#but in general I like to answer questions that actually help people in material ways

[tswhiisftteedr]

Good Pup ☆ One Shot

☆Mean!Sciences Proffesor!Divus Crewel x College Freshman!Fem!Reader:

After seeing you excel in his class, Professor Crewel interest had peeked. You were not from this world, and your academic knowledge was far too different from what was taught here, too different for it to be considered fair for you to study such material at the college level, a lost cause, he thought at first. And yet, he couldn't help but feel proud as you quickly rose to become one of the top students in his class. One day after potionology you had forgotten your textbook behind, and being the great teacher that Divus Crewel is, he ought to give back to you. After looking around for a bit, then spotting in a hallway talking with your friends, he happens to overhear about your secret thoughts on him…

Based on this ask and poll.

Warnings: Mature Content, Swearing/Explicit Language, Spanking(of ass, thigh, and pussy, by hand and pointer), Choking(on dick lol), degrading names, pet play ig?(just names like pup, dog and mutt but not anything else in that area). READER IS A COLLEGE FRESHMAN AS NCR IS ONE IN THIS FIC SO THEY ARE AT LEAST 18, CREWEL IS CANONICALLY 32 SO KEEP THAT IN MIND BEFORE ENGAGING.

Note: This is sort of a remake of ‘Personal Training’ but instead of Professor Vargas, it’s our dear sadistic Divus Crewel. Like a different Au, so the encounter between reader and professor Vargas didn’t happen here. Also why are all the proffesror mean you may ask, well the answer is quite simple… I like to bullied by authority figures/people in charge and those fics self indulgence 🤪✌️. Also for future request, if not precise what type of behaviour you want for the love interest, i will default to writing mean!dom!character or pervy!dom!character cuz that’s i like lol.

☆ more under the cut. ☆

Ever since starting classes at NCR Wonderland, you felt off about begin your academic journey as a college Freshman. Sure you were the right age for it, but wasn’t it a bit to much of an ask to start with college courses, especially with most of the mediums being different from your world? But at last you had no choice but sucking it up, working harder than any other student in your year to keep up. Though you did enjoy some of the classes, just because they had familiar concept. Magic analysis was like any other analysis class you had taken before the topic was just different, you also had music which was the same as back home, and of course there was Potionology…

That class was your beacon of hope each week. You genuinely enjoyed it, not only because it resembled chemistry, making the 'laboratory process' easier to grasp, but it was also the only class where you could actually use magic! The mixtures you created could do things you could only dream of in your world. Moreover, making such complex and potent elixirs made you feel useful. You felt competent with this world's materials because of it, even if Crowley didn't find a way for you to return home, you possibly could get around. Of course, there was another tiny reason why you loved the class so much, actually it was a pretty significant one. Even in your own thoughts, you couldn't deny that you were practically drooling at your professor each time you entered his classroom.

But how could you resist? That man was incredibly hot, smoking even. And his voice, god! It was undeniably sexy. Plus, the way he addressed you was so appealing: Generally, he would call you a 'pup', 'good girl' or 'good dog' when you did something right or answered a question correctly. He'd say 'bad dog' or 'bad girl' if you made a mistake.

He would also refer to himself as your trainer, at some point asking of you and Grim to address him as "O Great Crewel" or "Master/Master Crewel" instead of "Professor Crewel", as a form of discipline.

And fuck was that hot, honestly that was the primary reason you worked so diligently in his class. Hearing his praise and being able to call him "Master" only served to fuel your fantasies.

You wondered how he could discipline you in a more 'physical' way. Would he use his pointer or his hands on your thighs and ass when spanking you? Would he continue to use the usual nicknames, or would he resort to degrading names like 'slut', 'whore', ‘needy bitch in heady’ or perhaps 'greedy pup'? The curiosity from it was driving you mad, to the point where you even considered pulling your panties to the side and touch yourself at the sound of his voice, as taught class unbeknownst to it all.

Naturally, you wouldn't actually do it. After all, even if your noises didn't give you away, the smell certainly would. (You were certain the beastman in your class would detect something like that.) However, there was a certain allure in to the scenario.

Perhaps a classmate would inform your professor, leading to a public reprimand. You picture your professor criticizing your behavior while you stand in an embarrassing position for all to see. Your skirt would lifted and he would be abusing your behind, probably edge you during the spend of the whole lesson. Then right before the bell rang, he would touch your sweet spot one last time, and right around his fingers you would squir-

Oh, right, the bell. Class had just ended. You snapped back to reality and turn to your friends. From their expressions, it's clear they've been trying to get your attention for a while.

Hastily gathering your things, stuff them into your backpack, and follow your friends out of the classroom. Unbeknownst to you, the potionology textbook you need for tonight's homework is left behind on your desk.

You soon reach the hallway where you and your friends usually sat at a break. It's lunchtime, and as per your routine, you start your daily rant about your professor to Ace, Deuce, Jack, Epel, and Sebek. Grim is also there, but as always, he is so focused on his food that he isn't paying attention.

Meanwhile, Divus was getting ready to head to the teachers' lounge to enjoy his lunch when he noticed the Potionology textbook on your desk.

Even if he didn't know where you sat during class time, he could tell that it belonged to you by the fact that it had small pawprint stickers surrounding your name on the book’s bridge. The memory of you telling him that customizing the book that way was the best resurfaced. After all you were a "good pup, so why not add the paw prints to match the statement.”, you had told him when he inquired about the decorations.

That comment made him chuckle, which brought a bright grin to your face. While it's true that he would refer to his students by such names, at no point in his career did a student use the term to address themselves. To be honest, he finds it cute that you adore the name that most of your peers detested. You simply smile and giggle anytime he uses it to compliment you, and you pout like a real puppy when he corrects you. ‘Truly adorable.’

He actually liked you. Regardless of how your entourage behaved, you were an excellent student who did not cause any problems. You paid attention in class and worked really hard to achieve the highest grades not only in his class but in others, but it appeared to him that you were more interested in the course that he taught compared to the rest. In non-magical courses, you received an average of 70-80, and your sciences marks were in the 90s, slightly higher grades.

Divus also liked how, despite the restricted male uniform, you had altered the uniform to be more fashionable with the consent of the headmaster. Instead of the dull pants that came with it, you wore a skirt that was little longer than mid-thigh but did not reach the knee. It was elegantly embroidered with a swirly thorn pattern, and you wore stockings to match it. A work of art in the man's eyes, which made you even more favourable to him; he adored when someone had a true sense of fashion.

Despite your puppy-like demeanour when he spoke to you, there was a gleam in your eyes, a lustful one at that. You looked at him as if you wanted him to bend you over your desk that very instant, practically eye fucking him throughout the lecture. You may not realize that he noticed, but as a desirable man, he was highly aware of such things. He observed as you unconsciously rub your thighs together, while he chewed you up for a small error; he 'was expecting better from such a bright girl like yourself, this was extremely disappointing'.

Even though he kept it to himself, attempting to maintain professionalism, him still being your teacher and all. Maybe you weren't as horny as he believed, just slightly flustered by the charming way he addressed you, especially coming from a handsome man like himself. However, no matter how sweet you were, you couldn't fulfill his desires. He craved someone he could dominate and control, someone who to basically bully into submission. You were far too innocent and gentle for that. He assumed that if you did have any sexual thoughts about him, your fantasies would be quite vanilla in nature.

‘And oh, boy, was he wrong!’ That was his thoughts when he overheard the conversation between you and your friends, having finally reach the hallway you usually frequented, your potionology textbook book in hand.

A bit earlier,

You and your friends had started eating and you were babbling;

“Okay, lisent, like hear me out-“ you begin,

“I am not hearing, YOU out. You’ve already said enough.” Sebek quickly retorts.

“Valid point, but, but think about it. Hot mean teacher disciplines you with a spanking while degrading you.” You suggest,

“NO!” Sebek tells you horrified.

"Come on, Sebek, don't be so ip tight. I may not be into that kinda of stuff, but Y/N has a point. I don't get the appeal, but Professor Crewel does fit her type.” Ace tells the distress crocodile.

“But he's a teacher, OUR teacher. I don't understand how people can have crushes on their teachers, but openly lusting for them should be prohibited! Also, not discussed like any other normal subject!” Sebek tells the card soldier.

“I agree with Sebek, you should keep such intimate thoughts to yourself.” Jack adds on,

“Ya say that but chur tail be waggin' like an exited puppy. It’s obvious ya like hearin' bout the naughty stuff from missy over there!” Epel comments.

“That’s not-“ Jack begins, but cuts himself off, like Epel said his tail was wagging crazy so he couldn’t deny anything. So “whatever!” was all he said, followed by a huff and a frustrated growl.

"Look, I'm not saying people should go out of their way to fuck their teachers; it's just that the man who potentially would fulfills all of my desires and fantasies happens to be my teacher. And, honestly, he must be aware that his nicknames and actions would turn some students.” You say to the group,

“What? How’s that?” Deuce questions.

“Come on, it's not like you can't go to NCR if you're into things like pet play or bdsm. He must have known that each year would have some students who fit that description. Don't tell me you thought he was completely clueless towards that?” You explain,

“Well when you put it like that, I guess Professor Crewel probably knows about it.” Deuce sorta agrees.

“He’s probably just ignoring it, pushing it to the back of his mind and pretending that it’s not real.” Ace comments,

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too. But at the end of day, the fact that he’s aware doesn’t change much, I still won’t get him to bend me over his desk” you say with a dramatic sigh, making both Epel and Ace laugh.

“Honestly even if there was some stellar chance that he could be into me, he’s probably in a relationship already. If he isn't married, he is most likely casually dating someone.” You add on.

“Yeah, too bad for ya!” Epel says with a snicker.

Unknown to you and your friend group, the same professor you were discussing was right around the corner, listening in on you thirsting over him.

And truthfully this was a shock to him. Sure he might have found you attractive, but also he had convinced himself that you couldn’t fulfill his desires. Now turns out both of your fantasies aligned, and he was going to make good use of that knowledge.

Now heading towards your group the clacking sounds of Divus’s heels made all of you turn around. Some of their expression where terror, some confusion but Ace and Epel looked like they were holding in a laugh.

Clearing his voice, “Miss.L/n, just the person I was looking for. You had forgotten your potionology textbook in my class, so I went looking for youu in to hand it back, you wouldn’t want to miss tonight’s homework, now would you?” He told, as passed you the book.

“Oh, um, thanks professor Crewel!” You exclaimed a bit distraught, ‘did he hear what I’ve been saying or what?’

“Try again. You know that’s not the appropriate way to address me, now is it.” He states making you rethink your words,

“Right, sorry, Master Crewel...” You spoke out.

“That’s much better. Now come along pup.” He said as he turn around and started walking,

“What- why?” you ask confused. And he turns his head to gaze at you.

“Well isn’t it obvious, you and I got much to discuss. Do not question me anymore today, or any day for that matter. Stand up and follow me right now, otherwise you will suffer greater repercussions than I originally planned to make you endure.”

“Oh, okay.” You squeak out and grab your belongs, now trailing right behind your dear professor Crewel, ‘oh, right, O Great Crewel.’

You returned to your classroom, Divus locked the doors behind you. He had been sitting at his laptop for the past 10 minutes. You were sitting on a chair, on the opposite side of your desk.

"I have magi-mailed your other professors, they have cleared your itinerary for the afternoon. Lucky for us, today was the one I had spares in the afternoon as well." He informs you.

"But if this talk was going to take a while, I could have just come back after class," you say.

"No, I must have a chat with you right this instant.” Divus replies.

You only nod, turning to gaze out of the window to ease your nerves. Of course he noticed, so he turned his lamp desk on, it was bright, then magically closed all the blinds. He moved from his seat to your side of the desk, resting on it as he looked down at you.

“Now, let’s start this talk. Do you know why I brought you here?” He inquires.

“I’m sorry sir I don’t know.” Honestly you weren’t sure maybe he overheard you or maybe this was about something else.

“Not don’t play coy pup.” He told you sternly,

“Perhaps my grades sir…” you croak out, barely above a whisper.

“I guess you decide to persevere in your bad dog act, stand up.” He tells you, sounding exasperated.

“Wh-What?”

“Don’t make me repeat myself mutt!”

Without a word you did as you were, the suddenly felt a had push on your back, not protesting anymore you just expect your fate as you were now folded upon the wooden desk.

“Looks like your not completely hopeless, but that one time show of obedience won’t exempt you from your punishment.” He said, you felt a somewhat thin metallic object glide up your right leg, you guessed it was his pointer. “Spread” was all you heard before the words were followed by a swift whip of the pointer.

You were dazed by the feeling, not completely registering the given order. This seem to irritate Divus, as another strike came down, but this time you react right on impact, now having your legs nicely spread out. ‘Your head was slightly dizzy, was this going the way you thought it was?’

But before you could linger on that thought, you felt Divus's hands remove your panties from your hips, letting them drop to your ankles. Your ass and cunt were now exposed to him. You heard a little shuffling, then his soft breath was in your ear. "Listen, since I'm not going to say it twice. I overheard you being a little slut, talking to your friends about how much you want me to hurt you. So that's exactly what I'm going to do, I'm going to discipline you to never forget how to address me, to never talk so lewdly in front of another man, and to make you incapable of living a functional life without me in it. Now, if you understand, say, ‘Yes, sir.’”

“Yes!..sir—!”

"Good. Now I'm going to spank you, and you must count after each hit and thank me for it, you may only address me as Sir or Master, if anything other than what I've instructed comes out of your mouth or you mess up the count, we'll start over and add 10 more strikes for you to go over. Also, you aren’t to touch me unless instructed otherwise.”

By the time he reached strike 29, your bottom was a of deeper color than your regular skin tone, covered in marks and bruises. Your thighs were quivering from the constant impact of his hand on your sensitive areas. "Twenty-eight... Thank you, sir..." You panted heavily, biting down on your lower lip to suppress any further sounds of discomfort.

Crewel stopped suddenly, taking a moment to admire his work. He ran his fingers gently over your bruised ass cheeks, leaving trails of coolness where they brushed against your heated skin. "That’s wrong," he spoke out, a spank from his hand came down your ass this time. "You already said 28, this means we have to start over. But this time, we’re going up to 40."

You whimpered softly, your eyes widening in terror as you realized what this meant for your already sore ass. "N-No! Please, I apologize, sir! I'll count better!" Your pleas fell on deaf ears as Crewel resumed his merciless assault on your sensitive flesh. Each strike landed harder than before, leaving deep marks that would surely become bruises soon.

"One... Two... Three... Four..." Eventually, you reached number 40. The last blow sent waves of agony coursing through your entire body, and you let out a strangled cry. Tears trickled down your cheeks, streaming down your face as you struggled to catch your breath. "Thank you, sir..." You managed to choke out between heavy breaths.

After giving you a moment to recover, Crewel noticed the wetness between your legs and smirked cruelly. "You enjoyed that didn't you, filthy slut?" he growled, his voice lower than usual, almost seductive.

Grabbing hold of your waist and lifting you slightly before slapping your sensitive folds forcefully. The sudden contact caused a sharp gasp to escape your lips, followed by a moan of mixed pain and pleasure.

"What did you just say, mutt?" he demanded, his voice dripping with malice. "No, don't answer," he continued before continuing his barrage on your sensitive areas, alternating between your lips and clit, ensuring that you wouldn't forget this lesson anytime soon.

After several minutes of relentless punishment, he finally stop the smacking of your privates. Following it by cupping your dripping folds in his hand, rubbing them roughly, spreading your juices over your sensitive flesh.

Than bringing his fingers in view for you to see, sticky liquids all over them."You see how much you enjoy this, don't you?" he growled, his voice low and menacing.

Your body had shook after every blow, your moans had turned into sobs as you struggled to maintain composure. Through tears and gasps for air, you managed to choke out between breaths, "Y-Yes, sir... I love it!" your tone was desperate, pleading for more even though your body ached in pain. You couldn't deny the intense pleasure mixed with the agony.

“That’s it," he praised, his voice dripping with false approval. Reaching between your spread legs once more, he inserted one finger into your tight entrance, stretching you further than you could with your own. Despite the pain, a soft moan escaped your lips involuntarily.

"Now, beg me to cum, you needy bitch in heat," he commanded gruffly, his tone harsh yet somehow erotic. Your mind was a mess of conflicting emotions; part of you begged for release, while another part of you wanted to defy him and deny him what he sought.

You forced yourself to focus on the burning sensation of his finger probing deeper into your sensitive core, trying hard not to move or squirm too Your your body ached everywhere from the brutal punishment you had endured thus far. "P-Please... sir... I need you to..." your voice trailed off as he thrust another finger inside you, stretching your even further.

"More, please!" you managed to croak out between gasps for air. Your hips involuntarily bucked against him, seeking more contact, more stimulation. Despite the pain, the combination of humiliation and arousal was becoming too much for you to handle.

Crewel chuckled darkly, enjoying the sight of you squirming and begging for more. Slowly, he began to move his fingers in and out of your tight entrance, teasing your sensitive spots with precise strokes. "Good," he praised again, his voice laced with malice. "Now, beg me for your orgasm properly."

Ultimately, survival instinct kicked in, and you forced out a broken plea, "Please, sir... I need to cum... Please..." your voice cracked on the last word, betraying both your desperation and submission.

His pace picked up slightly, thrusting faster and harder into your tight passageway. Your moans turned into high-pitched cries of pleasure as you neared the edge of ecstasy. Just when you thought you couldn't take any more, he stopped abruptly, leaving you hanging on the brink of orgasm.

"Not yet, don’t tell me you thought you would get what you want that easily, did you?" he growled, his voice cold and commanding. "You haven't earned it yet." With a final taunt, he pulled out both fingers, leaving your dripping. "Clean yourself up, mutt," he ordered harshly, before turning away from your exposed body.

You were a mess, your body trembling in pre-orgasmic bliss and frustration. Tears streamed down your cheeks as you begged him through sobs, "P-Please, sir... I'll do anything... Just let me cum!"

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Divus turned back to you, grabbing you by your hair and making you drop to your knees in front of him. Reaching down, he unfastened his pants and slid them down, revealing his massive cock, hard and throbbing with desire through his boxer. It flapped against his stomach as pulled his garment down, it was veined and pulsing with need. "Much better," he said coldly. "Now, show me how much you want it."

Swallowing thickly, you raised your head and tentatively wrapped your lips around the tip of his member, taking as much of it into your mouth as you could without gagging. Your tongue flicked out, tracing the head of his cock, seeking more sensation. You began to suck greedily, your throat stretching around his thickness.

Divus groaned, his hands grasping your hair tightly as he began to thrust his hips forward, forcing more of his cock into your willing mouth. Your gagging and choking sounds only fueled his desire further. "That's a good mutt," he praised between heavy breaths. "You take my cock so well, you filthy dog."

You struggled to breathe as he continued his brutal assault on your throat, your eyes watering from the burn in your nose and throat. Despite the pain, you relish the feeling of being completely owned by him, your body becoming nothing more than a vessel for his pleasure. You moaned around his cock, hardly able to form coherent words between the constant thrusts.

As he continued to pound into your throat, your body shook with each powerful thrust. your hands reached up, grasping at his thighs for support as you struggled to keep him in your mouth. The combination of pain and pleasure was overwhelming, causing your mind to spiral into a hazy fog of desire.

Eventually, Divus slowed down, pulling out just enough for you to catch a brief moment of air before plunging back in deeper than before. "Are you ready for your reward, whore?" he growled, his voice low and menacing yet laced with promise.

Without waiting for a response, he unloaded his seed into your waiting mouth, filling it to the brim with hot, sticky semen. You gagged violently, struggling to swallow every drop, your eyes watering from the intensity of the sensation.

He held your head in place until his orgasm subsided, then pulled out, leaving your filled with his essence.

Your vision spun as you coughed and gagged, your body still trembling from the intense asphyxiation. Slowly, you felt your body being raised, finding yourself laying on Divus's desk, your legs folded and spread wide open, exposing your wet and swollen folds to his hungry mouth. Before you good connect 1 and 2 together, he was already between your legs, his tongue darting out to trace along your dripping entrance.

"Oh sevens..." you whimpered, arching your hips upwards, begging for more contact. Pulling away slightly, he teased your sensitive flesh with light touches before finally plunging his tongue deep inside your core, sucking and lapping at your juices voraciously. His fingers found your clit, pinching and rubbing it harshly, eliciting another moan of pleasure mixed with pain.

Your body trembled on the verge of orgasm once more, as he continued to torture your sensitive spots. Your nails scratched at the desk to avoid grabbing his head, you were sure you would get reprimanded for it, the wood was left with white lines shaky lines on it. "P-Please, sir... I need you to—!" you managed to choke out between gasps for air before you was cut off by a powerful moan.

Divus pulled away from your dripping folds, his face covered in your juices. "Mhm is that so," he growled, his voice dark and menacing. "Sadly for you, I don’t feel like letting you climax quite yet, you greedy pup." He teased.

Your body shook with frustration and need, your entire being aching for release. "P-Please... sir..." you begged pathetically, your voice barely more than a whimper. Hips bucking upwards, seeking more contact, more stimulation.

For what felt like a millennium, he continued to tease your sensitive spots, pushing you closer to the edge of ecstasy only to pull away just when you thought you could bear no more. Sweat trickled down your back, staining the cool surface of his desk beneath you.

Finally, feeling that it was enough, Divus thrust two fingers back inside your dripping entrance, simultaneously rubbing your swollen clit with his thumb. “Now cum.”

The combination of sensations was too much for you to handle, and you cried out in pure bliss as wave after wave of orgasmic pleasure washed over your. Your pussy contracted tightly around his fingers, cumming so hard to be able to see stars.

Smiling down at you, he gave your cunt a small peck. Crewel smirked cruelly yet something sweet behind his eyes. "Seems like you’re beginning to learn your place well, pup," he said before moving closer again, his lips brushing against yours roughly. His tongue forced its way into her mouth, claiming ownership over your mouth once more, as well as your mind. He tongues wrestled violently, your saliva mixing together in a sickening dance, tasting each other on the other’s tongue.

After breaking the kiss, he stood up straight, looking down at you battered form with satisfaction. "Now, go home and get yourself cleaned up. We're finished for today." With that command, he help her up and walk her out of the school building, trying to avoid anything prying eyes. At her professor was kind enough to accompany her out, but she was on her when it came to walking home.

“See you on Saturday in my classroom, Miss. Y/n” was all he said as he turned and left for school once more. Leaving you alone to recover from the brutal punishment she had endured.

You only replied by a weak “See you sir”, but only when arrive at your door front did it click ‘Wait we don’t have class on the weekends, does that mean—‘

Thanks anon for requesting!

©tswhiisfttedr. dn translate, or plagiarize.

Tip Me (Ko-Fi) & And support my art account @maviscarlettie

You can now commission me!

Reblogs help!!! (Request Are Open)

[thedustyleaves]

Sorry if you’ve answered this before, but I really love how your illustrations have such a cohesive color palette, how do you pick your colors to have a certain theme without looking monochromatic?

(In your breakdown on the saloon/western BP illustration, you mentioned that the overall color was reddish brown so you added blue to the main group to set them apart. But like how did you decide on which reddish brown colors to use for the flats?)

Thank you!! Your art is really expressive and the colors always work so well in the illustration. I’m always in awe of your pics

That’s an excellent question! My drawings actually start out pretty monochromatic because I tend to put most of my effort into the lighting and shading part to help differentiate where I want people to look.

For all of my pieces, I want my characters to be in focus. So no matter what, I always have to keep their main colors in mind and make sure their outfits and the background don’t clash with them (Kain’s red hair tends to be a problem, pft).

For my flats, I generally work with two main colors that tend to contrast each other and then I mix a lot of neutrals around them. (Sometimes the main colors are in the light and shading itself, but I’ll just focus on the flats!).

Sometimes, I will change the hue of their colors. So while Kain has bright orange hair, I will dull it down if it overwhelms the piece or doesn’t fit with the tone - like I did for the cowboy drawing - but never so much that it no longer looks like him.

With the cowboy drawing as an example, if I strip it down to my flats, it instantly becomes very dull and monochromatic. I really enjoy working with these colors because they’re easy on the eyes (or my eyes specifically) and I can see the difference in subtle hues a lot better than if they were very high in contrast. I like working with subtleties when I want background characters to become a single unit but still be separated as individual people.

When I picked the colors for the background, I wanted to separate the characters from the walls. Therefore, I kept the walls red and gold, and the characters brown - they’re still within the same warm-colored family, but they’re far enough away from each other that they don’t become one with each other. I also like to not have clothes from different characters blend together, so overlapping colours can't be the same. I made one coat lighter than the other, the glove warmer than the dark jacket, and so on.

(their coats are also in the same realm as the green/gold colour of the details for the curtains and the frames on the walls)

For the paintings I actually chose to put a bit of blue and green in to help create some interest for the main characters and keep your eyes around that area, as it matches the blue they’re wearing, just a whole lot darker. It also makes them pop just enough so they look interesting against the wall, but not enough to overshadow the main characters

I know, because of the way I work with layers, that when I add my overlays, I automatically brighten and saturate the colors a lot. It’s a lot easier for me to saturate something “dull” and move it into all kinds of hues than saturating something already high in contrast and then trying to force it into a new color theme.

But because of this, I usually have to go back and change the colors I work with constantly while the overlays are on. Since the overlays don’t know what sort of materials they’re laying on top of, everything gets lighter and washed out, so dark skin tones, hair, and clothes have to be corrected one by one afterward. If I were to remove the overlays after I corrected it to make it feel like a dark blue outfit on Raki, it’s basically just a black void now; but with the overlay, it’s a dark blue outfit. Before that, he simple blended in with the background too much and he didn’t feel like he was a part of the group either. 

I always try to put down colors how I imagine they’re going to look like, unaffected by light, but I’m also naturally drawn toward more earthy and warm tones, so all of my color choices will tend to lean that way.

Here’s another example of main colours vs. neutrals; the main colours are red and green/turquoise, with dark browns and greys to encapsulate them, and gold for accents or to make certain things pop (the chair, Dakon’s dark coat, etc.).

I never want them all to wear the exact same color, but I want them to feel connected and be in the same 'colour family,' so Dakon and Kain have nearly the same dark red/brown, and Christie and Raki have nearly the same 'bright'/red.

The blacks and browns, I’ve kept warm as well, so they stay within that realm of red. I also make sure that none of them are too close to Kain’s hair since he’s in the middle of the piece, and I want your eyes to be drawn toward the middle, and his orange hair helps with that.

The paintings I basically do not care too much about, as long as each individual painting has a single dominating colour. I mute them down with a darker overlay and ensure they don’t have strong shadows and light, so they get pushed to the background, so despite being a bunch of different colours, each painting feels like a solid color and they’re still cast in the same light as the rest of the piece, so they feel like they belong in the same room.

I try to help move the eye around the piece as well, so I keep the big painting sort of in the same realm of red and brown as the main characters, because it’s so big it shouldn’t dominate with a new color and force interest toward it. The blue/purple ones melt in with the background as they’re close to the turquoise background, but without disappearing, the yellow ones work sort of like the gold accents and blend in with the frames, and the green paintings at the top give the illusion of a monochrome fade, so everything gets more eerie and green as the image goes up - there’s also a subtle green fade that affects the gold accents from the top down, to enhance that effect.

This is just a few examples, if there are any pieces in particular you were thinking of, and it’s neither of these, just let me know, and I can break those down as well!

Thank you for the question; I hope I answered it somewhat, and thank you for the kind words! <3

[honeybeeofficial]

Im obsessed with your horseshoe crab bag and wanna make my own but dont have any leather working experience or knowledge, did you have a pattern you followed or did you just free hand it? also what would you recommend to someone wanting to try leather crafts for a first time?

I'll answer both this and a related question from @chaoticspaces:

hey! I’m in love with your crab bag. you mentioned you’ve never worked with leather; do you have any tips on where/how to start learning? or did you just wing it? I must preface that I’m a beginner at any sort of crafting and will have to learn the building blocks first but damn, people can just MAKE that kinda shit? I’ll learn to sew for that.

So it must be acknowledged that I am a fairly experienced crafter, I grew up sewing and sculpting and origami-ing and all sorts of crafty things. Meaning that although the horseshoe crab is my first experience in leatherworking, it's building off of existing crafting skills and experience thinking through how materials behave and how shapes interact. I say this as a preface not to discourage anyone from diving in, but rather so anyone who's newer to crafting can go in with a bit of perspective and not get discouraged if they don't get the hang of it right away! Be patient with yourself and keep pursuing the skills you want to develop.

With that out of the way, here's a (slightly abbreviated, but still Long) walk through what my process was like for drafting the pattern and learning how to work with leather!

Drafting the pattern

I started by looking up pictures of horseshoe crabs and doing a simple drawing of one from the top and from the side to get a sense of the shapes.

Then I broke it down into sections to make things easier on myself. Reducing things to basic shapes (crescent, box, wedge, cone, etc) is a good way to start making sense of a more complex form.

To make it work in three dimensions, I'd sketch what I think the shapes should probably be; cut out a mini version in paper; tape it together; go "hmm, that's not right," and adjust the sketch; repeat until I get roughly the form I'm looking for.

Once I had a general shape that worked, I recreated those pieces on paper again, this time full-size. That involved a lot of math to make sure all the proportions scaled accurately. Then I cut out those pieces and taped them together and adjusted any basic proportions again to fix anything that I scaled wrong.

At that point, I had a shape that read fairly well as horseshoe crab, and that would have been fine. However, I wanted things to curve and flare and be more organic, which is where a lot of the trickier adjustments come in. Using paper prototypes allowed me to work quickly and make changes easily. To exaggerate a curve, I'd cut the tape "seam", bend the paper into the desired shape, and then add or remove material from the adjoining sides until that curve stayed in place when re-taped. Each piece of the pattern is responsible for helping its neighbors stay in place.

After I got my paper prototype to a point I was happy with, I got some cheap sheets of kids' craft foam and made another prototype in that, but stitched instead of taped, in order to test the pattern as thoroughly as possible without having to use my actual leather for it.

---

Learning basic leatherworking

Youtube! I searched things like "introduction to leatherworking," "leatherworking techniques for beginners," "how to attach two pieces of leather," etc. There are a bunch of videos that show very detailed but not-too-lengthy examples of basic techniques.

Once I had seen a few examples and made a list of the basic tools I would need to get started, I went out and got myself some tools and scrap leather to experiment with. I watched some more videos showing how to use my tools, and followed along with them

Some of the techniques I looked up to start:

How to use an adjustable groover, stitching chisel, beveler, and wood slicker

Saddle stitching

Box stitching

Butt stitching (Yeah, I know)

How to set rivets in leather

What kind of leather dye/what kind of leather conditioner to use

I spent some time testing techniques, even ones I didn't need for this project, because the more time you spend with your material and tools, the more you'll understand how they work and how to get them to do what you want. I have a bunch of scraps lying around that just have random burnished edges, wonky rivets, stitches that don't go anywhere, etc.

I also found it helpful to look through leatherworking subreddits and follow leather crafters on instagram and look through what they're doing for inspiration, tips & tricks, and to see how they handle unusual shapes. Those subreddits can also be a good resource for finding existing answers to questions you have, or asking questions yourself.

[theminecraftbee]

second’s slightly arbitrary guide to vault hunters knowledge unlocks

so, one of the main questions I see new vault hunters players have is “which mods should I unlock in what order?” unlike skills or even, if expensively, expertises, mod unlocks in vault hunters are completely irreversible, which means they can be kind of intimidating for new players. so here’s my (somewhat arbitrary) guide to what to unlock! keep in mind I’m not a “top player” or anything, so these might not be the PERFECT meta picks, just a guide for new guys.

also if your question is “but I have one knowledge star and am like level 5 what do I unlock NOW”, the answer is probably vault compasses if you’re getting lost, either stack upgrades or double pouches if you’re having inventory management issues (depending on whether “numerous stacks of common items” or “many types of items” is currently your larger problem), or storage drawers if overworld storage is giving you nightmares.

additionally, my biggest unlocking mods advice is to check how much the thing you want to do costs in materials before unlocking it. nothing sucks more than unlocking a cool mod and only realizing you need an echo pog to interact with it and you’re only level 15 afterwards, after all!

anyway let’s go, general guide beneath the cut.

STORAGE MODS

these mods give you the first three without price increases before they start getting more expensive, which is useful, since people almost always combine more than one solution. even after they start getting more expensive, it’s only +1, so this is a category you should get the thing you want or need in when you want it without worrying about it locking you out of other options later.

Storage Drawers are the backbone to basically everyone’s storage system. they work fairly simply: each drawer can store a certain number of stacks of a single item. add upgrades to increase the number of stacks or make the drawers automatically void excess. if they are connected by other drawers or trim to a drawer controller, you can double-click the controller to move everything in your inventory that goes into a drawer to one of them, and that controller acts as a port for other storage interacting with it. because they can store an absurd quantity of items, are way cheaper than basically every other storage option, and are useful right up to the late game, these are by far and away the most common first storage option. I can’t recommend them enough. even early game before you can afford a controller they clean up your inventory SIGNIFICANTLY with the number of stacks they can hold.

Colossal Chests are a trap earlygame. unlike regular chests, you can’t use quark’s sorting or searching functions, which means they’re effectively the “hiding it under the bed” solution to chest monsters. however, mid-game once you actually have another storage mod, these become fantastic, since they’re much cheaper and use much more common materials than storage disks and capable of storing large amounts of items. the largest one you can make in vault hunters is 5x5 for the record. a lot of people like using this with ssn to help reduce lag.

Simple Storage Network is… controversial. it’s the cheapest early way to make a searchable storage network, but it gets very laggy the more chests you attach to it, and many of a storage system’s most useful functions are no longer possible to craft in vault hunters because of it. also, it eats items with NBT data, so never store crystals, jewels, gear, or similar things in it. my general recommendation is to do whatever you want in singleplayer (although if you want a crafting interface you’ll need to upgrade out of this eventually), but in multiplayer only use it if you’re using colossal chests or something else that prevents you from having to make massive silos of chests, and save your server the headache. it’s only one knowledge point, though, and it’s much cheaper generally than the digital options, so I totally understand why people go for it, and it can super be worth it early game when you just need to be able to search your inventory! just be aware of the caveats.

Applied Energistics 2 is one of your two main digital storage options. digital storage should be your end goal with a storage system! it is the more complex of the two. my understanding is that it’s cheaper if you know what you’re doing, as well as more powerful, but that it’s notoriously a beast for people who don’t know it to try to understand. if you don’t have good spacial reasoning skills maybe stay clear, but if you do and you like a more involved storage approach, go with this. also, be aware you’ll need something that can produce power in order to use this mod. (ae2 comes with power generation on its own, but I don’t remember if you can craft that in vault hunters or not.)

Refined Storage is the other of your two main digital storage options. digital storage should be your end goal with a storage system! compared to ae2, refined storage is fairly straightforward, but it’s slightly more expensive and a bit less powerful at its highest levels. it is the one I recommend to most people, though, just because “straightforward” is really valuable if you don’t want everything to be a puzzle. also, be aware that you’ll need a mod that can produce power to use this mod.

Mekanism QIO is a third digital storage option you can only use with Mekanism unlocked. my understanding is that it’s quite powerful, although it does not work with altar automation. most people won’t use this on account of mekanism being a pre-requisite and mekanism being fairly late-game, but if you want to use it, it’s almost certainly just as good of an option as the rest!

LOOTING MODS

the majority of these are pouch upgrades, but this also contains bulk soul dust recycling and the vault junk controller. these mods get more expensive by two points for every one you get, so the order does matter somewhat; remember for each mod in this category you get that is not “a bigger pouch”, the slightly further away bigger pouches get, and for each bigger pouch you get, the further away other inventory management gets. so it’s a balance for when you get what! that said, most players end up unlocking basically everything in this category eventually, because it’s all quite useful, and even at maximum price it doesn’t get as expensive as the production mods or big mods or big toys get. unlock things as you need them in this category. I tend to unlock things in this category whenever I have the knowledge stars to unlock it and nothing else I want to save up for at that exact moment!

Bigger Pouches are the vast majority of the unlocks here (being double pouches, belts, small backpacks, and large backpacks). they’re prerequisites for each other, so you have to unlock them one by one. normally, I unlock them when the pouches I have aren’t cutting it. that said you could just as easily get by with a small army of smaller pouches, you just won’t be able to fit as many upgrades! so this is a mileage may vary thing.

Stack Upgrades are the most useful pouch upgrades, and should be the first ones you buy. these are multiplicative by each other—two tier 2 stack upgrades in the same pouch don’t add 8x the number of stacks a single slot can hold, but 16x! these also mean pouches with a lot of stack upgrades can be a poor man’s storage drawers in a pinch. you will need these, get them before you upgrade past double pouches.

Refill Upgrades are one of the two QOL pouch upgrades. you can save this until late, but the ability to automatically always have a stack of an item (or, well, up to nine items!) in your hotbar is extremely handy for things like marking blocks, kiwis, and food, and helps save hotbar space and time managing inventory. I personally find this more useful than the feeder upgrade but that’s a preference thing.

Feeder Upgrades do one thing only: automatically have you eat a food (which can be controlled with a whitelist/blacklist) from the pouch it’s installed in when your hunger goes down. this seems sort of arbitrary in vaults since hunger doesn’t heal your health but it’s actually really nice and once you get used to it you’ll be so sad whenever you don’t have it. set the food it feeds you to vault sweets and literally never have to worry about your hunger bar again. this is normally either the last pouch upgrade I get or second-to-last (before big backpacks) but I could totally justify getting it way sooner.

Junk Controller is… interesting. it sometimes doesn’t play nice with pickup upgrades and pouches, although I think that’s fixes at this point. it automatically voids items you pick up in the vault that are on its list of controlled items. it’s capable of handling WAY more than a void upgrade can, but honestly I find the advanced void upgrade can do everything I need it to when it comes to voiding vault items, and the junk controller is pretty expensive. however, if you’d prefer not to have to use void upgrades and to never have to deal with vault junk again, I could see this being the thing for you!

Soul Harvester is pure QOL. it is so much faster than and so much more efficient than the soul diffuser that I recommend everyone get it at SOME POINT, if only to make processing things into soul dust more efficient, but if you don’t do much recycling it’s probably not very useful for you.

POWER MODS

this is the first category on the list that makes other mods in the category enough more expensive that the order you unlock in, and whether you unlock at all, matters, at +6 per mod. you will also almost inevitably need at least one of these no matter what you do. as such, this category can be overwhelming for people. luckily it has an answer! the answer is powah. you should get powah. yes I know it’s the most expensive one and means you’ll have to wait longer but you’ll thank me later.

Iron Generators are sort of a trap. they’re cheap at low levels and good for early game, but the cost for higher-level power generation is very high compared to how much power they make, they burn fuel whether something is currently drawing power or not, they don’t come with any kind of cables so you’ll need a handling mod to move the power or to place them directly next to the things they need to power, they can’t charge items like the mining gadget or the building gadget, and they make everything else in the category more expensive. however with all of that said: if all you’re doing is powering an RS system, then yeah, you’re probably fine to just use these forever and buying these as the cheap option is probably fine.

Powah is the most versatile of the options here and comes with literally everything you need to make a decent self-sustaining power grid. the best generators for most people are the solar panels, which only require direct sunlight, and thermo generators, which provide power as long as they’re above a heat source and provided water. a supplementaries sink (which doesn’t require a mod unlock) or a thermal expansion aqueous accumulator (which does) can do that job easily. additionally, batteries are really useful for various gadgets, the ender network lets you move power remotely, and it can charge items inside its energy cells. the main downside to this mod is that it’s a royal pain in the ass to actually CRAFT any of this; while most of the individual ingredients aren’t that expensive, there are normally many steps to any higher level craft and the base ingredients add up. luckily, mod boxes are really good with this mod, and you can normally get a decent system running from almost only those.

Flux Networks are vault hunters’s best option for storing and moving power around. this mod doesn’t come with power generation options on its own, but it’s the most powerful for transferring power around by far. a good purchase in tandem with another mod.

Botania Flux Fields allows you to turn botania mana into power. it doesn’t come with any cables, so you’ll need a handling mod to move the power around, but as several botania mana flowers can be made self-sustaining, this is probably an interesting option if you already have botania before you need any power.

Thermal Dynamos are like if iron generators were actually good. they require constant fuel like an iron generator, but they have a much wider variety of things they can burn and actually produce meaningful power. they require thermal expansion to unlock, though, so I’ve never used them by virtue of the fact that by the time I have thermal expansion, I almost always also have powah. they also don’t come with cables.

Mekanism Generators are the best solution for producing very large amounts of power. the mekanism reactor is more than the vast majority of players will ever need, but if you’re getting deep enough into mekanism that you need a nuclear reactor’s level of power generation, you should accept no substitute. once again though for most people a large powah setup will normally cover your needs, this is, quite literally, the nuclear option.

HANDLING MODS

these mods don’t do much on their own, but they make handling output from other mods much easier. they make each other somewhat significantly more expensive, but tend to be overall cheaper than power mods, so even with that +5 knowledge points required for each new mod in the category, it’s not normally hard to get more than one. these are a very “get them as you need and/or want them” category, but you’ll almost always find yourself wanting at least one, if not more, to get things done.

Modular Routers are probably the best mod in this category. they do just about everything, able to wirelessly transfer items, fluids, or power, sure, but also able to activate things like a player, automatically kill mobs, vacuum items (or experience!) from the ground, and probably more. a common sight in many vault hunters bases are the signature laser beams of routers shooting things around. they can be a little complicated to understand at first and I highly recommend watching someone like iskall use them when you’re starting out, but once you understand them you will soon learn to love them. they work by creating a router, then placing “modules” in that router that tell it what to do. you can also add upgrades to the routers! this is my biggest recommended handling mod; if you only get one, this is the one that can do most everything anything else in this category can.

Pipez are simple: they’re fairly cheap pipes that move items, fluids, power, or gasses from one place to another. this is the quick and cheap option for handling, and are often the most intuitive. the downside is that you physically need to lay the pipes between places, so they take up a lot of space. fun bonus fact: at a certain level of power draw, a power pipe with an advanced pipe upgrade will be MUCH cheaper for rate of power transfer than using powah cables. I learned this the hard way. in general these are fast, minimally laggy, and surprisingly useful, especially for fluids (or gasses if you’re using mekanism).

XNet is presumably powerful but I don’t know anyone who uses it on account of it also being kind of complicated. my understanding is that if you have any kind of item/energy/etc transfer that you want to apply interesting logic to, this is your solution, so it’s probably nice as the “brain” of your base. I can’t say much else because I don’t use it though.

Dark Utilities is a small but handy mod. its biggest draw are its plates, which are items that can be placed like a carpet that do things to entities that step on them. most notable are the vector plates, which push a mob in the direction they point and the various damage plates, including a non-lethal damage plate that’s great for exp farms or the player damage plate, which makes mob drops fully AFK-able. also not to be discounted are a few redstone odds and ends (including a randomizer) and special blocks that only certain types of entities can pass through (great for filtering in farms). this mod is almost always recommended in tandem with ispawners, but can be useful in all kinds of farms outside of that too.

Iron Furnaces are basically a fancy QOL mod: they let you make really absurdly fast furnaces, including ones that are powered by power instead of fuel. they’re almost surprisingly useful though; a fast furnace can save you a whole lot of time!

Automatic Genius is—well, if you’re at the point of unlocking automatic genius, you probably already know, to be honest. it’s auto-crafting, it’s useful, it practically has the entire game as prerequisites so. there’s that.

BIG MODS

this category is one of the ones that gets to people, because it’s one of the +12 categories. whenever you pick a mod in this category, make sure it’s one you want, because the next one will be very expensive! chances are if you’re a modded player, you already have an opinion about which of these four is the most useful to you, but if you aren’t, I’ll attempt to give some tips.

Thermal Expansion is probably the easiest of the four for a new player to understand. it requires power generation, but most of this mod works by simply building a machine, which then does that machine’s one thing. (for example, the redstone furnace, which cooks things using redstone, or the pulverizer, which crushes things.) I personally really like thermal; it’s extremely straightforward and compact and decently powerful as an earlygame option. it also sort of has ore doubling; you can pulverize raw chromatic iron to make two raw chromatic iron dust, which can then be smelted to two ingots, but for other ores the ratios are a bit messier and often comes out to “just use fortune and a normal furnace unless you need the secondary products”. still, very useful as a mod!

Create is a mod you probably already know; it’s taken the world by storm, after all. building create contraptions is fun and more intuitive than redstone and routing power to a lot of people, and it has a number of very useful tools, such as the crushing wheel and its ability to ore double, the various ways you can convert items using fans, and one of the very few ways to automatically farm trees in vault hunters. the main downside of create is that it’s deceptively expensive in larimar and chromatic iron and that it can’t produce power. also, in my experience, create is the laggiest of the big mods, although your mileage may vary on that front.

Botania is a magic mod that’s secretly actually a tech mod. it doesn’t require power, instead using its own power called mana, and can be used to do a large number of useful things, including farming trees, making cobwebs and other rare and hard to make altar ingredients, and making some very pretty decorative blocks. personally, I always had trouble wrapping my head around botania for some reason, which is silly since I’ve somewhat figured out mekanism, an objectively more complicated mod. of the four big mods, botania definitely helps you get the most hard-to-get and unique blocks, but it’s the only one that doesn’t have any kind of ore doubling.

Mekanism can get you as much as quintupling your ores, has a number of fairly high-powered machines, but is also really complicated in a lot of places and requires an entire power grid to use effectively. also, the mek suit isn’t in vault hunters, if you wanted that. I love mekanism I think it’s very fun also you should NOT get this as your first big mod unless you have so many resources to spare. make this your second one at the very least, it’s VERY late-game, but enjoy it when you do.

UTILITY MODS

unlike the last several categories, these don’t make each other more expensive ever! instead, these are all mostly small but useful mods that don’t fit in another category. whenever you want one of these go ahead and buy it, there’s no reason not to and it won’t make anything else more expensive!

Vault Compasses is one of the most useful mods in the game. all it adds is a vault compass, which is a compass that always points back to the entrance of the vault. you can also hold down shift+right click to set it to point to a new point in the vault, such as a loadstone in an elixir vault or the last monolith in a defeat the guardians vault. it costs four netherite ingots, which is a lot in the early game when most people get this, but it’s VERY WORTH IT. you’ll never be lost again!

Elevators create a special block that, when above or below each other, let you jump to teleport up to an elevator above you or crouch to an elevator below you. they’re very useful in bases with verticality; I like to use them to hide a lot of my storage and mechanisms in a basement that’s invisible from the main build, lol, but they’re handy for any kind of similar thing. pro tip: you can disguise them as any block by right-clicking them with that block!

Trash Cans are what they sound like: a special block that permanently destroys what you put in them. they can have a whitelist/blacklist, and you can pipe or hopper items into them. they’re handy for things like getting rid of unwanted armor from mob farms or other junk items that would otherwise clog up your handling.

Waystones allow you to teleport to pre-determined locations; a waystone lets you interact with it to teleport to any other waystone you’ve found, if you have the mod unlocked, and the teleport pads teleport you to a specific other pad. they’re just extremely handy for getting around a server, and on my friends’ server we just give everyone a knowledge star to unlock these on day one so we can get to each other’s bases easier.

Torch Master gives you several tools for preventing mob spawning. there are ways to prevent both passive and hostile mobs from spawning, and to place large amounts of light. the mega torch has a pretty wide radius too, so it’s fairly easy to cover your whole base.

Altar Automation is the only prohibitively expensive utility mod; this is meant for use lategame. it can be bound to either an ae2 or rs controller, and then will automatically take items from that storage system to complete the altar for you, leaving your only job to hit the button and get the crystal. it’s very handy, but also deliberately meant for buying after you’ve mostly already got all the other mods you want.

BIG TOYS

all of these mods are fancy QOL mods. they all require power, so don’t get one before you have a power source! additionally, only building gadgets come with a way to charge, so make sure you either have batteries or a way to charge before getting these. at +12, this is once again a category where order matters. however, since they’re all QOL, it’s a less massively consequential choice than your choice of production or big mods. go with the one that vibes with you most.

Building Gadgets are tools to help you place blocks, copy/paste structures, swap blocks, and delete blocks. they’re held in your inventory but require power, which means they either need to be charged or you need to have a battery. luckily, they come with the enercell for charging. I can’t express enough HOW MUCH EASIER these make building large structures; the base building gadget alone speeds up building massively. I highly recommend these on any skyblock world just for sheer ease of building platforms, but also anyone who likes Big Buildings should probably consider them.

Weirding Gadgets are chunk loaders. they require power. not much else to explain other than the obvious “be careful on servers when you are leaving your farms loaded please”, I think.

Mining Gadgets is a mod that gives you a cool laser to mine blocks with. I love my mining gadget, it’s very fun, but fully upgrading a mining gadget is very expensive in chromatic steel (and in echo for the magnet and void upgrades) and a very, very solid argument can be made that the only advantage this thing has over a hammer is that it has a long range, the ability to automatically place lights, and the ability to stop liquids in their track. meanwhile, it has the very large disadvantage of requiring being charged with power, costing a lot to get upgraded, and not being able to mine more than a 3x3. it’s up to you if any of those benefits sound like they beat a hammer to you and you decide to get it.

Digital Miner is a mekanism device that automatically mines out everything in an area for you (rather like an old-school quarry). just place it in a location, give it power, and let it run! like most mekanism devices, this thing requires a lot of power, and it is, once again, arguably slower and more expensive than a hammer. however, it’s also fully automatic and requires no effort on your part to get a LOT of resources, so it can be very worth it for those who do not enjoy mining themselves!

PRODUCTION MODS

arguably even more consequential than the big mods you choose are the production mods. which production mod you go with will decide on a multiplayer server what is your “thing” and what requires trading; on singleplayer it will decide which altars will be easy for you and which will be hard. there’s also no right choice here (although I’d argue there are two wrong ones). at +12, it’ll be a bit until you unlock your second one, so choose wisely!

SNAD is a trap. it vastly speeds up the growth of things that can grow on sand but it’s just not worth the +12 to everything else for that alone—and that really is all you get. don’t get it.

Easy Piglins are less of a trap but still a trap. they allow you to put piglins in special boxes for trading, as well as make automatic traders. however they don’t really do anything that picking up a piglin, putting it in a hole near your portal, and throwing gold at it manually doesn’t do, so for the +12 to everything else, for my money, this one isn’t worth it.

Easy Villagers by contrast is worth it. while the ability to pick up villagers and easily re-roll trades doesn’t require unlocking this, the various villager blocks this mod unlocks are very handy for doing trades much easier. it also comes with one-block breeders, iron farms, and crop farms, and the ability to automate any of them, including the villager trades. personally I tend to find villager trades aren’t my main alter bottleneck, so I go for this last, but someone else may disagree with me on it, and honestly I don’t blame them. a solid choice.

Cagerium is one of the two mob farming options. cagerium works by creating terrariums for passive mobs, mob cages for hostile mobs, or a binding plate for boss mobs, and then putting spawn eggs you get from the vault in them. it then outputs that mob’s drops into a chest below, passively. you can put up to four eggs in a cage to make it faster, but you need a skeleton key to swap out what’s in a cage. also, it’s slow compared to ispanwers. however, it’s cheaper early game, doesn’t require building a farm, and is better at a few edge-case mobs (namely, boss mobs like the wither or ender dragon if you get one of those eggs and shulkers, because shulkers are a nightmare).

iSpawners is the other mob farming option. this lets you create an expensive item called a survival spawner that works like a regular vanilla mob spawner, only you can pick it up and move it, it’s much faster, you can swap what egg is in it whenever, and it is active in a much larger radius of the player. ispawners are more reusable and much faster at producing drops than cagerium, but they require infrastructure like a farm to be built around the survival spawner to be effective, and while the survival spawner is a one-time craft it’s a VERY VERY expensive one. which of the two you prefer is a matter of preference.

Botony Pots are one of the two plant-growing options. this mod lets you make pots that automatically grow plants over time, including plenty that can’t be farmed normally, such as spore blossoms or small dripleaf. the hopper botony pot has been made more expensive than it used to be, so it’s at parity or more expensive than swapping things out of a phytogenic insulator to have a lot of them, but for passively farming plants, botony pots are still king. the one plant it can’t do is any of the trees, however, so you will still need a solution for that.

Phytogenic Insulators require thermal expansion and power, and are your other plant farming option. they’re rather expensive, but they can be freely swapped through, can produce things like trees that botony pots can’t, and are much faster than botony pots (especially when maximally upgraded). like with ispawners and cagerium, this is a matter of preference for which you pick, but you’ll probably only need one of the two.

ALCHEMY MODS

these, thankfully, don’t require any strategy or explanation; you can only go one at a time, and each unlocked mod is a new upgrade to your existing vault potion (or vial to start with). each upgrade heals more health and has a stronger chosen effect. that said, no matter how high you upgrade, you always have the same number of charges. take these when you start needing that extra health!

and that’s everything! hopefully this is helpful for new players playing along with the hermits! happy vaulting!

[notaplaceofhonour]

Hey, sorry if this is like an offensive or bad question, I just saw something and wanted to ask someone who I know knows more about this than me. /Nfta if it's like uncomfortable or anything ofc, I'm asking this in good faith.

Can someone who is not Jewish be zionist? Like could a white, Christian american be zionist? I know obviously that the term has been warped and made into something it is not at all by people who are, well antisemitic, and that the original definition isn't at all what people who say "zionists dni" mean, but can someone who is goyim be zionist under the more correct definitions?

Not at all bad or offensive!

To start with, I want to clarify that I’m a non-Zionist, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. However, the reason I’m not a Zionist (the way I would define it) is relevant to answering your question, so hopefully it helps.

Some Jews may define it differently, but to me, Zionism—in the political sense—is not merely the belief that Jews should have national self-determination & safety in Israel (though that is the core of all Zionism movements), but a movement characterized by political action to that end, which is actively involved in the development or enrichment of Jewish communities & national identity in Israel. I don’t live in Israel; I’m not a member of any Zionist organizations; I’m not really involved in Israeli politics beyond Having Opinions™️ about the parts of it that are relevant to my community, offering critical support for their peace camp, or debunking misinformation; and I’m not in any way responsible for cultural or national development/enrichment in Israel. Thus, I’m not a Zionist.

(And obviously I am not in favor of any of the evil things goyim seem to think Zionism “actually” means: I’m not anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, pro-Israeli expansionism, pro-ethnic cleansing, pro-genocide, pro-colonialism, or Jewish supremacist, and I am every bit as in favor of Palestinian self-determination & safety as I am in favor of the same for Israelis. So I’m not a “Zionist” even in that warped & inaccurate sense.)

Goyim who aren’t actively involved in Zionist political action likewise wouldn’t be Zionists, but I do think it needs to be further clarified that—because Zionism is at its core characterized by Jewish self-determination—any goyish movement or organization that calls itself Zionist while sidelining Jews or subverting Jewish self-determination is not actually Zionist.

For instance: a lot of Christian Zionism, especially the Apocalyptic “End Times” Prophecy sort, is actually about “philosemitic” fetishization of Jews for American political & Christian religious purposes, based around the certainty that Jews will convert to Christianity & Israel will be a Christian theocracy, not actually about uplifting Jewish self-determination. I would not consider “Christian Zionist” lobbying from organizations like CUFI to be authentically Zionist.

That doesn’t mean Christians & other goyim can’t be Zionists. But the test of whether they are is whether they’re actively putting material support behind Jewish self-determination & not, say, simply trying to trojan horse themselves into controlling the land.*

Something that might help is to think of it along similar lines to the word “feminist”. The Feminist movement was started by women to address issues that most centrally affect women. Men can be feminists, but their feminism is contingent on their support for women’s freedom, equality, and self-advocacy. A man who simply thinks “yeah sure women should be equal” but does nothing to make sure women in his life or broader society are, or who only does/says all the right things to exploit women, isn’t really much of a feminist.

A couple complicating factors are that a) Zionism, as a national movement for self-determination, is much more specific than Feminism, a general movement for women’s equality, and b) the goy/jew ratio (98.8% vs. 0.2% of the world’s population) is a lot more skewed in goyim’s favor than the male/female one (which is nearly 50/50). Both of these add up to my personal opinion that it’s even more crucial to be more selective in who gets called a Zionist than a Feminist.

but TL; DR: Ultimately, if someone’s genuinely supportive of Jewish national self-determination in Israel, I don’t see a reason they shouldn’t be allowed to call themselves a Zionist, as long as they aren’t trying to dictate what that should look like to Jews. But I’m not Zionist myself, and opinions may vary, so I’d ask some Jews who self-identify as Zionist.

*Lest this be misunderstood as a “No True Scotsman”, I’d like to clarify even further: I’m not talking about merely being ineffective or failing at delivering on the promise of self-determination, or failing to be good allies, I’m talking about instances where the goal is to exploit Jews and actively opposed to Jewish self-determination, such as the goal of making Israel a Supersessionist Christian Theocracy.

[meamiiikiii]

Hello. I haven't spoken much on the Reverse Entry AU (Modern Office + Reverse Isekai Loop AU). That changes today!!! Have some scattered (relatively long) tidbits on this AU. Mainly background to actually get to the office part of it but, yea!

If anyone wants elaboration on anything on this list, and I do mean anything, I encourage asking!! Or any random questions on the AU general!! Or just things in general!! Make me think about things I have not considered!!

Spoilers for all of ISAT + 2Hats and the like:

Mainly Concrete

The Country -> The Company.

Well, more of a family storefront, but the similarity in those two words next to each other was too good to pass up LOL.

Said storefront was run by Siffrin’s parents, and was their life's work.

Specialized in niche craft related stuff, in both teaching people how to do them & selling materials for the crafts. 

It was a very warm & homely store, and was adored by locals and visitors alike. 

A store that felt comforting to just vibe in for a bit, if that makes sense.

Loop ends up being Siffrin’s roommate after being reverse isekai’ed :)

They do not help with rent

They are a solid night light, which they try to justify as helping with the electricity bill

They also find a mirror shortly after arrival. 

Important Points

Mirabelle & Isabeau have known each other since University and are besties!!!!!!!!!

Not 100% sure of the logistics yet, but this was too important of a point to not include

Additionally, please know at some point, Isa custom stitched the scarf-shawl Mira wears to work all the time now, and gifted it to her!

He is also responsible for the fun pattern on the vest he wears all the time too!

Bonnie, whenever they are hanging around, makes sure to sneak onto Nille’s computer, and block out time between meetings for time to breathe / snacks for the others

And they also make sure to block out like an hour of time for proper lunches as well

Back to back to back to back meetings are not fun!!!

Breaks are important!!!

I have mentioned this in a different post, but this too, is a very important point to not include here as well

Location of Living

Mirabelle & Siffrin live in the same apartment complex, but on opposite sides of it

They have briefly interacted a few times prior to being coworkers? 

But Siffrin had his hair dyed for interviews for a long time

So Mirabelle didn’t realize it was him for a while, since he started growing out the dye before formally meeting in a work environment

Siffrin simply forgor

Isabeau lives relatively close-by to where Mira & Sif live, he visits Mira sometimes!!

He may or may not have also interacted with Siffrin two (2) times prior to working together due to the above point

Nille & Bonnie live around the area Siffrin used to live before he had to move, and have resided in that area for a long time

They technically were neighbors, at one point!

Odile lives closer to the office than everyone else 

Shorter commute for in-office days 

But still in the general vicinity of everyone else's abodes ofc

Hiring Order

Mirabelle has been working in the office the longest (interned two years in a row, and was formally hired right out of University)

Isabeau is next after since he got a referral off of Mira (interned for one year before graduation, then was hired at the same time Mirabelle was)

Odile was hired to replace Euphrasie (previous senior manager to their team who got a promotion, she’s now director of the regional office)

Siffrin was hired a bit after Odile when they got more capacity, since what they were originally doing was way too much for just three people LOL

Apparently, he got a referral from someone internally, but has no idea about it!

Nille was hired a little bit after Siffrin was

She only agreed upon the role if she was granted the flexibility to pick up Bonnie from school whenever

Random RPG Equivalence Hour

Turn Based Combat = Emails 

Whether it be waiting for data to start processes, answering inquiries, so on and so forth

Sometimes those turns take literal days

It happens!

Being Frozen / Damaged = Program Freezing 

This goes for any program being used

If it freezes it inflicts small damage

It inflicts more damage if it crashes

It makes you cry on the floor if the program crashes and you can’t recover any of what you did for the past hour

It makes you regret all of your life decisions up to this moment in time if it crashes, you can’t recover anything, and you have a presentation on the stuff you were working on in 15 minutes

Misc Meetings

Mirabelle writes fanfic

Isabeau knows about this and supports her in her endeavors

Odile has read some of her works, but does not know she wrote them irl

At some point prior to working together, Mirabelle & Odile became mutuals and started trading book / fanfic recommendations to one another

Odile had a brief stint as a bartender prior to working for the office

Mainly to earn some form of income while applying for jobs / waiting for prior certifications to process and transfer properly after moving from another country

In one or another, she met Isabeau and Siffrin at separate intervals while working there

Additionally, the bar is located close to the office. A lot of happy hours happen there. It ended up serving as a networking opportunity for her LMAO

Both Nille and Bonnie moved around a lot when they were younger

At different intervals, Nille went to the same high schools as both Mirabelle & Isabeau

Nille has probably worked a lot of jobs throughout high school / university

This includes working at the same place Odile worked at for a bit, they were probably coworkers there at some point.

Maybe not necessarily a bartender but, general staff

Again, this served as a networking opportunity similar to the Odile segment ASFASDASDA

Um????

Loop somehow ends up becoming a vtuber.

Loop somehow ends up being a vtuber for the company the team works under, akin to Tony the Tiger.

Loop does this vtuber gig for approximately one (1) stream and quits right after.

((loop decided their first stream was a nuzlocke for some reason. the crafts company literally didnt ask them to. they decided this on their own volition for no apparent reason. the company literally asked for a stream where they do crafts?? anyway they named their pokemon after the party. and. well.))

As I am Indecisive, this still has a chance for change! But for now this list is slightly ordered from “concrete in my mind” to “need to let simmer more probably, but the vibes are there” to “probably not but it is a bit of a funny to consider” (this only applies to the last loop segment ASDAFA)

But yea!! Thanks for reading the ramblings :)

[ericmicael]

My fear that "Frozen 3" will end up confirming one of the worst theories about the Northuldra Tribe and which was intensified with the release of "All is Found: A Frozen Anthology" for me has never been so real.

The theory is a response to the theory that Disney would always need to ask for permission from the Sami Tribe to do something relevant with Honeymaren, Ryder and Yelana, which is why these three, who are the only named characters from the tribe, have disappeared from the extra materials and are so little present in the marketing, with the Enchanted Forest itself having its name changed to Arendelle Forest for Disney to use it in its parks.

The theory behind the answer is that Disney would replace them with a new group of characters who would be the focus of the new film and would only use the Northuldras as background characters. And honestly, this concept art has revived that fear of mine.

A place that seems to have little to do with the Enchanted Forest and figures that seem to indicate a new inhabited magical kingdom, which made some people create a new theory that also worries me: Elsa changing home again, but this time she would change from a place that brings her a great sense of freedom and connection with her mother to a kingdom with magical people like her, which would make the change more acceptable to the general public.

And let's remember that among the 18 questions that came up in the F3 presentation, there were none related to Northuldra or Elsa's presence in the Enchanted Forest, but rather: "who gave Elsa her powers?", "why there castles ruins throughout Ahtohhalan?", "where did the nature spirits come from?" which smells to me like what we know about Ahtohallan will suffer a retcon. Why was anyone really still in doubt about who gave Elsa magic after the movie? I feel like a new addition will come to Ahtohallan that will end all the importance of the tribe in this even less important story.

I'm actually afraid that there will be a complete replacement of the entire role of the Northuldra Tribe by something now officially magical and completely owned by Disney that would prevent new dramas if they want to make material about it. And the Northuldra themselves? Relegated to the role they have in the Anthology, being just a reminder that the film has indigenous representation and that Iduna's blood heritage has not been forgotten. And so a mobile game would continue to be the only place that delves deeper into Honeymaren and Ryder, and that its main highlight is confirming that the siblings have already competed for Elsa's attention with a romantic air (Honeymaren won the dispute by a long shot), and that Ryder, after seeing his sister's feelings for the Snow Queen, decides to help please the woman in a task that the female warrior could not perform because of her difficulty in talking to strangers.

I hope I'm wrong, but the way Disney has treated the tribe since the release of "Frozen 2" is yet another indication to me that I'm unfortunately more right than wrong. So many excuses not to approach a member of the tribe and so many excuses not to approach Elsa in the Enchanted Forest doing something other than playing with animals, spirits or putting out a fire being her most relevant feat there in the podcast "Disney Frozen: Forces of Nature", to this day we don't even know where she lives. It seems that Disney never cared about making us attached to Elsa's ending in "Frozen 2" like they made us attached to Anna's ending in the same film, so making a new change in the life of the Snow Queen who we officially can't say much about and the people she theoretically lives close to, but seem to barely interact with, wouldn't be that hard.

[h-sleepingirl]

Is it okay to dm you questions about hypnosis?

Hi! Thanks for asking -- I actually want to take a little time to explain my answer to this question.

Reasons I may not respond to DMs like this:

I have a super limited amount of spoons to respond to DMs from people in general. Existing as a feminine person on the internet means DMs are always a roulette, even if someone reaches out “just to ask a question.” I also don't like that DMs in general put a lot of pressure on my availability to respond (as opposed to like, email, askbox, etc).

Generally, I also have created an immense amount of educational material on hypnosis. Many times, someone will ask me a question that I have already talked about in a book, essay, or podcast episode. This doesn't mean I've said all I can say! Just that this is my livelihood which means I have limited energy to do additional private teaching, especially if someone hasn't looked through my existing resources, and double especially if I'm not being compensated for the time and energy to teach. Please consider going through my works before DMing questions! Or, ask me if your question is answered in any of my resources -- I can point you in the right direction.

Ways I probably WILL respond to DMs like this:

I will say! I have had people approach me in DMs telling me upfront that they have a question that goes beyond the scope of my existing resources, and that they would like to tip me for my time helping them with it. Respect for my time makes me feel really safe, comfortable, and motivated to help!

I also am generally more motivated to respond when the question is posed in a public way -- Tumblr's asks are the best example of this. This allows me to write something that can be informative to other people, and I can put the writing among my other resources.

--

In an ideal world, I would have unlimited time and energy to help everyone asking questions in a detailed and individual way! This is not about gatekeeping information or feeling like I am somehow “above” doing this, not at all. Legitimately I am just a chronically ill person who like, also needs to be able to afford groceries, you know?

Thank you for the question!

[shewhowas39]

Hi! Since you kindly offered your lore expertise, I'd love to hear your take on the whole "DnD vampires are intrinsically evil" thing. What exactly is that based on and how would it affect their decision-making and their relationships? Also, I feel like we as a fan base generally only ascribe it to vampire lords, not spawn, but is this actually justified, based on the source material?

Thank you for helping us newbies ❤️

okay this is a GREAT question and a complicated one to answer. becasue it's less about lore and mor about mechanics, in a way.

so DnD uses the alignment system - from lawful good to chaotic evil. as players, we get to decide our character's alignment, but creature/monster statblocks have one assigned to them.

in the case of vampire spawn, that alignment is neutral evil. in the case of true vampires, it's lawful evil.

so, yes, in mechanical terms, one might say that all vampires are inherently evil based on this alignment. however, in recent years we've seen DnD pulling away from this sort of "all of X are X alignment" system. case in point: the drow. drow used to ALWAYS be evil, with Drizzt as the rare exception. but this is fairly problematic for a lot of reasons, so we now see DnD focusing more on drow society being dark and evil, but individuals are still capable of subverting this.

so, back to your question: are vampires and vampire spawn always evil? and the answer is... complicated. the lore says yes, but the lore also says all drow are evil, but we have seen exceptions and now the game itself is shfiting away from this idea.

here's my personal take:

vampires are *usually* evil. for a lot of reasons. over time, hunger for blood will start making you see people less and less as people and more as food, making you lose compassion. there's obviously a cycle of abuse as well (the game does a great job with this one), where one's sire plays a big role, and the fact of who becomes a vampire, because its not unheard of in the lore for some power hungry people to seek it out.

but can there be exceptions? i'd say so. we've seen them among other monsters, so why not?

so perhaps not a very concrete answer. the crossroads between lore and alignment is messy at best.

tl;dr: the mechanics and some lore says yes, all vampires are evil aligned, but modern DnD's approach to alignment would imply there can be exceptions to this.

[confusedandghostly]

Entirely self indulgent dp x dc x mlb prompt

—

-Danny & Adrien know each other, maybe via Magic Stuff, maybe it’s the classic “event in a convenient spot”, doesn’t really matter. Point is they’re hero friends who both know each other’s secret identities and keep in touch.

-At some point, Danny is forced to relocate from Amity park because of a reveal gone horribly wrong. He bolts and keeps going until he can’t anymore. He’s picked up by a stranger.

-(Generally he doesn’t drop his transformations by accident anymore but thank the ancients he did this time because he would’ve had one hell of a time explaining to this stranger why his blood was bright neon green. As it stands, the biggest question is what the hell happened to him.)

-Nightwing is just vibing, doing his nightly patrols in Bludhaven, when he finds this kid half unconscious in an alleyway, bleeding out. They more or less beg not to be taken to a hospital when Dick suggests it, so instead he takes them to one of his safe houses and patches him up there (This kid is 16? Maybe? Why’s there an open autopsy incision-)

-Danny is not in any shape to be going anywhere and on top of that, his accelerated healing is working at a third of the speed it should be because of the materials that were used to hurt him being anti ghost, so Dick manages to convince him to stay in his misc safehouses - he doesn’t need to stay in just one, he’s allowed to move between them, just please don’t leave entirely.

-Danny explicitly requests that as few people as possible get involved in this, and yes that means the rest of the bats. If he can leave once he’s healed without anyone but Nightwing ever knowing he was there then that’s for the best.

-Except, as it often goes, Danny gets attached to Dick and Dick gets attached to Danny and the Reveal happens, etc.

-While he’s still healing and can’t do much of anything, a story runs on the news. Dick doesn’t think too much of it at first, but Danny gets really concerned when he sees it.

-“-Paris’ supervillain Hawkmoth has finally been taken down. Secretly the popular fashion designer Gabriel Agreste, many people who have heard the news are devastated. His home is currently being searched….”

-Danny goes “oh shit!!! I know that guy!!!” and immediately calls up Adrien and asks if he’s alright, what he’s doing, etc and the resounding answer is no, Adrien’s having an existential crisis, and he’s staying with friends while he figures out what to do with himself.

-Danny explains his own situation, specifically that he was displaced but found a safe (and at this point he really doesn’t want to leave anymore) home with another hero, and Dick, who’s only heard half of the conversation but understands that someone Danny knows and trusts with his own identity needs a place to stay, and offers Adrien a place here.

-Adrien decides to take him up on that offer. He’s being harassed, moreso than he ever was simply for being Adrien the model, because now he’s Adrien, the supervillain’s son, and since Hawkmoth was pretty localized he’s hoping that it won’t be near as bad in a different country.

-Now Dick has two kids in his care and he’s feeling more and more like Bruce by the day because he’s just gone from living alone save for whatever times he visits the manor to having two kids in his house, relying on him for safety and emotional support in the span of like. Two weeks.

-Reveal x2 with Adrien, all that Bonding Stuff™️

-Adrien and Danny get to talking and they’re both experiencing some cabin fever and so they decide “yk what?? We could help Nightwing with his hero work!! The area already has a metric fuckton of heroes, what’s two more?”

-It’s actually rather easy for Adrien to convince Nightwing because he gets why Adrien wants to be back out on the field. Danny, on the other hand, is finding it way harder, because Dick is already worried about Danny’s injuries.

-They both manage it though, under two conditions.

-1. They can’t be Phantom and Cat Noir. Not only is it going to be incredibly obvious if/when they make any public appearances as civilians, but also it’s going to raise questions and unwanted attention.

-2. Minimal magic and ghostly powers. This ties back to the previous stipulation, technically. Cataclysm is too recognizable as a miraculous thing, and it could be detrimental in a fight where Adrien can’t get away to recharge. If Danny used too many of his ghostly powers, he could give himself away as a ghost and become a target for hunters.

-Cue a montage of Dick hiding his two new protégés from the rest of the bats because he wants it to be a surprise and also he wants their debut to be on their terms for safety and damage control reasons while trying to set them up with the appropriate training and gear (moreso Danny who needs a whole new suit than Adrien who can just redesign his magic suit)

-The other bats are absolutely certain something is up with Nightwing and they’re proven right when two new players make their debut.

[transmutationisms]

possibly too broad but do you have any thoughts on the discourse around self-pathologizing? seems like there’s weird territory there since there are so many barriers to diagnoses and people should be free to self-report, yet some pathologies are essentially capitalist inventions and it may be more harmful than helpful for people to fixate on them without some kind of external guidance (though i don’t mean to imply they need to consult medical practitioners). i also don’t really think faddishness is the big concern it’s made out to be, but what do you think?

yeah to me this is a good example of how genuinely epistemologically radical critique of psychiatry can become assimilated into pretty staid liberal discourses of self-empowerment / -care / -improvement. pathologisation, imo, is basically materially meaningless if it's not backed by the sorts of institutions and power relations that characterise the psychiatric establishment. which is to say, if we're only talking about diagnostic labels in a kind of personal-choice framework (as so much of the medium dot com industrial complex seems to be doing lately) then it robs these conversations of a lot of their urgency and impact. i don't think overreliance on the language of the dsm is particularly helpful, as a general matter of seeking to develop political consciousness as well as self-knowledge, but i also don't think it really matters one way or another if someone self-dxes or un-dxes. what makes a difference is things like: is this person being robbed of their autonomy? are these explanatory frameworks being imposed on them by credentialled experts levelling their professional status to claim epistemological authority over the psyche? what social and economic violence is being committed here? some rando online relating to a diagnostic label and using it for themself is not doing these things, and may very well be helpful to that person (it may also not. but again the harm here is p limited).

i have said before, a lot of what puts me personally off dsm labels is the essentialism they're in bed with. ie, it's not just a shorthand descriptor of behaviours or symptoms—these terms are pretty much always being wielded as claims to have identified a biologically based 'neurotype', eg, or some as-yet-unverifiable misery-engendering genetic complex, or whatever else. and to be clear, i think these types of claims do actually carry widespread social harm, because no matter what rhetorical games you play, you're never just saying these things about yourself. it's a claim to certain forms of bio-essentialism that both shores up professional psychiatric authority and applies to people besides yourself (this is just the nature of such universalising claims about human biology). but this is an issue that goes so far beyond use or disuse of diagnostic labels; plenty of people who have embraced superficial principles of anti-psych critique still make all manner of such essentialist claims when it comes down to it, with or without grabbing onto a specific diagnostic label. so i think the kind of panicking we see in certain left-leaning circles about self-dx is not actually about this issue at all, and is certainly not capable of addressing it productively.

without going insanely long here i would just add that this is kind of a general answer because different labels have different histories and functions (eg, compare the social and political function of pathologising a depressive episode, vs autistic traits / behaviours, vs a so-called personality disorder). and also, whenever talking about self-dx i think it's important to add that one of the most important functions of these labels from a patient perspective is they function as means of gatekeeping access to certain accessibility measures, so any kind of anti-self dx position in current political conditions will harm people who need those accommodations. and i have less than zero interest in questioning anybody who wants accessibility measures for literally any reason or uses any method to obtain them.

[antianakin]

@auditect

You seem like you're being genuine about this and asking this in good faith, so I'm going to say this as respectfully as I possibly can: no, she's not.

When thinking about what's canon and what's not, there are 2 things to consider. One is, was it explicitly said or shown in the canon material (in this case, Rebels)? For example, did you hear anyone CALL Ahsoka a Gray Jedi, or discuss Gray Jedi and then have Ahsoka pretty clearly get associated with said concept? Two is, have you ever heard the main creator of a canon material explicitly state somewhere that Ahsoka is intended to be understood as a Gray Jedi by the audience? In this case that would probably be Filoni, but you can probably count the other writers and even Lucas in this category.

The answer to all of those questions is no. At no point has the concept of Gray Jedi ever been brought up in a high canon piece of media in Star Wars (in case high canon is a new term for you, this includes all of the movies, TCW, Rebels, and the Disney+ shows like The Mandalorian, TBOBF, TBB, etc.). Gray Jedi are FANON because they only exist in a piece of extended universe Star Wars media which, in many ways, works as basically official fanfiction. Nobody working on the more "high media" stuff is ever obligated to keep extended universe stories in mind and adhere to their continuity, but the people working on extended universe stories have to adhere to high canon continuity as best they can.

Obviously there are things that have been brought from extended universe into high canon, but Gray Jedi simply aren't one of them. And, in my own opinion, this is because the entire concept makes no sense with the actual worldbuilding of high canon Star Wars. As much as Filoni shits on the Jedi, he does generally seem to understand Lucas's worldbuilding which makes the fanon concept of Gray Jedi literally impossible. Using a little dark side without it having an impact on you isn't possible. That's not how the Force works, as the saying goes.

So no, Ahsoka's not a gray Jedi in Rebels. She's a former Jedi who happens to keep using her training and her lightsabers to help people in the Rebellion. Even in the trailers for the new Ahsoka show, the tagline says "rebel, outcast, JEDI." There's nothing in there about being gray, there's no acknowledgment of Gray Jedi as a thing. Ahsoka is someone who was once a Jedi and will likely end up a Jedi again by the end of her show because that's the journey we've sort-of seen her going on throughout the different things she's been in.

In Rebels, we see Ahsoka actively working with other Jedi (Kanan and Ezra) to continue work that the Jedi Order had started, we see Ahsoka specifically come along on missions that are Jedi specific problems. She says she's not a Jedi, yes, but in her time, being a Jedi meant something very specific, you couldn't just identify as a Jedi if you weren't someone who was adopted into the Order officially. Ahsoka was expelled and then refused to come back, so she's no longer an official member of the Jedi Order and can no longer take on the title of Jedi. And then the Order is destroyed, so all roads for officially rejoining the Order are now closed to her effectively forever. And this leaves her with trying to figure out what being a Jedi means to her in the wake of that destruction, how can she re-identify as a Jedi without an Order to be a part of, does she even have the right to do so when she hadn't been a Jedi when the Order was destroyed? We've seen characters like Kanan and Cal go through similar arcs and both of them became full Jedi by the end of them. There's no real reason Ahsoka won't do the same given that it's the most obvious place for her to go.

Now, none of that means that if you like the fanon concept of Gray Jedi that you can't just headcanon Ahsoka as a Gray Jedi after she leaves the Order. More power to you! But just because it's a headcanon you like doesn't make it canon. Until it's made explicit via dialogue or something similar in high canon, or at the very least said in an interview by one of the creators, it's NOT CANON.

[himexyandere]

hellooooo just wanted to stop by and say hi! :D hope you're doing well~

i recently picked up Inclement Indee Fix and i am already incredibly fond of Leumin >W< he is quite cute in a "aw a little guy / oh he's a little fucked up actually (and i'm into that)"-kind of way, and i am excited to see more of him from you in the future <3

i was trying out different responses in the demo and when Leumin said he wanted to read MC's writing, i just laughed and said, "sorry little buddy, most of my work is just porn :')" so that made me wonder: how would Leumin react if MC was a smut artist/writer? how does he generally feel about their work? is he more into it simply because it's theirs? and is he down to provide ~reference materials~ for his darling's work? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Hey there, beautiful anon! Thank you for taking the time to stop by and leave an ask and such lovely compliments, I really appreciate it! 🥺💞 And I'm glad you like my fucked up lil loser so much!! I plan to make a sequel for him, but I'm not sure when I'll actually be able to work on that- 🤔

Anyway, to answer your question: if Leu found out MC created porn in any form, I think he would be all the more enthused to see/read what they make (if they'd let him)! He's freaky as hell and he finds it really amazing that people are able to make such lewd content, no matter the quality! He's into most stuff that's r18, but I think he would be even more into it if it belonged to MC, yeah!!

If his beloved asked for ref pics, you can be sure he'll be more than happy to provide! Do you need a pic of him tied up and covered in his own cum? He's got you, but he's gonna need some help untying himself afterwards- Need a pic of him in pretty lingerie? Sure thing, but only for you!! After all, if you don't ask him, then he's not sure where you're gonna get the pics from- and he'd get kinda jealous hehe

[northlight14]

@ everyone going back to school, especially all my fellow neurodivergents and specifically those with special interests or hyperfixations, there is no wrong way of revising! It doesn’t matter if it seems “unusual” to other people, if it works for you, use it!!

I just finished collage and because of my funky brain, I can have a difficult time remembering information, especially things like names and specific details. And considering a lot of the classes I was taking required me to remember a lot of different theories, that was proving to be a bit of an issue. Cut to when we were getting up to our A level mocks and my English literature teacher at the time starts going round the entire classroom asking everyone how they revise one by one. Everyone’s saying the usual stuff of “I reread the material” “I use flash cards” “I make notes” etc. All stuff I’ve tried to do in the past but just never worked for me because my brain functions differently. She then gets to me and asks how I revise and I explain that I’ll try and make connections in my brain between the thing I’m studying and whatever my interests are. I’ve always found this to be useful for me because it keeps my brain interested in what I’m studying by using my special interests and also requires me to actively think about and analyse what I’m studying so that I can make those connections. However, my teacher just looked at me with the most condescending smile on her face and asked “does that really work?” Obviously I got uncomfortable and said “yeah it does” but she then proceeded to ask “do you do anything else?” And making it out as if I was an idiot for doing something like that and just making me feel embarrassed in front of the class. Eventually, I just said one of the generic answers everyone else had so she’d leave me alone.

However, I’m petty as hell so when it came to the mocks I used that method to memorise one of my theories for media studies. Cut to that theory being the one that stuck in my head the most, just proving to me that this method my teacher decided “doesn’t work” without actually listening to me, does in fact work for me. Fast forward to my actual A Levels and I used that method again. Ace Attorney had just become my new special interest/hyperfixation so I used that for a lot of the theories. Specifically, one of the theories I linked it to “The Steel Samurai”, a tv show within the Ace Attorney universe. Then when I went into my exam I saw a theory question. For those who don’t know, for theory questions they just ask you to apply a theory to a specific text but they only name the theory, they don’t tell you what the theory includes. While at first wasn’t sure what the theory was and went to answer another question, I then quickly remembered “the steel samurai” and even wrote down “the steel samurai” next to the question as a reminder for myself for when I went to answer it and it helped a lot as a prompt. Once again, the method my teacher decided “didn’t work” was the very reason I was able to answer that question and passed my media exam

Again, it doesn’t matter what other people’s opinions are on how you revise, if it works for you, please use it! You know your brain better than anyone else. Do whatever helps you understand the material and keeps your brain engaged

[apolloslyrics]

Hiii, I just wanted to say that I love your page so much and how in depth you explain things <3

I've been obsessed with Greek mythology for some time now and last week I discovered that they actually exist and that people worship them. You can imagine my excitement hahshah. So, I felt drawn to mostly Apollo and Aphrodite but I'm working more with Apollo. So far he's helped me sooo much already and he's always there when I call him for help or just to vent. And even though I can feel his presence and I've seen some signs I've been an atheist for my whole life and it's just so strange for me to just sit alone in my room talking to the air (as I said even though I feel like he's listening to me) or offering something and just leaving it there. I'll probably get used to it but I don't know if you could give me some advice. Oh and also what are some ways I can communicate with Apollo (or deities in general) ?? Because I just talk to them and id like to receive a response I can understand or like ask more specific questions if that makes sense??

Anyways sorry for the long message and thank you for your time 💖

Hey hi!!! Don't worry about the long message. I love getting asks!! Also, thank you so so much 🥺 I'm glad you enjoy my page!

I totally get the excitement you're feeling; I felt a similar way, although my progress was slow to get to where I am now. Finding out that these deities truly are there, and that they listen, is something so surreal! It still fills me with amazement, even though I've been practicing for a while.

Feeling awkward when you start out with prayer and offerings is a totally normal experience. I felt that way for a long time; the number one tip I'd have for you is to find something that represents the deity you're talking to. Whether it be a candle dedicated to them (LED or otherwise), a statue, a picture, or even just a random object, this can help a lot with materializing your deity. By that, I mean that it's easier to communicate when you have something to look at visually. My favorite way to do this is with a candle; the way the flame moves can sometimes indicate a response from said deity. However, I don't always light my candles; talking to deities comes easier with time and dedication.

Another tip I'd have for this "issue" is to use a specific posture/stance to pray (especially if you cant use physical objects). I used to be Christian, and during those types of prayers, you'd typically press your hands together in some way and bow your head. However, when worshipping greek deities, there are two most common ways to hold yourself.

For deities that remain in the sky/Mount Olympus, you would stand with your arms stretched out, palms facing up. For deities in the underworld, you would get on your knees and place your hands on the ground. For me, the posture on the ground isn't possible right now (knee surgery things), so I just look at the ground and face my palms down.

Those two tips seemed to be what helped a lot with prayer. For offerings, I tend to leave them for an hour or two and then throw them away (my family doesn't like when it's overnight). You can also do devotional acts for offering, such as self care, listening to a music playlist you make the deity, making a pinterest board, etc. This makes offerings a lot less daunting for me. One time, I held a dance party for Apollo! We had fun.

In terms of communication, other than talking directly, there are a few ways you can send a message. The first method I like to use is to meditate. You don't have to talk; you can say your question out loud or think it. Try to just keep the question in mind, and the first thought/answer you have is typically what the deity would respond with (in my experience).

Another method I use is automatic writing! This is where you close your eyes and write whatever comes to mind. You can ask a specific deity to send you a message if you'd like. It's sort of like meditation, but physically, if you get what I mean.

Sometimes, to get a response, you might want to ask for a sign. For example, "If I need to do A, I'll see a crow; if I need to do B, I'll see a duck." Choose things that are common in your area. The first one you see is your answer!

Aside from that, you can always use pendulums (or even a necklace as a makeshift pendulum), tarot cards, and any other divination tool.

I apologize for the long response, and I hope this helped!!!! 🫶🫶🫶

[theonceandfuturequeenoftarts]

ooooooo what’s poor kids supper club????

Thank you for the ask, lovely anon!

I don't really remember plotting out "poor kids supper club," so odds are I did it in October, during the fever dream that was writing the Promptening. I think I meant for it to be one of the Promptening chapters, but it grew legs and horns and I just set it to the side.

Here's what that doc file contains (still mostly point-form notes):

Muggle AU; basing this on the Canadian university system, as that’s the one I have experience with  Harry sees that Ron is struggling to afford tuition, rent and meals, even with a part-time job and needs-based bursaries, wants to help him out but knows Ron will turn down any direct attempt at assistance (he has before).  Potter parents died in a house fire (James from part of the house falling on him, Lily of smoke inhalation from getting Harry and getting outside) and, due to mismanagement, the Dursleys took the insurance payout for the house - Still mistreated Harry (because they're trash like that) But Harry has some money that his parents set aside for his education, a portion of the insurance payout from his parents’ deaths available to him, and the rest – as well as his modest inheritance – will become available to him once he turns twenty-five, as well as a full-ride scholarship (probably for ⚽), so he’s comfortable. Not absurdly wealthy, but he can afford to be generous. He’s frugal due to his years of starving with the Dursleys – he doesn’t ever want to be at someone else’s financial mercy again. He also knows what it’s like to be the poor, hungry one and not have anyone else to rely on, and he doesn’t want anyone else to feel that way. His godfather also left him a big, totally-not-haunted fixer-upper house when he passed away, so Harry has a place to host these get-togethers – a giant kitchen and huge dining room.  So Harry posts a few signs around campus, especially near the financial aid office, offering dinner to anyone, no questions asked. They just have to give him a couple hours notice, and if they let him know at least a day ahead of time, they can make food requests.  So he drags Ron and Hermione over as often as possible to feed them, and sometimes they’re joined by another person or three, and it becomes something of a supper club. Draco shows up at some point because it’s popular/because Potter/to mock the poor people, and Harry says “really?” and Malfoy answers “You said no questions!” To which Harry shrugs and says “as long as you behave yourself, you can stay.” Tom becomes a fixture, because while he has scholarship money coming out his ears and a part-time job (because he’s not super challenged by the material and has enough time for it), he’s also trying to run with the rich kids, so any extra money he has goes towards better clothes and accoutrements.  - Plus, if some idiot’s going to be altruistic enough to feed him for free, he’s going to take advantage of that It becomes popular enough that Harry institutes a pay-what-you-can-if-you-can policy (looking at you, Malfoy) Turns into a whole thing, where people help each other out academically and they all do homework together, a support group during midterms and finals and when someone’s having a rough day, they have games nights and go on outings together, and there are groups within the group. If people need a place to stay, they can apply to have one of the rooms in Harry’s fuck-off house for free (as long as they help keep it clean) Harry basically becomes low-key financial aid for his peers, and they think he’s the coolest, and he has no idea.

Yet another meandering, slice-of-life Flaky fic in the making (•ᴗ•,, )

(I just want them all to be warm and happy and eat together and probably cuddle-puddle together. My needs are simple.)

If anyone wants me to actually flesh this out and write it, feel free to include suggestions of what you'd like to see in it, too!