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theresattrpgforthat · 22 days ago

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Ok I know this sounds specific, but do you know any good investigation/mystery games that AREN'T Eureka?

THEME: Non-Eureka Mystery Games.

Hello friend! I've got quite a few recommendations for you, especially at the end of this post! I hope that one way or another, your mystery game craving is sated!

Delta Green, by Arc Dream Publishing.

WELCOME TO THE APOCALYPSE

Born of the U.S. government’s 1928 raid on the degenerate coastal town of Innsmouth, Massachusetts, the covert agency known as Delta Green spent four decades opposing the forces of darkness with honor, but without glory. Stripped of sanction after a disastrous 1969 operation in Cambodia, Delta Green’s leaders made a secret pact: to continue their work without authority, without support, and without fear. Delta Green agents slip through the system, manipulating the federal bureaucracy while pushing the darkness back for another day—but often at a shattering personal cost.

In Delta Green: The Role-Playing Game, you are one of those agents. You’re the one they call when unnatural horrors seep into the world. You fight to keep cosmic evil from claiming human lives and sanity. You conspire to cover it all up so no one else must see what you’ve seen—or learn the terrible truths you’ve discovered.

I don't think I can do a better job of recommending Delta Green than Quinns from Quinns Quest, but since his review is an hour long, I'll summarize: Delta Green is a heavy trad game that takes much of the horror of Call of Cthulhu and revitalizes the genre by turning you into everyday government workers pulled into investigations at the cost of their peace of mind. The rules of the game seem to be pretty down-to-earth and detailed, but the mundanity of the core of the game is what allows the horror of the adventures to well and truly pop. In his review, Quinns mentions that for much of the investigative parts of the game, a well-built crew will hardly ever have to roll to gather clues - which means that solving the mystery is doable, smooth, and makes room for plenty of interesting story once you start putting the pieces together.

Detect Or Die, by silkandstone.

Discover who you were. Decide who you are. Solve the Case. A tabletop RPG of neo-noir empiricism, unstable detectives, and total ego death & resurrection. Inspired by science fiction stories of memory and detection like Blade Runner (1982) and Disco Elysium (2019), Detect or Die places the players as the various inner voices of the Detective, collectively embodying the fractured psyche of an amnesiac protagonist attempting to solve the Case - whatever that entails.

One player takes on the role of the World, laying out the setting and mystery for the rest, using a bespoke variation of the Powered by the Apocalypse game engine influenced by Blades in the Dark and Bluebeard's Bride. The rest play Personality Components, the fragments of the Detective's Ego who combine investigative competencies with erratic coping mechanisms, trading off control and emotional stamina to make it through the Case to the ultimate revelations - about the World and about the Detective.

I'm intrigued about the pattern of mystery games and their attachment to systems that encourage you to inflict negative changes to your character as they discover more and more about the truth over the course of play. Detect or Die is unique in that all of the players are technically embodying the same character, or rather, fractured pieces of them. The pull from Disco Elysium gives you some really unique and iconic terminology, such as Exofamiliarity (a skill), Heartbleed (a skill), and Egghead (an archetype). I think it's also fascinating that Detect or Die pulls threads from Bluebeard's Bride, which is also about many facets of a personality inhabiting one person, but is a much different, very horrific kind of game.

The creator of this game has released a free case: The Case of the Signal Fire, as well as an example of play for folks who might want to get a taste of what the game is about. I still feel a little bit out of my depth with this game, and I suspect that's because I'm unfamiliar with much of Disco Elysium, but the combination of PbtA and Blades in the Dark rules certainly has me intrigued.

Elementary, by Black Armada Games.

Elementary is an Agatha Christie-esque game of convoluted relationships, seemingly insoluble mysteries and quirky detectives who solve them. It is GM-less: you take turns to introduce clues one at a time, building up a picture of the murder and who might have done it. And, it's competitive. You each have a preferred suspect and you try to introduce clues that will implicate them. At the end, like the movie Clue, you each create an alternate ending where the detective accuses your target suspect.

If you really like watching mysteries with friends and trying to guess who the murderer is before they are actually revealed, you might enjoy Elementary. It feels like the GM-less format is meant to allow you to play the game competitively if you wish, and GM-less games also typically spread out the burden of rules-knowledge, which means that this game might be easier to pick up if your group has a hard time deciding who should be the GM. Judging by the store page, you might be able to learn how to play Elementary in a way similar to how you might learn a board-game, and that's another strong point in its favor in my book.

Red Harvest: Mystery on Mars, by fuzztech.

RED HARVEST: MYSTERY ON MARS is a one-shot tabletop roleplaying game based on the 1929 novel RED HARVEST by Dashiell Hammett.

Play as a private investigator from the Galactic Detective Agency. You have been hired to investigate a mining colony on Mars. It looks like it’s going to be a routine case. That is, until your client turns up dead at the dig site. It’s up to you to solve the case, and unravel the mystery of the mine.

Includes Player Manual (1 page) with rules for character creation and taking actions, and Game Master Manual (3 pages) with a pre-written mystery scenario and supplemental materials.

Mysteries… in space!

Red Harvest is a relatively simple mystery game with four basic backgrounds for your character, with two skills per background. The game is meant to be a one-shot, with the mystery and setting laid out for the GM, as well as a map for the players to move through and investigate. Equal parts mystery, sci-fi and horror, this is a great game for folks who want a one-and-done taste of roleplay, and might even be a great introduction to the hobby!

Unravelled Knots, by Emily Cambias.

Each Saturday, a rag-tag group convenes in a dusty tea-room to discuss the criminal cases detailed in their local newspaper. Their leader is the mysterious Old Man in the Corner, whose knowledge of each case (and the true perpetrators of each crime) seems unmatched. From each newspaper headline, he extrapolates the truth of What Really Happened to these victims, and the missing pieces of each case that escaped the bumbling authorities—aided by his eager listeners and his trusty piece of string. Based on the book Unravelled Knots and The Old Man in the Corner by Baroness Orczy.

Instead of dice or cards, Unravelled Knots uses a piece of string as a measuring tool for when your story is coming to an end. It's less like a traditional mystery game and more a collaborative storytelling exercise, with each player taking turns adding clues to the mystery as well as offering up reasons as to why those clues bring you closer to the real answer. You take turns playing The Old Man in the Corner, who acts as a sort of Poirot or Sherlock, in that he presumably holds the knowledge about What Really Happened. You also pick up other roles that are meant to introduce new clues, such as the details of the crime scene, the gossip surrounding various suspects, and the real state of the deceased's finances. If you like Agatha Christie novels, you might enjoy Unravelled Knots.

The Road Ahead, by WendigoWorkshop.

In The Road Ahead… you play as a group of young adults returning to their hometown for a summer of fun, parties and nostalgia. After one of their close friends suddenly disappears, new and old feelings stir, eventually getting them involved in the case. Through the carefree lens of an eighteen-something, uncover the truth and make sure it is the best summer of your life!

This game uses a deck of playing cards to provide resources for the characters, as well as dice to help resolve decisive actions. Built on the Songs and Sagas SRD, it's meant to be inspired be OSR-style play, with a flowchart to help the GM put a story together - a kind of adventure-builder, if you will.

The Road Ahead doesn't feel like it's solely a mystery game: your character is probably going to get into dire situations that they need to fight themselves out of, and if the right consequences happen, it feels like there's also personal fallout that each character might have to deal with, which feels very iconic of games about teens and young adults.

Haunted Echoes, by gaa_txt.

Have you ever wondered who died when the echo of a bell toll reached your ear?

Who died when the masked man descended from their black church to burn the flesh of the forgotten? Some say there aren’t enough of them to give names to the bodies, find the culprit. Even worse when you slip through their fingers, the only thing you can do is return as the worst memory you ever had, hoping your loved ones aren’t a part of it.

HAUNTED ECHOES is a lightweight TTRPG focused on one-shots and short term games where we play as weird detectives in the rainy streets of a fantasy Victorian city. Use your talents to gather clues, solve cases, banish ghosts, deal with elemental demons and ruthless scoundrels while trying to search for an answer to the question that haunts your very being.

This game combines mystery with the paranormal, giving your investigators technical and/or supernatural abilities that will help them try to solve a mystery of using a clock that is reminiscent of the same mystery clock found in games such as Bump in the Dark, or Brindlewood Bay. The game is a stripped-down Forged in the Dark rule-set, with play-sheets that are less differentiated than a typical playbook, a brief overview on how to run the game, and plenty of cases, questions, and details to help put together a mystery as well as flavorful characters to learn about as you play.

Some Days, You Just Can't Get Rid of a Body, by C.R. Legge.

You have received a letter that you hoped to never get. The one person that could ruin your life has invited you to a party, and wishes to discuss things…

As you arrive at the old mansion, they find you and ask that you meet them in a side room at a specific time. When the time comes you see a few others moving towards the room as well. Cautiously, you all enter the room and see them standing in front of the fireplace, arm against the wall. Before anyone can say anything, your host falls backwards onto the floor, dead.

You all had a reason to want them out of the picture. Unless you find out who really killed them, any of you could be framed for the murder…

This game is unique in that everyone who sits down to play must embody someone who had a reason to kill the central character. What I think is absolutely hilarious about this little game is the fact that since all of your characters are suspects, you as a group must carry the body of the victim with you around the house, to prevent NPCs from discovering their death. I can think of so many shenanigans a crew could get up to in trying to solve the crime while also keeping the key piece of evidence out of everyone else's hands.

Games I've Recommended in the Past...

One More Thing, by Nathan D. Paoletta.

Brindlewood Bay, by The Gauntlet.

After the Mind, the World Again, by Aster F.

Grandmothership, by Armanda.

Film Noir Game Recommendations

Mysteries Recommendation Post

If you like what I do and want to leave a tip, you can check out my Ko-Fi!

#mysteries #investigation #mystery #tabletop games #indie ttrpgs #game recommendations #dnd #asks #indie ttrpg

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cy-lindric · 10 months ago

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hello juliette! may i ask, how did you get into sewing? your work is so precise and meticulous (not just the dress but the previous outfits, especially the landsknecht one), it’s hard to imagine what it must take to arrive at this point of mastery.

wishing you all the best and excited to be following your work, kat 💛

Hi Kat !

Thanks a lot for your kind words ! I started sewing kind of out of the blue two years ago. I'd never had any sewing education, formal or otherwise, and I'd always found sewing too tantalizing to get into, but eventually my friend @surikane and I decided to give it a try together because we really wanted to make costumes to wear at our local big medieval festival. I got a Reconstructing History doublet pattern, youtube tutorials, and off I went.

I'm far from mastery and to be honest I just pick a project I really want to do and learn what I need to learn as I go along. It's maybe not the cleanest way to go but as a casual hobbyist driven by pure brainworms and impatience it works great for me. When it comes to historical costuming of course it does take some passion because usually looking at one source won't be enough and you'll need to peruse around. At first, my best combo was to get a printable pattern as a base, and then check out more precise books and videos/lectures on the side to help make sense of it and adapt what needed changing.

I really think anyone can get into sewing at any stage of their lives and make something wearable pretty much rightaway. With the ressources we have today, it's way more doable than it looks. And it really doesn't have to be perfect to spark a lot of joy ! I'm really proud of how far I got in just two years of sewing and I really encourage everyone to give it a try !

#replies #upmala

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physalian · 2 months ago

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On writing a double-sided argument

If you’re trying to write a story where there’s multiple arguments/philosophies/POVs going on, and there isn’t supposed to be a clear winner that the audience is supposed to root for, I think one of the best things you can do—and this is just from experience with other people, haven’t tested it yet with my betas—is to have every side diminish the other into one correct but unfair assumption, ignoring all other traits.

Having one or more parties in the debate be complete nonsense with no leg to stand on won’t have your audience thinking they’re anything other than a willful idiot.

I’ll use my WIP as an example, Eternal Night's TBD sequel.

Side A: Mortals are uniquely brutal and bigoted toward each other, basing their entire lives on superficial prejudices and love nothing more than tearing each other down in the perpetual climb to the top.

Side B: Vampires are unchanging, petty, and arrogant, throwing their weight around and subjugating mortals to feed themselves when there’s plenty proof of concept that cohabitating with willing mortals, or surviving off animals is doable, they want to be superior, so they become slavers.

—

Why Side A sees it the way they do:

Person 1 was enslaved to mortals already as a vampire (in this world slaving goes both ways and that's kinda the whole point) and has seen mortals be particularly brutal to vampires knowing that they will survive any torture done to them, and any living conditions, being treated with less respect and care than livestock.

Person 2 is biracial, and in their village, it was life or death that they could successfully pass, and they watched their parent get humiliated and butchered by the town who only saw them for their skin and hair.

Basically, these two have legit cause to think the way they do, and Side B can’t refute their claims, because these things did happen and do still happen, but Side A refuses to see mortals as above their basest monstrosities, when it concerns ever sharing a world.

Why Side B sees it the way they do:

Person 3’s sheltered life constantly on the brink of starvation or hypothermia is directly caused by vampires triggering a winter apocalypse on half the planet, destroying the environment and sending their people deep underground for 300 years. Even today, vampires have every advantage, and still maintain what they see as a bitter, petty, useless grudge against mortals who can’t hope to stand up to them anyway.

What Person 3 refuses to see is Side A’s proven track record of providing stability and protection, a thriving symbiotic society, wells of knowledge that were never recorded, and simply that they are still people, many of whom did not choose to be here, whose only way out is intentionally getting themselves killed.

—

Basically, neither side is totally wrong, but most importantly, neither side is totally right. Both are only seeing the worst of each other, but that worst is a valid and paramount concern, not to be dismissed lightly.

Choosing sides is inevitable, but I really want it to come down to the characters’ own flaws and refusals to learn, rather than either’s philosophy itself being their downfall, because it needs to be a character-driven conflict, not lore and world history.

A “listen you’re both right and wrong here but this guy went too far trying to win this argument and now here we are with a mess to clean up” kind of thing.

Does that make sense?

A lot of times I’ll see stuff where you have Heroes vs Strawman, where the other side’s argument is weak at best and nonsensical at worst, seeing patterns where none truly exist. They’re wrong just because. They think the way they do just because. It doesn’t matter, you’re siding with the heroes anyway.

Heck, this can also be used to equalize lopsided love triangles where there’s the clear winner and then the delusional loser who hasn’t figured it out yet.

#writeblr #writing #writing a book #writing advice #writing resources #writing tips #writing tools #writing conflict

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siena-sevenwits · 3 months ago

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I am going to be working at my museum again this summer once school ends, and I have decided i want to leave my phone in my locker every day. I'll have a radio to communicate with other staff, and a watch, so it's doable.

I've decided I want to learn to knit and crochet beyond the basic, one basic stitch only, no-pattern things I used to make as a child (I just made super basic scarves.) What's the best way to get started that won't overwhelm me?

Any other portable handicrafts I should be thinking about that would look at home on the prairies in the 1920's (just in case anyone sees me) or are easy to hide, that don't require a lot of stuff?

#screenless hobbies

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olderthannetfic · 2 months ago

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Hi, anon who was asking for sweater patterns here. The raglan looks great and very doable, and I might honestly just go with that, though I was also thinking of doing something with some simple cabling. I've never done cables before, but I tend to like how they look and my first sweater seems as good a time as any to learn.

Cables can be reasonably simple. I don't have a sweater rec offhand, but this hat was designed to teach someone cables:

I've made a couple of them. They're simple, but they don't have that 'I only made this to practice' vibe.

The key to cables is to learn to read charts right away and to pick a pattern that has 1. fewer total times the yarn crosses over itself (i.e. longer stretches between the cross, meaning elongated-looking motifs) and 2. very regular and symmetrical cables.

So, for example, a cable where 1 stitch crosses over 2 is usually more confusing than a cable where 2 stitches cross over 2. A cable pattern where the actual cable cross happens on rows 4, 8, 12, etc. is easy to memorize, while one where pattern A goes on row 4, pattern B goes on row 6, pattern C goes on row 14, etc. is hard to memorize.

Something like the Handsome Chris (replicating that sweater from Knives Out) has cables that mostly make sense, but there are just so many. It takes forever to finish the sweater. I'd consider this an intermediate sweater where much of the difficulty is just in sticking with it long enough. It's really hard to say how long a sweater takes a person to knit, but at a wild guess, I'd say most people are taking 100 hours of labor at least on this one.

Something like the Minori has cables that are hard to memorize and very confusing. It also has one pattern that does everything important on odd rows while every other part of the sweater does the important stuff on even rows. (WHYYYYYYY?! It would be so easy to swap that one tiny pattern to be consistent!) I'd consider this more of an advanced sweater.

The Timberline has confusing cables that are hard to memorize and an insane construction. I'd place this in the Dear God Why very advanced category.

But notice that the Handsome Chris looks pretty complex, not that different from the other two. The gap is mostly in how much sense the charts make and how hard it is to memorize instead of referring back to the pattern every two seconds.

Patterns are tech writing. You can have a pattern that's hard simply because your brain works differently from the designer's or because the designer is a shitty writer. You can also have a pattern that's harder because the sweater construction is complex along with the cables being complex. The Handsome Chris is just a couple of big rectangles until you get up to the armpits, and the join where the sleeve meets the body does not have a complex shape.

Sari Nordlund's patterns have a relatively complex construction (for a total newbie), but some of her cables are simple. For example, look at the Colette pullover or the Ballard pullover. In the Colette, all of the cables are the same, and there's a long space in between the actual cross. In the Ballard, there are big stripes of plain stockinette rather than cables everywhere like on the Handsome Chris. I haven't knit these two, but I suspect I'd consider them beginner for cables and intermediate for other stuff.

Those are the kinds of factors I'd think about when trying to decide if a pattern is hard.

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sheeezu · 2 months ago

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https://www.tumblr.com/sheeezu/781161883892842496/huh-treat-me-like-a-human-first-maybe-then?source=share

I came to know about loass a year ago but I can't able to manifest anything through it. And found abt void,alpha state,sats,robotic affrimations (similar stuffs)9 months ago but I did every to enter void. Affrimed, persisted, let go of void but nothing happen. Now I'm in a situation where I'm just literally gonna. I'm got anxiety attacks, overthinking,adhd,depression due the situation I'm facing rn. I'm feeling like I am not having the ability to manifest nor enter void. So pls help me out.

(Hi, in response to your previous ask, its totally fine, love)

Shifting, manifesting is natural.

There's so much external pressure on your mind, on what you have to do in order to achieve something you've always been doing and have done (robotic affs, etc) that you might make it seem it actually requires, something.

In your mind, currently, there's a frame work on how to manifest. It might be overcomplicated, saturated with so much information. Or either thinking you have blockages (which do not exist)

You have to realise, you've been in control, since in the beginning.

For some time, even just for 15 minutes, take a moment, breathe, look outside, inhale some fresh air. Question yourself: If it's not you, who's running the show, if it's not your thoughts, creating reality, than what other possible answer is there. For me the answer will be, always, "it's me."

You don't have to create any unnecessary illusion, such that you have to look at what other people are doing, these complex methods, you never have to do them. When you look at what someone else is doing, you're being another sheep in the herd. When learning about loa, was supposed to be a realization that you're greater than a human. Following the herd is a quality of repeating the same humane patterns.

You have it in you, to know what to do. After you've relaxed, indulged in any activity you like, sit down in front of a notebook, write down what you think you need to do, don't consult tumblr, or any big blogger.

Whatever you've wrote its the truth.

That's it, that's how you create reality, with a belief, if you think this is how something happens, that'll how it'll play out.

You've created your own law.

Now that law is practical, doable, easy.

For me, manifestation is 2 second focus on a subject, if I want it, I convert it into a belief, "oh yes, I have that" then never think of it again. If it crosses my mind, I again validate that I have it. All while, being awfully prideful in your ability.

(I am more knowledgeable on shifting, sorry if this is lack worthy)

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genericpuff · 3 months ago

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Is the pack just for clip studio or does it work for others? I use medibang myself.

They're .abr brushes so they're supported by any software that is compatible with ABR. Most of the brushes actually work best in Photoshop due to its unique brush engine (and the fact that many of them were designed for Photoshop first), but can work in both Clip Studio and Procreate as well.

Unfortunately I'm not sure if they'd work in Medibang as IIRC it relies more on a bitmap brush system similarly to IbisPaint, and converting ABR to that kind of format is a lot easier said than done (plus even if it was doable, you'd undoubtedly lose a lot of the core functionality of these brushes).

That said, if you don't have access to an ABR-compatible software, your closest equivalent to the brushes within that pack would be anything that resembles watercolor, gouache, pencil and ink, and impressionist brushes. Those are generally what a lot of those brushes are save for the pattern stamps n such, so even if you can't access those brushes specifically, I'm hoping you could find Medibang-compatible brushes that are close to the real thing so long as you look in the right places !

It is an unfortunate drawback to the nature of these brushes that they were designed for Photoshop first, it means they inevitably aren't going to work in every software. I've looked into converting them in the past but the process would just be way too extensive for me to do on my own and again, it wouldn't guarantee the brushes would even resemble their ABR versions which would defeat the point of trying to convert them in the first place 😅 Still, I hope you're able to find some Medibang equivalents using the tips I mentioned above, and if you want an ABR-compatible software that won't cost you your firstborn like Photoshop, Clip Studio's perpetual license goes on sale at least 2-3 times a year, and Procreate is still incredibly cheap on the iOS store if you have an iPad.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help! Hopefully some day Medibang will be ABR-compatible, Clip Studio wasn't always compatible with ABR either so the odds might be low but they're definitely not zero ! :'0

#ask me anything #ama #anon ama #anon ask me anything

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snapeaddict · 1 year ago

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(June) Snapetober Day 31 - Costume

Listen. This might be 8 months late, but at least it's there. I have nothing else to say for my defence.

When his body exploded in pain again, he held down to the one thing that could keep him sane, or so he thought – patterns. It was interesting, really. Albus would certainly have much to say about this. He would say, pensively, ‘Ah, yes. A great flaw of his. Once proven effective, Tom holds on to strict modes of action, and one failure rules out even the most effective strategy’. He would then add something about mental plasticity, perhaps something about the boy Tom had been, as if to reassure himself that he had always been the adult.

In any case, it was true: the Dark Lord was a man of habit, especially when it came to torture. It would take one some time to realise that, of course. It would take many sessions and a rather thorough interest in dark spells to pinpoint each cycle, each pattern. It would take a little more time, then, to place within these patterns the fits of anger, themselves only but a regular variation. But it was doable.

Severus knew them all by heart. The surprise always lay in the intensity and duration of the torture sessions, not in the spells and methods employed. He secretly prided himself on the knowledge that he would have been a much more imaginative torturer had he wished to be; it was naturally not the kind of thing he liked to admit to himself on a good day, but it certainly made encounters such as this one more bearable.

And so he thought of this as his body convulsed; a broken stream of thought, of course, repeatedly interrupted then pursued after fits of spasms, vomiting, and blackouts. By this point he could also track, more or less, retrospectively, how many had occurred, if left alone for a few hours of respite that was. So he counted: one, two, three crucios; head under water; a broken nail, or finger; one choking spell, fire in his veins, a blinding spell, and invasion of his mind.

It was a good idea. Disorientation was the enemy of even the most skilled occlumens. And sudden sensations of cold, or direct burns on the skin, they all made focus within oneself, rather than outside, terribly hard to maintain: it worked, to an extent. Severus had long lost any sense of his surroundings. He maintained the barriers in his mind intact; he ignored the agony of his body, with growing difficulty. He counted the spells.

And repeat.

Repeat.

Darkness again.

It was fine; it was. He knew it was coming. Natural body reflex; exhaustion. He could never evaluate how much time had passed when he awoke, though. That he should work on.

‘Severus – Severus. Dear boy, can you hear me?’

He came to, slowly. He heard himself moan pitifully, he tried to exhale to manage the pain, but his nose was stuffed with dry blood. It must have been a while, he thought confusedly. Since it had dried. And where…?

‘Severus.’

The well-known voice reached his ears, then his brain, and he turned his swollen face in its direction, keeping his eyes shut for just another moment as a wave of relief overcame him.

‘Albus…’

He felt a hand stroke his hair. He relaxed, instinctively.

‘I have called Poppy. Do not try to move just now.’

‘Albus…’ Severus repeated a bit louder, as if to convince himself he was not hallucinating. He opened his eyes: the headmaster, who was kneeling just beside him, gave him a joyless but comforting smile. Silver beard, starry robes and blue eyes shone in the moonlight. Still it was dark… the floor was cold. A sigh of relief escaped him when a warming spell slowly reached his freezing bones.

‘I have been so worried, Severus. I waited for you… 5 days, and still no sign of you - no, don’t tire yourself, you will tell me everything later. If you are here, I know all is well.’

Severus started coughing. Gently, softly, in a fatherly way, Albus helped him in a half-sitting position.

The younger man rested his head against the headmaster’s chest, exhausted by the effort.

‘If you are here, I know all is well… isn’t it?’

Severus closed his eyes again. He tried to focus, he fought off the urge to fall asleep in the warm embrace.

‘Headmaster… yes… my cover… it is intact.’

‘He knows nothing?’

‘He knows… what he must know.’

‘You are relaxing, Severus. It is good.’

His breathing slowed, like that of a sleeping man.

‘You are safe… Poppy is coming. Get comfortable. Sleep…’

How good it felt to let go, to be unbothered by what was happening inside, and outside… To no longer be so cold… He was to have tea with Minerva, at 4 pm. What day was it? She would reschedule, surely… Holidays too, soon… Albus sounded satisfied… Hogwarts... Hogwarts, finally…

He smiled slightly, through the pain and spasms. He felt Albus’ arms tighten their grip around him, and fell into a half-sleep.

‘Severus, dear boy.’

But those arms...

‘Dear, dear boy.’

Too tight…

‘You have become too comfortable… too attached.’

Suffocating.

‘You feel safe in his arms, Severus. Tell me... has the spy traded allegiance for safety?’

His eyes snapped open. They met with blue ones which, at first, he thought he recognised. Then he noticed the reddish hue, the pupils, too yellow, too long, too narrow… the smile, predatory.

The spell that had been warming him, started to burn him.

And he had not seen it coming, no; he had not expected the pain, the perversion, had not placed them within the anticipated cycle of cruelty. He had gotten too comfortable.

He was taken by surprise, and a broken-hearted cry escaped his lips.

#What happens next is yours to imagine #Not necessarily a blown cover even. But the implications for Severus has a spy when subsequently returning to Albus... Always doubtful.#Snapetober #Snapetober 2023 #severus snape #voldemort #lord voldemort #albus dumbledore #pro snape

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formleadsfunction · 3 months ago

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Hey, if there's a quote from your favorite podcast/tv show/movie that lives in your head rent-free, you can get it cross-stitched and sent to you !! By me !! For almost-free, because I'd really like the inspiration.

I wanna do more cross-stitching/embroidery again, so if there's something you'd like to get, send me a message !! I've got, like, more than a hundred fonts I think, both actual cross-stitch and backstitch/embroidery ones.

I can do simple phrases !! Like this one:

I can also do fancy formatting, or glitched-out looking stuff, like here:

Or some simple design besides text, if it's easy enough to free-hand or find online, like I did with these:

I'm mainly looking to do stuff that is pretty simple and not too time-consuming, but if you've got something else in mind and it a) catches my fancy, and b) is doable via easily accessible patterns, I might be persuaded - here's my current wip which I'm really enjoying working on (and actually, if anybody wants this once it's done, lmk, I'll give it away):

I really only want to get shipping covered, which seems to be CHF 1.90 from here to any country in Europe or CHF 2.50 to non-European countries, so, one ko-fi (aka 3 dollars) would be fine by me. It's +CHF 5.00 on top of the cost listed above if you'd like a tracking number.

I *can* be a bit slow sometimes. Like, I hope doing this will motivate me, but you never know - however, I'd only ask you to pay once I've dropped your thing off at the post office, so I figure it's a no-risks kinda situation for both me And everyone else.

So, if you want something, you can reach me here over tumblr or via formleadsfunction (at) gmail.com, if you prefer the horror that is your email inbox for some unholy reason.

#one (1) entire person replied to my interest check so obviously that's what people want #also if you're on mobile please click on the images for better quality; it's a tragedy #also-also i don't have to be Into The Fandom You Like. it just so happens that all of the ones i've done are from fatt.#well. except for the hunter's license wip obviously. which is from hxh.#*#text #image #undescribed

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dizzyhslightlyvoided · 4 months ago

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Darkstalkers is an old fighting game by Capcom -- it's basically like if Street Fighter 2 was a monster mash, except also there's stuff like a demonic alien, and a blue-skinned devil who wants to merge everybody's souls together. They haven't done anything with the series in decades, though, apart from the odd remake, and/or letting Morrigan and possibly a few other characters appear in crossovers. This post will try to come up with ways you can use non-copyrighted versions of the same characters and concepts! Fortunately, this is relatively easy, because a lot of them were Capcom figuring out how to copyright public-domain characters to begin with.

Specific public domain characters:

Sasquatch: Bigfoot. They didn't even give him a copyrighted name. Doesn't look remotely look like it, though. Actually he's kind of more like a Canadian yeti?

B.B. Hood ("Bulleta" in Japan): straight-up just "Little Red Riding Hood ... With A Gun." Like I'm not kidding, her character design is a completely generic rendition of Little Red Riding Hood, aside from the name and the weapons. If anything, her appearance is less distinctive than some depictions you can find on the first page of a DuckDuckGo image search.

Victor von Gerdenheim: An expy of Frankenstein's Monster. They basically just took the Hollywood version, gave him bigger hair and changed his skin from green to blue, and gave him a little sister to care about.

Demitri Maximoff: An expy of Count Dracula, in some ways; Demitri just has some Darkstalkers-specific rivalries and spikier hair. Just don't make it too obvious by directly giving him an equivalent of Midnight Bliss (gender-bender magic being its own non-specific concept).

Non-specific public domain concepts:

Hsien-Ko ("Lei-Lei" in Japan): a Jiang-Shi, a hopping vampire of Chinese myth controlled by a paper charm on her forehead.

Anakaris: The undead mummy of an Egyption pharaoh. Mummies are of course a generic stock monster.

Lilith: The concept of a part of someone's soul, or their entire soul, becoming separated and attaining a life/mind of its own. Can be applied to any other character-concept. Capcom later used this in the Devil May Cry series. Sonic the Hedgehog did it twice.

Felicia: Somewhere on the scale between "catgirl" and "cat furry." Felicia's main distinction is the strategically-placed patterns of fur on her body.

Donovan Baine: a monster-hunting half-vampire. That's not even a particularly distinctive concept.

Q-Bee: Bees.

Non-public-domain inspirations which have public domain counterparts

Jon Talbain ("Gallon" in Japan): His English name is clearly derived from Sir John Talbot, the title character of The Wolf Man (1941), which is not in the public domain; however, the concept of a werewolf is.

Rikuo ("Aulbath" in Japan): An off-brand Creature from the Black Lagoon, which isn't in the public domain, but "humanoid fish-people" is doable. For example, there's the Deep Ones from HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, which is understood to be in the public domain, or the kappa of Japanese mythology.

Bishamon: A cursed samurai/animated samurai armor. Not too hard to make something generic out of that.

Multiple concepts/potentially too distinctive to reference directly:

Morrigan Aensland: A succubus, or more generally a she-devil. She could also be some manner of vampire maybe? She can also transform her wings into jetpacks and whatnot (which is the only reason she's listed here instead of under "non-specific public domain").

Pyron: A demonic alien with fire-powers. That's it, that's the concept.

Huitzil ("Phobos" in Japan): an army of alien robots, with a design inspired by doguu figurines from ancient Japan.

Lord Raptor ("Zabel Zarock" in Japan): the more personable kind of zombie + rock and roll.

Jedah Dohma: hm. There's nothing particularly public-domain-shaped until you go as far back as "demon" or "the devil". Oh well.

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actual-changeling · 1 year ago

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On unhealthy relationship dynamics

A little while ago, I stumbled across a post discussing Aziraphale's character on a meta level, and without knowing the content, I was completely unprepared when one single sentence pushed me from 'uncomfortable but doable' into 'triggered and panicking'. The post itself was triggering from start to finish, but that phrase stood out to me.

Why am I telling you this?

After calming down and thinking about it for a few hours, I realised what exactly my brain had reacted to—victim blaming rhetoric repackaged to fit Aziraphale and Crowley's situation. Victim blaming is, to provide a short summary, the act of putting blame for mistreatment on the victim instead of the perpetrator. It's a concept often used in r/pe discussions, but it can be applied to any abusive or non-abusive situation as long as a power imbalance is created, meaning you have at least one person harming another in whatever shape or form.

If you broaden the definition, you can apply it to more situations, including—and this is where we reach the actual topic—their relationship and the Final Fifteen (F15).

That is exactly what some people have been doing—putting all the blame on Crowley and absolving Aziraphale of any and all responsibility as if it were his fault that Aziraphale broke his heart

Before anyone runs to the comments, let me clarify what I assume will be the FAQ.

no, I do not think Aziraphale is abusive

I do not think that their relationship is abusive either

no, I do not hate Aziraphale

yes, I know what I am talking about

everything I will talk about is largely based on what we as the audience actually see and know, combined with interpretations of the intentional subtext Neil wrote into the show.

I have been actively in this fandom since the second season was released, and I have seen a lot of (hopefully accidental) ableist & generally insensitive takes. These are the ones I see the most and what I personally consider to be important topics of discussion, but the same logic I will be applying to these can be applied to many, many more situations.

Since my meta posts get very long very quickly, I will be posting them in parts and always linking back to the others, plus this one as the masterpost.

Part 1—Nice Is A Four Letter Word

The basic pattern is this:

Aziraphale refers to Crowley with a 'nice' term -> Crowley gets upset and tells him to stop -> Aziraphale hears him but continues anyway.

There are reasons behind Crowley's rejection, and I will go into detail, but I want to make one thing very clear: It does not matter why Crowley asked him to stop. He set a boundary, and Aziraphale repeatedly and intentionally overstepped it; this causes understandable anger and frustration.

Crowley does not owe Aziraphale an explanation, just like you would not owe someone an explanation when you don't want to be called x-term. Mutual respect requires the acceptance of personal boundaries like that, and by breaking them over and over again, Aziraphale tells Crowley that his own wants are more important than Crowley's needs.

In the 1827 Edinburgh flashback, we see the consequences of Crowley doing good/being called good (which are usually connected, meaning if they notice someone is calling Crowley good, he most likely did something to cause that) firsthand, and so does Aziraphale. He gets dragged down to hell and tortured for up to thirty years.

Even before that, Crowley expresses numerous times how hell punishes good deeds, and they are 'always listening' in on him. You would assume that Aziraphale would stop to keep him safe—and yet he doesn't because he cannot accept the reality of Crowley's situation and refuses to listen to him.

On top of that, Aziraphale only ever "praises" Crowley when he does something he personally sees as praiseworthy, aka something good/kind/nice/angelic/etc. but never when it is something that CROWLEY would like to be praised for, or at the very least acknowledged. We see it in season 2 over and over and over again: Aziraphale cares for no one's thoughts or plans except his own and has no interest in even hearing Crowley out.

Aziraphale calling him nice is not a sweet little gesture, it is an intentional overstepping of a boundary Crowley has been trying to enforce for centuries, and it reinforces the dichotomy of good angels/bad demons, with angelic existence being the ultimate goal. At the very least, it's disrespectful towards Crowley, and at worst, it is actively keeping Crowley in a trauma response, tugging on his leash whenever he tries to explain reality to Aziraphale.

To have a healthy relationship, Aziraphale needs to stop.

part 2 - part 3

#alex talks good omens #good omens meta #crowley meta #aziraphale meta #go meta #good omens #crowley #aziraphale #good omens season 2 #go2 #aziracrow #crowley x aziraphale #ineffable husbands #ineffable wives #ineffable spouses #ineffable divorce #the final fifteen

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