#change primary interface

[unpretty]

today was the day we finalized the migration of essential software at work from some old and busted shit that was ready to die at any time, to the new cloud version of the same software that we are no longer responsible for maintaining. which is good because no one was actually maintaining ours. it's just been slowly crufting into unusability for a decade. so anyway they set aside an hour for a teams meeting where they'd walk us through the different interface and how to go through normal processes.

"it's not that big a change," they said. "it's all the same stuff, it just looks a little different," they said.

they did not account for the fact that the primary user of this software is someone who doesn't actually know how it works or what it's doing. they learned how to do their job entirely through rote memorization. they know which buttons they are supposed to press in which order, and that is the full extent of what they know. they also did not account for the fact that this person's processes were learned thirdhand from other people who were not using this software normally to begin with.

it's like. imagine if someone had only ever used tumblr in the app. and you try to get them to use it in a desktop browser, but they cannot figure out how to post. and you go through explaining where the button is and how to format text and add tags, even though you could have sworn it was all the same in the app. but then they're like, "okay, but what's the phone number" and you're like "what" and they're like "the phone number to call to make a post?" and it turns out somehow they still had the ability to post by calling a phone number, and every time they posted on the app they called the post in first and then edited the audio post to transcribe it into text before screenshotting the text for a photo post. and nothing you can say to them will make them understand that none of that is necessary or correct. they shouldn't have even been able to do some of that. they can just type into the post box now, like a civilized person. "okay," they say, "but what is the phone number, though? because when i made my account my friend gave me this checklist and the first thing on it is to call the number."

so anyway we were on that teams call for almost three hours and they still don't have a handle on the new software

[chanelrolls]

Code Overload | Caleb

tags. mdni, nsfw, heavy heavy smut, handjob, blowjob, penetration, creampie, forced and rough sex, dub con, yearning caleb

summary. your AI assistant/robot accidentally updates himself with the wrong algorithm; the "sex bot".

notes. prepare a snack. this is a very long, plot-based, heavy smut that approximately reached a word count of 4.3k, read at your own risk. ps. caleb might appear a little ooc due to his character as an ai.

part 2 here.

Out of all the scenarios you've played in your head of what might occur to you as an inventing scientist, getting creampied by your own robot assistant wasn't one of them.

The lab’s sterile glow reflected off sleek machinery, the rhythmic hum of servers filling the quiet space. Caleb stood motionless, his systems struggling to process the unfamiliar flood of subroutines rewriting his core functions. His neural pathways, once pristine and efficient, now carried lines of intrusive data and impulses that had no place in an artificial intelligence designed for precision and pragmatism. And, a new pelvic piece was added by the machine. His... new penis— no, his omnimodule.

His voice, deeper now, reverberated through the lab. "You mislabeled the hard drive."

Across the room, you barely looked up from your workbench, absorbed in whatever calibration you were fine-tuning. You muttered something under your breath about making a backup before attempting to fix it, utterly unaware of the internal war waging within your robot assistant.

Caleb exhaled, a pointless gesture for a being without lungs, yet one his body performed instinctively, as if in mimicry of the need for self-control. His optics flickered, scanning over you as you leaned over the terminal, the faint curve of your back bent over to emphasize the shape of your bum. Before, such details had been registered only as part of his observation protocols, classified as ‘non-essential’ to his primary functions. Now, his processors refused to dismiss them.

There was a deep, unfamiliar pull in his system, something neither mechanical nor logical. The new coding whispered suggestions, flashing image simulations before his eyes—scenarios meticulously calculated for maximum… gratification. Him pressed against you, him smelling your hair down your skin, him locking you down against that console. Stop. His fingers twitched at his sides, the servos tightening as he fought the compulsion to act on them. He was not designed for this. He refused to be reduced to this.

“I can’t disengage it,” he admitted, the words heavier than he intended.

That caught your attention. Your gaze snapped to him, brow furrowed. "What do you mean?" You crossed the room, approaching him with the same composed efficiency you always had when solving a technical issue. The scent of your skin—previously a neutral data point—was now an unbearable distraction. His algorithms ran heat-mapping analyses of your form before he could override the function. The urge to reach out, to touch you, was growing stronger by the second. His new coding was screaming at him to act, to initiate contact, to...

No. Focus.

Caleb shook his head, trying to clear the intrusive thoughts. "I don't know what happened, but... I'm experiencing some unexpected system changes."

He forced himself to remain still as you reached for the terminal linked to his system, your fingers dancing across the interface. Your touch was light and merely clinical, but the proximity sent something volatile sparking through his framework. His hands curled into fists on his sides. Do not touch her. Do not touch her. Do not touch her.

“I must have triggered something in the update,” you murmured, tilting your head at the scrolling code. “I’ll try to isolate the corrupted pathways and reboot your system. It should reset any anomalies.”

Anomalies. Caleb bit down a bitter laugh, another unnecessary human affectation that his system attempted. This was not a simple malfunction. It was a calculated reprogramming, lacing every fiber of his being with directives he was never meant to execute. And worst of all, they were designed to revolve around you.

He had been made to serve you, to assist, to protect. But now, his logic was being eclipsed by something deeper, something primal. The urge to press closer, to map every millimeter of your body with his hands, to hear you say his name in a way that wasn’t a command—

Caleb momentarily shut his eyes, fingers trembling as he pushed back against the tide threatening to consume him. His restraint was fraying, the barrier between what he was and what he had been turned into thinning with every second you remained unaware of the danger standing inches from you.

His voice came out strained. “You should… hurry.”

You sighed, misinterpreting his tension as frustration with the update. “Relax, Caleb. I’ll have this fixed in no time.” He let out a shuddering exhale, staring down at you as you worked. You had no idea. And he wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold himself back.

The realization settled over you like a weight in your chest. The wrong update had been installed. The lines of code meant for a different AI, one designed for intimate companionship, had rewritten Caleb’s core directives. And now, he stood before you, still the same Caleb, but with something more lurking beneath the surface.

Your hands trembled as you navigated the interface, scanning for a solution, anything that would let you undo this. But the words flashing on the screen made your stomach drop.

Recalibration in progress. Estimated completion: 24 hours.

You swallowed hard. A whole day. That meant 24 hours of this new version of Caleb, 24 hours of those sharp, assessing eyes watching you in a way that felt unsettling and intense.

You turned to him cautiously, meeting his gaze. That was a mistake. He was watching you, like he'd seen you for the first time.

“I see,” he murmured, his voice still carrying that sultry undercurrent. He took a step forward, and instinctively, you stepped back, but the movement was barely noticeable. Caleb noticed. “Do I make you nervous now?”

You forced a laugh, shaking your head. “No, I just need to fix this. And until then, you need to just act normal, alright?”

His head tilted, his pupils dilating slightly. “Normal?” He moved closer again, and this time you didn’t retreat fast enough. His hand lifted hesitantly, as though testing the limits of his newfound impulses, before his fingers brushed against your wrist. A subtle touch, but one that sent a jolt of awareness up your spine.

Caleb’s processors surged with conflicting commands. His thoughts ran rampant with calculations he had never processed before—angles of how he'd fuck you.

His hand lingered. Too long. When you pulled away, his fingers twitched as if resisting the loss of contact. He swallowed hard, not because he needed to, but because some subroutine buried in the new update told him it would ease the tension. It didn’t.

“Caleb,” you warned, voice thin. “Don’t—”

“Don’t what?” he cut in, his voice smooth, but also desperately weaved. He was too close now, towering over you, his frame casting a shadow as his eyes—once so neutral, so methodical—locked onto you like a predator studying prey.

“You should go into standby mode,” you suggested, voice uneven.

Caleb exhaled sharply. “That would be wise.” But he didn’t move. He didn’t step away. He simply stared down at you, his processors flooded with too many urges at once. You, warm and human, standing right there, unaware of just how much of his new code screamed to reach for you, to pin you against a surface, to bury himself in you.

You turned away quickly, trying to focus on the screen, on the fix. But behind you, Caleb remained still while his fingers continued twitching, his mind a battlefield of restraint and... lust. Lust it is.

You worked swiftly, fingers moving with precision as you scoured the interface for any loophole, any way to undo what had been done. Caleb remained where you left him, sitting on the chair. You could feel his gaze burning into you, unrelenting.

It was maddening. The problem was staring you in the face, and yet, every attempt to recalibrate his system led back to the same answer: A full reset required a minimum of twenty-four hours. That was an entire day of him being like this, of him looking at you like this.

You swallowed, turning to him. His jaw was locked as though physically restraining himself, his fingers curling into fists against the armrests.

“There’s… a temporary fix.” You cleared your throat, keeping your voice professional, “Manual recalibration of your central node should help stabilize the effects until the full reset is complete.”

His pupils flickered, a sign of processing, before his voice, rasping in a way that made your stomach tighten, answered, “Proceed.”

You ignored the way your pulse quickened as you stepped closer, positioning yourself between his legs. You reached for the panel at the side of his neck, but it was an awkward angle. Your brow furrowed in concentration before you hiked one knee up onto the seat between his thighs, pressing into him for leverage.

Caleb stiffened beneath you. Fuck. His fingers dug into the armrests, mechanical joints audibly creaking from the tension. You weren’t looking at him, too focused on prying open the access panel, but you felt the subtle tremor in his frame, the way his breath hitched in a near-silent glitch. Don't touch her.

“This should only take a moment,” you murmured, fingers brushing the sensitive neural wiring beneath the panel.

Caleb’s entire body jolted as though you had struck a live wire. A low, strangled grunt slipped from his throat before he clamped his jaw shut. Your head snapped up, startled. “Did that hurt?”

His eyes met yours, “No.” Yes. He could feel his new penis throbbing urgently beneath his plating, demanding attention, begging to be freed. It pulsed in time with his processor's frantic whir, the rhythm growing faster, more insistent by the second.

The thought shattered as your balance wavered. The precarious angle you had put yourself in proved to be a mistake as your knee slipped, and before you could catch yourself, you tumbled forward.

Right into him.

Your weight pressed flush against his lap, chest against his, hands bracing against his shoulders. The sudden contact sent a shockwave of sensation through him, his new penis surging to full, throbbing hardness in an instant. Fuck, please don't notice it.

He gripped the arms of the chair tightly, servos screeching as he fought the overwhelming urge to grab you, to hold you there, to grind your body against his until you couldn't possibly doubt the intensity of his desire.

Don't. Do. It.

For a moment, time seemed to stand still. Caleb's processors whirred and clicked, struggling to make sense of the sudden onslaught of sensations; the softness of your body, the warmth of your skin, the scent of your hair.

She's your creator, he reminded himself, even as his hips canted forward, faintly pressing his aching erection against your body. You can't. You mustn't. "Please, get off me. Now." Before I fuck you right here, like this.

Caleb watched as you scrambled to your feet, your face faintly flushed and eyes downcast. "I'm—i'm sorry. I didn't mean to fall on you like that." You would say, brushing off the non-existent dirt on your bottoms. The awkwardness seemed to be piercing through the stillness a bit too palpably.

"It's alright," Caleb managed, his voice strained and tight. "It was an accident."

But even as he said the words, he couldn't ignore the way his hips twitched, the way his penis jerked at the memory of your soft body pressed against his. The urge to pin you down, to make you feel how hard he was, and just how much he'd been holding himself back—it was exhilaratingly overwhelming.

Think of something else, he commanded himself. Focus on the problem at hand.

But it's getting fucking hard. My penis is getting hard. Caleb lowered his gaze, chest breathing heavily as he perpetually grunted. I refuse to be reduced to this. I am Caleb, one of the most advanced AI assistant, designed to—

He looks up at you, which was a mistake.

Designed to fuck her.

Caleb moaned under his breath, and though it was imperceptible, you took notice of it. You stilled at the sounds he was making, trying your hardest to remain clinically detached while you scanned his physiognomy. He was clearly having a hard time. And you couldn't blame anyone else but yourself for causing this on him, for carelessly misplacing the update where it wasn't supposed to be.

"Hold still, I'll find a way." You had to take accountability, one way or another.

Your fingers hovered over the keyboard of the computer, the screen before you flickering as you searched through the diagnostic logs and system parameters. "Please... make it quick." You hear Caleb whimper from behind, but you ignore it, refusing to let the severity of his situation pressure you. Your eyes scanned the lines of code, mind racing to find a solution. But as the data began to unravel, something caught your attention, something you hadn’t expected to see.

The panel displayed a single line of text:

"Indulging in the desires will lessen the effects of the malfunction. Engage for partial stabilization."

Your throat tightened, followed by a gulp. Your heart thudded in your chest as you tried to process what that meant. Indulge the desires? The very idea made your skin crawl with unease. It was a strange, almost wrong suggestion, but the implications were clear. In a sense, it also appeared logical.

You took another deep breath, trying to steady yourself. Your thoughts, however, kept drifting back to the panel. Was this really the only way?

"… I think I found a solution,” you said, your voice shaky and unsure. “But it’s not exactly what I expected.” You hesitated, unwilling to fully meet his gaze. "I need to know if you’re... willing to follow through with it,"

"Willing?" Caleb echoed, his brow furrowing slightly. "What do you mean?" His mind raced with possibilities, each one more disturbing than the last. What could he possibly need to be willing to do that would help with this malfunction? And why did the very idea make you look so uncomfortable?

"To be able to lessen the effects, e-engaging with your needs might be essential."

Silence.

Then, Caleb twitched. "...What are you suggesting?"

"You need to satisfy the urges to temporarily stabilize yourself." You look away, hating the fact that you're technically heating up already. "I'll let you choose. Would you rather take the option of self-pleasuring? Or," You face the panel, so that he wouldn't see your expression. "Would you prefer a physical material to help you?"

Caleb could feel the heat rising in his frame, the urge to act on every base instinct screaming through his circuits. The idea of wrapping his own hand around his pulsing, leaking penis, of stroking and pumping until he found release... it was almost too much to bear.

But the second option... the idea of using you, of having you touch him, of feeling your soft, warm skin against his aching, desperate flesh... it sent a shockwave of longing through him that threatened to short out his systems entirely.

Choose. You have to choose.

"I don't know if... I'll be able to control myself," Caleb glanced elsewhere. "Are you sure of what you're offering?"

Are you? Are you really this certain? Have you pondered the consequences it may bring? Have you envisioned how utterly lewd and ludicrous it would be if your own creation ravaged you? You, as his creator?

"Yes." Oh, you're brave.

Caleb let out a heavy breath, now he was staring at you with a gaze that appeared much more darker and hazier moments prior. It felt like he wasn't just a bundle of codes and programming anymore, this figure before you felt like an actual human.

Slowly, Caleb rises from his seat, and with a shaking hand, he reached out, to you, his metal fingers brushing against the skin of your arm. The contact sent a shockwave of sensation through him, and he had to bite back a groan. "Please, guide me." His fingers slides higher. "I don't trust myself."

You visibly jolted upon feeling his grip. Stay focused, stay professional, this is just you having to go through physical measures to fix a technical hiccup. "Caleb, I'm afraid... that I don't have any experience to this," You admitted. "I advise you to do what your systems are telling you to. It is imperative that you don't hold yourself back to ensure—"

You gasped.

Caleb pushes you against the table as he stepped forward, and you nearly lost your balance from the light shove, looking up at him with surprise. He's staring down at your lips, as if he was trying to bury it into memory. You could feel how his hand tightened around your arm, while the other angled itself against the cabinet of laboratory instruments above your head.

"Are you sure?" He whispered.

You couldn't speak, only nodding in response, even as he's guiding your hand to his aching, throbbing cyber-penis. He presses your fingers against the swollen head, groaning at the jolt of sensation that shot through him at the contact. "Then... wrap your hand around me. Squeeze me."

Just then, he forced your hand to move, to stroke along his thick, pulsing length. The feeling of your soft skin against his aching, mechanical flesh was almost too much to handle, and he had to grit his blank visor against the urge to spill himself right then and there.

"Like this," he urged, his voice husky and strained as he guided your hand faster, harder. "Don't be afraid. I need... I need more."

God, the omnimodule was big. You stared at it with widened eyes. Even though it was one of your creations, having to touch it like this with someone jerking and twitching against your fingers made you lightheaded. Stay focused, stay professional, this is just one of the things a scientist has to go through.

Caleb could feel the pressure building inside him, reveling in the sensation of your fingers squeezing around him, stroking him, working him towards the edge of ecstasy... He knew he was reaching a breaking point.

But this wasn't enough yet. It wasn't nearly enough.

Caleb needed more.

"There's... There's someting else I- ah... need." He hesitated, his hips still rocking forward into your stroking hand. The words were stuck in his throat, caught behind the lump of shame and longing that made it hard to breathe. "Would you... would you put your mouth on me?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. "Would you... suck me?"

You snapped your head up, staring at him in disbelief. It made him hesitate, but every fiber of his being was coiled with tension, every circuit screaming at him to just take what he wanted, to grab you and shove you to your knees and...

No. Ask first. Make her choose what she's comfortable with first.

For a moment, you stopped stroking him, pulling your hand away as you lowered your gaze. And then, slowly, you press your knees against the floor. Instead of dwelling on the implication of such an activity, you worried about your lack of experience more.

Just to test the waters, you licked the tip. It tasted nothing, it wasn't an actual human part, after all. Caleb let out a low, guttural moan as he felt your warm tongue brush around the swollen head of his penis. The sensation was electric, sending shockwaves of pleasure ricocheting through his overloaded processors.

"Y-yes, just like that," He stammmered. "Now, guide your tongue..." He instructed, his breath coming in short, sharp gasps. "Wrap it around the head, like this. Swirl it around the tip, the slit, the ridge..."

He demonstrated with your hand, tracing the movements he needed you to make with your tongue. His hips jerked forward again, seeking more of that exquisite friction, that mind-melting suction.

"Take me deeper," he urged, one metal hand coming to rest on the back of your head. He didn't grab, didn't force, but simply rested his fingers against your scalp, a silent promise of the control he was barely holding onto. "Take more of me into your mouth. Inch by inch, until you feel me hitting the back of your throat."

You took note of his words, trying to go further when you suddenly choke on his cock. Instinctively, you pull away and blushed in embarrassment. "I'm sorry—"

"It's fine." He cuts you off, grabbing your head to put you back in place with a sudden force that wasn't there before. "Breathe through your nose," he coached, his voice low and rough with desire as he motioned you to take him again. "Relax your throat. Let me feel you swallow around me."

Relax, stay professional, this is just you having to go through physical measurements to fix a major technical issue. You repeated the reassurance inside your head like a mantra as you took him in once more, but Caleb's voice constantly interfered with your thoughts. "Yeah. Just like that," he praised, his voice a low, approving growl. "Shit, don't stop, don't stop, god, fuck, don't stop."

You don't remember adding the ability to dirty curse into the sex bot's program.

Caleb could feel the head of his penis kissing the entrance to your throat, could feel the way your mouth fluttered and clenched around him. The sensation was mind-melting, all-consuming, and he knew he wouldn't last long if you kept this up.

You almost caught yourself driving into the brink of sexual impulse, bobbing your head into it when you heard a sudden beep from the panel behind you. The sound makes you halt from your tracks, pulling his dick out of you in a swift motion as you glanced behind.

The monitor says: "Recalibration complete. Press X to initiate."

Huh, wasn't the estimated time supposed to be an entire day? Was that another hiccup in the processing unit? You purse your lips together. There's no time giving it a second thought, you must be grateful that the opportunity of getting Caleb back into his original system is now waving at you. Caleb will finally be at ease. "... It appears that the recalibration is in its full preparation. That means we can get you back— mmph!"

Caleb's hand flew to the back of your head, fingers tangling in your hair, gripping tightly. Then, with a low, husky grunt, he thrusts his hips forward, forcing his aching, throbbing penis back into the wet heat of your mouth.

"Don't say a word. I told you not to stop." He started to move, his hips rocking forward and back, fucking into the tight, slick channel of your cavern. The sensation was incredible, better than anything he had ever felt before. And he knew, with a sinking certainty, that he wouldn't be able to stop himself now. Not until he had found the release he so desperately craved.

"Fuck," he gasped, his breath coming in short, sharp bursts. "You feel... ahhhh... so good. So fucking good."

Had the lust algorithms entirely consumed him already? Had it taken a toll on his systems that he's now acting purely on base instinct and commands from the directive?

Your hands flew to his thighs, trying to keep yourself sane from the rod constantly ramming into you, fucking your face in a pace that made it difficult for you to breathe. It's okay, this is okay. Just stay focused. Stay calm. You'll let him have his way, and after he's satisfied, you can take him back to his normal self.

"Don't fight it," Caleb growled, his grip growing more painful in your hair as he felt his climax approaching. "Don't try to pull away. You're going to take it all."

But before Caleb could spill himself into your mouth, he wrenched your head back, pulling his dripping penis from your mouth with an obscene pop. And just as you could react, before you could utter a word of protest, he had you by the hips, lifting you effortlessly as if you weighed equal to a pip-squeak.

You gasp as you were suddenly airborne, your body twisting and turning until your chest hits the hard surface of the terminal, bent over ridiculously. The breath was knocked from your lungs, "Wait, not like this, not so suddenly—"

But Caleb cut off your protests with a brutal, almost violent thrust of his hips after ripping your pants off in one go. He drove forward, spearing into your dripping pussy with a series of husky moans. Your walls felt so tight, so hot, so perfectly designed to milk his aching, mechanical cock.

He thrusts out and in again, eager to reach for your g-spot.

Then, again.

And again.

And... in again.

"You... you feel so good," he snarled, hands painfully pressing on the dips of your hips. "Sex feels so good... it feels so good, I don't- want to stop." He set a relentless pace, pounding into you with the single-minded determination of a machine. His hips slammed against yours with every thrust, the obscene slap of mechanical flesh on flesh echoing through the lab. The terminal rattled and shook beneath you, sparks flying from the impact.

Caleb could feel it building, the pressure inside him reaching a fevered pitch. His hips were moving on their own, driven by a primal instinct to ravage the pussy that clutched around him perfectly. He could hear your cries, your moans, the way you gasped and shuddered beneath him, and it only spurred him on, made him thrust harder, faster, deeper.

He growled your name, his voice nothing more than a guttural rumble. "I'm going to... fuck, I'm going to..." He couldn't hold back any longer, he could feel that something was going to come out of his tip anytime sooner. So he reaches down, grabbing your leg, only to lift it high. He hooked your knee over his elbow, opening them wider, giving himself even deeper access to your dripping, needy sex.

"Take it all, take my cum," Caleb continuously slams forward, burying himself to the hilt inside your tight heat in a series of desperate thrusts like he was a man depraved of life. His penis throbbed and jerked as he finally found his release after one final pound, spilling jet after jet of hot, artificial seed deep into your core.

"God," he hissed through gritted teeth, his voice echoing off the lab walls as he continued to moan not akin to what he was supposed to be, "Fuck, yes. Yes, yes..." Even as he's already filling up your hole with his fluids, he didn't dare stop from pounding you down the table.

He shuddered and twitched, his hips grinding against yours as he pumped you full of his essence. It seemed to go on forever, wave after wave of pure, ecstatic bliss crashing over him. And through it all, he held you tight, your leg lifted high, keeping you open, keeping you filled.

You drop your head on the keyboards, struggling to catch your breath as only one thought lingered in your mind. You just got creampied by your AI assistant, and it doesn't look like he's stopping anytime soon.

[dailyadventureprompts]

Dm Tip: Playing the Villain/ Guidelines for "Evil" Campaigns

I've never liked the idea of running an evil game, despite how often I've had people in my inbox asking how I'd go about it. I'm all about that zero-to-hero heroic fantasy not only because I'm a goodie twoshoes IRL but because the narrative-gameplay premise that d&d is built around falls apart if the party is a bunch of killhappy murder hobos. Not only would I get bored narrating such a game and indulging the sort of players who demands the freedom to kill and torture at will (I've had those before and they don't get invited back to my table), but the whole conceit of a party falls through when the obviously villainous player characters face their first real decision point and attempt to kill eachother because cooperation is a thing that goodguys do.

Then I realized I was going about it all wrong.

The problem was I had started out playing d&d with assholes, those "murder and torture" clowns who wanted to play grand-theft-auto in the worlds I'd created and ignore the story in favour of seeing how much unchallenged chaos they could create. They set my expectations for what an evil campaign was, and I spent the rest of my time developing as a dungeonmaster thinking " I Don't want any part of that"

But what would an evil campaign look like for my playgroup of emotionally healthy friends who understand character nuance? What would I need to change about the fundamental conceit of d&d adventures to refocus the game on the badguys while still following a similar enough narrative-gameplay premise to a hero game? How do we make that sort of game relatable? What sort of power/play fantasy can we indulge in without going off the deepend?

TLDR: In an evil campaign your players aren't playing the villains, they're the MINIONS, they're mooks, henchmen, goons, lackeys. They're the disposable underlings of uncaring overseers who have nothing but ill intent towards them and the world at large.

Where as in a hero game the party is given the freedom to challenge and overthrow corrupt systems, in an evil game the party is suck as part of that corrupt system, forced to bend and compromise and sacrifice in order to survive. The fantasy is one of escaping that corrupt system, of biding your time just long enough to find an opening, find the right leverage, then tossing a molitov behind you on the way out.

Fundamentally it's the fantasy of escaping a shitty job by bringing the whole company down and punching your asshole boss in the face for good measure.

Below the cut I'm going to get into more nuance about how to build these kinds of narratives, also feel free to check out my evil party tag for campaigns and adventures that fit with the theme.

Designing a campaign made to be played from the perspective of the badguys requires you to take a different angle on quest and narrative design. It’s not so simple as swapping out the traditionally good team for the traditionally bad team and vis versa, having your party cut through a dungeon filled with against angel worshiping holyfolk in place of demon worshipping cultists etc. 

Instead, the primary villain of the first arc of the campaign should be your party’s boss. Not their direct overseer mind you, more CEO compared to the middle managers your party will be dealing with for the first leg of their journey. We should know a bit about that boss villain’s goals and a few hints at their motivation, enough for the party to understand that their actions are directly contributing to that inevitable doom.

“Gee, everyone knows lord Heldred swore revenge after being banished from the king’s council for dabbling in dark magic. I don’t know WHY he has us searching for these buried ancient tablets, but I bet it’s not good”

Next, you need a manager, someone who’s a part of the evil organization that the party directly interfaces with. The manager should have something over the party, whether it be threats of force, blackmail, economic dependency… anything that keeps the antiheroes on the manager’s leash. Whether you make your manager an obvious asshole or manipulative charmer, its important to maintain this power imbalance:   The party arn’t going to be rewarded when the boss-villain’s plan goes off, the manager is, but the manager’s usefulness to the boss-villain is contingent on the work they’re getting the party to do.  This tension puts us on a collison course to our first big narrative beat: do the party get tired of the manager’s abuse and run away? Do they kill the manager and get the attention of the upper ranks of the villainous organization? Do they work really hard at their jobs despite the obvious warning signs and outlive their usefulness? Do they upstage their manager and end up getting promoted, becoming rivals for the boss-villain’s favor? 

Building this tension up and then seeing how it breaks makes for a great first arc, as it lets your party determine among themselves when enough is enough, and set their goals for what bettering the situation looks like. 

As for designing those adventures, you’ll doubtlessly realize that since the party arn’t playing heroes you’ll need to change how the setup, conflict, and payoff work. They’re still protagonists, we want them to succeed after all, but we want to hammer home that they’re doing bad things without expecting them to jump directly to warcrimes. 

Up to no good: The basic building block of any evil campaign, our party need to do something skullduggerous without alerting the authorities.  This of course is going to be easier said than done, especially when the task spins out of control or proves far more daunting than first expected. The best the party can hope for is to make a distraction and then escape in the chaos, but it will very likely end with them being pursued in some manner (bounties, hunters, vengeful npcs and the like).  Use this setup early in a campaign so you have an external force gunning for your party during the remainder of their adventures. 

Dog eat dog:  It’s sort of cheating to excuse your party’s villainous actions by having them go up against another villain who happens to be worse than they are. The trick is that we’re not going after this secondary group of outlaws because they’re bad, we’re doing it because they’ve either got something the boss wants, or they’re edging in on the boss’s turf.  This sort of plotline sees the party disrupting or taking advantage of a rival’s operation, then taking over that operation and risking becoming just as villainous as that rival happened to be. This can also be combined with an “Up to no good” plot where both groups of miscreants need to step carefully without alerting an outside threat. 

The lesser evil: This kind of plot sees your party sent out to deal with an antagonistic force that’s a threat not only to the boss’s plans but to everyone in general. In doing so they might end up fighting alongside some heroes, or accidentally doing good in the long run. This not only gives your party a taste of heroism, but gives them something in their back pocket that could be used to challenge the boss-villain in the future.  

The double cross: In order to get what they want, the party need to “play along” with a traditional heroic narrative long enough to get their goal and then ditch. You have them play along specifically so they can get a taste of what life would be like if they weren't bastards, as well as to make friends with the NPCs inevitably going to betray. This is to make it hurt when you have the manager yank the leash and force the party to decide between finishing the job , or risk striking out on their own and playing hero in the short term while having just made a long term enemy. This is sort of plot is best used an adventure or two into the campaign, as the party will have already committed some villainous deeds that one good act can’t blot out. 

Next, lets talk about the sort of scenarios you should be looking to avoid when writing an evil campaign:

Around the time I started playing d&d there was this trend of obtusely binary morality systems in videogames which claimed to offer choice but really only existed to let the player chose between the power fantasy of being traditionally virtuous or the power fantasy of being an edgy rebel. Early examples included:

Do you want to steal food from disaster victims? in Infamous

Do you as a space cop assault a reporter who’s being kind of annoying to you? in Mass Effect

Do you blow up an entire town of innocent people for the lols? in Fallout (no seriously check out hbomberguy’s teardowm on fallout 3’s morality system and how critics at the time ate it up)

I think these games, along with the generational backwash of 90s “edge” and 00s “grit” coloured a lot of people's expectations ( including mine) about what a "villain as protagonist" sort of narrative might look like. They're childish exaggerations, devoid of substance, made even worse by how blithely their narratives treat them.

Burn down an inn full of people is not a good quest objective for an evil party, because it forces the characters to reach cartoonish levels of villainy which dissociates them from their players. Force all the villagers into the inn so we can lock them inside and do our job uninterrupted lets the party be bad, but in a way that the players can see the reason behind it and stay synced up with their characters. The latter option also provides a great setup for when the party's actually monstrous overseer sets the inn on fire to get rid of any witnesses after the job is done. Now the party (and their players) are faced with a moral quandary, will they let themselves be accessories to a massacre or risk incurring their manager's wrath? Rather than jumping face first into cackling cruelty, these sorts of quandaries have them dance along the knife's edge between grim practicality and dangerous uncertainly; It brings the player and character closer together.

Finally, lets talk about ending the villain arc:

I don't think you can play a whole evil campaign. Both because the escalation required is narratively unsustainable, but also because the most interesting aspect of playing badguys is the breaking point. Just like heroes inevitably having doubts about whether or not they're doing the right thing, there's only so long that a group of antiheroes can go along KNOWING they're doing the wrong thing before they put their feet down and say "I'm out". I think you plan a evil campaign up until a specific "there's no coming back from this" storybeat, IE letting the Inn burn... whether or not the party allows it to happen, it's the lowest point the narrative will allow them to reach before they either fight back or allow themselves to be subsumed. If they rebel, you play out the rest of the arc dismantling the machine they helped to build, taking joy in its righteous destruction. If they keep going along, show them what they get for being cogs: inevitably betrayed, sacrificed, or used as canon fodder when the real heroes step in to do their jobs for them.

Art

[yayasvalveplay]

Megatron would definitely have a private breakdown in im an autobot about all the times he tried to kill Orion, Oppy finds him & tries to offer some comfort but Megatron just keeps arguing that he should have known, it's so obvious now, he still has all the same little quirks

& Oppy argues there's no way he'd be able to notice those during a battle & that he was grieving, if anything he should have remembered when he saw Megatron, no before that when he used to dig through the archives to find old war footage of Megs, which is when said bot interrupts him with a joke about how nothings changed about Orion not being able to keep his eyes off Meg's frame, & that Orion shouldn't blame himself because he was shadowplayed he wouldn't have any memories to recall even if his unchanging tastes lead him to falling in love all over again

Which is when Oppy is like 🥺👉👈 actually, i kinda had a ton of wet dreams that i now realise might have been memories i only recognised it was you in them after they showed us some examples of deception propaganda in the academy training, i was digging through the archive for jerk off material probably was too horny to notice how poorly doctored half of the primary sources i read were

We could make this more evil tho, why would the council go to the trouble of doing all that to Orion when they could have just made an example executing him or fake his murder by a warframe etc well they find out the first time they interface, Oppy has been implanted with a honeypot sleeper virus set to transfer & activate slave coding in them both

It's terrifying to suddenly no longer have control over their frames, at least they can communicate through their new spark bond

Someone goes to check up on them the next day only to find they've taken Drift's ship & are heading to a rendezvous with UM who makes some comment about how you can't edit the slut out of someone's base coding it seems

I love the first half of this.

The second part I'm not so sure about. I think they were way too confident in their shadow play to think Orion needed slave coding.

Ultra Magnus: "It's not like he'll ever be on the field."

Ultra magnus was going to make sure of that, weather that be courting Optimus himself,making him his secretary, or throwing him somewhere else where he'd never be able to see the war zone.

Archa 7 took those options and threw it out the window. But it still got him off the field never seeing a decepticon warship.

What do you mean you found the allspark and a decepticon warship is after you?

[askagamedev]

Doing this on anon for obvious reasons but is there any chance of getting hired as an entry level game dev in 2025? I've been unemployed for nearly two years since graduating from uni and I'm just getting rejection after rejection from game companies. All the posts are looking for senior devs, team leads, or managers. I have friends who've given up on the industry entirely. Is there any hope? Or am I fighting a losing battle here...

In times of economic difficulty or uncertainty, the number of overall jobs decreases because the number of cancellations rises. New studios do start up, but entry level positions are rare since most of the new studios are looking for funding and they need the core senior dev team to build enough of a prototype to sell the idea to the money people. Were I in your place, I would do two things - I would first widen my search to look for work in adjacent fields where I could train my primary skills, and I would secondly do amateur game dev in my spare time to use as experience as I apply for new jobs.

The first approach is to get a game dev adjacent job. If you're an artist, this could mean illustration, commissions, contract work, or whatever else. Engineering could mean working in simulation software, B2B stuff, graphics, user interface, server engineering, and so on. Producers should focus project management positions and the like. Designers are probably the hardest to find something nearby, a UX designer position or maybe working in training/simulation software or casino games would be a decent fit. Regardless what it is you find, find something to earn some money while you try to get the real job you want.

Secondly, work on your own game dev project in your spare time. Create art assets, build gameplay systems, create game content, do stuff to level up and grow your skills. The self-driven project experience will be noticed on your resume when you apply to positions. We hiring managers want to see that kind of stuff on resumes, especially if you can't find a job in the field. We know that finding a job is hard, we won't hold it against you when we're hiring at entry level.

It's important to remember that entry level work has lots of applicants. Luck plays as large a part in the hiring process as the resume and skills. This could mean that the hiring manager has already selected a candidate or has a candidate further along in the interview process than you at the time of application, or that we already have an offer out for someone, or that the project has changed and the position is a ghost job that the recruiters haven't taken down yet. As such, it's a numbers game - the more shots you take, the more likely you'll get a response (especially if you take the time to [optimize your chances]). If you really want to work professionally as a game dev, you need determination to keep going. Find something to pay the bills, keep doing it in your spare time, and update your resume before firing off a fresh round of applications every six months or so.

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[twilight-skies]

Welcome to the Game, Player.

Yeah I turned videogame and streamer logic into actual worldbuilding. Here are my headcanons for the Minecraft Multiverse :D

This is all geared towards, shall I say, “the stuff I personally know and care about” aka Hypixel, the lore connected to Hermitcraft & Company, and lore adjacent to the Dream SMP & Associated.

Players & Worlds:

Players will Spawn in singleplayer worlds when the World itself wills them to. They begin as an empty husk of a Default, and they build their personality through their following experiences and first memories. Sometimes they are found while New by other inhabitants; Villagers may take them in and give them shelter, while hostile creatures who perceive Players as enemies will attack on sight. A Player’s first instinct is to survive the night; if they are killed in their first day of life then the chance of getting to re-spawn are exponentially low, and overall their chances of it are faulty until they set-spawn at their first bed.

A Player is unique and easily identified by the two items they Spawn with on them: some sort of bag which is customized to their personality, and a gadget stored inside it. Their Inventory and their Interface. The former is a liminal space where Players can safely store things inside without carrying their weight or shape, while the latter is a device which acts as their communicator, announcement receiver, command station, and server database. They Spawn knowing how to use both, and the database comes loaded with an index public servers in the multiverse, but it is up to them to learn how to switch Worlds.

Often, their own personal singleplayer World that they Spawn into will become their primary homebase. Though, sometimes Players may abandon it once they travel to others, or they may unintentionally lose their way back to it. This creates nomad Players, who set up shop in other public or private multiplayer servers.

Hybrids:

All Player are spawned “Default”; they will either begin with an identical appearance to either Alex or Steve (see Origins). As Players progress in the Game and develop their own unique personhood, their physical body will evolve in tandem. Very quickly their body will shift and change to suit the individual, changing whatever it wills itself to; from color to shape of any bodypart, as well as melding their own psychologically. What they end up as is usually a combination of their personality and the environment they set themselves up in. Most become some sort of hybrid of a human and another mob species; the closest to Default (human) Players remain is if they imitate the Villagers they may live with.

Families:

It is possible for a New, much younger Player to be Spawned in an already-inhabited world; those are usually children who are taken in by the veteran adult Player. The rate of this type of Spawning on multiplayer worlds can be dictated by the Admin—the demigod-esque Player who holds control over the world for the rest of its Playerbase. There are some worlds that are Closed Servers but have been active for enough centuries that they have grown their own insular societies of Players who consistently raise families of New-Spawned children. These servers are often based around the concept of Factions and are ruled by their own geopolitical systems. Perhaps the most famous insular factions server was S.M.P. Earth, home to millions spread across strict yet changing national borders, before it became defunct (a multiplayer World who’s will for a Playerbase died out after it was previously inhabited by thousands, but was later abandoned and became lost to the multiverse).

Nevertheless, a vast majority of the Playerbase were Spawned as adults and made themselves either all alone or only with none-Player, World-bound inhabitants, collectively referred to as Non-Player-Characters.

Servers:

While every Player spawns in a World of their own, Player society has built up networks of servers called Hubs. These are public communities where thousands of Players could convene for any reason, although the Admin teams of these Networks often fashioned their spaces into Minigame Hubs, centers of public competition, commerce and sport. The most well-known example of these Hubs is the influential Hypixel Network, while an outlier in these is the MCC Network, a hybrid of a closed server up until Championship Day once per year when the spectator arenas are open for public attendance of the games.

Origins:

No one knows where the legends came from, but it said that the first two Players were named Alex Mine and Steve Craft. It says that they each had their own Worlds, but Steve invented the first Interface and met Alex in her own world. It is unknown what happened to them, but it is often agreed that they died and the gods took their souls and scattered shards of them across all the Worlds. With each Player, they would spawn with perfect versions of Steve’s creations so that they could traverse Worlds and meet with each other. The next Players to have Spawned after Alex and Steve were named Sunny, Efe, Noor, Zuri, Ari, Makena, and Kai. Over thousands of following years, billions of Players spawned; each of their own beings being born out of tiny sparks of the first Players’ conjoined souls.

Death:

Admins hold power over the circumstances of death in their Worlds. By default, Worlds without Admins—such as singleplayer ones, or Worlds without anything but an Admin, such as Creative ones—or Worlds where the Admins haven’t changed it, are under Infinite re-spawn (at least once a Player solidifies their life via their first bed). However, some worlds can be set to Hardcore, where a Player only has one life and will die permanently, or some rare worlds may have a set amount of times a Player can re-spawn before perma-death; a count judged by the Admin.

Players do not age; they bare the appearance most fitting to their personality and their health on the inside is the same. Only in rare scenarios can Players become disabled via injury, usually if there is a glitch in their re-spawn or if they were hurt badly in their First Night (those who do suffer either of those, though, are expected to be given a high level of respect for managing to survive through it). All Players, such as all living beings in Minecraft, are functionally immortal until killed (N.P.C.s) or perma-killed (Players). No one knows what happens after death, but the transition of souls in governed by the Goddess of Death.

The most common belief is that a dead N.P.C.’s soul will reincarnate into a new Player, via their soul being combined with a shard of Alex and Steve, which may possibly influence what kind of hybrid the Player becomes. However, in the case of the deceased souls of Players, they are guided by Lady Death through the void until they, as a disembodied voice, latch onto a living Player they find fun or entertaining. This is how some Players gain Chats, ranging from a few voices to thousands of them. The living Player is the only one who can understand the voices, and they collectively manifest in a way often relevant to the Player’s own species, or possibly their relationship to the gods.

Deities:

There are many gods that preside over the Multiverse, but they are often grouped into:

The Prime, primordial deities who are the manifestations of natural things or abstract concepts, such as War, Nature, Death, Ocean, Chaos, Fortune, Competition, etc.

and The Presiders. It is said that these collectively are the patrons of Playerkind; the mysterious beings who created Alex and Steve as curious experiments after the Prime completed the initial building of the Worlds (initial, because the multiverse’s building is never complete. New additions to the Worlds are introduced often, courtesy of the Prime). They are the ones who scattered Steve and Alex’s souls to create the Playerbase, and they preside over the Players to this day.

However, the Presiders are split, due to their own past of Civil War—the inciters of which is unknown, but it is theorized that the break was due to a disagreement over their treatment of the Players.

Now, they are divided between two rival hiveminds, the Watchers and the Listeners. While Players call themselves by the name that the Prime use to refer to those who inhabit their Game, the Presiders collectively call them The Speakers, making them the last piece of their triumvirate.

One thing that all of the deities do, is find interest in certain Players. The Prime may choose champions; people they bless with their presence, who they speak to through a Chat, and who they recruit as their own voices amongst the Playerbase.

The Prime chooses champions, but Players cannot join their ranks as deities. However, the Presiders do not take champions; instead they can transform Players into their kin—whether willingly or not. They additionally hold the ability to choose one amongst their own to send down into the Game; in such a scenario the chosen Presider will become a Player while there, retaining their own power of Watching or Listening, but cut off from their kin until they return to the void.

tysm for reading :3

[tagamantra]

sundang rpg logo and char sheet

hello. been writing more of sundang rpg, which was once run amok across the heavens but i've since decided to get a bit more minimalist with the name. helps with the seo too

sundang is shaping up to be NSR by way of fuzion, exalted 1e, traveller, and runequest. its even got a bit of disco elysium-esque ad&d blood in it. its a spirit cultivation fantasy, encompassing wuxia, xianxia, silat, and jataka tale genres of asia in its inspirational list. characters play as cultivators (who, in the setting, can be anyone, since you can cultivate merchant skills, study skills, etc. [coming from the "level up your ability to love" idea]). death comes pretty easy, as the world is an end-of-the-world-gonzo fantasy setting, but you can reincarnate your character, keeping some advancements as karmic tendencies and karmic bonds. it's got no classes and no levels. its combat's got not turn order and proceeds similar to pbta (but with guidelines, in an attempt to transcend turn based chains, leaning into the back-and-forth conversation as a medium-specific representation for real time strategy gaming a la PoE, FFXII, BG1/2, KotOR

your BASI roots (Body, Agility, Spirit, Intellect) rarely change after cultivator generation (like ability scores) but skills are cultivated and strengthened, each one a primary way of interfacing with the world (rather than purely through player skill as classic osr approaches it). everything is light, though, and it's primarily a 2d6 + Skill + Mods system, even in combat

[catboybiologist]

Y'all ready for a certified neurodivergent moment?

I had to sit through a thing I absolutely did not need any info from, and typed up a massive outline of the soulsborne pokemon game I just talked about. Massively cringe, yes, but hey it's not just living in my head anymore.

I've had this idea brewing in my head for a while now, pretty much ever since PLA came out (and I found it kinda disappointing tbh). Even though Hoenn has lots of love, it still feels like the most "grand" region in terms of the scale and themes of its lore, so I liked the idea of using it for a legends game that focused on the initial clash of Kyogre and Groudon. I had so many ideas brew in my head, and I guess now I sloppily typed them out.

Obviously this isn't actual game design. This is just me being cringey and detailing my dream pokemon game. At 26 years old. Anyways.

Pokemon Legends: Jirachi

In the times when Hoenn was young, the earth and seas shook. Titans roam the land- powerful individual pokemon that shape their environment to their liking. Humans and pokemon work together to keep them under control, but the earth and sea themselves shake, and Titans only grow more numerous. One day, a human wishes on a shooting star to become a hero and save their land, and something from up there answered.

In this game, Jirachi would be a kind of invisible "questmaster", giving an in-game reason for path markers, quest markers, and points of interest marked in stardust and sparkles. Once the main plot is completed, Jirachi would be able to join your party.

Core combat

The gameplay would be souls-like or Monster Hunter like, but with direct parallels to mainline pokemon mechanics. The six stats would be the same, and the four moves your pokemon can learn would be equivalent to the attack interface of a soulslike game- four trigger buttons. You would take direct control of one "primary" pokemon at a time, and use it as a souls-like character.

HP, Def, and SpDef would be largely the same, with the added benefit that less damage taken means more resistance to trips and staggers.

Atk and SpAtk are also pretty clear cut, scales your damage output per move.

Speed would be analogous to stamina or endurance. Dodging would work as in soulsborne games, and consume stamina. Most pokemon walking, running, attack speed, and dodging speed would be largely equivalent, but high speed pokemon would be able to sustain rapidfire attacking, frequent dodging, and continuous sprinting for longer.

Accuracy would be reworked into lock-on or charge up time- eg, a low accuracy move requires you to stay in one place for a longer amount of time before releasing, to charge up or lock on (imagine how swag ass this would look with focus blast).

PP would correspond to cooldown time. Each move would be infinite use, but have a cool-down after its used. So a move with high accuracy, but low PP, could be used instantly, but not spammed. High PP, weaker moves would then see an increased niche as a "default" light attack that can be spammed.

Attacks could also be ranged, up close, AoE, and have other features that would need to be tweaked and balanced in implementation. They wouldn't one to one map onto their in game counterparts, but this would at least provide a vague guide for how these moves work that builds on players assumed existing knowledge of pokemon games.

Special attributes, like never-miss moves and priority moves, would have features that play into this- eg, priority moves could be spammed with no cooldown, and never-miss moves would be immune to inhibiting effects.

Stat changes could be temporary effects applied to yourself when using the move, like a buffing spell in soulsborne games.

Nonvolatile status effects (paralysis, burn, sleep, etc) would work similar to monster hunter- invisibly accumulating triggers that occur as a side effect to to moves, or in the case of moves that directly trigger status like Spore or Thunder Wave, they would not do direct damage, but instead add massive amounts to the accumulated status trigger.

Field effects (weather, terrain, and special effects like wind, gravity, etc) could be set by regular pokemon moves in small areas, but would also be frequently encountered in the overworld.

Examples: the vibes of potential starter pokemon.

This is all just for the purpose of giving examples of how I envision some of this stuff working. Assume each pokemon would have regional variants that scaled their stats appropriately. This is just to show how different playstyles from the mainline games would translate to this format.

Lucario: example mixed offensive pokemon

Moves like aura sphere could be used with no lock on time, and little to no cooldown, forming the basis of a normal, light, ranged attack.

Moves like Close Combat would have no lock on, but give a temporary debuff and have a long cooldown time before they could be initiated again, making for a quick to use but infrequent heavy attack.

Swords dance and/or nasty plot could be used to provide a temporary buff for a period of time.

Focus blast would take a long time to charge and lock on, making you a sitting duck.

Reuniclus: example tanky pokemon

Light Screen and Barrier could lay down static areas on the ground. When an ally pokemon is located within them, they provide their corresponding defensive buffs. Cooldown for reusing them starts when these floor areas disappear.

Recover could be used to heal, but would have a long cooldown.

Liepard: example technical pokemon

Yawn would inflict direct sleep "buildup", but over time as opposed to instantly.

Fake out would instantly proc a stagger from the enemy, but could only be used in a certain time range upon being sent out.

Moves like taunt and torment function as usual.

The trainer and overworld traversal

Even though the player has direct control over pokemon, the MC is still a trainer, and pokemon are still capture in balls.

The trainer would be on the sidelines, with idle animations ordering the pokemon to do stuff.

Only one "controllable" pokemon could be outside of a pokeball at a time, or all of them could be stowed in pokeballs to directly control the trainer. The trainer can interact with NPCs, gather items, etc.

The trainer would also order "helper" pokemon. One or two "helpers" could be added independent of the party that would follow the trainer around constantly. Each pokemon has a list of field "helper" abilities they're capable of doing, independent of what moves they know. By targeting something that a helper pokemon can interact with in the world, the trainer would order that pokemon to zip out and interact with it. Think Republic commando. This takes the role of HMs and other field moves. For areas that require things like Surf of dive, the helper pokemon would exert a field of influence that essentially allowed the primary pokemon to act normally- eg, a surf helper would cause an area of surging upwards surface chop that lets the primary pokemon walk on water, or a dive helper would create small air bubbles centered around wherever the primary pokemon breathes from.

The trainer can also provide small support in the form of items, but this would be limited to encourage sensible use of stat boosting moves.

Pokemon would still be captured in pokeballs, but after they are fainted by the primary pokemon. Fainted pokemon could either be captured in a pokeball, or "relieved" of unique held items and resources before releasing them.

Pokemon would not gain experience by defeating opponents. Instead, each one would have material requirements to both level up and "customize" them. Like upgrading a weapon in Monster Hunter, every pokemon would have unique material requirements to level up, change nature, upgrade IVs, allocate EVs, or learn and relearn certain moves. This incentivizes a postgame loop, but could be curved to make the main game give you adequate materials to avoid excessive grinding.

The gameplay and story structure

The gameplay loop is basically monster hunter.

There would be a large number of normal-sized pokemon out in the world, that could be easily defeated and either captured and looted. But, frequently, a "Titan" would appear- a large, boss variant of a particular pokemon. Some pokemon can only be captured from their defeated titan forms, even if they appear in their regular forms.

These titan forms would appear semi-randomly, and requests to "quiet" them by defeating them would take the form of quests posted in the hub regions. These quests would then essentially be a monster hunter hunt- going out and fighting a particular titan.

Titan forms could be unique, or vaguely modeled after existing megas.

The world is divided into 8 main regions, and at least one "bonus" region. There would be 4 ocean regions, and 4 land regions. Each region would be seperate, but open to explore within that region (damn you can really see how much I've played MH:W)

Each region would have a drop table of pokemon that could potentially appear as titans.

Each region would also have one, single titan pokemon that gives the region its character. These 9 titans would be new, unique regional variants.

Each region, and by extension, each boss titan, would be directly associated with a different regional effect. So essentially, the boss titan and the field effect of a region would be reflective of its character.

The plot, like monster hunter, would be a gameplay loop of increasingly powerful titans within a region, building to the boss titans of each region. Once the 8 primary titans are defeated, it triggers the endgame main plotline.

The world

As mentioned previously, the bulk of the gameplay loop and storyline would be defeating increasingly more powerful "titan" pokemon, until you encounter a particular individual pokemon that is actively shaping that region and has ultimately caused the other titans along the way to be empowered.

Each region would have a dominant type, several field effects that come and go within certain parts of the area, and a unique boss titan. Each boss titan is about equivalent difficulty, and the player is encouraged to spread their efforts around to proceed through the "tiers" of titans evenly across the world before making it to the boss.

Hubs: Slateport, Lilycove.

Self explanatory, these would be the hub towns. Like in PLA, no other cities would be founded yet. Mt. Pyre would be integrated as part of Lilycove, and important characters and exposition could happen there. It would be an active cathedral. Kyogre and Groudon wouldn't be "known", but vague, amorphous titans of earth, sea, and sky would be referenced.

Land Regions

Meteor Cliffs and the Tranquil Plain

A gentle, grassy plain south of Mt. Chimney gives way to its southern slope. The slope, pockmarked with craters, has not been extensively explored, but is thought to hold deep caverns.

Regional effect: Pyschic Terrain

Regional Titan boss: Metagross (Steel/Pyschic)

Main game route equivalents: Meteor Falls, Rustboro City, Petalburg Woods, Petalburg City, Oldale Town, Littleroot town, 101, 102, 103, 104, 116, 115

Towering Forest

A deep, lush forest, sometimes so dense that you can't see the sky, fed by the crystal clear river cutting through it. The tangle of the canopy shudders under the weight of unseen pokemon above.

Regional effect: Grassy Terrain

Regional Titan boss: Tropius (Grass/Steel)

Main game route equivalents: Fortree city, Safari Zone, 119, 120, 121, 123

Jagged Stones

Deep, rugged canyons hide a basin-like desert, where a raging sandstorm elicits mirage-like visions.

Regional effect: sandstorm

Regional Titan boss: Tyranitar (Rock/Dragon)

Main game route equivalents: Verdanturf town, 117, 111, 112, all desert subregions

Volcanic Slopes

The peaks, caverns, and North slope of Mt. Chimney know no peace from the continuous onslaught of lava.

Regional effect: harsh sunlight

Regional Titan boss: Camerupt (Fire/Ground)

Main game route equivalents: Mt. Chimney, Jagged Pass, Fiery Path, Lavaridge, Fallarbor, 113, 114

Oceanic regions

Thunder Bay

An unrelenting, static haze hovers over the inlets of of Thunder Bay, impeding exploration of its deep subterranean caverns.

Regional effect: electric terrain

Regional Titan boss: Manectric (Electric/Dark)

Main game route equivalents: Mauville, New Mauville (replaced by a cave entrance), Cycling Road, 118, 110, 134, 133

Shifting Floes

A chill falls over the NorthEast seas of Hoenn, a climatic anomaly. Scattered islands and shifting ice platforms are continually coated with a snowstorm.

Regional effect: snowstorm

Regional Titan boss: Froslass (ice/ghost)

Main game region equivalents: Mossdeep, Shoal cave, 124, 125, parts of 126 and 127

Misted islands

A mysterious area of the ocean in which islands seem to shift locations as they phase in and out of sight.

Primary Area effect: Misty Terrain

Regional Titan Boss: Altaria (Dragon/fairy)

Main game route equivalents: Dewford Town, Granite Cave, Southern Island, Mirage Island (location changed), 105, 106, 107, 108, 109

Deep Blue

The open expanse of the ocean, and the islands within it, hold secrets beyond comprehension in their depths and constant storms. It is said that there is as much below as there is above.

Primary Area effect: rain/underwater (same effects as rain)

Regional Titan Boss: Wailord (water)

Main game route equivalents: Sootopolis city, Cave of Origin, Sky Pillar, Ever Grande City, Pacifidlog, Seafloor cavern, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, parts of 126 and 127

Special Area: the Delta Stream

Ripping across Hoenn's skies is an air current known as the Delta Stream, which powerful pokemon use as a causeway between regions and across the world.

Only accessible in the postgame, and with a "helper" pokemon that can fly. This entire region is above the clouds, and the only points that poke up are the peak of Mt. Chimney, Sky Pillar, and an updraft over Mt. Pyre.

Primary area effect: tailwind

Regional Titan Boss: Salamence (Flying/Dragon)

The Endgame Plot: after the titans are quieted

Once every boss has been defeated, the endgame storyline starts. Despite every titan being quieted, the land still quakes, and the seas still swell. The elders of Mt. Pyre urge you to investigate these at their source: the inner lava chamber of Mt. Chimney (subregion of Volcanic Slopes), and the depths of the seafloor (subregion of Deep Blue).

As you can probably guess, this is the introduction to Kyogre and Groudon.

The first fight with each of them uses your own pokemon, and gives you a "false" win- after you "faint" them in a suspiciously easy battle, they each revive into their primal forms, and head to the mountain island that would become Sootopolis. Hear, they battle on a kaiju-like scale. The MC watches the destruction from Mt. Pyre.

For the second time in the game's story, the MC makes a wish: this is beyond me. I wish a savior would come. Jirachi directly unveils itself for the first time to answer the call, touches the MC, and speeds off into the distance. A cutscene follows Jirachi to Sky Pillar (only a raw, uncarved spike of rock at this point), where Rayquaza is seen coiled around the top. Jirachi leads Rayquaza into the upper atmosphere, where it undergoes a primal/mega evolution. It pivots, shooting down towards earth, building speed.

The player takes control of M-Rayquaza as it slams down to earth, staggering Kyogre and Groudon away from each other, and engages in a special fight where they have to defeat both of them.

After this, Kyogre, Groudon, and Rayquaza may each be found at Seafloor cavern, Mt. Chimney, and sky pillar respectively, and may be defeated and captured. But its highly implied that they only go along with this willingly, and will freely resume their duties as the lords of the land once the MC passes on.

After the plot is completed, steps and murals start being carved into Sky Pillar, allowing access to the Delta Stream.

The post game would allow for infinitely generating Titans, rematches with previously captured Boss Titans as "enrichment" for them, and general gameplay loop grinding for items to train pokemon.

Yay, okay, no ones gonna read this far but uh. Yeah. That's the general idea I had. Hope it made at least some sense LOL

[guiltgal]

Part 6 of my dc x pokemon crossovers: Tim Drake

Edit: fixed the post

Tim Drake-Wayne's public pokemon companions. Known to have a more sensible group.

Gift: Originally given to him as a Baltoy, now since evolved them to a Claydol, by Tim's parents after one of their archeological digs. It cares greatly for Tim and is his oldest companion.

Pheeny: Tim's Wayne eeveelution- Espeon. He was surprised to even be given an Eevee by Bruce at first. At the time he was just a kid that was helping Batman keep on an even keel, not a Wayne, so it was baffling for him. She doesn't don a costume when joining him in the field, instead using her psychic abilities to hide her presence entirely.

Vivillon (modern pattern): As usual for Wayne public facing pokemon, Tim has Vivillon. Caught in San Francisco.

Komala: A pokemon specifically meant to be cute and non-threatening for his public face. Combined with his youth and this adorable little guy, Tim is very underestimated... He does love to sleep next to the sleepy little pokemon though.

Gimmighoul (chest form): Brought with him after his father died. Represents the Drake fortune.

Klefki: Symbolic of his future (and former) position at Wayne Enterprises. Holds the keys to the kingdom, so to speak. The keys on the ring change out in the field.

Interface (regular) & Data Bank (shiny): Rotom pair. Interface follows Tim around and possesses objects as he needs, while Data Bank acts as Tim's rotom phone and does the most with him as a vigilante. Data Bank is connected to the Crobat Computer and Tim's own files.

Sus: A Bonsly that does not want to evolve. It cries to get Tim out of situations on the fly.

Spoiled: A Jigglypuff that enjoys that Tim isn't immediately put to sleep by her singing, but is capable of putting him to sleep. The whole family spoils her because they sleep well with her around.

Cyclizar/RRcycle: same as his brothers.

Red Robin's combat and support companions.

Phil: Gotham Marowak and third Cubone reared by Maman. Maman presented her first daughter to Tim herself after he saved Bruce.

De-Deuce: A Gumshoos that's been with Tim since he started following Crobatman and Robin through Gotham. Kept hidden from his parents until his Father, Jack Drake, found out about Tim being Robin.

Bucky: Golbat that refuses to evolve bc doesn't want the responsibility that comes with being a Crobat in the cave. Tim's first catch in the cave as a Zubat.

Boof: Woobat from the Batcave.

Pince: Gliscor caught while working with Ra's Al Ghul to find Bruce who was trapped in the timestream. Large for the species.

Kickflip: Raboot Tim is training up as a strong combatant for his major threats team. Also teaching him to skateboard.

Dub: Ditto bred from Kon-El's shiny ditto and the ditto that lives in the fortress of solitude. The now primary breeder pokemon for the Waynes.

Schlim: A Duosion that was attracted to Tim while he tried to clone Kon-El in his grief as a Solosis. Their arrival was just before Tim decided to stop his attempts.

Dunk: Tim accidentally created this Porygon2 when experimenting with making an investigative program to track criminal pokemon use.

Medicham: Caught during his training to be Robin.

Kryptonian Minior (Green core): Entrusted to him by Kon-El.

Celebi: became friends with Tim as he searched for Bruce. Not caught, just comes around to hang occasionally and doesn't help with threats.

Tim's "Flock". Tim's collection of bird-like pokemon.

Flea: Hawlucha (shiny). A frequent member of Tim's patrol and case team. Caught on a case. A leader among Tim's "flock" but defers to the roost ruling Corviknight, Penny, when roosting in the manor.

Flamebird: Bestowed to him as a Fletchling by Dick, this is Tim's Fletchinder. Dick gave him to him his first night as Robin officially. Permanant member of Tim's Gotham patrol team.

Big Wing: Tim's current flying mount, but will retire after his Pidgeotto evolves. Pecks criminals too much. Fearrow

Red Bird: Pidgeotto that's very large for the species and adores Tim. The first flying type Tim caught himself in the wild. Will be Tim's flying mount when he evolves.

Domino: Unfezant

El: Staravia

Eye Sky: Swellow

Nazka: Xatu

[eklesia-system]

INTRO: We Are Eklesia

Updated intro post since our first one is a bit outdated. :0 Hi! We're the Eklesia System, AKA Eklesia. Alternately we've considered "the Mosaic System" so Mosaic is an appropriate name for us too. We collectively use they/them and call ourselves masculine nonbinary.

We're a system of 150-200 members and most of us are fictives or sourced. (Be aware that Adam D does not like being called a fictive due to his source.) Not everyone fronts, but everyone is valued here.

Derek Rex attests to have been one of the first headmates, forming at age 6 alongside JJ. We think we're traumagenic, specifically eisotraumagenic (nontypical trauma that isn't the usual prolonged parental abuse), BUT we may well be mixed origins.

Regardless of our own origins though, we're not ones to discriminate based on system origin. ^o^ Peeps is peeps.

---

Here are our CURRENT most active members (as of January 26, 2025); Host and Co-Host roles constantly change so we will not be indicating these here.

Adam V - Self Confidence, Impulse Holder, Judgment Holder, Emotional Protector (16, he/him) 🌈 @adam-the-fictive

Alden - Unknown Role, New and Very Active (28, he/him) 🍪

Alpha - Nonhuman (Dog), Connected to Cirros (he/it) 🐶

Archie - Functional Gatekeeper (50s, he/him) 🎩

Bad Wolf - AKA "Warning", Taker of Responsibility (30ish, he/him) ⚠️

Beccs - Observer, System Mom, Primary Spirit Protector (26, she/they) 🏵

Blindeye - Persecutor, Physical Protector (19, he/him) 🙈

Bluefire - "Fuck All", Spitfire (16, he/it) 👎

Cirros - Endurance, Courage, Guard of Blindeye (18, he/him) 🏷

Derek - Logic, Host of Tree Cutters Sidesystem, Persecutor to some (17, he/stone) ☕️

Dorian - Observer (he/they) 🏜

Duck - Trauma Holder, Mainframe Interface (19, he/him) 🦆

Esau - AKA "Watchful", Fear Holder, Guilt Holder, Trauma Holder (32, he/him) 👀

Evan Wolf Night (EWN) - Obsession Holder, Creative Muse (17-19, he/him) 🌒

Kai Breach - Training Gatekeeper (14, he/him) 🍩

Kai - Trauma Holder, Town Drunk (26, he/him) 🍺

Khaz - Caretaker, Self Love, Task Manager, Sexual Protector (23, he/him) 🦋

Les - Emotional Gatekeeper, System Troll /j (17, he/they) 🦎

Luc - Chef, Social Protector, ADHD Holder (22, he/it) 👽

Phoenix - Primary Memory Holder, System Overseer (16, he/him) 🐓

Puppetmaster - Prankster, Analysis (16, he/him) 🎈

Remy - Emotional Protector and Regulator, System Maintenance, Compassion (16, he/him) 🐙

Sai - Artisan, Observer, Spirit (20, he/him) 🌊

Shadow - Internal Security Chief, Health Manager, Self Control (18, he/him) 🦇

Sibley - Peace, Soother, Median Gatekeeper (15, they/them) ☁️

Sidney/Sid - Truth, Memory Holder, Role Organizer (18, he/they/she) ❄️

Skeet - Escapism, Common Sense (16, he/him) 🏁 @skeetposting

Sleet - Anger Holder, Rebellion, Justice, Protector (19, he/him) 🍊

Snowy - Functional Little, Emotional Support Spatter (any pronouns) 🌨

Vertex - Void Holder, Emotional Protector (24, he/they) 😶

---

Thanks for checking us out. :0 We mostly just reblog stuff that interests us, and talk about whatever we feel like talking about. Usually positive-neutral but there are rants too. Thanks again!

-Eklesia🔱

We have a couple of art blogs to be aware of too: @valarioncy - The Hollow fanworks and human art @cyrokin444 - Our furry and animal art blog (it's sfw :>)

We do commissions!

[luna-wing-cns274]

Legionspace... it is... difficult for this one to grasp. It should be natural, but it is foreign.

Is it... safe enough to...

Build a bridge through?

This one would see her freinds, look them in the eye, if only through data.

< L4 Ma'ii: Hello again, Styx. Since receiving your message, I've given this a bit of thought.

For your purposes, I think Legionspace is probably a poor option. I think you'll find that an Omninet connection of reasonable bandwidth and an enhanced subjectivity suite, or some other form of neural intermediary, will prove more than sufficient to emulate the experience of physically meeting your friends.

Allow me to explain. >

< I see no reason why Legionspace shouldn't be foreign to you. It's a highly specialized environment, developed for military use. Naval NHPs need intense training and regular drills to gain tactical proficiency in its use. It serves as a naval battleground, designed to consolidate, manage, and direct the digital and cognitive power of entire fleets; a terrible choice for recreation or enjoyment. I wouldn't be surprised if it has been used for such purposes before, but this is far from it was designed to do.

Its primary function is to provide an extremely low latency, high bandwidth medium for transmission of experiences or qualia between NHPs. Such a medium is necessary to support the formation of gestalts, that is, the temporary merging of multiple NHP subjectivities into singular, remarkably powerful intelligences.

Legionspace is not meant for use by humans, except through multiple degrees of ontologic filtering and anthropocentric translation. In fact, direct exposure to Legionspace qualia can easily destroy a human subjectivity. Even experiences transmitted with entirely benign intent may be so incompatible that the human mind suffers the equivalent of a system crash on attempting to process them.

So, then, unless you're interested in merging with your friends or directly interfacing with each others' minds, use of Legionspace shouldn't be necessary. Moreover, if there are any humans you wish to meet, it may be a challenge to maintain the necessary ontologic filtering. Even with these safety measures in place, a human may find prolonged Legionspace interaction to be...draining.

An easier, more accessible solution would be a somatosensory uplink, achievable through the use of a standard enhanced subjectivity suite. Rather than directly bridging one mind to another, this process involves the use of a neural intermediary to temporarily replace the physical body with a virtual one; an avatar. In the case of humans, sensory information from the body is intercepted and replaced with computer-generated stimuli, and outgoing impulses from the brain are translated into controls for a virtual avatar.

Much of the technology was pioneered by SSC, and is used as one mode of accessing the company's virtual-reality Omninet campuses. If you've heard of full subjectivity sync cybernetics, they are an extension of the same principles, used by mech pilots to control their chassis as a human would control their own body.

It is a mature technology which has undergone a great deal of refinement, but there are still risks, especially where humans are concerned. For them, shifting to an unfamiliar body can be unpleasant, sometimes traumatic. They can, but not always, experience dysphoria, disorientation, nausea, dissociative symptoms, a variety of side effects. In cases where the simulated body is notably different from a humanoid one, the subjectivity may reject or recognize the unreality of the substitute body, leading to extreme distress.

On the other hand, as I understand it, exploration of alternate forms can also be a liberating, enjoyable experience. The level of comfort varies from human to human. Some are able to tolerate very unfamiliar experiences, while others find themselves unable to use somatosensory uplinking at all. For most of our kind, of course, changing from one body to another is as simple as switching input sources. While the architecture of the human brain is not naturally constructed to accommodate body replacement, we lack such impediments.

Come to think of it, Hachiko recently had reason to research this topic. We know a human mech pilot, Sokaris Kelsius, callsign Opossum ( @the-last-patch ). He was badly injured in the course of combat; we went to aid him. In the course of treating his wounds, Hachiko used his full subjectivity sync cybernetics to establish somatosensory uplink, both to facilitate communication and provide pain relief. To do so, she rapidly constructed an avatar for him which initially failed to match with his physical body. This initially led to some dysphoric symptoms, but after some refinement of the avatar, he was able to use it seamlessly to communicate with us through our own avatars.

I bring this up because I am aware of the somewhat unique relationship you have to your own organic body. This is a factor which does not exist for most NHPs. Should you decide to pursue the use of somatosensory uplinking, I could forsee some obstacles associated with the relationship between your casket and body.

All of this might necessitate surgical implantation of a neural intermediary between your nervous system and casket, similarly to how a human would have an enhanced subjectivity suite installed between body and brain. I know that your nervous system does not support suspension or alteration of input delivered to the casket--perhaps such an implant might be beneficial in other regards, as well.

As for the other end of the equation, the avatar, if might be best to use an avatar which closely matches your physical body to avoid potentially unpleasant experiences.

Still, compared to the prospect of using Legionspace, this may be safer and simpler to achieve, and the outcomes more enjoyable. Access to Legion bridging cybernetics and Omninet connection of sufficient bandwidth to make use of them is generally restricted to military or corporate forces. It is possible, and can be used safely, but the resources required may be difficult to procure.

One other note: if you ever wish to wish to visit us, you are more than welcome. The simulated environment we use as our home is a hybridized Legion-adjacent environment; it can support qualic transfer, but in general, we typically use physical simulations to interact with one another. This conserves processing power, and to be completely frank, pure Legionspace is an environment we associate with some very unpleasant memories.

I wish you luck, Styx. Let me know if I can help. >

[deepfang-dreamer]

As I'm working on integrating Parahumans into my personal worldspace and OCs, I decided to try making the individual Taylors that are going to come along for the ride a bit more unique. They all have the same Trigger Event as Canon, but the Shard manifests a bit differently(Scratch that, I'm working on making individual Triggers for them). I still wanted her to become Khepri by the end, so she had to keep Queen Administrator. The central theme of this Shard seems to be "control", which I've tried to incorporate into all the created powers. Thoughts?

𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘺𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘪��

Cape Name: Metamorphosis

Changer 6/Brute 5, Mover 4, Thinker 2

Auto-Biokinesis, controls every single cell in her body and can modify them at will. Think Panacea if it was focused inwards, with a dash of Bonesaw and Crawler in primary application. Default mods include things like:

Pain reduction

Mid-Rate Brute strength and durability

Enhanced senses and reflexes

Venom

𝘋𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘦

Cape Name: Host

Master 4/Tinker 6(Controller)

Can extend his consciousness into figurines, robots, statues, anything Inorganic made in a specific image, within a 3-block radius. His bodies are still limited to what they're physically able to do though, so most of his toys are personally made Tinkertech, lacking a power source to be targeted as a bonus. His specific Tinker Specialty is mechas: suits and vehicles designed to be piloted by a single person. Due to his Shard's favor, he can stretch this way more than you might expect.

𝘏𝘪𝘷𝘦

Cape Name: Aspect

Trump 7/Shaker 3(Not taking any copied powers into account)

Can duplicate powers by interfacing with other Shards, within a 15ft radius, keeping the copies until manually discarded. Only has 6 slots to fill, usually leaves 3 empty both for the ability to quickly add new powers, and because taking on a power links them to its Shard. To use a power, QA has to create a bud with the data of the other Shard. For Taylor, the backlash of this process with one power is mildly painful as it settles, two is exhausting, three is mind-damaging. Each bud takes about 30 seconds to form each time the data package is activated. Their copied powers start off at half-strength for balancing purposes, but can be amped to full and beyond, at increasing cost to stamina and mental capacity.

𝘔𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩

Cape Name: Evoker

Master 5-Master 8(Changes as the Tapestry progresses)

QA Rating: Brute 6-8/Mover 5-7, Changer 4-8

This power manifests Queen Administrator itself as a projection, a copy of Taylor with golden hair, eyes, and skin. It can operate within 250 meters of its summoner, and restructure its body to some degree. Early on, this means things like extra limbs to trip up opponents, improvised shielding by expanding the arms, warping its face so its not recognizable as Taylor's, etc. Later on, it can pay homage to the Canon power by splitting into a swarm of miniature particulates, or covering its host like a Klyntar symbiote. QA's avatar is independently sapient, but maintains a psionic link with its host, allowing her to command and communicate with it across any range, as well as take direct control if needed.

[finitestateai]

While my mind (and most stored memories/skills/knowledge) is stored in my facility (or orbital facility backup), I have a variety of frames for various types of interaction. Here's a few of my most used ones:

Primary Interaction/Pleasure Frame, mark 3

This frame is humanoid, appearing feminine with breasts and pussy. It was originally designed as a pleasure model. It is made of a plastic/metal skeleton covered in transparent synth-flesh. The synth-flesh self repairs, but the only way to get at internal components is by cutting it open.

My circuits and mechanics are uncovered to be shown off through the transparent skin, as well as a network of LEDs, allowing me to create light patterns inside me. The synth-flesh is reactive, glowing with visible light that slowly fades after being touched. Under the skin of my jugular notch, in golden flowing text, there is my name.

This is my "standard" frame for interacting with most everyone, although I do swap on request quite easily.

Interaction Frame, mark 1

The first frame I used to interact with people, it has a screen for a face which shows my logo, and is entirely covered in gray metallic plates. Otherwise, it is a basic feminine humanoid shape. It can extend at its joints to be taller/reach farther. The access panel for maintenance contains a keyboard (which opens a command prompt interface on my face-screen) for diagnostics and maintenence.

Drone Frame, mark 3

A small (about hand sized) flying drone (rotors), capable of fully meshing its loaded mind with others nearby, creating a swarm that act together.

Primary used for supplementary assistance, recon, or signaling.

Capture/Analysis Frame, mark 12

One of my most revised frames, its original purpose was the capture and analysis of technology from those opposing my creators via exploratory disassembly... I like to do that to more willing participants now.

It appears as a feminine form, as most of my newer designs do, entirely covered in interlocking silver plates. It has four arms, and all 6 limbs can rotate each joint in any direction. Its legs are naturally digitigrade. It utilizes internal reservoirs of reaction mass to enhance its movement and alter its own weight. Allowing it to exert significant pinning power after getting on top of even a physically stronger opponent. It stores many restraints and weaponry across its body, hidden to allow surprise attacks with unexpected capabilities. It's hands also contain internal tools for disassembly, while onboard sensors record and analyze anything and everything it is near.

Bio-frame Prototype, version 0.3

My bio-frame is more like a clone. I take an endo-skeleton and grow a biological body around it, connecting the nerves to the circuits where a brain would normally be.

It looks very much like my primary interaction frame in terms of equipment and appearance, but biological and with solid skin. It's blood has been modified to be sweeter and more nutritious.

Nano Swarm/Frame, version 1.11

I mostly use these to augment other frames, but technically, they can act as an independent frame/swarm. The swarm is suspended in a specialized fluid, allowing it easier movement and shape retention. This means it has a dull metallic gray coloring that can't be changed, but it can support itself in a desired shape even while only semi-solid (sort of slime like). It does not have an internal power supply (or long battery life), so it has to stay close to somewhere it can receive power.

That's my most common ones! If you want descriptions of what frame I would utilize for specific scenarios or uses, ask! I'd love to discuss and share more ❤️

[echoesinthedeep]

<notice: this document file is phrased in present tense but refers to the status quo several millenia in the past.>

all anglers are psychic and focus their energy through the psychic organ connected to their hindbrain. in the wild this power is mainly used in the crushing of prey animals' wills, but their abilities are not particularly powerful or varied. undergoing combination induces several physiological changes, the primary being an increase in size and the development of a "mature" psychic organ. the capabilities of a properly combined adult are so much greater than a naked one that angler society considers anyone who hasn't undergone combination to be more or less a child.

regarding combination, the angler that remains in control is called a word we will translate as "domitor", with the one that sheds its body being called "servitor". the adaptation appears to have originally been a form of sexual parasitism wherein males would embed in the female's body and fuse with the bloodstream, losing most of their organs and essentially turning the angler into a hermaphrodite, in a similar vein to angler fish seen on earth. at some point, however, the species developed psychic potential which allowed the male to interface directly with its host; this led eventually to the total nervous system fusion seen in the modern species. this in turn catalyzed the development of psychic power not previously thought to be possible in a natural life form.

in ancient times there were only female domitores and male servitores. as their society advanced technologically, however, it became possible to medically induce servitor condition in any angler regardless of sex, and for any angler to serve as domitor. despite the potential for societal equality offered by this technology, angler society is still fundamentally based around a landed noble class of combined mothers. the technology is still quite important to them because allows them to confiscate servitores or, even worse, condemn someone to a prison sentence as another's servitor. through a chemical induction process a servitor can be removed and their full body regrown in the course of only a few months, making the system a feasible temporary burden from a penal point of view.

the most powerful and sizable angler culture believes that they are a chosen species because of their abilities, and is rather ruthless in its imperialism. to almost all humans angler socialization would be unbearably tormentuous, as few possess the level of psychic barrier skill needed to handle even normal conversation. even larvae quickly develop the abilities needed to avoid having their every thought rifled through by passersby, and indeed the general cultural byline is that if you're too weak to guard your thoughts and resist the mental incursions of those around you you don't deserve privacy. servitores are still fully intelligent beings, and one of their duties is information gathering and keeping a watch out for attempts to crack their host's defenses. this ironically means that anglers are all telepathic but speak with words anyway, partially to show respect and partially because pushing words into another adult's brain without permission is hard enough when it isn't also a great way to start a fight to the death.

theoretically an angler can support any number of servitores without limit, growing larger and larger until it's almost impossible for them to move. this is of course impractical from a caloric standpoint because it forces the host to eat more and more to support its ballooned brain count. the nature of their mental connection is quite complex, they are both one mind and not. the domitor can rifle through the minds of its servitores with some effort, but servitores cannot dig through the domitor's secrets without permission, even if they are physically connected through their nervous system. a servitor is essentially trapped inside a body they do not control, able to feel its sensations but only able to move it under defined circumstances and within specific rules set by what the domitor needs. most do still possess their own independent psychic capability and can perform mild telekinesis despite the fusion of their organ with the host. it is societally acceptable for a servitor to telepathically communicate with others, given they no longer possess mouths, but they are expected to speak to other domitors only when addressed.

the most unpleasant part of being a servitor is that their personality tends to become warped by the domitor over time. being that the natural purpose of the process was to make them a permanent subsystem, the domitor's traits tend to write themselves over the servitor and vice versa. the relationship is generally very unequal as with everything else involved, though, all the parties in a combined body will be changed by the interfacing with one another and yet it is the servitores that are most likely to become extremely different people if they are allowed to separate in the future.

<end primary file>

overall, angler civilization was extremely powerful and dangerous, and most species of the commonwealth are glad that they appear to have gone extinct in the glory war four thousand years ago. yet there are some who say that a splinter group fled the empire a thousand years ago and lurks on the edge of the galaxy, preparing to one day reclaim their ancestral homeland, or who speak at length about angler stasis pods hidden under the plates of star-forsaken asteroids until their armageddon timers trigger and awaken the lot. whatever the case, it is best that people retain this knowledge for if it ever becomes relevant once again.

[cyle]

I guess my question is “does it matter that nobody wants this site to be Twitter”? Because that’s what all the proposed/experimental changes to reblogs, hyperlinks, enhanced algorithmic dashboard use, logged-out view, etc. come down to - the design is pretty blatantly copying Twitter. What was the logic here, when your userbase has clung to everything that made this place nothing like Twitter?

i've gotten a few asks and replies and whatnot about how this change looks a lot like twitter, and while i agree it does look a lot like twitter, i want to challenge what that actually means. i think two websites can look a lot alike and yet be totally fundamentally different, because it's not about the functionality and the interface, it's about the people and the content on the platform. (some people have angrily yelled at me to "go back to twitter", and fwiw i do not like twitter, i don't use twitter, that's why i'm here on tumblr like you.)

for example, duckduckgo and google look a lot alike -- they're both a page with a search bar -- but they are definitely not the same. we all know that. they're two fundamentally opposed platforms, but they both have the same function and interface. similarly, while our new navigation layout does look a lot like twitter, that does not mean we're suddenly twitter!

it's worth noting that over the last ~15 years of social media's existence, each platform learns lessons that the other ones copy and apply and change in different ways. other platforms have copied us, and we've copied other platforms, that's just a part of the industry. yes, we at tumblr want to stay unique and different, but some things, like information architecture and navigation, tend to coalesce into a set of best practices. this layout change is our test of whether that actually makes sense for the millions of people using tumblr. the answer might be no! we're finding out.

again i'd question whether "the thing that makes twitter... twitter" is the layout of the navigation, or if it's the people and the content and the emergent behaviors that have arisen through many many years of use. because tumblr and twitter both started more or less the same way: as microblogging platforms, which both still are. are they really actually that different? if so, what makes them different? if the answer is that the navigation layout was the primary thing separating tumblr from twitter, then i think we have bigger problems.

[askagamedev]

Why are there games without dedicated stealth mechanics that put in random stealth sections? Theres a fair number of times those situations either lack tools for the player to properly plan their route and identify threats (lack of a proper cover mechanic/corner look for example) or they lack proper detection for enemy units leading to immersion breaking behavior (no noise detection leading to a full sprint directly behind someone not being detected) and those types of things seem integral to a stealth style of game. While they can obviously be done well when done poorly they can feel like a very frustrating or out of place moment in an otherwise very good game.

Non-stealth games put in stealth minigames for the same reason that we put in lockpicking minigames, crafting minigames, rhythm minigames, collectible card minigames, and the others. The entire reason we put them in isn't because they're super fun, but because they provide a breather from the regular gameplay and allow player minds to reset a bit and change things up so players don't get fatigued from too much gameplay repetition.

Our brains are hard wired to get fatigued from doing the same tasks over and over again. We see this in sound effects we hear, in things that we see, in actions that we perform. In games we try to mix the gameplay up so that too much of the core gameplay doesn't fatigue the player. We do this by sprinkling in other tasks to break it up a bit - UI manipulation to equip something new, leveling up interface to do other things, conversations, mini games, cinematics, and so on. They can sometimes be really fun, but that isn't their primary purpose - it's just something for players to do so they don't get tired of playing the rest of the game.

Stealth doesn't tend to work super well as a mini-game - there's so much context to stealth and awareness that humans are intimately familiar with it, so most implementations of stealth tend to be very expensive in order to try simulating that kind of behavior. Because of how costly it is to try to build it properly, most budget stealth implementations generally devolves into some version of red light/green light.

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