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utilitycaster · 2 months ago

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The Long Mechanics Post

First things first: as most D&D players will know, there is not a perfectly objective metric of Best Build. Even “most optimized” doesn’t mean anything until you define what the character is optimized for; Caduceus and Percy are both “optimized” builds with very different skillsets. Unsurprisingly, given my URL, I have a penchant for versatility and spellcasting, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate an effective barbarian or fighter. For a bit more on what I tend to judge build by, see here; I’ll also elaborate further down. Note that relevance to the character is important to me. This is not simply a metric of combat ability (which, again, could mean anything from tanking to healing to damage output); it is also a measure of out-of-combat skills that enhance the RP and the ability of characters to progress the story on their own power (eg: recon/infiltration abilities; mobility both in and out of combat and both physical through wildshape/polymorph and teleportation, research capability, etc.)

Second: when you start talking about parties and not individuals, this becomes even more complex. To give an example, Percival de Rolo is an incredibly strong build of a massive damage output ranged fighter; he also has respectable HP, very high dex making him useful in stealth missions; is capable of melee combat if necessary; and is highly intelligent and educated. Percy works well in Vox Machina. However, imagine if he were in a party of a wizard, a rogue, and a (ranged) ranger. This would in fact be a bad party build, no matter how good the individual builds were. Only the ranger has healing capacity and would likely be far from the others. The rogue would likely have to burn their bonus actions to hide most of the time as no one would be in melee, depriving them of sneak attack (though the wizard could perhaps try to grant advantage in other ways). Percy’s intelligence would not be a detriment but it would overlap with the wizard’s skillset in a comparatively small party, and if no one had high charisma the party might struggle in social encounters. A run-of-the-mill paladin who made sure to take Cure Wounds would do far more for this party than Percy despite not having the same sheer DPS, just on the basis of filling in needed gaps.

This is quite long, so there's a readmore!

Things that make character builds good:

Versatility. This is, again, my personal favorite, but it’s also a longstanding fandom favorite. Keyleth is not a high damage character much of the time, but the sheer versatility of Circle of the Moon Druid as a base subclass makes her incredibly powerful with little customization needed. Druid subclasses provide wildshape, which can be used for spying in the form of a small animal, and at higher levels permits flight. While there are few direct damage spells, Keyleth served as secondary tank and a formidable melee damager also through wildshape. Druids can heal and cast Greater Restoration; they can deal area of effect (AOE) damage; between Wind Walk, Transport Via Plants, Polymorph, and Wildshape she was also Vox Machina’s primary source of transportation. Speak with Plants, Commune with Nature, and Scry served as key means of gathering information. While Scanlan largely covered buffs and debuffs (making his party members stronger/weakening the enemy), Keyleth had a few major ones, notably Feeblemind. There is very little Keyleth could not, in some way, manage to do, and most of that which she couldn’t do was handled by other party members (Percy, Vex, Vax, and Grog all being strong dealers of individual weapon damage). Fjord is a similarly all-around versatile character with tanking, ranged (magical) and melee damage abilities, and even a decent amount of healing once he multiclassed; unlike Keyleth, he is a formidable physical attacker, able to navigate the party’s social encounters with ease, and has access to Counterspell, but he lacks her transportation abilities (which aren’t necessary, as Caleb, Jester, and Caduceus, all quite versatile in their own rights, have these abilities).

Optimized specialization: If you cannot do everything, do one thing incredibly well and reliably so. This is where your min-maxers go; often the realm of fighters and barbarians especially. I think two of the greatest examples are Percy and Grog: Percy has, as mentioned, a number of skills including a very high intelligence, but at his core he is able to do a positively ridiculous amount of damage, at range, very quickly. Similarly, Grog has nearly 300 hit points and high mobility, making him the ultimate meat shield; the amount of damage he can also deal while engaging with a foe is similarly nothing to sneeze at.

Regardless of build, another consideration, particularly in combat, is action economy and resource allocation. If you’re an arcane trickster rogue or a bard, for example, you have core class features that use a bonus action (cunning action, inspiration). That doesn’t mean you can’t have bonus action spells, but it does mean you may find yourself wanting to both cast Healing Word and grant Inspiration, but be unable to do so. A paladin who gets two attacks might not want to cast a spell to deal damage, since saving that for smites and getting in two chances to hit is probably better than one. How the character is played matters just as much if not more than their build; a suboptimal build played thoughtfully is better, mechanically, than the greatest wizard build of all time who exclusively casts magic missile.

Note that many characters aren’t exceptionally versatile nor super specialized. Indeed, a lot of characters aren’t quite as good at a bit of everything as Keyleth or Fjord, nor as singularly honed as Percy or Grog, but are still quite respectable. And for PCs, that’s a good thing, because you’re not working alone, which brings us to…

Things that make party comp good:

This is a list of “things I think nearly every D&D party in a longform campaign should be able to do.” I would also add that the more characters you have, the more non-negotiable this becomes. If the three-person parties of (for example) The Adventure Zone, NADDPod, or Worlds Beyond Number are missing some abilities that’s understandable, but if Critical Role’s 7 or 8 person party lacks some, that’s a poor allocation of abilities. Also, as mentioned, this is for longform campaigns where the characters are likely to run into a wide variety of situations; a shorter-form more specific game doesn’t.

Combat focused

At least one primary healer (or two half-healers); preferably some backup.

At least one primary tank; preferably some backup; this pretty much always doubles as a melee damager

Characters with ranged damage (magic or weapon)

Magic damage generally, ie, damage with types other than slashing, bludgeoning, and piercing

Buffers (giving bonuses/advantage/benefits to their own party)/debuffers (granting disadvantage or detriments to the enemy)

Characters with area of effect (AOE) damage

If you have a primary rogue in the party you should have at least one melee damage to grant them sneak attack; more than one is better since then the rogue has options.

The ability for the entire party to get the fuck out quickly. This can be via druids, polymorph, teleport, everyone being very fast, but part of combat is, at times, running.

Story focused

Ability to Find Things Out Through Magic: easy access to spells like Identify, Detect Magic, Scry, Commune/Commune with Nature, and Speak with Animals/Speak with Plants (those slashes are “or’s”, not “ands” in this case, ie, just commune with nature is fine). Obviously only relevant at levels where the party can take these spells.

Ability to Find Things Out Otherwise (possibly through magic): you should have a decent language spread, if relevant, or someone who can cast Comprehend Languages; people with good insight, perception, Int-based skills (all of them). Survival and Medicine can be useful as well.

Ability to Sneak Around Physically: stealthy people, people with invisibility, people who can become tiny creatures, or people with unobtrusive familiars.

Ability to Sneak Around Socially: disguises or Disguise Self/Alter Self + decent charisma; here again is a place where language proficiency or Tongues is useful

Ability to Get Places - mid level and up only as these start at level 9, but: teleportation circle/teleport/transport via plants/word of recall/plane shift.

Mechanical Cohesion

Ability to build upon each other’s combat moves, ie, Keyleth casting Faerie Fire means that even if no one is in melee, Vax (and later Vex) now have advantage and get sneak attack; Scanlan throwing or carrying people with Bigby’s Hand; Jester using Dimension Door to bring people to the right place in combat.

Some overlap is fine (indeed, you ideally want more than one person with some healing capacity, and most parties have a range of weapon damage) but you do as a rule want to avoid having two characters who are very similar in skillset; it’s better to have character who is good at A and B; character who is good at B and C; and character who is good at C and D, rather than two characters good at A and B and one good at C and D.

Customization to the story

If you’re in a Curse of Strahd game, you might want to be extra strong on things like healing/detection of evil. You might want to focus on a lot of radiant damage, survival skills, and stealth to be able to get through Barovia and kill vampires and ghouls; but it might not be as important to speak a wide variety of languages or be able to hit history checks, since your characters wouldn’t be familiar with Barovian history anyway. An Oops All Rogues party is good for a heist and an Oops All Paladins party probably wouldn’t be, but the reverse is true for dealing with a cursed temple full of ancient undead. Mechanics are highly situational.

I’d categorize characters as follows. This is not a perfect match, but I think this might help understand party comp better.

Versatile: Marisha described Circle of the Moon as a swiss army knife of a subclass and she’s right. As mentioned, Keyleth and Fjord can do a little of almost everything in battle, and quite a lot out of it as well. This is an exceptional case and not the rule; druids and martially focused support/utility classes or very good multiclassing and good stats are kind of the only way to get this kind of character.

Support caster: Casters who focus heavily on healing, buffs, debuffs, and crowd control, and less so on damage. Caduceus and Scanlan are both skewed in this way.

Utility caster: Caleb, Jester, Pike, Dorian, FCG, and Fearne all have access to a decent number of support spells, but also focus extensively on damage in combat. Not quite as versatile as Fjord or Keyleth, but not a pure blaster either. Tary is also arguably in here.

Damage caster: The famous glass cannon; a spellcaster who has some out-of-combat-skills but primarily focuses on damage. Tiberius, Imogen, and Laudna are all here - as you can infer, this is where most sorcerers fit, and I’ll talk a bit more about the classes below.

Tank/melee damage: Good at taking a hit and staying up, or being a target but being very hard to hit, drawing fire from weaker characters. I’ve combined this with melee damage because, to be honest, you have to work hard at building a character who is a tank and doesn’t deal considerable melee damage. Barbarians are tanks by design; many paladins and melee fighters serve as tanks as well. Grog, Yasha, Beau (dodge tank) Ashton, Chetney, Braius, and Orym all serve in a tank role, but also see below.

Support martial: Not the best name for it, but: martial classes that are good at dealing status effects and controlling the space of combat - often highly mobile and often able to either shield others or cause status effects to their party’s advantage. Monks and many fighter classes cover this; blood hunters are also this. Stunning strike, battle maneuvers, and blood curses. Beau, Chetney, and Orym do double duty here. Molly is here; he probably would have grown into more of a tank over time had he lived longer, and I’d put Kingsley here as well. Veth also is here thanks to her arcane trickster subclass; Vax is here after he took paladin levels. Braius can be put here thanks to his bard levels; Yasha had a few tricks like her battle cry. I think Ashton’s class was intended to be this; however, its unpredictability makes it hard to put here as it sometimes was and sometimes was to the party’s disadvantage.

Ranged damage: Rangers, ranged weapon fighters. These are also often your stealth crew in addition to rogues; rogues are sort of in this space, but they tend to lack the same degree of range as a longbow (or gun). Vex and Percy are the core ranged damage folks. As you can see, ranged damage can be covered by utility/blaster casters. Veth and Vax both manage slightly less far-ranged damage.

Out of combat:

Skill monkey and/or linguist: the classic classes for this are rogue and bard - Expertise abound. Rangers are often also decent, especially if they take rogue levels (or, from what I understand, in 2024 rules) - even in 2014 rules, they usually have access to a ton of languages and some specialized knowledge. Vax, Vex, Scanlan, Veth, and Dorian. Beau and Caleb manage to hit a lot of this as well thanks to expertise and skill proficiency feats; it’s very easy to manage this through a smart race/subclass combo and feats alone.

Stealth/Infiltrator: Rogues! Vax and Vex, though much of Vox Machina could manage (honestly they were so good at stealth and at a high enough level that Keyleth turning into tiny creatures wasn’t super important). Veth, Beau, and Caleb (via Frumpkin) did this for the Nein. Fearne and Chetney covered this for Bells Hells, who often used invisibility. As for the disguise form - Vox Machina had the cap of disguise plus Scanlan had Seeming to cover everyone, and Keyleth had Alter Self (and Vax’s subclass explicitly makes him able to disguise himself). The Mighty Nein’s casters all had disguise self from a very early point; Beau and Yasha (and earlier on, Molly) were less able to do this. Bells Hells struggled here - they could stealth, and Imogen and Chetney could go invisible and Fearne could become a creature, but there’s a reason why getting through enemy lines never really got easier for them when it would have likely been a snap for the other parties.

Arcanist/Diviner: people who are good at getting information via magic, as discussed. Keyleth is the only real option for Vox Machina, hence the frequent check-ins with Allura, Gilmore, and Zahra. Caleb is obviously heavily focused on the arcane side of this, but Jester ends up being the point person for Scry. Both she and Caduceus use Commune regularly to gather information, and Caduceus notably casts Legend Lore. FCG does use Commune, but not frequently, and has one use of Identify per day; later, Fearne has Identify. Interestingly, Chetney ends up doing quite a lot of work via Grim Psychometry.

Transporter: Keyleth is Vox Machina’s; Caleb is the Mighty Nein’s though Jester and Caduceus have Word of Recall (used to great effect during the Vergesson Heist and mentioned during the Uk’otoa two-shot). Bells Hells have the Staff of Dark Odyssey.

The summary post put this all together, but to do it again - as you can see, Bells Hells was sorely missing key out of combat skills; combined with the lack of time to develop relationships with new NPCs, it mean that former PCs or NPCs ended up ferrying them around half the time. The Grim Verity, I would argue, could have been a compelling way to do this, but Ryn’s petrification meant it was always Keyleth, Allura, and Essek doing the same work they’d already done for past parties, mostly because Bells Hells were Assigned Main Character (and unlike how Caleb took on transport once he hit the right level, Bells Hells did not take the spells to do this). They also had a very weirdly balanced group in combat - three tanks, with FCG doing tanking and damage rather than playing pure support, and complicated by the fact that Ashton’s abilities were unpredictable by design; and three casters mostly focusing entirely on damage or their own protection. Otohan was a formidable opponent, and I can’t fault the party too much in the first battle, but I truly believe that either other party could have destroyed her in the battle in 91 at a comparable level with little difficulty (and, notably, I think either other party would have been able to do their earlier missions more efficiently, leaving them less drained at that point). Vox Machina’s gaps in ability were usually either within a single battle because Keyleth couldn’t do everything all the time; or were, as discussed, specific arcane skills that were organically outsourced to their allies. The Mighty Nein meanwhile had a spread across pretty much every skill imaginable and were exceptionally focused on high utility and support.

I think another really worthwhile consideration is that Bells Hells’ builds and especially subclasses almost all were either more focused on the self than others; actively working against versatility/flexibility, or in some way a liability, though again, as with all criticism of Bells Hells, a big part of this is that the campaign was really never customized to them as a party the way Vox Machina and the Mighty Nein’s campaigns were.

Most of Bells Hells' subclasses or builds in some way either actively worked against more support/team-focused efforts in combat, which led to them being able to do a very large amount of damage, but not having much ability to work together and build on each other in combat. Orym is of course the exception here - Battlemaster is a class that allows a fighter to specifically assist or protect others or debuff the enemy, and the maneuvers he took, particularly bait and switch, made him honestly one of the stronger support characters in the party, which is a wild statement to say in a party with a druid, a cleric (much of the time), a bard, and two sorcerers.

Going around the table, Chetney had the risk of attacking other people at low health. This actually was kind of a non-issue because it was rarely enforced later in the game, so really, he mostly played as a straight tank, and actually, through a combination of magic items (Shatter as cast through Turmoil) and the blood curses, he managed a decent amount of support.

Laudna's build was heavily dedicated towards keeping herself up or helping herself (form of dread, hound of ill omen, strength of the grave, blur, mirror image, gift of the everliving ones). Spell Sniper would have made extremely long distance combat a good option; but she also took the (helpful to others!) Silvery Barbs and Counterspell which only work when in much closer range; plus as a two-caster multiclass for the start she was already cantrips Georg, so taking more via a feat was a weird choice with no underlying story reason to justify it. She also had a massive number of reaction spells, which is generally unwise from an action economy perspective. Most of her other spells were damage focused, and she rarely used the AOE spells she had despite a tank-heavy party. And, as discussed, she and Imogen cover almost the exact same area in a party with massive ability gaps. The versatility warlock invocations would have offered could have been of immeasurable benefit; I also may make a post that simply covers how uniquely poorly her build and backstory fit together.

I was an early critic of FCG's subclass, and frankly, still am: transfer suffering is a tanking/damage ability in a party that was desperately in need of pure support. The rest of it is honestly fine, but as a first level core feature, it set a standard that was hard to overcome. I also would have gone with Potent Spellcasting or a different build of stats with Divine Strike; FCG was really not much of a weapon damager. Braius was honestly fine; I don’t have much to say here.

Wildfire Druid is an incredibly good class and Fearne did quite a lot of support especially outside of combat (notably, she is a big part of why Ashton didn't die permanently when they took the shard), but in combat, she did focus heavily on targeted damage when again, this party desperately needed crowd control/AOE, which her subclass even offered. And, as mentioned, rogue really was a good individual character touch [and I’ve been pretty vocal about thinking that Fearne especially got a raw narrative deal] but the party as a result lacked some serious utility.

Imogen’s build was for the most part standard sorcerer, and it’s again a party comp problem, but there are choices that could have been made. I think Careful Spell would have been a far better metamagic option that would have opened up the possibility of AOE without damaging her party; I also don’t know if Laura swapped out spells, but, for example, Synaptic Static is great and on-brand…but highly limited in when it can be used. Because sorcerers are extremely limited in the number of spells they can take and do not have prepped spells, every spell counts, and teleportation circle (or, again, Careful Spell that made Synaptic Static more useable around her party) would have done quite a lot of work. I also think that her dedication to psychic and lightning was good as a character choice, but as the party were often fighting creatures like her, a shift towards other damage types would have been wise.

As discussed, Orym was great.

Ashton’s build has similar issues as others above: it was unreliable. When it worked out well, it really worked; when it didn’t, it didn’t. As a tank they were often running around rather than controlling the center of the combat as a tank frequently should, in part because of these abilities, and I think as with many of my criticisms, it’s “this character would have been fine in a party that had more support focus and versatility, but in a party that was almost all tanking and damage with a lot of confounding factors that made them unreliable, everyone kept leaning further into tanking and damage and unreliability, rather than trying to address these gaps.”

Dorian is also, honestly, a build I have really liked elsewhere, both in EXU and in other shows (Fabian Seacaster from D20, and Jens Lyndelle from NADDPod) but the thing about Swords Bard is again, you’re using inspiration not to inspire others but to empower your swords. This works for Fabian, who is in a party with Adaine, Kristen, and Fig, all of whom have extensive support abilities (plus he is part battlemaster); it works for Jens because the premise of Trinyvale is that all three characters are kind of terrible people (and because he still does a great deal of healing). For Dorian, it works in EXU, but again, Bells Hells really could have used pure support as from a lore bard or similar.

It is, as with many things in Campaign 3, less a problem of any single character’s fault, and more a lack of session zero and cohesion among things that would have been fine in a context more suited for them, but this was, still, a constant problem.

#long post #critical role

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speakergame · 1 year ago

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Progress Update - 3/4/24

Hello and happy March!

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? 😅 Well, I finally have some good news for you this time: I have some actual news!

I'm happy to be able to announce at last that an update is on its way! I’ve still got some assets to make and code cleanup and testing to finish, but I should finally have something to show you soon.

I’ll put a cut at the end of this and go into more detail about the what and why of what I’ve been working on during this long and unintended hiatus, but the tl;dr is that I hope to have an update out by the end of the month, and that said update will break any saves made in Chapter 4. Unfortunate, but unavoidable, since Chapter 4 had to be recoded from the beginning 😞

I just want to thank all of you once again for sticking with me through my extended silence! Especially to my patrons who’ve put up with me putting everything on pause month after month while I dealt with my real life shit, and to everyone who’s sent me kind and supportive messages to let me know Speaker hasn’t been forgotten. It really means a lot to me.

Okay, enough of that sappy shit! I’m gonna get back to work finishing this up 😁 I’ll put out another update later this month once I have a more definite release date.

Thank you all for reading! I hope you’re having a fantastic 2024 so far, and that the rest of the week treats you kindly. See y’all soon! 💙💙💙

(For those who want a more detailed breakdown on what’s been happening and what to expect, hit the readmore)

I won’t go into the personal life stuff I’ve been dealing with this past year that has slowed down my work, but as far as the actual game goes:

To put it simply, I just wasn’t happy with it. Some of it could be because of how many times I had to reread the same section while I was coding the scenes that would’ve taken place after the last update, but no matter how much I edited or rearranged it, I didn’t like how that scene turned out. There was something… formulaic that had been happening with the way I always laid out scenes, and a bit of stagnation in the story, character, and relationship development that bothered me.

So I rewrote it. And when I still didn’t like it, I rewrote it again. And I still didn’t like it. I thought about scrapping the whole thing on more than one occasion as I struggled to get out of the corner I’d written myself into.

Inspiration finally struck at the beginning of this year, thanks in part to another interactive novel I follow, and I really like the direction I’ve taken it now.

Instead of the RO split scenes happening where the last one left off, Speaker, Seer, and Gavin are gonna have a chat about Things™ to move the next story arc forward. Then Speaker will get some downtime, by themself at first and then in an extended scene split with the RO of their choosing.

All the Big Plot Things that were going to happen in Chapter 4 will be moved to Chapter 5 instead, and 4 will be a bit more of a filler episode. A deep breath before the plunge, as it were.

This split won’t just be a quick conversation/reaction from the RO, but a full on different direction for the rest of the chapter based on who you choose. Most of them will involve leaving the house; all of them will involve actual one-on-one time (or one-on-two time, as the case may be) away from the others. And though romance isn’t required, all of them will have the potential to really move the romance forward if you so choose. One or two might even have a lock-in choice (maybe. I’m not 100 percent on that, so don’t hold me to it)

These scenes won’t be in the next update, because they’re all very complex, but the update will definitely have the Seer chat and at least some of the by-yourself stuff. The update after will have the rest of the alone time stuff (including the clothes/body CC you’ve all been waiting for), and then the one after will start the RO scenes. I think.

I may actually split the RO scenes into separate updates, and let my darlings over at Patreon vote for the order they’re released. That way I can focus on one at a time instead of trying to split my attention six ways at once.

Okay, that’s enough rambling for me today. Time to get back to work! Still got a lot to get done before this is ready, but it’s so close now.

#speaker game #progress update #so happy to finally have some progress to update about XD #maybe I can finally start answering some asks again too and fully resurrect this poor blog

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sillygooseofmistria · 3 months ago

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Here's some random thoughts and speculation I've been having about the dragons in Fields of Mistria

First, I have not read any spoilers that people have found from looking at the games data and have been trying to stay away from such spoilers. So, this could all already be known or completely incorrect - I just it would be fun to share thoughts and maybe speculate with anybody else who has not looked at spoilers (expect for who the last romance candidate is - that's the only thing I've seen, and it will be mentioned at the end.) This will be fairly long so it's all under the readmore.

Mostly I've been thinking a lot about the second dragon statue in the mines and what potential role that dragon could have in the overall story. Here's what the Mine Dragon looks like in the overworld:

Compare that to Caldarus both before and after being fixed and there are some slight differences between them.

First difference between them is that, even with the lighting differences they are a different color. Caldarus has more tan and yellow undertones while the Mine Dragon has more blue undertones.

Their horns are also very different. The Mine Dragon's currently singular horn has a larger curve and ends at the middle of the head while Caldarus's horns don't curve as much and stop short of the back of the middle of his head.

Then there's the points on the top of the wings. Caldarus's are shorter and stick straight up while the Mine Dragon's are longer and curve backwards.

The Mine Dragon in general seems to have a slimer body and face. A lot of the time (definitely not all the time though) these traits are used to signify a more feminine character. Because of this, and because of the fact that the gender ratio for the villagers of Mistria is very even between men and women, I personally would say that the Mine Dragon is likely to be a woman. (Personally, I would love that so I am hopping that's the case)

Now let's look at the two dragon statuettes that you can find at dig sites:

The first one is stated in game to be Caldarus and although these guys are small and don't have much detail, it does look like him. The second one is an "Unknown Dragon" and while this could theoretically just be there to let you know that other dragons do exist even if we never see them, I don't think that's the case here.

This unknown dragon statuette has a couple similarities to the Mines Dragon statue. The color is similar, and the horns also curve back towards the middle of the head.

To me, this implies that back before magic was sealed away in Mistria, both of these dragons were equally important to it.

The only hang up that I have is that unknown dragon statuette is part of the Oopart set. Oopart stands for "Out of Place" in archeology. Which could mean that this dragon is not from Mistria, or it could mean that these statuettes were originally part of the mines but somewhere along the way were moved outside of them and lost to time. Either way, it seems like the Mine Dragon was sufficiently important to Mistria that it got its' own statuettes and because it has an important role in the progression of the game, I'd say that the Mine Dragon statue is likely going to be fixed and/or given a name later in the story and continue to have some sort of importance in the overall story as well.

This begs the question of how it will be important to the story overall. As it stands now, I see a different character arcs that the Mine Dragon could fulfil.

Just another Dragon - This could simply be used to show another side of what dragons can be like/ what life was like back when people and dragons still lived and worked together.

A rival for Caldarus - rival of what exactly? I'm not entirely sure - maybe just for the town's best dragon or perhaps just some bad blood that goes back to when the dragonguard was an actual thing.

An antagonist - magic was clearly sealed away for some reason and presumably we are going to find out why at some point in the story. This is a very cozy game with little conflict, so I don't really expect this to be the case. However, it's still a possibility and could be resolved with low stakes.

Those are my reasonable ideas. I also have a tin hat theory -

4. Romance candidate - because being able to date either a masculine or feminine dragon would be cool! I did mention at the start that I know the last romance candidate is the Dragon Priestess so how could the Mine Dragon possibly be romanceable? Easy - they are the same person. Honestly this really isn't based on anything other than the fact that I think it would be neat (I did say it was a tin hat theory I do not actually expect this to be the case lol). What if? What if the Dragon Priestess is a dragon herself and she simple looks more human and has been stuck in the mines all these years because not only was magic sealed away but her dragon statue has fallen into disrepair. The human statues of her in the mines have not fallen into disrepair so this is the only form that she can appear in. Like how Caldarus could only appear as a statue in the farmers dreams at first because there hasn't been enough magic released for him to appear as an actual dragon.

That is all, please tell me if you have any theories about what role the Mine Dragon will play in the story. I hope you enjoyed my ramblings and tin hat theory that I've been dying to share :)

#fields of mistria #fom #fom caldarus #fields of mistria caldarus #fom spoilers

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opal-owl-flight · 11 months ago

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in an au where someone else were the agents, what would the agents life be like instead? (for eight, Octo expansion still happens but like she quits agent work after that)

This is a very interesting ask! This is a "things go well despite someone else filling in their roles" situation. Only got 3 and 4 so far bc I know who'd replace them EJDJE

Under readmore bc long! Also bonus Alt!3 art under there

4/Rain remains in the turf leagues after highschool. Sometimes working Grizzco for the cash, but once she went pro she left. A huge bitch to everyone, teammates and opponents, yet somehow making it work. Shes proud of where she is. She made a great life for herself here in Inkopolis and shes not going to let ANYONE forget. Doesnt help that the squids in that particular community/rank are also rude as fuck. Shes imitating the common attitude to fit in. Find SOME place she feels she can belong.

Marie called to her from the sewers to be Agent 4, but she declined the offer. Because...

...of 3/Tanara.

This snooty bitch of a squid also made a good life for themself after escaping from an oppressive home. Hows Rain any special? Worst of all, theyre one of the few who can go toe to toe with her on the field, snarky comments and everything. Rain's sure that they enjoy seeing her stumble (they do).

Proud of their progress and skill, they tend to (literally) look down on anyone that doesnt impress them. Their prior training as a squidling really helps them dominate matches, in both combat and strategy... Tanara lives for the sport. Their life is sport. Its the life theyve always wanted -- a life of play and fun and fresh vibes forever! If its too easy, wheres the fun? They seek hard fights.

Rain impresses them, for sure. But they also just LOVE messing with her. Rub in her face how much better they are. Its exhilirating to see all that bluster crumble! Yes! The bitch is down!! Eat your words!! Type of shit.

As for the other two...

John would still be great as an Agent 3 — remarkably, he doesnt get sanitized bc he takes care of himself and doesnt crash headfirst into a blender. he kicks it instead. doesnt get knocked out.

Hes kind as always. very supportive of a terrified all the time Sun. Hes like…a silly agent 3. hes goofy hes a lil stupid hes John

John does get war hardened but its not as intense a time as 3 had. Hes still smiling a lot! probs the fact that he had a good home life and a good support system in his team. (Tanara is in his team!! Hes the one usually reining them back from emotionally wrecking opponents. Hes also the one who makes Tanara's soft side emerge! They have one. Its just buried under their desire to be Cool)

and Sun? he never got into Grizzco. he became Agent 4 and saved the world! barely!! he keeps running from the troops until Marie has to drag him back by the ear! John carries Sun around like luggage a lot. its comforting for the nervous wreck.

------

3 was just…theyve already been dealt a bad hand, and the universe kept expecting more from them. theyre under so much pressure, all the time!!

at least here, they dont have to worry about anything but their win streak and how 4 is annoyingly cute

Anyway. More Alt3!

#Alt!3 makes me so gay.#splatoon #splatoon fanart #agent 3 #agent 4 #splatoon promo kids #john splatoon #kaori splatoon #surume splatoon #LMAO CUTTLEFRSH DOESNT HAVE A TAG I THINK. RIP BOY

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subwaytostardew · 1 year ago

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youtube

▲ Subway to Stardew - Station Repair Events - Exterior ▽

The first station repair event! This plays after you finish donating materials to the Joltik in the box outside of the station.

You recieve this letter the day after!

Commentary and progress under the readmore.

▷ Station Steward Thylak

THIS TOOK WAY LONGER THAN IT SHOULD HAVE... We started this project about... 5 months ago? And we only got around to implementing the station renovation aspect a few weeks ago... even still, I kept getting sidetracked with making events. I actually made this event spontaneously as a break between implementing everything else! There should be a second part that follows what Kade actually scripted coming... soon. Depending on whether or not I decide that finishing Emmet's 8 heart event is more important. (It's chugging along... It's about half-finished and probably one of the longer- if not longest- event yet at least according to how many lines it takes up.)

Of course, the bundle contents are very much a work in progress since collecting 45 of a mineral determined by RNG is absurd. We'll adjust the difficulty later when we figure out playability... Most of modding isn't exactly spent playing the game.

The quest marker/box Joltik went under a few renovations itself!

We decided on the third Joltik and kept making edits from there... Kade had the wonderful idea to give it big pleading 🥺 eyes.

She also made a doodle about our box Joltik! Look!

#subway to stardew #submas #pokemon #stardew valley #sdv mods #Ingo #Emmet #Nobori #Kudari #subway to stardew terminal station #events

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angara-mfrp · 5 months ago

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Wow, has it actually been another year already? Apparently so! And as such, we are now bringing you yet another ADZ Wrapped! For those of you who have been here since last year, you know the drill. For those of you who haven't, well...it's exactly what it sounds like!

This post is so long this year compared to last year that we need a readmore. Under the cut we go!

Our biggest change was probably the addition of three new mods: Vega (Mod Budgie), Laur (Mod Quoll), and Nox (Mod Magpie)! The need for new personnel just speaks to the success and growth of the group, and we thank you all for our chance to grow. And haven't they just done a fantastic job?

Next, raw data! Including the mod team, we are now up to 108 muns and a whopping 253 muses! That is far bigger than we ever could have imagined. Our largest Direction was Center, with 73 muses! Just behind it was North with 58, South with 46, West with 39, and then East with 36! To put things in perspective, our biggest Direction last year had 30 muses, and our smallest had only 6. Of course, Direction size doesn't necessarily indicate popularity. South Advocate Mikaves Bell, written by Owl, has been actively pursued by at least three different guys this year! North Advocate Vera Graves also seems to have some admirers lurking about, though the only one to have actively made a move is Randy Orlando, written by Sety! Poor guy, you tried so hard...

Our member base has also made a lot of progress in their Wave resistance! While we do have quite a few new arrivals, with 111 muses at Rank 0, we have 58 muses at Rank 1, 43 muses at Rank 2, 16 muses at Rank 3, 11 muses at Rank 4, and 14 muses at Rank 5! We'd also like to shout those who have managed to hit Rank 5 just this year: Arcade with Alcryst, Sami with Dan Heng, Katie with Hesperia Doshin, Lizard with Julian Zenith, Hansie with Kris Dreemurr, Lemon with Agent Eight, Crea with Nathrae Amatista, Soren with Neuvillette, and Mocha with Yusei Null! (I, Addison, also managed to hit Rank 5 with Musiea and Ronan Muir but y'all know I work from home. My ass does NOT need celebrating.)

While the majority of muses (200, to be exact) are 18 years or older, we did have quite a few young muses this year! 37 of our current muses are 17 years old or younger. And though they are small in number, the kids and teens have made quite an impact on the community! We've also seen a lot of Path development. Idealist continues to be the largest at 46, while Passive, Intellectual, and Opportunist all tied for the next place at 19 muses. Cynic is just behind them at 18 muses, then Contrarian at 14 muses. We have just one Dissenter, and that is Primrose Ossler, written by Oz! Currently, the Tormentor count is at 0...phew!

As far as things within the server, ADZ grew so much that we needed to add 3 more permanent IC channels, with 3 corresponding OOC channels! We've had a total of 479 drabbles and threads submitted! There have been 149 IC deaths, much to Vera's dismay. The fastest death was N, written by Edel, whose robot body just couldn't handle being in the lake! While humor is subjective, the mods found that Heavy Weapons Guy, written by Fish, had the funniest death. He was mistaken for a prop during the talent contest and killed by Spy, which led to an IC reenactment of the ever iconic "Heavy is dead" video! The golden pan incident was also suggested. We were also very chatty, with around 330,000 IC messages being sent this year!

This year has led to a lot of progress with lore and events. While Yden and its Cache were technically revealed in very late 2023, people didn't start going to Yden until this year! We also ventured out to Oure, a Cache in need of desperate help, which has now put power back into the hands of its people. We've had one exploration quest this year, to the Cursed Ruins outside of Yden, which revealed some secrets of the past and the debut of the mysterious "lifeblood of the planet"! Spooky...we also had our second ever mini event, where some of the Advocates went to a banquet with the "president" of Oure to learn more about why someone sent out a message asking for help. We did have three festival events this year, First Dawn on Yden's beach, Festival of Fortune in Oure, and then the return of Seven Nights of Fright, which took place across the three locations! However, we did have quite a chonky two-parter of a lore event with Casino Morale! Everyone worked to spy and gather intel in the first part, while in the second, everyone worked together to fight off an evil woman turned tentacle monster and protect those who were affected by her rampaging. We also introduced member-run events as a means of keeping people busy and giving the mods time to make lore and festival events as great as they could possibly be. The first was EVO Outbreak, run by Birb! The second was Dreamers, run by Lizard! The third, which is ongoing, is Seeming (Un)Seelie, run by Kira, Xeno, and Chii! We're glad we decided to give you all a chance to let your creativity really shine, and we can't wait to see what you do in the future! We also had SYNC errors galore, with the most entertaining ones being either the "affected users are dumb and friendly" error, or the "affected users are now tiny" error. Of course, we aren't sitting idly by either, and we very much plan to introduce more fun events and harrowing events this year.

We've also had plenty of funny moments brought about from events and user shenanigans overall! Alfred, written by Vega, dug two holes this year. One was for the sand sculpture contest, but another was just for enrichment. Many people fell into that hole! The emu race was also a lot of fun, with emus proving just how dumb they are in the most spectacular way. Nobody was as forgiving and appreciative of her incredibly stupid emu, Adderall, as Lumera, written by Arcade, but Jiaoqiu, written by Ike, rode to victory in the second race atop an emu named after his most hated ingredient! Cephalon Ordis, written by Laur, was dragged behind his emu in his trash can drone. He hated it, but everyone else loved it!

Humor, written by Wren, attempted to start a fight with a kangaroo...how did that go, again? Genuinely cannot remember if he won or if he got his shit rocked. Vash the Stampede, written by Stan, didn't have a great time with the emu costume contest, as his participating emu decided to wake up and choose violence despite his nice costume. Hermes, written by Twin, was a true innovator in the same contest! He used his god powers to turn into an emu, but he got caught, and he and Elise Liedl, written by Soleil, were disqualified. Of course, nobody suffered quite like Cecil, written by Max, during the maze race. When 56 relic frogs get loose in the maze, you cannot dawdle! Poor Cecil had to face all of that goo in a truly harrowing scene that was, unfortunately, televised.

This year also brought about our biggest drop day ever (maybe aside from when we opened), as well as expansions to all of the residential areas within the Angara Cache! We also revamped the quest and mutation systems to make them even better. So much has been done that listing it all here would make this post needlessly long!

Our point in doing this is to look back on our progress, what we've learned, how we've grown, and how much fun we've all had. Even if you weren't shouted out directly, please know that we appreciate you being here and we value your membership and your place within our not-so-little-anymore group. We're thankful for all of the adventures we've had with you this year, and we hope to have many more with you in CY1025!

And, just in case you haven't been directly shouted out? Here are some highlights from our legendary moments channel.

#adz misc.#discord mfrp #discord rp #discord roleplay #mfrp #multifandom rp

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ask-cyantist · 9 months ago

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OOC: Update!

[Mod: Wanted to put up a text post since it's been a while-

Blog isn't dead! I have 50 asks (literally) in my inbox that I'm going to work through in time, I promise I haven't forgotten any xD There's a few quick answers in progress as we speak.

Let's just say... big plans are being made, and big things are coming :)c I have a couple larger update posts being planned and sketched out~

I'll be putting my personal life update under the cut, if you're curious. Don't click the readmore if you don't want to deal with heavy subject matter.]

[So... part of the reason I've been so slow on posting ask replies or any updates is because things have been rough at home. My immediate family received a very grim diagnosis for one of us, and it's been hitting us all very hard. My siblings flew home from out of state in order to be together and process this. The situation isn't dire yet, but it's not something you ever want to hear from a doctor to begin with. We've been taking this family member in and out of doctor appointments and surgeries for the better part of a month, now, and it's been very taxing on our emotions and mental health. We're all sad and scared, and wishing for the best while emotionally preparing for the worst. The treatments they've been dealing with so far have made it difficult for the affected family member to eat and sleep, and we've been helping them as much as we can. Needless to say, updating the blog kinda fell by the wayside, while we figure out a plan moving forward.

Again, blog isn't dead! I have a lot of ideas I want to put on paper, so to speak- it's just been very hard to find the energy, when I have to balance a full time day job with caring for a family member. Thank you for understanding and being patient with me <:)

Sincerely, Mystic]

#ooc #mod post #ooc post #update

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sith-shenanigans · 1 year ago

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For the ask game where we send you an NPC, Talos Drellik? (I am totally not jumping up and down at the thought of following up on some tags/replies you left a while ago about Ahene and Talos, not at all)

aaaa it makes me so happy that you liked the tags and were not annoyed by the tags (let me put this under a readmore because it’s going to be extremely long)

Okay! So! Bearing in mind that this is a living work and Hoth is a long way away and I don’t know all of what will change—

There is a very not-entirely-normal dynamic here because it doesn’t progress in intensity so much as progress in what, precisely, the intensity is made up of.

Ahene’s first introduction to Talos is along the lines of “do you really want to talk to that guy? He’s strange,” and this endears him to her immediately. Ahene’s second introduction to Talos is walking into a Reclamation Service camp and not feeling like she’s home.

(She does, in fact, think of the camp outside the Rakatan ruin where she largely grew up as being “home.” She also often thinks of herself as not having a home. Or of the ruin itself being home, and the camp not.)

It is important to know, here, that Ahene’s relationship to her trauma is much more in the “continues to be attracted back to it and to things that remind her of it” category rather than the “avoid all reminders forever on pain of flashbacks” category. She actively enforces these reminders on herself whenever she feels she’s acting too much like she’s free—early on, it’s because she believes she isn’t, even if she and her master are the only ones who know that. Later on, it’s because a lot of her self-image is tied up in not being a “typical Sith,” and in her mind, her ability to treat herself harshly is proof she isn’t one (isn’t Like The Others). She hasn’t forgotten who—or what—she really is.

By and large, she feels safer in unsafe situations. She understands hierarchical relationships better than equal ones. She doesn’t know how to be a person, and she’s terrified she’ll forget how to not be. Obviously, this makes her kind of hate being a Sith, but it also makes her kind of prefer being a Sith—the social dynamics are very, very easy for her, even if she doesn’t feel she deserves the loyalty she gets for it.

Back on Tatooine, she worked with a Reclamation Service crew, and it was the most familiar thing she’s done since Korriban, except that this time she was a Sith to them. Which was simultaneously awful and “hey, the terrible thing that happened to you? You’re going to exist in proximity to it forever but it can’t hurt you anymore.” (Which, to someone who keeps trying to yank on her own trauma to prove it can’t hurt her…) Then everything went terribly wrong and Silthar got very badly injured, and they were depending on her, and she has never been able to avoid feeling responsible under those circumstances.

But there’s still this given hanging over it that the responsibility is unrequited. People will be grateful to her as a Sith that helps and protects them—more grateful than she thinks she deserves for doing what she perceives as bare-minimum decency towards anyone she has power over—but if she had been below them, they wouldn’t have treated her the way she treats those below her. She wouldn’t have been one of their people. She would have been one of their tools.

(The greatest exercise in loyalty, in her mind, is to give it without caring if it’s returned. She still loathes the Empire for not returning it towards its people, almost as much or even more than she hates it for what it did to her planet, because if it took care of them then she wouldn’t have to do it—but that’s because Imperials believe they’re doing something good. She doesn’t. She just takes care of them anyway, because it may not be the right thing to do, but it still makes the galaxy a little more just.)

By the time she gets to Hoth, though, she’s just having an awful time. The inquisitor story in the game only has things get really bad at the start of Act III, and before that you’re kind of fine? But Ahene is not fine. Ahene is also aware that she’s not fine. It might have started subtly, but at this point she’s just trying to sell herself on the idea that she can handle it until Thanaton is dealt with and then she can let the ghosts go and everything will be, if not fine, relatively fixed enough that she can spend about a week curled into a little ball in the corner of her ship until she can function normally again.

But, you know, for the most part, the ways she’s Not Fine aren’t externally visible yet. There was an incident on Quesh where she used the ghosts’ power and kind of halfway lost control and partly life-drained Cineratus, but because she didn’t stop at the station to get anybody inoculated, the only one who actually saw that was Khem. And she didn’t really… explain that. She hasn’t told anyone that she feels hollow all the time and barely gets physically hungry and hears the ghosts talking to her even when she isn’t alone. She can hide it. She can handle it. She doesn’t have enough of an advantage yet. This is enough this will be enough she can still put a stop to it.

So she arrives on Hoth, and she shows up at a Reclamation Service camp expecting for it to feel normal again—enough that it’s easy to slot into the proper role, that she doesn’t have to think about it. She knows the responsibility and the resentment, the fact that something about it always seems safer than anywhere else she’s been.

It doesn’t feel normal. It feels just a little bit like she hates everyone there.

(Or, more accurately, like somebody does. Ahene hates like hell freezes over—rarely, slowly, and with a sort of cold contempt that burns mostly in how impersonal it can be. But the spirits in the back of her mind know how to hate, and they’re much too happy to share.)

Talos looks at this Sith Lord, who appears to be unusually scruffy and looks like she’s developed dark side corruption without the glowing eyes, and—unlike Andronikos, unlike Silthar, unlike Sarnova, unlike Zaril—doesn’t come to the conclusion that someone needs to parent her. She’s moved a bit past giving off that energy. Instead he comes to the conclusion that she’s about to deliver the most fascinating problem he’s encountered this year, which is (because Talos is Talos) really what he finds ideal in a Sith.

Ahene looks at this strange, mostly fearless little archaeologist, and discovers that she is not immune to being treated like a totally reasonable and decent individual who is here for the love of history despite every indication otherwise. Many people make this discovery around Talos.

Their early interactions are still… fascinating. His aura of “everyone I talk to is fundamentally a decent fellow” can only do so much, especially since his version of “rationalizing” all the terrible things about the Empire is sweeping them all into a bucket of “things I can’t do anything about” to hyperfixate on archaeology. Ahene keeps him at arm’s length like she’s learned to do with most people. Ahene gets sucked into talking shop with him. They discover, to Talos’s delight and Ahene’s pleased-despite-herself annoyance, that they share a sense of humor. He treats his probe droids better than some people treated her, and exactly the same way that other people treated her. She gets attached to them too.

Somewhere in there—either before they find Horak-Mul or after, though I’m leaning towards before—he asks about her first dig.

She tells him it was the Verios ruin. The face he makes tells her everything she would have needed to know about Darth Kelshrin’s reputation with the Service, if she hadn’t already been aware.

Delicately, like someone trying to thread a conversational needle with as few actual words as possible, Talos suggests that you hear things about that dig, and they aren’t very good. People don’t like to talk about it, if they manage to get reassigned.

She says that she’s one of the reasons that people don’t like to talk about it, and watches him struggle to reconcile that with her entire demeanor for a moment, then clarifies that she was one of the children they had—probably still have—doing probe-work.

Because of course it does, this horrifies him. She shrugs and comments that she hadn’t realized Kelshrin was that much of an outlier; haven’t there ever been slaves on any of your digs? Talos starts to protest that yes, but none of them were children, and comes to the mid-sentence conclusion that actually, she doesn’t care.

His mouth clicks shut. They sit in silence for a little bit.

When he next speaks, he tells her that he’s sorry he wasn’t there.

She says that most people would have put an ‘and’ in the middle of that sentence. They would have found it absolving, that they weren’t there. And he makes a face, and says that yes, that’s true, but still—he wishes he’d been there. That perhaps he could have done something, if he had been. That at least he could have been—better than the others.

I’m sure you would have been, she says, touching his shoulder, in a voice that would be a threat if any of the bitterness were directed at him. It isn’t a threat. It’s just that half of her doesn’t believe him, and doesn’t blame him, and the other half wants to believe him—and hates so very much that someone like him existed this whole time, and never came for her.

They don’t talk very much about that part of her background, after that. She never makes a secret of what she was—it’s the first thing anyone knows about her anyway, the trash apprentice who brought back the Dark Temple expedition—but while she’ll talk about the ruin like it’s simultaneously a deathtrap and a lost home, she doesn’t tell him about the Service camp. It’s their armistice; it wouldn’t be fair.

She doesn’t blame him for what happened to her childhood. He doesn’t look at her like he’s afraid of her when she loses control of the ghosts’ power, when he walks in on her having snapping arguments with thin air, when the ghosts’ memories and personalities start leaking in and she reacts to something he said about the Great Hyperspace War like she was there.

It’s difficult not to care deeply about someone who sees you at your absolute, utter worst—half-dead, half-possessed, still suffering from a Horror Hunger despite knowing that there are few things she needs less than other people’s life energy—and treats it like it’s simply something that’s happening, and no more terrifying than any other serious illness.

He’s the one she goes to one night, when she needs to tell someone how terrified she is to die. He’s the only member of her crew she doesn’t feel some need to be strong for.

(He is, maybe, the person she tells that she thinks she could exorcise the ghosts. That she hasn’t tried, because she’s scared that it would work.)

It’s important that—by this point—he doesn’t feel like he has to be strong with her, either. He doesn’t have to pretend that he doesn’t notice how bad things are, or keep up a cheerful front through it, the way he nearly always does. It’s not that his cheerful front is insincere—it’s not that he’s lying—but that’s how he’s always dealt with his emotions, the same as Ahene deals with them by scrunching them up into a little ball and taking another step no matter what. They aren’t people who know how to seek comfort in other people, most of the time. Talos doesn’t have childhood trauma the way she has childhood trauma, but he did very much grow up in an abusive environment that he generally dismisses as “not so bad as all that” with a wave of his hand. So it’s… something, that they can be scared together of what’s going to come.

(This could so easily be read as romantic. It is not remotely. It’s also not remotely parental on Talos’s part. It’s just a very unlikely bordering-on-queerplatonic friendship.)

When Ahene walks out of the Dark Council chambers on Korriban with Thanaton’s body (Teneb Kel’s body) in her arms and a title she didn’t ask for or want, Talos makes sure the body ends up in a cryostasis tube until it can be properly entombed. When they head for Dromund Kaas right after, because the planet is being invaded, when she makes for the Dark Temple immediately when they arrive in the aftermath—Talos waits for her at the Dark Temple approach.

When she calls him and asks him to get another stasis chamber and never breathe a word of it to anyone, he does it, because they would trust each other with anything.

Up to and including the body of the Emperor’s Voice.

(The next couple months, she barely remembers, because she was under so much pressure and so much of the same kind of pressure that her dissociative memory issues cropped up again and turned it into a soup of events that 2V had to record and summarize for her. But Talos quite frequently knew what she was doing better than she did, at least when it came to the fact that she suddenly had to run the Reclamation Service. This has always been a team effort. Between her and all her crew, but still especially between the two of them.)

[npc opinions]

#this is not the entirety of everything but i think it is quite long enough.#asks #oc: ahene coris #talos drellik

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tapersco · 3 months ago

Note

can you tell me more about fnaf incest

OH WHERE DO I BEGIN i hope it's okay i'm using my + poppet's interps/timeline rather than the """canon""" for this btw those are the ones i know by heart. also putting this under a readmore because shit's gonna get long i can already telll

first of all we have the AFTONS.

it all starts and ends with Bill of course. i think about how he started out as a stereotypically 'good' dad and then got progressively worse over the span of a few years and how that would've fed into his delusions and motivation behind what he does to his family and others. a lot of it having to do with him having basically uninterrupted and unmonitored access to vulnerable young kids while he's subtly, but sharply deteriorating

the family dynamic as a whole is that they're very close knit, the kids only really trust Bill as far as adults go, stemming from Bill's own general distrust/distaste of other people and the desire to keep his kids as close to the hip as possible

i think he would've started of with the youngest, Lane, the babiest of Bill's kids. those two have the most warmfuzzies relationship in all of this imo, their art is always very cuddly and soft <333 Bill adores Lane to the point where the other two kids start to resent Lane and this only drives the two closer

it's also important to note that Lane is treated as the last 'piece' of Bill's wife that he has left, since they were born and she died shortly after, Bill kind of projects that onto Lane a lot. also i have a 'theory' that if Lane got to grow up they would've looked the most like Bill, out of all of the kids and it freaks people out. who needs selfcest when you have a kid who's basically you :D

then we got Lizzy, the middle child and his daughter. she's the most eager to please, the most vying for Bill's attention which she's also the most deprived of. he loves her of course, but because of the aforementioned dynamic with Lane and his incessant need to control Michael, she gets left out often. she's already under his thumb from that alone. anything to get his attention/love, and sometimes drags others into this too. ;) in the official comics, from what i know, she ends up being the one to do William's bidding without question.

takes after him most in terms of personality i think! she's very inspired by her mom, who was an actress/dancer. i've only recently started focusing on her a lot and i think that's fitting...... all things considered JNFSJSAKJHFSAJhF. she's also a total coquette/lolita/loli/lg/yandere girly <333

and finally we have Mikey, the oldest. he's the most resistant to Bill's manipulation and, ironically, the one that gets left alone with him after everyone else is killed off and Bill has reached his lowest point. and you can probably imagine where that goes. part of the reason he gets body mods in his teens is so that he can be more easily distinguished from Bill (which doesnt work FHSFBSAHBFA)

even though he outwardly acts disgusted by his dad, he wants Bill's affection just as much as the other two. when it's just Bill and Mike, they become extremely codependent, Bill becomes abusive to him in every sense while still relying on him for every emotional need. Bill gets him drunk a lot at this point in time. n_n their codependency continues over many years, even after they both start going under assumed identities. when they're living apart they still find ways to see and fuck each other, often.

and to explain the picture on the right, Mike got braces to straighten his teeth out so they wouldnt look too much like Bill's. Bill forces him to get the braces off at some point lol

~~~

thennnn we have the EMILYS, which is made up of Charlie and Henry. poppet and i have concepts for other siblings for Charlie (i might talk about them another time though hehe <3)

Charlie is (typically) an only child and the codependency between her and Henry develops a lot sooner than Bill/Mikey's. after Bill nearly succeeds in strangling her to death as a 4 year old, Henry takes her out of the world altogether. no school, nothing. having lost his wife like Bill, Charlie is the only person Henry has left. for months, she essentially becomes her father's experiment, although to him he's helping her "protect herself" -- make of that what you will ♥ ♥

Charlie does eventually return to school and something like a normal life, but she's a shell of a teenager. she's painfully isolated due to her stunted development + socialization, and although she does eventually find friends, she never gets too close. she's quick to reject romance with other people, but comes home to lavish all of that unspent attention on her daddy. she's gotten it into her head that Henry will literally die without her there. so she'd give him anything if he asked; and i mean literally anything

. they're fiercely protective of each other, murderously so, at times hbfhbfhsb

i redrew this panel with our interps and i think its really cute and bittersweet...

~~~

i'm gonna stop there since i've said way too much already (/j) but if you wanna hear any more about specific ships/dynamics feel free to send another ask n__n

#a #ask #funny bunny hours #<- til i think of a better one LMAO

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jokerfic · 4 months ago

Note

helloooo do you have any book recommendations that are quite similar to your work? 💓

oh this is SUCH a good question! also a bit difficult to answer because the better the book, the more up-my-own-ass I look for making a comparison. I'm just going to offer a little selection with very brief summaries/bullet points and hope that you guys understand that most of this list is aspirational and I'm not claiming to be a peer to any of these writers particularly. putting it under a readmore because I know myself.

the very first one that sprang to mind is Badger by C. M. McKenna. A recovering addict forms a mutual, deeply unhealthy obsession with a ruthless vigilante. even though they connect with one another on a level that they can't seem to reach with anyone else, the relationship is volatile and unsustainable. trigger warnings for sadomasochism and brief details about past child abuse and CSA.

Sunshine by Robin McKinley - a career baker is abducted by a gang of vampires and left as prey for one of their own. When dawn breaks and he still hasn't touched her, the tables quickly turn. (I haven't read this one in a while, but remember it as being very in keeping with the kind of romantic relationships I write--prickly, complicated, slow-burning, maybe a little unsatisfying in that you never get quite what you want? Robin McKinley's romances were definitely a huge influence on my taste in general, so her bibliography is worth checking out. The Blue Sword is also good)

Helpmeet by Naben Ruthnum - a woman brings her dying husband to his childhood home to care for him in his final days. Romantic, grotesque, a novella about devotion and obsession. A quick read at under 100 pages, but not always an easy one. cw for body horror and some generally gross descriptions of a guy who's basically falling apart, but absolutely worth it, I think. I read this in one sitting and have been recommending it since. I'm getting increasingly interested in blending horror and romance, and this project marries the genres perfectly.

I'm going to pivot slightly and lean harder into the "aspirational" side of things-- the following books don't so much have things in common with my writing (or my writing with them) but they scratch my brain every which way, I love them, I've reread all of them at least 3 times, and they're definitely in mind when I think about how to plot a story or set a scene or progress through a romance. (you'll forgive that the first 2 options are YA-- I have a whole lecture about YA's stranglehold on marketing and how lots of books that are by every other marker "adult fiction" get sucked beneath the YA umbrella even though they don't belong there just so they'll sell better, but we won't get into it now)

The Folk of the Air Trilogy by Holly Black - fae court intrigue, scandals, treachery, and backstabbing + a central couple that hates each other so much that they just have to do some smooching about it. you love to see it. A lot of stuff billed as "enemies to lovers" is fangless because they're worried about making the "enemies" too unsympathetic or too mean-- not here. Here, there are several times when I was worried either half of the couple was actually going to kill each other, lol. Violent mutual obsession. Difficult to put down once you've started.

The Six of Crows Duology by Leigh Bardugo - mean, nasty criminal wunderkind Kaz Brekker is out for revenge, and also to take over the city's underworld entirely. Heists on heists, thousands of plates spinning at once, a crew full of misfits, and a girl that has become his right hand, his confidante, and his conscience (entirely against his will). we love a high fantasy crime romp, especially with such a complicated relationship at its center.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt - I can't ever put together a books rec list without adding this. If there's a single person out there who missed the early 2010s tumblr craze and doesn't know what this book is about: a California misfit finagles his way into an elite private college in New England, where he becomes fascinated by a small, elegant clique of Classics students. He manages to infiltrate the clique, and slowly becomes involved in their personal entanglements, quarrels, secrets, and-- eventually-- murder. Everything that has ever branded itself "dark academia" is trying to do what TSH did and has failed miserably. It is the blueprint and incomparable. Tartt's lush prose seduces you as quickly as the clique seduces Richard, and, like Richard, you don't want to leave, don't want this charmed existence to end. At least half of what I do is trying-- pretty unsuccessfully-- to be in conversation with The Secret History. It accomplishes everything it's trying to accomplish, and it's a privilege to read.

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins - do you like found family? You won't for long. A fucked-up array of found siblings are being groomed to mysterious purpose by a father figure who has kept them locked away from the world at the Library, where they are raised and trained and tortured in turn. Carolyn, one of the more unassuming of these siblings, has a plan to get free-- a plan that quickly puts the whole world in serious peril. Like most of the rest of the books on this list, this one is un-put-downable, setting a breakneck pace and with compelling characters, and I'm just in so much awe at the way this is plotted-- it's a masterclass in compelling storytelling, and by a guy who's only ever written Linux manuals! I don't know how you write a debut novel like this. I think about it all the time.

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones - this is tumblr, everyone knows about Howl's Moving Castle, I won't belabor the point, but the book is different from the movie in a way that makes it very worth reading, and it's kind of the champion of bicker romance, a couple whose love language is low-level (to high-level) quarreling nonstop. they drive each other crazy and would also die for each other. so romantic <3

okay I've lost the plot. here's a bite size book rec blast to wrap it up and the points where I think we overlap: Piranesi by Susanna Clark (faith, optimism, gratitude and awe for the world you live in), The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery (taking the frightening step to build intense intimacy with a stranger), obviously the Thomas Harris Hannibal books (complicated romance with a killer). Set This House in Order by Matt Ruff (sometimes, your protagonists have a rich inner life that you have to navigate carefully-- some more than others). The Checquy Files by Daniel O'Malley (sometimes your female protagonist is pitched headfirst into a dangerous and mysterious world she's not prepared for and has to wing it the best she can. this one is a reach because that applies to thousands of books, I really just wanted to include it because these are fabulous books and fun to read). Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (figures of great evil are vastly seductive, difficult to escape, and ultimately suffocating), Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor and The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock (try as you might, you can't outrun God). (SERIOUS trigger warnings for the last three-- violence, sexual abuse and assault, all the grotesqueness that comes with southern gothic-- basically assume if there's something bad, then it's in one of those books.)

I think I'll call it there. Sorry I quickly abandoned answering your question and instead spent most of the ask on "here's a book you should read. here's another book you should read" but in my defense. you should read some of these. what you read ripples out into what you write, and these are some of my favorites, so that should count for something, right? lol maybe not but thank you for asking anyway because this was fun.

#also ditch goodreads and get a storygraph!! all my homies hate goodreads. and I think storygraph is prettier #I'll be your friend on there if you ask (find me @morewitchy)#potentially crazy work putting Blood Meridian on this list. universally considered one of the bleakest most violent novels of all time #not something I think anyone should read unless they have like zero triggers (and-- as I learned the hard way-- definitely not before bed)#but it's beautiful. cruel. can't help myself. but take a whole tablespoon of salt with that recommendation and know your limits!#also. I have e-copies of literally all of these. if you have any trouble getting ahold of them for any reason hmu and I will share

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adyophene · 1 year ago

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Hello ! I just have a little question, how do we start drawing ? I want go draw but idk how to start- any suggestion ? Or, if for starting it's better to do it with tutos, any tutorial to recommend ?

Have a great day !

Oooh, this is a tough question to answer! I suppose one the best pieces of advice I have is to figure out, before anything, what you are hoping to draw. What style, what tones, what media.

I have a feeling this might get long, so I will throw the rest under a readmore.

For me, when I started taking my art a little more seriously (I never went to art school or anything) I just focused on finding both tutorials on the fundamentals, and finding tutorials that focused on the aspects of art that interested me, which were animation and cartooning!

They go hand-in-hand, after all, and you'll find you end up honing in on the tutorials that coincide with your interests! IE- I ended up doing a lot of figure, and expression drawing because they would help me express emotion and movement better! I also spent so, so long just training my hand to be a bit more confident with drawing steady lines just because I loved the look of clean line-work!

So try to identify what your personal draw towards art is! By doing both something you like, as well as focusing the basics, I found that, at least in my personal experience, it put me in a positive feedback loop where I could keep seeing results in exactly the type of art I was interested in! And, once you start to feel confident, that is when you start adding in little bits of study from fields you might struggle with! A 90/10 split on what you're comfortable with and then what is new is usually a good way to go about it! Weirdly enough, though I don't watch him, I saw that the youtuber pewdiepie actually had a really good set of videos where he started from being a complete beginner and improving his art over 100 days. I believe its an absolutely great watch for a new artist, because he really does a great job in showing what a brand new journey into art can look like, and explains what he thinks each day. I think my favorite line was, 'after 24 days, I was finally having fun' because that can really sum up the new artist experience. It will absolutely be a slog at times, and can be really disheartening, but when you start to see progress, becomes so, SO fun.

Here is the link to the first vid, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMLEudGbxQk and his second https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJDtQTTAogk

ALSO- this was just the first video that came to mind because I watched it recently. I would recommend finding other videos about people learning to draw, or doing 30-100-365 day challenge videos. As for my personal favorite channels for art tutorials (though keep in mind, I haven't watched them in a few years ;-;, I need to study again);

There were a number of others that I wish I could link as well, but I am struggling to remember them. I hope any of that is helpful. My own art journey has been very long, and non linear, and I have to say, I'm not even satisfied with my own art! Its a endless mountain to climb, but it is so worth it to do! And lastly, I want to say thank you so much for sending this ask, you've made me dig back in to artists I used to study, and made me want to really focus back in on my own improvement!

#not art

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gamebunny-advance · 1 year ago

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Let's Just Rip Off This Band-Aid (Kliff Doll Repaint)

I still haven't finished adding the fringe to his scarf, but at this point, I don't think y'all will actually care that much. It's a personal project anyway, so I'll just finish it on my own time. Right now, I want to be released from the shackles of this project.

Once again, my poor camera and lack of editing do him no favors (he's got a real bad case of jaundice in that first pic. I PROMISE he's not that yellow-orange IRL ;o;), but he is (mostly) done.

Well, he was (mostly) done like a week ago, but just yesterday I decided to redo a few things to try and "fix" what was really bothering me about him, so I really made recursive progress. That said, I do like him more now than I did a week ago, so I'm not mad about it.

A little backstory: Alongside Kun3h0, I've been working on him for the past month, so I've been pretty occupied with this project for a while. Now, I do wonder to myself why exactly I thought making this would be a good idea. All I can really say is that my impulsive tendencies drive me to do things against my better judgement.

But, I will still give y'all my documentation and thoughts on the process + more pictures.

(I'll talk a little more about it later, but for those of you that aren't going to go through the long-ass readmore, the Neon J. mask is a reference to an old comic I drew.)

(It's so old, I was still writing everything by hand~)

So, the "real" answer to "why" I made this is really as simple as "because I could." As I said in the Kun3h0 post, I've been wanting to repaint dolls for a long time, years even, so in the back of my mind, I'm always thinking of ways I could finally start one.

Well, recently I just finally put together the ideas and motivation I needed to start. And of course, that was with Kliff.

I don't remember *exactly* how I stumbled across everything, but I do recall looking at doll clothes online and stumbling across this trench coat (pictured with the other clothes for this project).

(I took this pic mostly because I thought I was going to take pics of every major step of the process, but that didn't end up happening).

I thought it was pretty darn close to Kliff's coat, and I got the horrible idea that, "I could def make a Kliff doll to go with this coat as long as I can repaint it."

I feel like usually people would think the other way around, but that is basically the truth of this project: I didn't find clothes to fit the doll, I made the doll to fit into the clothes. Because for me, customizing the doll wasn't really the intimidating part: it's making the clothes. I don't know how to use a sewing machine, and currently lack the patience to learn (and due to some personal trauma that I don't really want to get into), but I can hand-sew, so starting any project that involves it requires me to be willing to set aside a lot of energy for me to do it, which I don't often have.

But, if I could find ways to cut down on the sewing, then I'd be more willing to start. And somehow, I was able to find just about everything I would need for a potential Kliff doll without having to sew anything. In the end, I only sewed together one thing, and it's the one thing that isn't actually finished: the scarf.

So, I blame the trench coat for the entirety of this project: if I'd never seen it, I would have never made a Kliff doll. In fact, I got the clothes before I even had the doll.

Since I was brainstorming this project, one of the most important parts is of course the base doll, which was tricky. Male doll repaints are fairly uncommon, especially of older men, so there weren't a lot of resources or places to get inspiration for this project.

From what I found, most male (fashion) dolls were very youthful, and the ones that weren't usually took heavy modifications to achieve, which was out of the question. Kliff was supposed to be an "easy" project, so on top of not wanting to sew any clothes for him, I also didn't want to have to alter the doll that much to make it look like him. This was a lot to ask for without putting in any personal work, but in a way, this goal was supposed to keep me from actually starting this project: really this whole thing was supposed to just live in my head as a fantasy as most things do, but then I just stumbled into the right set of things, so I couldn't stop myself from going through with it.

The doll I landed on was a BTS Mattel doll. Now I've said before that I know basically nothing about BTS, and that is still true, but that's beside the point. In my research for finding a suitable doll to work with, I found out that a popular base were these BTS dolls. At first, I wasn't into it because I was still running into the "youthful face" problem that I was with other brands: most of them had pillowy lips and nice soft faces, but I did eventually find one that I thought was close enough: J-Hope.

(It's not the worst match up.)

I don't have pics of my doll before I started working on him, but it was pretty close to the stock photo. He has much thinner lips than the others, and a taller, more angular head shape that I thought would work best for Kliff. I did worry a bit that the nose wasn't "strong" enough to really be Kliff (and IMO, it wasn't XP), but it was the closest I found yet, so I decided to bite the bullet and get one, and if I had one, that meant I needed to start gathering everything I would need for this project.

So, no backing out now.

Now, actually acquiring this doll was a whole other song and dance, but here's the part that's important for how the process went:

Due to a miscommunication with the seller I eventually got him from, there was a delay with shipping, so I didn't actually get him until weeks after "officially" starting this project. In the meantime, the clothes and things for Kun3h0 (who I started as an impulse project within the impulse project) had already been gathered.

The original plan was that I was going to work on and subsequently post about Kliff first since he was a comparatively simpler project. All the things I was avoiding for Kliff: sewing clothes and making modifications to the doll, were all going to be incorporated into Kun3h0, so she was theorhetically going to take longer and be posted later, thus telling a small story of "starting simple, ending complex." But since I didn't have his doll, but didn't want to delay working on Kun3h0 just to wait on him, I started on her and repainting his clothes anyway.

So, I don't have any pics of the doll or his clothes from when I was working on them, unlike the sparse ones I had for Kun3h0, I only have pics from after he was finished.

But I'll still tell y'all what I can to at least preserve the story.

For starters, repainting this coat was probably the most time-consuming part of this process.

I really thought that it would take one or two days maximum to turn this coat bright yellow, but I think it actually took over a week. And I really should have known; the coat was a medium tone, and I know that yellow takes a while to build up on anything that isn't light. I lost count at some point, but I swear that thing has over 20 coats of paint on it. Mind you, the first 10 or so coats were watered down with the textile medium, which also contributed to how long it was taking for the coat to take color, but at some point I just got so frustrated that I stopped mixing in the medium and painting directly onto the coat to get the color to layer faster. This is a huge no-no for painting acrylics onto fabric, lest the paint crack from creasing the fabric, but I just couldn't be bothered anymore. I needed this thing to be dandelion yellow NOW or I was gonna lose it.

There were consequences for taking that shortcut, such as the paint cracking in high motion areas and the coat getting stiff, but it's not terrible. In the end, I accepted the trade-offs or else I might still be painting the coat. Perhaps one day I'll reverse engineer the pattern for the coat and make him a new one, but I wouldn't count on it. In retrospect, I wonder if I would have had an easier time if I had thought to bleach the coat first?

As you might notice, I contoured/shaded part of the coat in orange. That's something that I actually *just* added yesterday and added another couple of hours to the work time. It was just bothering me that the doll was essentially a giant slab of yellow, and was part of the reason I didn't like it very much. But I got inspired by this repaint to try contouring the coat to give it more depth.

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(I also used this person's videos to modify the hands. He has one deidcated to just reshaping the BTS hands.)

In the end, I'm pretty happy with the results.

The rest of the clothes weren't as difficult to deal with.

The pants took the paint a lot better, likely due to being dark paint on a light surface. Since I used less paint, it's not as stiff as the coat and still go on very easily. Though, they are VERY high waisted, and I'm not sure if that's normal XP

The shoes are also painted (and slightly modified), though I had to paint them twice because the first time, the paint got stretched off when I tried to put them on the doll's feet: the shoes were just *slightly* too small for the feet of the doll, so they really get stretched to fit his feet, and his heels don't actually go in all the way XP.

He's still capable of standing on his own, but I try not to remove the shoes, so I can avoid having them crack again.

In my "initial clothes" pic, I put down a different shirt than the one he's wearing. The original plan was to repaint the shirt black, but my work space is very limited, so I couldn't really repaint three pieces of clothes at once without significantly risking that I would stain other things. In the end, after getting scarred by how long it was taking for the coat to take color, I decided to just give him one of the black shirts that came with the coat. This does make him somewhat inaccurate since the current shirt has flowers/plants on it, but I'm gonna say that they make up for the lack of flowers on his scarf. Maybe someday I'll make him a new shirt from an old sock or something, but for now, I don't think it's a bad look.

Other clothing of note is the scarf, but since it's not technically finished I didn't take any close pics of it. It's actually made of an old headband of mine that I just cut and painted to look like his scarf.

Originally, I had actually glued on ribbon to it for the stripes, which took a couple days for the drying, but because I couldn't flatten out the scarf to easily glue the ribbon, it turned into a mess and bulked it out too much: since the scale of the doll is already small, I really needed to keep the fabrics thin. This was especially important for the scarf since it was going to wrap around his neck: if it were any thicker, it was going to practically eat up his face, which it still does, just less so.

Speaking of face...

When I finally got the doll in the mail, I started working on him right away, so I don't have any "before" pics of the doll.

After I did the usual "wiping off the face and pulling out his hair," I started with repainting the entire body and head.

Despite Kliff being ambigously "WHITE 🫵," Kliff isn't as pale as the original doll. I'd say even the stock picture I posted above has more warmth than the actual doll did. So, I got the base to be "coral" all over, dusted him in light orange chalk pastels for contouring, and most of his details are outlined in shades of burgandy. I didn't take any nude pics of this doll, but he is countoured all over his body and you can rest easy knowing I gave him some nips XP. But maybe someday I'll show y'all doll!Kliff's washboard abs XP.

TBH, I did want to detail some tattoos and some body hair too, but I just didn't trust myself to do either of those well with the tools I have (my brushes aren't thin enough, and my hand not steady enough for those kind of intricate details). Maybe someday I'll at least get his tattoos in (and after I've actually designed them XP), but we'll see. I don't plan on having the doll in short sleeved clothes very often, so details like that are the least of my concerns.

TBH, I was pretty proud of how the face paint originally went on. I really took my time to make sure it went down flat. It really was beautifully smooth~

But disaster struck.

I had painted the head while it was still separated from the body, and when it finally came time to reunite them, the paint on the head cracked and peeled when I shoved it back on. And, foolish fool that I am, instead of accepting my losses and starting over from a perfectly clean head, I just peeled the lose ends and repainted the exposed parts, which of course made the paint uneven. I somewhat justified this with the idea that most of it would be covered by other details, but in retrospect, I really should have just started over properly.

But, after that ordeal was over with, it was time to actually work on the face.

I can't clearly remember if I worked on Kun3h0 or Kliff's face first. I think I worked on them simultaneously because it took me a LONG time to actually get the courage to work on Kun3h0's face.

I thought I did a decent job on Kun3h0 since I really only had the 1 eye to repaint (the hidden eye is painted, but it's basically just a void with no details), and it was a bigger "canvas", so it was easier to paint. Besides having 2 eyes that I would need to make nearly identical, they were also a lot smaller, so it took a lot longer to paint them in a way that satisfied me (and since it's not easy to "redo" acrylic paint, his eyes lost a lot of smoothness too).

Again, I don't have any "before" pics, so it won't be easy for me to convey my troubles about it, but I do want to say that I think Kliff with a closed mouth is very cursed.

He just looks like he's itching to say something heinous and that is no different for the doll.

It was so difficult for me both match his expression on a face that wasn't *completely* his and still look like him. Although I chose this doll because he most resembled Kliff, he was never gonna be a perfect likeness of him, but despite knowing this, it still bothered me that the face was still just very "young" looking.

Granted, I don't think the original Kliff looks *that* old either (if I didn't know any better, I would assume he was in his 30s, not his 50s, especially compared to other characters around the same age), but still not as *smooth* as the doll is (even with my paint mishaps).

If you can believe it, the face actually used be worse. I don't have pics of it, but like the coat, I actually repainted his face yesterday to again try and fix what was making me dislike it before. I think the problem is that I didn't outline the eyes as much as the final one (like, I don't think I lined his undereye at all), so he was lacking depth. The mouth was also a little more off. Instead of being like "<--->" it was more like "|-|"

(A rough illustration of what I'm trying to describe.)

So, while it's still not perfect, I do like him more today than I did a week ago.

I think the only things left to talk about are his accessories, starting with his wig:

I'm not actually a big fan of the color. When I started this project, I wanted to try and make him as accurate as possible, and the original Kliff design has a very "cherry jolly rancher" hair color.

However, how I draw him and how he appears in Encore Edition gives his hair a more red-orange tone which isn't as intense. In the end, I opted for accuracy towards his first design since that's the one I was technically most familiar with and wanted to replicate, but in retrospect, I should have realized that I was never gonna be able to seperate my personal quirks from this personal project, so I should have gone with a color that was more accurate to how I interpret him. (I dunno if I would have gone as far as to give him triangular eyes, but one of my biggest takeaways from this project has been that I should have just allowed this to be "my take" on the character instead of trying to be "accurate," meeting in the middle, and satisfying neither condition.)

I don't think I really got across how much I HATED brushing out yarn for the wigs when I posted Kun3h0. It was just such a tedidus process, from brushing it out, to straightening it, to gluing it down. It was such a mess. I'm still finding loose wisps of yarn hair floating around my home since I made them.

Since I had more than had my fill from making Kun3h0's wig, I once again started taking shortcuts when it came to Kliff: I really should have made more wefts for him. I figured since his hair was (compartively) shorter, that I wouldn't need to make as many, but in the end his wig turned out both too thin and too thick.

Since his hair is so messy, I didn't follow any kind of guide for his hair like I did Kun3h0. I basically just glued around the perimeter of the cap, horizontally on the inside, and made sure it would fold over in the front.

Part of the problem is that I made the wefts too thick: instead of just gluing down what could actually touch the surface of the work area, I wound up gluing layers on top of each other, so the wefts would be like a mm thick when they should have been less than half of that. So, I barely got enough coverage for the scalp, and the parts that I did get down are very thick. I think it makes his head look bigger than it should which kinda adds to the uncanniness of him.

I did try to style it as close to canon as possible, but there are some things that just aren't (easily) possible in certain mediums, and Kliff's wild hair is one of them.

In retrospect, I probably should have just sculpted his hair with clay or something: it probably would have been more accurate, but I don't have much confidence in my sculpting ability, and again, I didn't want to modify the doll that much, so I stuck with the yarn.

I might suck it up and try and make him a new wig, I still have a LOT of red yarn left over, so maybe I can make him some new styles too. But the tedium of going through with it makes it very unlikely that I'll follow through~

(The wig from other angles.)

Since the beard is made from the same yarn, I'll lightly talk about that. There aren't too many resources about bearded dolls, but I've seen people root it, glue it, and even just paint it if they weren't supposed to be thick. In the end I used this repaint for reference (suggestive content warning) and glued it on.

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The scarf covers most of it, but I think it turned out okay. I need to add just a *little* more to his left cheek, but otherwise I feel like I was successful.

Next, it's usually hidden due to all the crap that's on his head, but I did give him an earring.

I didn't think about it until way too late in the process, and I tried to poke a hole through his ear so he could actually wear it. However, when I tried to do so, I almost ruined his head paint a second time. Saying, "fuck that," I decided to just glue it on.

If I had been more brave with modifying this doll, I might have just resculpted his ears entirely, because, being based on a real life human being, the doll's ears don't flare out that much, so they're easily covered by other things.

His glasses are just a piece of painted plastic that hold to his face using some plastic cord. They fit well while his wig is off, but putting them on with everything else is a goddamn nightmare.

Since his ears are so small, and his hair is so short, there's nothing for the glasses to "grab" onto without the cord, but the cord is too short to fit around the wig once it's on, but I can't make the cord longer to sit over the wig, because the glasses need to go over the headband, and it's a pain in the ass trying to layer everything like that.

So, I have to put the glasses in place first, TAPE the cord to his scalp so they don't move, put on the wig, then put on the headband. It's really such a hassle, but I don't think I can truly convey the annoyance of having to do it all without showing you. So, unless I absolutely have to, I'm never taking any of those things off him again.

I think the last things are the headband, mask, and tablet.

The headband is just a spare scrunchy that I have. I don't have one in the *exact* same color as the real one, so I went with the closest one I had, which was this teal color.

I didn't feel comfortable repainting one since it's essentially an elastic band, I don't think the paint, even with the textitle medium, would be able to hold up to all the stretching I have to do to even get it on his head.

If I happen to find a white one somewhere in my stash, then I might try dyeing it using water and acrylic paints to see if I can get it green, but for now, I think this works. A little thick, but it works.

The tablet is just a piece of foam painted with paint markers and the mask is a piece of cardboard. I wasn't planning on really recreating any scenes with this doll, but since I remembered that comic, and thought it would be easy enough to make, I went ahead and made it as an in-joke to myself.

Honestly, I think it's the most charming piece of the entire ensemble. Plus, he can wear it without me having undo/redo any of his other head accessories, so it's easy to make him wear it whenever.

My final comments about the doll itself are that he's fucking huge. I should have taken a pic of him next to Kun3h0, but he is too tall to even fit on my display shelf without sitting.

(Please ignore any mess you might see in the reflection. This is just one of the only flat pieces of furniture he can stand on without me standing on something to take a pic.)

Despite my interests, I don't actually collect dolls (I'm more into figures and plushies), so I wasn't expecting him to be so big. In fact, Kun3h0, who would be considered a small to medium doll in collector's spaces, was also bigger than I thought she'd be, so you can imagine my surprise when I got my hands on him.

So... I don't really know where I can put him. He obviously can't live in front of my TV, but beyond being too big for my shelf, he also doesn't fit in with any of my other collectibles. And I'll be honest, the contrast of him "clearly not belonging" among my more "kawaii" items was a motivator in starting this project, I live for the gap moe after all, but in practice he really just sticks out like a sore thumb. (This is also why his first pics are in a slightly different location without many props. I just couldn't put together anything from my collection or find a spot among my things to take a good thematic pic with. The magazines/CDs he's with are from my dad's collection.)

I do have space at higher elevations in my room, but it's kinda off putting to have him staring down my room, looking like he's plotting something (my space is too small to ignore it). So I dunno what I'm gonna do with him. I did have plans to make him some... cuter outfits so he wouldn't stick out as much, but that requires sewing, and I'm kinda worn out from this project.

In conclusion, despite my troubles with this project, I'm not entirely displeased with the results. At the very least, it was an experience, and one that I might even be willing to do a third time 👀...?

But for now, I'd like to rest and maybe go back to drawing again. I feel like I haven't drawn anything "real" for a while now. We're inching closer and closer to the next follower milestone (4 digit number BA-BY!), so I'd like to at least get back to being good enough to sketch some stuff for y'all soon~

#gbunny makes #gbunny draws #custom doll #doll custom #doll repaint #kliff #nsr #no straight roads #for the record i do find this project thoroughly embarrassing for me #but i can't justify its existence without sharing it. so here it is.#like. i wish i could have been obsessed with somebody else.#anybody else.#well. someone who's socially acceptable to obsess over i guess #but i'm not. i'm obsessed with him so i'm going to make things of him #and they're gonna make me happy #despite the embarrassment #Youtube

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hideyseek · 6 months ago

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man ... shoutout to shitty drafts for real .... i just went from this:

When they arrive at the precinct, Zheng Bei slows his footsteps as they come to the entry stairwell, and when Gu Yiran turns to him, Zheng Bei waves at him and says, “Go on ahead.” “I’ll wait for you,” Gu Yiran says, one foot on the first stair. “It’s no problem.” “Don’t worry about it,” Zheng Bei says, voice taut. He says, firmly, “I’ll see you upstairs.” Gu Yiran goes.

to this:

At the foot of the stairs heading up to the precinct, Zheng Bei stops and says, voice faintly strained, “Gu-laoshi, you can go in first. I have something to do.” Gu Yiran puts his hand in his pocket, feels the ridged cap of the bottle of painkillers. “What’s wrong?” “Don’t worry about it,” Zheng Bei says. There’s an odd set to his face, a look in his eyes like he’s getting ready to brace for something unpleasant. “I just need a moment.” “I can wait,” Gu Yiran offers. “I said, don’t worry about it,” Zheng Bei says, firm. “I’ll see you upstairs. Go on.” Gu Yiran frowns at him for a long, searching moment, but when Zheng Bei only jerks his chin/head at the entrance, Gu Yiran sets his jaw, and goes.

like just in a single rewrite, many beautiful changes! details, analysis, and thinking under the readmore:

comparing these two versions, in the second version:

zheng bei's hesitating action / the "inciting incident" to the exchange is stronger (slowing his steps vs stopping outright)

there's more escalation in the conversation (rather than a single exchange, there're three beats of back-and-forth, and zheng bei gets firmer with each one)

gu yiran's character is more defined (in the second we get to see gu yiran push back out of concern, and in the second and gu yiran only goes (mulishly) out of accepting zheng bei's request, rather than out of following orders as we see in the first)

this is one of the technique things i'm really trying to work on at the moment, this skill of more ... intentional revision. when i first started incorporating revision into my writing process (about a year ago? dec 2023?) i was going off of vibes a lot more, and was working more off of "what feels wrong about this scene? what don't i like?" and while that is something i still think is very valuable to be able to do, for me it often feels kind of intangible. and when i am (somewhat inevitably) in the horrible slog of revision (especially for a fic like this one which began as 3k and has grown to quite a bit longer and more complex), it is much harder for me to keep track of my progress and feel that i'm still working toward what i consider "good" writing (compelling, specific language that sounds smooth when read aloud + story structure that clearly demonstrates causation to move the story forward, and story beats that are consistently escalating). so i'm practicing putting the specific changes to language a little more clearly now, in the hopes that if i practice this enough, it will reinforce the ways in which i can concretely "improve" a piece of writing, and help me slowly develop a sense of how to identify forward motion in revision even when i still look ahead and know that there are 2-3 drafts before i get to a story that i'm really satisfied with.

#hidey talks fic #beiran ep15 coda fic

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autisticlancemcclain · 2 years ago

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thank u @zenstrike for the tag <333333333 i see ur mic and i'm elated about it

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

185! but i haven't updated in like a week and a half so we're probably closer to 190

2. what’s your total ao3 word count?

556,104. i am very excited to watch it jump up when i finally finish my longfic teehee

3. what fandoms do you write for?

literally just voltron lol. well not counting baby me's wattpad lol. i started writing almost two years ago and just went ham basically. i've been intentionally avoiding things that i know i will get hyperfixated on bc i don't want to stop my writing obsession lol

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

ooooou i'm excited to check. i know it's changed quite a bit over time. i usually sort them by hits!

i will grind you to sand (beneath my louboutin heels) [voltron, 2573 words]: bamf lance fic where i give him a revolver and let him go ham basically

mr. snuggles [voltron, 1656 words]: one of my very earliest fics! lance, lover of weirdo animals, finds a demonic cat-sized spider and adopts it despite his friend's freakouts

he might not look like he gets bitches (but honey that dick was eleven inches) [voltron, 1136 words]: this one is so dorky lol but it's just secret relationship klance coming to light in the most embarrassing possible way

does anyone know where the love of god goes (when the waves turn the minutes to hours) [voltron, 4283]: a canon divergence au where lance is a seer and convinces the skeptics on his team of his abilities by ending the war

this is the part of me that you're never gonna ever get away) [voltron, 3262 words]: a lance & shiro hurt/comfort with a small autistic lance character study! i'm very proud of this one

5. do you respond to comments?

i definitely do on tumblr! it's one of the first things i do when i wake up actually. on ao3, though...i'm pretty sure i have about eight hundred unanswered comments sitting in my inbox 💀 it's an ongoing issue

6. what’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

i'm almost sure it's this post-game show lance leaving fic, because i got comments and asks for weeks begging me to write a happy ending lol. but this fic from the hana universe, from when keith is little and shiro is fighting for custody and they haven't figured things out yet. that one is sad. this dream pov adashi fic is also sad and has no happy ending bc, you know. shiro is in space and adam thinks he's dead and everything. my loneliest series is also still in progress and as such there is no happy ending. and this is my earliest angsty-ending fic with MCD

7. what’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

oh god pretty much everything i write has a happy ending?? if i’m being serious?? frankly i don’t do a lot of linear plot. i just write Scenes that are vaguely connected. BUT my h2o fic had a plot that ended happily, as did my cowboy fic, but truly i’m more of a slice of life kinda gal. all my active wips are plot-driven, though, and i plan for all of them to end happily.

8. do you get hate on fics?

oh god yeah. i get it on brown eyed lance, autistic lance, adhd keith, allura just in general (are you sensing a pattern), my refusal to use readmores, and lately just some demands for me to write differently/more?? most of it is just funny so i post it to goof on it lol, but some of it i just delete and pout about until i forget about it 💀

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

yes and it’s nasty and i will literally never ever post it. although i guess i’ve written some softer stuff that’s more allusion than anything, like in my loneliest series.

10. do you write crossovers? what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

not anymore, but i did when i was a kid?? i think i wrote a pjo/hoo/divergent/the mortal instruments/homestuck/a bunch of other shit fic when i was 13. i’ve successfully blocked that era out of my mind tho so i’m not sure. i do a lot of insane aus, tho. i wrote a fic based off a country song written in the sixties. so.

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

i’ve had people write continuations of my wips?? which i didn’t rly like. i just ignored it.

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

someone has asked me about translating a fic before! haven’t heard anything since tho.

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

i have tried. i’m not very good at it. i have very Specific ideas about things and can be very controlling, so it’s honestly better that i don’t lol.

14. what’s your all-time favorite ship?

klance, easy. been in the trenches of this goddamn fandom since i was 13 years of age. it’s been a Journey.

15. what’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

god, the butterfly effect. i get people asking me to update all the time and i genuinely feel bad, because i have absolutely no ideas or plans for it. i might try to come up with an ending of some kind?? but i wrote that like two years ago, so i have changed a LOT about my writing since then.

16. what are your writing strengths?

dialogue and humour, i think. and sometimes writing lack of emotional communication (if that makes sense — i like to try and write around an emotion).

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

i over explain a lot. and i overuse dialog ur tags sometimes. i have a Very Specific scene playing out in my head and i want everyone else to see it like i’m seeing it, which is my downfall a lot. i’ve been trying to work on implicit stage directions.

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

i think sometimes it’s necessary? it can be a good tool for humour, like with cussing that can’t be achieved in english. but while i understand and read several languages i have always always struggled to speak or write in them. it’s very frustrating so i often avoid the subject entirely lol.

19. first fandom you wrote for?

i’ve been writing fanfic in my head since before i knew what it was, but i started typing things at around 11 when i used to homestuck roleplay with my friends lol. messy messy times.

20. favorite fic you’ve ever written?

oh i am my own target audience. i have several.

i need a man (who’s patient and kind): keith-centric post canon (divergence) fic where lance takes him to his family and keith is good with kids and just keith being loved is the whole point. always.

what if i lose it all: an alternate universe where lance, as a baby, loses both his parents, and then is raised by his oldest siblings. in luis’ pov.

when does a ripple become a tidal wave (when does the reason become the flame): brogane fight & angst canon divergence post season 6; covering shiro’s guilt complex and keith’s unwavering loyalty

he’s into superstitions (black cats and voodoo dolls): halloween verse with witch lance and vampire keith! i have barely spoken about this au on here but rest assured i’m thinking about it all the fucking time

the applebee’s universe: modern au with young keith and lance learning how to love each other

ceilings (plaster): non-linear dream-like fic that’s just so trippy and strange i’m obsessed with it

if the sky comes falling down (for you) there’s nothing in this world i wouldn’t do: a keith character study about how the biggest bleeding heart in the universe loves

the hana universe: brogane-centric universe as their family starts rocky and grows

thank u again for the tag zen <33 open offer for anyone else who would like to hop on!!

#writer games #?#info #tag game #longpost

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amadeusgame · 2 months ago

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Devlog: Major March Milestones

There are 2 big highlights I'd like to celebrate from last month in this update:

Women's Day Sale (huge marketing boost)

Development Progress (exciting stuff)

Details below readmore.

Steam | Itch | More Links

Women's Day Sale

Amadeus was part of the WINGS Women's Day Sale on Steam last month. I mentioned having some complicated feelings about participating, but in the end I am incredibly glad that I did and very grateful for the opportunity. The Women's Day Sale was the single biggest marketing/visibility boost that the game has ever had. It blew Next Fest out of the water! The sale brought the game's outstanding wishlists on Steam from around 420 to around 680, which absolutely blasted past a major milestone (500) I was optimistically hoping to maybe get by the game's launch. Being at nearly 700 outstanding wishlists feels a little absurd.

I've been working on an updated thank-you for reaching that milestone, but it's not ready yet. In the meantime, I would like to say "thank you women."

Development Progress

Every month, my goal has been to build out 3 new scenes to a fully-playable state. This past month was special because it was the first time that every single scene I built was completely new, and not iterating on some version of an existing scene. It's finally starting to feel like I'm building the whole game I have planned rather than just the start of it.

For those of you who have stuck around since the very first versions of the Amadeus demo, you're probably familiar with a scene where you walk around the old watchtower pointing-and-clicking at things. That scene isn't included in the demo anymore, because I've added so much more to the start of the game—and to that scene itself—that including it would give away too much. Nevertheless, that scene was redone in February. As of March, every scene I've been working on is one that nobody else has seen before.

We are officially INSIDE THE WATCHTOWER.

(Not to compulsively mention Sonic the Hedgehog in every single devlog for my angsty werewolf visual novel, but I do think listening to "Kingdom Valley" from Sonic 06 on repeat while drawing the inside gave the atmosphere a little je ne sais quoi.)

This has got me really excited. I'm finally realizing ideas that I've had planned for ages but have been stuck as mere first-draft scripts while I worked on getting the early scenes right. It was very important for me to iterate so much on the introduction for so long, because this allowed me to finalize my mechanics (and art direction and narrative and UI...) and get it in front of a lot of people as a demo I'm proud of. But now that I'm confident in the game's direction, I'm finally able to build the rest of it, and it's so exciting. The part I worked on last month is deep into the "rising action" of Episode 1. The things I've been working on are JUICY.

I'm even more excited about this upcoming month. My favorite scene in the entirety of Episode 1 is on April's to-do list. It's not the climax, necessarily, but it's my favorite part. If I were a player, it's the scene that would change my opinion on this game from "oh, this is interesting" to "I might actually be obsessed with this." I don't know what kind of impact it will have on others, but it's deeply important to me and to the story's major themes, so I absolutely cannot wait to build it. A lot of the dynamic music functions I've made already (seamless looping with reverb tail, fading different layers in and out) were created specifically because I knew I would need them for this scene.

Short aside, I have put my dynamic music Unity scripts on Github in case anyone else hates Wwise as much as I do: https://github.com/ArcanaXIX/UnityScripts/

I'm hesitant to share too much from my work last month, because I want most of what happens after Amadeus visits the watchtower to be a surprise. I WILL announce that we're gonna be adding a little bassoon to the list of live instrument performances in the soundtrack!

(I met the bassoon performer in question at MAGWest and am really excited to have them on the project. It's impossible to overstate how much of a positive influence tabling at MAGWest has had on the latter stages of development for this game.)

I will also say this: Amadeus: A Riddle for Thee ~ Episode 1 ~ Waltz is a linear game. Any "decisions" that may present themselves are different paths to ultimately reach the same conclusion.

But.

I have—very sparingly—implemented some of these "decisions."

Speaking too much on their purpose will give away too much, so I will hold back.

Just know that my target audience is those with stubborn hearts who dislike being told what to do.

(In this same vein, I intend to tweak the initial controls tutorial in the first scene at Dartmaure in the final version of the game to reflect this. But I'm getting ahead of myself...)

Thank you all for your continued interest and support. The game is actually close enough to being finished that I'm getting kind of nervous. But there's more to do before that time comes, so for now, I will keep on working at it!

#amadeus: a riddle for thee #visual novel #devlog #indie game #indie game dev #adventure game #indie game development

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