#better than vanilla so

[keepthetension]

it's been days since wandee goodday episode 05 but i keep thinking about how this guy?

ended up finding someone who cares in the same way

[orange-coloredsky]

The two most popular reads of the synth plight in Fallout 4 are that of the race allegory and the Red Scare/McCarthyist allegory. In the former example, synths get racialized in a similar way to Black Americans in the late 19th and early 20th century, but just barely. The Underground Railroad is quite literally remade, synths are subjected to slavery at the hands of their human creators and punished harshly for escape attempts. Others have likened synths to fears of immigrants or asylum-seekers from nonwhite majority populations. Synths in these imaginings of Fallout 4 are painted as needing to be saved at the same time as they are vilified and dehumanized – sometimes by the same character over the course of the story. This duality could be a great opportunity for a dive into how white saviorism tends to play out, but in reality it ends up being a messy, deeply uncritical exploration of the impact of race and racism in society. The factions doing the racialization and/or saviorism’s motives are never questioned, and there is a very clear depiction of “good vs. evil” being the end-all-be-all of anti-racism work (again, with no critical thought as to how the “good” side is made almost completely of non-racialized people making decisions on behalf of a marginalized group). Worse yet, it’s contrived. The android-racism analogy has been a thorn in the side of the science fiction genre ever since Isaac Asimov wrote the 3 Laws of Robotics. There’s very few iterations on the idea that have come from popular (white, Eurocentric) media that aren’t riddled with the same aftertaste of white guilt and fundamental misunderstandings of how racism plays out in day-to-day life.

The less common, slightly more agreeable interpretation is that of the Red Scare – which, given Fallout’s inspirations and the setting’s original critique of reliving America’s “good old days”, makes perfect sense. In this example, synths take the role of the Soviet spy: watching over everything Americans are doing and reporting back to a secret base that is plotting to overthrow the world as we know it. Psychological screenings as well as inhumane tortures are utilized to pick synth “spies” out from the good, red-blooded residents of the Commonwealth. A neighborhood is founded entirely around the protection of the “old ways of life”, complete with a white picket fence comically decorated with automatic machine gun turrets. While this is a more charitable analogy that’s grounded in a slightly-deeper-than-surface-level exploration of American history, the Red Scare interpretation is victim to the same pitfalls that plague the racism interpretation. Midway through the game, the player discovers that there actually is a secret base of evil villains hiding underneath our feet, plotting to annihilate our beautiful Commonwealth lives. People do get taken and replaced by synths, they are in our governments, there is an actual reason for synths to be feared. Sure, some synths are perfectly fine people with no wish to be made tools of the Institute’s tyranny, but that is greatly overshadowed by the fact that the Institute’s stated goal is to use synths to gain control over the Commonwealth. There is no real critique of McCarthyism, there is no ideology to be challenged, because the Communists are here and killing your loved ones in their sleep.

[groovyfrog420]

sweet kisses <3

Shadow Milk making PV flustered is very cute, but expected, so I wanted to mix it up a bit for this one :pp

based on this prompt/template vvv

[fisheito]

i told myself that yakuei only had one position then i proved myself (sorta) wrong

my fave face here:

[never-looked-so-good]

📷 @/leclercsletters

[00fairylights00]

*clears throat* HIGH HUMANITY P FINALLY BEING ABLE TO EAT AND SHARING ALL KINDS OF WONDERFUL TREATS WITH HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my god Bloodbrown you are reading my mind ahhhh!!

I bet he would love baking so much, and he takes it so seriously when you tell him the best kind of treats are the ones made with love! I actually have a plot bunny about teaching P how to bake and cook floating around in my notes that I’m excited to get some time to work on.

Okay okay!

The growl of a stomach and the pang of hunger had initially concerned P, who tugged on your sleeve urgently. As you turned to face him his stomach rumbled again, you laughed at his mounting concern and explained that it sounded like he was hungry.

“You know, like how when I wake up I always have something to eat? Like that.” You soothed, the worry lines in his brow settling. 

This was something normal, something human. 

He was now very excited about the prospect of a new human thing he’d be able to try, and eating was something he’d been longing to do, watching you eat tended to be awkward and everything you made looked so appetising.

“I think I have something in the pantry you’ll really like.” You beamed, dragging him into the hotel’s kitchen.

You swung open the pantry doors and rummaged a bit, P looked over your shoulder curiously. The pantry wasn’t filled to the brim but what was in there he wasn’t familiar with at all, tins, cartons and baskets full of food and ingredients he didn’t know the name of.

“Ah hah!” You cheered, pulling a white, metal box from the pantry. “I promise you’ll love these!”

You popped off the lid and inside where multiple yellow discs with brown pieces scattered throughout them, he tilted his head and you waved the box in front of him,

“Try one! They’re homemade.” You coaxed, not that he would take much convincing when it came to you.

“Home… made?” He took a disc, the paper surrounding them crinkling, you also took one for yourself before placing the box on the countertop beside you. 

“It means it was made in the home, I made these ones myself. Some people believe the best kind of food is made with love, which you get plenty of in homemade cooking!” You explained, his eyes widened owlishly, throughly impressed once again by your abilities and your knowledge. You’d said before that they weren’t exactly difficult skills to pick up but he didn’t know how to make a… wait what is this thing?

“What… is it?” He questioned, turning the disc over in his hands. 

“It’s a chocolate chip cookie.” It was solid in his hand but the surface had a bounce to it, he brought it up to his mouth and was even more eager to try it now that he could smell it. 

You watched his reaction closely as he bit into the treat, any hesitance was quickly replaced with pure joy as he rushed to finish the rest of the cookie. 

“You like it?” You asked, and you got an enthusiastic nod in response, a giggle bubbling up from P’s throat boyishly. “Would you like another?”

“Yes!” He beamed, you held the box back out to him and he took another cookie for himself but stopped short when he noticed that you hadn’t done the same.

He frowned, looked at the cookie and then back at you before splitting the treat down the middle and offering one half to you. “Love should… be shared.”

You couldn’t agree more.

[obessivedork]

Was.... that supposed to be the end of FO4? 😐 Like once you've blown up the Institute you get this random nostalgic slideshow that has nothing to do with ANYTHING and that's it? You beat the game! Good for you! But we'll place you back into the world to keep playing I fucking guess? What's going to happen to your friends and The Commonwealth with all the decisions you made?😐 Don't ask us! Not like we're going to make an RPG with the infamous RPG IP, that would be silly!

[scarapanna]

[19/10/23 Redraw]

Finally finished this little thing here

I think they're both pretty neat

[velidewrites]

I finished Fourth Wing!

[rohirric-hunter]

Testing RangerCamp is so funny. I chase Candaith down on his patrol and stop him, presumably panting for breath because I had to run to catch up. "Wait," I say. "Wait, I need to know something!" Without waiting for an answer I use the mystical powers of the console to summon two vampires from who even knows where. "What the-" Candaith says, and draws his sword. "Awesome!" I cheer. By the mystical powers of the console, both vampires drop dead. I offer no explanation for any of this. (I needed to make sure he was only prioritizing the bow before because of how jacked up it was and will revert to a sword in close range combat in its absence. Since he won't tell me this, and as a point of fact can currently only say four things, I have to observe in order to find out.)

[icicleteeth]

We're still very far out from seeing what the graphics update will look like, but if it's anything like the dawntrail screenshots we've seen... Idk man I don't think people are going to give up their reshades

[quaddmgd]

FORMING A BOND

"What's up, Sully? Need some help?" "Yeah, if you're free… I need to get this thing running before the storm."

"Jane Shirley of AZFR here, broadcasting live from safety. Just jumping in to remind you that starting today, the whole state is under a severe thunderstorm alert for the next few days. Don't let the sun fool you. Enjoy it while you can, and wear your life jackets in the evening for this sweet, sponsored by humankind, acid rain! Time for the next track. Jane out for now, but never leaving. As always, stay safe out there, outlaws."

"We should have about two hours... you think we can make it?" "Just fine, T. Don't worry. Just... need... Pass me something to extend that wrench. None of these things can move." "Here." "Thanks." "Sorry for taking up your time." "Don't mention it. Section can go fuck himself." "Yeah. Tell me about it..." "Speaking of, about 50 clicks from here, there's this mansion I've been scoping out, that belongs to some corpo chick. Don't ask me how I know that, but she's going on a business trip in a week, and I'm planning to take Rainer, Harry and some of the cooler folks there to throw a party and get some rest from the trash at the camp. You know, for a weekend. Wanna come with us?" "You want to break in to throw a party?" "Among other things, yeah, you could say that. So... interested? It'll be fun." "Eh, what the fuck, right?" "That's the spirit! You won't regret it. We earned some rest, don't you think? Now, could you pass me that thing over there?"

[ratmonky]

it’s so cute that your partner comments on your fics and you flirt and just say things full of love to each other on your posts and in your tags! that’s the dream as a creative and i hope one day i can find what you two have 😭

my partner is a grown ass 30 year old man so he doesn’t have tumblr T-T the most loving thing he said to me about my fics was “you’re too pretty to write these nasty stuff”

but they do read my shit sometimes and just call me out for making characters “evil”

right now i’m ruining nanami for them and they’re not happy

like they never even watched anime before until i showed them some of the good stuff 😼 tho they watched jojo like almost all by themselves lmao their fave part is part 2 and 3, joseph and jotaro dickrider all the way atm

and i think you thought @passionatum is my partner lol i mean they definitely are my partner in crime hehe i keep my friends so close i might cannibalize them at some point

[inkedmyths]

Let's go Team Strawberry!

God this is such a good fest theme, it's so cute, and I adore the colors

[picturesofashe]

Healing