#this post is about project: nexus

[syn4k]

being insane about a series you're making that's still undergoing development is so fucking annoying because i have the PERFECT song for this character but this won't make any sense until i get to the related flashback and i cant tell you about it beforehand because that'd ruin everything. Fuck.

[docsbestkissedoperative]

i think it's fair to say that hank is the type to be so focused on whatever his goal is that he will never take no for an answer in regards to it, no matter the circumstance

i'm primarily thinking of project nexus where he completely doesn't gaf if the project could have been used for good.

(granted that i don't know how trustworthy the jeb of now would be in running it, but the moment jeb was no longer of use to him, he hit him with a missile launcher and tried to kill deimos and sanford)

i think a lot of people see this as just hank turning against dei and san, and while i agree on this because he does do that, i also see it as him being very stubborn about reaching what he wants

i'm fascinated by how this reaction from him doesn't just come out of nowhere, either. take this line from sanford

the thing about this line is that sanford's right. hank HASN'T listened

add every single time hank insists he can kill gestalt even when told why no one can, and there's SO many times hank doesn't care at all about what they're saying. it's in one ear out the other

one of the only times i can think of that he kind of cares is when he and jeb are trying to crush gestalt

it's so notable to me because i don't believe he ever uses an exclamation mark for anything else! but he only reacted like this when something directly impedes his ability to finish the mission, when there's a plan to deal with what's stopping him but it's not working

so when i look at this, it recontextualizes why he acts that way towards dei and san in the end

they are stopping him from reaching his goal. he doesn't use an exclamation mark again, but i think his reaction here reinforces the idea that if you are in his way, he will not hesitate to kill you

plus, while his next line says that he did want to get into a fight with the duo, it's so so interesting that hank actually tries to reason with them first (aka the first 2 screenshots). it's just him reiterating that it's the mission, but he doesn't go straight into killing them. as long as the plan to deal with what's stopping him works, he's willing to play nice

but san and dei refuse to agree with him, and that's what gets him to ask if they're going to have a problem

if we look at the animated versions too, i'm thinking about his quest to defeat the sheriff as an early example of that stubbornness, and of course we can't forget how that same stubbornness is likely part of why he gets the auditor's ire so much

hank is a force of nature that cannot stop, will not stop, and does not want to stop until he gets what he wants, and i think that makes him all the more dangerous

[deernozone]

hello everybody, I love Jorge so much, thanks for listening

[madnessself-indulgence]

[pinkyjulien]

17.06 - "Should we expect any kind of change concerning content moderation?"

When asked about inclusive content and hateful/bigoted mods, Foldinho, one of Nexus' new owner, replied:

"[...] we fully intend to continue supporting moderation principles that make Nexus feel safe and inclusive. That foundation matters, and we won’t compromise on it."

Comment available on Dark0ne post

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17.06 - NexusMods' new owners, Marinus, Nikolai and Victor, posted a new pinned comment on Dark0ne's post to "clear the air on a few things"

Link to the post Full copy/pasted post and questions available in a reblog

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16.06 - Nexus Mods was acquired by Chosen, a company focused on growth and monetization of gaming startups.

Reddit thread

Dark0ne, creator and ex-owner of Nexus Mods, stepped down today in an update post:

NexusMods post

Users on Resetera were able to found out more about this sudden change of ownership:

Resetera thread

Victor Folmann, CEO of Chosen, published this "Gaming Startup Monetization Cheat Sheet" on his LinkedIn

Link to the post

Users are already sharing their fear of NexusMods allowing more bigoted mods in the future, and taking down inclusive ones to follow the current "anti-woke" trend in the gaming industry

Reseta threada bout their change in moderation concerning bigoted mods following Oblivion Remastered launch

Another User, this time on NexusMods forum, noticed queer and inclusive mods being removed following Dark0ne's post

Link to the forum post

It is also worth mentioning that Chosen and its CEO are seen using AI generated images on their website (including generated images depicting Tracer from Overwatch) hyping up ChatGPT on his Linkedin account, and are including "rewarding gamers with crypto money"

Users speculate that Chosen buying out NexusMods is to potentially train an AI model that generates mods

More about Nvidia's AI "RTX Remix" and future projects

[shadowcryptid0321]

I’m so excited to share the personal project I’ve been working on for the last few weeks, making the some of tsams cast out of polymer clay!

So for a little context, last Christmas I was gifted a huge amount of polymer oven bake clay in a rainbow of different colors and had no idea what to do with it until a friend suggested to try and sculpt sun and moon. Two adorable clay figures later it was decided that I’d try to sculpt the whole family (as well as the non canon villain family members). Two weeks later now I’ve got 14 figures to share pictures of. I absolutely loved doing this, between the wacky antics of sculpting baking and painting to the finished work I’ve had so much fun. Unfortunately tumblr only lets me post ten picture at a time but I’ve got a bunch of pictures of these little guys as well as some fun in progress photos I’m gonna share eventually.

Something to note about the figures is I opted for all of them to have cat paw toe beans instead of normal shoes and a few of the characters whom wear night caps (moon, kc , bloodmoon2, ruin and nexus ) all have real metal bells at the end of their caps and one of my favorite details is jacks candy corn patches and hat charm.

I should also mention these guys are really tiny, lunar’s head is the size of an m&m candy

[feverdreamjohnny]

"Why There Will Never Be a Peeb Adventures" otherwise known as "The Peeb Adventures Pre-Mortem"

Since 2020, I've made a good chunk of games. Hell, even though I've been doing this for 10 years to date, the majority of my progress as a creative began over the course of this 4 year period.

Out of all the games I've made - or otherwise had a hand in - there is only one that's apparently struck a chord so deeply with people that to this day I still get messages and comments asking when it will come out.

The title of this post already explains the whole deal so I'm not gonna be dramatic about it right here. As per usual, I will instead get heart-clutchingly dramatic about the subject by the end of this story.

I felt the idea of a "Pre-Mortem" might be a fun way to talk about games that will never be finished. Maybe I'll make more of these down the line for other old games, who knows.

"The Incredibly True Origins of Peeb Adventures" or "Wow! I Hate It!"

Peeb Adventures began as a gift game for my long-time friend Aaron. It was simple, fun little gag that stemmed from a 3D model I made of a character he doodled during a drawpile session. I gave Peeb a grapple hook just because I wanted to experiment with swinging mechanics and felt the gag gift was a great space to toy around in without having to actually ask myself how on earth I'd want to structure a game around a grappling hook. Foreshadowing!

Eventually, the gag gift did that classic thing all developers have experienced before where your game spirals out of control and grows into a hideous monster, and what started as a fairly abstract grappling toy convergently evolved into that dreaded state we call a "3D Mascot Platformer."

I made a very short demo in the summer of 2020. It went absolutely nowhere, and after an idol of mine caught wind and asked to play it (before sending about 3 paragraphs of feedback suggesting how to improve what was, in my view, a trainwreck of baby blocks stacked on top of eachother), I shelved the project.

"The Absolutely Tremendulous HPS1 Adventure of Peeb" or "My Friend Jam Suggested I Revive the Project and So I Did"

Shortly after Peeb was shelved for the first time, I joined a community of game developers called Haunted PS1. For those not in the know, HPS1 was essentially the nexus point for "retro horror games" in the indie sphere, and a lot of the resulting deluge (non-perjorative) on itch.io can find its roots in this community.

HPS1 was a good place. Lots of nice, talented people willing to tolerate the kind of mindless riffing I often do in voice calls, anyway. I made a decent chunk of friends there, some of which I'm still quite close to, even today.

HPS1 has this tradition called the HPS1 Demo Disc that began in 2020, and with the year coming to its end, there was talk of a new one set to arrive in spring 2021.

Unlike the first demodisc, however, 2021's disc required you to submit a game in-progress to a panel of judges. They'd then give their yay-or-nay, and you were either in or out.

One day, I was musing over the fact that I didn't really have anything to submit so I would likely have to sit out of 2021's disc. My friend, Jam, who you might know as the developer of the Heilwald Loophole (or Beton Brutal) suggested I consider reviving Peeb Adventures as my submission to the demo disc.

Why did I follow through on this? I don't know. It's funny to think a scenario this simple was the launch point for my career.

Over the next 6 months, I worked on turning the absolutely horrendous gag game into... Something still kinda trite but at least playable. I had some help from my longtime teammate drurylain, my longtime friend Aaron (the creator of Peeb's original design), and my longtime spiritual uncle Tim, and with our powers combined... A new kind of demo experience where you don't do anything of particular note besides swinging around was born.

Also quite important: the very same drawpile session that spawned Peeb also spawned Orbo, who would also make his own appearance in Peeb Adventures as a recurring side character (since I felt like Peeb needed a friend).

"Go! Incredible Friendship Unites in the Gameosphere! Peeb and Orbo are Born!" or "Peeb Adventures: Coming Never"

So the demo for Peeb Adventures was finished early March 2021, and the demo disc went live on itch.io on the 25th of the month.

The demo disc then proceeded to do a backflip and pick up a LOT of traction online. Which then meant Peeb itself was catching little bits of the traction in its mouth and smacking its lips.

I went from "guy who makes games for nobody" to "guy who makes games for that one very specific brand of teen on twitter who loves the object head show", and I was riding high.

Fanart poured in. People showed a lot of love. I was dazzled by it all, really.

Despite the love for the game and the potential on hand, progress was stagnant. My group of friends and I all got together in a google doc and wrote an entire planning bible for the game. Game mechanics, story beats, twists and turns, the whole thing. Despite having the structure lined up, I had other ambitions and began working on a multiplayer deathmatch game that quickly overtook my work schedule.

Peeb sat on the backburner, but at the time I still wanted to finish it one day. My main excuse was "well, I just need more money! If I'm going to work on this game it's gonna need more than one fulltime person and I can't just ask people to work for free!" That excuse worked on me for a while.

"I Don't Think I Want to Play With You Anymore Peeb!" or "There's Such a Thing as Too Much Love"

A while had passed at this point. My ambitions hadn't just grown, they'd completely shifted. Before long, I found myself working on yet another demo for the 2022 HPS1 Demo Disc, "The Spectral Mall."

Nowhere, MI wasn't just some random toy for me, but the culmination of all my love into one game. Despite its silly demeanor, the game was a product of a lot of pain, and even now I still desperately want to finish it. Except I have to make money to live, so... Oops!

Anyhow, there was a shift in demeanor for me during 2022. You have Peeb, a game that I made on a whim as kind of a joke with friends, and you have Nowhere, MI, a game that meant the world to me during really dark times.

And you know what? There were a lot of people that wanted Peeb. People that never stopped asking me about it.

I realized while working on Nowhere that I didn't really know what I would even do if I ever had the chance to work on the full Peeb Adventures. Not only did I find the nagging kind of annoying, Peeb was also something I couldn't really... Wrap my head around?

It occurred to me that Peeb wasn't really "my" game anymore, it was "his" game. The old Johnny.

I'd changed a lot since the game had come out in early 2021. In a year and a half my world got flipped upside down, and... I don't know, Nowhere was way more reflective of who I was now. Sure the humor was still pretty asinine, but there was a shift. It was hard to picture the "Peeb Adventures" people were actually looking forward to when my own sensibilities had drifted so far.

When the Nowhere demo came out along with Spectral Mall, it did... Alright? People liked it, but it wasn't the same as Peeb's release. Hell, even in Nowhere's release there were people pushing it aside to ask the same question they'd been asking every week leading up to it. "When is Peeb Adventures coming out?"

"Goodbye Peeb!"

It was increasingly harder and harder to not look back at Peeb and kind of hate it. It was rough in every respect, and yet it whenever I met people who'd heard of me online, they always cited Peeb Adventures.

Strangers continue to ask me when it's coming out. On rare occasion I'll get someone asking about Nowhere and I'll feel a bit excited anyone else cares about that game besides me and maybe my friends, but most of the time people just ask about Peeb.

To finally answer this question I've been asked for nearly 4 years: There will probably never be a Peeb Adventures.

"Goodbye Johnny."

I like to believe one of the reasons people are attracted to my body of work is because I make games to reach out to other people. That's probably not the real reason, but it's nice to play pretend and imagine your work has more significance than just "ha ha boner."

I put a lot of myself in my games and I rarely hold back, even if an idea is insanely stupid or strange. The result usually becomes something more like a scrapbook than a game.

It's hard to try and expand on a game like Peeb when the Johnny who made it isn't really with us anymore. If I worked on Peeb now, you'd get some kind of irregular frankenstein that'd never be as exciting as the original vision was.

By the time I get around to Nowhere again, am I still going to be this Johnny? Or will the next Johnny look back at Nowhere the same way I look at Peeb now? Who knows.

Anyway, look forward to more games from me and my friends. Even if it's not Peeb Adventures, it'll still be us.

[peachyfnaf]

if u saw me post this before, no you didn't kdgisgiag

yall know about the running joke of dca artists drawing the dca's experiencing cramps to project?? yeah i did that to nexus

CRAMPS BE UPON YE

[syn4k]

"this character is cishet" bro what the fuck are you talking about he's wearing FINGERLESS GLOVES. No self-respecting cishet person wears fingerless gloves are you kidding me

[christnarr]

victor madness combat masterpost

everything we know about victor, a co-op exclusive project nexus character

theres a lot of things people dont know about them!! like their connection with the maker, how they interact with the audience, etc. however this information is intentionally kept obscure for narrative reasons (ill explain later) so its understandable if you didnt know about this

full post under the cut since its long ==v

SECTION 1: BURGER GILS

the first appearance of victor was on the official burger gils website, under the "updates" section

the first news update, #207, says that rich (a character we see in "power play") is no longer the employee of the month, thus giving the title to victor.

the next prominent update is #209, which states victor has mysteriously gone missing and gil is setting up a hotline for their return.

judging by the next and final update alluding to the fall of nexus city, and that they can "finally open their doors" due to health inspectors being inoperable, we can assume victor went missing beforehand since the restaurant was functioning at the time of the hotline being released.

the reason for their disappearance is still unknown, but that can lead us into the next and more important section:

SECTION 2: THE MAKER (YES, REALLY)

victor, by the laws of the universe, is not meant to exist in nevada. they are an anomaly.

similarly to the maker, they are likely trying to avoid being spotted by the machine or some other "indestructible nightmare".

we learned in a stream that the maker talks to victor, and won't allow their "story" to be told.

"maybe vic, but his story can't be told. the maker won't allow it. that's why the maker talks to vic all the time. he'll never get near the plot."

victor stays as far away from the narrative as possible, choosing to hide as a co-op exclusive character for MPN. krinkels always emphasizes that there's a meta reason for this. even in things like little doodles, victor seems to want to hide from the public eye.

victor reappeared after the city fell, and was found and taken into sq. there is a reason doc wanted victor to join sq, and that doc knows of their importance. however, krinkels wants to keep this part of the story untold too.

SECTION 3: PERSONALITY + ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

not much comments here since ill leave these up to interpretation. heres some dialogue + other things from them that show their personality.

thanks to CondescendingChaos48s self eater dialogue video for providing these :D - mpn devchat clip of wallium doing a victor voice impression - burger gil plushie ad, which victor appears in

-this screenshot

-victor may be the youngest of the main cast

-the burger gil arg, which victor briefly appears in (their involvement is described in the first section)

and thats all! do what you want with this info, i just want to shed light on stuff about victor that isnt as well known

[docsbestkissedoperative]

The (My) Centerpiece of Violence

Sequel to the Ocean of Blood

See under the cut for transcript and rambling

[START OF TRANSCRIPT]

DOC/2BDAMNED: I've been thinking of that dream you told me about.

And as I did, I started to ask myself...why I never considered what would become of you.

(and you) (and you) (and you) (and you)

Living a lifetime of violence. Forced to fight and forced to rise without your say so.

Do you do it willingly, HANK WIMBLETON? Does it even matter (to me) if you do, HANK?

There are things at play much larger than either of us. And I know at least one thing. They need you for whatever it is they have planned.

But the problem is, I need you too.

You are perfect in the ways I need you to be.

You knew madness before you knew your own name.

You are a killing machine. Violence is an inseparable part of your being.

It is exactly what I need. MY DUTY cannot be fulfilled without it.

Many sacrifices have been made to keep us (me) alive. And you are the latest one.

...

...

I'm sorry, Hank. I will not stop now. That status quo must remain.

Maybe you resent me for it already, and maybe one day you will understand (forgive me),

but I will not wait.

[END OF TRANSCRIPT]

Rambling starts here! I'm very tired so I hope this makes sense. I also won't talk about every bit of the comic, so it might be that I jump here and there!

WOW! This one took a long time to make. This comic has been cooking up in my mind not long after I posted the Ocean of Blood one. From Doc's perspective, it is the point where he has to fully acknowledge the ramifications of what he does. Specifically, if he can justify taking another person's agency for the sake of his goals.

I mentioned in another post how Hank lacks a lot of agency, and how his status as the "eye of the storm" plays a lot into this. I added that this is partly because even if he has his own goals, he's only usually able to move if they happen to align with another person's goals as well. Right now, that person is Doc, and in the comic now, he's contemplating on whether to bring Hank back or not.

I believe Doc's work is very important to him. In one of the flashbacks in Project Nexus, Christoff describes what Doc does as "ghoulish", and THIS is the only time we actually see him mad! In the rest of the game, he's always the one who's keeping his cool, even when a meeting with the VendeVice goes wrong. To see him drop that and snap back because his work was questioned is SO interesting.

With how much he values what he does, I think another point of interest is his willingness to let someone lose their agency to fulfill his goals. The two best examples I can think of here is Hank and the Player from arena mode.

Quick context on this, the Player is essentially trapped in a timeloop because if not, Nevada will fall. While Doc can't control these loops, he shows no desire to help the Player even when he is made aware of the loops by them. At most, he thinks it's impressive and fascinating, and he tends to be cagey about revealing the information he knows.

For Hank, that's what I wanted to look at in the comic! I wanted a moment where Doc can't shrug it off as easily. In this case, not only does Hank directly tell him about it, but he has to contend with the fact that Hank is experiencing this because Doc has and will continue to make decisions that takes Hank's agency away from him.

For the Player, it's easy to say it's all as it was intended to be, all he did was start the process, especially when the Maker himself agrees on this. But now, Doc has to do more than just waking someone else up. He has to deliberately choose to bring a body back, put it together, revive it, command others to bring the body and revive it, tell Hank to do things for the sake of SQ, etc. He is now the main decision maker.

On the comic itself, I wanted to mention my color palette. While I use three colors, the most important ones here are red and white. In this comic and the Ocean of Blood, I tried to follow this logic: Red is a representation of violence and madness, while white is a separation from it. More often than not, the backgrounds are red because Nevada itself appears to be inherently violent.

(I try to keep this logic when I choose what color the text is, but I have to admit that it sometimes becomes a matter of compromise so you can actually see it)

When I drew the Player, white was used to also represent the Nowhere, which I see as separate enough from Nevada that that permanent state of violence doesn't quite reach it. The only thing you can do there is surrender yourself to it.

Moving on to Doc, his hair isn't kept as short as it usually is, and the things that tend to give him a more intimidating appearance are also gone (goggles, jacket, etc). Doc is just as prone to danger now as every other Nevadean. This is my way of showing Doc being "vulnerable" to some degree, since this is a moment where he has to think a LOT about what he's doing and its costs. So when he tidies his hair and puts it all back on in the end, it's his way of "locking in" so to speak.

Also fun fact! the parentheses were, for me, a way of Doc being just a liiiiiittle more honest about how he feels, but very quietly so.

I can't say he's made complete peace with his decisions, but because he deems his work as highly valuable, there's nothing that will stop him from continuing it.

A lot of panels also make use of things that have appeared in the Madcom series! The vollyball (it's spelled this way in the series!) and wanted poster are from MC4, the guitar lessons are from MC 9.5 part 1, and "MY:DUTY" and the poster in the same panel is from DISSENTER. I did my best to copy each one (with some liberties and added symbolism). If you look at which line Hank's name is written on the vollyball and guitar lessons posters, it should line up with where it's written in the real ones!

The vollyball and guitar lessons posters are also very important in Hank's case! For someone who lacks agency, the moments where he does show agency are really noteworthy! Hank chose to sign up for these things!

The Vitruvian Man is said to symbolize the perfect/ideal man, and the fibonacci sequence is said to appear often in nature. I wanted to say this because these are the 2 panels I had in mind since I first made this comic. the Vitruvian Man was something I considered for Ocean of Blood, but decided to move it here. I wish I could spend paragraphs here complaining about how long it took to make these 2 panels, but I'm happy with how they turned out so I'll let it slide

The last thing I want to mention is the hand gesture Doc does in the MY DUTY panel is the symbol for chemical equilibrium! Tbh, i struggled to find something that could symbolize the status quo, but i'd argue that doc would want that equilibrium as part of it

EDIT: I FORGOT TO MENTION UNTIL SOMEONE MENTIONED IT IN THE TAGS! It might be obscure-ish, but the panel that says Hank knew madness before he knew his name is from part of the 2nd makeship plush description of him: "A little known fact about Hank is that he was unaware of his name until he read it on wanted posters."

[fabrowrites]

WIP Challenge!

Rules: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous.  Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it!  And then tag as many people as you have WIPs.  I have deemed that this isn’t just for writing either.  Sketch titles?  Comics?  DnD campaigns?  If you have an unfinished project, it counts!!  

Hi everyone! In honor of fanfic writer appreciation day, bringing this back!

My insane taglist under the cut, but if you see this in the wild feel free to jump on!!

tagging people from nwod and fic fest! ignore the ping if you didn't want it sorry dfkjlgh but i find these fun and thought some of you might, too :D

@only-lonely-stars @rosiehunterwolf @silvermags @starlightaxolotl @guplia @stars-brownies-n-metaphors @bananaplayzz @boba-pearl @caycubone @weekend-whip @pandemonium-kidz @aroninshonour @zebaji @kumoriwrites @spinbitchzu @tirednapentity @taddymason @psychologicalwarclaire @finn-m-corvex @knowledgequeenabc @tinywriterfairy @graceful-not @jays-supersonic-dynamo @artqueen02 @basicallyjaywalker @fruit-colored-ninja @summerf0x @nocturnal-nexu @riseleon @indigosky101 @miqotepotatoe @randomcrapstories @lightning-chicken @crikkit-kitterton @colesstar @lloydenthusiast @senseigrace @the-painted-siren @ataraxixx @parateuthis @curiositythecryptid @elemom @mikewheelerfan2022 @mcfanely @rainbow-flavoured-skittles @a-big-chicken-nerd @collectiveclams @stealingyourbones @abunnsburrow @survivalshipping @gravyhoney @officercooks @laziarteest @nin-jay-go @themilosquid @fandomsareforlife @goldenavenger02 @localguy2 @blu3cl0v3rs @ghostwalloper @cboffshore @bookworm-dork-fish @raven6229

HUGE BREATH HELLO

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

perhaps a bit of an odd question: so, when I'm scrolling tumblr on mobile, I have a habit of downloading most images i come across, so that I can send them to people who don't use tumblr, especially memes and animal photos. however, i also have severe memory issues, and I may end up forgetting where i got certain images. i know for the photo repository one of the rules is to not repost the photos without any modification- which i might forget, or forget which images on my phone fall under that rule. and while i would guess that that rule doesn't apply to stuff like direct messages or texts, i might forget to tell the person I'm sending it to, who might repost it elsewhere without being aware, or months after downloading i will just forget and use one of the photos in a post I'm making because it felt relevant.

this is something i can pretty easily solve myself by just blocking the photo repository blog, or tags relating to it, but I'd rather not do that because i do really like seeing the photos and all the info and stuff. and i would assume it would be an insane amount of work for you to add something like a watermark to every single photo, so I'm not really sure how to go about this. i like seeing the photos, but i don't want to accidentally break the rules.

You clearly care deeply about doing the "right thing", so, what that tells me is that you're not actually the target audience for that rule. I appreciate all the thought you put into this message. Let's talk about it!

I've been reconsidering if requiring people to get permission for reposting images is the best policy to have and I'd like people to weigh in.

My original reasoning was this: the more I can ensure that reposts are affiliated with credit, the better I can control copyright on the images on the site, and therefore have more ground to challenge any scrapers/fake accounts/AR groups that yoink them for nefarious purposes. The easiest way to do that seemed to be to have people ping and ask, with the expectation of saying yes almost all the time.

But there's a couple problems with that, I think, in practice:

People don't like emailing strangers (I forget this! I have done it for work for so many years it isn't uncomfortable anymore).

This isn't how the internet works. (Tumblr has a specific microculture that encourages crediting creators and not stealing! Once this is shared more widely on other platforms, I don't expect it'll be the same ecosystem).

It actually undermines organic spread of content! (You're less likely to make an excited post about a cool photo if you have to send a maybe-scary email and wait for a response). And I do want there to be lots of eyeballs on the photos.

Realistically, @nexus-nebulae, with the policy right now? If you slipped up and reposted something without thinking, I'd just ask you to add credit to the post so it directs back to the site. The goal of this whole project is community access and engagement - I want to you to enjoy the photos, and send them to your friends! I'm just trying to also protect it from the awful that a lot of the internet has become.

But, I'm also wondering it it makes sense to swap the policy to say that it's fine to re-post images on socials as long as they're appropriately credited and/or linked back to the repository. This isn't the policy yet, but if you're reading this please tell me what you're thinking.

Non-edited image use (like putting them in a scientific paper, using them to build a curriculum unit, or putting them on board game cards - these are just random examples) would still need to be requested; but that's an entirely protective stance and if you ask, my goal is to always say yes.

So OP, please don't worry too much. Enjoy looking at the animals, do your best, and I'll be happy. :)

[glade-constellation]

Man, I really feel like today’s LAES episode was an agreement to my character analysis post (not literally but all my points were there). Everything Earth talked about and explained was my exact feelings on the matter. Sun is in immense grief. Moon was doing nothing. Lunar is doing worse than nothing. Solar is the only other competent one in the situation, and he’s also probably feeling like shit.

It’s so upsetting when Earth is hurt because people never ask her if she’s okay unless she brings it up. Solar was the only one to ask so far. He only left her when she told him she would talk with Monty about it, and expressed she would feel guilt about putting her problems on him when he is going through his own. She is always placed on the back burner and is rarely ever comforted outside of when she asks for it.

I almost feel bad for saying she was going to be the best off in this situation because she very much isn’t. She is grieving too, but she’s having to pick up where Moon and Lunar are slacking off and doesn’t have time to process her feelings herself. She expressed several times how upsetting it was that she has barely any help taking care of Dazzle on top of her own work. She’s also had to pick up their slack at the Daycare, since Sun can’t come in and Lunar isn’t actually the best at his job by himself. She needs someone to help her right now, and I’m so glad Monty was able to step in and help. It made my opinion his reaction to all this change very quickly.

Her feelings on the matter are also just heartbreaking. She cares so much for Nexus, and any time she tried to express it Lunar would brush it off. Tell her that he didn’t care about Nexus. That, in a way, probably felt like he was telling Earth “I don’t care about your problems because they don’t interest me”. Stuff like that alongside his already spiraling relationship with her is causing a riff she doesn’t need right now. It’s something she simply can’t deal with on top of literally everything else.

Since this episode was set before Moon started helping, I am glad that Moon finally did help. But Lunar is still dragging his feet on this whole thing. “He wasn’t my brother, I was never close to him, I genuinely don’t care”. Then he’s all surprised when Sun was genuinely upset over Nexus’ death. Like he’s projecting his feeling onto everyone else. He didn’t care, so why does Sun? Every episode I watch leads me to believe more and more that Lunar’s entire sense of being is being changed by this Star power. Even if he is an animatronic, he still used to act very human. After the Astrals entered the picture though, he has slowly began to act more like them. Hearing that Earth feels the same way really validated my feelings on this. Literally used the word apathetic, like I did in my earlier character analysis post.

All in all, I am desperately waiting for Earth to get the help and time she needs. Because I do not want to watch her try and bottle this all up. I am so very thankful that Monty is willing to help her and that she has an outlet. If Monty wasn’t there, I think Earth might have eventually snapped. I don’t think that outcome would have been pretty, especially between herself and Lunar.

[fluffydeoxys]

doc with my project nexus player OC. they have an interesting relationship and i definitely want to post about them more

[sunlight-shunlight]

putting it into an ask because I don't want to derail your post sorry

As someone who's culture lost their last L1 Speaker around the time they were born. This!! So much this!!

It is EXTREMELY difficult to learn endangered languages, and from experience the people who do know how to speak some of it are extremely protective of it even to others from that same culture! (something that makes me even more attached to the dalish as a peoples sigh)

I would die for the chance to speak my tribes original language but even if I could jump through the hoops to do it, a decade is decisively not. enough. time. to do so. Yet alone to adopt the native cadence of the language. Again even if I wanted too! Which I desperately desperately do!

Lavellan would have to jump through so many hoops that by the time she might be ready to start speaking it regularly (in the context of ancient elvhen) that Veilguard would probably be on the horizon already. That's also given the idea that there are even universities willing to put aside discriminatory behavior twords the elves to provide classes on such specific subjects. AND putting aside the whole 'wow that's straight up the herald of andraste in my Sociolinguistics class' with the problems that would cause.

I mean, I know its a fantasy universe and I'm really projecting on it here but like hear me out- I have a dictionary and a book of stories translated by scholars I will never meet, and a series of audio-files that I myself had to copy convert to a format I could have on my phone and listen to. I'm untrained and uneducated on how to go about it sure but even with my available tools it feels like an uphill battle with every new word I pick out to practice. I sing songs from that book fully knowing Im butchering it the whole time, and try my best to feel connected to something i know I cannot fully understand. And that's beautiful! That;s fantastic! There's something to truly love there! And veilguard doesn't even let us try to explore that idea!

The fact that we don't get to choose whether or not we drank from the well makes this so extremely frustrating. The game gives both the Inquisitor and Moriggan the benefits of the well without ever allowing our input. Because to me the only way that Lavellan could become even partially fluent in ancient elvhen would be if she drank from the well. But then Moriggan is also allowed all types of unlocked knowledge from her deus-ex-inner-mythal shes suddenly alright with having been provided from her mother despite her horror in DAI.

It takes away a huge part of what I think Solas really liked about a romanced Inky, as she was always so curious and open to learning new things about the past- Even when they would clash on certain subjects. It takes away this really lovely concept that even if they are going into the torment nexus together that he could at least be teaching her the language in there on top of it all. He would love her broken annunciations and he awkward cadence, and respond in kind ;w;

I'm super biased about the torment nexus ending because I love the mythological tragedy of it but there should have been so many more choices ugghh. While I would still choose this ending regardless I think the idea that the inquisitor should have been able to have at least an on screen spat between her and Solas, There is absolutely good reason for it all considering.

She should have had moments where she slips in and out of what she had learned from the ancient dialect, Where she goes from in canter to out because of how passionate she might be in that moment. Going from trade to elvhen and back. It would be glaringly obvious that she practiced what she did want to say to him in the final battle and he would be able to tell. It would mean so much more to him than her just magically understanding it all at once.

we could have one of his stupid chuckles with tears welling in his eyes and everything like damn you bioware *shaking fist at cloud*

At least give me some kind of 'a romanced inquisitor convened with spirits to learn' kind of explanation if you're going to magic it into her knowledge I mean please!

Anyway sorry for the ramble, I wouldn't have the confidence to share this if it wasn't for your posts so thanks for all of your lore-dives and analysis posts I do genuinely enjoy all of them.

♥🤝

yeah!! i very much agree. i'm very mildly bilingual (not good at it ahaha) and like... that language is not endangered in the least, half my family still speaks it, and it's still just hard to re-learn on a basic level! and to me there's always that degree of self consciousness and feeling a bit bad about not knowing, when it's a language i feel like i "should" know, as opposed to a fully second language that i'm just learning from scratch. and personally i get stressed and actively worse at it when people expect me to be fluent and get disappointed when i'm not. the social pressure alone removes some linguistic ability, haha.

so i found it sad that lavellan - regardless of the well - gets pushed into suddenly being 100% fluent. she can still be dalish and not good at it! or just not the type of person who'd think to speak in it in front of random people (everyone else standing there fdhjdgd). i thought of my inquisitor as a city elf who was adopted into the clan as a child, and tried REALLY hard to learn elvhen afterwards bc she wanted to fit in. but it's not "natural" to her to slip into it for longer or more complex ideas. and arguably if a lavellan got "woe, fluency be upon ye" from the well, they might actually be LESS likely to use it in speaking, bc it is also a bit of a mind control symptom at that point...

and imo it's actually really sweet that solas falls in love with someone who - at least in dai - is really different from him! on top of being a cringe fail mortal from the world he initially hated, and from a culture that doesn't like him, lavellan does not have to be very in tune with the language or culture as he knows it. he goes for their ~rare and marvelous spirit~ rather than anything else, and is happy to share with them, but it's never like a mandatory thing.

I mean, I know its a fantasy universe and I'm really projecting on it here but like hear me out- I have a dictionary and a book of stories translated by scholars I will never meet, and a series of audio-files that I myself had to copy convert to a format I could have on my phone and listen to. I'm untrained and uneducated on how to go about it sure but even with my available tools it feels like an uphill battle with every new word I pick out to practice. I sing songs from that book fully knowing Im butchering it the whole time, and try my best to feel connected to something i know I cannot fully understand. And that's beautiful! That;s fantastic! There's something to truly love there! And veilguard doesn't even let us try to explore that idea!

and this is exactly it!! i think that experience of slowly picking up things and figuring out how much you can learn is really important, and they just skipped over that entirely to "lavellan is now suddenly fluent in elvhen. yay!" which kind of elides how much work that is, how or why they would've done that, whether they would've wanted to...

like that's a whole character arc that seemingly just gets skipped offscreen and made mandatory! and it's not bc the writers are saying anything really deep and meaningful about cultural reconnection, but bc i think they were likely not ever in the position of having to think about those types of decisions themselves, and uncharitably, were like "ok. solas is super elfy, right. so to make it more romantic, make lavellan super elfy as well! yay! Problem Solved :)" when that was never a problem. ;-;