#like the new ones are a way better representation of the current game which i think is important

[haveyouplayedthisgame]

No Man's Sky

[arcane-ish]

Reading the old creator interview for League!Ekko again made me think.

I totally get Ekkomains who say that if they ever progress Ekko's storyline in a meaningful way, him finding love with a new person and finally getting over his childhood crush would be a very sensible place to take it. I could picture it feeling very meaningful for him to open up to somebody new, heal some of those trauma scars and be healthier etc (and unlike Riven and Yasuo for whom the angst status is deeply tied to their identity as a character, I think it would actually feel very in character for Ekko to be like that).

There is an argument that Ekko being stuck on Powder is representative of him being stuck in the past which is of course extremely thematic and on point for his character (Warwick to Ekko in game: "The one person in Zaun who runs to the past."), but not exactly the healthiest thing.

But reading the statements again:

[Ekko] thinks [Janna] gave up on Zaun, which is something Ekko will never do.

Let me also state that Ekko does not think Zaun is perfect. He knows very well how is city is perceived and why it has the reputation. But he hopes that things will get better one day.

made me think that Ekko's attachment to Jinx makes a lot more sense if you consider that in a way Jinx is the perfect distillation and representation of Zaun (ie wild, brutal, creative, hurt).

Ekko stays in Zaun because he knows that it's not all bad. People like Ajuna (the friend he lost in the comic) live there. He believes in Zaun, and in it's future (although currently in a somewhat childlike and less forward thinking way, he's still a kid, still learning). 

Ekko isn't dumb, he knows Zaun is a rough place, but he owns that. Zaun made him strong, taught him to be resourceful and make big things out little. He's starting to envision a different Zaun, a better Zaun, but he doesn't have the complete picture yet as he is a teenager and still has some growing up to do.

Basically, if you think of Jinx as Zaun and how his entire goal and motivation is tied up in Zaun, then the idea that he both fights her darkest impulses but also won't and can't give up on her makes a lot more sense and is something different than "loser pining after girl who has no interest in him because he thought she was nice to him in childhood and needs help now".

The idea of "he knows that Zaun has bad sides but still believes in its potential" is a lot more appealing than "it's just childish nostalgia".

[oldschoolfrp]

(Someone asked for my thoughts about the current OGL debacle, and compared it to how TSR handled its properties in its final years as a company; Tumblr twice ate my reply and deleted the original question)

From the earliest days of D&D a big part of its appeal has been the way it encourages players to create and share their own worlds. The initial appearance of the game sparked the rise of a host of amateur fanzines and third-party small press publishers whose efforts helped increase the popularity of TSR's core product. As TSR grew, it extended various licenses for official supplements, with an uneasy tolerance of ‘generic’ material that didn’t claim to be official.

As competition increased, Gygax seemed more irritated with others engaging with his game on their own terms.  Instead of writing as much about imagination and creativity he often focused on promoting the right way to play. He wasted pages of space in Dragon magazine railing against the small presses and accusing them of making inferior unauthorized products that deceived unsuspecting gamers in the marketplace.

After forcing Gygax out in the mid-80s, Lorraine Williams saved TSR through aggressive expansion, but an attempt at total market dominance helped cause its final financial crisis in the 90s.  The company produced too many of its own new games and official supplements split between too many different genres and campaign worlds, dividing its own customer base among an unsustainable number of products that competed with each other.

That was back then. As for now, I think:

As a consumer of some recent third-party content for 5e and B/X D&D I've been pretty happy with the thriving community of creators making free and commercial supplements, and I hope no one tries to place roadblocks in their way.

That’s about it.  I think I'm not the best person to comment on the details of the allegedly more restrictive leaked OGL 1.1 because:

I have no inside information or contacts with the legal representation of Hasbro, Inc, and

I myself am not a publisher of OGL-based material who would be directly threatened with financial loss by any of the changes that might occur.

It's understandable that independent authors and publishers would be worried about a possible threat to their businesses. It is especially concerning that the company at the center of all this has mostly remained silent for several weeks while anger and fear has been amplified. The last official statement was back on December 21, in which they insisted that independent creators would still be able to keep doing what they have been doing, and mentioned new threats like NFTs as an example of why they felt the old legal language needed an update:

https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1410-ogls-srds-one-d-d

Unfortunately when I see this topic being promoted on Twitter and YouTube, many of the top suggestions are clearly bad-faith click-bait performance art by people selling anger as entertainment, which isn’t going to help anyone understand the actual issues.  I won’t engage with the worst of those.

There are some good takes on the topic here -- @mostlysignssomeportents explained some reasons why publishers probably never needed the OGL and could be better off without it, and @prokopetz has some observations on why the OGL made people more comfortable about quoting the official rules and where things might be headed.

[will-you-pick-me]

~ ♥ * ♥ * 𝓦𝓮𝓵𝓬𝓸𝓶𝓮 𝓽𝓸 𝓟𝓲𝓬𝓴 𝓜𝓮! * ♥ * ♥ ~

!!! THIS IS NOT A SPACE FOR MINORS !!!

!!!AGELESS AND BLANK BLOGS WILL BE BLOCKED!!!

Some ground rules:

I do not want minors involved in my work in any way, fictional or otherwise. There will be no minor characters, and no little!Y/N situations. Please do not request them.

I cannot and will not write anything relating to r*pe or p*dophilia at all, or homo/transphobia or any bigotry in a way that condones it.

Some heavier topics such as bigotry may be mentioned by way of character backstories, or by I the Mun addressing it if noticed in the community.

This is a gore- and horror-heavy space. You may at some point see decapitated bodies, dismembered limbs, and other disturbing content. If this is not for you, please do not follow.

I do not condone my work being used to harm yourself or others, and if seen doing so, you will be blocked.

All blocks will be without warning. Behave or goodbye.

Please don't be the reason a new rule has to be written.

Now for some more fun info!

Hi! I'm the Mun of PickMe! You can call me Mun, or Nil! I'm a 24 year old disabled, AutDHD, polyamorous pan demisexual with a relationship to gender that typically escapes labels, but I go by they/them generally speaking. I'm also a DID system! Our collective name is Scalemail.

PickMe!ARG started as just a silly little project between me and my close friends, something to goof off with and collectively brainrot over. The initial idea came in January of 2021, but started to be fleshed out more in '22 and has really started to kick off here on Tumblr during '23! I'm super happy to be sharing these characters, as well as getting to make friends and participate in the wider YanLovers community!

One of the main cornerstones of this ARG that I think sets it apart is that it was made for other polyamorous people like me. All of the LI's are canonically poly, and I really look forward to people being able to get the true end where everyone is a polycule together ^-^

Making this has been important to me, not only for the relationships I've built in the process, but because poly representation is something I hardly ever see. Plus, it's a hell of a challenge to make a yandere be ok with sharing their darling! Tackling that challenge, I think, has made me a better creator overall as I piece together the overarching dynamics of 9 different characters, some of whom hate each other on principle.

Some links you might find helpful!

InteractiveFics - a browser extension that changes "Y/N" to your preferred name, and can also be used to replace other information, such as eye color, hair color, etc.

PickMe! Orientation Quiz - Wanna know which LI would be the best fit for you? Find out here!

Y/N Character Sheet - Want to fill this out and tag us in your design? Go right ahead! We'd love to see your character!

The Official PickMe!ARG Discord Server! - That's right, I'm finally releasing it! We're still in development with finishing up ending CG's, custom emojis, and general planning, but the main non-game areas are finished and ready for all you lovely Y/N's to mingle and have fun together!

And if you'd like to support that development, here's my Kofi! This game, donos, and commissions are currently my only source of income, so every little bit is appreciated <3

[thenonbinarydetective]

As I've said/supported before, Barbara shouldn't be Batgirl. And Gotham Knights shouldn't have had her be Batgirl, as it falls into the ableist trope.

However, I do understand why she is Batgirl in this game. She is the most recognizable Batgirl to the general audience. This is where we lose some people because this game is not actually meant for just batman/batfam fans like some people believe. It's meant for anyone remotely interested in buying video games, like every other video game in existence. I know some people might find that condescending, but I don't mean it that way. It's important to remember who buys video games, even specifically "Batman" ones.

Meaning they made the safe bet because money is the driving force. Barbara is a safe bet. But honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if she was a bet they didn't have much of choice in making. Either because it's not really made by an independent studio or evaluating the loss between a number of fans not purchasing a game because of Barbara no longer being a full-time wheelchair user and the number of potential buyers not wanting to buy a "Batman-oriented" game while not knowing who any of the characters are. Additionally, the potential strain of resources in adding more than the current cast of characters we have. They settled on the safest, known characters attached to Batman, probably for monetary reasons.

That being said, Cass and Steph could've been good additions to this game. I don't think Duke would have; he is still too new. The batgirls here have more of a footing and deserve to exist in more than just Scribblenauts and LEGO Batman games. However, I can see how introducing them with Batman might be a better bet for all three of them than Gotham Knights ever would have been. It creates an association for the general audience, which is more important to developers than specifically Batman fans (the general audience is larger and gives more money). Yes, they should be used more in games for more recognition, but for that idea to succeed, there needs to be a plan that actually promises audience growth.

People are allowed to have boundaries towards the reliance on an ableist trope and dislike the game for it.

People are also allowed to acknowledge that Barbara Gordon in Gotham Knights is still a disabled character and the fact that they worked with a charity focused on disabled representation in gaming (AbleGaming) to represent spinal disabilities in a respectful/realistic way that isn't relying upon on "magical/scientific cures."

Wheelchair users are valid for being upset that Barbara Gordon isn't one as well, the same way that people with other disabilities can still feel represented by this version.

None of these things are mutually exclusive and can exist at the same time.

Me being able to rationalize their actions doesn't mean that I agree with everything they do, as I have shown in the past. I just don't believe that a piece of media or a studio is unsalvageable or irredeemably evil for falling into a bad trope. Media is flawed. This constantly happens. If we view media that way, then we'd have to abandon literally every piece of media in existence.

Me acknowledging that the game made an effort to include aspects of disability doesn't mean that I don't believe there are no ableist aspects to this game. That's just a stupid assumption.

People are also flawed. Playing Gotham Knights, someone isn't a terrible evil person who is irredeemable and should die. That isn't a productive view. People can recognize how they interact with media and address how it exists in their lives and the lives of others.

This article has a pretty good explanation of how I feel and how some others feel. I've basically paraphrased it multiple times: https://halfglassgaming.com/2022/08/gotham-knights-lets-talk-about-barbara-gordons-spine/.

I won't say more because I don't have much more words than there are multiple ways to look at things other than everything is either fully correct/good or wrong/evil. It's fine to acknowledge that things can exist in a combination of multiple factors, and morality is something defined by each individual human.

[autumnslance]

Hey there, Aeryn! I was looking over your fiction writing and saw that you suggest to one writer that a break might be needed due to burnout, how long would you recommend? My personal question is when creating your characters do you write them separate from their in-game counterparts under a different name? Been wanting to play through the story but I struggle to do so as when an idea doesn’t work, the character suffers. Any advice?

I was looking over your fiction writing and saw that you suggest to one writer that a break might be needed due to burnout, how long would you recommend?

Burn out is dependent on each person, and their current circumstances. Real life can have a tendency to cause issues there, and it's important to not beat one self up too much about things outside of control. Handle what can be controlled, what you can change and adjust, and when you start to feel like "Man I want to create something again/I wish I could create something again" that's probably the sign, actually, you're wanting to get back in the creative saddle.

And it's going to be rough and feel difficult and like everything sucks, but you gotta push through that. I fully acknowledge my writing in 2017 and 2018 is much rougher and tentative, as I was getting past some of my own burnout and getting back into the swing of regular writing.

I've seen it likened to opening a long-closed gate in a dam; gotta let the stagnant stuff out before things really start to flow again.

My personal question is when creating your characters do you write them separate from their in-game counterparts under a different name?

Currently my main OCs have their same names in game as in my stories. You can actually find Dark Autumn, Aeryn Striker, C'oretta Khell, and Iyna Cauld on Coeurl. I have alts cuz I started playing before NG+ was a thing, I was an old school RPer who likes making new OCs, and I simply cannot ever fantasia Dark Autumn. None of the "supporting cast" OCs have in game representation (just Anamnesis files).

I don't worry too much about how the characters are in game versus in story. I make some vaguely almost IC decisions or choices based on some things, but even with the same names, the in game characters are just avatars I use for visuals; this is actually why I play Dark through MSQ first, to get my own knee-jerk reactions out of the way. Only sometimes my avatar in game as I play informs the ideas I thought I had for the OCs I write about. When playing Aeryn specifically, I end up thinking about how Aeryn would feel and react, and am often surprised. And then consider: is it worth trying to keep the original idea, or is the new idea better?

Which is how I ended up with a wolnpc ship I never intended, or how I realized she had a jealous streak. I just let the avatar vibe and decided if I wanted that to affect my story ideas or not. And there's plenty I do do in game that has nothing to do with my story portrayals, or vice versa.

But also not all character ideas are going to work, or even need to, and letting a character idea grow and change as you learn who they are and what you really want/need for them is fine.

@driftward actually might have some good advice there too, as her initial ideas for Nyx, written in an earlier FFXIV Write, didn't end up working out. Nor did an earlier miqo'te character that was fantasia'd into the elezen we now know and love as Zoissette Vauban. The stories and character info were written...and then reworked.

Sometimes it takes awhile to figure out what we want and how we go about it. Retcon is not a dirty word. If a character idea isn't working, think on why, and what needs to step back and adjust.

[personthattoleratesme]

heyy, new phannie anon here again, thank you for your nice reply! in return have a probably way too in depth answer to your question! (sorry)

so, my first dnp video was the funeral one, which somehow intrigued me enough to watch the new heartthrob video (i never realised how horrible this word truly is until i typed it out) two days later.

the thing i remember most vividly about watching it is pure and utter confusion.

like, please just watch the first three minutes of that video through the eyes of someone who has never seen these two people interact in their whole life. looking back, it honestly depicts the whole range of their chaos so nicely. being all happy and domestic but immediately venturing into innuendos, the classic "phil says something weird, dan points it out, phil tries to make it better but just makes it much worse", it has dan being sarcastic and badly trying to act as if he's irritated, phil casually doing the most insane shit, the bantering and teasing, all the references to things i had no clue about.

and i was just sitting there like. i don't know what the fuck is wrong with them but they're amazing. i need to undestand them. so i loosely kept an eye on them but at that point i wasn't really interested in watching the halloween gaming or their old videos. about two weeks went by until...

Enter Halloween Baking

this is what really made it click. i was about halfway through the video when i just knew i need them in my life, actually. i don't think i need to explain because how could one even attempt to put the gloriousness of that video into words? and what can i say, after that it's just a descend into the madness of years of content and fandom lore...

you have nothing to apologize for, this was very fun to read. and you will get another long response in return

the funeral one being the very first is so funny to me, like that has to be deeply confusing with zero context. i'm impressed that it intrigued you enough to watch more, it's quite a strange video lol.

i did go and watch the heartthrob video and yeah the first 3 minutes are just so weird and unhinged. that whole sequence is just so them. i do think it's a perfect representation of who they are in this current era. like it's reminiscent of the stereo days except now it's on youtube. i remember being in awe myself of how chaotic and unhinged those first few minutes were, but it was also so comforting because they were clearly having a lot of fun being back on the channel.

it's honestly fair that you didn't watch spooky week. i think a fair share of even the biggest phannies will skip spooky week cause they really don't care for the horror games. personally, i love watching spooky week cause their silliness really takes away from the horror aspect for me, and it just makes it more fun and entertaining rather than scary. but i think that's more about personal preference.

the baking video is honestly a cultural reset. their baking videos have always been excellent, and now with sister daniel and them being out it just makes it 10x better. if anything is gonna make you a phannie it's that video.

i'm impressed that it's basically only been like 2 weeks of being a phannie for you then. how has it been to catch up on all the videos and lore? have you just been binging their channels?

[inkofamethyst]

October 24, 2023

Sudden urge sudden urge. The train ride tiktok, Nicole Rudolph's fantasy photoshoot, the chilly weather, me being a ginger for the next four weeks, watching the relaxing walk across Skyrim while braiding my hair, me missing being involved in the performing arts, the excitement closely followed by frustration I feel when I find a black woman on pinterest dressed in a style I only really call fantasy-bounding and click on it and don't see any other black women/woc in the recommended pins. All of this and probably more has culminated in the sudden urge to become part of the representation I'm not seeing. I don't really have the clothes for it. I'm not terribly comfortable in front of or behind a camera. It's not even that I want to become an ~influencer~. I just want to take pretty pictures. I want to see more women of color in fantasy. (It could be that I'm not looking hard enough.)

I think maybe I just need to get back into reading. A good new adult fantasy trilogy or something.

I mean, I have been having a bit more fun with my outfits, and it's honestly mostly thanks to my funky earrings. I've done "fairy princess hiding from her enemies in the corporate world of a different plane" and "dryad who's way too good with words for her own good" and other little mini stories that no one would ever be able to guess but they make me happy early in the morning and also at random times during the day.

Did my intro talk today, managed to stay within time. I... okay so like people told me I did well, and I'm going to try to believe them even though I feel like I didn't seem like I came off as very knowledgeable :/ Like I got a lot of questions I feel like, which is fine, I guess people were interested and engaged, but I didn't.. I feel like I couldn't answer everything particularly thoroughly or satisfactorily. And it's like, the fact that I didn't seem to know everything inside and out about my topics??? And that I couldn't do the on-the-spot thinking to answer the questions (which I've always been bad at tbf)??? Idk that just feels like failure to me idk idk. I dunno I'm going to try to minimize my full reaction until Thursday when I meet with my advisor again since I imagine we'll chat about it a bit.. It's like other people from the audience were answering questions for me. And I guess you could look at it from a positive light too, right, that the department isn't very sink-or-swim, but that's not how I feel about it, you know? I don't feel like it was awful, I just feel like it could've gone better.

[edit, next morning: for some context, I was talking about paleoanthropology in front of one of the top evolutionary skeletal biologists in the world then switched to population genetics and the audience contained members from the lab of one of the top population geneticists in the world. plus my current research is outside of both those fields. with this context, it's probably fair to say that I could not have won in this game no matter how hard I tried -_- RIGGED. RACIST. they always tryna keep black women down (for legal reasons that is a joke)]

Whatever the opposite of a post-performance high is, I've got that goin on.

Today I'm thankful to be done with my intro talk.

I mean hey at least I looked hot. New 'do, sleeveless mockneck, outfit (and hair!!!!) colors matched my presentation theme,,,, I chickened out of going for chocolate wasted, but I went for lava cake gloss which still worked, just not quite as striking.

[gallifreyriver]

I have a question for Harry Potter fans- current and former.

Please don't take this wrong and respond hatefully because this is a genuine, good-faith question about something I've been wondering.

Ok so- JK Rowling is a terf; The Harry Potter fandom is huge; There's a ton of controversy on whether you can separate art from the artist or carry on liking HP without supporting her views.

On one hand, you can say people fell in love with the world she created, not her. On the other, she's come out saying she believes anyone still buying HP merch supports her, and she doesn't seem to care that she's lost a whole audience that used to love her books, saying that "I read my most recent royalty cheques and find the pain goes away pretty quickly."

My question is, since the Harry Potter fandom is/was so huge, had created so many of their own works within the fandom- both in fic and in art, and hell I know a lot of you guys likely even created your own fan merch- why wouldn't just cutting her completely away from the story be an option? Why wouldn't that be a bigger "Fuck you"?

I mean, yeah I used to like the books too, though I was never super involved in the fandom and honestly thinking about the series anymore makes me sad because what she's done is just so disappointing, and obviously I totally support anyone else who just can't look at the books the same way again and would prefer to leave it behind.

But for the rest of you, instead of fighting with yourselves about which is correct why not just... reclaim the story from her for yourselves? You don't need her. What you all fell in love with was the story you (the fandom) created in your heads around her words. Her words were only the scaffold for the world you all built on your own, and you even created new stories and art based on that world. Your world. Not hers.

You don't need to buy more books or movies from her. You already wrote your own.

You don't need to buy her posters, or her merch, or her toys. You already made your own.

Not one dime needs to go to her as long as she holds her hateful beliefs, especially when you (the fandom) just always made stuff on your own and shared it because you loved to, so why not just... do that? Want more story? Someone's written fic. Want some art? Someone made that too. Want some merch? A scarf? A wand? Mug? (idk) Like I said, one of you is out there making it if it hasn't been done already. Fandom is a conversation, you don't need to include her in it when she now only says hateful things.

And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying everyone shouldn't branch out to other, better, stories- absolutely do that- but it does seem sad that she just gets to rip away from all of you what isn't even hers.

I don't know if I'm even making sense, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that you all built this community around a story she might have written, but you all built it better. You made it bigger, you gave it it's "muchness." I saw you all "fix-it" to parts that were problematic even before she became this bad. I remember reading posts over the years about how people in the LGBT communities related to the characters and found comfort in the community and even more recently I've seen people in the trans communities creating their own representation in HP universe- for the world you all created. Not JKR.

I ask because I've seen on here similar suggestions like with Amazon's Rings Of Power- to not watch (because Amazon/ exploitation), and how if you want more LOTR content fandom already made it and can always make more. And I read how any mention of Minecraft's shitty creator was completely wiped from the game so people could still enjoy without being exposed to/promoting his shittiness. Would doing the same with JKR be possible? Cutting her out of HP and reclaiming it for yourselves? I know I've seen some people say that having fandom still keeps her relevant, but wouldn't this be more like a Morbius situation? They see "oh everyone's talking about this online!" but then everything they put out flops because no one actually went to see the movie/buy the merch/etc?

And idk, but this just seems more effective/sends more of a message of disappointment in what she's become and how she hurt everyone who used to love her story. Like a, "Yeah, we're still doing HP, but the one we built. No, you can't sit with us."

(I'm going to say again because I know people are going to have some strong feelings surrounding HP and JKR. This a question I feel like we can have a good-faith discussion about. I'm not interested in anyone starting fights over this post and I won't be interacting with anyone coming at this in bad faith or screaming at me or others because they've chosen to take a question as somehow an endorsement of JKR's hateful behavior.)

[thescrapbookingscientist]

Biweekly Media Roundup

- Trigun (Anime) - The current trend in the fandom is to draw Knives as a McDonalds worker to “Make his desire to kill all of humanity reasonable as a customer service employee” which. Hilarious, I love people.

- Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Video Game) - Obviously I’ve been having a blast with this, I love exploring the sky islands and caves, the Zonai and new monster designs are awesome, and the memes of messing with the Koroks and creating batshit machines have been wonderful. My main complaint so far is how they handle the NPCs memory of Link, I’d be fine with the main ones remembering him and the rest having a Tony Hawk-esque knowledge of Link without realizing he was in front of them, but it’s kind of sad to run into NPCs that Link definitely helped in the first game only to have them forget him - Like the people of Tarry Town and Hateno village. Ganon’s design is incredible though, amazing job there.

- Monster High (Cartoon) - Finished up the Monster High TV series and while it’s definitely aimed at a pretty young age group, I thought it was cute enough. I like a lot of the new designs with their differing heights and body types, I like how the characters hang out with multiple friend groups and seem to generally get a along with the whole class, and I like the LGBTQA+ and Autism representation being handled well in a show aimed towards children. 

- SSS Class Revival Hunter (Webcomic) - I was really craving more S-Class adjacent content and was led to pick up the next few series since I could get through the chapters in a couple days. This one was okay? I liked the time travel by death mechanic and the brain roommate force ghost, but the series lost quite a bit of momentum in the recent arc with it’s protagonist purposely dying of starvation to learn fighting techniques so that two groups of people could go back to happily murdering each other which. hmm. yeah I’m not feeling it homie, I basically disagree with all of your philosophies here. I might pick it back up after a few months of updates as I do appreciate the larger cast of largely unsexualized women, but ehhh It might just not be for me.

- When the Third Wheel Strikes Back (Webcomic) - I picked this up for the same reason as the previous series, and while there's very few chapters out I am enjoying it as an opener. As tropey as it is the world does at least seem interesting with several mysteries and complicated intrapersonal relationships mixing with political ones, which is fun. I also like the protagonist is a confessional Priest as that’s a pretty fun way to have him hear interesting lore and meet oddballs, so that’s cool. Honestly I’m biased because I always appreciate the “love triangle but the axis is not who you think” dynamic., but I’m looking forward to updates.

- Trash of the Count’s Family (Webcomic) - Reread this as it’s the Holy Trinity series I’m least familiar with. I do still like it quite a bit, and Cale in particular is a fun protagonist, but so far the rest of the characters are cute but a bit flat. Obviously that could change as the story goes on, and it’s possible they are more fleshed out in the novel, but for now I’ll still rank this as the least interesting of the trifecta, if not still an enjoyable series on it’s own. There’s also some great fanfic out there if you’re looking for wholesome found family stuff.

- The Locked Tomb Series (Books) - Harrow is really going through it huh. I miss Gideon.

- Crazy Ex Girlfriend (TV) - As I mentioned before, this series is turning out to be way better than I thought it would be, and honestly that it has any right to be considering it aired on the CW. I’ve been listening to the songs on loop, I love all the different styles, the rhythms, and the humor. 

- The S Classes That I Raised (Webcomic) - Still having a great time.

Listening to: A bunch of Crazy Ex Girlfriend songs, including I’m a Good Person, After Everything You Made Me Do, Nothing Is Ever Anyone’s Fault, and The End of the Movie, The Herse Song by Rusty Cage, Hey I Don’t Work Here by Tom Cardy, Jet Lag by Simple Plan, All Things End by Hozier, Lent by Autoheart, The Sound of Silence cover by Disturbed, and Holy Water by Michael Ray.

[diegopardoarboleda]

Sword Art Online and Its Implications on Reality

SOA is set in 2022, and players of the VRMMORPG (a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game) find themselves trapped in the game. If they die in-game, they die in real life. Kirito is a skilled player with the mission to clear 100 floors so that he and the friends that he made along the way can escape the reality they are currently trapped in.

This anime connects perfectly with the previous lesson analyzing Jean Baudrillard's "Simulacra and Simulation", Baudrillard argues that the real and its referential signs have been replaced by simulacra (copies or representations of things that no longer have an original or that never had an original in the first place), which no longer represent anything real. This shift from representation to simulation is the process through which reality and representation are replaced by signs and symbols that create a new, hyperreal world. It involves the creation and proliferation of simulacra. This hyperreality is sustained by models of control and simulation, where reality no longer has any bearing. In SOA reality is replaced by this video game which is a hyperreality no longer connected to the real world but indistinguishable from it, a video game that uses code to create symbols of the real world and also adds in many simulacra like the monsters present in the game, and you could argue that this is even deeper because the type of monsters in video games are based on simulacra created in mythology many years ago, that then are used to create more simulacra in the video game. So, the traces of reality get lost in this simulation. You can even say that since this world is indistinguishable from our reality, that then reality is no longer an objective fact that we can all agree upon but a subjective experience, no longer able to distinguish between reality and hyperreality.

On a more personal note, I find myself questioning my reality at times thinking that since we are making progress exponentially fast creating better and better simulations in computers, who is to say that we aren’t in one? Or that we might at some point create such a hyperreal reality that many will choose over this reality.

[dgcatanisiri]

Also I think my current GAH! at the concept of how enemies to lovers is portrayed in writing comes from the confluence of realizing one) my current gaming prospects are just so DEVOID of queer male content, two) the fact that I'm very TIRED of and feel it is becoming VERY overused to bank on betrayal as a plot point (another reason I am just not interested in dealing with Solas in DA4, and probably why I did not buy in to the way Bode's storyline in Jedi Survivor played out), and three) the book series I'd started combined enemies to lovers in the way I just complained about AND using a betrayal to take out a non-enemy romance option who, until that reveal, had genuinely been a better romantic prospect BECAUSE of its use of enemies to lovers.

Like... The reason the video games thing ties into this is just how EMPTY my prospects feel at the moment for representation, and that even when I have characters who I can try to pretend... Well, I end up in the Jedi Survivor situation, where I'm locked into a heterosexual pairing AND the character I can imagine him being with is turned into not just a bad guy but the final battle.

It's just being so EXHAUSTED of in effect the way that it feels like the media on my radar at the moment is just feeling almost AGGRESSIVELY resistant to giving me what I need - either it's incessant heterosexual bullshit, it's queer but not in the way I need (re: I'm playing Horizon Forbidden West, which, good for Aloy and all, but not what I personally need), or it's the kind of thing that doesn't give a feeling of being true to my experience as a queer man.

And, y'know, it's seeing limited options on the horizon that change that - sure, I decided to just jump ahead to the next entries in my reading list, so hopefully that'll offer something better, but everything else? Nothing I'm watching soon is doing that, and the best I'm seeing on my gaming radar MIGHT be DA4 - but considering the BioWare track record with M/M love interests, where REGULARLY I click with the straight-locked LI more than what I'm "given," I'm a little wary. To say nothing of being concerned about the issue of cost of these new games at the moment, since finances are particularly tight right now.

And, y'know, then there's the IRL factor of at the moment, I'm living vicariously through my fiction because I am not in a relationship, and don't have much in the way of options at the moment of changing that.

So, y'know... Happy Pride and all!

[starwalker03]

Ayo it's late but 2023 Digital Art Progress

I drew the most digital stuff I've ever drawn last year. I finally pushed past a lot of my issues with the digital medium and figured out how to actually Do The Thing per se. so I think I got a lot better over the course of 2023. I definitely changed my visual style a lot, that's for sure.

Unfortunately I did lose my USB in 2023 as well so I lost a lot of my files. much sadness.

LONG POST. lots of drawings to get through and I have Thoughts.

Anyway these are dated in my files as March, which is my earliest I have rn, so this is kinda a representation of how I started the year.

I was busy most of April so May has two files. these were both a part of my semester one project of my degree.

I've got a lot of things dated for June, which is surprising. and not a lot of things dated after. I'm all over the place with starting wips and when it comes to finishing them... ehhh it happens eventually.

I really wish I could go back in time and fix that leg. I just wanted to avoid drawing toes lmao. the thick line art really is a problem to me but that's neither here nor there.

I think I finished a bunch of thing in June, because these are dated two days apart and I definitely started one before the other lmao. hell I think the one on the left was started in 2022.

I'm not sure when this was but it was early in the year. I tried to veer away from the harsh lines and ended up swinging too far into semi-realism. I loved how it was looking (this is still a wip) but the amount of time it was taking was too much for me to replicate again.

This definitely a June piece, because I wanted to do one character every few days throughout Pride Month. Didn't finish it.

last year my friends and I considered starting to record and post our dnd games, so I did some arts of the characters of our current campaign.

I think the solid black line art all of the same thickness was one of the main things I always disliked. I could never quite make it work with everything else I was doing.

This is probably the only work I did with solid black lines that I really liked. it seems to work okay here.

The July came around, and artfight with it! (this character belongs to Crimson_Deceit. You can find Crimson on instagram as Lova.cos or twitter also as Crimson_Deceit)

and then the DCU rarepair exchange came in September and I didn't have time to write treats so I drew them, which spawned a new attempt at shading things that I've been messing with ever since. I prefer the way my linework looks with it.

I messed around with clown oc designs in October, cause that was a mini trend on instagram. didn't finish fast enough to post it but i really like some of the designs.

in December I drew the OCs of some of my friends, as we finished our playthrough of CoS last year. this is our cleric, a changeling who went through many names and faces, depicted holding hands with their player @angelicsky64817

Last piece of the year was this muck around. I'm still trying to figure out some of these new style choices I'm making.

Finish off with a sneak at what I'm currently doing in the new year! I've been drawing one big piece so it's stretching over from january. It's still a wip. And it's such a big image I've gotta compress it.

woo! now I gotta go finish that thing. there's gonna be three more characters to the right of the yellow one. why have I done this to myself.

i hope that in 2024 i can get more of a grip on the saturation of my newer styles of drawing. and learn some more colour theory. and also get better at drawing skin, cause I think I'm mostly okay at clothes but skin always looks boring or weird.

[incompetent-witch]

About The Blogger;

Eclectic Witch

I am here, and I am 🌈QUEER

She/her pronouns (That could change)

Bisexual (With a huge preference for girls)

Bipolar type 2. (haha. Double Bi…)

Narcolepsy type 1

25 years old

🎂 Birthday; February 12th :D

♒️Aquarius- 🌙Virgo moon🌙

My beliefs are a mix of;

polytheism, (all the gods exist simultaneously)

Agnosticism; (I don’t know anything for sure. You gotta stay skeptic for things that can’t be proven by science. Everything should be taken with a grain of salt.)

A preference for the greek gods.

*Side note on the Greek gods thing. as basic and edgy in a cringe sort of way, I have a shrine to Thanatos and Hypnos. Due to my love for them and researching them i discovered the hades game because when trying to find YouTube videos on Hypnos, one of the only thing that showed up was the game hades. They’re obscure so i was really excited to see that they both had a pretty big role in the game. So you might see some posts here and there about the game.

Magic should be for fun!!! If it becomes distressing, then you got to take a step back

It’s really important that you understand that I absolutely hate hate hate pseudoscience and crystal healing and the current bastardization of chakras. If you want to learn about that stuff, probably don’t get new age books on it. (Herbs are good though. Lots of vitamins lmao)

If a white lady with dreadlocks starts talking about spirituality, RUN.

If something directly contradicts science in a way that dismisses it, That just not the vibe. Science above all else please, that seems contradictory but it just loops back around to things like crystal healing. If you wanna use magic and spirituality to heal yourself, whatever man, that’s fine just take your meds first then do whatever you want.

More About Me, and What Posts You’ll See.

You’ll see a lot of reblogged art. I’m not sure if I’ll post much of my own. Most of my work is unfinished, and likely never will be finished. But I’ve been a serious artist since I was. Teenager. I’ve illustrated books, (I’m nervous to show it, because it could dox me… that and it’s really old work, and is not a good representation of what I’m capable of now.) And I’ve won a congressional award for a sketch I did at… 17? Can’t remember exactly how old I was.

I had to temporarily dropout of school due to the disability and mental illness I didn’t know I had at the time. It was rough, and I blamed myself for being incompetent. I thought everyone was as tired as me all the time, and could just function better. I was homeschooled, so I wasn’t in an environment where they would have noticed something was off about me. My parents weren’t exactly qualified to teach, and were incredibly medically neglectful. I came from a very “walk it off” and “Pull yourself up from your bootstraps” environment. So you’ll see a lot of vent posts too. I’ll tag it with trigger warnings just in case. But the good news is! I’m going back to school! I’m gonna be an art major again 🥹

I have a cat named Salem. No, I wasn’t dabbling in witchcraft when I named him, I’ve always just had a witchy aesthetic but never actually looked into the occult, western esotericism, or witchcraft. However, I’ve dabbled in tarot cards for about 4 years now. I’m studying it pretty hard now. I’ll post about the meanings as best I can as a way to study. I believe that If you can’t teach it, then you don’t understand it. That’s my philosophy on learning anything.

I’ve been practicing and studying witchcraft for only half a year. And I’ll be real with you, it started because of a HUGE hypo-manic episode. (Honestly it was probably true mania, which means my bipolar 2 diagnosis will probably be changed to type Bipolar 1 if my psych finds that it wasn’t due to a medication change.) The manic episode was so bad, that I actually don’t remember any of November of 2022 besides thanksgiving. As I remember it, I just kinda knew a bunch of stuff in December and was talking to entities I had no business talking to. It was really bad. So i will be VERY open about the ugly side of Bipolar mania that people don’t seem to understand, as well the dangerous side of spiritually both in occult spaces, new age shit, and established religions. (Pretty much only christianity if I’m being honest.)

BUT! I’ve always liked the occult, but I was never able to really study it due to my religious and controlling environment and the confidence to read about it anyway. I give no shits now, despite still being in that environment. The manic episode really just gave me the confidence to get started. Now that I’m stable again, I still love the occult, and am honestly kinda grateful that it happened the way that it did. I’ll talk more about all the weird shit I did while high on mania. It might be helpful to some people. Trigger warnings will be added to that too.

You’ll probably see some memes and whatever show/movie/game/book I’m into at that moment. It changes frequently lol

I am NOT a fan of new age spirituality. You’ll see me complaining, but you’ll never see me bullying anyone. I believe in gentle nudges in the right direction. Nobody TRIES to be problematic or misinformed.

I especially hate Star-Seeds. Or at least the belief system. I worry about the people who believe in it.

That’s gonna be a common theme. I hate a lot of belief systems but never the individuals who believe it. I just pity them, and also worry about them. Especially when it comes to Christianity. I have A LOT of religious trauma. (It’s the various churches and its history I hate. But the catholic aesthetic??? I love it. That can stay.)

But due to being prone to spiritual psychosis, at this moment I’ve decided not to cast any spells, besides the occasional candle spell for luck or something. Just small stuff and like, one a month. I’ll only be doing research. Mostly historical researching as I’ve decided I don’t like contemporary books on witchcraft. It’s a huge risk for misinformation, and doesn’t always explain where the spell came from or why and how it works. I want a better foundation for magic, and history is the way to go in my opinion. Folklore, old superstitions, old religions, (Religions especially so I know whether or not it’s opened or closed practices.) You’ll see a lot of posts on whatever I’ve read about that I find important. I’d also be super happy if someone adds to it, especially if they’re correcting me. But if you’re correcting me, please either add your source or give me a few key words so I can look into it myself. I’d be very grateful if Youre right but I won’t attack you if you’re wrong or we simply disagree.

And what I’m most excited about, is listing all the books I’ve read and reviewing them! I’ll keep a library, and update it here and there. I’ll also link any scholarly articles I find interesting.

[autie-j]

30 Days of Autism Acceptance 2021

Rules: Answer the prompt of the day on your own separate post. You can answer as many or as few of these as you like. Answer with as much or as little detail as you wish. Some questions this year have an alternative option that you can do if you prefer. You can answer just one or both of them. And make sure to tag it as #30daysofautismacceptance and #2021. And feel free to do this on any other social media platform that you want as well. Please help me spread this before the start of April!

Note: This year for the prompts I collaborated with my friend @lesmiserabby to make them. Half of the prompts were made by her and the other half were made by me.

April 1st: Introduce yourself. Talk about who you are as a person. Your age, hobbies, special interests, family, etc. Anything you feel comfortable sharing.

April 2nd: Post your redinstead photos today. Alternatively, you could talk about what autistic pride/autism acceptance month means to you.

April 3rd: How do you feel about dating/romantic relationships? Have you dated in the past/are you currently in a relationship/do you eventually want one? Do you feel that your experience of autism/stereotypes around autism and relationships impacts this?

April 4th: Are there any topics regarding autism that you feel don't get discussed enough?

April 5th: What was school like for you, or what is it currently like for you if you are still in school? Elementary, high school, post-secondary?

April 6th: Are you able to drive? If so, was it difficult to learn? What was difficult about it? If not, do you use any alternatives?

April 7th: How are you with sarcasm and/or metaphors/figures of speech? Do you interpret things very literally?

April 8th: Talk about friendship. How important are friends to you? Do you find it hard to make and maintain friendships? Are your friends generally supportive? Is there anything about having friends that confuses you?

April 9th: How has the pandemic impacted you? Has it changed routines? Do you like or dislike masks? What do you wish allistics and neurotypicals knew/understood about how the pandemic is impacting autistic people?

April 10th: How important is representation to you? Is the representation that is out there generally good or bad? What is your favorite piece of representation? What you like to see more of in autism representation? What would you like to see less of?

April 11th: What are your thoughts/feelings about masking (a term for when autistic people hide their autistic traits)? Do you mask?

April 12th: Is there anything you find hard to do because of being autistic? Is there anything that you find easy?

April 13th: How much preparation and planning do you need before doing new things, or even for familiar things? Do you need to be totally prepared ahead of time or are you more comfortable with being spontaneous/just going for it? Does it vary for you depending on the thing or the day?

April 14th: What do you like about being autistic?

April 15th: Do you work? If so, what is that like for you? Are you open about being autistic at work? Alternatively, how open are you about being autistic? Do you tell a lot of people? Or just a select few? How do people normally react when you tell them? If you don't tell people, then why?

April 16th: What did it feel like when you interacted with other autistic people for the first time? What does the autistic community mean to you? How important is it?

April 17th: How do you feel about terms like "special needs"?

April 18th: Talk about identity. Is being autistic an important part of your identity? What does being autistic mean to you? Which do you prefer: identity first or person first language and why?

April 19th: Do you enjoy music, or do you find it overstimulating? If you do like music, what kind of music do you prefer?

April 20th: What are some things that allistic people do that you find confusing?

April 21st: Do you stim? If so, what are your favourite ways of stimming? What does stimming feel like for you?

April 22nd: What are some things allistic people can do to better support/accommodate autistic people?

April 23rd: How specific is your routine? Does it vary slightly from day to day? Do things have to be at the exact same time, or does just the order matter? How important is having a routine to you?

April 24th: Are there things that seemed to come naturally to others that you had to try to learn over time?

April 25th: Do you experience executive dysfunction? If so, how often? What is it like for you? What do you wish neurotypicals understood about it?

April 26th: Talk about special interests. Do you have special interests? If not do you wish you did? What do your special interests mean to you? What are your current special interests? What are your past special interests?

April 27th: What is your favourite form of media? For example, do you enjoy books? What format do you prefer for books (physical, e-book, audiobook)? Did you love reading as a kid but find it challenging as you got older? How about movies, tv, or video games? Do you have a favourite series?

April 28th: If you could give advice to someone who just found out that they are autistic, what advice would you give?

April 29th: How do you feel about shoes? Are they good sensory? Bad sensory? Are there certain types of shoes that you find more or less comfortable? Do you struggle with replacing shoes when they're worn out?

April 30th: What would you like your overall message for autism acceptance month to be?

[unu-nunu-art]

(in case of compression issues, follow these links for their full sheets on DeviantArt: Faith’s reference, Frenzy’s reference)

Their bio can be found right under the cut, and if you have any further questions, let me know!

Let's start 2021 with a bang by introducing two new characters! Designing these two took much longer than expected but it was really worth it. I’m super happy about the results and am very excited to share these two with you!

As usual I am a bit nervous about sharing my characters... I really, really hope you like them!! >u<

Name: Faith Occupation: Representation of all positive Alternate Universes and pacifist timelines Age: ??? Height: About 140 cm (slightly taller than your regular Sans) Sexual Orientation: Is a concept he accepts and supports Likes: Getting on Frenzy's nerves, getting the respect he deserves, balance, sweets and food (and also drinks) in general, peace, celebrations Dislikes: Frenzy, having to work, battles, rain, loneliness Abilities: He is able to influence the feelings of others around him in a positive way at will. He is also able to create illusions and is able to use magic that is fueled by the positive side of determination. The more positive influence in the multiverse prevails the more powerful he is. He possesses a wooden staff that can be used to channel magic in any form, but is also helpful in combat. He is also able to shapeshift, which will only change his appearance but not his physical or magical abilities and is limited to copy only existing characters within the AU he’s currently in.

Faith represents any good force in the multiverse and therefore refers to himself as a "god", even though he has no ability to directly influence the multiverse. He is outgoing, kind, a bit simple-minded but also slightly narcissistic and prefers when things are peaceful. He also likes to celebrate, but usually prefers to watch from a distance and doesn't get too involved into the events of each timeline. He can get whiny and childish when things aren't going in his favor, but it can be unclear whether he just wants to get on your nerves or is actually upset. He is more of a background character, but whenever he feels the need to jump into action will do so - after an audible sigh. Whenever he cannot avoid combat, he usually tries to get things over with as quickly as possible. Although he cannot get permanently hurt or die, he still can feel pain and will need time to recover after a fatal blow. He can be a bit cheeky and sometimes forgets others have earthly needs, as he has no need to eat or sleep, but loves doing so out of pleasure.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name: Frenzy Occupation: Representation of all negative Alternate Universes and genocide timelines Age: ??? Height: About 140 cm (slightly taller than your regular Sans) Sexual Orientation: Is a concept he accepts and utilizes Likes: Getting on Faith's nerves, quiet, ruin, spreading doubt, manipulation, scheming, just really making your life miserable in general, sea food Dislikes: Faith, crowded places, know-it-alls, bright colors Abilities: He is able to influence the feelings of others around him in a negative way at will. He is also able to create illusions and is able to use magic that is fueled by the negative side of determination. The more negative influence in the multiverse prevails the more powerful he is. His weapons are daggers, but he's also able to control vines. He is also able to shapeshift, which will only change his appearance but not his physical or magical abilities and is limited to copy only existing characters within the AU he’s currently in.

Frenzy represents any bad force in the multiverse, even though he has no ability to directly influence the multiverse. He is a trickster that loves to mess with you, is calculating and silver-tongued, which only gains more impact by his abilities to manipulate emotions at will. He is driven by his hunger for power and likes nothing better than ruining timelines and turning them into a negative timeline. Mostly everything he says might sound slightly sarcastic, making it hard to distinguish whether he actually means it or not. He won't hesitate to jump into combat, although he will usually try to pull strings from the background or backstab you first. He cannot be hurt permanently or die, but he can still feel pain and if fatally injured will need time to recover. He has no need to sleep or eat, but enjoys these activities. He has a special fondness for sea food for some reason.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Additional notes:

They are NOT brothers. Being immortal beings, they aren’t related by blood and don’t consider themselves as brothers, but rivals

The general feud between them can be seen as a game. Frenzy is the one who actively tries to disturb the balance of the multiverse as total control would mean he is able to wipe out the entire multiverse. This is why Faith is serious about keeping the balance intact, but ultimately treats it like it's a hobby of his

When Faith and Frenzy tried to influence the same person at the same time, they'd cancel each other out (unless the balance is disturbed)

The halos around their heads display how much power they have - the higher the imbalance, the larger and intricate (or smaller and more simple) they become. However, they can be hidden by both Faith and Frenzy. Frenzy often hides his own, while Faith proudly wears it.

The reference sheets refer to them when the multiverse is in balance

Frenzy usually keeps his hood up, while Faith usually just wears it to emphasize his status

Their weapons can be summoned at will

Their names refer to the good and bad side of determination: Faith refers to the fact to never give up Hope, no matter how dire the situation might be, while Frenzy refers to the obsessive pursuit to achieve a goal no matter what it takes