#apollo-cackling

[txttletale]

what's up with Leviathan eu4? searched it up and like wow that's the lowest rated thing I've seen on steam... pretty much ever lol

as-released it was so badly bugged it made the game unplayable

its features were ill-conceived and broke a lot of existing systems

its features were so mind-bogglingly strong that they trivialized the game

generally a lot of this is attributable to a new studio coming in and the natural problems that are gonna happen with a new studio's first release. however unfortunately, and most importantly for me:

4. it set the tone for the rest of the game's life cycle, which was 'we've reached the absolute limit of what we can meaningfully do with the game's engine and core framework, so here's a bunch of dumb bullshit that lives on top of all the other systems without meaningful interaction with them'

like, people joke about hearts of iron mods trying to turn the game into a visual novel, but that's essentially official paradox policy now wrt eu4. every update is just like 'new mission chain based on some wacky althist to give france massive bonuses for colonizing siberia or annexing singapore or some bullshit'. it's a boring and uninteresting design philosophy to me that goes against everything that i like about paradox games so i'm basically not interested anymore

[st-just]

oh what's going on with house of the dragon?

I am merely floating in a dingy trembling in the wake of the shadows swimming beneath.

But no just, bizarre amount of, like, stereotypical fandom blorboing and viciously defending the honor of your fave by proving that they're totally in the right and the other guy is a monster for a show where everyone is a parasitic feudal aristocrat bringing ruin to the land because they can't get over their own entitlement and family drama (and, like, this is clearly the major theme of the work).

also a deeply surprising amount of reader-insert porn with wannabe elric of melnibone

[literary-illuminati]

yk it's interesting that you say it's absurd to call murderbot 'cozy fantasy' bc the series is so solidly in my mental category for 'cozy fantasy' that a while back, I was surprised when you mentioned liking it lol

granted, this might change if I read something by becky chambers/tj klune (iirc the only comfort fantasy I've read is legends and lattes?) and my idea of the default/an enjoyable amount of pain in a book maaaay be a little (very) skewed, but. idk I've always seen the series as... ig the type of hurt/comfort where most of the former is in service to the latter, which in my head rounds out to just being comfort if that makes sense

is it that the series isn't saccharine about it/doesn't fall into normative ideas of what 'comfort' is? (ex. like you said murderbot doesn't angst at all about not being 'human')

Becky Chambers novels rarely involve the protagonist being disemboweled or losing limbs or racking up double-digit body counts, lets say.

...okay, being more helpful - Murderbot is just much more plotty than any of the central examples of the genre I've seen? Much more emphasis on doing things and getting into trouble and solving problems, compared to the more sedate slice of life/travelogue stuff you see in e.g. Chambers or Klune.

and just generally the 'hurt' in 'hurt/comfort' is, like, bolded and underlined and in 72 point type, compared to House on the Cerulean Sea or whatever.

[dragongirlsnout]

hi, thank you for dashboard unfucker it's been a lifesaver! I just wanted to ask if you know anything about why/how to fix how, a few days back, the J and K keys stopped scrolling my dash to the post I was highlighting and instead scrolled it to a few centimetres above.

thanks in advance!

It is a known issue, not sure what the exact cause is other than "tumblr fucking with how the hotkeys work".

[the-haiku-bot]

The second screenshot

zooms in on the dog’s face and

has captions saying,

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

[japanifornication]

the evolution of the ace attorney weirdgirl based off this post

[maximura]

[zizzy-rie]

@bog-in-a-well / @bogswell-kampilan, the Rock Monkies AU creator everyone dndnxn

I sent a transcript of the shadowpeach argument aka breakup scene in our groupchat djdjdj

It's so hilarious how very similar the shadowpeach fallout is in canon and in the AU. None of us really expected it.

They're not so different after all huh

[txttletale]

not trying to go to bat for hbomberguy or whatever just trying to understand what you mean - what are other things he could/should have done? (genuine question) because I saw the tweet as him responding to his followers interpreting the absense of a Take from him as a purposeful stance in and of itself, yk trying to dissuade them from that, and so from my POV it looked tacky but understandable, if that makes sense

if he strongly felt the need to say nothing, he could have simply said nothing. lots of youtubers haven't said anything. yes, people expected him to say something--that's a fair expectation of them to have, considering those people are the fans he attracted dunking on paul joseph watson & company.

if he was going to tweet anything at all he should have probably acknowledged the impending ethnic cleansing and not framed the people who are outraged and upset about it as 'gaining points' or whatever the fuck he said.

if he absolutely had to make a song and dance about how he wasn't doing a song and dance i also think there were much better ways to do this. shannon strucci who is similarly a vaguely socdem youtuber made a much better tweet with a similar sentiment:

i'm also disinclined to be charitable because the only other thing he did was retweet bernie sanders' godawful statement. idk. i'm not trying to cancel mr. bomberguy or whatevsies idrc but i just personally think that making a tweet to say "im not making a tweet" is obnoxious and embarassing

[st-just]

💙 CK2/Mass Effect?

Crusader Kings remain the greatest romantic fantasy villain simulator ever made. Where else can I arrange to have my 16-year-old-niece marry a famously ugly brute three times her age so they can have kids that will inherit his claim to the throne of Hungary once I assassinate him?

(Also Paradox Games are, like, unironically some of the best avenues of education for history/geography with any sort of mass audience. Which like, not an amazing endorsement, but better than most alternatives! Not like I was going to learn about who the Mamelukes or Komnenoi were anywhere else. My mental image of political geography is still the EU political mapmode.)

Mass Effect - the Tuchanka mission of Mass Effect 3 is literally the greatest sequence I have ever experienced in any Triple A video game. Unironically high art.

[literary-illuminati]

ah I see you have found the True Goodreads ExperienceTM (tbr ballooning to horrifying levels). congrats?

What do you mean that's a totally normal and reasonable amount of books to read in the next few months years by the end of the decade.

[st-just]

Pale was also supposed to be the short self-contained serial as a break between sprawling efforts. So, you know, things change :P

anyway, yeah, wildbow needs to get the message asap that we need more chapters like this and less fight scenes because holy shit, i came out of that one shaking, jesus christ

[iffeelscouldkill]

tag 9 people to get to know better

I was tagged by @apollo-cackling, thank you kindly :D I love tag games!

3 ships: Uhhh, I'm going to pick the last three I've been obsessed with, so - Aiden/Harvard from Fence!, Gwen/Miles from Spiderverse, and Edgin/Xenk from D&D: Honor Among Thieves

first ever ship: Kenshin/Kaoru from Rurouni Kenshin

last song: On Top by The Killers (I've been on a 00s music kick since enjoying much nostalgic music at my cousin's wedding on Saturday)

last movie: I finally watched Pacific Rim with some friends! It was a fun time!

currently reading: right, down + circle. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater by Cole Nowicki. I'm near the end, but still reading it!

currently watching: Black Sails season 2, and rewatching The Good Place

currently consuming: a faux mocha that I made with instant coffee & Whittard hot chocolate

currently craving: a better drink, because this one is actually not very good (but I'm committed)

I'm tagging ummm... @infamous-sodomite @fatfemmearoorc @ivy-alexandria-lovebot @stele3 @theballadofmanongtaho @rain--pitter-patters @shinydoorknobs @lhoandbehold @whelvenwings in case you fancy doing a fun thing! (Yes, @ my close friends looking at me weirdly for tagging them, I do know you but the questions are also fun 😂)

[doctorsiren]

I just started the fourth game and these two feel very Iron Dad to me 😭💖

[thepollyjustice]

you have the most beautiful brown eyes (I want you carnally)

“Thanks, I think, I’ve never been told that..!”

[gingermintpepper]

They got interrupted on their date 😔✊🏾

Had to draw the very talented @namidew 's designs for Apollo and Hyacinthus after their most recent post of them!!! I'm SO in love with these designs y'all!! Absolutely want to kiss both of their cheeks!!