#i wanted to post video of this whole interaction but don't have the ability but it's so cute

[sheerioswifties]

"If you don't send me the recipe, we're gonna have words," -Taylor Swift to Selena Gomez Selena & Chef | Season 1, Episode 4

[ophernelia]

Hi. Do you have any tips on how to grow your sims platforms? I keep tryig and posting and I hardly get any interactions or followers. Idk what to do. I wish bigger creators would help out smaller ones more by reposting the content so it gets more views. Its so hard starting out

Hey! Yeah, I have a few tips I can share! This is gonna be long so beware!

I keep seeing this sentiment reiterated about larger creators. I get it, but I think everyone's missing one thing in regards to it: you already have access to the same audience they have. Just like you they grew their platform. Maybe it was a stroke of luck from a viral post or something, but they still had to start somewhere. What it takes is getting your content to hit the algorithm. That's all! So even if a larger creator never looks your way, you can still grow and curate an audience without their help. Small accounts are what make up big accounts after all.

You NEED good SEO. I'll talk about TikTok specifically. If you want a boost in visibility then get on Tik Tok. Properly tagging your content is the key to working the algorithm in your favor. I think people believe the more tags the better. No. The more accurately tagged, the better. The hashtags "TS4", "The Sims", and "The Sims 4" are always trending. You should always use those tags. The rest depends on the kind of content you're posting. I'll use my most viral video as an example. My Stormveil Chateau post on Tik Tok got 141.6K views, 22.3K likes. Since it was for a maxis match build I used the following tags: #thesims4 #sims4 #ts4 #simstok #ts4cc #fyp #sim #sims4tok #sims4maxismatch #sims4build #sims4builds #ts4build #ts4gameplay. Most of the tags are related to TS4 and TS4 builds. I wouldn't include anything about CAS, mods, etc. It wouldn't fit the post. Don't flood other tags in hopes of getting more views. It'll just bury your post under a bunch of random content. People have to be able to find your content.

Visually appealing content performs better, period. Y'all give the aesthetic girls hell but they know a thing or two about working the algorithm. I'll give them that! People like things that look nice. Now, that's not to say you need to purge all the color or character from your game. You don't have to follow a certain style trend. Curate your own personal style. Do what you do to the best of your ability. Whatever you post, just make sure it's good quality. Focus on sharpness, clarity, etc. If you wanna curate a particular look then go for it! But most importantly, having clear clean images or videos is the main thing you need. And you don't need a beast of a PC to do it. Sharpen your images and videos before you upload them using Capcut or something. Make sure the lighting is nice. Make sure it's a good resolution for the platform you're posting on. A quick tip: Adding dof to lower quality images makes it look better! See how the left photo looks more clear than the right? A little bit of depth of field helps so the pictures don't fall flat.

Pick a primary social to promote your secondary ones. Usually your primary social may be the one where you have your largest audience. For me, it was Tik Tok. On there I'd promote my Patreon, YouTube, and Tumblr. You just released some cc? Post something about it on Tik Tok, let your audience know they can find it on your Tumblr. Use one to promote the others.

Slow organic growth is STILL growth. Growing your audience is one beast, but maintaining it is a whole other thing. As someone who has gotten shout outs from larger creators, that initial boost ALWAYS dies down. And socials like YouTube will not hesitate to tell you "Hey boo, your shit's failing now. You kinda suck." Been there, felt that. Boosts from other creators and giveaways don't have much longevity. Most times that audience will leave. On occasion you may get a few who stick around, but most won't. That's why it's important to build your audience organically. Yes, it may take longer but they won't just dip out after a few weeks. Things take time to grow. Things take time to curate. Understand you are BUILDING something. It takes time!

And lastly- if you just really want the numbers and it doesn't matter what content you post, then here's what you do: Sell. Still use good SEO, still try to have high quality photos, but give people something to consume. People like to see what they can get. Post some builds, cc, whatever. If you're not a cc creator, then do cc finds, mod reviews, tutorials, build recommendations, lookbooks. People love a good cc haul. They wanna see what they can get. And that's not to say people that make this sort of content don't care about their content. I know they do and it's a lot of work! It still takes time and effort to curate. It's just HOT right now! Especially maxis match content. It ruffles less feathers because a wide array of the Sims community has a vicious vendetta against alpha cc. (Yeah ion know. They will "uncanny valley" and "just play IMVU' you to death. If I say what I think it is.. My people know.) But if you really just want thousands of followers, then there's a way to do it.

With all that said, I know how annoying it is to constantly hear to not focus on numbers but don't. CREATE FOR CREATION'S SAKE. Do it only because you enjoy it. Growth for me has come as a byproduct of me doing whatever the hell I wanted. I make Lykaia because I want to make Lykaia. I love that people love it but it is for me. Not to be an influencer, or to inspire, or to receive praise and accolades. I love everything about the process. Hell, I love the stress that comes with it! I have four scenes to film and I'm still not done editing the ones I have filmed. The episode is supposed to air on MONDAY. I fucking love working down to wire. It's stressful as hell but it feels good! If it's out there, the audience will soon follow. Always. Take your time. Be grateful for where you're at every step of the way. Enjoy the process! And remember that all it takes is one post to take off.

[thyandrawrites]

On Nagi's emotional intelligence

One thing I find interesting about Nagi's character is that he's not only bad at getting across his emotions in a way that leaves little room for misunderstandings; he also struggles a lot to identify feelings (not just his but especially other people's) for what they are, and to put himself in other people's shoes.

Both the manga and Nagi's light novel offer several examples of this, and I noticed a common denominator in most of them. So I thought it could be fun to compile them in a post.

(long ramble under a cut! Contains slight manga spoilers up to manshine city arc)

Preface: I did not study psychology, and though I try my best not to misuse words and be insensitive, mistakes in good faith can happen. Please bear with me

So, what kicked off this whole thing is a scene from Episode Nagi. This one:

Now, without context it would be easy to write off Nagi as a self-centered genius who is looking down on team Z for being "weaker". And that's exactly how Isagi, who doesn't know Nagi prior to this, takes his questions. They're just a taunt, as if Nagi is mocking Team Z's determination to overturn the scores when they're a team that doesn't yet know its own skills fully.

And the thing is, regardless of Nagi's intentions, his words are condescending. He doesn't mean them to be, but you can't deny that calling someone stupid to his face is not conductive to a polite or constructive conversation, lol.

Unless you're Nagi Seishiro, that is.

Nagi... Doesn't seem to grasp that essentially calling team Z the bottom of the barrel while asking what keeps them going is... Well, rude. Patronizing, even. Which is why he looks so puzzled when Isagi's response is negative, and when he doubles down on his hunger for goals.

In his head, phrasing it this way was perfectly fine. He was genuinely asking, and he expected a response. He wanted to know, not to piss Isagi off and be left hanging.

The reason behind Nagi's obliviousness is of course a lack of social skills. We know he tends to keep to himself, preferring video games and the silent company of a cactus over social interactions, and it shows in how stilted his ability to properly communicate becomes over time.

But in the intro I said I don't think it's just a struggle with communicating what he means. I also interpret it as Nagi struggling to put himself in other people's shoes when their experiences don't mirror his, which complicates his attempts to communicate further.

What is translated as "What's his deal?" in the panel above in japanese has a bit more nuance than that, and it clues us in to what was likely going through Nagi's head a bit more.

"What's this creature (Isagi Yoichi)"

The kanji that compose Isagi's name are transcribed with a different reading (the furigana indeed reads "creature")

Now, if you read Nagi's light novel, the words might sound familiar:

(credits to @/ hoshi801_ on twitter for this translation)

That's because we have another example of Nagi being weirded out by and puzzled at how differently he and others seem to function.

From Nagi's perspective, he's not the weirdo, others are! He keeps observing this world where everyone puts effort into things that he only sees as a hassle, and he doesn't get how anyone can find any appeal in them. In other words, Nagi doesn't really understand how other people work (how they think, how they feel, what motivates them), and he tends to use himself as a metric for understanding them better, not realizing how flawed that approach is.

I also reckon this is why he can sometimes come across as lacking tact.

"it's easy for me. How come is it not easy for you?"

What he says to Bachira during the 4v4 seems like another prime example of Nagi attempting to figure out others by comparing them against himself.

In his intentions, this little speech serves as a way to get Bachira to step up his game. After all, had he really been fine with not picking him, he could've kept his mouth shut, won the match, and picked Rin as he said he would. No need to warn Bachira beforehand, giving him a chance to prove himself in the field and compete with Rin as the best choice moving forward.

But the words Nagi uses are familiar once again.

"Do you think you'll get chosen if you lose? Still living in dreamland? [...] I want Rin, and I bet Isagi feels the same." -> Nagi to Bachira

Vs "you'd be satisfied if I chose you here? You wanna act like a team even if we're not excited about it? You think becoming best in the world is that simple?" -> Nagi to Reo

And then

"We don't need you the way you are now." -> to Bachira above

Vs, "'You're fine as you are.' That's what you said to me, Reo, but... For me to dream with you about being the best again, I want to change." -> Nagi to Reo (in his head)

Nagi doesn't really understand Bachira, either, but he understands the bond Bachira shares with Isagi. Two separate times, he sees himself and Reo's relationship mirrored in it, and that's what prompts his "pep talk".

While he might not grasp what motivates Bachira's ego, Nagi knows what motivated himself. So he offers much the same to Bachira. You want to keep playing with Isagi, just like I want to keep playing with Reo. So change, like I did. Keep working towards that dream, and don't throw in the towel, accept defeat, and wait for Isagi to pick you.

Bachira and Isagi's bond is pretty much the only time we see Nagi try and succeed at relating to someone else's emotions. He's able to do this because he can sense the similarities between them. It's a pattern he's plenty familiar with. So we could say he's still applying that flawed method I talked about above. Understanding others by comparing them to himself, assuming they think the same way.

But I'd like to point out that while he does get their bond as far as it mirrors his and Reo's, Nagi still doesn't grasp the ways in which it differs. Namely, he remains oblivious to Bachira's desire for connection. Nagi is perfectly comfortable being a loner, and while he misses Reo, he adjusts to the separation quite easily, at least emotionally. Well, partly because he caused it, but also because from his perspective, he and Reo were never really apart-apart. They'd eventually meet up again, Nagi would tell him all about his side quests, and they'd be fast besties once again.

At least, that's what Nagi envisions, because Nagi is a straightforward person who doesn't really grasp other people's perspectives past his own personal experience.

For that reason, I think, he remains oblivious to how his advice to Bachira hits like a slap where the boy's at his most vulnerable. But it all works out in the end, so in the grand scheme of things, Nagi has no reason to give it more thought past this interaction. Nagi's team loses, Isagi advances with Bachira, all is well again.

If Nagi got away with giving this as little thought as possible, though, his dynamic with Reo doesn't give him the same easy out. Not for lack of trying on his part. Reo doesn't initiate conversations with him for days (weeks?) on end, and Nagi is fine with never questioning it.

Now, normally I'd make a point here about how Nagi's major weakness is his refusal to think hard about anything unless he's forced to—or about how that's the main hinder to his development to date—but that's a post for another day. Suffice to say, for the sake of this argument, that his willingness to let things stay tense between him and Reo is part of the problem here.

Well, "willingness" might not be the right term here. From his pov, there isn't any tension at all, in fact.

Again, because Nagi had a reason that justifies leaving Reo behind, he doesn't see a strain in their relationship until Reo points it out to him. Worse yet, he struggles to see Reo's viewpoint even after Reo does point it out to him.

He's as clueless as they come, and he's closest to Reo than anyone else in blue lock. Despite this, not only does he not realize why Reo is upset with him and doesn't want to link up anymore, he also fails to grasp that Reo's angry at him at all.

I ran out of image space so I'm just gonna quote the next bit:

N: "We promised, right? To win the world cup together. I've just kept making the best choices I could for that goal. During the rival battle, I thought I could get stronger if I went with Isagi. And I chose England because I thought I could learn from Agi and Chris. So, now it's you, Reo. You're stronger now, so you and I can beat Isagi, unlike last time."

To which Reo understandably replies,

R: "Damn, you really are a selfish jerk, you know that?"

Nagi doesn't seem to realize that if you are a team, you should, you know... Communicate with your partner. Instead, he decides for himself, without even asking for Reo's input, what's the best course of action to achieve their dream, doesn't share his thought process with Reo at all, embarks on said course alone, and then one day randomly decides to have Reo tag along in it.

In his head, I think it all makes sense to him because he assumes Reo already knows all this, intuitively. After all, that's how their whole dynamic has been built so far. When Reo isn't anticipating Nagi's needs before Nagi has uttered them aloud, Nagi is instinctively following the vision Reo set up with a pass, and completing it with a goal.

I'd say that the fact that they relied so heavily on silent communication for much of their time as friends is half the reason why they are so bad at communicating with actual words. I'm including Reo in this because he's equally guilty of it too, what with him saying "do what you want" aloud, only to wish for Nagi to stay without verbalizing that thought to him.

But I digress.

My point is, in the scene above, Nagi assumes Reo would be fine with the split because Nagi himself was. It doesn't even occur to him that Reo might see it as the negation of their promise to each other, or that he would feel abandoned and forgotten about (sorry, can't post pictures, but notice his shock at Reo's accusations. Chapter 187). After all, Nagi spent the whole time thinking about all the things he wanted to tell him.

Once again, much like with Isagi in the first selection, Nagi's puzzled and surprised at Reo's angry burst in response to his pushing; he assumes the drive he feels will be mirrored or at least understood by the other person, but instead he's turned down, faced with a negative reaction he doesn't quite understand.

As Reo puts it, Nagi's imagination comes short of letting him empathize with Reo's feelings. The choice to move on without him is purely functional, then, but from his perspective it never involved any emotional distance. To Reo, however, who was left with an easy to misunderstand parting speech, the hurt of a perceived loss strongly overshadowed anything else. Nagi doesn't anticipate Reo's emotional response over rationality because Nagi himself is not an emotion-driven person. He doesn't see that Reo would be plagued by self doubt because Nagi doesn't doubt his skills. He fails to see how his actions could easily be misconstrued as indifference because Nagi's not one to read hidden meaning into people's words, and assumes others take things as face value, too.

But that's more than communication failure! That consistent lack of effort to imagine how others would feel or act in a given situation is a pattern, at least imo.

I think Nagi never had to make that kind of effort before, since he was pretty much on his own, and in a lot of ways he's still adapting to having peers he trusts and that he wants to be trusted by in response

One could say this is as much a process to him as understanding his own ego for football is, and I find that really fascinating to watch

[erstwhilesparrow]

might make a longer post later about more details from the video, but have been thinking especially about how delighted i am at the ways characters are categorizing and drawing lines around things in owen's newest new life ep? careful about the cut; there's spoilers in there.

i think... in other series, or watching videos created by other ccs, if someone monologued at the audience about how they think the mechanics of the world work, i would just take that at face-value and move on? this is a thing people do. minecraft is pretty open-ended -- the things that happen in it and the mechanics players interact with can have many interpretations, and probably the person holding the camera is telling you their interpretation so we have The Intended Way To Understand The Rest Of The Video. or at the very least, those interpretations don't tend to be characterizingly wrong? i'm thinking of pixlriffs in empires season two, who posits a theory in-character about how dreams connect different worlds. i'm thinking about scott literally in his most recent new life video saying to us, "oh, that bolt of lightning must be my light snare, one of my powers." these things tell us more about the world and its mechanics, smoothing over the gap between game and interpretation, than about the people sharing those understandings.

so it's. really really fun to me that owen is playing with that? sparrow newlife is just straight up wrong about a bunch of things, but he also has a really obvious stake in maintaining the distinctions and categorizations he's had in place so far. i'm thinking particularly about how long he goes on insisting that the sculk is good and the warden is bad -- it's something he's been saying some variation on since he first became sculk, and it's also increasingly evident that it's just not true! sure, it's in the warden's mind that he find the otherside and the memories therein, but those flashes of memory are about the sculk spreading. he's been saying himself that the sculk wants to spread! and at the end of the episode, sparrow, despite insisting he's a sculk hybrid, hears scott's heartbeat and literally sniffs him out like a warden. there's not really a perfect separation between sculk and warden even on the level of sparrow's hybrid abilities, but he's so lonely and scared, and he's been so convinced for so long that being a hybrid is the best or only way to be wanted and liked -- he needs the sculk to be benevolent, to have welcomed him into the fold because it wants him just for being him. thinking about his final monologue: he's so deeply hurt that, specifically, the sculk used him! he hasn't been upset about being sculk; he's upset that it didn't ultimately mean anything!

and speaking of self-interested drawing of lines, i'm also delighted that scott in his perspective of this episode's encounter does this thing too? as he runs away from sparrow, he mutters to himself something like, "i don't think [sculk sparrow] is the sparrow i used to know." it's... not completely wild to interpret that as scott telling us the viewers that sculk sparrow is genuinely A Different Entity and that this is something that is now just true about the world, but i like thinking of it as scott, the lightmancer, the character, terrified (that heartbeat sparrow hears is going so fast??) and frantically trying to reconcile the image of sparrow covered in sculk and pulling a knife on him with the pilot he befriended all that time ago. it complicates sparrow in interesting ways! it complicates scott in interesting ways! there's a mismatch, on both sides of this falling out, between who each person thinks the other is, and who that other person actually is, and scott saying this gives us a glimpse of another angle to that mismatch. the sculk is deeply a part of sparrow, yes, and is affecting him, but that well of incredible insecurity in sparrow has been here this whole time. he's always had that tendency to curiosity-cruelty and he's always been holding onto the belief that being a hybrid would make him worth something. this whole encounter is more interesting to me if Yeah, It Is In Fact The Same Guy In There. struggling against something terrible, for sure, but still the same guy! sparrow did that. he burned down those structures. he pointed a crossbow at that villager. he, hurting in a million different ways but still doing it, jumped into scott's head and killed him.

[and-a-pidgey-in-a-wepear-tree]

good [insert time of day here] i realised i never thought to ask you amid my delight of you being the most interactive follower i have that isnt an irl friend do YOU have ocs or blorbos. i wish to know. for reasons.

OH hello yes thank you for asking!!! I have several OCs but most of the time I simply Do Not Explain on here; I have lots of ideas and doodles but I make it mostly for myself and don't think to share — doesn't mean I don't want to tho! exhibit A: this absolutely massive post I'm about to make lmao. putting it under a read more bc Oh Boy, the floodgates have been opened

most of my OCs are for two different projects I have: The Visitors and my D&D Dark Star Campaign.

The Visitors is just a lil worldbuilding project I've been chewing on for.... oh wow, over a decade at this point??? I love all the OCs I have in there very very much, but they're definitely never intended to go in an actual story, I just enjoy the speculative biology and character / world building process.

Val is one of my oldest OCs, and she's changed SO MUCH over the years! nowadays, she's a sort of insect/dinosaur mashup alien who uses gravity warping magic and a very large axe to hunt demons. a huge issue for magic users of her species is keeping cool, as magic generates heat and can literally cook you from the inside out, so you'll notice the multiple vent-like spiracles across her body for this purpose. she was born blind and so relies heavily on her best friend, Django, to be her eyes and keep her safe. fortunately, Django has Too Many Eyes. he's a dragon genetically engineered by those in Val's species to be the perfect vessel for storing and releasing massive amounts of mirror-based magic. this kind of magic gives him many abilities, including seeing around corners, creating illusions, or multiplying attacks when applied in different ways, and he acts as Val's seeing-eye dragon. in battle, she likes to get up in the action while he holds back and gives her cues on what's happening, only jumping in himself if she's in major trouble. she's very friendly and excitable, and loves to get into the culture of whatever planet they're visiting, while he's more interested in observing and snooping. there's a lot of espionage and hijinks.

these are some of my most recent sketches of them, tho I'm sure the designs will changes in the future. specific colors don't matter at all, it's all about vibes! not pictured in the halfway colored one is Val's big iridescent black cape thing that has a slit down the middle for her rigid tail, nor her weird arms since I wanted to figure out where the torso vents could go.

Duke is another Visitor who visits planets and solves problems, but his path to get there was a whole lot different! I made him up as a coping mechanism when I was 12, and I'm still very fond of him.

he started life as a human video game speedrunner and modder prodigy. in a "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" situation, a devil (very distinct from demons!) struck a deal with him, challenging his gaming abilities with his soul as the stakes. he won despite the devil's cheating, but that's where the resemblance to the song ends. in this world, a devil winning your soul allows them to fuse with you and gain total control over your body, mind, and actions; but if YOU win, the control is reversed! and like any 14 year old who suddenly has the power to rival minor gods and a chaotic creature living in their head.... he goes off the rails for a while. Val and Django eventually find him and help him cope. his powers include electricity, glitching reality, flailing his glaive around, and being a menace to evil overlords.

you can't see it very well in this picture, but his eyes and the segments between his tail glow lime green! I'm not a fan of drawing clothes, but in my head he's relatively fashionable for a teenager and refuses to wear anything other than black. also, he decided to tell me he was trans a couple years ago, thanks for letting me know buddy 😂

my other project does actually get to see the light of day, if very slowly — I'm running a homebrew D&D campaign for my irl friends called the Dark Star Campaign! none of em use tumblr so WHEEEE I get to post all the spoilers I want! there's a kinda staggering amount of lore behind it and a ton of minor OCs, but the two I rotate in my head the most are Anya the Timekeeper and The Master, aka Armageddon.

Anya the Timekeeper is a chronomancy lich from an alternate universe! she used to help Armageddon travel the multiverse and gain power, but she's decided she's tired of being evil, and now hides in a mansion on a tropical island where she breeds dinosaurs for fun. though she's now very determined to help the party, they'll eventually have to kill her past self to prevent a paradox. her familiar is a little archaeopteryx named Trix who steals hats!

(I commissioned this art from @/goodlouse a while ago! highly recommend checking out his blog!!)

Armageddon is the BBEG and he's SO EVIL and SO MUCH FUN. he's an ancient amethyst dragon who, up until a while before the campaign's beginning, was steadily finding alternate universe versions of himself, killing them, and eating their souls to gain Unlimited Power™. unfortunately, his partner in time (hah) Anya told him to fuck off, so the quest for Unlimited Power™ has been kinda slow lately. fortunately, a D&D campaign started, and he cheated his way into existing at the players' table as The Master! my players can ask to talk to him sometimes, and I'll put on a mask of his head I made specifically for this purpose — very useful for not breaking character when the character is supposed to literally be the one sitting at the table talking to the players. I don't try to hide the fact that he's evil and they all know it, the fun is in giving them little hints and tidbits of lore to munch on. right now he's being very docile and helpful but things will get very very interesting eventually as more of his nature and plan is revealed..... =)

I'm still playing around with what he looks like as The Master, but I really like this recent design I did. his eye glows dark and menacing. I haven't found a design for his dragon form I'm really pleased with yet tho :/

okay wow thanks again for the ask, I have many many ideas in my head and it felt pretty nice to get em out!!

[lastoreadoras]

Looking for people to interact with

I've been much more outgoing lately, I'm not sure why! Despite this, I am still very bad at picking and choosing people to reach out to and message, so, to save time for everyone involved, I've made this post.

This post is asking for people to message me that also describes what exactly I want from our interactions! You will have to message me, though if you're feeling too shy to reach out in our DMs, sending a non-anonymous ask or directly replying to this post letting me know that you'd like a DM is a good way to get my attention and potentially receive a DM from me. See also: making my notifications blow up with a sequence of chained likes and/or reblogs on my posts.

Reblogging and especially liking this post specifically will not do much for putting you on my radar, because it's very easy to just like or reblog a post and doesn't take much effort, as opposed to messaging me or doing any of the things described above. If you're interested in connecting with me, please read this whole post (or at least look at the TL;DR) before reaching out to me!

Thank you in advance.

I am ace and I love meeting new people

To begin, I do NOT want a relationship in which there is only hypnosis and only kinky things. I am asexual, and while I am romantically attracted to basically every gender, I do not want to be horny 24/7. If you're looking for a committed (or gods forbid temporary) dominant/submissive or hypnotist/subject relationship, specifically only a dedicated sexual/kinky relationship, this post does not include you.

I am very affectionate

I love people! I love people so much and am always looking to make more partners and friends. There is a good chance that I will flirt at least a little, and will generally try to be very positive and overtly friendly in our interactions.

We'll still do hypnosis stuff

This does not mean I will not want hypnosis to be a part of our relationship- hypnosis is a very big part of my life, and is the root of how I've made most of my friends and especially my partners. I will eventually want hypnosis to happen between us (whoever the hypnotist shall be) and at the very least will want to be able to discuss the topic freely without judgement.

Video games good

I won't sugarcoat this next point- I am a gamer, I play on PC, use Steam, and heavily enjoy a wide variety of games. Specifics can be gleaned by questioning me, but I tend to lean toward roguelikes and co-op multiplayer games, be they designed specifically for co-op or simply offer the ability to play cooperatively with your friends. PvP games can be fun, but I definitely lean towards PvE titles.

Inherent bias

I adore women. Trans women particularly have a special place in my heart. This does not mean I will dislike anyone who isn't a woman or trans, but if you are feminine and/or transgender you will automatically gain some of my trust without having to do anything.

To clarify: video games

Over the course of our interactions, I will want to play video games with you, and I will want to hypnotize you or be hypnotized by you. That much is clear. If you don't play video games, that's okay, but as we are unlikely to live near one another, our options for doing things may possibly be limited. I will say, however, I may want to read something with/to you or watch anime/tv shows/movies with you. Simply sharing space and receiving attention can be enough, but I'm not very good at filling empty conversations with words as my social skills are somewhat limited.

Friend Zone

If you're already partnered up or don't wish to get involved romantically, I'm perfectly fine being your friend! I will still want hypnosis to be involved, but hanging out with friends is something I simply don't do enough and would be open to doing much more.

I only have one body

I am not always available 24/7 and am sometimes too busy to reply to messages. This does not mean I don't want to talk to you- I will tell you if our relationship isn't working, and barring extreme circumstances, will attempt to make it work. I have a few friends and partners already and if this post garners enough attention, will likely have even more, which means that I will not be available all the time. If you expect me to be 100% available every moment for you, this is probably not the relationship for you.

Allow me to summarize and recount the major points. (TL;DR)

We will not have being horny or sexual as the focus of our relationship.

I may be an introvert but I am liable to flirt with you and try to pry attention and affection out of you whenever possible.

We will discuss / engage in hypnosis (I know it's antithetical to the first bullet but it's necessary)

We will probably play video games. (on pc) If not, we will want to find an alternative.

I love women/feminine types, though if you're not a woman, that's perfectly acceptable, and I will appreciate your attention all the same.

It's okay if we're just friends! There's no pressure to become one of my partners, even if it is always an option.

We will not be spending every second of every day together, as I have existing friends and multiple partners to divide my attention. I will still try to answer your messages when I'm busy, but there are no guarantees.

Thank you!

Regardless if you read the whole thing or not, I hope you are well informed enough to make the decision of whether or not you want to reach out to me about this. It's worth noting that even if we're already acquainted in some way, this post is still an invitation for you to reach out!

Cheers! <3

[fluffbeast7]

i found a fake art Channel that's an ARG :) its called ''Snowbird.Rogers''. This post will be about me diving in completely with what i found so far about the channel, if you want to explore it on your own, feel free to skip this!

Im pretty sure this channel is an ARG, the first vid has a weird scene at the end and the second one had all sort of recordings.

The banner has these weird numbers:

2438723490 2947034545 3542524545

and above "snowbrid.rogers" (brid? Not bird like the title?) There's something written in a language i dont understand, but from google translator it means: "what's wrong with zyul?", which I'm assuming is the character or to represent the person posting

i hadn't catched anything wrong with the first video, just at the end that it plays out a video in the dark, i have no idea what it means

in the second video is FILLED with recordings.

''at first, the audio plays of someone trying to call 'Alex', i think it is someone called ''Grim''. They have to record their message (number being 0123456789?)

'' hey alex its Grim, i'm glad to hear that you're back home for the summer. Sorry again that i didn't pick up when you first called, i was- i was busy, but, anyway, uhm, yeah! just glad to hear that you're back, we really need to catch up, its been too long dude. uhm just shoot me a text whenver you're free and, oh, oh- sorry i gotta go again, but, anyway, glad to hear you're back home.''

nothing too weird about the rest of the video then, which comes back with the speedpaint- the channel only has 2 videos, so you'd think that's the end of it? but nope! lets dig in a little bit deeper!

found this at their community tab, but the artwork can also be found at their instagram (which, so far, they only have instagram and youtube.). and loook, A CLUE! we find out that Grim, The one who called Alex, is also an artist and interacts with the person who owns the channel from time to time! and yes, the person who owns the channel is alex, Grim confirms it on their instagram

so.. we know alex has been away, and is coming back from college for summer, (it's mentioned a few times on their instagram)

Don't think i didn't see the link! :D i was just pointing out sum details haha

this is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_vSRk84CWI

and it leads you to this vid!

let's look at the title first, i put it in a morse code translator and it said ''CANARY'', in the video, a bird is singing, and the video does not fail to point that out-

''The canaries are most often associated with happiness, compassion, and the ability to help others through a hard time. They can sometimes come into our lives to remind us of what is important and to keep our optimism in times of sadness.''

I think this video is about Grim and Alex talking to each other, i wrote in what they said but i will put here the most important parts (for me at least)

''you know about the kidnapping that happened a couple years ago in the woods that weren't far away'' (this doesnt have a continuation but its interesting)

-

''you're lucky enough to see me Outdoors, it's taken me so long to get that far, so yeah''

-

''I've told you about how Robin's been acting lately right? she just did a whole jerk about the whole thing I I don't know why and I don't know if it's gotten into her, it, it's just weird I-''

-

''don't sound like her from what you were saying'' ''I know that's why I'm so shocked, it's like I don't know what happened and I am I don't know I'm worried but I don't know at the same time I I just could be''

-

robin is a new character here, but we dont know much abut her.

this is pretty much all i got, Alex posted on the community tab about getting a new social media account but they haven't shared it yet

[lowhowl]

Hey, so I'm kinda starting to put a lot more focus into personal projects (currently writing the script for my next video) and as much as I was hoping to avoid this, I'm going to have to place this blog on hiatus until I start to get muse again, even if 'hiatus' is just tumblrspeak for 'So long, losers.'

I'm not going to definitively say I'm going away, or that I'll come back, but a lot of my inspiration for writing has gone elsewhere and I'd much rather pursue that than risk burning myself out.

I can be reached at my twitter @/WebbedSpiders (slight nsfw warning, account is minors dni) where I'm a lot more candid, mostly tweet at other creators, post my own stuff, and complain; or my Discord, for close mutuals.

also, a bit of an addendum below the cut- it's under a cut specifically bc it waxes negative but I feel like it's important to say because it is cutting into my ability to write here.

fair warning, I'm going to be very blunt and kind of serious with my words here. this also isn't an invitation to discussion, I am plainly stating my thoughts and I will not be swayed.

disclaimer: this is not directed at anyone. please, for the love of the gods, do not take any of this as 'oh did I do something?' you didn't. This is more about how the roleplay community as a whole operates, and no single person can be blamed for any of this.

There's always an air of pressure about Tumblr communities. In the time where I've just been here talking to people, interacting, not really causing problems as far as I know, I've still managed to get softblocked by people just because of association or because I don't mention something at all.

And while it's well within the right of these people to do this- these systems exist so you can curate a safe corner for yourself- it has still created a lot of stress for me and it has lead to me overly moderating and overanalyzing a lot of my own posts, and worrying about what exactly I'd done to push these people away. To be brutally honest, that's not fun and is not conducive to a creative platform. Logging on to realize that threads you were very much looking forward to have effectively been dropped forever is disheartening.

and I think the argument of "well you should think about why you got (soft)blocked" in regards to if I'd done anything wrong is bullshit, because in every case that someone has broken mutuals with me after there's been an amount of IC interaction, there's been no discussion. There's been no clarity. Which means that there's no direct path to improvement or closure unless I go around asking other people why I was blocked, softblocked, whatever, and I'm simply not going to do that because that feels like a breach of privacy. At the very least, it comes off as an indication that the other person simply does not want to interact with you and does not want to even talk to you.

Should note, this doesn't really bother me if it happens with people I haven't really spoken to. This is more of a 'I thought we established we were cool' thing. I know I'm also guilty of this in some cases, but at the same time- I do regret doing it. I hate that it's just accepted as a product of the systems this community has set up, and I feel like everyone- no matter how severe their actions- deserves to at least know what everyone at least thinks or knows they did.

I'm also not stupid, I know that this is just the community that Tumblr has curated over the years and I understand that this is just how it operates, but I'm starting to realize that maybe this space just isn't for me. Creating for myself without the necessity of leaning on others for continuous threads has really broadened my horizons and made me feel like I can do a lot more. I still love Whisper. I still love writing. but if I'm going to continue with this blog down the line when I have muse again, I'm going to be very selective and it's going to be very sparingly. I've found a passion I care about- something that I can actually put all of my creative skills towards that can reach an audience- and I'd much rather focus on that.

If you read all this, thank you, but also. I'm sorry? This probably reads as aggressive and upset- but I've been holding on to a lot of these complaints for upwards of years from how long I've been on this platform, floating between roleplay communities, but I can't hold it in anymore. I hate to say it, but in the time I've spent away from Tumblr, I've just felt better.

[thegreatyin]

~ ✧ ~ COMMISSION INFORMATION ~ ✧ ~

Hello! I’m Yin, he/she/they, and welcome to my part of the hellsite, except with a lot more angels and monsters running amok. I’m primarily a hobbyist artist and writer, though I do aspire to get a proper job in either (or both!) professions someday. I’m a big fan of video games, cartoons, and just generally all that cringe fail nerdy stuff. If you want a more detailed introduction including nitty-gritty boundary information, links to and information about personal projects, and what few other social medias I have, you can find all of that stuff just below the cut. You don't have to read all of it, but it's all there if you want to see it.

Don't be afraid to tell me if I need to warn (or be reminded to warn) for triggering content, I am always happy to do so!

~ ✧ ~

~ Do not interact: ~

The title of this section is a joke. I don't actually have a DNI. What I will lay down is a before you follow:

• I am not comfortable with sharing my personal information on any public social media! Please respect this. I am comfortable disclosing that I am professionally diagnosed with autism and ADHD, and identify... somewhere on the LGBTQ spectrum in both orientation and gender. I'm still trying to figure out where, mind you, but definitely somewhere!!

• I am very violently queer and use the word very liberally as a form of self-identification. If this is a serious, major problem for you, I'd recommend you just block this blog and move on.

• This blog is a SFW space and, while I may reblog or post the occasional dirty or suggestive joke, I tend to avoid any and all truly explicit content. Blogs of any caliber are welcome to interact, just be aware my own space will always remain PG-13 at worst. This rule varies when it comes to artistic nudity- generally I will avoid reblogging it here, but if I ever do so it will be tagged appropriately.

• My official stance on any and all shipping discourse is that I prefer to not get personally engaged and keep my own opinions to myself. While I do have personal takes, viewpoints, and to an extent a clearly-defined side on the whole thing, I am not privy to publicly sharing any of these and will ignore any and all inquiries about the topic. I would greatly prefer to be treated as a neutral or otherwise outside party by both sides of the debate, because I do not wish to get involved in any discourse, and earnestly request that everyone respect that to the best of their ability. I'm just a simple hobbit in my own corner of the internet, and boy am I not willing to carry the ring to Mordor anytime soon.

• I write and draw what I want to write and draw. I am an insufferable multishipper and a majority of my works deal with incredibly heavy and graphic topics. These will always be tagged and properly warned for. I will never drop something violent or gory on anyone's dashboards without the appropriate content warnings and disclaimers. As stated near the top of this post, if I ever forget anything, please feel free to remind me about it!!! Other's comfort will always take priority over my own hubris.

• I greatly enjoy eldritch/biblical angel aesthetics and religious horror themes, and they play a prominent role in a good chunk of my personal works. Similarly; body horror, existential dread, various kinds of abuse, struggles with nihilism, and mental health issues of all kinds are either common or at the very least notably existent in virtually all settings I create. If any of this makes you uncomfortable, I would earnestly recommend blocking most of the tags relating to my work.

• This should go without saying, but this blog is open to all sorts of identities and peoples regardless of origin. Short of literally being a crime, I am happy to let people identify however they wish. If you disagree with this statement, please be aware that I block liberally and I block often.

~ ✧ ~

~ Personal Projects and Settings ~

Acts, Promises, and Faith (commonly abbreviated to "APF"): My main ongoing original fiction project, with a clearly defined cast and setting and (almost!) a clearly defined overarching plot. Set on an artificially magic-infused planet known simply as Mimue, it follows a catgirl shapeshifter as she struggles to deal with love, loss, the baby(?) eldritch spider that crashed through her roof last night, and the most powerful person to ever exist taking a personal interest in her journey to bring that spider home. The main story is not currently published, and will likely not be for years, but I do hope to make it into a webcomic someday. Or a book. Or a game. Or just... something.

Outside of the main protagonist quartet, the setting as a whole has an abundance of side characters (and not so side characters), most of which feature in some shape or form in the official stories I have published on Ao3! These side stories also contain major insights into the lore and overall status of the world at large, and I always have ideas in the back of my mind for how I can make more stuff like this in the future. Just make sure to read the content warnings on all published works, and know that none of those were published in anything close to chronological order 👉😎👉

It is also important to note that you should treat all of those aforementioned stories as you would expanded universe material for an already-existing show or franchise- with the incredibly notable exception of one reoccurring character in particular, a majority of the cast given focus in the Ao3 fics do not star or otherwise provide a major role in the plot as it's written right now. I'm essentially constructing this universe backwards by first introducing everyone to Glup Shitto instead of Luke Skywalker. But that's okay, because now you can have both as your blorbos in the end! Everyone wins!

I am always accepting asks and inquiries about this world, because I love it to death and I love my blorbos to death and Rigel is my favorite character I've ever made ever.

Overall genre: Urban... ish fantasy character drama, leaning slightly towards low fantasy in general. The technology level in most of the world is equivalent to America in the early 60s, and magic originates from an outside force/gift in this setting, but is also pretty much seamlessly integrated into society by the modern day. While the story and themes are closer to darker melodrama than light-hearted action adventure, the world is distinctly not grimdark and the plot is mainly motivated by and through character actions and beliefs throughout the narrative.

Notable Content Warnings: Depression, allusions to suicide, drowning, burning alive, occasional gore, PTSD and C-PTSD, unreality and hallucinations from the prospective of the primary protagonist, body horror

Main Tag: #apf for general content, #apf info for more specific information about the world (these posts are not up-to-date most of the time, upfront worldbuilding questions are always preferred!)

Where to read it?: The APF anthology collection on Ao3 currently contains every published story I've ever written in ideal reading order! You definitely don't have to follow it in the slightest, it's just a suggestion due to how many fics there actually are. This setting also has its very own discord server, but for security reasons if anyone wants to enter it they'll have to DM me personally. Go on, give it a shot, I certainly won't mind!

~ ✧ ~

"Above": A work-in-progress name for a mostly sandbox (no clearly defined plot) setting about various gods, angels, and demons getting up to mischief across time and space. Dramatically darker in setting and tone than APF, and far less grounded to boot.

The world of "Above" is currently split between two eras- the "past" era, where a newly-born Seraph named Reguel tries their best to follow the wishes of their god, and the "present" era, where the King of Demons campaigns to end a millennium of torment from his cruel patron deity. At its core, it's a science fantasy setting that ends up focusing 99% of its attention on the duo of god-created fantasy races and very little on the already scarce sci-fi elements. Outside of lore about the gods and their creations, the rest of the world is merely a backdrop to demon and angel tomfoolery. To this effect, the actual "main cast" features funny jesters, friendly demon kings that use emoticons every five sentences, murderous malewives intensely in love with their giant goth girlfriends, and one (1) very sexy butler. Truly, some treats for everyone to enjoy.

Also, demons in this setting are floating mood ring space cannibals. That's really just something you have to experience for yourself to understand.

While there is an ongoing askblog based on this world, the events of that blog are not strictly canonical and will probably never be declared as such for spoiler-related reasons I cannot get into... but I'm also not saying the blog isn't canon. Just like APF, I'm always happy to receive and answer asks about this setting, so feel free to send any when you feel like it!

Overall Genre: The past era is a fantastical tragedy, while the present era is largely a nobledark adventure story. The world of the past is seen only through the eyes of an unreliable narrator, while the present is told through many different perspectives across many different species and locations.

Notable Content Warnings: Everything in the book. Psychosis, self harm, cannibalism, gore, dissociation, suicidal thoughts, PTSD, C-PTSD, parental abuse, parental neglect, abusive relationships... this is a dead dove setting, through and through, and it does not pull its punches. Particularly in the past era, but the whole world in general is a dove actively dying inside a paper bag.

Main Tag: #above.

Where to read it?: As this is largely a sandbox freeform setting, there's far fewer defined ways to access information about the setting and lore. The most notable proper story is God Have Mercy on Them, God Have Mercy on Me, a work-in-progress epic set in the past era that describes Reguel's early life and the choices that led them to where (and who) they are today. It has an absurdly slow update schedule because I write in my free time and it's insanely long, but many of its twists and turns are truly something else. One day I will finish it, and on that day it will be my magnum fucking opus. Probably. Maybe. Who knows, really.

The other option is @xx-hail2theking-xx, a currently ongoing roleplay blog centered around King Paimak and his merry band of cannibals. Unlike all other blogs I've managed in the past, it has a clearly defined act structure and is planned to end after a certain point, but that point is still far off. You don't necessarily need to read through the entire blog to jump into the plot at this point in time, but it certainly wouldn't hurt!

Also I've worked on it for like a year and made a bunch of art and writing just for it and it's kind of just my homemade self-imposed summer art project now. In a wacky demon sort of way.

~ ✧ ~

The Omniverse: Technically not just my project, but deserves to be included here anyway! This is a set of Undertale Multiverse roleplay blogs I participate in during my off time, although currently they're on indefinite hiatus due to unfortunate life and scheduling reasons.

The simplest way to explain the overarching plot- the very loose, very improv-based plot- of both blogs I run is essentially that there are two concurrent stories running back-to-back. In one, a recovering drug addict struggles with terrifying concepts like "having morals" and "caring about people", while in other the self-proclaimed King of Darkness and Everything Evil has to contest with a madman that wants to wipe out all of reality and build it anew and has already done so once before.

Oh, and the recoverer is the brother of the King's spouse. There's a truckload of complicated roleplay lore associated with each and every character from this setting, and it's almost impossible for me to single-handedly cover it all- especially considering I don't own half of the major cast.

Nothing is currently being done with them right now, but rest assured at any given moment I am rotating Caeru in my mind like a rotisserie chicken.

Overall Genre: Darkly comedic character introspection drama, and grimdark action adventure with a heavy focus on worldbuilding and characters.

Notable Content Warnings: Addiction, drug abuse, excessive violence, PTSD, C-PTSD, self harm, suicidal tendencies and thoughts... okay, maybe this one is kind of a dying dove too.

Main Tag: #rp stuff dwbi for primarily general RP content, while #hag for Hood and Greylu's verse in particular (the King of Darkness' verse)

Where to read it?: @official-saltbag and @darkness-regins respectively, however the quality of my old (and I do mean old) writing found on these blogs is inconsistent and contains many plot points and characterization choices I'm not sure hold up well today. While I hold no lingering resentment or specific apprehension about the blogs in general, I would much rather someone read my current work if they are genuinely interested in my writing style... and also they both completely lack a chrono tag, so good luck properly reading through them without a saintly amount of patience.

~ ✧ ~

Mistakes, Curses, and Mockeries: An half-constructed project I've been thinking about for awhile now. Who knows what it is... but knowing me? It's probably gonna be really stupid.

Overall Genre: Court intrigue, with a touch of romance and mystery for spice. Steampunk-magitek-medieval-fantasy mixing pot of a setting with the occasional cyperpunk jumpscare. Also, time shenanigans. Honestly may-or-may-not be veering dangerously close to psychological horror. Actually set in the same general universe as APF, though the stories don't overlap in any way.

Notable Content Warnings: Major character death, dehumanization, dissociation, existential terror about forgetting everything that you are, insufferable nihilists, potentially even more insufferable fatalists, colonialism

Main Tag: N/A

Where to read it?: well first you get a shovel and second you start applying it directly to my skull to get the brain out for advanced noclip telepathy strats... is what I'd usually say, but there's actually a singular fic set in this setting now! I know, I'm shocked too.

~ ✧ ~

~ Contact information / socials ~

Tumblr is and will forever be my main social media platform, and I rarely consistently maintain accounts on other sites. You can, however, nonetheless find me below:

• @luminxlumina on Twitter

• @TheGreatWritingYin on Ao3

• @TheGreatYin on Artfight

• @Yinsie on Fallen London

��� @TheGreatFrostingWind on Flight Rising

• @TheGreatYin on Pixel Cat's End

• ...and that's literally just it!

If you successfully scrolled and read to the bottom of this, congratulations! Have a celebratory cookie. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ 🍪

[luxlightly]

An explanation of Tumblr's apparent obsession with crabs, for new and returning users:

For context, there's a popular video of a diver interacting with a bunch of crabs which has been dubbed over with a TTS voice meant to represent the crabs, saying things like "crab. Crab. Crab. Hand. Frighten! Hand? Hand? Crab. Crab." This video was making rounds around the time of April fool's day earlier this year. Tumblr, along with other social media platforms, also famously celebrates the deaths of famous bigots and colonists with the music video for the song "Crab Rave".

Every year, Tumblr does a joke for April fool's day. One year it was a fake election between various lizards. One year it was a "clippy" knockoff named "Coppy"(who apparently is still around and doing a show with Ryan and Shane from Watcher? I don't know the details there). Usually the joke is somewhat topical to something going on in the world at the time.

For this year, Tumblr's joke was making fun of the fact that so many websites are essentially a bunch of buttons trying to trick you into pressing them for the ad revenue. Turning on the joke mode filled your screen with various mostly useless buttons all begging you to "click!! Engage!! Increase engagement levels! Generate revenue!!".

To I think everyone's surprise, including the devs, the joke buttons were WILDLY popular and basically unanimously enjoyed by the userbase. Turns out that just saying "click this. You get nothing in return and we profit from it", which was just a joke about the increasingly opaque and difficult to navigate state of Internet advertising, actually is 100% more effective at getting people to click it than lying about what it does.

Most notably among these many buttons was a button that just said "Summon Crab" which, when pressed, spawned one crab emoji on your dash. Scrolling over it would show an alt text that read things like "hand" "crab" "crab", a reference to the popular video. Clicking on the crab would turn it into a money bag emoji, to continue the joke that these things are all just there to generate ad revenue. Clicking more summoned more crabs. A small counter kept track of how many you'd summoned and clicked.

People LOVED IT. People went crazy summoning so many crabs that it would freeze their whole browser or that they could no longer see their dash through the horde of crabs. It was fun! It was cute! And it was ultimately harmless. It was just nice to have a website add some fun things to click that weren't there to trick you. They're just crabs and you can click them.

This only was for one day, however, and many people who weren't online that day or were only on mobile didn't get to see or play with the crabs and were disappointed, as were the rest of the userbase who honestly enjoyed it and begged the feature be added to Tumblr normally.

With the success of tumblr Blaze, which allows you to inflict posts on random people's dashboards who don't follow you, affectionately called "Tumblr PvP mode", Tumblr eventually implemented a way to pay money to not only give yourself the ability to summon "dash crabs" for 24 hours, but also give them to someone else.

And now apparently the joke checkmarks can also randomly become dash crabs.

So long story short: Tumblr made a joke referencing a popular video and people enjoyed it so much the site decided to make it a feature they can access in return for giving the site some money. And now everyone is just running with the joke because we think it's delightful and we're happy that the site actually seemed to listen to what we wanted and asked for and we want to encourage the more transparent and honest "this is useless but we think you'll find it funny" marketing Tumblr has started to lean towards.

[ener-chi]

About Me

Hello!

Even though I've had this blog for a couple of years (and been on Tumblr for a decade), I wanted to do kind of a formal about me, for those that are new to this blog, and have questions about me and my Path.

My name is Zach. I'm 24, he/him pronouns. I'm queer, and would call myself a relationship anarchist. Outside of spirituality, I enjoy making music, photography, videography, video games, hiking/camping, and board games, especially DnD. If DnD classes are any indication about personality, I find myself most often playing as a monk, a sorcerer, or a DM.

As far as my spirituality goes... It's kind of a long story.

Looking back, I've always been very empathic and claircognizant. I have always had the ability to know how someone is feeling, being around them, from a glance, or even remotely. When I was in 9th grade, I called it "my superpower" lmao. And for claircognizance... I've always been able to look at somebody and just... Know certain things about them. Insecurities, fears, desires. It just came to me.

The other big thing that I should've clocked is that ever since like... 4th grade?? Every 9 months or so I would go through this really big obsessive phase about the psychic and paranormal and the Beyonds. I would do some research, try some stuff, go "mhehh" and then forget about it, only to get completely caught up in it 9 months later.

Anywho, I didn't really pay any attention to any of that until my big spiritual awakening a few years ago. In a nutshell, I was a Nihilist Atheist for many years, but that all completely changed when I tried acupuncture. Lying there on the table, I felt my energy, my chi, moving around on the table for the first time. This experience shattered my philosophical ideas about the universe, and prompted me to investigate further.

At that point I had felt this... Calling, this pull to move to the PNW for about a year or so. I decided that I wanted to move up there and to pursue school for Chinese Medicine, as I had incredible results with acupuncture and wanted to learn more.

And so, with a lot of preparation and hard work, I finally did move - all by myself. I remember on the drive up having this distinct feeling that I had like... Passed some kind of test, or like answered some kind of call. I didn't really think much of it. The following weeks, everything blew wide open for me.

I became incredibly more sensitive to energy. I astral travelled for the first time, where I met one of my guides. I began to see auras. I developed and cultivated clairvoyance and clairaudience. I began doing readings, with great success, to my surprise. I began learning and developing my skills with energy work.

Soo much has happened since that first explosive period since moving, and my Path has really changed since then. Actually, if you were curious, most of my progress throughout the whole process should be here somewhere on my blog.

So how would I describe my Path now? I am not really one for labels, but I mostly describe myself as a Buddhist and a Taoist. I'm an astral traveler, an energy worker, a spirit worker, and a Reiki Master. I've worked closely with the Forest and the Fae. I also work with some of the Norse Pantheon, mostly Skadi and Odinn. I don't really like calling myself a Witch, but a lot of the stuff that I do overlaps with Witchcraft. So if I were to use that label, I would call myself a Reductionist Witch.

This blog has had many roles for me over the years. It started out as an archive, a place to store knowledge and references (and still is! You can find my reference guide here). Then, I used it to document my Path, and to interact with the spiritual community. Nowadays it is mostly that, a place to interact with the community and do readings, as well as a place to post all of my fav content.

So yeah! In a nutshell... This is me ((: I try to help people as much as I can, and my inbox is always open if you have any questions.

Welcome to my blog!

Blessings!

[pageofheartdj]

is the other person saying pro-shipping is bad because it can harm potential readers? because like, yeah but also it's kinda silly to think you can control what other people put online, especially since most people do it through a layer of anonimity.

also like, don't people control their own online experience? like yeah it absolutely sucks to see something you aren't prepared for, but if you're in such a bad headspace that accidentally seeing something like that can cause really bad panic attacks and stuff then idk isn't it more important to care for yourself than it is to go into spaces that may have things (that are usually tagged and everything?)?

also I think it's a lot better to have the spaces open for people, often victims as the other person called them, where people can vent about their own experiences because that already isn't something people are allowed to do IRL. If people have to keep that stuff to themselves then it could hinder their ability to heal, and make them feel more isolated because they don't realize that there may be other people that have similar trauma and miss out on possible community support.

like the whump community exists and you could say that it is problematic but you could also say that having people who have gone through traumatic experiences read stories where no matter what the person did they get care and understanding is a really healing thing.

like aren't people too multidimensioned to say one thing is good and bad? especially when it's all fiction and not representative of the actual person and what they do? I'd rather have to block someone for liking incest (also there are shows that have incest in them and people are perfectly fine with that until it's the wrong type of incest :/ Like "the flash" has its main ship be incest :/) than know there are people who are incest survivors that can't talk about their experiences and may get worse depression because they feel isolated and broken. Also I'm super sensitive against certain types of things so I just like, avoid it ya know?

People are cultivators of their online experiences and if you really hate what someone is posting then block and move on. The more you think about them and what they do the more impact it'll have on your life.

but also I'm like 19 and grew up when you could accidentally watch a beheading video online when you were 8 so i guess there's desensitization in play too. idk, it seems kinda disturbing that people are trying to control other people to such an extent without bothering to control themselves, ya know?

sorry if you didn't want a whole block of text alerkgm hope you and anyone reading this has a good day :]

I agree with everything you are saying.

In the past it was so much easier to accidentally stumble on distressing content yet people managed to deal with it.

Now everything is super tagged, so it's not a problem to avoid something. We need to push the tagging on everyone to avoid accidentally seeing something that upsets you.

Also yeah, people rarely come after big media, they can complain, but it's never the same amount of harassment small creators are getting for the exact same thing. Because it's not about protection, it's about control and bullying. Like in school the 'weird' kids were bullied.

But also there are actually geniune kids that are being used in this that actually believe they are helping by hurting themselves(forcing themselves to interact with content that upsets them) and hurting others for harmless fun.

[culminada]

I'm asexual! but I barely experience acephobia because my other three alienating traits are like shields that protect me from it 🙃unfortunately I do experience the -phobias people have of the other three things so. yaaay my ability to make friends? not to mention romance? ugh.

first up is that I'm multicultural and belong to a cultural minority. I'm not going to talk about it a whole lot because it's very confusing! so I just call it my culture of origin! and they're not online at all. like we/they (??) barely believe in the tech things. definitely they're not on tumblr. so I'm not looking for them here. just talking about how being multicultural has affected me socially. Mostly it obstructs my social life from my end, by getting in the way of me feeling like I have anything in common with people. I'll only really accept a romantic partner from my culture of origin, so that excludes 99.999% of people I'll meet on the street from discussion of my sexuality lol.

Second up! The autism! Nobody ever tried to make friends with me (or responded when I tried to) and I have no clue if its because of the 'tism or the red blotches on my face from the dermatillomania. I might lean more towards the autism but I'm still skeptical of that, also I'm 'culminada' (CULtural MINority, Autism, Dermatillomania and Asexuality) so, autism it is :) I had to practice for YEARS before I got the hang of interacting with people I didn't know well. Small talk? What's that? WHY? I hate it I hate it I hate it I hate it. Nobody sticks around anyway. (The one time somebody approached me independently while I was writing in my notebook and I stared at my notebook while trying to think what to say. so they walked off. utter joy.) The progression from 'stranger' to 'acquaintance' to 'friend' and so on is also something I've had to learn. I've had to claw my way up the 'relationship ladder' which, sadly, does exist whether one is on the friendship ladder or the romantic ladder. I have yet to progress anywhere on the romantic ladder with ANYONE so. yayyyyy

Dermatillomania, the incessant picking of my own skin! Like I said, red blotchy face isn't very attractive. Sometimes I'll be bleeding and not notice. yaaaaay. Finding a romantic partner is going to be. yknow. a breeze. a walk in the park. as easy as breathing. not to MENTION. the sheer TIME it takes out of my DAY. how am I supposed to learn the wifely skills of my culture when I?? lose HOURS to dermatillomania and executive dysfunction? (they have a feedback loop on each other. I get Stuck in my day for whatever executively dysfunctional reason! oh now I start picking, bc of course. OH DEARY NOW I CAN'T SWITCH TASKS, GUESS I'LL STAY HERE FOREVER. DESTROYING MY SKIN.)

So yeah, by the time somebody infiltrates the layers of visual disgust, autistic communication barriers, and cultural differences, they're pretty well screened against something as simple and boring as acephobia. You don't get close to me without being VERY accepting of differences. (or just. yknow. capable of critical thinking and the awareness that people are different lolz.)

(I also tended to be that twelve-year-old who sighed wistfully and said I can't wait to get married, I want to get married ASAP, you know historically people got married at like. 14 right? and so everybody around me was always going OH DEARY YOU SHOULD ABSOLUTELY WAIT... LIKE SIX MORE YEARS IF NOT LONGER which I'm sure my fellow asexuals would have loved to hear, but my alloromantic brain was Very Unhappy about. it has now been 6+ or more years, for the record,)

anyway that's me. I got tired of repressing my aceposting and autism-posting and so on, bc my other blog is a fandom fic blog. btw go check out @skaald-of-the-hearth-fires that's the fifth, unofficial reason I feel alienated. (actually that falls under the autism heading, nevermind) my culture barely does video games. nobody in regular old boring American culture plays my special interest video game either. I find this quite distressing when people ask what I do and I say oh!! I'm a writer! I write fanfic for Guild Wars 2!! oh you haven't heard of that. ok. I'm so normal about that. so I've written the fic to be quite understandable to non-gamers, fandom-blind readers, and brainrotted fans alike :)

[unpleasant-ghoul]

Oh, hey, look! A post by me that's not about some video game!

I don't normally post shit that's still in progress. But I like the creature and i want to share because I might never finish it (kinda complex for my current skill. Might get too frustrated by the idea/ability difference and drop. happens often)

So, here. Here is it and the whole process of how such things came to be.

This is a pseudocentaur. Those things started for me a long time ago, and it's gonna be a lot to read, so I, ever-merciful, will hide the rest under a spoiler. Here:

So. A few years ago i was reading about Nuckelavee, started sketching, ended up with this:

You can tell from the human-for-scale interacting with it, that even then it had some vague shadow of being more than just a random monster. Not quite a character, but has a potential of getting there. You can also see that that version involved no actual horses, merely a vaguely equine thing that was truly the part of the pseudocentaur. And it was fucking massive.

For a few years it remained forgotten. Then a couple months ago I found it again and decided that I like it! It's neat! But it needs some love and also some actual thought put into it.

And so I started thinking on how's and why's and also on the matter of "does this have to be so big, when my love of things that are fucking ginormous has already led me to an ever-growing number of dragon OC's with absolute MINIMUM height at shoulders being 5. Fucking. Meters?"

So after thinking for some time and drawing for some time I got this page:

(as you can see, size of the creature reduced. Greatly. Also, has actual horse now)

And a much better idea of what the fuck we even have here. And I will share that idea with you whether you want it or not. I'm in a sharing mood. Suffer.

So!

Pseudocentaurs as they are now are parasitic creatures! They infect horses (other animals of similar size can be used, but results vary. Smaller beings can be infected, but don't survive full transformation. It can be used as a way of healing in a pinch, as long as the larva is killed just as the body finished repairing the pre-existing damage before going through the whole "neck splitting open" thing). But they're sapient and generally not evil, so they tend to have standards.

Most, unless there's no choice, prefer dying or even freshly dead hosts, since a dying one gets to continue living, even if it looks gruesome, and a dead one is, well, dead. So nobody's robbed of a whole potential life of Being A Normal Horse. In the case with dead hosts, pseudocentaur takes full control over the body, while with a living host it's usually basically an idealized, fairytale version of riding... Except without ever separating again. I say usually because they're as varied as humans. Some, despite it being frowned upon, take over perfectly healthy animals and essentially pilot them around without any regard for their own wishes.

On the matter of anatomy: the host's original mouth essentially disappears. You can see that: it's just an upper jaw, no tongue, no nothing. The head is not for eating anymore, just breathing (that mass on the horse head's close-up? Extended trachea!) and providing most of the auditory information, as the parasite's hearing is not all that great. And keeping an eye out for danger. Four is better than two! Especially with, again, a living host that can spot things on its own rather than being a fancy horse-shaped periscope.

Now, how does this thing EAT? Not with the parasite's mouth! That one's just for speaking. Not all even choose to have it at all. Instead, there is a circular, fanged, maw at the joint of the host and parasite's bodies. Food (and the body is repurposed for an omnivorous diet during the transformation) has to be shoved in there with the parasite's own hands (or with someone else's. It's not rude to scrape leftovers off your plate and right into your pseudocentaur friend's waiting maw). It's not the most convenient way to eat, but it is how it is. Do it or starve.

Beyond the splitting neck, the loss of jaw, the development of the maw, and the whole "you're an omnivore, Harry" thing, there can sometimes be no changes at all, or there can be some relatively subtle (compared to everything else) stuff: keratinous plating growing on legs, sometimes lengthening of the tail. Might lose some/all fur, might not.

Pseudocentaurs reproduce through two methods: true reproduction, making a whole NEW pseudocentaur is, well. You probably guessed. Two pseuds with living hosts of opposite sexes... Yea. Results in what at first is a normal foal, but bears the pseudocentaur larva in it and transforms after the horse is more or less adult. Those born pseuds are much more in tune with their hosts and, as I've said already, are fully NEW beings. New personality, no experience, they learn as they go. Like children! Except much cuter.

The other, and more common way, is releasing a "fly" made of one's own flesh to seek a new host. The resulting "new" pseudocentaur will have the original's exact personality and same memories up to the point of separation. It can be done voluntarily, or happen on its own if the current body is too damaged. If done voluntarily, the original continues to exist, so it's basically two separate instances of the same dude, just using different hosts and being in different places.

So, there ya have it. Pseudocentaurs. Base inspiration, as mentioned at the start, is the Nuckelavee, additional inspirations for the recent changes were Necromorphs and Illithids.

[nitrosodiumequilibriumproject]

Passive vs Active themes in games

I'll be honest, I've gotten pretty lazy over the Christmas holiday. I've gotten used to the idea of not being obligated to do anything with myself; especially after completing an hour-long animated video, but that's unrelated. I've already spoken at length about shapes, so I don't feel like I specifically need to make another blog post on it. But, I will blend multiple blog posts into one big wall of text.

As I already know, the three shapes mean various things, in religion, alchemy, science and basic critical understanding. I'm going to take my inspiration from the classical elements, and make the circle water, the square land, and the triangle air. These are three planes of movement that the player must travel through, using the forest creatures to help them. This then ties into the theme of equilibrium, and while not necessarily bad, I've boxed myself in here.

Essentially - and this is a theory I've had for a while, but it's sort of come into its own following the Greek tragedy that was Overdeath's development - game development is split into layers, just like a lasagna. You've got the most basic part of the game, followed by assets, then mechanics, then themes, and more components on top of that. So, in Equilibrium, the primary theme is the squares, circles and triangles, which I'm gonna inevitably be talking a lot about, so I'm gonna abbreviate it to S-C-T. If someone said you had to make a game using S-C-T, and you didn't wanna be creative with it, you could make a basic Geometry Dash-esque game with those shapes. Or, on another level, you could give your character abilities and mechanics tethered to those shapes, and what they mean. Or, more indirectly, you could take what those shapes represent, like I have, and allude to them being in the game. They still are, but it's not like the entire game is ABOUT those shapes. It's a theme. Look at something like Thomas Was Alone, a game I'm constantly told is amazing, but I've never played. Yes, it's about shapes, but that's not really a theme of it. What it's really about is telling a story, and how characters interact within the confines of this geometrical world the game is in. The whole character-switching aspect with each shape having a different property is not a theme, but it's another layer on top of that. Without understanding, on an interactive level, that each of these characters is important and vital to your success, you wouldn't have the same level of connection to the world. This has also been done in Undertale - if you sparing or killing the various monsters in the game didn't change how the story progressed, and how characters treated you, there would be no reason emotionally to spare them. Obviously I'm not creating a multi-faceted narrative masterpiece like those two games, but I'm still making a layered game wherein the themes connect in different ways.

Now, the thing about the concept of Equilibrium; the fact that I've made the entire thing about using woodland creatures to progress, means I have boxed myself in a little. Because this is an active theme in the world; not alluded to or passive like the implementation of S-C-T, everything else I add has to be related to that. That's fine, this is the game I want to make, an Avatar-esque tale about the fusion between man and beast with high fantasy trappings, but it means I can't stray too far outside of that. Levels now need to be about animal-centric progression because, well, that's what it IS. So what I might do is have multiple implementations of the same animal. That was one thing we were told quite a bit in college; game development is about taking a small tool-set and using them in as many creative ways as you can. Like Super Meat Boy using the same saw asset in like thirty different ways, or textures being flipped and re-coloured in Mario. The thing about an active theme is it can be re-utilised in lots of ways while still making an interesting game experience, but if you re-use a passive theme, your world will become very focused, but also very rigid and hard to improve on.

Like, what if every part of the game had to be about S-C-T? Shape runes carved into trees, each enemy and texture representing a fusion or isolation of one of the shapes, yes it sounds cool, but it means EVERYTHING has to be about shapes. I'm trying to think of a good example here of "passive-theme extrapolation", as I have now titled it, and I think the best example I can come up with is an alternate-timeline Quake. Yes, that game has Lovecraftian themes, but if these passive ideas were expanded on, the entire thing would be forced to draw from Lovecraft's work, with no room for uniqueness - it would all be forced to fit the theme instead of being the gothic gore-fest it is today. The active theme in that game is going between the realms to kill horrible monsters, and that's a concept so banal you can build anything onto it.

Man, this was a massive tangent. I should talk about something else. Point is, you can have multiple themes that interweave within each other, without making your entire project about that theme.

[harahmed]

I've been so consumed with gaza that for the first time the loneliness hit. I'm not used to feeling alone, even at my loneliest you were always there. 8 years...for my morals and principles. I have been successfully laughing it off and focused on spreading awareness in gaza but I feel like I'm too aggressive. Everyone asks says I post too much and type too much. I feel starved for social interaction and I don't know how to go about it now that everyone is so much older and genuinely busy. I feel like posting stories is a cope to some degree and now I'm just sitting here feeling empty ...like a part of me is missing. It's so sad. I'm so sad. This has been the only healthy way of dealing with my emotions since childhood and I stopped typing out and confronting my emotions years ago. They feel so much more intense than childhood but I know it's not the intensity, it's me just not used to feeling this strongly. Me not having the adaptive coping mechanisms I used to. Seeing my friends everyday, track, working hard in school, playing video games. Everything feels so meaningless now and I'm trying hard to connect with people but everyone is just too busy and I find myself feeling ashamed of who've I become. I know it's the loneliness talking. I've come a long way in the past 5 years but what's the point when I don't have the person I love to share it with. What started as my deal breaker ended in a mutual end. I don't regret my principles but I wish I had the ability to judge what I'm getting myself into instead of romanticizing everything in my life. Now I'm sitting here. None of my friends are used to talking to me after 5 years of *** and my anxious avoidance. Now that I'm not doing that anymore and for the first time my emotions on the genocide in gaza has cooled down. I feel a pit in my heart and my stomach. I am praying you reach out to me one day saying it finally clicked and you're ready to explore the religion with me. I know that day will probably not come but I can't help but ask for it. I miss you. I'm surrounded by the ...by our cats and my family and I miss you. I miss how soothing you have always been to my anxious heart. How responsive and thoughtful you were. I guess this is what mourning a death of someone close to you feels like. This is what they say ...the hardest part is life just moves on. I don't want it to move on and I know I'm not the only person that feels that way in this situation. I don't want to just build a life without you and accept you'll go to hell for your beliefs. I'm scared if I keep praying for this I will never be able to move on but I do it anyway. For the first time I feel overwhelmed with negative emotion and I'm just yearning for your presence. It feels so empty knowing I can't just talk to you regularly. I don't have the security and comfort of knowing you'll be supporting me every step of the way. I don't feel like myself without you and I'm just realizing it now. How silly and stupid have I been to just joke it off while I'm sure you have also been silently suffering. To pretend like it's fine and I'm fine because I'm too scared to feel these emotions without you. When I would feel this way as a kid I would comfort myself by saying at least I can feel these emotions...some people can't. Where did I get that insight. I wish I was as strong now as I was back then. That doesn't soothe me now....you do. I guess I'll have to relearn how to comfort myself alone like I had been doing my whole childhood. I don't want to but it's not like I have a choice. It is for the best it is for the best