#feat. they're fun new fits

[almondcroissantsandink]

you and me and the devil makes three

[blacklegsanjiii]

Aahh your addition to actually girl sanji was amazing ✨ thank you

Its so funny to have them realising all the way to WCI/Wano, theyre all so silly. ALSO CHOPPER- He's new to the crew and giving them all a check up to get up to date with their physicals and he's all like 'dont worry Sanji your secret is save with me!! I wont tell anybody!!' And sanji thinks he's actually talking about the nr 3 burnmark (hc of mine that judge labeled all his children) so she's very thankful to him

Omg and the ship options... To many possibilities to choose from... Luffy going 'HES NOT A PRETTY BUT SHES A PRETTY GIRL?!!' Literally no fucks given nothing changes but he looveess the clothes and makeup nami gives sanji to wear (the liploss tastes like fruit and the dress fabric is so softt!!!)

Or sanami... Nami feeling attracted to sanji even though she's a lesbian and heaving a sexuality crisis cause is she bisexual??? But no she's still a major lesbian (or even funnier no attraction until its 'stupid guy -> stupid girl??!!!'

Honestly east blue poly would be funny as hell, so many possibilities

Also (sorry im rambling) SHES ZEFFS LITTLE GIRL 💥💥when she left with luffy, zeff 100% threatened the shit out of him (he also did this in canon but with his mind UvU) idk i fucking adore zeff and sanji protective of each other

And lastly??? All the regulars knowing??? Amazing, show stopping, ground breaking. Theyre coming to the baratie not seeing the cute waitress and when asked the staff says she has become a pirate cook of the strawhats

But whenever there's news its always talking about a guy and the wanted pictures are not so helpfull... So many possibility...

Have a nice day! Hope you had/have fun at your con :D

I'm so glad you enjoyed them! Fem!Sanji is fun to write, especially when no one knows she's a girl because how can you not know? She is Zeff's little girl! The dumb brat he gave up a leg for on a rock! She is his pride and joy, and everyone knows this!! Also, I love the idea of the burn mark and the confusion therein for Sanji because Chopper thinks she's trans masc when she's not, she's just waiting for her mom's genes to kick in more. Also the shipping, I agree with East Blue Polycule because you can fit all that in together in one go and no one is going ask questions. But I'm getting ahead of myself and skipping to the regulars first so that I can get some funny scenarios out of my head first.

First, Mihawk has watched this girl grow up and probably saw the fall out after shortly after Zeff butchered her hair. When he asked about it, he gave Zeff the most unimpressed look Zeff has ever received because good fuck he could have just braided it until they got into town? That's all he says about that because Sanji is still upset her hair is gone. Then some years later he's calling Zeff and asking when Sanji changed her gender and Zeff is confused because she hasn't but anyone and everyone are calling her a boy, even that crew she set off with. Mihawk is staring out of his office with the denden with an empty gaze as the greenhaired moron he almost slaughtered on the deck of Baratie is in his castle with one of his fellow warlords first mates and he's having a time but at least that hasn't changed.

Buggy is also probably really confused about 'Black Leg Sanji' and "his feats" and when Garp is arresting him they're debating whether or not Sanji would be a good marine until Garp calls her a boy and Buggy corrects him. Garp is staring down at the clown who looks back and is like 'wait, wait. Zeff's called her "princess" and you never questioned why he would call his son that?' to Garp's non-committal shrug of 'He's Zeff.' which, okay yeah, sure. It's Zeff but Zeff never used it in a derogatory manor. Sanji is quite literally his princess. She is the princess of the Baratie that Buggy used to do card tricks for because Zeff had no idea what the hell to do with kids.

Now onto the hilarity because East Blue Poly would be exceptionally hilarious. They all start dating and Sanji thinks Nami is going through a sexuality crisis because she's a girl where as Nami thinks Sanji's a boy and it's never cleared up. Sanji looks particularly butch because it made her life easier at Baratie, and she doesn't want to ruin dresses and skirts and blouses with cooking or blood. She also just never really wore make up unless Baratie was closed for some celebration or something, when she had a reason to doll up because she was so busy. Also she wakes up and goes to bed before and after everyone else so no one catches she's a girl. I think the hilarious exception of Ace clocking it in Alabasta and telling Luffy he's got the prettiest girl and the best cook wrapped in one is an amazing thing and Luffy goes with it but still asks why Ace called Sanji a girl and Ace is confused now. They never clear it up.

When Sanji is training and everyone is talking about forcing her into dresses Sanji is like 'I don't need to be forced, I love dresses! I just don't like ruining them with blood.' and coming back to Sabaody with a few dresses, skirts, blouses, more fem clothing and everyone is like 'you don't have to wear those if they make you uncomfortable' is sending some weird messages to her so she just doesn't wear them still. For the wrong reasons and everyone is confused. Like WCI when Sanji's in her wedding dress and fighting and mourning the blood on the dress and Luffy and Nami are asking her why she's in one because she doesn't wear that stuff and Sanji says she thought they didn't like them on her and the very quick explanation of 'we thought you were a boy!' is Sanji going 'How?' as Nami complains she had a sexuality crisis for nothing until Luffy asks about him, Zoro, and Usopp; Nami concedes that the crisis wasn't for nothing then.

Nami makes sure she's in a kimono like she and Robin are as an apology because they didn't realize that Sanji was a girl and was just dressing for convenience, she's not a boy and was a princess and she is loved.

Also my con was lovely but I'm so glad it's over.

[merakiui]

Imagine the tweels as step-siblings 😳

Omg Jade and Floyd who just adore their cute step-sibling and are always so ready to protect you. If anyone gives you trouble, whether big or small, you can be certain your step-brothers will track them down and repay that trouble tenfold. They're always looking out for you, sometimes a little too obsessively. The older you get and the more hormonal they become, the more territorial they appear. They've chased away and terrorized potential partners and mates who got too close for comfort. They've prevented you from going on dates and getting your first kiss.

At first you were grateful they were willing to help you shake persistent mers who couldn't take no for an answer, but now it's becoming an annoyance. Your step-brothers are always breathing down your neck. If you aren't being flanked by both of them, sandwiched between them as they practically shield you from everyone else, then you'll find yourself being stalked by one of them. They always appear at the worst moments, right when you think you might finally get to date or meet new friends. Your step-brothers can allow a few friends, but when these friends get too friendly... That's unacceptable.

So, really, neither twin could have predicted you'd fall for one of their friends. They introduced you to Azul because they thought he was a safe option for a friend. And he was! The lot of you had a lot of fun playing. You and your step-brothers would swim to his octopus pot nearly every morning to pay him surprise visits, which weren't really surprises the more Azul became accustomed to this routine. You and Azul were only connected by way of the twins, who allowed the connection because they were certain Azul and you wouldn't go beyond friends.

But then you're sneaking out after lunch when the twins are busy or can't go out to play or, more commonly, when they're forbidden from following you. Their parents adore all of you and are usually lenient, but they know that siblings need time apart to foster their own bonds. The twins hate this, but Floyd hates it just slightly more. Jade understands where his parents are coming from, ever the logical one, but Floyd is always so restless and anxious when he's apart from you. He hates not being able to be there. What if something happens? What if you can't defend yourself? What if you get hurt? These questions are meaningless, though, because you've wrestled Floyd into submission more than once, a feat only you and Jade can boast. So of course you're plenty capable and Floyd knows this, but he still worries because he cares too much.

Azul is much too awkward to do anything, so the twins know you won't come swimming back home with a belly full of eggs. Rather, the two of you are fools in love. Holding hands or wrapping your tail around his tentacle is enough to have the two of you turning away and blushing. It would be cute if the twins weren't so envious. They know they ought to feel happy for you, but they can't when you should be that way with them. You should be flirting with them, holding their hands, cuddling up to them, kissing their cheeks...

It's always unfortunate when they must leave for a new school year. Floyd threw a fit the first year. As excited to see the surface and attend school on land as he was, he couldn't part with you. Jade protested it as well, but their parents would hear no arguments. The consolation was that Azul would be going to, so the twins hoped time apart would snuff your relationship. If it didn't, they'd plant ideas in Azul's head. He's horribly self-conscious and you're one of the few good things to have ever happened to him. They'd find a way. They always do.

They always spend too much time with you the night before they're meant to leave for NRC, insisting on sleeping in your room because when will they have another chance to have a sleepover like this once they're on land? Ignore wandering hands and curling tails, each clinging to you in the darkness. This is just their way of showing brotherly affection. :)

[aerkame]

Welcome Home Finfolk AU Headcanons Part 1

Just some headcanons on the characters so I can come back to this later for writing/reference. And a bit of a tease for some people eager for Finfolk/selkie stuff. Warnings: Implied kidnapping. It's kind of a given considering that in Orkney folklore finfolk often kidnap people they like/love.

Original post:

(I guess this takes place in a puppet world? Like humans are just humanoid puppets so it's not as confusing to make Welcome Home characters complete puppets but finfolk versions.)

Eddie Dear:

A complete sweetheart of a captain that's a bit clumsy. While Wally can steer the waters himself, he'd much rather have Eddie be the captain on most of their ships, having found that the much larger man knows the waters better than himself and Home.

Eddie is so sweet that most don't even notice the unusual way his felt skin slightly changes colors when it rains, the small finned ears tucked under his captain's hat, or the tiny teal scales that grow under his arms when he's stressed. Maybe he's a lot more clever than people realize. Using that sweetness of his to distract others from what's happening...nah, he's just a clumsy sweet guy, right?

Instead of having shipments in, it's usually Eddie that helps bring in most of what the island has when it comes to strange items. They're still a bit stuck in the 70s so sometimes Eddie brings back boatloads of lost shipments with up to date everyday items.

Wally Darling:

Wally Darling is a true finman at heart. He keeps all those he is close with very close on this island he made so long ago with his and Home's own magic. He may or may not have helped kidnap a few of the neighbors with Home and others, bringing them here.

Sometimes Wally will find himself in looser fitting clothing on warmer days. But usually he keeps a suit worn with his pompadour being well-kept. Everything at Home must be perfect.

Unlike most finmen, his powers have gone far beyond what is normal. While most can control the ocean waters through waves and small rain showers, Wally has little to no trouble making storms, hurricanes, giant whirlpools, and changing the very currents of the ocean to his favor.

Making Home was probably his greatest feat yet. Creating an island wasn't uncommon for his kind. But creating a giant, living, sentient island hidden within a vale of sorts in the middle of the ocean that not even other finmen could reach was something otherworldly. It's like he's creating a whole new world.

He will sometimes crash planes and ships far out in the ocean if they so much as get too close to the world they reside in. Of course he ensures that Eddie, Howdy, or Barnaby goes over to the crash sites to wipe away any memory of where the passengers have been, just in case...and maybe he should start up a rough storm or two in that area for good measure. You can never be too sure.

Of course Wally never expects anyone to actually make it to the shores of Home, but if someone ever did, well...that would be quite the impressive feat! You'd have to not only get past the others sensing your presence in their waters (coupled with oncoming storms), but also get past the vale their world resides in.

Truly, Wally just wants everyone in Home to be able to live happy and free here. He often creates more and more islands and small peninsulas along with the others just to explore and have fun. And they do have fun and joy, almost everyday! Though he needs to slow down on the island-making, he often gets lost on his own creations sometimes.

Barnaby B.Beagle:

At first glance he's just a big ol' fluffy dog with a big personality, but when it rains or when water is doused on the guy? He really tends to grow in size.

Unlike the others, Barnaby tends to have a completely different form when he lets loose. Instead of scales, he grows smooth and cool skin, and instead of pointy fin ears he grows side gills and one large triangular fin on his lower back. (Poppy often needs to help fix his clothes for this reason.) All this topped with giant rows of sharp teeth. Very shark-like indeed.

Due to his size and sharp features, it's no wonder that Barnaby often accompanies Eddie or Howdy when taking care of people that are getting too close to Home, or when someone on the mainland is getting a liiiittle too close to pinpointing where Home's vale is. You could say he's a bit like a giant guard (shark?)dog.

Sometimes Frank wonders if Barnaby is even a finman like the others or if he's some kind of hybrid...or possibly a subspecies?

This big guy is friendly and loves cracking jokes, but he isn't dumb, and he definitely isn't letting anyone hurt his family.

Wally and Barnaby go way back to when he was just a pup (get it?), having been washed up ashore on what was a lonely Home at the time. Wally was the first person to ever treat him so kindly and not judge him for how he looked in his original form. Most finmen hated it.

Barnaby so far has been the only one to ever make it to Home on his very own. Maybe it takes something special to get here. Or maybe it was Home who invited him that time and not Wally's invitation.

Frank Frankly:

Quite frankly the most nerdiest guy at Home. Not only is Frank's house neatly organized with specimens of insects everywhere, but that has evolved to specimens of fish and many books on mythical sea creatures, something that started all thanks to Eddie and Home.

Frank remembers his first time here clear as day. He was so skeptical that finfolk were real or that any mythical creature was real. It took a lot of convincing and quite a few magic tricks to finally get him to open up his eyes about that.

The man has been obsessed with the life that resides in the ocean since he first learned about finfolk. You could ask him about any, and I mean ANY sea creature and he'd probably know everything about it.

One of his keen interests is that of finfolk and selkies. They had similar traits but were vastly different in many ways. Finfolk he could research on however long he wanted considering he was living with them. But unlike finfolk, selkies weren't seen as much anymore. Stars, selkies were even considered on the verge of going extinct according to other finfolk and sea creatures, something about selkies getting their coats stolen too often? Frank would shake his head at that thought. Some people were just too cruel.

Sometimes Frank will feel a pang of loneliness when studying on his own, but usually Eddie is there to cheer him up, or Julie, even if she was a bit too much.

Both Julie and himself are the only residents at Home that are not finfolk, just some ordinary people that found their way here, though they don't remember how or when...

You(Suprise short fic! Hahahaha-):

There was something off about this part of the ocean. You have never ventured this far out before, always staying close to coasts and peninsulas, but it was like you were just drawn to a force here.

You perched yourself onto the small deck of the tiny sailboat you owned and crossed another spot out on the map. There was nothing here either, just like the past few miles you checked. No islands or signs of land in sight...and yet you could sense that something was indeed there. Call it an instinct, but your body was refusing to leave you alone until you satisfied your curiosity.

Looking down into the deep waters, you debated on going back down there to take a second look...nah. You were still soaked and the fur would take forever to dry off again. That, and the skies continued to darken as if it would rain any second now. Actually, a nice swim and a quick look seemed like a good idea.

The fur hood slipped over your head as you buckled the inside of your jacket to keep everything secured, the last thing you needed was a current to take away your seal jacket, you put too much time and effort into making your seal fur a real set of clothes.

You jumped in as soon as thunder roared right behind you, feeling the tingling feeling of bristles and fur wrapping around your felt skin. There wasn't supposed to be a storm yet...

The currents began to change, almost pulling you towards the place of interest from earlier, it was far too strong for you to swim against even as your flippers swished back and forth as hard as they could. Before you could turn your back to face another direction, rough waters ripped your body from left to right, up, and down, until everything felt too dizzy to gather your surroundings. Your vision was such a blur that you did not notice the sailboat you were once on begin to sink down towards you. A long metal object suddenly made contact with your head and everything went black.

I had this finfolk-selkie hybrid OC for the longest time and every time I looked at selkie OCs no one seemed to make it into normal-ish clothing. Like imagine being a selkie in the modern world. Having a seal coat turned into the softest hoodie or jacket would be the best thing ever. You could take it anywhere with you in plain sight and no one would even know.

[inkys-anime-blog]

One Piece Surfer AU

This was a long ramble session put together by myself and my friends Jordon, @fashionable-hamster , @incomingalbatross , and @thehappybaker .

If anyone wants to draw these or muse around in this AU, please feel free (and tag me!) We had so much fun coming up with these!

Things that are the Same

Devil Fruits are still a thing (mostly because it's really funny if they're surfers and can barely swim. They all wear inner tubes and water wings.)

Crew Compositions are also the same! They are now teams.

Sea Kings and assorted monsters are still here. They are, in fact, more common. The job of Life Guard is not only to keep people from drowning, but to fight monsters so your friends can surf in peace.

World Changes

Almost every dead character you can think of is alive. Because this is a fun, low stakes AU.

"King of the Pirates" is now "King of the Waves", you become a Yonko by being an Olympic Gold Medalist, you become "King of the Waves" by beating all of the Yonkos in a competition.

The goal of "World's Greatest Swordsman" has been changed to "World's Greatest Lifeguard." The way you move up in ranks for it is by competing in underwater feats of power (holding your breath, underwater wrestling, spotting and saving drowning people, performing rescue maneuvers.) It is all incredibly competitive and intense.

Doctors tend to pool supplies and set up a single medical tent, but more intense competitions mean they'll stay apart.

The Celestial Dragons have bought up most of the local public beaches. Surfing on them is considered illegal, but that doesn't stop any of the crews/teams.

The Marines are now local police who are trying to keep the surfers from the private beaches. Sometimes it escalates to fighting, but not too often. It's more like a race to surf before the police show up, it adds time and tension to competitions.

The Revolutionaries are a skateboarding gang who are committing actual crimes trying to bankrupt the city. They are treated with less attention than the surfers, somehow.

Strawhat Headcanons

The Thousand Sunny is a massive surfboard that all the team can fit on. They don't use it super often, but Franky made it for fun one day and they have a good time zipping around together.

Luffy is almost unchanged. He wants to be King of the Waves, he goes around recruiting buds to help that happen. He is more than willing to solve these problems by beating people up. It's Luffy.

Zoro is training to be the World's Greatest Lifeguard. He mostly focuses on paddling around and killing monsters that try to attack his friends, he's group protector in any AU. His backstory is similar as well, Kuina dying and leaving him her family life preserver. He and Sanji sit on the edge of the group surfboard, they're both very worried about their friends falling in.

Nami and Nojiko were illegally taken in by Bellemere. Nami has a supernatural sixth sense for when storms and strong waves are coming in, which was noticed by Arlong. Arlong threatened to reveal the illegal adoption to the police if she didn't come work for him and his team. Nami agreed, but once Luffy finds out, he contacts Whitebeard and get into a fierce legal battle to keep Nami and her family safe and away from Arlong. She's now living out the childhood she always wanted, spending time with friends and surfing instead of being under Arlong's control. Bellemere is running her tangerine orchard and shows up to their competitions a lot, mostly to cheer on her kid and hand out orange slices like a soccer mom.

Ussop runs a kid's swimming school! He's really popular because he's great with kids. People want to get their kids in love with swimming so they're less likely to impulsively eat devil fruits lolol. He's always wanted to be a surfer, and he jumps at the chance when Luffy comes their way. Kaya buys them fancy new surfboards and she's one of their most dedicated sponsors.

Sanji used to work in a five star restaurant, but ended up shifting to make his own top-class food truck so he can be with the crew and go to different competitions. Zeff sponsors the Strawhats so that Nami stops stealing the rival team's wallets to pay for gas money. (She still does, but less often now.)

Chopper is still a reindeer boy, and he wasn't able to go to normal school because of it. He was homeschooled by his parents, who are both doctors. He's enjoying his first taste of a real childhood with the Strawhats, and Hiriluk and Kureha come to what competitions they can.

Robin is a former CIA agent turned lawyer. She has gotten the Strawhats and teams they're friendly with out of SO many legal issues. She wears water wings on All of her Arms when she goes out to surf. She still does archeology on the side as a fun hobby.

Brook's backstory is mostly unchanged. He used to be on a great group of surfers, but when they were on a boat trip, their drinks were poisoned by a rival team. He washed up a skeleton by the Strawhat's van. He had made friends with Laboon, but since Laboon has faced some issues in the wild, he was moved by a wildlife conservation center. Brook is traveling the coast with the Strawhats to try to find him again, checking with every wildlife center they pass.

Jinbe is tired. He was a city council member, and left when it became horribly corrupt. He's reliving his old days of surfing with the Strawhats, and he's specifically helping Zoro be a better swimmer.

Non Strawhat Headcanons

Shanks and his crew run a nice little bar. They're renowned for their surfing skills, but they're holding back from competitions for awhile so the kids get their chance to shine. Shanks is known as "that guy who once surfed a tsunami so well he reversed it. Somehow."

Whitebeard is a CPS worker. He has worked at this tirelessly for decades, and ends up fighting a fierce legal battle for Nami, and then later Ace, both of which he wins!

Ace (which was actually how this entire thing started for me) is super competitive and travels around almost as much as the Strawhats do. He wears his hat surfing because of course he does. He's got to be very careful using his Devil Fruit, but he's pulled off some crazy stunts with it.

Buggy the Clown runs a water show with super talented performers; water aerialists, dolphins, even some surfing like the others! He is a terrible surfer but manages to fail upwards into winning an Olympic medal. Whoops!

Vivi is a mayor's daughter and is constantly campaigning for better protection for the local beaches. She's managed to get her hometown safe for the teams to compete at, but she doesn't have a lot of sway outside them, and she had to fight against a certain local business to get that far. She's studying abroad in Europe after she helped, and they miss her a lot :(

Crocodile (mentioned above with Vivi) owns a casino near the beach. Luffy hit him with a supersoaker of ocean water once for putting a hit out on Vivi. I have nothing else for him except "he makes crazy sandcastles"

Mihawk is the World's Greatest Lifeguard, and most of the time people practice perfect water safety around him because he's SCARY to be rescued by. Those eyes....

Most of the first mates (Zoro, Bepo, Killer) are training to be lifeguards. Their captains have devil fruits, they have to.

Corozon is the Heart Pirate's biggest supporter. He loves watching them compete. He's working with Bellemere in her orchard, they know each other from their old police days.

Blackbeard's favorite activity is snitching on other surfers so they get interrupted by the police. He also likes knocking people off their boards. He's never invited to these things, he just shows up.

Uta showed up once to cheer on Luffy, but Blackbeard dropped her location online. The beach got swarmed by fans and they had to cancel :( But she still comments on Nami's social media posts about the competitions and voices her support!

Gecko Moria owns a terrible "haunted water ride" experience and it's terrible and rundown. Kuma, who works for OSCHA, shows up to shut it down but the crew has already beaten up everyone there because someone was being a creep to Nami.

That's all for now! Might add more later as they come up!

Please please reblog <3 I want to hear people's ideas!

[adhsea]

You should give Pathfinder 2e a shot

Given the state of everything surrounding WOTC and OneD&D, I figured that now was a good time to make a post like this. I know how things like this sound, so I’m going to promise up front that I’m not here to shit on D&D. I played 5e for years and had a lot of fun with it. This is a message from someone who decided to try out PF2e and found a new favorite system, and thinks you might enjoy it too. So without further ado, here’s a few reasons to give Pathfinder 2e a shot:

Tactics and Teamwork: Combat is incredibly rewarding in 2e. Every character has 3 actions, and abilities are balanced with the idea of each action being just as valuable. Attacking multiple times a turn imposes a penalty, so it's important to figure out what you can do besides attack in order to help your party members do great on their turns as well. Attacks of Opportunity are rare, so moving into a flank position is easy to achieve. You can use skills to learn about your enemy, frighten them, knock them into the ground, it's a lot to put in one tiny snippet. If you've wanted more dynamic and tactical combat, why not give this a shot?

Balance part A: This game is incredibly well balanced on pretty much every level. The math in this game is built around the crit system, where every roll that's 10 or more above the DC is a critical success, and every roll that's 10 or more below the DC is a critical failure. This means that even as the numbers get higher and higher, they're still consistent. As a result, encounter building is simple and can be easily adjusted to fit the challenge the DM wants to give the players. It's trustworthy and reliable math that rewards tactics and good playing.

Balance part B: The martial vs caster disparity is much less of a problem in this game. Spellcasters can’t trivialize encounters with a single spell slot, and martials can feel like they have an impact on fights. For some people used to playing spellcasters, this can feel like a huge nerf. There are ways to play blaster casters and do it well, but for the most part casting is balanced around versatility and support. Martials on the other hand are stronger than in any other sword and sorcery system I've ever seen. Seriously if you've never played a martial character because you've felt they're too boring or don't have enough of an impact on the game, try one out in this system.

Character Building part Classes: As of writing this post, there are 24 unique classes to choose from in the game. 12 were released in the core rulebook, and 12 more were slowly released over the game's 4 year life span. They're not done either, there's another class coming in late summer. 2e is a game that tries to make as many character concepts possible as it can. Will you play an Investigator trying to solve crimes, an Oracle who struggles with a divine curse, and Inventor trying to create the perfect weapon, or maybe a Magus studying to deliver powerful spells through the might of your blade? The possibilities aren't endless, but they're not stopping until they might as well be.

Character Building part Ancestries: Also known as Races in D&D, your choice of Ancestry is a more impactful choice than you might expect. At various levels, you'll earn meaningful Ancestry feats that allow you to define how your character's origin shaped them. Your dwarf might've spent so much time around a forge that things like fire and smoke are easier to handle, while your goblin friend might have such a fascination with fire that they get a small bonus to doing damage with it. You can even get versatile Heritages to further define your character. Have you ever wanted to play an elven tiefling, or a gnomish aasimar? There's a lot that you can do to make your character feel truly yours.

Ease of Access: All of the rules are available for free online. Legally. This isn't a piracy statement Paizo literally makes the rules freely accessible without having to spend a cent. There's a ton of tools made by the community available online to help you play too. Pathbuilder is a great character builder that's available for free. The Archives of Nethys for 2e have the rules from every single published book available, even adventure paths. pf2easy is another great catalogue you can search through and filter. I could go on and on. The only time paizo ever really insists on payment are the prewritten adventures, which is completely understandable. And speaking of which.

The Adventure Paths: Paizo's prewritten Adventure Paths are great. They're available in physical copies or pdfs, always in sets of 3 or 6 books, with the 3 book sets being adventures spanning 10 levels and the 6 books spanning 1 to 20. They're written with making things as easy for the gm as possible in mind, and you can expect them to be mostly prepared for player approaches to problems. And hey, if the campaign goes off the rails before you finish the first book, you don't have to buy anymore and can just keep things going however you want. If you're just starting out, the Beginner's Box is a great way to get introduced to the system. It comes with simplified rules and prewritten sheets to teach you the basics if all the rules feel like too much to wrap your head around.

I'm cutting myself off because this post is long enough, and I'll just keep on writing run on sentences if I don't. If you've made it all this way, I hope I've convinced you to try out 2e. It's an incredible system that more people should know about. You can sometimes find people willing to run the beginner's box for free online, and there's no shortage of people willing to help answer questions about the system. And if you're willing to take the plunge right away, I'll leave you with the Rules Index on AON. Just click the tab that says Core Rulebook, and boom you have access to everything you need to get started. Good luck and have fun.

[toghrahkunok]

Not making a post about every class because wow that'd be long (and heck apparently Swashbuckler getting extra skill boosts slipped under the radar, who knows what else's been missed), but I at least want to make a post covering the coolest parts of

The PF2E Alchemist, Remastered (which is not out yet, just leaked from early copies!)

Infused Reagents are gone.

From the ground up: You start every day with Advanced Alchemy giving you 4+Int free Alchemical Consumables of your level or lower. You need the formula for anything you make, but the fun part is that you only need the lowest-level version of that formula. Only have the recipe for a level 1 Lesser Alchemist's Fire? Who cares, that's still enough for your level 17 Alchemist to make a level 17 Major Alchemist's Fire.

Quick Alchemy (QA), then, is now fueled by Versatile Vials (VV). You get 2+Int of them every morning, and can use QA to turn them 1:1 into no-shelf-life Alchemical Consumables like you used to be able to with Infused Reagents. They still need to be immediately used then and there, and have a new restriction that anything with a duration longer than 10 minutes gets shortened to 10 minutes. The twist is that you can spend 10 minutes in exploration to recover 2 VVs (3 at level 9), repeatable as much as you want up to your max of 2+Int. You don't even need to specifically spend your time on that, you can just passively get 2/10 minutes with no imposition on whatever other Exploration task you wanna do. The final cherry on top? QA gains a secondary function: It allows you to make a temporary VV that last until the start of your next turn, although you can't QA again to turn those "Quick Vials" into other Alchemical Consumables. What's the point then?

Oh yeah, Vials can be thrown as acid bombs (d6 damage +1 splash, scaling 1/4/12/18 like normal bombs). Every subclass also gets an expansion on them! Bombers can change the damage type to Lightning/Cold/Fire, and at later levels can fill them with metal shavings to make them trigger precious material weaknesses (i.e. you can throw Cold Iron Fire Vials at a Fey). Chirurgeon can feed them to allies to heal those d6s instead of harm, or in a pinch just bean them over the head with a healing vial from 20 feet away. Mutagenists can drink them to suppress the drawbacks for a round if they're under the effects of a Mutagen, and later even get some free physical resistance from that. Finally, Toxicologists can apply them to a weapon as a poison, and I feel I should also mention that Toxicologists now get to ignore poison immunity.

There's a few other big changes: Master in Bombs, Simple Weapons, and Unarmed Attacks at level 15; permanently Quickened at 17th level to use QA (only to make a single Quick Vial, no benefit from level 9 Double Brew with this action); Powerful Alchemy at level 5 making every Alchemical Consumable you make from your class use the better of it's own DC or your class DC; Additive feats no longer increasing the level of the items you use them to make (which before often prevented you from using Additives on you more powerful items); heck basically every feat is better in at least one small but not insignificant way so it's hard to really cover. For anyone who wants to get the more specific details, check out Ronald the Rules Lawyer's video (the best and most consolidated source of all the changes), or if you just want to read about it I can send you the relevant screenshots (too many to fit into a reblog).

Overall, Alchemist now gets at-will alchemy (infinite Quick Vials), per-encounter alchemy (2+Int Versatile Vials), and daily alchemy (4+Int Advanced Alchemy). With QA limiting the duration of items you make with it, you only get to exploit the hour-long duration items with your limited supply of Advanced Alchemy, which is going to number a lot fewer than what the old Alchemist could do with their whole "doubling/tripling Infused Reagents" thing. Still - the 10 minute duration on QA combined with the 10 minute interval to restock VVs means that you basically get 2 (3 at level 9) indefinite ongoing effects of your choice.

My thoughts? This is the biggest glow-up I've ever seen! There's so much more for you to do both in and out of combat, to the point where I'm slightly concerned. With the formula convenience explained at the top letting you diversify instead of constantly needing to get more recipes just to keep up the formulas you already have, you can easily end up with basically every single Alchemical Consumable at your fingertips. Move out of the way Spell Substitution Wizard, we have a new master of having-the-perfect-tool-for-every-job.

[threewaysdivided]

Feyli's Fancy Florals

More Dan Jones & Dragons? More Dan Jones & Dragons.

Bringing the number up to four with Feyli, the Flower Crown's born-again Dhampir Druid and sole wielder of feminine wiles (played by the talented NicholeGoodnight), all dolled up for a night of lying her butt off, stealing from rich people and smuggling small woodland creatures into upper-class venues.

More Flower Crowns Gala Outfits: Morenthal | Gelnek | Hobson

Design talk and also some bonus art under the cut:

Gotta say, Feyli's outfit was definitely the most tricky out of the set so far. Nichole gave quite a specific description of the details in Feyli's dress (a blood-red gown with black roses around the top, black rose-vines trailing down the body and a dark lace cape) so a lot of it was figuring out how to translate those elements in a way that felt nice and balanced, then adding some complementary embellishments for fun. Each Flower Crown has been pushing me to learn more program tricks and Feyli certainly gave me some fun new challenges to figure out.

For the dress itself, I ended up going with an off-the-shoulder mermaid-skirt gown in attempt to find something that would look nice on Feyli's body-shape and show off the roses without utterly destroying the line mileage if I wanted to draw her in it again later. (Still ended up doing the skirt-embriodery by hand so task failed successfully).

Accessory-wise I thought it would be fun to crank the "roses" theme up to 11, since Feyli really leaned into that with her alias and cover stories, so I threw in some rose-embroidery finishing to the edges of her lace cape (shout out to ClipStudio users rainbowgrimart and 얀얀씨 for their ornate lace and jewellery brushes, which were an absolute lifesaver for the detailing) and also traded up her usual hair-wildflowers to match.

Whether Feyli canonically wore her antlers to the ball is a mystery, but since she can change those now and Nichole did mention her keeping the hair-flowers I thought it would be neat to give her a smaller but more formal set of sparkly silvered deer-horns to fit the dress-code. I also had some fun playing around with her hair and make-up since it was a black tie nobles event and I figured Lady Infiltration might go the extra mile to style herself for the evening. She's the only party member with long hair, I had to.

The jewellery was mostly just goofing. I really wanted to give her a version of Tante Padva's "slit throat" ruby choker necklace from Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus since I felt like Feyli's backstory and Nichole's description of the dress would vibe with that aesthetic. For the rest, I figured silver would be a cute way to have her be matchy with Coil and contrasting to fellow-infiltrator Morenthal. Plus I thought it would be funny to give her a bunch of rings and loop-bangles since she's such an incorrigible fantasy-gachapon girlie.

Once I realised that Feyli had somehow managed to bring a bag with her rescue-rat companion, Soli, and recently-acquired copper dragonscale lizard through the cloak-room weapons check, I knew I had to find a way of including them as well. They're hard to see in the main drawing but I had so much fun with them that I decided to do a bonus sketch:

(Also feat. Pocket, the Party's new intrusive thoughts generator fairy friend.)

Double-bonus detail crop because I quite like how Feyli's expression-work and hair turned out:

[the-90s-music-colosseum]

this whole time i've been like 'haha very funny, (almost) no one here knows who Mike Patton is' and....you could just...look him up...but you know what? here, have a "summary" (lol it's long) of Mike motherfucking Patton and his career:

Mike is an aquarius, fire goat, grew up in Eureka, a small city on the northern california coast

he never intended to be a musician, but loves diverse music/soundscapes, is a curious person, worked in a record store, has perfect pitch and a bonkers vocal range and had close childhood friends (Trevor Dunn and Trey Spruance) who WERE studying music, they formed a band that would be called Mr. Bungle in their teens (fans tend to ship Trevor and Mike, and if you look at footage of them...you'll know why)

a demo tape of Mr. Bungle landed in the hands of Jim Martin, the guitarist for Faith No More...at the time they had fired their original singer and were looking for a replacement. The funny thing is, the demo was pretty hard thrash/death metal and FNM is....not that...but anyway, Mike was recruited to FNM, ostensibly for his singing ability, but he also was the profile of young, fit, long-haired, and hot as all get out. (fans tend to ship Mike and Roddy, and if you hear them banter on stage....you'll know why...and shoutout to Roddy for being an out gay man in metal in the early 90s...take that bja)

somehow, Mike finagled getting Mr. Bungle signed to the Warner Bros label when he signed onto FNM, so Bungle had a budget and exposure...and very little oversight...hence the MV for Quote Unquote/Travolta

The big Faith No More hit is Epic and that song catapulted them into a two year tour, during which Mike became known for being a fucking maniac (mostly shirtless) on/off stage....there's lots of true stories, and LOTS of untrue stories, no one, probably not even Mike knows exactly which is which. Two things are relevant: teen Mike started out straight edge, and during this tour he also gained a reputation for hating on groupie-and-party-focused rock stars. But his looks and his chaotic gremlin energy landed him this "reluctant pinup boy" persona.

Meanwhile Mike was also fully with Mr. Bungle, touring in his 'off time' from FNM, and at their shows everyone was completely unhinged.

HERE'S THE CRUX: after the success of Epic and the album it's from, The Real Thing, Faith No More were expected to have another massive hit with the next album....and they didn't. BUT they produced an album that to this day is beloved by fans even more that their first album, and Mike's stage persona continued to develop in this way that is mysterious, mesmerizing, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes grotesque, sometimes just raw sexual/homoerotic/electrically-passionate energy. They're big abroad, but not as much in the US.

Through the rest of the 90s you see Mike with FNM and Bungle, but you also see him produce a baffling feat of a solo album, starting to experiment with his own band Fantômas, collaborating with avant garde musicians/artists, most notably John Zorn.

Faith No More disbands in 1998, but Mike continues with Bungle, and for many fans, his work with Mr. Bungle is considered paramount...FNM is fun, but Bungle is FUN, WEIRD, dangerous but not in a scary way, none of their four albums sound anything like each other. Their "pop" album is....not pop.

Mr. Bungle disbands officially in 2004 (both FNM and Bungle reunite later on), Mike continues to collaborate with musicians, form new bands (including my fave Tomahawk), make better and more impactful solo projects and generally work at a pace that seems the definition of workaholic....producing music that is both eclectic and instantly recognizable, but seldom (never?) hit material. (Since it's not the 90s, I won't describe in detail...but it truly is well worth looking up)

as a little extra, and as was referred to by lurkerwithabike, Mike suffered a certainly covid-times-influenced breakdown and dealt with alcoholism around 2021/2022. For someone who has kept his personal life and struggles cloaked in apocryphal stories and sarcasm, when Mike opened up about what he was dealing with at the time, for many of us it just solidified this deep, deep love for our little weirdo. Oh, and also, the entire time he's a fucking hottie and he hates it.

SO, from my perspective at least - that's why you get such fervor over some guy you've never heard of

fin

(ps....I could have written more....that is a threat)

This is actually so fascinating. May "who the heck is Mike Patton" be no more!

[kimbap-r0ll]

Can I request a reader who wishes to transfer from their current dorm because they feel intimidated by their surroundings and can’t fit in, but are also too scared to ask their Housewarden? For Heartslaybul, Diasomnia, and Pomefiore.

Hi, thank you for the ask! I think I'll answer these in a general way since having each character would be over my character limit. Hope you enjoy!

Reader wants to change dorms (feat. Heartslabyul, Diasomnia, Pomefiore)

Heartslabyul

They would be happy to receive you, but only if you're willing to follow all of the rules of the Queen of Hearts. The issue here is while there are a lot of friendly people there, the strictness of the dorm leader might make you feel worse than in the dorm you were originally in (unless you were in Pomefiore)

Riddle would try his best to understand that you're new to the dorm and will offer to explain the switch to the dorm leader of your previous dorm. He might be scary but he can be caring

Ace and Deuce definitely would be happy to have more people in the dorm, that just means more people to hang out with! Ace might give you some heads up too about the rules in Heartslabyul and such

Everyone in Hearstlabyul will be pretty chill, and the tea parties are probably a lot of fun. Just know that there are a lot of rules in the dorm but outside of that the place can be a super nice home

Diasomnia

Similar to Riddle, Malleus will offer to explain the situation to your previous dorm leader. He doesn't want you to be stressed out about the switch. He'll help you ease into the dorm quickly too, but Lilia will be more excited to do that

Expect the vice dorm leader to show you around and explain some of the dorm rules (there aren't that many I think?). Everyone there might seem a bit intimidating at first because they're all really strong magic users, but know that if you got into Diasomnia you're just as strong as they are (maybe more!)

A lot of students there are probably really friendly, just hard to talk to at first. They'll soon feel like family because they really try to understand you and know all about your likes and dislikes.

Sebek and Silver become your close friends and while everything is pretty chill, they might warn you about Lilia's cooking. "Just in case he offers," Silver explains. Sebek is a bit tsundere with you haha

Pomefiore

Vil might have said no at first, explaining that you can't just switch. But perhaps he wanted you to be in his dorm in the first place, and he ends up caving into your plea and lets you in. He'll explain the situation himself to your previous dorm leader as well

Vil's really lenient with you on Pomefiore dorm rules. There's a lot that goes into being a student that's part of Pomefiore, and he wants to ease you into the dorm rather than throw you into the deep end. Besides, if you changed in the middle of the year, you didn't get the nice orientation that everyone else got in the beginning. So, he understands when you forget certain rules or mess up on certain tasks

Rook might do a lot of research on you before you fully settle in. it's a bit unsettling, but he does this with everyone and he might end up as one of your closest friends. Epel also welcomes you to the dorm, with the two of you learning the ropes of being at the school and in Pomefiore

Pomefiore students might come off as stuck up or uncaring at first, but when you find your circle they'll be the most caring people you'll ever meet. Vil will be happy to see you settle in as well, often checking up on you to make sure you feel at home

[flowers-the-sun-witch]

bmb day 6!

feat: Flowers, @wizblr-blue-moon-ball's Lurien, and mentioning @hyper-lynx's Liam and Hemi! The start of this is based off the latter's start as well, but it deviates from there.

Flowers blinks their eyes open, suddenly realising they had fallen asleep. Sluggishly, and also a little embarrassed, they stand, fixing their dress as they do so. They glance back around the room they're in. No one's entered it besides them, as far as they can tell, and the attendees seem to be congregating outside. They sigh, before stepping out into the hall, just as Lurien, looking considerably more tired than the last time they'd seen him, starts to speak.

“Esteemed guests! The hour is drawing late. We have prepared a final surprise for all of you. If you would please make your way to the atrium, then follow the signage to the newly opened sky garden. Please bring any spellcasting equipment you have handy.”

Flowers automatically glances up, even though they know that the garden wouldn't be in the main hall of all places. They then sift through their pockets, making sure that they have some form of spare materials on hand. They internally panic for a moment, but calm as they find a dark blue agate stone, obviously shrunk down so it would fit, hidden in their dress. They breathe. It'll be difficult to do, well, anything really with this, so they'll have to be a little creative, but they haven't had much of a challenge with their magic recently. It will be fun, either way. Probably.

Flowers pauses briefly, letting most of the crowd travel ahead of them, then join the trail of stragglers and attendees who apparently didn't get the memo when everyone started leaving. As they walk, they admire the portraits, huge banners, tapestries, and other fine decor they see along the way. Soon after, though, they realise that everyone's mostly left them behind, and try to move a little faster. Finally, they walk past the doorway into the sky garden. It was more of a glorified balcony or terrace, really; flowers and other shrubs and plants of all kinds line the corners, but in the centre is a giant rune circle, large enough that everyone could sit in the ritual space with no issues whatsoever. They turn, and are immediately startled by the fact that Liam and Hemi are right next to them. They take a seat next to Liam quietly, some unknown guest on their other side.

And then the show starts.

Lurien, surprisingly, seems to be conducting his magic spontaneously; it travels up into the air in a pillar of light, shining both pure white and with every colour imaginable, then branches off into thousands of 'twigs' of power. It winds and twists, almost looking like vines strangling the stars, now difficult to see with all the new light. Flowers holds their agate, now properly sized, tight to their chest. There isn't much of a reason to do so— of course, they haven't been given anything to really do with it yet— but at their action, a couple others also do the same. It feels right to do.

The air trembles with something, and they sense that it's nearly the end of the light show. The branches, now fading slightly, start to shine bright with colour, doffing their previous white glow. The tips of each branch form orbs of swirling red and blue and purple, and Flowers fixates on one, clutching their gemstone tighter to themself. As they do so, the orb seems to almost explode, colours dancing in the sky so brightly that stars dance in their vision for a few moments afterwards.

After theirs went off, a chain reaction begins; thousands of balls of light explode into the cloudless sky, like a firework show. Some only burst into colourful circles of light, like Flowers', but others form shapes— Rabbits bounding through the lights, trees sprouting and growing at a rapid pace, dragons waving in between the others. Still more branches, not yet faded, trace sigils and symbols that Flowers does not understand into the air. Underneath them, the balcony trembles with energy. They glance down for a split second; the rune circle is glowing as well.

And then it's over. Fireworks crackle one last time, before dimming, then they disappear. The atmosphere itself around the attendees seems to relax, and they let their shoulders drop. The runes' light fades as well. Flowers sits down back on their assigned seat; they hadn't even realised they'd stood in the first place. They hear Lurien talking about the rest of the ball, but they aren't listening.

That was beautiful.

[thepalaceofmelanie]

Martell Week- COTD: Oberyn Martell

Tag: @elvinaa @adriennegabriella @morby @candycanes19 @wingsoftheangels @tashastrange89

(A/N: Okay so we had a House Martell music task...well, I want to do that for just Oberyn. So the first ten are songs with my reasoning, while the last ten are certain lyrics that fit him without my reasoning. Plus, this helps me get a playlist for Oberyn started for use. Enjoy the ride! Also am working on Day 2 and 3, so hopefully I can get those done tonight.)

1- “Unholy (Japanese Version)” by: Shayne Orok, Curserino & Ali Orok

Reasoning: Alright, pick any version of Unholy; I don’t care if it’s the OG to a cover or whatever else, this version screams Oberyn. It’s slow and sensual and sexy, to say the least, I recommend this song for any smut/lemon playlist.

2- “Oberyn” by: Daenerys and Targaryens

Reasoning: Please, do yourself a favor! Go and listen to this song. It’s so fun and a bit funny but it’s about him! So enjoy fellow Oberyn fans.

3- “Letter To A Friend” by: Robert Gromotka and Chiharu Bley Violoncello

Reasoning: I feel this would be his theme song back in Dorne. More so when he’s in the Water Garden writing poems for his daughters. It’s just something that would make you think of him feeling calm for lack of a better term.

4- “Bow Down” by: I, Prevail

Reasoning: Basically, this song is could be his theme song when trying to avenge his Sister and her children. I did have this one down in the lyric area but switched it because, of how it just works more so as a whole.

5- “Crossing Over” by: Five Finger Death Punch

Reasoning: So, after watching the Bills game, I was trying to think what else to add and remember this old gem. This song is about loss and grieving and well, he lost Elia. Also you could use this song for Ellaria as well, when the second verse.

6- “Adrenalize” by: In This Moment

Reasoning: If I had to give Oberyn’s “infamous for his sexual appetite” as the wiki puts it, a theme song, it would be this. It’s hard, heavy and well a sex song.

7- “Tonight” by: Fozzy

Reasoning: “Then everyone is missing half the world’s pleasure. The gods made women… and it delights me. The gods made men… and it delights me. When it comes to war, I fight for Dorne. When it comes to love — I don’t choose sides.”

8- “One Of The Girls” by: Jennie Kim, Lily-Rose Depp, and The Weeknd

“We don't gotta be in love, no

I don't gotta be the one, no

I just wanna be one of your girls tonight

We don't gotta be in love, no

I don't gotta be the one, no

I just wanna be one of your girls tonight, oh”

9- “Emperor’s New Clothes” by: Panic! At The Disco

“I'm taking back the crown

I'm all dressed up and naked

I see what's mine and take it

(Finders keepers, losers weepers)”

10- “Love You To Death” by: Type O Negative

“In her place one hundred candles burning

As salty sweat drips from her breast

Her hips move and I can feel what they're saying, swaying

They say the beast inside of me is gonna get ya, get ya, get”

11- “Hangman” by: Rev Theory

“Take your places please

You’ll need to sit for this one

It’s a simple plan

With a mangled conclusion”

12- “Go Girl” by: Pitbull

“I party like a rockstar

Look like a movie star

Play like an all star

Fuck like a pornstar”

13- “The Whims of Fate -King Side” cover by: FamilyJules feat Kuraiinu

“Give into another vice

See where it might lead

Come on, let's just enjoy the spice

Life and feel so free

Give into temptation”

14- “So Far Away” by: Staind

“This is my life

Its not what it was before

All these feelings I've shared

And these are my dreams

That I'd never lived before

Somebody shake me

'Cause I

I must be sleeping”

15- “Young Gods” by: Hasley

“He says, "Ooh, baby girl, don't get cut on my edges

I'm the king of everything and oh, my tongue is a weapon

There's a light in the crack that's separating your thighs

And if you wanna go to heaven, you should fuck me tonight"”

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 17/03/2024

YTPMV Plant Inspection

Season 2 Featured on: Rips of Christmas Past Also on: The SiIvaGunner YTPMV Collab (Eek!).veg

Ripped by Zoom

Requested by mobbsz02! (Ask Box)

And now, after a number of posts made covering Season 2's incredible ability to introduce new memes...it comes time to torture them.

I've made it no secret that Season 2 was likely when my investment in SiIvaGunner was at its absolute peak, and that was in large part due to how invested I'd become in the ongoing lore and story at that time. Part of it was of course everything surrounding the main story itself: Season 1 had stuff like the reboot with I Saw a Brainwasher Today and the Mr. Rental side story with Mr. Rental [B Side] ~ Out of Options, and Season 2's slow-burn premiere had kept me thoroughly engaged with rips like 28 Saves Later and Patched Plains Fusion Collab all building up to the premiere of the Christmas Comeback Crisis. But another part of it was also how even the most off-shoot things were often spun to tie in with the channel's lore during Season 2 in particular: the Smooth takeover described in Haltmanna feat. Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20, the Inspector Gadget takeover of Become as Gadget, and so many more...Because of this, and the memories of Season 1's various ARG-like puzzles strewn about from time to time, it felt more important than ever to consider the meaning and depth to every rip uploaded, to consider how a rip's contents may be reflecting what's going on in the world of Grandiose City, almost akin to trying to deduce Dark Souls lore through item descriptions.

And I mean, hey - lore or not, that feeling that any one rip uploaded has the potential to set off a chain reaction in relevance based on its popularity is one of the most fun parts of following SiIvaGunner even today (Mad Mew Mew Becoming Uncanny and THE NEW TEAM 10 FORT​!​!​! [Francis Flow: Original Mix] are just two examples come to mind.). Yet that specific tie and investment to the ongoing lore of the Christmas Comeback Crisis, the fight to free the captured Figments being exploited by Haltmann and The Voice Inside Your Head, is what IMMEDIATELY made YTPMV Plant Inspection stick out as far more important and meaningful than it may otherwise have been seen as. With the combined bellows of the Howie Scream and Loud Nigra, it takes but a few seconds to realize that something here had gone terribly wrong.

The original Studying the Factory theme from Kirby 64 has become one of the franchise's most enduring themes, despite how much it differs from most anything you'd expect from the series' soundscape. Its an imposing, industrial-sounding theme driven by percussion that sounds like heavy-duty machinery pounding in the background, with a lead synth trying its best to be heard through the savage tools its surrounded by. It strikes an absolutely brilliant balance of sounding imposing, oppressive yet simultaneously infectiously catchy: An atmosphere that, somehow, through leveraging our attachment to the channel's existing memes, YTPMV Plant Inspection is able to perfectly translate to the medium of YTPMV. Again, the literal first thing we hear is the channel's foremost and second-most iconic scream-memes, one of which almost replaced the other in the Reboot storyline, now seemingly suffering the same torturous fate - only to be followed by vocalizations of PSY seeming to only barely be holding on. Even as the rip picks itself together past the intro, you never truly get past the sense that the sources feel almost as if they're pain performing, with slight tweaks made to their melodies to better fit the progression of Studying the Factory - as if they're being made to fall in line. This feeling is only enhanced by the climax to the rip's chorus being performed by the two aforementioned scream-memes, sounding just as strained and suffering as they did in the song's opening.

And look, I'm aware this interpretation of things is a bit silly - of COURSE a YTPMV rip of a song like Studying the Factory, especially the Planet Robobot rendition of the track, was going to sound like this. I don't necessarily believe that it was Zoom's intention to make a rip directly referencing the idea that SiIva's captured figments were undergoing genuine torture, but...again, the idea of linking even innocuous rips to lore was one that had been well established at that point.

With everything from Grand Dad Metropolis to Angry Joe's Theme, the SiIvaGunner team had conveyed to audience members like me that they LOVED rewarding us for paying attention to everything being done on the channel. It was that speculation being done over the deeper meanings in rips just like YTPMV Plant Inspection that played a huge part in keeping them etched in my memory banks for a long time, that was what kept me coming back to video after video to see what was being said and discussed in their comments sections. Because sure, YTPMV Plant Inspection is no doubt a banger in isolation, it uses and plays with a lot of sources and fiddles with them just enough to fit the main track's melody and progression smoothly, a lot of classics like Smooth and Bonfire and Drop It Like It's Hot with fantastic use of samples like PSY's and Joel's GRAND DAD!! shout...but it really was everything SURROUNDING the rip that made it stick with me for years since.

It's damn impressive what a rip can do with just some atmosphere and buildup, huh?

[invinciblerodent]

tagged by @starfightrpilot in a kissy-picrew, couple song game using this creator! (A lot of the designs aren't super well-reflected in it because, well, the medium itself is a little limited like that, but I still had so much fun playing dressup with it again! ❤️)

@antiqua-lugar, if you're in the mood to play dolls, I'd love to see you do it too next! ❤️

(I went on a bit longer than i thought, so, under the cut it all goes!)

This is the best I can do for the moment of Iona and Astarion- their song for me is "Masquerade" by YENDRY (ft. Lous and the Yakuza)

I really like how the basis of their whole story is, at its core, a willful miscommunication based on the complete misunderstanding of the other's motives, and how the two singers have their back and forth in different languages.

I really like how over and over again, the song responds to "Antes de hablarme quítate la máscara" ("before you'd speak to me, take off your mask") with "Arrêtez un peu avec toute cette mascarade" ("stop with all this charade/masquerade"), I think that works so nicely for these two's whole Deal with each other- kind of both daring each other to drop the pretense first without fully understanding what the other is saying.

They didn't have a goatee that would have fit Arvid, so this is kind of the closest I could get to him and Gale! Their song for me is "I Know That He Loves Me" by Autoheart.

I like to kind of think of it as "He" in a way going back and forth between referring to Arvid's god Tempus ("At the edge of imploding/He surrounds me with light") and referring to Gale ("And He acts like a sedative/All through the night"), kind of as a.... religious crisis/romantic panic type of deal? Either way, it's a nice fit.

For Petyr and Shadowheart (shipname: Phart), most of my songs are instrumentals, but the one that I associate with them is "Love Song of The Beta Male" by Stornoway.

"beta male" in this context is referring to the concept as it exists in birds basically, but it's just a very sweet kind of, "I'm not an idiot, I know I'm not, like, a perfect, charming prince who'll sweep you off your feet, but hey, I can love you still the best I can" sentiment that I feel fits their silly and.... in a way, almost kind of juvenile romance.

(I unfortunately don't yet have one for Petyr and Halsin -ship name Hatyr-, but that's probably for the best, since I can't make them look not related in the bloody picrew, lol.)

And closing it out with Ray and Wyll, with "Yellow Bird" by Ben Stevenson.

This whole.... hero in/before his prime and hero past his own angle, this... one of them embodying the present and the future and the other the melancholy past, they're very much two sides of the same coin, and "Nobody knows all that we've got, you couldn't tell a single thing new/Nobody knows me like you" just... fits so well.

To know sacrifice because they've both had to make it, to know one another because they see versions of themselves in each other, I really like that. Nobody knows me like you, because I am you, and you are me, and that depth of understanding without need for words just tickles me so perfectly.

Thank you for tagging me love on u ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[rabbitechoes]

a lot of big tracks to close out the month!!! some letdowns, but plenty of heaters!!! i think i prefer this new weekly format for these posts, but we shall see how it holds up once my college stuff starts again ...

to see last week's post, click here!!! also feel free to follow me on rate your music and twitter <3

"Hog Calling Contest" - King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

◇ released: July 23, 2024 ◇ featured on Flight b741 (not yet released) ◇ genres: southern rock, boogie rock, rockabilly

King Gizzard have released another fun single from their upcoming album soon. They're really putting some twang into their music and the results are pretty enjoyable. Maybe a bit too silly in some areas, the hog calling wasn't necessary although I guess it fits the name of the song. Looking forward to this one, should be a fun listen!! I plan on doing a quick binge of their recent albums to be prepared for this one also!

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"Long Dark Night" - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

◇ released: July 23, 2024 ◇ featured on Wild God (not yet released) ◇ genres: singer-songwriter, chamber folk

I somehow keep forgetting that we're getting a new Bad Seeds album next month. This new single is great, as the other singles have been as well, and I couldn't be more excited for this record. Cave sounds like he hasn't heard a new song in at least 30 years, but he still manages to keep making songs that have a fresh energy to them. They use tools of old, but his words carry these songs to new heights. The run they've been on since Push the Sky Away in 2013 has been one of the strongest of their careers, up there with their heyday through the late 80s into the 90s. It seems as though with Wild God, that will remain to be true. One of my most anticipated records of the year.

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"Berlin Nightmare" | "One More Time" - SOPHIE

◇ released: July 23, 2024 | July 24, 2024 ◇ featured on SOPHIE (not yet released) ◇ genres: tech house, acid house | ambient trance, UK bass

These new SOPHIE songs have proven to be quite polarizing which I guess was bound to happen. No one wants to dislike these songs, but also the bar is set incredibly high. It's obvious this upcoming posthumous release will be focused on the pop side of her career, which is fine. I enjoyed both her dips into experimental and pop music - I mean, the two often coalesced, but I fear these new songs veer too heavily from from the experimentation that made SOPHIE such a unique artist. "Berlin Nightmare" is a crunchy house track that doesn't feel as unleashed as it should be and "One More Time" is a subdued ambient trance track that rules when it finally kicks into high gear, but it's kind of too little too late. I want to unabashedly love these new tracks - mainly these two songs, "Reason Why" was pretty great - but they're just not doing all that much for me. Still, I guess I'm glad we're getting a project like this that will hopefully provide further proof that SOPHIE was one of our generation's most defining artists.

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"GHOST" - LSDXOXO feat. Kelela

◇ released: July 23, 2024 ◇ featured on DOGMA (not yet released) ◇ genres: trap, alternative r&b

I have no idea who LSDXOXO is, but I've been on a big Kelela kick recently so I figured I would give this song a try. This is kind of rough. The beat is sort of toothless and the overly sexual lyrics are delivered with a lack of charisma that makes it boring and kind of gross. Kelela's vocal touches aren't even enough to salvage it. Skip this!

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"Imminent Redemption" - Jane's Addiction

◇ released: July 24, 2024 ◇ genres: alternative rock, alternative metal

This is the first new Jane's Addiction song with the band's original lineup in over 30 years and unfortunately it falls into a lot of the pitfalls older rock bands fall into when trying to modernize their sound. Granted, I've never been the biggest fan of the band. Maybe this is exhilarating for some, but I fail to hear anything special or noteworthy in "Imminent Redemption." Hope the fans are happy!

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"Chicken" - Pixies

◇ released: July 24, 2024 ◇ featured on The Night the Zombies Came (not yet released) ◇ genre: alternative rock

I've heard what I can only describe as "horror stories" about the Pixies newer material and how painfully average it all is. I've never been brave enough to venture into it, I don't want to sully my love for the band from their earlier seminal records, that is ... until now. "Chicken" sure is a song. It's fine. It's got a very subdued groove I guess. It's ok, I don't know. Am I still breathing?

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"New in Town" - Thurston Moore

◇ released: July 24, 2024 ◇ featured on Flow Critical Lucidity (not yet released) ◇ genre: post-rock

It looks like Sonic Youth fans are eating good this year because just months after Kim Gordon's insane new album The Collective, we're getting a new album from Thurston Moore. "New in Town" was released on Moore's 66th birthday and it recalls the excitement of a music scene that is bustling with exciting sounds - namely Washington D.C. in the 1980s and 1990s with bands like Minor Threat, Fugazi, and Bad Brains. Sonically, this is weird, but a lot more of what you might expect from Moore. It's a decent little song, but not one that matches the excitement and freshness it seems to be reminiscing on.

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"Fly" - Mura Masa feat. Cherish

◇ released: July 24, 2024 ◇ featured on Curve 1 (not yet released) ◇ genres: contemporary r&b, dance-pop

I've never done a listen to Mura Masa's music proper, but he has shown up on some good albums over the years - namely yeule's incredible album softscars from last year as well as PinkPantheress' recent work. Unfortunately, "Fly" isn't doing too much for me. It's well-crafted and well-produced, but it doesn't leave too much of a lasting impression. Your mileage may vary though.

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"Irish Goodbye" - Kacey Musgraves

◇ released: July 26, 2024 ◇ featured on Deeper Well: Deeper into the Well (not yet released) ◇ genres: folk pop, singer-songwriter

Kacey Musgraves is releasing a deluxe edition of her most recent album Deeper Well and "Irish Goodbye" is one of the new tracks included. It's very pleasant which was my take on the bulk of the original album. These songs aren't adventurous or interesting, they're just pleasant on the ears. If you liked Deeper Well, I'm sure there will be plenty of love here.

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"Lucky" - Halsey

◇ released: July 26, 2024 ◇ genre: alt-pop

It seems like Halsey is gearing up for a new album coming soon and these songs detail her struggles with her health and motherhood, which I commend her for being open about, but "Lucky" just misses the mark for me. Her last album was her strongest work to date, featuring her best material and most interesting production - courtesy of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. This new song sees her delving into that contemporary alt-pop sound that it seems like everyone is doing. Her lyrics are unique to her, but these sounds are tired.

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"Guy For That" - Post Malone feat. Luke Combs

◇ released: July 26, 2024 ◇ featured on F-1 Trillion (not yet released) ◇ genre: country pop

We got another new single from Post Malone's upcoming country album and I genuinely have nothing new to say about this one. My critiques for all of these songs have been the same. Boring, boring, boring, boring, boring, boring.

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"Hate Me" - Lil Yachty & ian

◇ released: July 26, 2024 ◇ genres: new york drill, southern hip hop

So you're telling me Lil Yachty trash-talked the hip hop world after his mediocre detour into psychedelic rock, only to return and collaborate with this culture vulture who deliberately makes everything look like a joke. Sure, man. This song sucks, but we all knew that. The video is kind of cool though, if you listen on mute.

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"One Wish" - Ravyn Lenae feat. Childish Gambino

◇ released: July 26, 2024 ◇ featured on Bird's Eye (not yet released) ◇ genres: contemporary r&b, neo-soul

I really enjoyed Ravyn Lenae's debut album Hypnos, but I just kind of lost touch of her since then. She has a new album on the way soon and a few singles have come out for it, namely this collab with Childish Gambino. This is a nice, sleek neo-soul cut that's very easy on the ears. Lenae has really come into her own as a vocalist too, she's easily the star of the show. Definitely gonna try to give Bird's Eye a listen.

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"Lonely Road" - mgk & Jelly Roll

◇ released: July 26, 2024 ◇ genres: country pop, emo rap

It's like Jelly Roll has blackmail on the dudes who make the worst music so he can land these shitty features left and right. My take on "Lonely Road," AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!!!!! GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!!!

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"Kobe" | "Big Dog" - Kevin Abstract

◇ released: July 26, 2024 | July 29, 2024 ◇ featured on Glue (not yet released) ◇ genres: alternative r&b | pop rap

Kevin Abstract's supposedly long-awaited new project Glue is being released single-by-single on his Soundcloud. These songs are fine, but they just lack the enthusiasm present in his best work - he's been lacking that for a long time. "Kobe" creeps along without really grabbing you and while "Big Dog" has much more flair, it still leaves a lot on the table. The second verse is pretty great though and the most I've enjoyed a Kevin track since his features on Quadeca's new album ... wait look who features on this song!! Maybe Quadeca just brings out the best in him.

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"All You Children" - Jamie xx feat. The Avalanches

◇ released: July 30, 2024 ◇ featured on In Waves (not yet released) ◇ genre: tech house

I've been on a huge Jamie xx kick this month. I finally dove into In Colours as well as his We're New Here remix album with Gil Scott-Heron and I've firmly come to the conclusion that he's one of music's best active producers. This song with electronic legends The Avalanches is a great time. Built around a sample of a poem from Nikki Giovanni urging the listener to dance. It's infectious, it just makes you want to move. I can't wait for this album.

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"Flash in the Pan" | "Dream Sequence" - Jane Remover

◇ released: July 31, 2024 ◇ genres: alternative r&b, indietronica, emo rap

Jane Remover's two new songs go in a much different direction from Census Designated, but it's for the best I think. These songs rock. Some of the most energetic tracks from her, despite the heartbroken nature of the lyrics. One of my gripes with her last album was that the songs just didn't grab me enough, they often bled into the background, but that is not the case with these tracks. Apparently these songs are one-offs, but I do hope we hear more like this from Jane in the future. Loving these songs.

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"Tunnel Vision" - Magdalena Bay

◇ released: July 31, 2024 ◇ featured on Imaginal Disk (not yet released) ◇ genres: progressive pop, synthpop

We got another amazing song from Magdalena Bay to close out this month. "Tunnel Vision" is one of their wildest songs yet. Blending the surreal lyrical themes with even crazier instrumentation. It tricks you for the bulk of the song into thinking it's just a serene synthpop track before throwing you into this crazy prog-rock breakdown towards the end. Definitely not where I expected the song to go, but it rocks. I can't wait to give this a listen next month, perhaps my most anticipated album of the year right now.

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"I Guess Time Just Makes Fools of Us All" - Father John Misty

◇ released: July 31, 2024 (or maybe July 13, 2024 idk who cares) ◇ featured on Greatish Hits: I Followed My Dreams and My Dreams Said to Crawl ◇ genres: indie rock, disco, piano rock

This new 8-minute single from Father John Misty is weird. Blending piano rock and subtle disco elements over his fantastical lyricism is a recipe for ... confusion. I don't love this song, but I definitely don't hate it. It's got a silly charm to it, I never thought I wanted to hear Mr. Tillman over a disco groove, but I guess I did. Curious to hear where he takes this sound - maybe nowehere given it's the only new track on his new greatest hits compilation. I've rarely been let down by him over the years, he's one of my favorite modern songwriters. Hell, this song is growing on me more and more too ... y'know what, this rules. Can't wait to hear more Western wandering traveler disco from him in the future.

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"Never Meant" - Iron and Wine

◇ released: July 31, 2024 ◇ featured on American Football (Covers) (not yet released) ◇ genres: indie folk, psychedelic folk

American Football were teasing something on social media for a little bit and many, including myself, assumed we were finally going to get LP4, but that isn't the case. Instead, we're getting an anniversary edition of their seminal debut record alongside a covers album. Iron and Wine had the duty of covering the iconic "Never Mean." This is fine, it's just a folk rendition of the song. Very pleasant, but I don't think I'll ever reach for this one over the original. Cautiously optimistic about this covers record - maybe some of these covers will wow me!!

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psssst. i made a discord server called COSMIACORD ... if u wanna join and have fun, talk about music, play fortnite, or whatever here's the invite :3 https://discord.gg/rsHMenTU

[tiredassmage]

2, 11, and 13 for ff14 tyr?

There were a couple numbered lists for XIV asks I'd reblogged at the time, so I'm not absolutely certain which one this was meant to be from, but my guess + what I think is the most fun to answer of the options I were between are from the [WoL asks]!

Thank you so much! <3

2. How did they learn to fight? Have they learned other martial or magical arts since then?

[Spoilers for the background of one of the Endwalker dungeons, and some of the Reaper job quests in 2, and for late A Realm Reborn-Heavensward in 11]

Tyr's backstory for XIV is something I'm still a little back and forth over, but it's likely he has some relation to Garlemald by birth, and thus it's still highly likely some of his experience is through their military channels. I'd initially started tossing ideas around before we got Dawntrail, so I was first working around some ideas that he's potentially from the band of Reapers that used to occupy Lapis Manalis. I think it's still my favorite idea.

If I half-understand the timeline of Rullus's attempted assassination of Solus from the Reaper lore correctly though, it's likely he spent little, if any, time actually growing up in Lapis Manalis, as the order was soon-after exiled from Garlemald. Tyr's own fighting style then has remained primarily in favor of swords; playing on Viper has been exactly what I was looking for, though its likely his own techniques vary from those of a Viper's until I figure out exactly where I want him to run into Viper properly so he can learn the combining blades tactics of the Vipers. :3

Which I'm realizing probably means he learned sort of on-the-run and as they went about it, perhaps from a particular mentor or two that took him under their wing in their exile. Something for me to chew on!

We're still working through the post-Heavensward storylines, so thus far there's nothing particularly new to his skill set. I've flirted around the idea of introducing him to Dark Knight at the early legs of Heavensward because I think it'd fit his headspace about everything well to go through at least the job quests up through level 50, but I'm still kinda undecided about adding it as an actual job of his. I do also have Machinist picked up, but it's less a full-scale job for him, I think, as rather sort of a background skill with firearms that may supplement his bladework when he's in a pinch.

11. How do they deal with the knowledge that they're not immortal but the world will always face some kind of danger? Have they made their peace with not being able to save everyone?

I wouldn't have thought to worry about Tyr's peace with not being able to save everyone, and then I got to actually playing, lol. I think... starting out in agreeing to aid the Scions, he had no lofty expectation of himself to actually return from at least half of the feats he has since performed. Tyr's is less a case of overconfident hubris and more a potentially just as worrying sense of duty. It would appear so long as he is capable, people will continue to ask, and why would they not? Could he truly turn away and leave the burden to another when he has, at least to the claims, proven equal to such tasks before?

There is a bit of a weariness about him to it, even this 'early' on as I am in Heavensward for him. I'd normally describe him as pragmatic, but the several losses and ever-desperate odds weigh heavy on him. Much of this has Tyr feeling well into matters he never thought to understand, and I believe Minfilia's loss is probably his keenest. Much of Hydaelyn's will that was a jigsaw to him was more easily understood with her guidance and support, and for quite a while he could not understand why she would not flee with him that night in Ul'dah.

I think... he's aware enough of the ever-present risk he will not return from their trials, but he carries on because they are his friends asking, and many of them like a family, the Scions. To call him 'hero' about it he would still consider a slight excess... He thinks merely to do what he can, where he can. To overextend themselves to solve all the realm's problems is a folly he's gently chided a few of his fellows on before, but for now, he's content to believe the peace on the other side of their ideals and lofty goals is not so unreachable as to prevent him from hanging up his blades one day to perhaps quietly enjoy the mountains and the snowfall free of the call to arms.

13. Of all the dungeons and the trials they faced, which one has left the best memories?

I think completing the Binding Coils was certainly most memorable for me on his behalf, lol. And a part of me is inclined to use that as his answer as well, though it's not necessarily for the Coils themselves as a location, but for the bond it forged between him and Alisaie, and some of how it's informed his relationship with Alphinaud as well. In short, I think the experience tightens his relationship with both of the twins, and he's grateful to have aided them on such a journey - theirs, truly, more than any that could be claimed his own.

And because I think... for all it was Alisaie's journey, what they learned of the Calamity there in the depths and in Bahamut's shadow also served to give Tyr a much better understanding of where they stood, and what it was they all fought for. He's a few scars to show for their trials there and it isn't particularly what I'd call a happy chapter of their adventures, but the journeys and relationships forged with comrades and friends in its undertaking I think are some of his most valuable to-date.

[Also because there was little else in gaming I'd felt as satisfying as edging out Nael as I did for the unsynced clear, and also because apparently Khloe Aliapoh loves to see Tyr unsync Twintania. Khloe this is the 3rd week in a row, I know he's only got up through Heavensward content to even pull from, but damn. Cut the man a break! /lh. Which sidenote, I've decided Tyr adores her.]