#if implementing them is any different from normal i mean

[goldensunset]

Since you enjoyed PMD2 and special episode 5 so much, would you mind if I recommended the romhack Special Episode 0 In A Dark Past ? It focuses on Grovyle and Dusknoir's past and future, I played it myself a while ago and it's so good, extremely well written made me shed a few tears and I'd definitely say it'd be a treat for any fans of the future trio!

i accept your recommendation wholeheartedly into my ‘uuuuh maybe if i get around to it someday’ pile

[th3r3dw00dtr33]

Strangers || Obey Me! x Reader

I was craving a little angst today. Let me know how I did in the comments! Also, please let me know if you'd like a part two!

TW: Angst, Swearing, Spoilers

READER IS NOT MC .

.

.

Why were you in jail? It wasn't like you did anything illegal, but you'd just so happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. You were also terribly unlucky, but that was already a given based on your current predicament...

You were framed with murder.

How you didn't know. Why, you also didn't know. The only thing you knew about the case was the penalty.

They told you themselves: You are to be sent to a place far beyond this plane (a different universe), doomed to be a stranger for the rest of your time there. (This wasn't like the penalties back where you were from, but you didn't want to be stuck in prison for life.)

It seemed light, for a punishment, but you shrugged it off with a 'It's probably normal here.'

But they also told you how you were able to choose where you were to be sent.

You, being the person you were, immediately thought of a game.

You were a part of many fandoms. You loved indulging yourself with these different pieces of media. Of these, Obey Me was a game you particularly liked.

How could you not? The characters were stupidly hot and complex at the same time, and the plot and setting were interesting enough to keep you invested. There were a whole lot of reasons you could list off as to why, but to keep this short:

You loved Obey Me. You loved the characters just as much as MC, if not more.

Which is why you chose that world without a second glance.

Oh, how stupid you were.

.

You had walked out of the shining, blue portal, taking part as a new demon (though you're technically a human) student at RAD. Despite this being a punishment, you had been really excited to finally meet these characters in real life.

Being strangers doesn't mean you couldn't work towards a friendship, right?

You had forgotten this was supposed to be punishment for a murderer, even if you had been framed.

LUCIFER:

He was walking down the halls in a particularly bad mood, after several all-nighters to finish his workload of paperwork.

He turned the corner, making his way to the entrance of the school, greeting the new students who poured in for the new term.

Lucifer handed one student a map of the school, something he and Diavlo should've implemented beforehand, with the increase of new students attending. (MC was an example. Mammon did not do a very good job with the tour.)

The new demon had tried to make small talk, and Lucifer didn't snap, knowing full well how it would impact Diavolo's image.

"This is the map of the school. Please familiarize yourself with the layout of the building." He paused, "I also advise you to keep your thoughts to yourself."

He didn't care about the wording at the time― it's not like it mattered much anyway.

The demon paused, bowed their head and walked away. Looks like they got the hint.

Well, he may have been a bit rude to them on their first day, but he was too prideful to take anything back at that point.

Plus, it was Hell. Demons can take a comment or two.

After some time, he would occasionally see the new student across the hall or in the classroom.

Sometimes he would check on them to see if they were adjusting well, but he didn't bother too much with the demon when he had a human exchange student to watch over.

They never really responded, but he just assumed they were shy.

He didn't bother to ask for their name. When MC had asked him about them, he just let out a "Do you really think I have the time to memorize everyone I meet at RAD? Besides, most of the students here aren't too special. Don't worry too much about them."

He could if he wanted to, but they were just a stranger.

MAMMON:

He met them in one of the two history classes. He forgot which one, but can you blame him?

The second-born had just asked to borrow a pencil, but turns out the demon only had one, so it didn't matter anyway.

When he asked, they had perked up slightly at the question.

He automatically assumed it was because the GREAT Mammon was gracing them with his attention, but this was the only time he actually got it correct.

"Ya don' got a pencil? Lame."

He was cheerful for the rest of the class, despite the fact that the lesson was boring and Lucifer forced him to do it.

He pretends not to notice when they shrink away from his comment.

He pretends that they didn't manage to make him feel important— something his own brothers never tried to accomplish.

But he, too, forgets about them pretty soon.

What can he say? Mammon's a hustler, ya know! He barely remembers the names of those he makes a deal with, let alone a random student in his class!

He would also see the demon occasionally, but they've never exchanged greetings.

When MC asks him about them, after telling him how they felt something was off, he replied, "Come on, MC! Ya can't expect me to remember every face I meet, right?"

He pretends not to notice how they seemed to care about him, despite barely knowing him.

He pretends that ignoring them doesn't impact him at all.

After ignoring them for so long, Mammon truly forgot about their existence. But what can I say? They were just a stranger, after all.

LEVIATHAN:

Leviathan was an anxious wreck.

Lucifer didn't let him participate in the online schooling, with the new year beginning, so he was forced to attend school.

With all these normies...

He hated 'normies' to a certain extent, and being surrounded by so many was getting on his nerves.

Which was why he turned and walked away the moment a demon walked up to him.

He didn't know the demon just wanted to talk a bit, but this was Hell. Demons don't do that without an ulterior motive.

He didn't notice how the demon deflated with a small frown from the reaction. He didn't care— it's not like he knew them.

"Stupid normies," he would mutter as he scurried away to his next class.

Over the next couple of weeks, he would bump into the same demon during the lunch rush. Every. Time.

He would always turn around and walk stiffly away in the opposite direction, even if at times they hadn’t tried to initiate any forms of contact or conversation.

He hated 'normies' like them, and being around demons of this sort would only prove how he was nothing but a stupid otaku.

Oh, how he envied them... it just wasn't fair.

When he had the competition with MC on TSL, he could see them in the audience, watching them― him intently as if they were hoping he would win.

It unnerved him― why were they looking at him like that? They were only strangers; it wasn’t like a 'normie' like them would want to hang out with an otaku like him.

Especially one who avoided them every turn he took.

After the competition (a failure on his part), he found the same demon walking through the halls.

They were trying to comfort him. Him out of all demons?! Leviathan snapped, and he realized too late.

His anger, accompanied by his envy, flared, "Stupid normie, screw off. I don't need your fucking pity, so you'd better suck it before I rip you apart and feed you to Cerberus."

At the time, he didn't care how the demon's face grew alarmed.

He didn't care how their face scrunched up, and they fled the hall.

He only looked back with slight guilt a couple of weeks after, but it was too late. He couldn't find the demon anywhere.

But it was fine― they were just a stranger, right?

SATAN:

The fourth-born was usually found in the library, but this time was different.

Lucifer, his delightful brother, had oh so graciously piled on paperwork to his own workload, effectively shutting down his free time at the library.

As you could probably see, Satan was pissed.

There had been more cursed books he had wanted to check out at the library, but was unable to due to the paperwork.

And this didn't help when a random demon crashed into him and his stack of books.

It was after the TSL competition, and Satan, being the demon who was at his final straw, was seething.

It didn't matter if the demon had apologized and tried to help him pick up and reorder the books. It didn't matter if they already looked hurt and panicked.

"Leave," Satan growled with his wrathful aura, "Leave and watch where you're fucking going next time."

These books were a special part of his collection, and he already had enough to deal with.

The demon had run away, and the fourth-born was left by himself.

Sometime later, in about two days, he would find the same demon sitting in the library.

They looked like they were studying for a test on a topic on which he had a lot of interest.

He didn't bother to ask for their name, nor exchange a greeting.

He didn't even ask if they needed help.

Satan didn't care. It wasn't his business in the first place, unlike with MC, where he felt obligated to help as a member of the House of Lamentation.

He just walked past the demon with a frown, as if the demon were a figment of his imagination.

Had I seen them before?

ASMODEUS:

Asmodeus was the Avatar of Lust.

He didn't truly love anyone but himself (or so he thought), but he cared genuinely for others' physical appearances.

Which is why, when he met a demon after the two-night trip to Diavolo's castle, he gave them tips for their skin routine.

The demon had approached him and asked, obviously shy, and he cheerfully handed them a tube of his extra lotion.

"Everyone deserves to look pretty, but obviously I always look the best~" he had said.

He didn't care about the demon themself, but if someone wanted help on their appearance, who was he to refuse?

He hadn't seen the demon before, so he assumed they were new.

Asmo knows most of the school body, so it was a surprise that he didn't at least know of their name.

Sadly, he was pulled away by his brothers before he could ask.

After a while, he forgot about the situation with the new demon student entirely.

They should understand, shouldn't they? Asmo, being the most beautiful creature there is, couldn't possibly make time for everyone, right?

So when the demon came up to him and thanked him for his advice...

"Oh! Yes, those were basic dos and don'ts of skincare, you shouldn't thank me. Though, have I met you before?"

He prided himself on being able to converse effortlessly with those around him, so it made him cringe internally at how bad it sounded.

His eyes caught the reflection of his face in a nearby mirror, and Asmodeus, the narcissistic and vain fifth-born, was entranced.

How long had he been staring at his reflection?

How long had it been since they had left with a frown on their face?

BEELZEBUB:

Beelzebub was the one who was always hungry.

What can you expect? He is the Avatar of Gluttony, after all.

Something that most demons won't know, however, is how Beelzebub hates seeing someone else hungry.

Sometimes, if he had a lot of food, he would save a little bit. Just a little, enough for them to last a bit.

Which is why when he saw one of the new students sitting in the corner without any food, he assumed they were hungry.

They looked hungry, he'd argue, they aren't eating anything.

The demon wasn't, but they sat straighter when they saw the sixth-eldest walking towards them.

He'd place a singular chocolate bar on the table and slide it towards them.

"You... you look hungry," he would say, and they'd thank him.

If it were any normal demon, the Avatar of Gluttony wouldn't share his food just like that.

But they weren't. They, despite being a demon, reminded him a bit of MC.

It was odd, but he didn't pay it any mind.

For the next couple of weeks, Beelzebub would bring extra food.

If the demon wasn't eating (they said they didn't have enough money for lunch every day), he'd slide them a chocolate bar.

It became a little routine between them, even if they barely knew each other.

He would make his way to the table in the corner every lunch, the one they always sat in.

Even if one day the demon disappeared entirely.

BELPHEGOR:

They didn't meet until a couple of months into the school year.

It was after he killed MC― the last thing he wanted to do was go to school, but it wasn't as bad as it would've been if he were stuck in the attic.

The Avatar of Sloth met the demon during one of those classes with the boring lectures.

They didn't interact much at first, each to their own.

Great, another random demon... was what he thought before— they were both at the back of the classroom, right beside each other.

It took a couple of days before he realized the demon wasn't half bad; they were actually pretty chill.

They watched his back when he dozed off, prodding him awake before the instructor could catch him asleep.

He appreciated that, so he would often give them good dreams so they could be well-rested for the day.

It wasn't until they had a big upcoming test that he grew anxious.

Belphegor had dozed off way too often, causing him to miss important bits of the lectures during class.

He didn't realize the demon who always sat beside him saw his troubled resting expression.

He didn't hear the rustling of papers nearby as they placed down an extra copy of their notes onto his desk, along with a note.

When the youngest of the seven brothers woke up, his eyes fell upon the pages on his desk.

The name [Name] [Lastname] was written on the corner of the first page in a foreign handwriting.

He smiled faintly, tucking the papers into his bag.

When Beelzebub asked him about his mood, he couldn't help but explain everything. (He isn't one to hide things from his twin.)

The day after the test, he placed the papers on the demon— [Name]'s desk, along with a note of his own that expressed his thanks.

[Name] never came.

DIAVOLO:

The Prince of Devildom is a busy man demon.

He has his dreams, his goals, and his ever-increasing paperwork.

The Prince of Devildom is a very busy and important demon, so why would he pay attention to a random student like them?

It wasn't that Diavolo didn't care; he definitely did, but it wasn't like anything about that demon stuck out.

He is a demon who cares about his people and definitely the students in his school. But even if they weren't, he would still care.

Prince Diavolo was like that.

But he was only like that to those he knew and saw.

The new demon student wasn't one of them.

Once, they had been running down the halls and nearly bumped into him.

At the time, Barbatos hadn't really moved, much to Diavolo's surprise. Perhaps he saw something..?

Probably, but his attention was snapped back to the demon who bowed their head and apologized profusely.

"Ahaha! It's alright, just watch where you're going next time and try not to run in the halls."

After that, he didn't really see the demon much.

They had always been so nervous around him; he just didn't want to scare them too much.

Soon after, that interaction was drowned by the other memories and plans he had until it vanished.

MC had asked about the demon, but Diavolo didn't know and redirected the question to Barbatos.

They were just a stranger, after all.

BARBATOS:

The Prince's butler never interacted with the demon.

He was also very busy helping Diavolo and the maintenance on the castle.

Yet, he saw the demon in one of his visions.

He knew how they were framed, how they were sent from another universe, how they were just a human.

But he never dared to say anything.

He never told Diavolo exactly what happened, just said that there would be some surprising information arriving soon.

He saw how they had loved them as characters in their world. Saw how they chose this as a hopeful act.

He also saw how this punishment would break them.

When MC had asked him about them, a thought struck his mind.

Why would he let them break like this?

Oh, right.

Barbatos didn't say anything because he didn't want to disrupt the flow of time again.

That's what he told himself.

He did it for MC because he loved them, but he wouldn't risk such a thing for them.

He didn't have the right to do this again.

"This was supposed to happen."

After all, they had nothing between them. They were merely strangers.

Things like this happen to strangers all the time.

SIMEON:

Simeon had a neutral feeling towards demons.

He doesn't hate them, nor does he particularly like them.

Don't get me wrong, he is mistrustful of demons with no particular connection to the demons he's known, like that demon student.

They shared a couple of classes together, along with that one lecture with Belphegor, and he always noticed them at the back.

Don't think he didn't caught on to their little routine of one sleeping and the other keeping watch.

In his opinion, after taking note of their behaviour, the demon had a great personality.

He would've dismissed them as a human or angel if it weren't for their demonic aura. Which was weird in of itself.

The two actually met when the demon had accidentally bumped into him.

While Luke was busy scolding them for not watching their step, Simeon took this as an opportunity.

"It's quite alright, Mx," he would ask, "May I know your name?"

He found them interesting and a great influence for Luke, though the latter may pout and whine at first.

They were much nicer than he expected, honestly, and (much to his surprise), they were very polite and apologized.

Over the next weeks, he would sometimes find the demon, whom he came to know as [Name] [Lastname], sitting in the back of classrooms.

He would exchange greetings, but even the older angel wouldn't say much afterwards.

They were still a stranger, after all.

LUKE:

Luke disliked demons. Greatly.

He was an angel who reported directly to Michael, and so he shouldn't be the one who joined Simeon at RAD!

I mean, he was right!

These good-for-nothing demons keep calling him a dog! A dog!

He met the nice demon when they accidentally bumped into Simeon.

They had been rounding the corner, and the demon was carrying a stack of papers for a teacher.

"Hey! Watch where you're going! As an angel who..." he gave a minute-long talk about watching where they're going.

He hadn't expected the demon to apologize― so genuinely, too!

Well, this demon was a lot nicer than the others... but don't tell Simeon he said that!

He didn't know their name, but they became one of the demons, the only demon he actually felt safe with.

It was odd; they acted so much like humans instead of demons.

They even patted his head when he said he missed the Celestial Realm!

Luke pretended not to notice when a fight broke out among a group of demons.

He didn't notice when the very demon who patted his head was running away from the group with bruises and scratches littered all over their arms and legs.

Looking back at it, if he had helped, would they have stayed?

In the end, they were nothing but a stranger.

SOLOMON:

Solomon was practically the strongest sorcerer both alive and to ever exist.

He was one of the exchange students at RAD, wandering about the halls of the school.

The classes and lectures the teachers gave here were things the sorcerer had already known or experienced himself.

Yet there were two things that grabbed his attention.

One, being how MC had made pacts with most of the Seven Avatars, something he had struggled to accomplish.

Second, being the demon whom he had come across earlier, who helped another with a kindness he'd never seen in a demon before.

The first one was frustrating, the second was just weird.

He observed the demon from afar, taking note of how they were often overlooked by the demons around him.

He took note of the one thing everyone around him said when he asked about them: they were a stranger.

Solomon knew demons very well, having made a pact with seventy-two.

This... person was no demon. He was sure of it.

Creating a demonic aura is a hard spell to cast, even for me... he thought, They have little aptitude for magic within them... I wonder who cast it.

He never approached them, researching on what they were instead of who.

When they disappeared one day, he could only chuckle.

That demon was still a stranger, despite his observations.

MC:

MC is someone who has had both great luck and horrible misfortune.

From making pacts with the demon brothers to getting killed by Belphegor in the attic, they've seen a lot of weird occurrences during their stay in the Devildom.

They've never expected a demon to save them from being eaten.

Especially one who had the task of taking their soul.

MC had been on their way to one of their classes when they were cornered by a group of demons.

But the demon had told them off and helped MC to get on their feet.

MC was confused, but grateful nonetheless.

They later knew their name as [Name] [Lastname], but their rush to different classes soon disrupted their time of getting to know each other.

MC asked Lucifer, Mammon, Diavolo, and lastly, Barbatos.

It felt weird to them that none of the demons gave them a proper answer.

Barbatos made them feel like he was hiding something.

The next time they saw them, [Name] was running from the same group of demons who had cornered MC earlier.

They had tears streaming down their face with cuts and bruising littering their limbs.

But MC had been busy talking to Simeon and Luke, and they pretended not to notice.

They found them, a day later, stepping through a portal of blue.

It made them think, in another world, could they've been friends?

It was a shame, they realized, that they were merely strangers in this one.

.

.

.

[Name] [Lastname] hated this place.

The Devildom was horrible.

They had been ignored, looked over, bullied, hungry...

Why were they here again?

A blue portal popped up in front of them. Oh, right, they were framed for murder.

The people had found the real murderer and sent for [Name] to be retrieved.

They were a bit too late, anyways.

.

.

.

Diavolo was sent a letter regarding the disappearance of one of his students.

Usually, if someone went missing, there would be a report of them moving, expelled, or dead.

There was none for [Name] [Lastname] until now.

Diavolo didn't know whether or not to be relieved, shocked, disappointed, or frustrated.

Word got out among the exchange students and the RAD student council.

Some didn't care, others felt guilty.

Diavolo couldn't help but scoff.

In the end, despite all of [Name]'s unseen efforts, they were still nothing but a stranger.

[goawaypopup]

Look Outside Posting Part 5: Static

If you didn't bother to go back and check the laptop regularly, you might have missed this.

You wouldn't be missing a whole lot, to be honest. There aren't many answers to be found from the news or social media. But there is something strange to be learned there.

As the weeks continue, photos posted on social media begin to appear as nothing but colorful noise. This seems to specifically happen to the photos that are posted by Witnesses, and Witnesses comment on the photos as if they were normal; everyone else is mystified.

We can rule out a few reasons this might be happening right away. If it were due to some kind of atmospheric interference coming from the Visitor, it would be happening to all data, not just images. If it were some kind of effect from trying to capture footage of the outside at all, the VHS footage and photograph of the Visitor wouldn't be useful.

Rather, I think this is censorship being applied manually on the social media site Sam is using.

With an infohazard readily visible in the sky, and a large contingent of the userbase talking about wanting to force people to look, photos of the Visitor would be a huge safety concern.

A lot of news sites are down a few days in, and I'm pretty sure social media should be no different, but it remains operational over the full 15 days. Like the electricity, and Placide's control over the building's pipes, this likely means someone is still upkeeping the servers. Someone who's already looked, and therefore isn't at risk from any unfiltered photos.

The corrupted images start to appear a few days in, and only become ubiquitous after a while, when very few people remain online who haven't somehow been turned. We don't know for sure that it's specifically and only Witnesses' images being targeted, but what we do know aligns well with that.

Most Witnesses are very visible online. They use the eye emoji to identify themselves, and post about the Witness/Coward discourse or about looking outside themselves. Manually labeling them all to apply hidden account restrictions would still be a superhuman task, but it would reduce the load massively compared to moderating images by hand.

I was pretty perplexed by Witnesses interacting with glitched photos as if they were normal. Even if most of them are kind of crazy and up to a lot of groupthink, people who are cursed are just too unpredictable for me to believe that every single one would play along and keep posting garbled pictures. I think that they CAN see them. If they're already getting flagged as Witnesses behind the scenes, it would be easy to lift the filter for them.

This is kind of an insane thing to implement at a time like this, but whoever is doing this clearly has some interesting priorities in the first place, to be working so hard just to allow people to continue to post images at all.

In a rolly chair in a dimly-lit office somewhere, or possibly entangled in the circuitry of the servers themselves, sits a passionate content moderator, steadfastly committed to the end user experience, come hell or high water.

[arc-misadventures]

Vtuber AU. Weiss collabing with her mom or sister?

The VTuber: The Empress of Ice

Today was an unusual stream for one, IHateMyDad2.0. Then again, among any streamers what would be considered normal?

Bot, no today, she could have a very special guest, one that could have disastrous, or highly beneficial implementations to her channel for years to come.

Only time would tell.

~~~

IHateMyDad2.0: Hello everyone, and welcome to the stream!

Her white haired avatar gave a dazzling smile as she addressed her chat. She loved streaming, within this space she could feel the mountain of worries she had built up over years of abuse by the hands of her despicable father slowly being chipped away. And, today was a special day.

For today she was listening to her family councillor, and had decided to take part in a family exercise they had recommended to help reunite her with her family members who had nearly been torn apart by their father’s actions.

IHateMyDad2.0: Okay, chat! We have a special guest with us today!

~~~Stream Chat~~~

Steveo: Whoo! Stream!

Ferbanjo: Hi Snowangel!

Monkittiy: A guest?

StarChild: Is it cookie?

~~~~~~

IHateNyDad2.0: No, no it’s not, Cookie. No today we’ll be joined by a family member, a never before seen family member at that! So, everyone please give a warm welcome to my mother, ‘The Ice Empress!’

Emerging from the corner of the screen was a 2D model of a lady that extruded an air of mature elegance, and a crown of nobility upon her. One could easily tell based upon the models that the duo were related.

Although one couldn’t help, but point out several, physical differences between the pair.

TheIceEmpress: The Ice Empress? That’s a terrible name. I thought we agreed upon the, Sovereign of Snow?

IHateMyDad2.0: What? The Ice Empress is a really catchy name.

TheIceEmpress: And, a derivative name that a preschooler would come up with. SovereignofSnow carry a much more palatable air or royalty to it. Royalty that must be feared, and respected.

IHateMyDad2.0: Mom?! It’s a cool name, right chat?

~~~~~~

Littledino: Sovereign of Snow sounds better

Monkitty: The ice empress is rather bland

Yenta: We can call her, Sovereign for short

Draven: A new queen has appeared!

Ferbanjo: All hail the Sovereign of Snow!

Heartbreaker: Sovereign!

4SakenGodde$$: ❤️Sovereign❤️

Adrastus97: Milf!

~~~~~~

IHateMyDad2.0: Eh…?

IHateMyDad2.0’s mouth hanged wide open as she stared in shock as her chat swiftly agreed with her mother, and the fact that they were already simping for her mother.

IHateMyDad2.0: Okay, fine! The Sovereign of Snow it is…

SovereignofSnow: Now that is far more appeasing to the senses~! Don’t you think so too dear?

IHateMyDad2.0: It is a little better…

SovereignofSnow: Now then my dear, what are we doing for your stream; Are we going to talk about your fellow streamers? I’ve often heard you talk about them, I’m quite curious to learn about them.

IHateMyDad2.0: I… I haven’t talked to you about my friends before.

SovereignofSnow: Well… no you haven’t. However, I do hear you scream something about cookies quite often.

IHateMyDad2.0: Eh…?

SovereignofSnow: She’s a fellow streamer isn’t she?

IHateMyDad2.0: Cookie? Yeah she is a fellow, VTuber I hang out with. Her full name is, CookieMonster. I call her, Cookie for short when we’re chatting, and playing games.

SovereignofSnow: Oh that was what was happening. I thought it was your safe word.

IHateMyDad2.0: MOM?!

IHateMyDad2.0’s model burst into a fierce blush as her mother roasted her so effortlessly. Her chat erupted into a fit of rampant laughter at her expense.

IHateMyDad2.0: I am in no way in such a relationship that with anyone that requires a… a safe word!

SovereignofSnow: That’s no surprise really, you have much left to be desired compared to your sisters.

IHateMyDad2.0: What is that supposed to mean?

SovereignofSnow: That compared to your sisters, and myself for that matter, you are quite lacking in certain physical aspects.

IHateMyDad2.0: What aspects…

~~~~~~

Yenta: Is the aspect that she is flat?

Littledino: No booba

StarChild: Flat booba

Draven: She pads

~~~~~~

IHateMyDad2.0: I AM NOT FLAT?!!

She yelled in rage as she saw the comments her chat was making pouring in as the insulted her body’s shape, and size. A response, that if an expression could be displayed would have shown a teasing smirk from the bottom of her lips.

SovereignofSnow: No, you are not out right flat. But, when you are compared to your older sisters, or myself, a fair comparison would be apples to watermelons.

IHateMyDad2.0: You are not that big?!

SovereignofSnow: B to E, E to F, and F to G my dear~!

IHateMyDad2.0: Your my mother, of course you would be the biggest one among us!

SovereignofSnow: Actually, I am a F-Cup. Your sister, B…?! No, no names… Ahem. The… Black Sheep of the family is the biggest.

IHateMyDad2.0: She’s how big?! I thought she was only a cup size bigger than me?! Not that big??

SovereignofSnow: I thought you were aware of this? Her model certainly displays her sizeable cleavage quite well.

IHateMyDad2.0: Well considering what her streams are like, I thought she was doing it for the views.

SovereignofSnow: That wouldn’t be of any surprise to me. The Black Sheep of the family has always been the most flamboyant, and outgoing of the four of you.

IHateMyDad2.0: Resulting in her being the degenerate of the family…

IHateMyDad2.0 scouled as she remembered the nature of her older sister’s streams, and the rather depraved aspects of them.

IHateMyDad2.0: Why do you let her do those kind of streams? I thought you would be all against her streaming considering what she does.

SovereignofSnow: Oh, but I am against them. I don’t like the videos she does. But, she is a grown woman, and she is allowed to do as she pleases. And, as her mother I have to respect her choices. I don’t have to like them, but I will respect them nonetheless.

IHateMyDad2.0: Oh… That’s really nice of you, Mom.

SovereignofSnow: Thank you.

~~~~~~

Adrastus97: The Sovereign is really growing on me.

4SakenGodde$$: She is quite understanding of her daughters

bumblequeen: I like her

Stevo: Me too

Ferbanjo: I hope we see more of her in the future

Summertimeaadness: Same

~~~~~~

SovereignofSnow: But, there is one thing about my daughter, and her streaming that concerns me.

IHateMyDad2.0: What’s that?

SovereignofSnow: Who is this man she is… obsessed with? The one she refers to as, ‘Darling?’

IHateMyDad2.0: ‘Darling?’ Oh, she is talking about a fellow streamer; His name is, ErrantryPaladin.

SovereignofSnow: And who exactly is this, ErrantryPaladin?

IHateMyDad2.0: Well, he is… Actually, There is a short video that was uploaded of him that I was planning on watching, would you like to watch it with me, Mom?

SovereignofSnow: By all means.

IHateMyDad2.0: Awesome! Okay, here is the video… What?

SovereignofSnow: What is it?

IHateMyDad2.0: The name of the video it’s… It’s called, ‘The Broken Paladin.’

SovereignofSnow: Broken Paladin? Is something wrong?

IHateMyDad2.0: I… I don’t know. This was a bit taken from his stream, but the video was made by a person watching his stream, not, Errant himself. So, I have no idea what it is about.

SovereignofSnow: Then let’s find out what’s wrong with your sister’s darling paladin then.

IHateMyDad2.0: Okay, let’s start the video.

She hit the play button on the video, and watched a story play out that she did not expect to see.

~~~

IHateMyDad2.0’s stream cut away to an image of, ErrantryPaladin; He was in the midst of a simple game of HOI4, building up his chosen nation of, Brazil’s infrastructure for the upcoming war.

ErrantryPaladin: Okay, that should help my production. Hmm… I want to build some railways… What do you think chat, should I build a railway around my whole country, or should I…?

His words were suddenly cut off as a donation was made, followed by the robotic male voice, and the message it had to deliver.

StalwartDoggo: “Hello, Errant! I’ve been wondering something about you, and you fair maidens…”

ErrantryPaladin: This should be good.

Stalwart: “What is it like having all these woman fawn over you? What is it like to be the alpha with a throng of woman hanging over you?”

ErrantryPaladin: …

ErrantryPaladin: Pffft! What fucking bullshit is that?!

If it could have been seen one would see the collective viewers of, Errants jaws drop like an anvil. They had expected him to say many things, but what he had just said.

ErrantryPaladin: Alpha… Pff… what a fucking joke…There are no woman fawning over me, the real me, not this…

Errant’s hand waved in a circle around his face, looking tired at the screed.

ErrantryPaladin: This mask…

He looked to the side of the screen, and despite the fact tgis face couldn’t portray such emotions, one could only see a broken, and tired man as he stared far off into nothingness.

ErrantryPaladin: What I mean by that is, people only know the mask, this face I present to all of you.

ErrantryPaladin: The face of a huntsman, a lone warrior, who fights for the people against the hordes of Grimm monsters that attack the weak, and defenceless. The face of the wannabe hero…

ErrantryPaladin: But, the real me… I am no where near as amazing as him. I’m just me.

He sighed as he seemed to lean back in his chair, his mind deep in thought.

ErrantryPaladin: You see… people could be shown an image of a person, and they think that, that person is cute, and they’d be interested in meeting that person, and maybe go on a date with them. But, then they actually meet that person in the flesh, and totally be turned off by that person.

ErrantryPaladin: I mean, how many of you would still like me if I was five foot two, and a chubby. I will bet money that many of you would lose all interest in me.

Errant looked away as he heard another ping appear before him.

ErrantryPaladin: Ahh, no, QueensBane, I don’t look like that. Actually, I do look a lot like, Errant. 6’2”, blonde hair, and deep blue eyes. I just lack his confidence…

A deep sigh escaped his lips, as he watch his chat feed play by. Getting annoyed by the comments his chat was making.

ErrantryPaladin: “You’re a ten, ErrantryPaladin.” No, I’m a seven, eight at best chat… Listen, I am handsome enough guy to get the girl, and I have the money to support a family… If I was such a great catch… why have all of my relationships ended so horribly…

ErrantryPaladin: I mean… my first girlfriend, was only dating me to get close to my sister! She was just using me… bitch couldn’t ask my sister out herself, she had to use me as a proxy?!

ErrantryPaladin: Hmmm… Now that I think about it, the last time I saw her she was nursing a black eye, a bloody nose, and a broken lip… My sisters are really protective of their little bro.

The vindictive smile that spread across his face was a terrifying sight to many, but it faded as soon as it appeared as a bitter frown usurped his smile.

ErrantryPaladin: The next girl I was dating dumped me because I was boring. Still don’t understand what she meant by that.

ErrantryPaladin: I caught my next girlfriend cheating on me. She tried to play it off as a ‘mistake’ that will never happen again.

He scoffed in indignation as he shook his head.

ErrantryPaladin: Bitch had been banging this guy behind my back for about a month, so this wasn’t a quote, ‘mistake.’

ErrantryPaladin: And as for my last girlfriend… Chat, have you ever seen those videos where a guy comes up to a couple, and ask if they will cheat on your partner for a thousand bucks?

His eyes scanned his chat feed as he saw several dozen variations of the word ‘yes’ scroll by. As well as people asking if that was what happened to him.

ErrantryPaladin: It was for a hundred.

Errant just sighed in defeat as he looked down at his desk.

ErrantryPaladin: We had been dating for three months, and she was willing to throw it all away for a measly hundred bucks… I told her to take the hundred, she could use it to pay for her uber. I dumped her at the pier with that steamer, and cut her from my life. That was about… two, and a half years ago, give, or take a month, or two. I haven’t been in the dating scene since.

ErrantryPaladin: So no, StalwartDoggo… I don’t have any bitches. No one sees me as a catch since they just throw me away in the end for the dumbest of reasons. I don’t have anyone! Hell I don’t have any friends either!

ErrantryPaladin: I’m all on my own… just like always…

Errant stared into the void for a while, his mind not paying attention to his stream before he took a deep breath, and turned to face his chat.

ErrantryPaladin: Now, where were we?

ErrantryPaladin: …

ErrantryPaladin: Ahh yes… Trains~!

~~~

The mother daughter duo stared at the screen as the video ended they did not expect the video to end in such a way. Especially, IHateMyDad2.0, she had always seen, Errant as an indomitable mountain, that always seemed to have everything under his control, and yet he seemed so broken on the inside that she had joined idea how to respond to that.

Her mother however…

SovereignofSnow: Hmm… You don’t suppose he’s into older woman now do you?

IHateMyDad2.0: …

IHateMyDad2.0: Eh?

Her face broke into an expression of wild confusion, and shock as she heard those words leave her mother’s mouth.

IHateMyDad2.0: Y-Y-You can’t be series, Mother?! You’re at least twice his age! Do you seriously think he would be interested in dating someone your age?!

SovereignofSnow: I don’t see why not; Aren’t all men into well endowed, and full bodied woman? He has had many loveless relationships, I have had a loveless marriage, we have so much to connect over about that alone. I think we would make a lovely pair. Don’t you think so dear?

IHateMyDad2.0: I-I…? W-What?!

SovereignofSnow: Oh! I’m also a bonafide, Milf. What young viral man doesn’t want to bed a milf?

The last few minutes had been the most unbelievable minutes of her life, she had expected many things to happen, but to hear her mother say those few words broker her in a way she never expected, and left her with but on response.

IHateMyDad2.0: WHAT THE FUCK MOM?!!

~~~

Meanwhile on, ErrantryPaladin’s stream he was informed that, IHateMyDad2.0’s mother had made certain comments about him. Now he didn’t have the time to watch the full video, so he was stuck with looking at, IHateMyDad2.0’s mothers, SovereignofSnow’s model where he came to a simple conclusion.

ErrantryPaladin: …

ErrantryPaladin: …

ErrantryPaladin: Smash.

[ilikekidsshows]

Anonymous asked:

'adrien as sentimonster is his character core' was one of the argument a Senti defender said to me when I posted about movie Adrien is just a normal human boy. At this point there's no hint or foreshadow about it in the movie (not like the series ever did that) Emilie having peacock doesn't necessarily means Adrien is a Senti as it could be anything and yet that's the reason I got, it's his character core'. What is character core actually? Can a species be character core?

---

In terms of fictional species, if we're discussing something like the Sayans from Dragonball, then, yeah, them being Sayans is a core element of the characters. Their ideologies when it comes to fighting are rooted in them being part of a type of beings different from humans who thrive on battling increasingly stronger opponents.

Now, if Adrien's species was central to his character, it would need to add something fundamental to how his character functions. What has being a Sentimonster added to Adrien's character? Making him obedient to his father? He was already that as an abuse victim. Making him “perfect”? He was abused into reaching certain standards of behavior. His mother being dead from using the Miraculous? Emilie could die from literally any other reason than it being directly because of Adrien. It's not like “my mom's dead so that I can exist” is something Adrien is aware of for it to affect his character.

Any “core” element of Adrien's character can be reached without him being a Sentimonster, because Adrien being a Sentimonster adds nothing to the story, making it possibly the number one worst-implemented element of the entire show. Adrien is no different from an abuse victim, except changing him into a nonhuman turned sympathy away from him to his abusers, who were turned into poor victims, who couldn’t have a child any other way.

A core element of a character is something that can't be removed without the way the character functions changing in some way. Species can totally be such an element, but being a Sentimonster is not such an element.

Also, like, Sentidefenders just hate the idea of there being a version of Adrien's story that's enjoyable to Adrien fans, huh? We don't even have confirmation that the movie will ever be continued, it could just be a standalone, and they want to ruin its satisfying ending with "well, in outside canon materials Adrien will never ever be truly safe and happy, so there!"

[weaselle]

#i have a solution for a lot of this i'd love to implement but it means completely changing how people acquire and own dogs so#idk if i'll ever figure out how to make it happen

Would love to hear your proposed solution! I've been thinking a lot about providing satisfying enrichment to dogs, since right now I have a five-month-old puppy of unknown/mixed breed who of course has a steadily increasing amount of energy. She seems to enjoy doing obedience-type stuff with me, and I'm planning to try nosework with her soon, and when she's bigger I'm hoping to take her running/hiking.

ooooooo now you done it! :)

first of all, congrats on a great dog, sounds like you two are going to be really good together! I l really love the interest you are taking in enrichment. If you are not a runner yourself but want to run your dog, i can recommend biking your dog with walkydog (or any other similar product by some different brand, but i use walkydog even though the name drives me crazy because it's not for walking your dog lol)

i used this for 8 years with my own dog, and i've also been doing it professionally for other people's dogs (tho i did have to upgrade to a whole rig i designed and built for running dogs, i actually spent most of today working on a redesign to fix fit six dogs and just be generally better, but here's the original)

anyway, biking with my dog was so fulfilling i decided to make it my main job, so, i totally recommend it. You gotta wait until your dog is at least 18 months though, because regular long runs on hard surfaces can create lifelong joint issues if you start them on it too soon. But once you decide to start it will be easy i'm sure, 95% of the dogs i've done it with understand the assignment and decide they love it within the first 10 minutes of trying it. Even small dogs, as long as they are proportional in the leg department. What i mean is a jack russel is fine for this (they make a low attachment for small dogs) but a dachshund has stubby legs and a long back and should not be considered for this activity. And if they are a breed that has big fat paws (most bully breeds, giant schnauzers etc) you have to check their foot pads often and possibly get them some mushing booties.

OKAY, on to the actual ask! you came here from a specific post, dear Anon, but i'm going to paste the relevant part of that post here for other people

"Human lifestyles and canine lifestyles used to be a ven diagram that was much closer to a circle. We used to both live in the woods and hunt creatures and defend territory. Even farming or ranching is not too far from this lifestyle. It has been a great match up for a long time. But now, modern™ society has us living in a way that is much less of a match up. Clients want me to train their dogs not to bark, and are not encouraged when i explain that we spent literally thousands of years asking them to bark more, actually, so it’s going to be an uphill battle. Humans used to have very physical lifestyles, and it use d to be much rarer to spend a day where your dog couldn’t be with you all day doing normal dog behaviors. Now our lives are full of very strict and confining rules of behavior we expect from a dog, and yet people are spending less time than ever socializing/training their dogs to be functioning members of their own pack. It’s sad."

Now, what did i come up with that would be a much better system for how people acquire and own dogs? this post is already getting long, so, answer below the cut

First, specifically what problems am I solving? So for me, the main issues is nobody is teaching dogs how to be a good fit for a modern home. Let's break that down

People want dogs to have a lot of boundaries. For example don't bark unless someone is literally breaking in but also i haven't trained you what that looks like so how are you supposed to know -- be with me in public but do not interact with almost anything at all -- don't run up to greet people or other dogs unless we find out if it's okay with them first. Right? there's a lot of stuff we want from our dogs.

People want their dogs to be able to amuse themselves and not need a person, like, they want their dog to go lay down on their dog bed and chew their dog toys for hours at a time or whatever, the way we would happily spend a few hours online or watching TV shows or something. But most of what a dog would naturally do to amuse themselves is off limits -- no going out and exploring the world on your own -- no digging things up, taking things apart, or getting into things like the food cupboards -- no barking at other dogs, chasing cats, or eating random ground scores ... dogs aren't allowed to do almost anything they would do to amuse themselves, we basically tell them, "you can only do fun things i pick out for you and most of them only if i'm supervising, and i'm only available for about an hour a couple times a day. The rest of the time you have to be bored and waiting on me for fun, but also don't be so bored that you decide to bother me, i'm busy and you can't be involved"

We wish they would have fun by themselves in a way that doesn't involve them getting into trouble, but "getting into trouble" is most of their natural desires, and we tend to not find things they can spend time at on their own. Plus they'd rather do it with us anyway, it's like, you don't want go to an amusement park alone, you only want to go if your friends are going, and life is often one big amusement park to a dog.

But if your dog is trained to be in public, you can involve them with a lot more of your day!

And people aren't socializing their dogs right either. A puppy would normally spend a year or more, 100% of their waking life in the company of their littermates, teaching each other things like "if you are an asshole others won't want to play with you and you might get bit" and "paying attention to what others are communicating to you is important" and "biting me that hard is okay for playing but biting me this hard hurts actually and i hate it and play time is over now" all kinds of super necessary things for a young dog to learn

But we take them at 8-10 weeks! and then WE don't teach them this stuff! and we expect them to be alone for long periods of time! and not sleep in a giant cuddle pile of loved ones, and not be participating in what their siblings or mother are doing 100% of their waking life.

It's crazy, we're basically severing a dog from the experiences they need to be a well adjusted member of our pack, and then we go like "why are you like this!?"

Oh dear, i still haven't gotten to the actual solution

SO. Here it is:

Dogs, should be born and raised in a facility (not like a sterile warehouse building or whatever, yuck, but yes like, a place designed inside and out for the sole purpose of raising dogs)

At this facility would be adult dogs that also help teach the dogs (important, in terms of socialization and even in modeling behavior, dogs can often learn more from other dogs than we can teach them on our own) And of course there would be a staff of professional dog nannies/trainers.

Dogs would learn things like, proper barking etiquette, go to the bathroom where they are told it is okay (not just in the yard, but where in the yard, and how to be told where is okay if, for example staying in a hotel or overnight with friends or family) no resource guarding (no threatening to bite anyone who gets too near their food or toys etc) how to behave around children and small pets, how to behave in public, how to calmly let someone feel between their toes, clip their nails, enjoy a bath, behave at the vet, not beg for food, heel off leash, how to learn new home and pack responsibilities using a basic toolkit (so for example they know basic task "carry", and understand that they may be asked to do jobs involving that, such as "help me carry groceries in from the car. Dogs LOVE to be a functional part of the pack). All this and more.

all the things that give a pet dog access to a better life. If they are calm at the vet they don't have to be held down or other things that can cause panic, if they behave in public they can go with their people more places more often, etc. As well as some additional bonuses like get outside if you hear a fire alarm, don't be scared of fireworks, the difference between safe sidewalks and dangerous roadways...

The time, energy, and skill to do all this for your dog? nobody has all three. Getting a dog from a facility like this would result in a dog that had actually been given the tools to be a really good fit for a modern home, which means a better life for the people, and a MUCH more fulfilling life for the dog.

But people want puppies. I get that. Here's how it works. Keep in mind that most dogs become fully adult at about 2 years old, and that once the facility was operating the exact ages and periods of time would probably be adjusted and fine tuned, but here's the basic idea

you come see the puppies at about 2 weeks old, visit as many days a week as you want. At twelve weeks old (3 months) specific puppies and people are matched. Continue to visit as many days a week as you wish, and take your puppy home for 24 hours every other week (remember most people bring puppies home from a breeder at 8-10 weeks, so this is prime puppy age)

Meanwhile you start taking our one class per month, year long dog course, matched to the stage of development your puppy is experiencing, held at the facility where you have access to, for example, watching trainers work with dogs, and observing groups of dogs in areas alone together, so that you understand dog behavior and communication, understand the basics of dog training, etc, and we are all on the same page when your dog does come to live with you.

At six months old your puppy is this much of a puppy still :

They start joining you for most of your classes which can become more personal, helping you practice whatever you are trying to accomplish at home. Also starting at 6 months you take your puppy home every other weekend.

At 8 months you take your puppy three weekends each month (actual days don't mater, if you work in restaurants and what to have your dog on your "weekend" of wednesday/thursday that's fine, it should just be your days off so that you can dedicate enough of your time to being with your puppy) At ten months you take your puppy every weekend, or perhaps something like for one week in the first half of the month and one weekend in the second half.

One year old puppies are starting to look like a whole dog but are still only half baked

At a year, your once a month classes end, and you take your dog home every other week. You are half a dog owner, you spend half your time with your half grown dog.

Between 18 months and 2 years is a normal age for wolves to begin setting out on their own; being 18 months is sort of the dog equivalent to being 17 years old.

So when your dog is a year and a half, 18 months old, you take one follow up class and your dog starts spending 3 weeks per month with you.

At a year and nine months old they are only spending 1 weekend a month at the facility (again, could be any two days of the week) and the rest of the month they live with you.

At two years old you take your final class which is mostly a group Q&A with a little graduation party, and your dog comes to live with you full time as a newly adult dog. But they've already been spending at least 3 weeks a month with you for the last half a year, and about half of every month for the six months before that.

And then for the next year they come back to the facility for a weekend of training touch-ups and trouble shooting, once every three or four months if they are having no issues, once a month if needed.

If this was the norm, dog owners and their dogs would all have better lives.

Costs of this raising could be augmented through boarding and daycare, since the facility would be an ideal place for dogs to stay, as well as the programs outlined below, such that each dog is not too expensive for people. Currently people spend a lot of money for purebreds and very little money for random adopted dogs, and something like this could still be true, (responsibly bred) purebreds for more money, mutts for much less, but all with access to the full training -- it's important that the dogs all not cost too much or it won't be normalized and puppy mills and backyard breeders etc will still provide a huge percentage of the dogs people get and then only rich people's dogs will benefit from what i am trying to do, so, these other programs and pure-breed mark ups etc would be necessary)

So these facilities should also be training service dogs of all kinds, and, depending on the location of the facility (city or countryside) different jobs like search and rescue, herding, anything related to law enforcement (simply because i 100% do not trust the cops to be training their own dogs) hunting... any and all dog jobs.

AND this would be a perfect way to ensure my other dog idea gets done

Because i think there should be battalions of diagnostic dogs.

I think there should be a few diagnostic dogs at every public event, every sporting event, every concert, every mall, and certainly every hospital... Every crowded place there should be a few dogs moving though, or posted up at walkway intersections, etc. Dogs that diagnose heart murmurs, diabetes, cancer, whatever; dogs can diagnose all kinds of things. It only takes a few sniffs or a few seconds of listening and they can know. As a free diagnostic service paid for by municipalities, states, or federal healthcare funding, they could be pointing out all the people who have these conditions to their handlers (who would have little business cards that just said, hey you've been dog-diagnosed with ____, you should probably check with your doctor about that"). And you could get like, special little lightly scented bracelets or key chains or necklaces or something that would let dogs know if you've already been diagnosed with their thing.

Many of these conditions currently require lab work and weeks of time and a bunch of money to diagnose, and you have to realize you might have it and ask for it and your doctor has to agree that it's necessary, it's a whole thing... but a dog could do it for free in 10 seconds while you were walking into a shopping center.

Anyway, those are some of my dog thoughts

[phightingheadcanons]

screw it.

WORLDBUILDING/ACTUAL (as in, headcanons that have something to do with phighting, not saying the others weren't actual ones shfhfhfjfnkdjf anyway) PHIGHTING HCS!!!! EXPLODES

(one of them is taken from a fic of mine so if someone recognizes it uh yeag I was one of the authors please don't kill mep leas /silly)

- Phighters originally became one via an on-paper agreement that was really only implemented when Phighting first became a thing, which was (I believe) after the Faction War. It was essentially just some basic stuff you'd expect in a signed agreement, though nowadays, Phighters can become one by participating in unofficial Phights that usually take place in some of the smaller MAPs (Monetized Arena for PHIGHTING!), like the Iron Cafe one.

^ One of the main reasons for there being paperwork involved in the first place was so that the older generation would take it at least a little but more seriously. With the tense atmosphere the Faction War left behind, the Flipside (I forgot if it was actually them who started the whole Phighting thing. If not, well, consider it another headcanon ig lol) figured it'd be best to actually have something that can be used in court if anything outside of the general things that happen in Phights were to ever happen.

^ Yes this hc is also my personal explanation for there being extremely tight maps HAHSHDH– and also for the reason why the Iron Cafe had chairs and tables on the roofs of all places (they're up on the four corners, you'll see them). Oh yeah and also there are restrooms on the middle ground leading to the second floor. Just yk. Iron Cafe :3

- Scythe and Coil's trailers were video submissions (published by the Flipside) in the PHIGHTING! world, bc they're both outlaws and can't submit official forms to join via legitimate means. Of course, they ARE actual Phighters if they managed to join that way, just not super super official ones that joined because of the aforementioned on-paper agreement that has something to do with the factions. Coil and Scythe joining is completely up to fate for this one; if their trailers do well, the money raised by them will fund their first debut.

^ "What's a first debut????" WELL!! ANOTHER HC!! Phighters have to wear the same attire. Why? Dude, it's their uniform. In normal cases (aka the signed agreement), the Flipside would fund copies of them themselves, having to make five for both blue and red variants; in Coil and Scythe's case, however, it's a little different. Because there's nothing officially tying their name to the Flipside, as I said, their chances of joining are completely up to fate. If they manage to raise a crap-ton of bux from just the video submission/trailer alone, the money will be used to fund; a) the clothing copies; b) a new Respawn Anchor to allow Respawning (I'll explain that in a minute); and c) nothing! Any amount of extra bux is immediately handed over to the Phighter, unlike in the official agreement that requires some extra paperwork, so I suppose that's a plus.

- RESPAWN ANCHORS!! Wow, I know, I'm so good at these names (sorry mojang). Unlike the Spawn, these things are almost fully artificial, and you won't believe who made them. Yeah it was Medkit how'd you know. Anyway, Respawn Anchors—while the original creator is very much unknown to the rest of the Inpherno—are only exclusively made by Blackrock for the Flipside. Why? Money. Because of course.

^ The way they work is exactly how Medkit's crystal resurrects, except they're specifically tied to only one inphernal (why? Because Medkit's resurrection resurrects all allies). The crystal inside each Anchor is first teal—pure. Add your blood into the mix and it's tied to you now. Its resurrection radius isn't more of a radius, it's more like a ray of light.

^ All Phighters have three Anchors; one for the top of the Arena (facing downwards), one for the bottom (facing upwards), and the last one– well, it's where they actually spawn. They function via "line of sight," which is why they don't work outside of the Arena they're placed in. The one on top sees its Phighter dead, sends the signal to the one at the Spawn (takes a couple of seconds), and the one there Respawns its Phighter. The one at the bottom of the Arena is for when the Phighter died under something, like a roof.

^ Each costs 50k. Medkit originally wanted them to be on the cheaper side but whatever, he knows Blackrock doesn't care about him. He is secretly proud of his creation being super essential in Phights. No Subspace doesn't know he made them. He is glad he doesn't.

- Subspace once tried to take credit for the Respawn Anchors' creation in front of Medkit, trying to taunt him, but seeing the guy look like he was on the verge of laughing in his face made him stop doing that immediately. At this point that is the only interaction between Medkit actually finds hilarious. Oh the irony.

did i cook

"OH YOU SURE AS HELL DID"

"THAT'S SO FIRE I LOVE THIS SM. ANY WORLDBUILDING HEADCANONS ARE ALWAYS WONDERFUL"

[kingdoms-and-empires]

After Dark Review (Zombies!)

I recently had to go travel and read a few works that I never got around to reading but was interested in.

PLEASE REMEMBER THIS REVIEW IS DONE BY ME AS A READER AND IS MY OWN OPINION.

This means I will review in accordance to my own tastes, how the game caters to me, and what I feel. Do not take my word as gospel, what I may not be interested in or dislike, may be what YOU are interested and love!!!

@dalekowrites

Synopsis:

A few years from now, in Little Peak, Michigan, a teenager is ready to go to sleep.

While the heavy industry is more active than ever, the effects of global warming are evident, with higher temperatures, dying bees, and animals acting weird.

It has simply been another normal Wednesday, but little do people know that it’s the last day of normality Mother Nature has granted them.

After Dark is a scientifically accurate apocalyptic horror. You’re tired of zombies rising from the ground for no reason? You don’t believe in ghosts? Glittering vampires aren’t for you? Then you have to try one of the three different stories that unfold in After Dark.

When a global pandemic starts to transform people into dangerous monsters, which path will you choose? Will you fight for humanity? Will you stay for your family? Or will you run away in search of a better future?

Review:

The Good: Why does every IF Zombie game have the authors kill themselves in the coding department? This is in the good section, so it isnt a bad thing, though sometimes I worry for the sanity of the author lol. Anyways, After Dark is ambitious! Here are some of the things the author implemented:

Three different routes with three completely different stories. (1 is being worked on right now, the other two have not yet been implemented yet as far as I know)

A phone with a social network, gallery for the ROs, a newsletter, and a weather forecast app... of which you need to charge without it being annoying thankfully!

Characters remember what you talk about and will bring it up in future conversations, so you cant be two faced lol

A romance autonomy system that you can switch on that allows ROs to flirt with you!

Random encounters to encourage re-playability.

An inventory system.

A weather system, that can be prepped for using the weather app on your phone.

Hourly progression system, there are only a set amount of hours in a day that you can use to do things without affecting you.

Discoverable side stories.

A private journal that keeps track of stuff for you. Kinda Elder Scrolls coded and i jive with it haha

And crazy enough, there's more. The above sounds complicated and overwhelming, but it isnt for the reader somehow. The author was able to integrate all the above without it feeling intrusive or annoying.

As for the story itself, remember this is currently one route. The writing is well done, it isnt overly flowery or super descriptive to the point of walls of text. Instead it gets to the point effectively and without losing points.

It made me want to read more, and that is exactly what we readers look for as we scour the IF space for more stories.

ABBY

I really like Abby. She's the preggo lady you can find, and I love the humanity she brings to the story. She does some things thatll make you go:

All of the characters feel grounded and not tropey if that makes any sense. And the dynamics of the group can change with the MC's input, or lack of it.

And then food. Holy shit, the need for food actually felt immersive lmao, whenever id find a snack or something id snatch that mfer up

The Bad:

I would like more zombies. The characters, the narrative, and the plot works well. But I'm worried of being presented with more human on human conflict/drama instead of the undead, and to that I recommend the author to introduce more scenes where we can see the horror, eeriness, and sadness that such an apocalypses would induce. Make a scene where the player is being chased by the undead because of a fuck up, it can be MC's or one of the characters to create tension or drama and it can even make an RO moment occur. Or a scene where you can enter a school, or one of the FEMA camps and see the aftermath of an incident where the zombies break in or someone infected got in. Of course, the author is steadily updating, and what I just said may very will be in the cards of a future update! But I do think something involving the zombies should occur sooner than later, as the beginning scene with the parent and the chaos, horror, and tension of the scene still stayed with me, and i was hoping to reach those emotional heights again while playing!

The Ugly:

Other than a few gender variable errors of the ROs and the regular grammar mistakes found in any IF, the biggest issue i had was with presentation. I'd recommend the author to clean up the spacing between paragraphs in the future when they have time alongside the new update.

The Aftermath:

Zombie IFs just don't seem to miss. Almost all are able to land within the "good" category whenever one releases, and this has the potential to land right in the "Chef's Kiss" tier. I'd recommend this game to anyone craving a zombie IF, and im excited to see this develop more in the future! The characters are grounded, flawed but not annoyingly, and capable. The story is plausible, and the narrative makes sense. Honestly? I want more and I want it now!

[artificial-transmutations]

Out Now: Dam Breakers

Hello everyone! I'm extremely excited (and, quite frankly, more than a bit nervous) to announce that I finished my fantasy romance novel Dam Breakers!

For the very TLDR-version: It is available here! Be sure to read the disclaimer below, though.

First of all, thank you! Everyone who reads my stories or likes them shows me that there is at least some interest in my mediocre writing. And even though the novel is not exactly like my stories here (more to that later), it gives me hope that you and other people might like it.

Now, for the actual novel!

Dam Breakers is the tale of Jared, a rather normal modern day college student, and Aleron, an apprentice mage living in a secluded tower with his teacher. One fateful day, they meet and are drawn into a maelstrom of magic, change and love - and dark secrets threatening to destroy everything they loved.

With over 120000 words, this is not only my longest story yet, but also my most carefully crafted one. I will attach an image of my Obsidian graph for the story at the end of the post.

Disclaimer:

As I have mentioned, it is a bit different from the stories I usually post here. First and foremost, it's a lot tamer. This novel isn't meant as a porn piece, but as an intriguing fantasy and romance tale. While there is love, desire and sex, of course, it's way more sparse and less explicit than, for example Closer Than Flesh.

It also features transformation themes, and the concept of change is one of the main focus points of the book, but, again, don't expect 500 pages full of transforming bodies because of it :)

And, finally, for a multitude of reasons, it does not contain AI generated images. I wouldn't be able to generate any that do the story justice, anyway.

Now that you know what not to expect, here are some things you MAY expect:

Transformation. Both in the sense of bodily changes but intriguing character development as well.

Gay Love. This is a story about two men from different worlds falling in love with each other, and their stony road to being together.

Magic. It's a fantasy story, and a truly enchanting one at that, with a fresh concept of magic and change.

Story. Last, but certainly not least, it's a good and interesting read, at least according to my opinion. Since I might be a bit biased here, let me tell you that my beta readers agree.

If you still want to read it (and I hope you do!), then you can grab your copy here:

If you are not in the US, you can just replace the .com with, for example, .co.uk to go to your local Amazon marketplace

I have not forgotten, of course, that I promised a special condition for you folks at Tumblr. Since Amazon makes it a bit difficult to actually implement that, I plan to offer a time limited discount or giveaway in a few weeks. I'll announce the exact time here on my blog beforehand.

If you really want to support me, it would mean a lot to me if you could leave a review on Amazon. That influences the algorithm a lot and helps the book get visibility, which is incredibly important . So, please, if you like the book, leave a review.

Teaser / Preview (mild spoilers)

And here is a short look into the book, from chapter 4. It contains some mild spoilers, but nothing too important. I also added an AI image, which is not in the book (see above).

[...]

Even though the weather was unstable, Jared enjoyed the journey through the vibrant spring land. It was a closeness to nature he had never experienced. Even back home with his parents, in rural Texas, the land had seemed different. Back there, the wilderness had been tamed decades if not centuries ago. There was no wonder, no adventure. Here, there were hills and forests, rivers and bogs, and who knew what else. It was as if Jared was seeing the world for the first time. Not to mention the smell. Jared could not remember a time when he had smelled the spring air like this.

In addition to the landscape, Jared's traveling companion also played a big part. Aleron was an intelligent and witty conversationalist, and Jared learned a lot about his new friend. They spoke of everything under the sun, and Jared told stories of his home, of modern inventions and the differences between this world and his. Even though Aleron was fascinated by his tales, he was also clearly skeptical about some of them, especially when it came to the more complex topics. That was only fair, though, as Jared himself had a hard time believing the fantastic stories of this world, even after having experienced some with his own eyes. Dragons, for example. It didn't matter how often Aleron recited what little information he had about those magnificent beasts, something in Jared resisted fully believing in them. He hoped that he would be able to see one of them for real - although Aleron repeatedly stressed how dangerous they were - in order to be able to fully believe in them.

While Aleron's world was certainly magical, it wasn't all like in the Lord of the Rings. There were, for example, no other humanoid races, as Jared learned. No elves, dwarves or orcs, at least to Aleron's knowledge, which, to be fair, mainly included the Kingdom of Myrthien. Although the Whispering Woods were not technically a part of Myrthien, and were generally considered wilderness, it was clear that they were no part of another nation either. The closest neighboring country to the Whispering Woods would either be the Golden Isles beyond the coast south of Eldoria or the Verdant Lands to the west. According to Aleron, the Verdant Lands couldn't really be considered a nation, too. It was more of a loose confederation of tribal communities, living in the characteristic dense forests of that region.

As Helena had promised, Luminara wasn't difficult to find. The capital of Myrthien was well known and if there was a sign post somewhere, it was sure to point to Luminara.

There was no shortage of smaller and bigger settlements, and about every third or fourth night they were able to sleep in beds. During the other nights, they made camp a bit off the road in order not to attract too much attention. It was one of those nights, about two weeks after they had left Eldoria, that Jared woke up in the middle of the night. Aleron, who was sleeping next to him, was moving in his sleep and occasionally made a sound, which had caused Flicker to gain a bit of distance to the sleeping man.

It was clear to Jared that his friend was dreaming, and he briefly considered waking him up from his nightmare. However, judging by the sounds, Jared began to suspect that Aleron was not having a nightmare but quite the opposite, although the dream seemed to be just as intense.

Quietly, he left the tent, careful not to wake the sleeping mage. Outside, he was greeted by the stars and a clear sky with an almost full moon. The campfire was almost dead, just a few embers and ashes were left. It was a quiet, peaceful night, and Jared decided to go to the nearby lake to drink. Aleron had never once shown a single sign of sexuality before, except for demonstrating a certain uneasiness around nudity and related topics. He never had commented on any woman - or man - in a suggestive way, so Jared had been half- convinced that this whole topic didn't have any relevance to the mage at all.

Of course, for his own reasons, Jared had avoided the subject as well, so, perhaps Aleron thought the same about him. Jared didn't mind that. As magical as this world was, he had yet to encounter a single sign of same-sex attraction. Perhaps this wasn't a thing here, biologically, or perhaps it was socially frowned upon, like in his world's medieval ages - or rural Texas, present day. In any case, there was absolutely no reason to bring that topic up, so he didn't. Not bringing up his sexuality was a sport he was very experienced in for 9 years straight now, after all.

As Jared neared the lake, he was feeling weird and tingly all over. It was not entirely unpleasant, but it stirred a vague memory in Jared. He had felt this feeling once before, but he couldn't quite recall when.

When he bent down to scoop some water into his hand, he stopped before his fingers touched the surface of the lake. The moon was bright, and Jared could see his reflection in the mirror-smooth water quite well. The only problem was that it was not him who was looking back at him.

Of course, there was a strong resemblance, but the details weren't right. His face looked somewhat stronger, his jawline a bit squarer. His hair a bit lighter and styled like the day he first stepped out of the mirror. On his chin, there was a short well-groomed beard even though he had shaved just last morning. It wasn't just his face, though. As he looked down on himself, he looked fitter than he should, as if he was visiting a gym regularly. In fact, the definition of muscle on his torso increased further, just as he was watching. Suddenly, the wonder was replaced by fear. He had felt that way before, and now he remembered when. It had been during his first visit to Aleron's world, when his body was 'destabilizing' as Aleron had put it. Given, the feeling had been stronger then, but it was definitely the same. And now, his body was changing again, and he was weeks of travel from the magic mirror.

Half-panicking, he sprinted back to the tent, not caring about being quiet anymore. Perhaps Aleron knew what to do! He ducked into the entrance and called out to the mage.

"Aleron, wake up!"

Almost immediately, the apprentice jolted awake. "Jared? What is wrong?"

"I... don't know, it's me. Look at me!"

After a few words of encouragement, Flicker began burning brighter, allowing them to see in the tent as well. Aleron looked at the half-naked Jared critically for a few moments before asking: "Okay... what am I looking for?"

"Can't you see? I'm..." However, as Jared looked down on himself, everything was fine again. He was looking at his plain old self, just as he should look like. The tingling feeling was gone, too.

"Oh." Jared felt incredibly stupid all of a sudden. "I... must have been imagining things."

[...]

If you liked the teaser, be sure to give the whole thing a read :)

Let me close with another whole-hearted Thank You for your continued interest!

Stay awesome!

And here, as promised, a peek at the creative complexity of the story:

[mbti-notes]

Anon wrote: I’m a 29yo INFJ lagging in personal development. Low self-worth and a lot of shame about how I am. I started therapy to work on my social anxiety. In the meantime, I read one of your answers (/post/766608536971149312) and it made me want to ask about how to get in touch with who I am. I have a weak sense of self because I have neglected myself for a long time.

I feel like I have no goals, no ambitions, no interests, no identity. I don’t know if I have anything positive to express into the world right now. All I know is I want to connect with people. I like people and it pains me that I don’t know how to be with them. But how can I connect with people when I have nothing to express or contribute (and that, in itself, causes me shame)? How do I begin the journey towards knowing myself?

-------------------

That post was about INTPs with regard to inferior Fe and lack of regard for one's place in the social world. In case it needs to be said, beware of extrapolating information about inferior Fe and trying to apply it to auxiliary Fe. The two should not be treated the same way.

Although they are the same function, the difference in functional stack position makes a big difference in the perspective one ought to take toward function development. Anyone of any type can experience socializing difficulties, but the underlying reasons behind the difficulties are very different for each type and thus require different approaches.

Yes, in many ways, it is problematic to have a weak sense of self. And, yes, being empty inside means you don't have much to contribute to the world outside. Although this might apply to you, is a weak sense of self really the root problem in your particular case?

A weak sense of self is actually simple to address. All you need to do is start living life more openly, actively, and assertively. It's not very difficult to "contribute". If you are an able-bodied person, there are many worthy causes you could devote yourself to. There are lots of possibilities all around you if you open your eyes and look. Get up and get out into the world. Do things. Participate. Get involved. Experiment. Explore. Take charge. Take on more responsibility.

Through gaining a wide variety of life experiences and learning about yourself from them, you'll gradually forge a stronger sense of self. Adolescence to early adulthood (13-25) is normally the time when people do the bulk of their self building, which is why you generally see teenagers demanding more and more autonomy to live life on their own terms. If you've lived a sheltered life, either because your parents sheltered you or you sheltered yourself, then you are more likely to have a weak sense of self because of not possessing enough worldly experience. It's never to late to start, though.

But you aren't able to implement this simple solution, are you? Why is that? You mention social anxiety, the root of which is usually shame, most likely toxic shame. Shame is a normal and healthy response to falling short of moral ideals, i.e., feeling like a "bad" person prompts you to change your behavior for the better and become a "good" person.

However, toxic shame is about not valuing yourself because other people have, intentionally or not, made you believe that you have no value, perhaps to the point where you believe you are inherently a bad person who can't change. Shame is a more primary concern in your case than weak sense of self, though the two can be related.

The real world mirrors back to you the truth of who you are. Therefore, in order to see yourself, you have to make yourself seen out there in the real world. But the world is an imperfect mirror. If you've been unlucky and encountered too many people throughout life who have made it clear that they don't like what they see when they look at you, it is only natural for you to not like looking at yourself as well. You are not to blame for that.

This raises an interesting question, though. How reliable and valid were those people's perceptions of you? After all, we know that human beings suffer from many kinds of biases and prejudices. Are you certain that the people who have judged you did so objectively and impartially? Are you certain that those people were eminently qualified to appraise you and your worth? You'd better be certain, that is, if you're going to adopt their way of judging you and put yourself down so harshly.

Framing the problem like this, perhaps you can start to see that it goes deeper than Fe. Perhaps it goes all the way down to Se. It is easy to spot INFJs with unhealthy Se. They are usually unwilling or unable to participate in the real world. Why? In the real world, there is no place to hide, so you don't get to indulge the fantasies of unhealthy Ni. You don't get to lie about who you really are. It is safer and more comfortable to live in an insulated world of your own making, where you don't have to hear outside opinions about yourself.

Isn't that what you really mean when you say you've "neglected yourself for a long time"? That you've purposely avoided facing up to reality and, thus, haven't been developing your potential? Perhaps it's time to confront the discomfort you feel in the real world and understand what it's really about? Perhaps it's time for you to grapple very seriously with the question of how you define the worth of a person?

Do you believe that every person you meet has to "contribute" something to you in order for you to consider them worthy of your time and attention? That's a very cold and transactional approach to human relationship, isn't it? If you don't believe that, why would you assume that you must "contribute" something in order to call yourself worthy?

It's easy to spot people who suffer from toxic shame. They behave as though they don't have a right to speak or even a right to exist. Do you believe you have a right to exist in this world? If so, speak up for yourself and take up the space that is rightfully yours. You really want to connect with people? You'll find it difficult as long as you believe you're not a person worth connecting with and that no one would want to connect with you.

You've asked me how to get to know yourself better. I've pointed you to the best path, which is to participate fully in the real world and go through the exciting process of building a life of substance for yourself. Maybe this is the last thing you want to do, but that usually indicates it's the most important thing you have to do.

Do you struggle with Ti loop? Such INFJs commonly react to good advice with excuses as to why they can't do it or how it doesn't apply to their "special" case, or they'll go around soliciting opinions from a million people until someone tells them it's okay to keep avoiding reality. I'm not here to convince people to change. I can only tell you that facing up to your fears and challenging yourself to do difficult things is necessary for real growth to happen. Whether you do it is in your hands.

[krittikasurya]

Some thoughts on Krittka Nakshatra (originally posted on substack and twitter)

Krittika at its best really understands how to both simultaneously enjoy and appreciate things while also being able to give critical commentary and feedback, and I think a lot of people have a hard time wrapping their heads around this level of multifaceted behavior. In a world where black-and-white, all-or-nothing thinking is common and encouraged, people often forget that two things can be true at once. Krittika natives have the creativity and flexibility to understand and implement this “two truths at once” concept into their everyday lives. People think Krittika natives are being insolent or abrasive when the native is just simply speaking on what they’ve learned, gathered, observed and experienced and being straightforward about it…taking the data they’ve accumulated and turning it into something that’s easy to digest. Absolute truths rarely exist, and Krittika exposes the complexities we experience on both a collective and individual level.

Krittika’s goal isn’t to trash things necessarily. I think the goal Krittika natives have is to help themselves and others see things in a different, profound way. Offering refreshing perspectives on many different aspects of life is something the natives take pride in. The Martian influence of the Aries portion of the nakshatra makes one very analytical and strategic. Observing and learning through action and expeirnce, the Aries side of this nakshatra knows how to take things back to the drawing board. They understand that trial and error are some of the best teachers, and that there is always room for change. The Venusian influence of the Taurus portion gives the native discernment and good taste. The discriminatory nature of Venus leaves little to no room for indifference, especially when it comes to connections, arts, and culture. Venus appreciates excellence, and Krittika will accept nothing less. Krittika serves as the bridge between the sun’s (Identity) and the moon’s (Mind) exaltation points, giving both signs vast intelligence that manifests slightly different, but one thing remains the same: The sharp, quick witted nature of the nakshatra that seeks improvement within themsleves and the world around them. In today’s society, echo chambers are growing increasingly common, creating less nuance and mental flexibility, and more groupthink. From arts to politics, the effects of all-or-nothing thinking seems almost inescapable. Mediocrity is the acceptable normal, and Krittika is on a mission to change that.

When not channeled appropriately, Krittika natives can be high strung individuals, hypercritical of both themselves and others while forgetting to appreciate the beauty of life, and the beauty within themsleves. Some constantly feel the need to “shake the table” or say what they believe others are afraid to say, not fully realizing the implications of making ego driven “critiques.” Some “critiques” can be so ego driven, that they are dowright incorrect, mean or hateful in nature. They can be prone to tunnel vision and extreme anger, especially when they feel like their way is the only way. Krittikas can be demanding, exhibiting dictator-like control over their communities which can lead to a “walking on eggshells” feeling for the people around the native. It is imperative that Krittikas don’t lose sight on what’s important: not crossing the thin line between enlightening analysis, and downright negativity.

Krittika natives experience a lot of pleasure from giving critique as well, because they believe that there’s something really cool about being able to get others to think in ways they may not have before, and introduce various perspectives on any given subject. Krittika’s shakti (power) is to purify or burn away impurities, and sharing thier critical thoughts and assessments is one of the best ways to do it in today’s world. If we as a collective are going to consume things, Krittikas believe we can and should evaluate and question what we consume. Things should be questioned more. “Impurities” should be pointed out. The status quo should be challenged in all aspects of life.

Krittika isn’t scared to point out things that are flawed and it infuriates some individuals that Krittika natives don’t just sit and “go with the flow” all the time. Krittika has a burning lust for awareness of the world we live in. Krittika knows that sometimes there will be conflict, they’ll ruffle a few feathers and invoke certain emotions that make others feel uncomfortable, but when done tactfully that has the power to change the world (however big or small you consider your world to be).

[taylorklosscomeout138]

Hello! What are your thoughts on the mass coming out theory and comingoutlor? xx

Hi! I reposted almost all my coming out lore theories so if you do have the time to scroll through my feed you will find them all! I would absolutely restate everything but it is a LOTTTTTT there is so many moving parts and sub groups of interconnecting theories. However, I will briefly summarize current and touch on New Romantics.

I'm still a firm believer in Dec 13th coming out on her birthday. I have thought for some time it'll be the Reputation TV release with KARma as the vault tracks (KARma the album will be how she comes out initially, it is explicity about KARlie and that is why she was not allowed to release it in 2016, instead we got tracks born from Karma which is why Rep is her shortest album to date only 15 tracks. It will be the full album and likely be rock of some kind in honor of Carly Simon and all of that implemented lore, which there is a ENTIRE rabbit hole of Carly Simon and James Taylor/James Hart but that's for another time, but she tested this type of album structure with TTPD / The Anthology)

Right now the storyline is the Wizard of Oz, the yellow brick road, with the destination being emerald city. I believe she will arrive at the emerald city a day after the final eras tour date, Dec 9th, which is also the first day after she ghosts a Chiefs home game for the first time. If you look at the eras dates compared to home game dates, she has always planned around them, even in upcoming, just 1 day off, but Dec 8th she directly overrid that game, that's her goodbye to "Kansas" bcuz in this story, she wants to stay in Oz. Oz is the secret garden in her mind, the planet where they can all understand it, the great escape. And she is the Wizard behind the curtain. The Wizard doesn't leave Oz. As the story goes, after arriving at Emerald City, the curtain is pulled on the Wizard revealing that the Wizard was entirely something and someone different than the initial facade, the brand facade. So that would allign with Dec 9th, emerald city, Dec 13th, curtain pulled.

I think at first Taylor will let the music speak for itself, then release a statement in the coming days. But the actual public step into the daylight WITH Karlie will be a little longer. I don't have a specific date for that at this time, but I wouldn't think too much longer after. Time will tell

I have a whole Bejeweled theory too that explains this same timeline with "she ghosted" and everything that is worth the read! I'll repost my older theories as well after this that are not on my feed currently.

As far as New Romantics project, yes this is absolutely happening. This is the Chely Wright prophecy. It starts with Taylor and she has to be the big name to lead it, but it does not nearly end with her, there will be many coming outs. There is a common misconception in the industry in terms of what it means to be out. Even celebs who were able to come out as LGBTQ+ are not out in the way they want to be. You'll notice even those people do not have queer public relationships. They can be explicity writing in their music that they are in one and yet they are still not allowed to go out in public and hold their lovers hand in front of the cameras. Some queer celebs aren't allowed to come out in any way shape or form, others can but only to an extent, but the one that remains consistent is that majority cannot have a public queer love relationship, and THAT is the major break out. So don't just expect to see confirmation of labels, expect to see confirmation of muses.

The reason this takes a big name like Taylor to initiate it, like Chely Wright said, is because of how many queer celebs are afraid and don't have the power to do it on their own and withstand not losing their career within the industry. So someone who is a huge world wide name must first set the precedent and normalize this. The world must understand queer love is not only normal in general, but it is extremely normal in the celebrity scene. And this is specifically how Chely Wright said it must be done. "I'm gay. And I'm normal."

So yes, that is honestly only scratching the surface but that's my best way to sum up the main events going on right now. Please feel free to ask any further questions, and as I mentioned my in depth takes of each component and more will be on my feed for all to read!

[thecurioustale]

Writing Psychological Horror Is Hard

Writing horror is hard for me.

I think it is perhaps the clearest example, at least when I'm the subject, of the difference between being the author and being the audience. I find it extremely difficult to know what will creep out someone who doesn't know all the behind-the-scenes details of what is happening. This is despite my considerable experience as a consumer of [psychological / environmental] horror media.

When I think about the things that scare me, or maybe "unsettle" is a better word, it usually comes down to two things: 1) narratively plausible violations of the laws of nature; and 2) foreboding, i.e. the slow-building setup that something bad is coming—something that is specific enough to be apprehensible but still ambiguous enough to be cloaked in mystery.

But! Not just any attempt at these things will actually work. There is definitely a secret sauce that makes some efforts fail and others succeed.

In the game Oxenfree, probably my favorite horror game of all time, there is a scene on the "Find Clarissa!" subplot where Alex et al. are in something akin to a classroom in an abandoned military base on an uninhabited island, and a discordantly upbeat and normal-sounding midcentury-style gameshow host is talking to them through a haunted radio asking them questions in a game of Hangman (whose figure is gradually being drawn by invisible means on the chalkboard), while a lamp overhead illuminates the room in a very unnatural light as it swings back and forth for no apparent reason. And this was one of my favorite moments in the entire game, because it was really scary. It benefitted from the existing atmospheric horror build up in the events immediately preceding it, and also benefitted from not being a narrative climax; it actually ratchets up the tension in the story even higher, without resolving anything (other than itself).

But I think that if you went purely by my description, you would be hard-pressed to create a scary implementation of this scene. I certainly would be—and I know that for a fact, because I have more or less tried it!

What is it that makes something profoundly unsettling in that oh-so-delicious manner of a good horror story? Well, the academic answer is that it's appealing to our instincts of danger: dangerous environments (like rocks or cliffs or plants, or, indeed, "the dark"), dangerous predators, dangerous people, dangerous forces (like fire and wind and water), and dangerous sicknesses (e.g. infectious disease). Most horror taps into at least one of these primal apprehensions in the human psyche. And to succeed it has to feel real, the way a roller coaster feels like you're really falling. But I don't think "the academic answer" really sheds all that much light on the mystery of actually composing horrifying situations and events.

A lot of the craftsmateship is a balancing act.

For example: You don't want to hit the audience over the head with obvious bogeymates—jumpscares for the sake of jumpscares, as it were, or having your big scary cryptid jump out in its full costume in broad daylight and look absurd—but I have also found, through experience, that it is very easy to hide horrifying details too well, to be too subtle about it—and it is extremely difficult for me to get a sense, on the audience's behalf, of how subtle is too subtle.

That leads me to an important insight: Part of the secret sauce of horror is contextually embedding horrifying story elements into a broader context. A "haunted stick of furniture" isn't going to get many people a-quailin' in their boots. It has to be more about how that object is embedded in the story. You know, like a haunted couch, or a haunted table: How do you make that scary? I don't think it can be scary on its own. Not consistently and convincingly. Instead you have to set it up ahead of time in some way(s), by providing information to the audience that you are then going to subvert or manipulate later. Yet it is all too easy to do this in a way that comes across like a paint-by-numbers exercise: "Wait a minute! Wasn't this couch pointing the other way earlier?! GASP!!" No one is gonna be scared by that. It's not enough.

Ultimately, I think scaring people successfully, in the psychological horror sense, therefore involves an element of overwhelming their ability to cope with and anticipate environmental changes, which assumes an elaborate environmental structure that you're going to have to set up, in non-obvious ways, earlier in the story. You have to give them expectations about how things will change and then either gradually go beyond that magnitude of change or else go in a different direction of change entirely—usually the former. Psychological horror is all about the fear of the jumpscare that never comes.

But I'm also just spitballing for the purposes of this essay. I don't really know. I struggle with this stuff!

It really is an art form to be able to scare people in this way.

Additional, medium-specific difficulty comes in the fact that the written media that I work in does not have access to a scary soundtrack or sound effects or voices, or to scary visuals and visual effects. Written text does have the corresponding advantage of having unfettered access to the reader's imagination, allowing them to essentially self-select the personally scariest interpretations of some of the details of a scene. But taking full advantage of this power is not easy at all; you have to put the right kinds of details in, and you have to do so in a digestible format, all without cluttering the flow of the story.

I have been doing a lot of Galaxy Federal writing lately, and have been trying to write some of the "scarier" bits and pieces in it, and I almost resent how totally clueless I am in regards to whether I am hitting the mark to my satisfaction! 😮

[noodle-made-a-mistake]

A short list of things that bother me about the Magisterium canon:

Forgive me in advance for rambling, I have to get these thoughts out of my brain lmao (also it's been a couple years so correct me if I'm wrong! (I really hope I’m wrong on some of these :’) )) Spoilers ahead obviously!

● The lack of Calron :(

● Not taking the opportunity to develop Tamara's character and keeping her static until she's randomly just different. Strong female characters aren't just skilled and perfect until their one flaw (usually it's having feelings like any other human being) is revealed shockingly (that's just sloppy characterization), they should be crucial to the plot and not overlooked in favor of developing other characters (from what I remember she literally was my favorite while reading the series until she just got annoying (??) after a while, of course that could just be because the story is told through Call's perspective but still)

● The entire school system that I need more info on bc it sounds so unthought out and not like something that has existed for hundreds of years

● The forceful nature of making people serve as masters?? That makes no sense? Like, “Congratulations on not dying during your schooling or in the war(s), your prize is forced labor 👍.”

● Also THE COLLEGIUM WAS MENTIONED AND NEVER ELABORATED UPON

● TGT. Least favorite book. Get out. Tgt truthers how do you do it??

● The Maugris plot twist. It destroys the meaning behind the past four books. It's just so uncalled for and frankly just sloppy ig? I love the idea in a way, but only if it's foreshadowed from the beginning. Also I'm too attached to the complicated dynamic of Alastair raising his possible ex-bestie for it to end up like that

● The fact that the iron trio is out of school for half the series, I'd like to know what's normal, y'know??

● THE LACK OF ELABORATION ABOUT THE FIRST GEN I WANT TO KNOW MORE I HAVE TO KNOW MORE

● They did my man Constantine especially wrong, give him some ✨️character✨️ aside from E V I L and problematic (trademark) and charming (???)

● AND ALASTAIR GOD TELL ME MORE?? He's characterized as distant and obviously traumatized with his hate of his magic involved past but I just need to know what that past was like. Like who was he before his dead wife syndrome?? Idk but I'd of liked any excuse to know more about it just so I can understand him more??

● Please give me a single character trait of Declan's?? Like he was mentioned a handful of times and that's all we got. He was just some guy and I am hating it !!

● And Sarah. Like. She was a mom and liked peace as a concept but she also made a cool ass knife. That's a lot of things left up for interpretation. And I know Call wasn’t allowed to ask questions for plot reasons but god i wish he had more information about his own dead mother for Christ's sake

● Also other than a victim, who was Jericho? I need to know who this kid who drew scribbles in the margins of his very important journal while writing about how he was slowly being killed was. What was his relationship really like with his brother if he was so scared to say that he was dying or what gave him the impression that he didn't care?? It's fascinating and I need him under a microscope immediately

● Also the lack of queer representation until the last two books. AND THEN IT WASN'T EVEN ANY OF OUR MAIN CAST. Literally the saddest L ever :(

● AND AARON WAS NEVER CONFIRMED QUEER LIKE WHAT THE FUCK JUST L O O K AT HIS CHARACTER AND INFACT ALL OF OUR CORE CAST IS AT LEAST BI LIKE C O M E O N (ik they're like kids but even I knew I was not straight when I was like 11 and i lived in the most conservative non-LGBTQ-friendly town known to man)

● Low key, callmara was so bad, like I love them but not the way it happened, horrible set up. Tamara deserved so much better and to not have her entire character destroyed by becoming a love interest. I wish they thought about her as an independent character instead of the means to implement a romantic subplot in tgt, they did so good in the first books with that

● Also there's no elaboration on what chaos is. It's the mystical 5th element. Wow! Let's go girl, give us nothing! You'd think that if Makaris were so exceptionally rare and special that we'd get some explanation on how they come to be and what it is exactly that they can control but we're just left to assume it's the special "chosen one" type of thing. Idk it bothers me for some reason :/

That's just off the top of my head and it's been years since I read the series all the way through (I should do a reread soon). For the most part I adore this funky series and I hate to bash it but I felt the need to ramble about it's shortcomings because I'm not crazy, right?? It had so much potential! Anyway, I'm sort of glad for the blanks in the story despite complaining about them because it leaves room for fics and fan interpretations that I always love to see, but on the other hand, I'd like for the story to feel finished and not like a last minute science fair project.

Thanks for sticking around for my late night rambling lmao

[oathkeeper-of-tarth]

quick question: do you by chance know if dame aylin's "child of the moonmaiden" feature is a combat only feature?

Quick answer: No, it's a passive ability and it's visible most of the time on her character sheet regardless of combat. Here's a couple of example screenshots.

Long answer below, because I had some fun digging into the implementation of her immortality a bit more.

So, Child of the Moonmaiden is visible as a passive when you examine Aylin whenever she has (a specific one of!) her resurrection statuses enabled - which is not all the time, but again isn't tied to combat. You can take a look at how it gets handled in various game scripts here, as well as search for other objects or statuses or absolutely anything of interest. Aylin's immortality stuff can get a bit convoluted to track, though. What you want to be on the lookout for are mainly these three things:

1. GLO_NIGHTSONG_RESURRECTION aka "Moonmaiden's Reconstitution" which is a Status that does nothing by itself, and instead works by giving Aylin a Passive ability, which then applies some effects to her,

2. SHA_NightsongResurrection aka "Child of the Moonmaiden" which is that Passive. It alters Aylin's reaction to being downed by replacing the "normal" DOWNED status everyone gets with GLO_NIGHTSONGRESURRECTION_DOWNED - this implements the downed behaviour you've probably seen her do, and that she might get stuck in if in Myrkul's anti-healing bone chill aura: she's auto-stabilised instead of killed if she hits 0 HP, and when her next turn starts she attempts to regain 1 HP and then has her move and bonus actions if she succeeds. The spell Death Ward is implemented in a very, very similar way to this, by changing a character's default downed status to a special DEATH_WARD_DOWNED status. For reference, this is what that spell is described to do: "Protect a creature from death. The next time damage would reduce it to 0 Hit Points, it remains conscious with 1 Hit Point left." Sounds familiar, no?

3. GLO_NIGHTSONGRESURRECTION aka "Nightsong Soars Eternal" which is a Status that doesn't give any permanent passives (so you won't see it just hanging around on her character sheet like you will CotM), but instead has a short duration, and immediately runs a "Resurrect()" call on Aylin when it expires.

Having done a bit of scripting for the game myself now, I'm finding it easier to make sense of all of these than when I made this post. Still, this is me reverse engineering stuff and if anyone has any corrections or additions, I'd welcome them!

So, about Child of the Moonmaiden/Moonmaiden's Reconstitution, because you don't have one without the other, and about Nightsong Soars Eternal, which resurrects Aylin in a slightly different way and gets applied to her only ever if she's "died".

Aylin doesn't have CotM before you free her, even though she will always resurrect here unless you specifically kill her in the cutscene with Shadowheart and the spear:

How so? Most of the time, if you see Aylin pop up even though she has no CotM passive visible, it means Nightsong Soars Eternal was applied to her. But first, how does the game even apply statuses to characters (or anything, really)? And when does Aylin get CotM?

To apply a Status to a character you execute this call somewhere within your code: ApplyStatus([target character], [status to apply], [duration of status], [force of status - this is an override for resistances and the like and is not super relevant here], [source of status]).

A note in advance, whenever you see this great big unwieldy string of characters: S_GLO_Nightsong_6c55edb0-901b-4ba4-b9e8-3475a8392d9b -> [happy Isobel voice] This is Aylin!

Here's an example of a bit of code that handles Aylin's resurrection and which includes this call. This is a snippet included in the big script that handles the assault on Moonrise Towers at the end of Act 2, but something similar to this appears in several different places and, while there are a bunch of other bits and pieces and failsafes and helpers, this is in general how the game ensures Aylin doesn't stay dead:

IF DB_Dead((CHARACTER)S_GLO_Nightsong_6c55edb0-901b-4ba4-b9e8-3475a8392d9b) AND DB_GlobalFlag(MOO_Assault_State_InProgress_0f3a8f5d-7402-4220-bebb-d4b21d3db08d) AND HasActiveStatus(S_GLO_Nightsong_6c55edb0-901b-4ba4-b9e8-3475a8392d9b, "SHA_SHARSPEAR_MORTALWOUND", 0) AND GetFaction(S_GLO_Nightsong_6c55edb0-901b-4ba4-b9e8-3475a8392d9b, _Faction) THEN PROC_SetRelationToPlayers(_Faction, 100); ApplyStatus(S_GLO_Nightsong_6c55edb0-901b-4ba4-b9e8-3475a8392d9b, "GLO_NIGHTSONGRESURRECTION", 6.0, 0, S_GLO_Nightsong_6c55edb0-901b-4ba4-b9e8-3475a8392d9b);

What this essentially translates to is the following:

IF Aylin is in the database of currently dead characters (nooooo) AND the Moonrise assault is in progress AND Aylin having been permakilled by Shar's spear in the Shadowfell is FALSE (aka zero) AND we were able to correctly fetch data about Aylin's faction/approval THEN set this approval so she is an ally to the player (shows up as green, affected by friendly spells etc.) and give her the "Nightsong Soars Eternal" status lasting for 6 seconds.

She is both the target and the source of this effect, as there isn't anyone else casting it on her. Once the 6 seconds (aka one standard D&D combat round) have passed, the status will expire, and whatever is in its "OnRemoveFunctors" part will happen - and that is a simple Resurrect(100, 10) call. The numbers there mean Aylin is immediately resurrected with a 100% chance and at 10% of her max HP (as opposed to CotM's 1 HP). This usually results in her being at 9HP if this happens.

So there you have it, a friendly Aylin will pop right back up. The Ketheric/Myrkul boss fight in the mindflayer colony has a very similar snippet, for instance. But an important thing to note is that IF Aylin has CotM active aka visible when you examine her, that one will always kick in first. As many people asking for help salvaging their Honour Mode runs after aggroing Aylin in camp will tell you, combat against Aylin if she has CotM literally cannot end. She will keep getting up with 1 HP (she does not state that she didn't hear any bell, but she does loudly exclaim HO! I HAVE RETURNED! and I love her for it). The variant using Nightsong Soars Eternal has her actually leave combat for a bit, so if she's your only enemy, this will usually make combat end and let you exit turn-based mode, plus it makes her non-hostile approval-wise. (And of course, all of these things can bug out in a bunch of different ways.)

This is what it looks like in camp without CotM (sorry, Aylin).

Moving on, there is another way of calling this same function, and that is ApplyStatus([status], [chance of applying status], [duration of status]). A nice example of this appears in a very relevant-to-our-interests code related to the Soul Cage - both in the Shadowfell and in the mindflayer colony. The bit, in particular, that goes like this:

OnRemoveFunctors ApplyStatus(GLO_NIGHTSONG_RESURRECTION, 100, -1);

Just like above, "OnRemoveFunctors" defines what happens when the Soul Cage is removed from Aylin (no matter how this was achieved). So as soon as Aylin's free of the Soul Cage, she's given her Moonmaiden's Reconstitution/Child of the Moonmaiden variant resurrection with a 100% chance and a duration of -1, which means it has no chance of failure and it lasts until it is explicitly removed by some other bit of code. Again, this happens both when you free her in her prison, and when you free her in the colony after she's been recaptured - from that moment on, she has CotM until something removes it.

What's one prominent place this status explicitly gets removed? Why, Ramazith's Tower, and it happens when combat starts regardless of allegiances, as seen here in the script that handles Sorcerous Sundries:

//Tracking final combat IF DB_Is_InCombat(S_GLO_Nightsong_6c55edb0-901b-4ba4-b9e8-3475a8392d9b,_CombatGUID) AND DB_Is_InCombat(S_LOW_Lorroakan_a9d4b71d-b0ef-429e-8210-6dc8be986ee9,_CombatGUID) AND QRY_OnlyOnce("LOW_SorcerousSundries_StartFinalConfrontationCombat") THEN RemoveStatus(S_GLO_Nightsong_6c55edb0-901b-4ba4-b9e8-3475a8392d9b,"GLO_NIGHTSONG_RESURRECTION");

Fairly simple, right? If Aylin is in combat, and if Lorroakan is in combat, and the final confrontation has begun, remove the resurrection status from Aylin. Why? As mentioned above, CotM means any combat against Aylin very literally never ends, so siding against her would be an unwinnable scenario. There is also a fail state in which she gets downed after you've sided with her and you flee from combat against Lorroakan - if you return, you'll see he's captured her. Why doesn't she resurrect using Nightsong Soars Eternal? That whole implementation of checking if she's dead is not present in the Sorcerous Sundries script at all. So if downed in the tower, Aylin will stay dead until one of two things happens: you've betrayed her and you leave and return, upon which she will be caged again and swearing her vengeance against you, OR you've sided with her and the combat ends. Then she'll pop back up for her backbreaker cutscene, and it will be via this custom bit of scripting:

IF DB_LOW_SorcerousSundries_FinalConfrontationCombatEnded(1) AND DB_Defeated(S_GLO_Nightsong_6c55edb0-901b-4ba4-b9e8-3475a8392d9b) AND DB_GlobalFlag((FLAG)LOW_Lorroakan_State_IsPermadefeated_2c446081-2f24-49c4-84d9-b8f64a3d3098) AND NOT DB_GlobalFlag((FLAG)LOW_SorcerousSundries_State_PlayersSideWithLorroakan_24c45d86-9027-48cc-afdd-3e6bac7d5425) AND QRY_OnlyOnce("LOW_SorcerousSundries_NightsongGetsUpAfterCombat") THEN PROC_CharacterFullRestore((CHARACTER)S_GLO_Nightsong_6c55edb0-901b-4ba4-b9e8-3475a8392d9b);

If the combat is over, Aylin is down, Lorroakan is dead and the player didn't side with Lorroakan, get Aylin up and do a "full restore" of her.

This makes way for some of the most delightful of checks in a segment of code marked as "//REGION Nightsong going to WWE Lorroakan":

PROC PROC_LOW_SorcerousSundries_HandleNightsongVictory() AND QRY_SorcerousSundries_NightsongCanSmashLorro() QRY_SorcerousSundries_LorroakanBodySmashable() QRY_OnlyOnce("LOW_SorcerousSundries_NightsongSmash")

The many branching variants handled here were actually really interesting to see, from who is alive at the end of the fight and who the player sided with to whether Isobel is still alive and whether Lorroakan's corpse has a head.

There's also a Patch 3 fix for older savegames, addressing a bug that I remember being fairly common, where Aylin would just not ever resurrect after the wizard tower and sometimes wouldn't ever come back to camp. It basically looks at your save, just checks a couple flags and triggers Nightsong Soars Eternal on Aylin if she is for whatever reason still in the "dead characters database" even though you sided with her against the wizard (and didn't kill her in the Shadowfell, of course).

Just in case anyone missed me dying on my hill, by the way, none of this has anything to do with her "breaking her oath" or "losing her mother's favour" or anything of the sort, because none of that happens at all.

I also love the straightforwardness of some of her behaviour parameters and the comments:

Act2_GLO_Nightsong AI Archetype USING melee_smart //Focus harder on Keth MULTIPLIER_TARGET_PREFERRED 4.50 //Care less about killing the minions - MULTIPLIER_KILL_ENEMY -0.20 //To stop her from overvaluing shoves on the necromites - MULTIPLIER_FALL_DAMAGE_ENEMY 0.2

To wrap this all up, thank you for your attention, hope you enjoyed or found any of this at all interesting. Here's a very sad fact I discovered today:

Boooo. Let her rock out.

[tanadrin]

i fired up civ 5 recently bc i wanted to see how it compared to my memory of it, and if anything it's actually much, much worse.

one unit per tile just... does not work with the idiom of the civilization series! units are not like armies in a GSG, they're like units in an RTS game: grist for the meatgrinder. you build them and throw them at your enemy and if they lose combat, they die. they don't retreat and recover morale, you don't get a chance to reposition and try again, they just go poof. but now in addition to that, you can only fit one unit of a type on a given tile, which means combat is forcibly spread out over a huge space. it's slow, slowed down further by the fact that it now takes a couple turns to fully resolve a fight--i guess the idea is that you can have your injured units fall back, except because of the way units get blocked in now, no you can't!--but you still need tons of units to take cities.

which means they didn't get rid of doomstacks. doomstacks are still logistically necessary to win wars! they just made them really fucking annoying to move around the map.

and on top of that, because OUPT applies to all units, it means you are also constantly having your scouts and workers and other civilian units being blocked in by your own units of the same type, or other players' units of the same type, meaning if you sign an open borders treaty with the AI you are frequently signing up to having your own units' movement being jammed up in the worst way by computer players. and on top of all THAT the units cancel their movement orders if the destination tile is blocked, even if the destination tile is on the other side of the map and you can't see it--which means, basically, any long-distance movement order is liable to be randomly canceled if an AI unit ends its turn on your destination tile.

it feels janky at every single level. the worst possible fix to something that wasn't even really a problem--and if they really wanted to they could have implemented some kind of very basic attrition mechanic. or some other kind of soft cap.

and and and on top of all that, it makes roads and railroads substantially less useful, bc frequently you cannot actually fit all your guys on one road or railroad--but you can't just carpet your territory in roads now like you used to do, because roads cost maintenance per turn. just. ugh. fractally bad decisionmaking! like different people were working at different ends of the design doc and not communicating at all!

the global happiness system means expansion is soft capped early in the game, which makes it feel less like an empire management game than a game of managing four to five cities. since very many units are now hard capped by resource availability now, and expansion is limited, AFAICT in most normal games this means you get like.. two swordsmen? ever? mainly it's strong attack units that are capped in this way, but their defensive counters are uncapped, which means actually playing strategically with your army composition is more annoyance than it's worth. in practice, what this incentives is just building the best trash unit you can afford en masse and throwing them at the enemy, but, of course, see the problems with OUPT.

they took out civics and replaced them with Social Policy trees. but everybody has the same set of social policy trees. and there's a bit of a tradeoff here in which trees you choose to fill out first, but you never then switch those old trees out for new ones like civics. they're just permanent bonuses. so there's no sense of, like, choosing your government type.

and then in BNW i guess they realized people missed that, and created Ideologies, which are just a bonus extra-big social policy tree where you get to pick between liberal democracy, communism, and fascism. but of course there's only three. and this isn't unlocked until the late game.

what they really should have done is added more civics and rather than just having you progress from early game civics to late game civics made all civics contextually useful. and maybe given you some extra civics that were unlocked early in the game so you could strategize around them.

as a part of this change culture is now more load-bearing, but cultural victory is just... weird and stupidly complicated. you have to build tourism, and do archeology, and build wonders that provide slots for great works that your three different kinds of great artist create, and all this other crap. versus domination, where you just conquer the other guys. or science, where you just build your spaceship. it's dumb and bad and awkward.

there's no conquest victory now. only domination. but because of the way domination works, it's now not possible to move your capital manually. this is awful and i hate it! let me move my capital, damn it!

buildings no longer go obsolete, which means that if i am founding a city in the year 1973, i still need to build a City Walls in it before i can build a Military Base. this feels ridiculous. and the series already kinda has this problem where it feels like late game it takes forever to get a city really up and running--don't make it even worse by making me build shit from classical antiquity before i can build modern facilities!

the AI is not very bright. they don't expand very much. on big maps, most of the map will remain empty most of the game, at least up through mid-level difficulties i usually play at (that are supposed to be "standard", so I assume the game is balanced around them)

diplomacy is irritatingly primitive. there are few ongoing agreements. declarations of friendship all last a fixed amount of time. the AI is constantly interrupting you to tell you it doesn't like you or it does like you or you and another AI player all like each other. just expose an opinion modifier and be done with it! harun al-rashid and i don't need to pass notes like it's grade school!

they nerfed the range of air units and especially nukes. which feels really weird. the 20th century saw the invention of strategic bombers that had a range of thousands of miles. why can mine only reach cities right next to my own? why do my nuclear missiles have a pathetic range? sure, sub-launched nukes are a thing, but they're only one part of a proper nuclear triad. there's no MAD anymore!

especially because the world congress can order you to stop building nukes and there's nothing you can do about it. you can't defy world congress bans and suffer a penalty. international law has some kind of magical force that even if you are the undisputed hegemon you cannot help but obey. this is very stupid! especially because they could not think of anything interesting for the world congress to do, so it's all shit like banning random luxury goods.

all the stuff i do like--the city-states, the hex grid, the core idea of the trade route system--is swallowed by annoying bullshit. to take the trade route example: you can make money by setting up trade routes. it can be quite lucrative! and you have to protect your trade routes from bandits and shit. but the menu for issuing trade route orders is a mess--way too much scrolling, you can't sort by lucrativeness of destinations, you have to constantly re-issue trade route orders, and the last trade route a unit was on isn't highlighted, or sorted to the top or anything like that. so it's lots of scrolling around, it's very annoying, and it's repetitive as hell.

the real stick in the eye is that this game was not only reviewed well, it was reviewed glowingly when it came out. which is bizarre to me! yes, it looks nice. the art is good and the music is pretty. but it feels awful to play! it is on almost every single metric less fun than civ 4! civ 3 is more fun, and civ 3 was terrible. i hope to god firaxis was bribing people left and right for good reviews because the only alternative explanation i can think of is that everybody who was reviewing strategy games in 2010 was also in the grip of a brutal glue-sniffing habit.