#so maybe people didn't notice??

[daily-sloop-john-b]

I know someone's commented on this before, but 7000 people—1000 per spawn—over 169 years (Sabastian's 170 - 1 year buried alive) is 5.9 victims/year.

That's really fucking inefficient.

Either Astarion's VASTLY overstating his skill, or there was a lot more torture in the torture:luring ratio than he likes to recall.

[xitsensunmoon]

My first ever comic con! And first cosplay too. Of course it's gonna be my boy :] Ramblings about the process are under the cut(Let me know if?? You would want me to elaborate with process images for any of the steps?)

The costume took me forever to make, as I've never done any machine sewing, sculpting, fabric dying or spray painting before but learning all of these was so fucking fun!! I never realised just how many different skills go into making a cosplay but it was so worth it!!!

Almost all of the clothes(except the hat) were purchased first as bases, but all of the detailing was added by me. All of the fabric used was originally just scraps that I was given for free so I needed to learn how to dye and dye all of the stars, they were originally white.

The sewing machine was its own beast that brought me tons of frustration from the lack of skill and knowledge (it was devastating to find out that 95% of fuck ups were my fault and not the machine's lmao). But as a result, a hat sewn from scratch, all of the fur trims, embroidery on the corset, stars and the collar(which is very hard to see on the pictures unfortunately) was all added manually. The stars and the stripes(on the back of the cape) were attached using heat-and-bond adhesive (I WISH I knew about such thing just when I started working on this. It would save me so much time and nerves.)

Then I found out about polymorph(mouldable plastic) and it has become the next thing I wanted to learn, to sculpt the claws and the fangs(yes, they're handmade jfksjs). The claws I then primed and painted in trillion coats because I wasn't satisfied with the colour of the spray paint. The fangs I moulded to my own teeth and then stained with tea to match the colour of my teeth :)c

As for makeup, I used Mehron Paradise water activated paints. At first I wanted to try to save money and bought myself Snazaroo instead, which unfortunately turned out to be a waste. Snazaroo didn't hold on my face for longer than 2 hours, cracking and peeling awfully. Mehron on the other hand survived 11 hours of me smiling, talking, emoting and such and didn't even crease at the smile lines(I'm actually shocked about that). It obviously works like any other makeup which means your skin texture and wrinkles won't go anywhere but Mehron's elasticity pleasantly surprised me. It did obviously smear from sweat and saliva(if you're eating and licking your lips) but if you don't touch the skin it just dries again, self setting. But if it's dry it's fully smear-proof. Highly recommend!

And last but not least, I've decided against painting my hands as it was very risky that I will stain everything I touch at the smallest hint of sweat. So instead I got myself gloves-tights(? Not sure how they're called but it's made from the same fabric as tights) and painted them with normal acrylic paint(did you know you could dye fabric with acrylic paint? I personally didn't), then heat set with an iron and voilà, they're reusable, my hands are not stained after an exhausting day and I don't stain everything I touch. It worked wonderfully which honestly was a surprise as I was really sceptical that acrylic paint will somehow stay in place.

I think this whole thing took me minimum of 6 months with big-big breaks for my school and life in general. But I'm really proud! This project taught me so many new skills and I couldn't have been happier about learning new knowledge, even if it sucked to fail in the meantime.

Everyone at the con was really nice and gave me a large confidence boost even tho it was my first time and I had no idea what I was doing. Taking photos with other people was really awkward/new for me as I hate cameras so I really had no idea how to pose/behave in front of one. But that's okay I think. This whole experience definitely made me want to do this again, so I think that will come with experience. Thank you for reading this far, hope you enjoyed this little summary :)

[fishofthewoods]

Oh my god I woke up this morning and my Stardew Valley meta post had almost 150 notes????? Hello?????????? Anyways I started writing this last night because @moon-is-pretty-tonight left nice tags on the original so thank you so much!!

We know from the starting scenes of the game that the farmer's grandfather loved Stardew Valley. So why did he leave? Pelican Town is a good place to grow old; George and Evelyn are just fine. It's a fine place to raise a kid, but maybe he just wanted to raise his child closer to real schools and other children.

Or maybe, just maybe, he understood.

Was there a day when he was in his thirties where he looked at his friends and realized they weren't like him? That he could run faster than them, work longer, explore deeper into the hidden places of the valley?

Was there a day when he went to the wizard to ask him for help, for knowledge if nothing else? Did he learn then that his family was different? Special? Chosen? And how did he react? He couldn't possibly raise a child in the valley if they would be as strange and fey as him. He had to leave. There was no other way.

But years later, on his deathbed, did he regret that choice?

Is that why he gave the farmer the letter?

Is that why they went back home?

When the farmer steps off the bus that first day, the valley is still on the cusp of winter, just barely tipping over into spring. The flowers are starting to bloom, but a chill still hangs in the air. As soon as the farmer's boots touch the soil there's a change. The air gets warmer. The trees get greener. Not by too much, not all at once, but it changes.

The junimos watch the farmer as they do their work. They're new to farming, but take to it with frightening speed; their first batch of crops is perfect. None of the townsfolk tell them that parsnips don't normally grow in less than a week, that cauliflowers don't grow to be ten feet tall, that fairies don't visit when the sun goes down and grow potatoes and beans and tulips overnight. The junimos talk amongst themselves in their strange, wild language, and agree: this is the one. They're back. The valley recognizes its own, even when they've left for a generation. The farmers have come home.

Things change fast in the valley. The community center, empty and decrepit for so many years, is rejuvenated. (Lewis says it was abandoned only a few weeks after the farmer's grandfather left. Strange coincidence, he says, that it both came and went with the farmer's family.) The mines and the quarry, similarly abandoned, are explored for the first time in ages. The town becomes cleaner, brighter, more vibrant, happier.

And it is happier. Not just the environment, but the people. It's the talk of the town for weeks when Haley does her first closet purge. Leah's art show in the town square is a huge success. Shane's smiling for the first time since he moved to the valley. All of them, when asked, say it's all thanks to the farmer.

People love to ask why Lewis didn't fix the community center on his own. Why Willy never repaired the boat to ginger island. Why Abigail or Marlon never went down to fix the elevator in the mines, or why Clint didn't fix the minecarts.

But isn't it so much more interesting to ask how those things were there in the first place? How they got so broken down? If the stories the townspeople tell are true, the valley was once a beautiful place, flourishing and full of life; why did that change? When did it change?

Was it when the farmer's grandfather, the locus of the valley, its chosen representative, left town?

And if so, what happens when the farmer comes back?

[nelkcats]

Bounty hunters and misunderstandings

After Vlad's failure with the million dollar hunt, the GIW and many interested in the "weird ghost boy" decided to give the idea a try and put various bounties on Phantom's capture. Since Amity was a ghost-infested town, most of them didn't go there and sent their own bounty hunters, some were interested on study the creature further, others wanted to prove his existence.

Danny realized that he could capture "Phantom" and escape multiple times to collect the money for all the rewards with his friends help, after all, the prizes seemed to be offered in cash. He had a good idea of ​​where he could spend the money and was so excited about it, he used a box to put the various envelopes and hide it on his room.

Jazz got mad at Danny for getting caught by bounty hunters to repeatedly collect the prize money. She didn't think it was safe and her annoying little brother kept talking about a new video game.

She saw him excited about the new game that had come out but she didn't see the point, he could play online! There was no reason to risk that much. That's why when Danny was very tired, out of ectoplasm and someone finally hold him with no chance of escape, Jazz refused to rescue him from his own mistakes.

But while visiting Danny's room, she noticed that the money was not for a video game but for her college tuition and future life. The box she found was decorated with small drawings of ghosts and a "For my older sister" written with a green marker.

Now Jazz has 24 hours to save Danny from Deathstroke's prison before he hand him over to his contractors. On his side, Deathstroke had successfully captured the strange creature; the inventions of the weird scientists who dragged him to their house had worked, and since he pushed up his deadline he would just wait for his contractor until the next day to collect his payment.

[priceofreedom]

funny how everyone seemed to adore Zack until he started having more screentime...

[juniperleafdelivery]

[cellgatinbo]

jesus fucjing christ i was not expecting any of that with bad and tina tonight. bad has skirted around certain subjects and given vague hints before, but this is the first time he's ever been so absolutely, completely upfront about himself and what he's been doing on his own. him laying down everything straight about how hurt he is, how the others' actions have hurt him, how he's hurting himself.

and he said all this to tina, who though they have petty fights all the time, he can tell they feel the same about certain things and that she won't judge him as harshly as some of the other islanders. she said no one trusted her, and i think at that moment he realized he maybe could.

[sisterdivinium]

You know, for a show with so many female characters that so many of us love given how they all get time in the spotlight one way or another and they fill that time up rather wonderfully since they are deeper and more developed than what we're used to seeing in general media, it is peculiar (to say the least) to see so few "alternative" ships to the main one.

I'm not saying the canon ship doesn't deserve its attention -- I'm wondering instead why the canon ship and it alone seem to guide the WN fans who just so happen to enjoy writing/reading fic or fanart or whatever.

You'd think all these cool women would inspire more ships or combinations thereof, but those of us who aren't invested in avatrice just... Float along, around one another, ignored (and, yes, mostly undisturbed too; being unpopular does have its advantages and that includes a lot less weirdos leaving you strange or awkward messages -- it does not, however, shield us from people flooding our goddamn tags on AO3 with fic that has nothing to do with our little ships and I do wish such negligence of the pairing itself meant we didn't have to deal with this spam...)

I am also not saying that fandom activity should be based solely on shipping (and recently someone on Reddit was rather confused by the fact that a lot of it is, which is quite an interesting topic to discuss in itself -- after all, there is more to fan creativity than shippy fic... Or there used to be), merely that, here, it appears that a canon relationship can outshine interest in the other, non-canon ones. It's already there and it was doubtless well-done by the show, so it's natural that it should claim people's attention, sure. It's just that being canon was never the parameter for whether people were interested in these or those two (or more) characters maybe being involved and trying to explore what that could mean through fanwork.

There has always been a complaint haunting fandom spaces concerning the minuscule amounts of f/f fic, art, discussion, w/e based on how few (interesting or sympathetic or relatable) female characters there are in media at large. So what I'm curious about is why fan creations made around WN -- a show that finally gives us a whole cast of female characters that are what we have been craving for decades -- don't also reflect its diversity.

There are alternative ships (I'm here, all happy in my tiny Doctor Superion bubble, and I know there are Camila/Lilith, Ava/Lilith, Mary/Shannon, Mary/Lilith shippers out there, so a warm hello to you if you're reading this), but go on AO3 and compare the numbers of things tagged with these proper pairings to the grand total of WN stories. Better (or worse) still, do so with the "otp: true" trick or simply by excluding avatrice from the search to see how many are left.

It's... A considerable difference. And a mystery, at least to me.

[canisalbus]

just a quick ask to tell u it makes me super happy seeing the detail u go into when pointing out stuff u like about other people's art of ur ocs :3 it's so rare to see but it's so so motivating!! <3

Thank you! I don't take any interest for my art for granted, and if someone goes through the trouble of drawing my characters for me, I feel like trying to write a proper response is the least I can do. For a visually oriented person, receiving gift/fan art is a huge deal, it means someone considered my goobers worth their time and effort, they've probably been thinking about them more than a little and found them inspiring in a way or another, and I find that terribly flattering. It's extremely fun and interesting to see other people's takes on them. And I've drawn stuff for people as well, I know how nice and rewarding it feels to receive a response that is longer than a word or two. Positive comments like that can linger in people's minds for a long time, at least for me they do.

[ramenwithbroccoli]

okay i'm done 💥💥💥💥

when i first heard the name of @boneinator 's new bot, Rosetta, i thought of those big, rose-like colorful glass windows (their name in polish is 'rozeta', so it's pretty similar). that's why i couldn't get the idea of a stained glass" piece out of my head. so here it is :]

[italoniponic]

i NEVER noticed that in the ep where Mai first appears, Ty Lee comments "Zuko, huh? that's gonna be interesting, right Mai?" and Mai looks to the side and smiles

HOMEGIRL SMILED I GOT SO HYSTERICAL

"I like them but tbh I never saw them coming" *furiously slaps my past self*

[sherlock-is-ace]

the imposter syndrome i feel every time i even slightly think i might be autistic is insane, specially for a person who highly relates to the lived experiences of people who are professionally diagnosed.

Like I was just watching this one youtuber, and she was talking about very specific examples in her life and childhood where she saw autistic traits that made her realize she was autistic and then seek a diagnosis and then get one, and everything she was saying was like she was describing my life! But yeah no, I can't be autistic tho

[daisywords]

time loop in like a small town or something where each time the loop resets, one new person becomes aware of it

[ethersierra]

i wish people were more open to saying "its not for me" rather than being like "this is objectively bad and here's why"

[silver-horse]

That owlbear is so cute! Can you actually keep him and Scratch without the dog getting eaten?

Yes! They actually become friends. There is a cutscene shortly after the owlbear has joined the camp where they are sleeping together.

Well... the owlbear cub hasn't eaten anyone so far during Act 1. We will see what happens when it grows bigger Lol But it would be weird if they wrote something like that for the cute adopted pets.

Anyway for the owlbear recruitment everyone should know:

1. avoid confrontation with the mother (pass an animal handling check and then walk away, don't go near them after the mother has told you to f off, don't try to loot nearby corpses, just leave) It's possible to not meet the cub and the mother at all and then you will just meet the cub for the first time in the goblin camp, this shouldn't be a problem. But you will probably run into them and in that case you should avoid the fight.

2. in the goblin camp, talk to the goblins who are playing a game with the cub (the goblin's name is Krolla)

3. now you can "talk" to the owlbear cub (you don't necessarily have to use speak with animals spell/potion, just click on the cub and communicate)

4. talk again to the goblin Krolla. Now there will be an option to say that you will take the cub. Pass an ability check to convince her. Now your character will comment that hopefully the cub can follow our scent to camp.

5. That's it, you did it. It will take a few night (maybe 2) before the cub actually shows up at camp. The cub won't immediately stay. For the first couple of nights, there will be unique scenes where you can interact with the cub. (But at this point the only bad thing you could do is choose to shoo away the cub on purpose.) Eventually the cub stays permanently and you will be able to pet it any time.

Bonus goodness: you will gain companion approval from Shadowheart, Astarion, Wyll and Gale for befriending and petting the cub. (not Lae'zel LOL but she doesn't disapprove)

By the way... owlbear recruitment was bugged for me in this last patch. I did everything the way I always do, my character commented that the cub should follow our scent to camp and yet.. many nights have passed and no owlbear cub. :(((( So I really hope they fix this for the final release. It would be one of the worst things to miss out on the owlbear cub.

EDIT: It's not bugged in patch 9 !!! Owlbear finally showed ip in my camp! However it took way longer than 2 nights, maybe it will be similar in the final release. So be aware that you will have to wait, but if you rescued the cub then it should be fine.

[revenantghost]

Every time I see someone baffled at the almost-entirely female cast of Signalis, and yet never see any questioning of the common almost-entirely-male casts of other games, I’m just like