around in other series like Suicide Squad and Night Force, and that's where her newer design comes from. But there are so many directions her characterization might go in this series that I'm just praying she doesn't get shoehorned into 'annoying kid member of team' because she's so much more than that! More of that "I feel tremendous guilt about possibly giving my dad cancer and purposely joined a team of mercenaries".

Catman (Thomas Blake)

Gotta love the Tomcat. I love how his design skews him back into "batman impersonator" but gets rid of that stupid hole in his cowl for a bang they gave him in DC Pride. I liked that story with him and Ghostmaker but I couldn't get over that stupid bang!! Addtionaly because he has so much internal conflict about what the hell he wants to do with his career as a mercenary/anti-hero/vigilante. His underlying attempts to be *good* to be *better* makes me glad to follow what he does. But honestly, I'd be even more glad if he was more of a supporting role in this mini-series, because his presence as a father/older brother figure (mainly seen in the 2011 run) are just incredible. Also I hope they don't make him the butt of too many eg(g)regious jokes.

Deadshot (Floyd Lawton)

Twenty bucks says they'll be at least 3 panels with him and Thomas in the hit or kiss zone. Wouldn't have it any other way.

Honorable mention section for that one issue cover that shows some of the previous members of the Six.

Bane

HOLY SHIT IT'S BANE!!! I literally almost cried in joy when that one Christmas special issue came out at the very moment I was like "I need to calm down with my Secret Six obsession it's not like there's ever going to be any new official material with them" and now boom. making this post. Super excited to see the big guy on a team again.

Scandal & Knockout

RETURN OF THE POLYCULE??? Not much to say here, I'll lament Scandal once again not being on the team proper, but I guess they've ditched that "all eight of us in this commercial are apart of the Secret Six" idea and are keeping the team to actually Six.

Jeanette

So happy to have you back queen, wish it was you on the front lines instead of your crusty little bf but understandable. I hope it's brought up again that she's like a majorly successful entrepreneur because it's so funny that she chooses to associate with these weirdos.

Chesire

I hugely disliked how Cheshire was treated in the OG Villains United Run. I'm fine with her being an antagonist, Jade could be a great antagonist!-- but I sincerely hope they avoid the stereotypes used to previously characterize her.

Ragdoll

I love this little freak! I am one of the (2.5)frequenters of the peter merkel jr tag. As long as A) the stupid little clown ruff remains and B) they let her be as much of a weirdo as possible, I will probably not have *too* many complaints.

Mad Hatter

peter merkel jr for the second time in your life you have the opportunity to do the funniest thing ever.

[inky-star]

everything* related to Pearl, Marina and their relationship - part 1

*or almost everything

Hello, everybody! I have started a thread on twitter where I try to organize (almost) every official dialogue, art and whatever other type of interaction Pearl and Marina may have had, and I'm finally posting it here :) Keep reading if you are interested on it!

part 1 (you're here!) ● part 2 ● part 3

First I will talk about Splatoon 2 and then Splatoon 3, posting it in parts. Of course, putting every single dialogue they had would be impractical, so I will be giving attention to the ones I found more relevant (which in most cases are the cute ones)

If I missed anything that you think it would be nice to add, please go ahead and tell me! My main source for this is the Splatoon wiki, Inkipedia, which in itself has different sources, especially for translations. So, I highly recommend you check it out!

And speaking of translations, I want to take a look at how different localizations treat their interactions. Mainly, I will focus on the differences between the Japanese (JP) and American/European (EN) localizations, especially considering that the game is originally in JP.

For that, Inkipedia is once again the best, but there’s a few dialogues that didn’t have translations there, so I tried to use my own skills to translate it - and if you noticed any mistake on it, please tell me! And with all of that out of the way, let’s go!

If you’re reading this, you probably know them already, but if you don’t, here’s Pearl Houzuki (or Hime Houzuki - JP), an inkling, and Marina Ida, an octoling. They were introduced in Splatoon 2 (2017) as the new hosts of Inkopolis News and as the duo Off the Hook.

1st - their stage dialogues! As it’s common knowledge now, there’s been some changes made to their personalities, especially when it comes to Marina. In JP, she is *very* sweet, and is often gushing about how cute Pearl is.

Marina also refers to Pearl in JP as センパイ (senpai), a honorific equivalent to calling someone a “senior”. Pearl is not only older than her (by 3 years), but she is someone who knows about inkling culture and, as seen later, taught Marina about it. 

So it makes sense Marina would look up to her. In EN, senpai was (righteously) changed for the nickname Pearlie. In other languages, except Chinese, this convention of giving Pearl a nickname that refers to her as little is kept, with “ma petite Perle” and “perlita” as examples.

I chose the dialogues that stood out the most, and could really give us a glimpse into their relationship: Pearl and Marina care a lot about each other, and are always looking for things to do together. Going as far as planning to spend 12 hours together in a ferris wheel!

This will be later even more obvious in the Splatfests. Meanwhile, even in the stages it’s clear the difference between languages - they have much more cute moments in JP. Unfortunately the EN localization made Marina more mean spirited than she originally was...

(Side note: a friend pointed out that one of French stage dialogues has a bit of an incorrect translation. “Without question” is “definitely, without doubt” but “pas question” is used when you’re against (doing) something, so "No way" would be a better translation)

Now let’s look at Splatfests, and 1st: in JP! From the get go, we can see that there’s a heavy focus on how Pearl and Marina are very sweet with each other. They don’t really argue about their choices - they just explain their views and sometimes try to get the other to join them

In some cases, the fests end up as a way to choose their next “get together” and the results also often tend to reach a middle point - with them doing both things. Examples: Action x Comedy - Trick x Treat - Flowers x Dumplings

Honestly I see Pearl almost as doting, going to do stuff that Marina likes despite her own team’s win. Examples: Tsubuan x Koshian (if she won) - Action x Comedy - No Pineapple x Pineapple. 

Sadly, we only started to get dialogues more close to the original after Hare vs. Tortoise. In EN specifically it’s almost like they take the fests too serious, although in Russian and later on Octo Expansion it will be pointed out they are mostly putting on a show

[ben-marco]

Can I ask your opinion on the tiktok Cyber did in defense of Legion's Gaza derail? I don't have a horse in this race as my abuse was solely at the hands of one person and I've never encountered any traffiking rings in my time as a survival sex worker, so I'm woefully uneducated on how bad or multinational OEA can get. Thanks in advance for reading this even if you don't plan to answer, and again for all you do to source DID information.

Does anyone have a link to Cyber's video? I'm admittedly not the best at using TikTok myself.

For the remainder of this post I'll be addressing Legion's video, found here, unless they delete it of course: https://www.tiktok.com/@legion.sys/video/7376743310095846689

It's no secret that human trafficking can happen during wars or other conflicts. It is happening now with the Russia-Ukraine War (https://rovienna.iom.int/news/human-trafficking-times-conflict-case-ukraine ; https://www.state.gov/reports/2023-trafficking-in-persons-report/ukraine/). However, during times of war it is incredibly difficult to maintain accurate records for things like this, especially when most of the "outside" world is trying to peer into a country like Russia that has been isolating itself over the past decades.

Furthermore, the types of human trafficking happening in Ukraine differ from what Legion alleges is happening in Israel. The two primary types of human trafficking happening in Ukraine are:

Refugees being trafficked to other countries by opportunistic brokers that do not function as an arm of any government (https://www.unhcr.org/news/news-releases/statement-risks-trafficking-and-exploitation-facing-refugees-ukraine-attributed). Most of these refugees are trafficked into other countries in Europe, though some are trafficked into the United Arab Emirates (https://nycfpa.org/08/09/vulnerable-ukrainian-women-and-children-are-at-great-risk-of-being-trafficked-claims-new-report/).

Russia's government trafficking Ukrainian children out of Ukraine and into Russia. I hate to cite Wikipedia, but this is so prevalent that there is a Wikipedia article about it with no shortage of references to other sources as well, including the UN and ICC (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_abductions_in_the_Russo-Ukrainian_War ; https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64985009).

I'll stop here and make the disclaimer that, as a blogger on the Internet, I am not an expert on international geopolitical relations or military conflicts. But even for the experts, it can be incredibly challenging to verify facts and keep records during times of war.

My main problems with Legion's accusations are as follows:

Legion cites no sources other than "testimonies that have been told to [them]"

Legion alleges that Israel's government is orchestrating "a multinational network of human trafficking rings based in the West Bank...involved with organ trafficking, skin trafficking, and general sex trafficking", calling the organization an "Israeli Zionist human trafficking project"

Legion alleges that this "Israeli Zionist human trafficking project" is a global operation

Legion alleges that "there are people in our community who are direct survivors" of this "project", and

Legion alleges that this "project" directly affects the US and the UK in addition to Gaza.

There is already immense fog of war surrounding what's happening in Gaza, so much so that it has been difficult to even establish casualty numbers. By throwing out this kind of information without a source, Legion is only adding to that fog. I don't expect anything else from someone who rarely cites sources in general, but if the genocide of Palestinians is really this important to you, don't you think you should back up what you're saying? If ANYTHING was important enough to need a source attached, wouldn't it be this? I've heard rumors about the skin bank and organ bank before, but I think it's very different to make those claims than it is to claim that Israel's government is conducting global human trafficking and RAMCOA / OEA.

Furthermore, this alleged global "Israeli Zionist human trafficking project" sounds a lot like antisemitic propaganda that the RAMCOA / OEA community has been hearing for decades from figures like Fritz Springmeier, Svali, and Unwelcome Ozian. How is this any different? What is Legion's motive in saying this?

The reason I mentioned the trafficking in Ukraine due to the Ukraine-Russia War is to also point out that in conflicts like these, it is far more likely and far more common for brokers and individuals to be taking advantage of those who want to flee the country, than it is for that country's government to set up "a multinational network of human trafficking rings". By spouting unfounded and antisemitic conspiracy theories about Israel's government allegedly trafficking people around the world, you are completely ignoring the very real stories of people who think they're escaping Gaza only to end up being sold into human trafficking by a broker.

The other problem is that by hearing something about Gaza and turning it into "well, there are people in the RAMCOA community who are directly affected by this", Legion is decentering the men, women, and children who are being murdered in Gaza right now while you are reading this. And the statement that Israel's "multinational" trafficking ring somehow affects people in the US and UK is one of the most tone-deaf things I have ever heard.

Let me put it more bluntly. Teenagers and young adults in the US and UK who claim to have been through RAMCOA or OEA are not who we need to be centering in our conversations about Gaza. But in Legion's video about Gaza, that's exactly what they're doing.

[crocheting-cupio]

Queer Resources!

This is by no means a complete list and it's something I will keep adding to and improving. If you have any helpful links not listed here, please send them my way!

Please reblog this post, as you never know who may desperately need one of these resources. Feel free to share individual links with friends/family as well. Knowledge is power, after all!

General:

Online safety guide for queer people This guide is extremely thorough, having sections for being online while queer in general, dating online, navigating the workplace, advice for queer people under 18, and more. If you grew up online and think you don't need to read any of this, I am begging you to read it. There's always something you don't know, something you won't think to do in a stressful situation. Please, please read through it all. Safety first!

Coming out handbook by The Trevor Project (PDF) A downloadable PDF walking you through the coming out process. It's a bit long, but well worth reading even if you have come out already to friends and/or family. It is very supportive of you, the reader, so it is wonderful if you feel unsure or nervous about your identity.

Quick guide for coming out (nonbinary focused) This is a briefer guide for if you or someone else just needs an overview of the process. It doesn't focus as much on the emotional support part and more on the logistics of coming out. So this one is good if you're very confident in your identity and just need to come out.

Pronouns and names:

Pronoun Dressing Room This site lets you try different pronouns AND names for yourself. You can fill the text fields with literally anything you want. It also has lots of neopronoun presets, organized alphabetically and by theme. To "try on" pronouns and names it uses a simple example paragraph where someone talks to their friend about meeting you. But there is also sections of public domain books where your name and pronouns replace the main characters'.

Pronouns Page This site allows you to make a "card" that lists all your names, flags/identities, pronouns, and terms you want used for you, as well as your preferences for/feelings about of them. It is highly customizable, you can add neopronouns, nounself pronouns, and emoji pronouns. You can even make separate cards for other languages. These cards can be easily shared with others and linked in profiles. It is also a huge resource for terminology, definitions and descriptions of identities, and how pronouns have been and are used in culture and fiction. There's also a full calendar of awareness days/week, appreciation days/weeks, and days of remembrance.

List of nonbinary names These are organized into separate pages by first letter. It includes non-English names, gives origin and meaning for each name, and, perhaps most helpfully, includes how often that name is used as a feminine or masculine name. Even if you are not nonbinary, this can still be helpful in choosing a new name. Personally I found this page infinitely more helpful than going to baby name lists, which are often split by gender and don't have as much for gender neutral names.

Gender:

The Nonbinary Wiki home page This wiki is an invaluable resource, I'm not exaggerating. It has almost everything you would want to know about gender, sexuality, and romantic attraction. It has who made the flags, their meanings, when terms were coined, archived posts, the history of identities, sub identities and micro labels... everything. I will note that understandably, the info for binary gender experiences on this wiki is limited.

List of (common) nonbinary identities This list gives descriptions, history, and more for every common gender identity that isn't strictly the binary female/woman or male/man. Almost every one of these identities has its own dedicated page which goes into further detail. And this list includes nonbinary identities that have existed in non-European and non-American cultures for centuries, or even thousands of years.

List of uncommon nonbinary identities This is a huge and detailed compilation of identities that have as little as one person known to use that label. It also has links to the original or archived posts where the term was coined, if available. This page can be used as something to help you figure out what you like and what you don't like in terms of gender identity. And you never know, the perfect label for you could be in here.

Legal recognition of transgender and nonbinary people by country This page details how inclusive, or exclusive, countries are to trans and nonbinary people. Such as if they allow "X" for gender/sex on ID and passports, what is required to have it changed, and how easy or difficult it is to change your legal name. Canada, the UK, and the USA have dedicated pages for this that go into further detail and provide more resources.

Romance and sexuality:

List of romantic and sexual orientations (nonbinary focused) This list does include common ones like lesbian, but also includes rare identities such as Aquian, being attracted only to people who's gender changes. As I said this is focused on orientations that do not assume you are a binary gender, the people you are attracted to are a binary gender, or that your gender is connected to your sexuality.

AUREA (The Aromantic-spectrum Union for Recognition, Advocacy, and Education) AUREA is not very large right now, but what it lacks in quantity it makes up for in quality. It has a large glossary of romantic, aromantic, queerplatonic, and other related terms. Which includes rare terms and identities under the aromantic umbrella. They have downloadable PDFs with basic info on aromanticism, as well as links to research that has been done on aromanticism.

Guide to Aromanticism This contains basic info about aromanticism, and "Am I Aro?" questioning section, and links to aro creators. Reading through the whole thing shouldn't take more than half an hour.

Allosexual Aromantic resources This site links to a wide variety of resources by, for, and information on allo-aros. There's terminology guides, how to write allo-aro characters, how to be a good ally towards allo-aros, essays, and fiction featuring allo-aro characters.

AVEN (The Asexual Visibility and Education Network) This is a wonderful resource for information on asexuality. It has a thorough FAQ section for both people questioning and friends/family who have questions and concerns about asexualism.

Asexual Perspectives This is a community blog where people can write about their experiences as asexuals. These posts are incredibly validating and eye-opening and I strongly recommend you read them.

The Gray Area This is a quick FAQ about greysexualism and demisexualism that is for questioning, allies, and people unfamiliar with greysexualism.

AVEN Forms AVEN hosts a form where asexuals, and people who once identified as asexual, can talk about their experiences.

An Asexual's Guide To... This is a brief sex ed taught from an asexual perspective. Which is to say it does not automatically assume you are interested in sexual activities and have some experience feeling sexual attraction. Even if you aren't asexual, it can be quite helpful in understanding the experience. It does not teach you much about the actual having sex part, though. It focuses more on being comfortable with yourself and your body. It is also inclusive to intersex people. (This guide has no pictures, if you were worried about that.)

Setting sexual boundaries with a partner list This is not queer specific but still helpful as it does not assume the sexual relationship is between the two binary sexes/genders and still works if you are intersex. To cut down the paragraphs at the beginning, this is a list of sexual and romantic actions and behaviours. You are supposed to assign a yes, maybe, no, or not applicable to everything on this list to indicate if you are willing, unsure, or will not do those things. It is suggested you go through it with your partner, but you can fill it out alone to figure out your preferences. This list/guide can be useful if you have sexual trauma and/or have had an abusive partner in the past and need to communicate what may trigger you.

[thecreaturecodex]

Drain Deimos

Image © Capcom, accessed at the Resident Evil Wiki here

[Sponsored by @coldbloodassassin. The drain deimos got a significant overhaul in its abilities between RE3 and the recent remake. So I wrote a whole monster before double checking the sponsor's post, and finding that they wanted the other one! So I've included both. The original one is what I'm using the picture for, and is the main stat block, and the remake version is a variant. And gets a new name since it's not doing as much draining anymore.]

Drain Deimos CR 5 CE Aberration This creature appears something like a grotesquely mutated insect, warped into human size and humanoid proportions. It has six limbs, the four upper with two hooked claws and the lowest pair with three. It has four eyes surrounding a pair of mandibles and a sharp proboscis, and exposed muscle appears between rents in its exoskeleton.

A drain deimos is a mutant flea, permanently altered by exposure to fleshwarping toxins and diseases. They are almost never created intentionally—a mundane flea that feeds on fleshwarped creatures may mutate in such a way that its larvae will develop into drain deimoses over several generations, and a giant flea may transform into such a horror spontaneously. Drain deimoses are not as skilled at jumping as their progenitor species, but make up for it with skilled climbing abilities.

Drain deimoses feed on both blood and spinal fluid, and the more intelligent a prey item is, the more valuable it is seen as a food source. As such, drain deimoses prefer to attack humanoids than animals, and often go after wizards, bards or other individuals with higher than average intelligence. In prey-rich areas, like cities, drain deimoses will often gather in groups, but they do not cooperate with each other when hunting.

A drain deimos is parthenogenetic, making and fertilizing its own eggs. Thus, a single monster can rapidly multiply to create dozens of monsters in a matter of months.

Variant Drain Deimos An inject deimos is a further mutation of the drain deimos, in which the proboscis has become an ovipositor. Rather than sucking up spinal fluid, an inject deimos inserts its eggs into its host’s body, which devour it rapidly from the inside. Rather than pinning a single victim and drinking them dry, an inject deimos’ strategy usually involves grabbing, implanting and moving on quickly. An inject deimos has the negative energy affinity defensive ability, and the following special attack instead of brain drain and smell brains: Implant (Ex) An inject deimos can insert its young into a grappled opponent as part of the action to maintain a grapple. A creature can resist this implantation with a successful DC 17 Fortitude save. If it fails this save, it takes 3d6 points of slashing and piercing damage each round as the young eat it from the inside. A remove disease or similar effect purges the infestation automatically and without further harm. A cure spell cast on the victim, or a DC 25 Heal check made as a full round action, removes the parasites, but nauseates the host for 1 round unless the host succeeds another DC 17 Fortitude save. The save DC is Constitution based.

Drain Deimos        CR 5 XP 1,600 CE Medium aberration (fleshwarp) Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +7, smell brains Defense AC 18, touch 16, flat-footed 12 (+5 Dex, +1 dodge, +2 natural) hp 59 (7d8+28) Fort +6, Ref +7, Will +7 DR 5/bludgeoning Offense Speed 40 ft., climb 30 ft. Melee 4 claws +10 (1d4+2 plus grab) Special Attacks blood drain (1d3 Con), brain drain (1d6 Int) Statistics Str 14, Dex 21, Con 18, Int 5, Wis 14, Cha 4 Base Atk +5; CMB +10 (+14 vs. grapple); CMD 25 Feats Agile Maneuvers, Defensive Combat Training, Dodge, Weapon Finesse Skills Acrobatics +14 (+18 when jumping), Climb +24, Perception +7, Stealth +10; Racial Modifiers +4 Acrobatics, +16 Climb Languages Common (cannot speak) SQ catfall, expert climber Ecology Environments any land and underground Organization solitary, pair or infestation (3-18) Treasure incidental Special Abilities Brain Drain (Ex) If a drain deimos pins an opponent, it deals 1d6 points of Intelligence damage each round it drains blood. A creature reduced to 0 Con or 0 Int from this ability dies. Catfall (Ex) A drain deimos takes minimum damage from falling, and always lands on its feet. Expert Climber (Ex) A drain deimos’ racial bonus on Climb checks is +16, and it can climb smooth or vertical surfaces, or on ceilings, as if it was under the effects of a spider climb spell. Smell Brains (Ex) A drain deimos can detect creatures with functioning brains within 30 feet. This functions as the scent monster quality, except that it can only be used to detect creatures with a physical brain (which eliminates most constructs, elementals, oozes and plants, but includes some corporeal undead). A drain deimos can also detect which creatures have higher or lower Intelligence scores.

[goblindolls]

❤️ Rating all of Ruby Anderson's dolls (+Official Artwork)! ❤️

Rainbow High is easily one of my favorite doll brands- to collect, to look at, to research- it's honestly phenomenal! Buuuuut since I've already downloaded the official art and organized it into subfolder after subfolder from the fandom wiki, I need something to satisfy the Tism Instinct™ until some new dolls are released (and therefore the wiki updates the pages with their official artwork), so I'm just gonna go through and rate the main girls' dolls + the official artwork of said dolls side by side. (Hopefully I can make this a series called "Goblin Rates Dolls" and do more than just Rainbow High later on!) Uhhhhhh anyway here are my ratings (main dividers by @toastray & end dividers made by @strangergraphics):

Series 1 | Artwork - 10/10 ❤️ Doll - 7/10 ❤️ Alt Outfit - 10/10

Okay, starting off fairly strong with Series 1 Ruby! I personally LOVE the artwork for Series 1 Ruby- the shading is on point, and it really sells the doll!

The doll herself isn't scoring quite as high for a few reasons- while in the artwork her outfit looks really cute and stylish, it comes across as tacky (at least in the promotional photos) with the how dull the gold on her pants is compared to her illustration. While yes, it's impossible to entirely recreate every aspect of the illustration for a mass-produced doll, I feel like they could've used an orange and/or yellow chrome effect on her pants so that they'd really pop, and the clear heels feel a bit out of place in her outfit, too. I also wish she had the straight her she did in the illustration, but that's honestly a nitpick if anything else. Something I will absolutely fawn over on the doll though is the hair quality and how gorgeous her eyes are, even with the traditional lighting in the promo pictures. Another reason I'm not being too harsh is because Rainbow High came out during the...y'know. 😷

As for the second outfit she comes with, I LOVE IT. It's simple and doesn't overdo it with accessories- it's just a simple tube top, a sick leather skirt and a jacket I lowkey wish they made for people. But what I REALLY like about this outfit is the boots- they're such a great eye-catcher while not dipping into tacky or costume-y territory.

All in all a great doll, especially considering this was the series that gave us the Rainbow High we know today!

Overall score: 9.5/10

Cheerleader Squad | Artwork - 8/10 ❤️ Doll - 8/10

Cheerleader Squad is admittedly one of my least favorite Rainbow High lines just by virtue of me never really getting the hype around cheerleading (don't get me wrong I admire the people that do it that shit's hard it's just not my cup of tea).

The artwork is stunning (as to be expected from Rainbow High), and it makes her outfit SUPER appealing, even those god-awful high-heel sneakers- seriously if pain is beauty get this bitch to a orthopedic surgeon. Shoes aside, I would lowkey wear this outfit with basketball shorts instead of a skirt (mainly because my swamp troll lookin ass looks awful in skirts). I will say, however, I feel like the expression could be better, especially considering this is a cheerleading series- the stoic supermodel face works with most of the other series because they aren't centered around roles that tend to show lots of emotion- which is exactly why it doesn't work for this line. Even a small smile would improve the illustration by a LOT- and this is a problem for whole line aside from Sunny and (kinda) Jade. Aside from that, I don't really have any problems.

As for the doll, this time I don't actually mind the change in hair texture- Ruby with crimped hair is actually one of my favorite ways to see her styled (as you'll see later), and while I normally don't like dolls with face stickers, I actually don't mind it this time around. The only thing I don't really get is what the fuck is going on with her sleeves. On the illustration it looks like it's meant to be rocket pop lookin ass ombre letters, but on the doll...shit be lookin like Yakuza tattoos.

All in all she's alright, I just don't really care about cheerleader-themed dolls.

Overall Score: 8/10

Winter Break | Artwork - 9/10 ❤️ Doll - 7/10 ❤️ Alt Outfit - 8/10

Once again, Winter Break is near the bottom of my metaphorical Rainbow High lines tier list just because I've never really been interested in the winter sports side of winter. I'm personally more of a "hide in my room under a bunch of soft blankies and plushies while daydreaming of baking in a magical cottage kept warm by a fire" kind of guy, but that doesn't mean I don't like the dolls the line has to offer!

The artwork, as usual, is stunning, and this is a great example of when the supermodel face really works with the line- she looks triumphant, especially because of her pose and the way she's holding her snowboard (also since we've gotten this far I want you to realize that Ruby is canonically into hypebeast culture), and the way her hair is drawn is AMAZING. Her hat also looks normal, which is a plus.

As for the doll herself, I think the outfit is on point! My only real issues with it are the yellow laces on her boots (which honestly could've been black or gray) and the way her hat seems to be too stiff, and it gets even worse with the second outfit.

The second outfit itself is cute! Definitely think it could use some Cerise Hood-style leggings since this is a winter line, as well as maybe some leg warmers or loose socks. However, you can definitely see how stiff the hat is in the photo (Santa's helper lookin ass-).

Once again, gorgeous doll, I just don't particularly care about the subject matter the series is based on.

Overall Score - 7.5/10

Junior High Series 1 | Artwork - 7/10 ❤️ Doll - 5.5/10

Now I admittedly don't know too much about Rainbow Junior High aside from it being characters from Rainbow High as middle schoolers, so I don't have strong opinions on any of them aside from River Kendall (I'll compare his two dolls in a different post).

The artwork, first of all, is cute! I will say that they kinda did Ruby dirty with that forehead, but it's not too bad. Her outfit is really cute, too! I especially love how one of her overall straps is undone- it really adds to the bloody chaos that is the average American middle school.

As for her doll, I have a few complaints, like how her overall strap isn't undone like in the picture, but that's a nitpick at best. I DO however think that they should've used a thinner material for her overalls and replaced the cuffs with a hemline instead, because (in my opinion) the bulky material kind of makes it look like she's wearing heavy snow pants. I'm also not a big fan of the dramatic curls this time around- I definitely think this doll should've had crimped or lightly wavy hair. And even though I was ribbing her for kinda having a big forehead in the illustration, I feel like more of those childish features should've been added to the doll itself, because to me she just looks like high school Ruby on middle school Ruby's body- and I think the main reason is because they gave the doll makeup the illustration didn't have (note how artificially pink her doll's lips are compared to her illustration).

Artwork is amazing as usual, but the doll is probably my least favorite so far.

Overall Score - 6.5/10

Fantastic Fashion | Artwork - 9.5/10 ❤️ Doll - 10/10 ❤️ Alt Outfit - 7/10

I'll admit that it took a bit for Fantastic Fashion to grow on me, but now that it has, I can appreciate just how GORGEOUS this version of Ruby is!

Rainbow High artwork is always stunning, as we've seen with the other Ruby's so far, and I pretty much have zero complaints aside from a minor nitpick- I think the illustration doesn't show just how gorgeous the doll's hair is! Which is fine, since you usually aren't looking at the art outside of it being on the doll's box, but I just wish we could see those vibrant red waves in the 2D art style! Nitpick aside, easily one of the most gorgeous Ruby illustrations if not THE most gorgeous.

The doll is easily the best part- they managed to capture everything I loved about the illustration and saturate the colors, and oh my god does it work in Ruby's favor. I love the lace-up leather top, and can we just take a moment to appreciate how art-accurate the skirt is?

For her second outfit, I don't think it was a good fit for this series- it just feels so basic compared to just how detailed and gorgeous her main outfit is- but I don't hate it. I love how simple it is, but i just don't think it was a good choice to package with this series- I feel like it would've made a better fashion pack on the side instead!

Easily my favorite so far, but unfortunately the second outfit is going to bring down the overall score a lot.

Overall Score - 8.5/10

Rainbow World Series 1 | Artwork - 8/10 ❤️ Doll - 8.5/10

Now this is actually the first (and so far only) Ruby doll I own in real life, and she's easily one of my favorite dolls of all time!

The artwork is gorgeous (as always), especially with how they made her skirt almost iridescent, and I love that they included the slime in her shoes!

As for the doll, I love love love love love love love love love love love love love LOVE her crimped hair, and her eyes are gorgeous as always (especially if you're taking pictures of her in the sun)! Her pet is adorable (I love a good raspberry reference) too. The only thing from the set I didn't really care for was the purse, mainly because I didn't have enough slime to fill it after filling Razz and her shoes. Her outfit is so simple yet so gorgeous (the skirt does admittedly make posing her sitting a pain in the ass). My only real complaint about the doll herself is the rough texture of the glitter on her face, but I've actually gotten used to it and now I don't really mind!

She's easily my second favorite after Fantastic Fashion Ruby, and I'll hopefully be posting some photoshoots of her (Rainbow World) really soon!

Overall Score - 8.5/10

Swim & Style | Artwork - 6/10 ❤️ Doll - 5/10

I don't have too much to say about Swim & Style Ruby, good or bad.

The artwork is great, but since the doll itself is kinda boring the artwork is boring as a result since it's primarily made to advertise the doll whose box it's on. I will say that her shoes look a lot better in the illustration, as does her little shimmery wrap.

Considering this is a bit of a budget doll, she does have some good features- mainly in her hair, as I actually prefer it over the illustration for once, as with her sunglasses. Aside from that, there's not much noteworthy aside from her makeup looking way too good for a girl about to go swimming.

Overall Score - 5.5/10

Bonus Rating - Fashion Pack I Artwork - 5.5/10 ❤️ Doll - 6/10

(this was deadass the highest quality image i could find for her illustration bear with me)

Not much to say here, but the pajamas and slippers are cute (also, the fashion packs DO fit O.M.G. Dolls, and so do the normal Rainbow High clothes).

Overall Score - 6.5/10

Thanks for reading my review of every Ruby Anderson doll from Rainbow High (so far)! It really means a lot that you're willing to listen to my goofy goblin ass yap about dolls for however long it takes you to read this! This isn't going to be my longest post forever, obviously, but I do want to post more than just reblogs and photoshoots. I actually have a Rainbow High deep dive and somewhat serious L.O.L. Surprise! Rant/Discussion planned, so stay tuned for that!

Anyway this post took me three hours to write so I'm gonna go pass out

(Also hopefully by the time you've read this I can post a bunch of my drafts that have gotten clogged up because tumblr marked one of my posts as mature just because it was tagged dollblr OvO)

[gems1g]

Finished HSR 3.2 main quest. Spoilers below.

Ok so there goes my theory about Mythus being the third Aeon involved. Although to be honest, I've had my doubts about them being the third Aeon since I heard the entirety of the prophecy of the Flame Chase, and when the Flame Reaver appeared. I was thinking actually it would also make sense if the third Aeon is Nanook, as the whole hero's journey in Amphoreus is essentially about, well, destruction. Specifically, a cycle of death and rebirth. Destroying the current era to birth a new one.

It's canonically shown the Flame Reaver is stronger than the demigods, and seemed to have knowledge of the outside world (in the initial confrontation with them in Castrum Kremnos). I have a feeling they are the Lord Ravager mentioned at the end of this patch's quest that's trapped in Amphoreus, as I think they would be stronger than the local gods (the Titans) and the demigods in Amphoreus only if they are Emanators. So essentially, Amphoreus is a prison for this Lord Ravager.

But which Lord Ravager? Going through the wiki, I think the three likely candidates would be Zephyro, Irontomb, and The Sun Devourer. I'm actually leaning towards the last, because I think the Flame Reaver is Phainon of a future cycle. So if Phainon has sun motifs, it makes sense if his darker or opposite side has moon and/or night-related motifs. Devouring suns seems to make sense then, as that would mean plunging solar systems in darkness / eternal night.

But what would be the Lord Ravager's reason for striding the path of destruction? I'm still thinking it's the Black Tide. And I still think the Black Tide is Rubert's anti-organic virus. If I remember The Swarm SU lore correctly, Nanook ascended into Aeonhood due to the destruction of their planet by The Swarm. So maybe the same happened to the Lord Ravager in Amphoreus - maybe they ascended into Emanator of Destruction status because of something monumental that happened in their homeland. And maybe with the combined efforts of followers of Fuli and Nous, they were able to trap this Lord Ravager finally in their homeworld. Or, another possibility I'm thinking is that this is a newly ascended Emanator of Destruction, that so far hasn't had the chance to destroy other planets as they were trapped in their homeworld exactly to prevent them wreaking havoc across the universe. I feel like the whole thing about death, love, memories, and living in stagnation is related to the Flame Reaver. Death and living on through memories feels like the main theme of this planet.

Anyway, I love Anaxa, and was a little sad that he died. So that makes three playable but dead characters in-game so far. If Phainon does end up as being the Flame Reaver and a Lord Ravager, I'm thinking by the end of Amphoreus, he'll probably be dead too (I'm actually thinking all Amphoreus companions would be canonically dead at the end of the Flame Chase saga). Or perhaps, the miracle and Era Nova in Amphoreus refers to undoing the birth of a Lord Ravager? Not sure if you can actually switch paths in-game, I feel like canonically, it's not possible and only Stelle/Caelus have that sort of "power".

Who hijacked March' memories? I feel like that can be Mem? Or perhaps a memokeeper. Maybe Cyrene, and she's a memokeeper / Emanator of Fuli. I had a feeling Caelus would be taking over for Oronyx as we get time-related powers at the start of this planet, and I think Dan Heng's going to have a power up too at some point. Also, it's interesting that Herta doesn't know Lygus, who is also an Emanator of Nous - so it confirms the possibility of other Emanators not being aware of each other's existence (and going back to the Lord Ravager in Amphoreus - it's possible the other Lord Ravagers don't know of them yet too, and that would support my theory that they are newly ascended).

I'm also confused (a little) about Mydei's immortality now - he said it's him who refuses the call to cross over to the nether realm so technically, he never dies. If that's the case, why would stabbing him in his weakpoint kill him then? Or is that some sort of personal pact/binding vow (borrowing this concept from JJK lol) he made with Thanatos, like, ok grant me the ability to refuse crossing over to be dead dead but if someone gets stabbity and stab me in this particular part of my spine, I'm dead? 🤔😂

I'm excited for the next patch though! I want to know Kephale's involvement, and how the rest are going to handle Aquila.

[ivygateway]

9TEEN + HE/THEY/IT + BI + POC

lover of OC x CC ☆ dilf extraordinaire

currently a wip!!!

fanfic acc. ocs. plot masterlist. psd.

INTRO !!

Hai! I'm Reese (or Splat), and this is my rp account. I've been roleplaying for six years, mostly on amino, and have decided to relocate to Tumblr. I do both fandom and OC, though ocs are preferred. My main pairings are m/m and m/other, but I'm open to everything! Discord is where I rp on, as it keeps everything organized in servers. You can reach out to me on here or Discord (my user is @/splatnyah)!!

Roleplay isn't the only form of writing I do! Fanfiction is another form I really enjoy, along with original works. My fanfic acc is @splatfics, I post any sort of fandom writing over on there. My original works will all stay on here!

OCS !!

I have a bunch of different OCs; however, they're still kept on Amino. Currently, I'm working on making them new bios in either a PDF or doc format. They'll eventually be linked on here, along with a masterlist, too :) My characters can work both in their original universes and in some fandoms.

PREFERENCES !!

I don't have many rules, generally I'm a pretty easy-going person. My rp style can change depending on the situation. It'll go from lazy lit (around 200-300 words) to novella (800+). Your OC does not need an extremely detailed wiki or bio, just some basic information and FC will do! Speaking of face claims, I accept any type other than AI or gacha. My OCs use a mix of drawn and realistic. Please don't ask me to use a different one. My preferred genres are romance, slice of life, fantasy and mystery. Smut and NSFW is 100% allowed!! Let me know if you'd like to include it and how much.

WONT DO !!

There are a few things that I will not do. Anything involving incest or minor/adult is out of the question. Do not come and ask me for anything like that. Zoophillia is also not allowed (this also includes mermaids because they make me uncomfortable, sorry). CNC, rape, or sexual assult can't be included.

FANDOMS !!

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure 📌

One Piece 📌

Black Butler

Dungeon Meshi

Stardew Valley 📌

Ace Attorney

Dexter

My Hero Academia

Golden Kamuy

What We Do in the Shadows 📌

Succession 📌

Hannibal

Metalocalypse 📌

Disco Elysium

The Venture Bros.

Scott Pilgrim

The Producers

Detroit: Become Human 📌

Interview with the Vampire

[aureumdev]

Welcome to The Aureum

Hi! I'm a newer software dev, but with a long history with programming (thanks to this accursed site in 2014 and my desire to join robotics) I also happen to love writing and art, and have a lot of OCs. I always struggled with keeping them organized and finding a software that works for me.

Enter, The Aureum!

What is The Aureum?

The Aureum is a work in progress web based app made with electron that I am working on so that I can organize my characters in a bit of a different way. A lot of elements and planned features take inspiration from the fandom community wiki, mixed with some of my other favorite world building websites that just ended up not being a good fit for me.

I made this blog so I can easily keep track of my development progress on this, and maybe make some cool new friends in the process.

What does it do?

Currently? Very little, other than make characters with information.

However, I'm currently working on a number of features, one of my most ideal features being project organization. This would allow me (and other users ofc) to sort their OCs and locations BY the project. Maybe you're a writer working on a few different series/stories at the same time, and you need some way to seperate them. Maybe your a game dev, visual novel creator, etc and you just want to have some way to store all of your story and character information in one place.

I also have some more fun and 'unique' features that are being worked on, like an automatic reference sheet generator, which prints out some of your characters information like name, age, height, weight, body type, and some of your preselected colors.

Another favorite feature I'm working on are the personality sliders! In the characters page there are sliders that you can edit to have a little more of a 'fun' view of how your characters act. Here are some screenshots of the layout from within Figma!

Currently, I'm setting up the data storage structure so that we can input all of this character information and still be able to create a project after to put the character in. But while I'm still working out the kinks, here's a list of the main planned features that will be implemented before i send it out to friends to alpha test!

Features

Multiple Projects/ Worlds

Entirely locally hosted, no internet connection required

Personality sliders

Character sheet generator

Timeline feature per project/world

Ability to link to sources and citations

Relationship linking between characters (Similar to fandom wiki setups)

The Aurei - The golden ones, your favorite OC's flagged so that you can access them faster, especially if you have favorites from multiple projects.

Random generation features, for things like art prompts and writing prompts.

Ideas for future releases

D20, d6, etc dice roller

Fake social media screenshot generator similar to twinote or photonote

Additional timeline just on a character by character basis

Ability to sort OCs by tag - by gender, species, location, etc.

Dark mode (maybe custom color palettes for later that users can upload/customize via css)

and more!

Okay but when will it be done?

Truthfully, who knows? I'm solo deving this software for fun, while working a full time job on top of my normal small game projects I make. It might be functional in a few months, or it might take a few years. Ultimately, I have no timeline for this project, and I want to be up front right out of the gate. Once i get a stablle build with the main character and project features implemented and organized, I'll send it off to friends to alpha test, and if all goes well for a few weeks, then I'll post the alpha build for others to use.

Why are you doing this?

the short answer is just because i want to. The longer answer is because, while I love using things like notion, obsidian, metos, worldanvil, etc. I find that there's always one or two things missing from each of them that I'd personally like to have. A lot of these softwares/websites are created with specific things in mind, like note taking, etc. But for me, I make games, i do art, i write stories, and I'm a DND Dungeon Master, so not all of those softwares will work for my every project.

I wanted to make something that would work for everyone, for all of their creative needs.

Also a mini note, to anyone who comes back and sees this or is curious, this project *will* be free on release to the public and likely hosted on itch.io. There are currently NO plans for an online sync or any only features, as that is not within my devstack or technical abilities at this time.