#like its just such a specific combo of interests how are there this many people interested in it...

[bunnieswithknives]

sorry if idk this but what do you think about Wordgirl now in 2024 do you still like it do you still want to make art or talk about it or are you just done with all of it forever and plus i seen that you haven't made art of it since 2022 so you just done with all of it oh yeah and what about The Magnus Archives + Wordgirl ao3 fic too like is that just going to be and i know that your working on 2 au's now just wanting to know that's all

My interests tend to come in intense bursts and then fade. Unless something like, big happens like it gets a reboot its unlikely I'll be coming back to it anytime soon. As for the fic I don't have any current plans to finish it unfortunately.

[vigilskeep]

now that you finished inquisition, what did you think of it? like favorite things, least favorite, etc?

oh man okay

things i love about dragon age inquisition:

capturing the specific feeling of bonding with a group of people you have absolutely nothing in common with because u all had to go through something long and specific together

the maps can be so pretty and in places really calming and lovely to spend time in. it does make me want to explore and i have no explorer’s instinct

i love the war table and judgements i think those are really fun features

i like that approval for many major decisions applies to everyone regardless of who you bring to specific events/quests. it feels a lot less like you have to manage that really hard, as you sometimes do in the other games and also really noticeably to me in something like baldur’s gate 3. it’s irritating when i have to plan ahead and can’t take who i want to hear from

i like how attached you can get to little npcs who wander around

i loveeeee fighting dragons and how beautiful they all are

little puzzles <3

the collectibles are also mostly fine by me i am a magpie by nature. as long as i can find them, obviously, bc if i can’t they suck and this whole game sucks

the templar specialisation is fun and i enjoyed that part of combat a lot. wrath of heaven/spell purge combo is a power trip

i thought my character was pretty :) i defeated u in the end dai character creator. may you be as merciful when we meet in battle once more

i’m not a huge crafter but being able to tint things is rlly nice

blackwall’s romance is good

vivienne is there

they let me briefly tame a dragon at the end there

things i don’t love about dragon age inquisition:

some genuine cruelty in writing the dalish in a way that feels shockingly callous to the real world cultures the writers took inspiration from

never giving the dalish or the rebel mages any kind of voice of their own and making the player do all that work if they care, which i also feel limits my roleplaying creativity

refusing to let you challenge any of the often overwhelmingly conservative views expressed by other characters without receiving only derision and disapproval. inquisition is a game that punishes you at every turn for having your own opinions, in a way that could be interesting if it was willing to truly let you develop complex or antagonistic relationships with those characters, but ends up mostly just feeling mocking when nobody ever even tries to see your side, while simply agreeing with these people always rewards you with content. origins was capable of letting you engage in discussion, and da2 let you form rivalries that mattered; inquisition, despite starring some of the most intentionally controversial characters, does neither

the game engineering conflicts against groups like the freemen of the dales or the avvar that mean nothing to the player and range from vaguely to seriously upsetting in their assumptions about who it’s normal to just start killing en masse. it’s both boring and distressing

odd, for lack of a better word “casting choices”, like having the fantasy impoverished racial minority all be white within the party while the wealthiest and most privileged are characters of colour, or for a more in-world example having the elves express the most distaste towards elves and the mages express the most caution about mages. i don’t know that i quite have the vocabulary to fully discuss why these weird me out, but it all feels... disingenuous? and chosen to forestall criticism based on real world comparisons in a game series that i wish had the nerve to openly confront what it’s talking about if it’s going to try to make any of its conflicts feel relevant

most of the companions, and indeed most of the quests and time spent playing the game, feel disconnected from the main plot. it’s hard to feel any pressure when the game tells you we need to deal with the main plot “right now!” and “get there before corypheus!” when the bulk of the game is doing other things while you’re supposed to be doing that. the majority of companions could be cut without changing anything. and when you finally want to deal with the main plot you just click to start it. it’s not engaging

the game fails to fully expand dialogue for the player character options it provided, particularly notable with its confusing chantry focus when you’ve said for the dozenth time you’re not andrastian

the 2-handed weapon whirlwind ability sound effect is an exercise in creating the worst and most grating sound effect for someone to constantly hear

they didn’t let me romance vivienne

they killed my dragon :(

[penny-anna]

SO now that i've parked 'the path of a lightning bolt' (for now!!) for anyone interested here is how the Shazam powers work in the series continuity:

Shazam is (kinda) a separate person from Billy

more specifically: the Shazam powerset or the 'Living Lightning' is (as the name suggests) alive, sentient & intelligent. however, it's sentient in a very different way to a human and as a result when bestowed on a human vessel it takes on their identity and personality.

it can take a little while for a Champion to become fully attuned w the Living Lightning and become aware that they are becoming a different person when transforming. (yes this is my way of reconciling this hc with movie canon) As alluded to in 'Living Slow' the longer the Champion spends transformed the more they drift mentally away from their mortal self.

in addition to its own powers n knowledge the Living Lightning also contains the collective experience of all previous champions; however as having a bunch of other people's memories dumped into your brain is a bit of a mindfuck for a human this knowledge is on a need to know basis.

Champions are invulnerable to (almost) all harm but not actually immortal. when powered up they do age, just very very slowly. many previous champions lived massively long lives before voluntarily surrendering their powers back to the Rock of Eternity and dying.

there's only one Living Lightning and it's also embodied in Black Adam so he and Shazam are on a certain level the same person. this is possible bcos the Living Lightning exists on a different plane of reality.

regarding the power sharing thing:

the other 5 Shazam kids (as alluded to in the comics and first movie and dropped altogether in the 2nd movie) do not have identical power sets. They all have the same base combo of invulnerability + super strength but each of them gets 1 of the powers to themselves

Mary is the only one with access to the Wisdom of Solomon

Pedro is the strongest

Freddy is the only one who can fly & is the fastest in the air

Eugene is the only one with the lightning powers

Darla is the only one with full on hyperspeed and is the fastest

Billy does lose some of his power when the other kids are powered up (he takes iunno like. a 20% cut in whatever power they're drawing on) which is why he sometimes operates best alone.

bcos the other kids draw their powers from Billy rather than directly from the Rock of Eternity they don't have access to any of the previous champions' experience. essentially Billy has the Living Lightning's 'brain' inside him when powered up and the rest of the Shazamily just has its hands.

this means he does have access to powers they don't have but they don't have to deal w any of the identity/existential nonsense. they just get cool superpowers.

Teth Adam was the last champion chosen before Billy. pretty much all previous champions were pre-historic (the Living Lightning & Rock of Eternity are very very ancient) which means Billy can theoretically tap into memories of otherwise entirely forgotten cultures. which is neat!

[theysingtheirsong]

Gonna spitball a few notes on a few different powers. I'm more stranger aligned (I like anonymity) but kinda have the whole mary key/lietner/salesa/breekon and hope "will work with any power" thing going on.

I think a lot of people badly misunderstand the flesh. They see it as being meat, body horror, and transgenderism metaphor and miss the actual substance linking it all together. I mean, it is those things (though corruption and slaughter are as much body horror as it is), but those aren't its base. The flesh is a fear of objectification and consumption. Of being reduced to just your meat. It is the fear of livestock sent to slaughter, but it specifically emerged at the apex of workers being mistreated under capitalism. Upton Sinclairs' original message in "The Jungle" wasn't "your meat industry is gross" it's "what's really going into your meat is worker mutilation, because fundamentally the boss sees you as interchangeable and disposable". The flesh is about existing as something for others to consume. On a practical level, it gets cannibalism and famine (both fears relating to consumption). But the body dysmorphia angle happens because fundamentally obsessing over self-percieved imperfections is a very reductive, objectifying way to think about one's self. Concerns over bodily perfection are often social, and rooted in making yourself more consumable.

People often dunk on the web having such a strong spider theme, but it makes sense if you think about it for five seconds. Even ignoring the fact that mythologically the fates were often seen as spinsters and weavers, animal fears count too. There are far more insects afraid of spiders as things that create invisible, ensnaring threads then there are humans who find them to be gross little bugs.

I find myself interested in a lot of hypothetical or fanon fears. I love the idea of The Dull created by a different TMA blogger on this site. I also remember really liking a fan theory I read that the combo slaughter/filth fear the web mentioned was an archaic fear of "things that can cause your town to vanish overnight" (and possibly a precursor to to extinction). If I may, I would like to place my own fanon fear here, because I have nowhere else to place it. Feel free to ignore it if you want. I call it the Temptation, or Moral Panic, or Catholic Guilt the fear. It's a medieval fear probably waning in power when smirk made his list of 14 (hence how he missed it). It is the fear that you, personally, are evil. That your soul is tainted with sin, that you have ruined your own karma, that there is just something metaphysical bad about you. Falls from grace, fatal flaws, learning that you are compleatly capable of hurting someone you love for selfish reasons. Its aesthetic is Gothic and religous horror, all demons and judging stone angels and vampires beckoning for you to come have a sip. It started to lose power once the fear shifted from an idea of evil as a personal flaw that stained your soul to evil as culpability in systems too big for you to meaningfully oppose (which is more vast/web). Although I also think we have seen two domains of the temptation in the eyepocalpse.

I also have a lot of thoughts about the vast but that can be a different post. This one is long enough.

I fully agree with you, especially on the topic of the flesh. People interpret all the fears differently so it’s good to hear as many opinions as possible, and I really like your take on it, as well as the others. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on some of the fears, it really is appreciated

[dreadlock-detective]

Having replayed every (mainline) DMC now, my ranking is:

DMC5 (but the story is reliant on past game knowledge)

DMC3 (just as good as it was when it released)

… DMC2??? (as far as pure entertainment value is concerned anyway. The game is bad but, like, funny "oh this was cobbled together from table scraps" bad)

DMC4 SE's extra campaigns (Vergil and Lady/Trish all have tools to make the obnoxious parts of DMC4's enemy design more bearable)

DMC4 (I want to like it but it has parts that make me want to stop playing, mostly due to enemy design, and Dante just not being built to fight the enemies design for Nero, which is basically all of them)

DMC1 (would have been #3 if not for Mission 16 and onward. Nightmare 1 is a low point for the entire series almost entirely due to horrific camera issues. Game falls apart HARD at the end as far as fun is concerned)

Overall if anyone wants to get into the series, I'd suggest starting with 3 (its the prequel anyway, but ALSO damn good) and then skipping to 5 and watch the in-game summary of the series.

Just to note, i replayed these in a totally arbitrary order, going 5->3->2->4->1. No idea why~

More specific rambling below the cut

If you play DMC1, die, turn on Easy Automatic and spam items just to get through the game faster. The gameplay isnt deep so you wont lose anything. Get Air Raid as soon as you can after getting the Alistor sword and just fly in the sky and zap everything with lightning. The atmosphere is great in the game and i'd love to recommend it more full-heartedly but the end game just pissed me the hell off way too badly.

Play DMC2 if you like shitty B-movies. It actually does add a lot to the combat from 1 despite its reputation as "game where you just shoot things". I mean that CAN be true but aside from a few bosses that basically demand it that's just deciding to make the game boring for yourself. Also know that this game wanted to be HUGE and AMBITIOUS and FELL APART HARD in development so just, like, enjoy how cobbled together and weirdly nonsensical it is. Dante also has the most sword combos here than the entire rest of the series. They're also jank to pull off, not very distinct, and they hadnt figured out the Style Ranking system just yet, but its fun seeing how many animations they made for him.

for DMC3, dont be ashamed to turn on Easy mode after you die, Cerberus kicks people's shit in. Series has a habit of the first boss being a rough fight for how little abilities you have at the time. I do think it gets easier after that for a while and the game isnt too tough but if you're not used to the series it can be challenging. Dante and Vergil's movesets are definitely a more limited here than in later games but far greater than the previous two games and theres more than enough for it to be a fun time styling on enemies with enough tools to deal with everything you're put up against. Leveling up the styles is a grind so just pick one and stick with it (dont pick Royal Guard for your first playthrough)

DMC4.... 4 i'd also love to be able to recommend but it's the OTHER game in the series that basically got halfway finished. Unlike 2, it's far more coherent. The story is mostly good (Nero's love interest being 1 dimensional and generic being a low point but she's barely in it) but halfway through the game you've seen basically all the content in it (including bosses) and now you have to play through it all again backwards as Dante (including bosses), but Dante feels half-finished with far fewer weapons than the other games and without Nero's Devil Bringer arm straight up lacks mechanics to deal with the enemies. And the enemies have a LOT of obnoxious design choices. People love to say 2 is the game where you just shoot enemies but there are MULTIPLE enemy types in 4 where you are either required or heavily incentivized to shoot them instead of melee, especially with Dante.

in 4's favor, its apparently the one with the deepest combat mechanics and you can do some crazy stuff in it but, like, that doesnt really apply to people playing casually at all. Nobody is going to go around Guard Flying casually, yknow?

4's Special Edition extra characters fair better, but have no story, so at least the game goes faster too. Vergil's Trick moves are nerfed compared to 3 and 5 but he's still stupid powerful. Trish has her own fun style of gameplay involving throwing the Sparda sword and vortexing up enemies, even if its a fairly linear gameplay loop. Lady is... just what people say DMC2 is. All Guns. Fully upgrade the shotgun, charge it up, MELT EVERYTHING. Extremely linear but also kinda enjoyable to just obliterate all these enemy types that have been annoying me the past few playthroughs.

DMC5 is peak. I love DMC5's Dante and Vergil the most and 5's Vergil is the one that made me actually fall in love with the nuances of DMC combat. To make me want to learn to be not just capable of winning but to style all over everything. Series gameplay and overall enemy design at its best. Only real downside is if you havent played the earlier games the story aint going to mean too much...

[quailxcrossing]

aheem hiii 18 + 19. for Cradle and Ruse,,, i am thinking about them constantly auuwuwuaa 13. for Magic and Taliah i'm not suree if they have a dynamic but i know Taliah knows Ruse (?) so i've always been like hmmmmmm. blinks at u 25. for Twilight and Magic pleeease be so nice to them auUWUWA

HIIIII ough my animals....my creatures.....

these Cradle Ruse questions got me clawing at the walls, oh i LOVE THEM SO MUCH everything hurts so baaaaad

18. Do they view their relationship as temporary or permanent? 19. Are they satisfied with their relationship? Do they wish they were closer/more distant? ough. i could answer this question in the same answer...this is such a good combo for these two Cradle wishes they were closer. Cradle...okay. i make a ton of jokes and references about Cradle being a landlord, but Cradle really isn't. Cradle is more like...the caretaker of the safehouse they run. That sounds similar, but it's not quite. Cradle's house has been set up by them to be as safe and comfortable as possible for Spirits, specifically as they cross over into the Surface World. Cradle has a bit of a weird complex about their job, and he has very little interest in monetary goods, but he does see himself as a "protector" of those in his house, for true or for false

ANYWAY. cradle feels a lot of conflicting feelings about how close she allows herself to get to the people she's tending to. she knows on one paw that she should hold them at an arm's length, for the sake that she views a lot of these relationships as temporary stays. there's been exceptions over the years, but mostly Cradle is focusing on moving people in and out into the world when they're on their feet. characters like Verdi had this experience, while characters like Gwen and Kirrily are more long-term residents! But Cradle really likes Ruse....they really do. they would like Ruse to stay if she is comfortable, and Cradle would like to be her friend as best he can be. he just doesn't want to overstep- Cradle is weird, but he's gotta be weird in his own weird ways.

as for Ruse, she wishes they were more distant. At least, she does at first. Ruse has the most severe, literal case of "I'm not supposed to be here" syndrome. she is constantly convinced at any moment she will find her way home again- and that's what she wants, right....? it's difficult for her to make connections with others in Russetfield, although she badly wants them. she has gotten close to so many others, but this panic in her gut tells her that it's all temporary, and she was a fool to be vulnerable with her heart- it's only going to hurt that much more when she inevitably leaves.

Ruse views her relationship with Cradle as a fragile, temporary one. although she trusts them greatly. they're weird and egoistical, they want to steal her sword from underneath her, they don't give her the time of day when they're busy and tell her to entertain herself elsewhere, but Ruse has bonded onto Cradle very tightly.

she loves listening to music with them, going to free shows and trying unsafe drink combinations, helping him vend at flea markets, learning about this world with him, knowing at the end of the day that Cradle has her security in heart- she'll fuss and fret about her room being too cold at night, unused to the chilly counryside evenings; Cradle will roll their eyes and tsk, call her soft, but a space heater will magically appear outside her room door.

but all she can think is that it's all going to be gone in an instant- that Cradle is wasting his time on her.

13. Do they have any disdain/contempt for each other? How do they show it? FOR MAGIC AND TALIAH. okay YES THESE TWO DO HAVE A DYNAMIC!! taliah is slowly becoming friends with ruse and the others, they are a bit of an outsider to the ruse/magic/twilight/gwen/cradle friend group, but they're worming their way in

and its SO COOL YOU PICKED MAGIC FOR THIS ONE. because her relationship with Taliah is FULL of disdain. it's very simple. Taliah makes fun of Magic, a lot

they don't really truly deeply mean to be MEAN. but Magic is...very easy to tease, and she's very easy to get her feelings hurt. and Taliah is very insecure. DEEPLY deadly insecure. so what do they do? see the soft little dragon who likes plushies and sewing and crochet and drawing and music and has a deep security in her hobbies. Taliah has just had their major hobby, their JOB, taken away from them by their own recklessness (used to be a race car driver, crashed out majorly) and Taliah is deeply stung and feels some huge part of them has been removed. so. they make it out on magic

nothing too serious. nothing Taliah thinks would actually hurt her...but goodness gracious does it ever. Magic honestly kinda hates Taliah a lot!!!!! taliah makes her feel so so soooo bad for her "childish" interests and artistic endeavors. makes her feel like she's wasting her life! hahaha!!! But magic has told no one about her discomfort with Taliah, especially not to Taliah. sigh....

taliah has hurt a lot of people they care about, and their lack of awareness isn't really the problem....its their lack of willingness to admit they're the issue, as this hurts and its uncomfortable. of course it does. taliah wants magic's confidence (and her friendship), but they're never going to get it by tearing her's down through tiny aggressions... but i love taliah :( but i love magic :(

25. If a stranger saw them together, how would they describe their relationship?

auuuguh...magic and twilight.....weeps....sisters.....

these two have 0 Cain instinct. especially in public, they try to do nice cute little things together to stay close despite growing up getting in the way of a lot of things. When strangers see them together, they'd probably take note of a lot of things before they consider their relationship- Magic gets a lot of double-takes when people realize she's a dragon, for one. then they'd just see two little gals having fun...i dont think its extremely obvious they're related, because they're not even sure if they're blood related- strangers just usually think they're two besties! they might pick up they're sisters if they listen closely- the two do have tons of inside jokes and sibling banter, making jokes you could only get away with being family! they loves each other so much......i AM so nicesies to them. i promise. ook they're hugging look they're hugging. i will only make Twilight think Magic is dead for a little bit of time- i mean. I MEAN. THEY'RE HUGGING

[seeminglydark]

1. would caro and john be into the tv show, the x-files? would they buy tapes of the episodes and talk about their own conspiracies and guess about the outcomes of the episodes.

2. also your comic has help peak my interest for the supernatural and conspiracy theories. what are some stories or theories that you’ve learned about that you have found the most interesting? and were you a believer before starting your comics or has your interest grown as you’ve continued with your comics.

3.lastly, i’m trying to buy more secondhand items and become the diy punk that i’ve aspired to be since high school (too afraid since i was a closeted trans man and living with an unaccepting family), any tips?

i, like john, try to stay away from modern tech as much as i can. i’m able to stay off my phone for the most part and rarely use my computer but i’ve been looking around and audiobooks on cassette are kinda expensive around me so i like to narrate book as i read them in paperback. i was wondering if canonically john uses resources such as the library and what his favorite books and movies are. i love horror and am just now getting into sci-fi and i love watching movies on my vcr + tv combo and i sometimes use a blu-ray player for more rare or expensive (at least in vhs format) movies.

sorry for the long winded paragraph, i’m unfortunately unable to escape my strict household (despite being an adult) until i find a job and am able to save every cent. i also tend to isolate myself so i have no friends to help me out. sorry to vent to you about this but i just wanted to end this by saying your comic and characters inspire me and give me hope that i’ll be okay once i’m free.

YES. John is obsessed with x-files. every once in a while you can see he has the iconic 'i want to believe' poster in his younger years on his walls. He still has it as an adult. both caro and john like watching those together, they also enjoy the twilight zone, charmed, Buffy (they they agree the corny movie from '92 is the best) and those old Bruce Campbell shows noones heard of, re: Brisco County Jr. I think as kids they theorize, and as adults they talk about everything everyone gets wrong, now that they know how these things really work. John can always guess WhoDunnit.

Ive always been interested in the idea of the supernatural. im a big skeptic though, ill be honest there, even though ive had many 'experiences' myself. i kinda like the idea of the unbelievable. definitely making the comics has peaked my interest in things i wasn't too keenly aware of before, like cryptids. im fascinated by the concept of Missing 411, and missing people who reappear somewhere else, but Liminal Spaces hold my heart specifically. ive always been keenly aware of the off feeling in those places before i even knew what that meant. i love scouring the internet for images of things like abandoned hotels that give me a weird kind of uneasy, most of the things people tag as Liminal aren't really that, so its a scavenger hunt to find something that fits my idea of it. coming up with the lore of my stories has been an adventure. my interest has definitely grown, more in places and phenomenon than in ghosts specifically.

there are so mnay things you can do to diy punk stuff, in my opinion thats the best and most rewarding way. it sounds to me that you need to start small and slow for your safety, so let me reassure you right here anon, that punk is a set of ideals, and not just fashion. youre still punk no matter what youre wearing. a jacket or vest is always a good place to start, you can literally buy ANYTHING at the thift store that strikes your fancy. this is a canvas you will be adding too for as long as its yours. once you have your canvas, its time to create, and there is literally no wrong way to do this. you can use paint markers, embroidery, bleach, ect. dont have money for spikes and studs? you can use soda can tabs and bend them, metal lighter caps, hell even staples and safety pins always look cool. you can make your own badges by bending metal soda or beer caps around a soda tab with a safety pin through it and then paint whatever you want on the cap. dental floss is what you usually see when punks have the white stitching on their pants and jackets, its durable and doesn't break, since crust and gutter punks need tough clothes that last. if you're worried about your family, i would personalize it first in small secret ways that are just for you, such as a message beneath your collar as seen here on my friends jacket. and here, and here! he hides patches on the inside as well! Im including a pic of john hiding a patch on caros varsity jacket as well. i will post my jackets one day, my camera is broken but i figured id share his since he hides things more than i do!

John absolutely uses the library, its a fantastic resource for SO many things, depending on where you're located. He would also probably use a digital reader later, because many of them you can get library cards on and borrow books that way. he is not a strong reader so he mostly reads books that may be under his age level, like goosebumps, but who cares, do what you enjoy. movie wise hes very obsessed with cosmic horror (hence the UFO tattoo) his favorites are Alien, The Thing, Killer Klowns from Outer Space and the Blob from the 80s. both he and Caro love the original Evil Dead franchise, horror comedy like American Werewolf in London, lost boys, etc.

Thank you, Anon, for the long winded paragraph. You asked some really fun questions for me to answer, i love nothing more than to talk about my characters, it was a really nice little break from editing a new podcast episode. I am so so sorry about your situation, and i am sending you all the best and all the love and strength that you can come out of this free and on the other side and live as yourself. If my comics and characters stories can provide a tiny bit of hope that its going to be ok, than ive succeeded at what i set out to do. wishing you all the best. and look into your library, they may have resources to help you with this as well.

[utilitycaster]

could you elucidate on why coffeelocks are bad actually? my friend is a bit obsessed with them right now and i’ve never liked the specific build but i’d love to have concrete reasons that aren’t just opinions!

YES. Somewhere in my archives I think I actually did the math on like, how many short rests you have to take for this to pay any dividends, and it was a LOT, but that was during full lockdown iirc and you do not have to do this much work.

The basic gist of coffeelock for those wondering is that warlocks recharge spell slots on a short rest, and sorcerers can convert sorcery points into spell slots and vice versa. The idea is that if you take Pact of the Tome and then Aspect of the Moon as an eldritch invocation, you never have to long rest again and can just farm sorcery points/spell slots for 8 hours each night.

Now: the most obvious issue is that any reasonable DM who hears about this will look at you and say "I don't care if it's technically legal, I think it's annoying and I'm not going to let you do it." But let's assume your DM does not shut it down.

You have infinite spell slots at level 5. You are warlock 3 sorcerer 2. You know 7 spells total, which is what you'd know had you leveled to level 5 in either of these classes, except you also know 6 level 1 spells and 1 level 2 spell, max. Someone who leveled normally would have fireball, or dispel magic, or counterspell, and if they were divine soul they might even have revivify, but not you! This will eventually get slightly better at higher levels but if you're the party's main arcane caster this sucks and if you're in a party with fewer than like, five people, or perhaps a really caster heavy party, you're putting a lot of burden on other people to do the utility early on so that your dumb ass can cast magic missile 20 times a day or whatever.

I don't actually care for sorlock just generally, in the absence of coffeelock bullshit. Yes, it depends on the same main stat, but a bard or paladin combo will actually significantly broaden your repertoire. Sorcerer and Warlock have a LOT of spell overlap, and metamagic is one of those things that is like, super clutch 0.1% of the time and the rest of the time it's like oh ok (though I guess as a coffeelock you're not even really using metamagic! total waste of being a sorcerer, which is the weakest caster already! great job.). Meanwhile, two of the big strengths of warlock are 1. eldritch blast, a cantrip you can already cast infinite times without spell slots, and 2. eldritch invocations, which you have to level in warlock to get. Dipping into sorcerer means fewer invocations. Basically, all multiclassing is a trade off and I feel like this is at most the sum of its parts, certainly not more. I also think it's very tricky to play this in a way that is narratively interesting and makes sense for your character while also abiding by the specific leveling requirements of coffeelock. This isn't an issue in a one-shot but also in a one-shot you simply might not even take a long rest which renders the entire thing useless.

You have to take Pact of the Tome, which means you are spending all this time and effort and build for infinite spell slots but also you have, without any racial bonuses, literally 9 cantrips (ie, at-will spells) at level 5. And none of them are dispel magic, because that is too high for you for at least another 2 levels and that's only if you choose to continue in warlock. Also, actually, until you reach L9 in specifically divine soul sorcerer, you don't have greater restoration as discussed, so yeah your DM can just be like "oh you don't have to sleep but you do still gain exhaustion."

I lied and I did some math. So: you are a L5 coffeelock. let's say you have exhausted all your resources on day 1. You sit down for your little bullshit 8 short rests. You can never have more than two sorcery points, because the PHB page 101 says that you can't exceed the number of sorcery points shown on the table for your level. So every hour you convert one L2 spell slot (recharging) into a L1 spell slot (non-recharging), and repeat this (you can't convert both at once! because then you exceed two sorcery points!) and you end the night with 14 L1 spells and your two L2 warlock spell slots. If you are lucky, you might get like, one short rest if there is a monk or wizard or fighter in the party and they don't hate you so much that they're willing to go without ki points/second winds/arcane recovery, and they might. I guess you just stockpile low level spells indefinitely until you have to sleep finally? if you have a week of downtime do you just. walk around with hundreds of first level spell slots and not think this is the dumbest shit of all time? ooooh look at me i can cast fucking...detect magic for 24 hours straight. can't dispel any of it though!

Leveling up is a bitch too if I recall. You need to level up in sorcerer to get more points so you can eventually convert to higher level spells, and the exchange rate is not generous (like, if you're not sleeping, it's ok, but it's not in your favor as shown with the L2 to L1 conversion) and imo warlock is the superior class, and you're probably not really taking advantage of metamagic anyway so you're barely reaping the benefits of being a sorcerer except for flexible casting. Do you feel good about this? Is this fun for you? Your entire table is watching you count out your spell slots each night and hoping fervently you get audited by the IRS in real life but man you sure showed them by being able to cast chromatic orb a lot!

Also you can't use items that recharge on a long rest, only ones that recharge at dawn. Sucker.

This is all very long because I think coffeelock is an annoying build for people who think they are smart and really aren't, but the gist is that you trade away a great deal of your utility, ability to help the party, and ability to do anything except cast rather low-level spells in comparison to what everyone who made better decisions is doing. Also it's LAUGHABLY easy for the DM to fuck this over for you within the bounds of the rules even if they allowed it. Your patron gets annoyed that you're only leveling in sorcerer. Levels of exhaustion. Your patron, who communicates through dreams, straight up abandons you because you're not picking up their calls. You keep being put in positions where your 75 first level spells won't do shit and a single third level spell would. They taunt you with items that recharge on a long rest.

It's just...well, quantity over quality. Shein haul ass character build.

[cinderswife]

currently rotating rose red around in my brain so here's some outfits i designed for her (this is pre-meeting cinders btw)! bonus design notes under the cut :3

nude

i knew immediately that i wanted rose to be short and built like a brick shithouse. she is dense and compact and impossible to knock over. also, she gets to be a bear girl because everyone in my ouatis au is an animal eared person. its a fun concept i saw trawling the tumblr tag and i have decided it is very canon.

absolutely covered in freckles

yes those are top surgery scars. very recent in fact! its a cross between unrealized gender things and the pain of breasts that are just. too big. always.

her tail is usually too small to be seen from this angle but i wanted to show off her tiny red puff

most of her scars are from military combat with the exception of the top surgery scars and the one on her left hand which came from when she punched a window at the age of 15 defending snow from one of their dads getting super duper upset b/c snow was starting to date

she is 4'10" and so proud of it. will kick your ass if you're a dick about it

pajamas

nothing much to say here, she just. doesn't care all that much. tank top and sweat pants are the perfect combo of temperatures for her.

also she wears heart patterned boxers and we love her for that

military work uniform

do you know how hard it is to design a military uniform when you don't usually give a shit about the military. i spend so many hours going down worldbuilding subreddits and forums before i figured out something i was happy with. anyways! this is a non-combative officer's work uniform (aka the uniform rose wore when she was commander of the prison cinders was in). i picked red because it's the color most strongly associated with cole's army, but i figure that soldiers in combat would have better camouflage built into their uniforms.

the patch on her left shoulder (the one with the deer) is the symbol for colonel. it's also mirrored on a smaller scale on her breast. cole's army uses animals to mark higher ranks

the other shoulder patch marks her current assignment

i liked white as an accent color because of its prevalence in the album. also it looks nice!

the sleeve stripes and the chevrons both indicate that she is a very important officer

the other patches on her breast are the simplified coat of arms for her noble house (the house of grimm) and all of the medals she has earned in her 11 years of service

military dress uniform

the fancy version of her uniform for Events and Public Appearances. it's a bit darker in tone for the sake of visual interest and has a lot more accessories. this one was a nightmare to color i stg but i'm super happy with the way it turned out.

you get to see all her medals! she has complicated feelings on them but they are shiny and look very nice so.

the stripes, chevrons, and deer are all the same as the work uniform for some easy visual shorthand of her rank

the only time rose will ever wear a tie or any other neck decoration because it's regulation.

i liked the way a black undershirt looked over a white one, no other reason lol

the bear medal is because the bear is a symbol of her noble family. most people have a cougar of some sort instead.

the sword and the lion are both special awards granted specifically by cole. the lion in particular came from her first deployment where she accidentally changed the tides on the invasion of the perrault (cinders' planet) and became a war hero/propaganda piece at 19

the boots have buckles. they are never quite tight enough and its annoying.

casual dress

off duty, rose wears crisp, well tailored masc outfits. she knows how to dress herself to look effortlessly important due to being raised noble but she doesn't think too hard about it.

she wears shorts instead of full pants whenever she can get away with it. snow hates this.

no she is not buttoning up all the way. why would you make her put this much effort into it. she's hotter with it undone

fun fact: i initially made her vest and shorts green but i decided that blue looked nicer

fancy dress

i've elected to go with a 1700s inspired look for the nobility. it's very fairytale-esque and also allows me to have fun with it! i wanted to do more embroidery, but i wound up not having the patience for such a thing. ah well, what i've got looks nice enough.

rose usually wears cool colors in her formal outfits. this purple is a particular favorite of hers because it goes really nicely with her hair and ears without being obnoxious

once again, rose out here avoiding any sort of neck accessory or hat. accessories that annoy her for $10,000

the lilac undershirt is not connected to the off-white trousers it's two separate pieces.

the gold accents cut a very striking figure and also look very pretty <3

the boots are supposed to be longer and pointier but idk how well i pulled that off aha

she's very handsome and i love her

[pokemon-card-of-the-day]

Pokemon Card of the Day #3061: Magcargo (Neo Revelation)

Despite being an Uncommon card, Magcargo was a very notable Pokemon in the game due to its damage output. Yes, strong attacks from this did require Energy discarding, but Fire was one of the types that could accelerate, either through the Bench with Typhlosion (and a bit of luck) or from the deck with Entei (and also some luck). The damage potential and speed of the concept was enough to get play since the odds were you'd get enough out of those methods to work, even if another big downside was obvious in the stats.

80 HP was about the standard for a Stage 1 at this point, and was high enough to take a hit from things like Steelix, Scizor or even the Water-type Kingdra, but the mirror match got interesting with Magcargo Energy wars. Any major Water-type other than Kingdra could KO with that Water Weakness, and that even included giving Neo-On Metal decks an way to just slot a card in to do that with Mantine. The Retreat Cost was also high at 3, and it was also hard to fit a lot of switching cards into this sort of deck due to the need for a lot of Energy. This made it a notable problem. If Switch could still fit without too many issues, it was a good idea, but sometimes you just couldn't include it.

Magma Pool would have been way nicer on a Pokemon with a lower Retreat Cost. The Pokemon Power worked when Magcargo was your Active Pokemon and moved to the Bench. You removed a Fire Energy card attached to Magcargo and attached it to your new Active Pokemon. This at least made Double Gust less painful to use, as your new Active Pokemon would have the start of the Energy it needed to attack. Still, it was switching cards that would carry this scenario, and space problems were still an issue. It would come into play way less than you'd expect.

With all the problems, you're probably wondering why Magcargo was still so notable. Lava Flow started at a just decent 40 damage for 3 Fire Energy, but you could discard as many Fire Energy as you wanted from Magcargo when using it. 20 more damage was done for each one you discarded. While expensive, it did let Magcargo blow up whatever you wanted. You'd need a Fire Energy or two to take down Steelix quickly, 2 for Magcargo or Entei, 3 if you had to blow up Kingdra or Crobat quickly... And there was still the option in some times to just go for 2-hit KO's and save that Energy. The varying damage alongside Entei's charge up turns (losing your attack, but while hiding behind a Cleffa) was very potent for the era, and that flexibility made Magcargo a very dangerous threat.

Magcargo's peak was in the Neo-On format, and while it still had to worry about Dark Feraligatr as well as any Water-types people included specifically to hit it, it was a very potent part of the game. The damage output just depended on what you needed and how much Energy you had, and the Oracle + Entei combo guaranteed Energy for the next turn if you gave up that turn's attack. Many types lacked any sort of Energy acceleration, so you could get away with that more often. This was absolutely something to prepare for, as it was going to show up often in Neo-On and occasionally even in the earlier Rocket-On format.

[reco-obsessed]

"(hey, who knows, naoreko headcanons deathgame edition could be a whole other request)" guess what im about to ask. - hc anon

hii. ffuck . "im sorry for disappearing for a week" and then dies again for two . well. here now . might be shorter than usual because my brain is still repairing from two weeks of no reko textposting

naoreko deathgame headcanons (chapter two spoilers) :

short and fluffy x tall and spiky . good start

a lot has already been pointed out about them in ways that really interesting so its a little difficult to inject as many cool original ideas

obviously theyve got that whole "star crossed lovers" thing going on; in the original sense of the term, not in the "theyre soulmates" sense. they both have different views on themselves and survival, and that inherently dooms them as a couple, no matter how compatible they are; its the core of their dynamic in the deathgame, imo.

one thing about the two is nao's tendency to get anxious and worked up, whereas reko often instinctually comforts other characters (namely sara). the most obvious, stand out example of this is of course how reko talks to her after the mishima's head saga, but i pointed out the another specific example of this in a post where i compared reko's and nao's dialogue for the quick draw. you can also see how even after situations where shes scared shitless, like after ghost shutter (or whatever its called) or the room of lies, she instinctually tries to play it cool; while this is likely mostly reflective of her trying to save her pride, i think for an anxious character like nao it could serve for her to be the more emotionally stable one that nao can rely on, rather than feeding into her nervousness.

we dont see a lot of it directly, unfortunately, but it seems pretty implied that nao spent a lot of time with reko during chapter two; probably moreso than anyone else. she was the one who noticed the difference between the fake reko and real reko enough to sus them out, after all. i think after mishimas death nao would probably crave the stability that someone like reko could provide. she can be a little emotional violatile to others, but we dont see that side of her with nao. i imagine that someone like nao probably spent a lot of time around mishima to use as a "home base" socially; someone she can rely on, let her guard down around, with a tendency to specifically focus on person at time rather than risk exposing any of her perceived "weirdness" to a lot of different people as her first impression.

reko, i think based on what we see (her offering to spend time with sara as a way tp get her to relax specifically), values spending time with other people. this makes sense; shes a busy person in all likelihood, so its a valuable commidity to her. i think in a way, nao wanting to be in her presence so much taps into rekos values in this sense.

especially when you consider reko is probably the person used to being the person initiating, both romantically and platonically. reko comes off very intimidating; this is something we know canonically. and in the past, shes been very much by herself. so i think in of itself, nao going out of her way to spend time with reko in chapter two is something that means a lot to reko in return.

but then theres the whole . ya know . fake reko thing .

the conversation nao has with sara about reko always stands out to me. nao is hesitant to tell sara the specifics of what happened between her and reko to tip her off and theres so many ways to interpret it; is it just nao's usual nervousness creating a weird speech pattern? is it a budding romantic development cut off by an impostor entering the scene? or is it that the fake reko lashed out at her, unable to see her strength in the way the real reko does, and nao didnt want to mention this to anyone else and risk spoiling that persons view of reko?

i tend to go with the last one, but you could easily view as a combo of all three.

something a little fluffier to end with- in a lot of side content, reko is shown with her hands in naos hair, so i tend to headcanon this as one of her habits. i dont think that its impossible that in the deathgame, reko would have helped nao brush out all her hair. she has so much, and we dont even know if the characters have hairbrushes. its also not impossible that nao could need help simply because of how much time it must take to brush it all out.

sorry this was so short... and that it took me so long ...

[beatcroc]

Okay I finally generated an ask for you!!!!

What is your favourite genre of music? Or if you don't know how to categorize the music you listen to (like me), what is your favourite song? Or band? Or album? Something like that.

ohhhhh #1 question i am categorically incapable of being normal about <3

i typically just define my favorite music as "loud" or "aggressive" or "abrasive" bc most stuff that fits those descriptors will be in my faves regardless of the genre.

a more specific answer is that there are 3 main things i've noticed that will typically make me go apeshit without fail and they are: 1. hardstyle/gabber/industrial hardcore- sorta basskick 2. sickass metal guitar shredding 3. huge dramatic grandiose orchestral

if something has 1 of these i will probably like it, if it has 2 it will be a top fave, and all 3.... well i have yet to find it yet but im sure i will Ascend. here are examples of said top fave combos.

laur covers hardstyle+orchestral and i Cannot Get Enough of his shit man it goes so fucking crazy hard

metal+orchestral is unquestionably ruled by nightwish, but theyre not on bandcamp and i dont feel like finding other links so this one goes to the still-very-fucking-awesome runner-up, POWERWOLF

riikira and rabbitjunk hit metal+hardstyle, though it's less strictly hardstyle and more just general hardcore* electronica. if its got crazy amens its enough who cares. i put the ones that use actual kicks for the sake of illustrating the point here but these tracks are both pretty far from my faves from each lmao *hardcore referring to hardcore [edm] in this case, even though the genre these belong to is called "digital hardcore", which instead refers to hardcore [punk]. it's a mess out here. did you know theres two completely different things called doomcore where one is derived from metal and the other is derived from hardcore. and you never know which itsd going to be when you click on something in the doomcore tag. im dying squirtle

anyway on the other side of the hardstyle+metal combo is kobaryo [with his alias blaxervant], who's much more about the hardcore side of things and just has the metal as flair, but it is still: the best shit ever

laur also on occasion hits this side of hardstyle+metal becaue he just likes using whatever the fuck instruments

there are of course many other things i love a lot, primary examples being ambient/atmospheric, folk, and anything with a lot of Texture. im not gonna get into all that but i do have an extended list of faves/recs from the last time i was asked about this and went insane abt it. it took forever to make and my actual recs are not entirely the same as my Faves so im putting it on here too.

i keep these curated to the top of my bandcamp profile so they're the first things that display there. it's a bit old by now and some have since been shuffled out, but it's still like 80% accurate.

as for the actual recs: the angel's message is there because it's my fave brand of intense and chaotic stuff and want it to kill you full force. it already has some tracks up there so im not re-linking it

this one i recommend just because i think it's really interesting and out there and i'm curious what other people think of this sort of stuff. it's also the prime example of what i mean when i talk about Textures in music.

wolfgun is an actual rec for being genuinely just really good music. probably the most objectively cool/platonically enjoyable thing in my library

[anotterthatlovestoys]

watched this video on a redesign of venus from MH

There were a couple comments on how the redesign doesn't really feel on-brand for the character, and I agree- its pretty clear that MJ does redesigns based on her own style/inspirations without that much consideration for the original characters, but thats also not atypical of doll artists.

But boy, the skin tone was off. She tried to mix a custom one but it seems like just the lime green would have been better. It turned out very "mint green". One of my favorite color combos is greens + pinks and a pet peeve is the wrong shades of green mixing, so the yellow-green in the hair really clashes with the mint green skin

Plus, as one of the comments said, the skin tone being so light doesnt help the fact the face is completely... well, not black-coded like the g3 doll clearly is. It definitely feels like she was going for the g1 version, but she showed the g3 version at the beginning- even the eyes colors. And idk I just... really think the g3 version is way more cohesive.

anyways, I realized something important watching her video. Really the vast majority of doll artists I've followed- besides Dollightful- are very clothes-oriented and kind of gloss over sculpting and painting.

That's not bad, I mean I think M.J. literally has a degree in fashion so it makes sense! But when trying to figure out what I want to do with my dolls I'm always waffling about what i want to do with the clothes. I'm more interested in the sculpture-heavy projects, and there just aren't that many people that focus on that specifically.

I think I've really felt Dollightful's absence in the doll community ever since she had kids/slowed down posting. I'm really grateful her channel exists though, because it got me really into dolls and sculpting in a way I don't think I would have been if I entered other parts of the doll community first.

[the-iron-shoulder]

Finally started playing the English version (fan translation) of Mother 3 for the first time a couple days ago. I’m on Chapter 5 (no spoilers for me please, but also be warned that i might spoil a detail or two since this is my post). I have a lot of feelings but I’m not sure what all of them are just yet. This is gonna be a little disjointed and stream-of-consciousness.

EarthBound was HUGELY formative to me growing up… it shouldn’t be surprising to me how much more refined M3 is versus EarthBound, but it really is. (And yet in so many ways, it also isn’t that much more refined? They’re so clearly related, even beyond the art and the music and stuff.)

EarthBound was super up-front about Giygas being your antagonist and Ness being specifically tasked with stopping it (wait, shit, is Giygas it/its or he/him or something else?), whereas M3 is a lot more coy about what’s actually going on (I mean, Fassad introducing Money And Television into a utopian commune pretty clearly marks him as Very Bad, to say nothing of the casual animal torture, but I doubt that he’s The Main Antagonist, and no one is saying anything about the party being uniquely responsible for stopping him or anything).

i like the fact that the narrative viewpoint keeps changing. That’s interesting so far.

i love Flint, he’s simply great, and I hope he joins the party again later. (I’m prepared to be disappointed on this but I’m still hopeful regardless.)

there does seem to be a little bit of casual racism that seems out of place? The whole “Ma[slur]” people seem a bit… eh, i feel like maybe tossing a slur into the name of the drag-queen-coded genderfucky inhuman demigods could maybe have been avoided, and i also feel like everything about Reggie could have used a little (read: a lot) more care. So that’s, you know, not great. Don’t love those parts.

tbh, so far i don’t see why Lucas is a pivotal character… i know he’s apparently the MC but it feels like there’s plenty of options for more interesting characters to have taken the lead role. Idk. Maybe he’ll be more interesting later.

i absolutely cannot get the hang of the rhythm battle thing (even when the enemy is asleep)… if i can get three hits, i can usually get a few more, but getting the combo to start at all (except through luck of button-mashing, which of course ends the combo on the second hit) is something i seriously struggle with. And i have a pretty decent sense of rhythm (i mean, I’ve only been playing drums for six and a half years now), but… it’s just starting the chain that trips me up.

it’s still very funny to me that the sprites are so much more involved and expressive than in EarthBound and yet Lucas and Kumatora (and most people tbh) have faces that are just :|

M3 somehow feels like less of a genre parody than EarthBound was, which is both good and bad. I guess i respect not wanting to just do the same thing over and over.

probably more later… still forming my thoughts.

[taldigi]

Biggest mistake of Miraculous Ladybug was putting a lot less emphasis on the Yin Yang/ balance theme (in terms of character devalopment. Marinette and Cat boy, whichever version of him, being opposites in nature yet compliment and learn from each other).

Do you agree?

From how the show ended up being, I get the vibe that TA never really wanted to write Ladybug & Chat Noir... and just wanted to write Ladybug. It was like that at inception and even now LB is given an absurd amount of focus and importance, despite that initial stretch of development and S1 implying that they are a Yin-Yang Dynamic.

IIRC, the Black Cat miraculous is eventually demoted to "just another miraculous", even though its later shown that Plagg and Tikki are the same person split in two like a reverse Gem Fusion or some kind of Tuvix thing. The show keeps implying that they are on the same wavelength- equal but opposite in power: but they are so very clearly not as.. like I said, The Ladybug miraculous- and Ladybug by extension, is the single most important player in the game.

(There's an easy remedy that would justify the reason as to why the cat and bug HAVE to be active at the same time: Each has their own power and the ability to dispel akuma. and then make the miraculous cure into a combo move that must be performed together. To prevent widespread destruction and minimize loss of life, it must be this particular duo of miraculous. But as of now, and assumedly forever, the black cat does not need to be a part of the equation- and it would theoretically be safer to hide away the cat so that if the bug is compromised, the fate of the world may be saved: even if Paris cannot be.)

The frustration at loss of that yin-yang/opposites attract dynamic isn't an insistence that LB be should be overshadowed or overthrown in her own show- as many often claim. I've seen MANY takes and videos that insist that Adrien should be the star of the show- and while I agree that Adrien should be more proactive than reactive, I can deffo argue otherwise. He (and cat noir as extention) can exist as an intriguing deuteragonist and not dethrone LB- there is a reason Belle is the main character and not the Beast.. consider Lilo and Stitch? and of these characters, who have the stories more intertwined and intimate with the conflict at hand? Beast has the darker backstory, Stitch is more intertwined with the conflict- as it's about HIM specifically. But they are not the Protagonists. Belle and Lilo are because their movies are about them. Marinette's story isn't interesting. She has no genuine conflict. She has no uncle ben moment. She has no drive to be anything more. Even her relationship with her bullies isn't supplemented with a "I'm different or weird" conflict. She's the perfect little girl. She's good at everything, she's a prodigy. Her clumsiness is charming.

TLDR: The story would be better if they did have a yin/yang thing. Opposites- (they don't have to be enemies!) and realy played into the love square as a conflict and a back-and forth. If ML wants to tell an overarching story, then characters must grow to be interesting.

The story would also be better if Chat Noir did not exist at all, because we would waste less time trying to make a character fit in a story where he is not welcome. But I don't think it would be popular without him. Not when people are horny for adrien.

[shiningmystic]

hello, dear!

🐈‍⬛

Hey friend! I see many energies here so I see plenty of animals assisting you, but the ones how came out were the racoon and the lion which is an interesting energetic combo. I'm getting a sense that the racoons are showing my some dishonestly with yourself even if its unintentional; you seem to downplay your abilities and trick yourself into thinking you may be less of what you are worth. I see the racoons are also pointing me to the multifaceted side of you that they really enjoy, they especially when you discover a new thing you enjoy (like a new song) and that discovery feeling fills you with excitement they enjoy your energy when your feeling this.

There is this energy of having multiple masks, possibly having to mask all the time of your true feelings, there may be a call for introspection to face this at your own pace but if you're doing that then maybe you need a new perspective and approach to your emotional side, there is a part of you that may not want to deal with this and that makes sense but the raccoons try and guide you to healing when your ready but for now they just play around you.

Your worthiness and power are very clear with the lions protecting you at this time as they do with every pride mate. Are you mixing up your worth with what you do? what you have? just remind yourself that you are worthy, that things aren't as black and white as our minds like to make it out to be. So, the racoon I see is specifically helping you soothe your sadness and worry's while the lions are trying to help you find your power and beauty again; you are worthy of wonderful things. I always say this to lion people, make sure to balance humbleness and ego, you may be to humble and need to recognize who you are that’s where the introspection may come in.

You're reading felt a bit separate, so I see both animals are handling two different jobs but both outcomes lead to clarity and a better sense of self.

Hope you enjoyed the read, let me know what you think with some Feeback if you're willing. Have a great rest of your day :)