#this was a long-un it's getting a readmore

[enneamage]

people have been saying this but I hope this shift is what makes tommy really step back and evaluate what he's doing bc his content has kind of been all over the place and he keeps making jokes he seems to regret I think in part due to this persona he thinks people want or he's afraid to drop and I don't know tubbo that well so I can speak to how mad he is but it's clear between the marriage bit and the snapchat jokes tommy has crossed a line and I'm hoping a genuine conversation can bring him back down to earth from this over the top content prioritizing mentality he's seems to have taken on and as much as I think tommy is a natural entertainer streams right now are not his friend I think they are too much pressure maybe losing some of his audience and having to rethink/rebuild might be the best thing for him honestly bc he seems so afraid of losing his current audience he's driving them off

I feel like the loss of public trust because of his connection to Dream and his Tubbo-endangering content-brain are separate pieces, even though they’re happening at the same time.

Tommy is very likely going to keep his relationship to Dream, and probably has an opinion on the information he has about the situation rather than just ignoring it. He hasn’t said anything explicit, so I can’t say anything definitive either, but he behaves like someone with moral doubts about the situation. I would have to know way more about what Tommy’s opinion of ethics and power dynamics are than I will ever realistically know to be able to say anything further than that, but I feel like I need to let people down easy on this one. Tommy is not letting go of Dream because of what’s happened, and he’s made that clear. His joke showed his hand (not about the immediate situation but him being on joking terms about Dream), but it was always there, so this moment was both accidental and inevitable. Because most of the talk on twitter is about his connection with Dream over the joke at this stage, there’s not much that can be done with Tommy’s values being what they are right now.

I’m not sure what time you’re comparing it to, but both his streams and his Youtube videos seem about as regular as I’ve ever known them to be. He seems to be really trying to get it together lately, maybe not ethically but career-wise. I know people are worried that his content-brain is going to cause him to damage the relationships in his life, so he’s got the classic battle for the Youtuber soul: work-life balance, both time wise and morally.

The wedding video was questionably moral. It was also really good. As a viewer how in-tune you are with Tubbo’s emotions or how he thinks is going to change your experience of videos wildly, and I think the same goes for streams. Tubblings have been suffering both for and on behalf of their streamer, and I fully get that, but it is an issue that’s mainly within the two-person dynamic between them. Unfortunately, Tommy has always trampled Tubbo in some form or another so this is less a recent development and more him being able to do so through more and more extreme means.   

I don’t want to dip too far into Mages Theory Of Self & Persona but the short version is I believe that for as long as Tommy is put in the unique situation of sitting in front of a camera and addressing the public he’s going to have a persona for doing that. I know that his twitter persona deliberately playing tone-deaf is driving people crazy right now because he’s flagging deflection and apathy when that’s exactly what people are afraid he really feels. People get pissed off at it for the exact reasons why it works, it’s unserious and provocative at the same time, which was the kind of deadly attention grab he used to turn towards a lot more when he was younger. I think it’s a big mistake for him to signal that he isn’t listening or taking things seriously right now, but that seems to primarily his twitter approach and not what he puts out in videos or livestreams.  

People seem to keep saying that losing his audience is freaking him out, but I haven’t picked up on raw panic from him yet. He seems to be reaching for a new context to be stable in, but I don’t think he’s acting out from pure anxiety right now. He’s talked about the idea of coming to peace with a smaller but more involved audience, and it seems to resonate with him. He’s making changes but he doesn’t seem more erratic to me than usual.

I’ve known of people who tend to blurt things out nervously that they don’t mean to say, and Tommy has always struck me as that kind of person. I’m compelled to say he used to be worse before he was taught moral guidelines, we can hear him talking about what can/can’t be said and what would be a stupid idea to say a lot more often now. It’s at least on his mind and you can see him thinking about it from time to time, even if things come out without him meaning for them to. It really feels like a trait he’ll never have total control over even if he changes as a person because of the way his comedy and his disasterbrain are connected. I would like him to get better with this, but it’s a hard trait to tame.

Overall things are shifting for him and he’s in the middle of a number of tense situations, but I don’t see him deprioritising content anytime soon. He can be very stubborn so I think he’ll try and fight his way upstream to evolve what he does over taking a break, so time will tell how his methods change.

[archipithecus]

Friends at the Table is a podcast focused on critical worldbuilding, smart characterization, fun interaction between good friends, and asking "what if X was Y? what if W could do Z?"

anyways here's a non-comprehensive selection of some times FatT asked good hypotheticals

(spoilers for Autumn in Heiron, Marielda, Winter in Heiron, COUNTER/Weight, Twilight Mirage, Sangfielle, and some Bluff City i think) (i know Spring, Partizan, and Palisade must also have good "what if X was Y?" but i'm still catching up) (this got way long so i'm putting it behind a readmore) (shoutout to Search at the Table at https://curiosity.cat-girl.gay/ for letting me do this) (also to Transcripts at the Table for writing this all down in the first place)

KEITH: What if I was a snow...hawk… ART: What if you're like, a Dr. Seuss animal? KEITH: Yeah! What if I was a star-bellied sneetch?

KEITH: (laughing) What if the bird was a can opener!

AUSTIN (as Zaktrak): It's like, what if a, what if a factory or train or a windmill could read a book?

AUSTIN (CONT.): And then he, he looks up, he actually has like a very… his build is kind of like, angular and… not thin in terms of like, weak? But he has a sort of… androgynous character about him, in terms of his like, what you would think of as like his body structure. And… very beautiful blue eyes. He’s sort of like, what if David Bowie was super black.

AUSTIN: And that's kind of like, the picture you get of her, is like, What if Fero was like, 30% less hyperactive? Still way more hyperactive than everybody else in-- the world? (laughter) but like, just a little more in tune, with the world.

AUSTIN: What if fire was matte?

ART: What if a—what if a 90s after school special needed some graffiti

AUSTIN: Yeah. He asks you, um... watching what unfolds, and there's, there's, it's--and this is the fuckin' nerdiest thing I'm ever gonna say; it's like what if A-ha's Take On Me was an AMV? Was an anime music video?

AUSTIN: Ali’s character, how did she describe her character, “what if Han Solo used to be Beyonce?”

AUSTIN: It’s like, what if the American government was just another American company?

AUSTIN: It’s like what if holograms did gifs, basically?

ART: You how like Han Solo’s always talking to the Millenium Falcon, but what if the Millenium Falcon-- AUSTIN: Could talk back? ART: Had a chance of, yeah, of deciding he was angry.

SYLVIA: For example. Like just p - yeah, what if they have psychic assassins there. Oh! What if this planet’s an alien? What if this planet is a psychic assassin? Which is a great sentence I just said.

AUSTIN: Yeah, I should note that this is also like "What if the Super Bowl was attended by high fashion models?", right?

AUSTIN: We don’t get a lot of elderly non-binary people. And so Saint Auger is like, what if someone you knew from Portland was 82?

AUSTIN: It’s almost like, what if a crown could be a dunce cap?

AUSTIN: It's like- what if there was a really enterprising twelve year old, who like, [laughs] made a physiology- uh, person- a physiology like, model, but with dirt and rocks and sticks. Also there's no face, the face is also just one of this solid black rock plates.

AUSTIN: And again, there’s just light streaming in through—I think this room is mostly, like, does not have a huge window, but it does have little eyelet windows at the top of the, towards the ceiling, that run horizontally along the room, and just like, bright—it’s almost like, what if colour could be shadow? Do you know what I mean? Like, what if instead of it being that a shadow crosses your face, it is this prismatic glow that moves across the group of you as this thing crawls around this space station.

AUSTIN: It’s like white and blue, there are stars, it- you know, I think that the- it’s, it looks like the way you might imagine like, what if the UN had spaceships?

AUSTIN: What if you mixed your- your selfhood, with the notion of wings. Or the notion of flight. Not just flying. That’s where we’re going.

AUSTIN: This giant battleship that’s like ‘what if a millipede instead of legs had guns and what if it was all around it’?

AUSTIN: This thing is like the size of like a major city. This thing is like, what if Manhattan was a battleship. And instead of buildings it had guns. Except now they’re made of weird black glass.

AUSTIN: The first time he showed up I described him as what if Canderous Ordo decided to have a robot body one day? And slowly began to replace it.

AUSTIN: There’s a little— Yes, it’s like what if a cow— what if Christian Slater was playing a cowboy from New Jersey, and also was Canderous Ordo. And also he eats through his hands.

AUSTIN: There is just this like… I think it’s just metal unfolding across space. Like, at some point Volition just kind of spat out a, a, almost, it looks like a cloud of ink but instead of ink, it’s metal. And it’s just unfolding indefinitely in space like a huge— like what if Akira, what if at the end of Akira when Tetsuo turns into a weird flesh monster? It was that but various types of metal, just like bubbling all over the place throughout space, and I don’t know how you deal with that! But suddenly in the middle of the Mirage there is just this, this ink splatter, this, this gaseous, you know, spread of metal.

AUSTIN: And it’s like — again, it’s like a pistol — it’s like what if a pistol was also like a curved sword, like almost like a scimitar or something?

JANINE: What if we do a live show, but the only live show we ever do is at Bakucon?

ART: Um, let me tell you, this is a nice coat, you guys. Um, I think it’s sort of like what if… What if a leather duster jacket was like an ephemeral idea.

AUSTIN: It’s like … I think the way I described it was, what if there was a Companion Cube that could have its corners pulled apart and in the middle is a weird glowing sphere?

AUSTIN: He has this dope, like, “What if the Millenium Falcon was a deep V?” Instead of just that little bit at the top, it goes really deep down. Or like, “What if Pacman was really long?” You know what I mean?

AUSTIN: Okay. You find him like, rolled under the bottom of his, uhh, or like on a, it’s not rolled under, he’s on like a little, like cart that has a pneumatic lift, or it’s like, it’s like a, it’s like a robot that walks around. It has like- it’s like a Boston Dynamics- like what if a Boston Dynamics, like four-legged robot was also a thing you laid on top of? Like one of those carts that goes underneath a car, to repair it. You know what I’m talking about?

AUSTIN (as Morning’s Observation): [exhales thoughtfully] Like what if milk was a solid.

AUSTIN: But it still has that ribbony-quality? [chuckles] It still has the sound of fabric rubbing on fabric? But is definitely amplified a great deal, probably? And also, we know it’s sharp, so there’s probably some… sharpness to it? You know… there’s probably, like… what if a ribbon could be a sword you pull out of a sheath?

AUSTIN: And also, Saint Sommer is a big lion man. Saint Sommer is, like… Skein. And is a big… a big… like, a big lion man. Not like Lion-o from Thundercats. Like… what if Scar could… had a big human body? Was, like… What if Scar was cut?

KEITH: And it sort of like, snap! Like, that, it's like… when we were talking about what the sound it makes, I was picturing… what if folding a blanket sounded like sheet metal?

AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah. I don’t know I think it’s like, I think this is very much like, what if the Venom symbiote was made of thread, right?

AUSTIN: So maybe it's like a- like imagine, what if a mop could just mop by itself.

AUSTIN: I won’t talk more about that stuff, but you already saw the big picture of “what if Connecticut was a space ocean,” so, you have at least some context there.

AUSTIN: It’s huge. It’s the size of a continent, right? It’s “What if South America was a big circle?” It’s “What if Europe and Eurasia was a big circle?”, constantly cast on this planet. And, you know, from space it kind of looks—not flat necessarily, right, because it’s a curved planet, it’s a sphere, or spherical, but, you know, it’s flat.

AUSTIN: It’s like what if Texas stood up.

AUSTIN (as Morning’s Observation): “What if cars brought things to you instead of bringing you to things?”

AUSTIN: It’s just like a very bright, colorful—like, what if Steven Universe did the Sailors of the Ark? What if that team did it? It’s very good.

AUSTIN: It’s like what if it’s a can opener that does that. Like a living can opener like. Grrrngaaah! I’m going fucking open holes in things! Grrngaah!

AUSTIN: Imagine that they're almost- in my mind they're like what if a martini shaker was a piston.

AUSTIN: It's like what if you could package a sunset, y'know? Into like a cube

AUSTIN: I can't believe we started this recording by looking at pies [KEITH and DRE laugh] that make me hurt and ended with ‘what if all foods could be jelly juice?’.

AUSTIN: I saw a big buffalo picture and I was like what if that was a person, that looks cool.

ART: But what if some of these skeletons are like, sick of this shit?

AUSTIN: I think I pitched this show as like: what if Ghost in the Shell but-but magic and witches instead of cyborgs and stuff?

JACK: So, out come this nascent organization who we’re calling Shapeknights. Who are -- I think the easiest way to say it is “cowboys for trains?” They are, like -- what if instead of the cowboy riding alongside the train on his horse, he was corralling the train? Or he was trying to understand the train, or was trying to --

ALI: I think Marn, herself is a little bit more like—like what if a capybara was a siamese cat?

KEITH: Yeah. So, I wholeheartedly recommend this movie, but if not, if you don't know what I'm talking about with the goggles, at least look at that. ‘Cause it's a good image. It's sort of like, what if you had a jeweler's loupe that had a jeweler's loupe that had a jeweler's loupe?

ART: It’s like, what if the antagonist won the Mummy movie right, this is what happens-

KEITH: What if instead of one, big, beautiful hat I have two small, beautiful hats?

KEITH: Like what if they made headphones just for being cool at a party?

KEITH: What if you make pizza by opening the box? That it was an empty box until you opened it.

AUSTIN: What if insects were made of teeth?

JACK: She’s the fuckin’ person of the train. She’s like what if a train could output a person.

KEITH: What if the train was a nice train?

ART: What if a Madame Tussauds came to life?

AUSTIN: What if fire could be a ghost?

AUSTIN: Looking through this here, sounds like what you wrote here was “What if a dolphin was like a velociraptor?”

AUSTIN: They’re hitched. Yeah, they've been hitched. Three of them have been hitched. And I said horse, but I want you to imagine is what if…what if a shrimp were a horse?

JACK: You sort of just like rise up the slope. It's a bit like what if a train was an escalator.

AUSTIN: What if Beyonce was Poison Ivy?

AUSTIN: All my cards on the table, Millennium Black is like what if Blade stopped being a vampire hunter and started being a casino owner.

AUSTIN: He's sort of like what if Alex Jones wasn't terrible

[rosanna-writer]

Love at First Sight's for Suckers (1/5)

Summary: [A Feysand Newsies AU] Rhysand had a reputation. A big reputation. But fortunately for Feyre, a newsie selling papers on the streets of Velaris, tabloid gossip about the handsome, charismatic, hard-partying war-hero of a High Lord's heir means business is booming. That is, until the city's newspaper magnates get greedy, Feyre finds herself an unwitting labor leader at the center of a strike, and Rhys becomes an unexpected ally... Warnings: None

A gift for @the-lonelybarricade, for @acotargiftexchange! @lbs-secret-santa is me!

LB, creating this for you has been such a blast, and I am definitely the luckiest secret santa in the world to have such a gem of a giftee. It's rare for someone to have both a talent AND a heart as big as yours—you're truly the High Lady of Feysand, not just because your fics are incredible, but because of the way you make new writers (including me earlier this year) feel immediately welcome and how you handle fandom nonsense with such grace and tact. I'm so glad to call you a friend <3

And sorry for an author's note that reads like an annoying award show speech, but there are SO MANY people I want to thank. The event organizers did such a thoughtful job creating an event that brought so many people together across the fandom; not just secret santa/giftee pairs, but people reaching out to new betas, roping new friends into secrecy shenanigans, and getting hyped about other gifts! @iambutmortal, @thesistersarcheron, @itsthedoodle, @wilde-knight, and @ablogofsapphicpanic have been the best betas/saucy Rhys pun brainstormers/secret keepers/DM screaming session partners, and the daily headlines would not have happened without their beautiful brains. I had SO MUCH FUN watching the excitement and creative energy grow and grow in the lead up to this reveal. And also @reverie-tales, thanks for being my unwitting cover to throw LB off my trail!

Anyway, you can find the first chapter Here on AO3 or under the readmore. Happy Holidays!

One Heir to Share? Rhysand's Rita's Threesome

Baring it All at Starfall! Rhysand Stuns in Daring Deep-V Shirt

Rhysand's Baby Blues: Heir's Latest Fling Spotted Shopping for Baby Clothes

Future High Lord’s High: Witchberries, Fae Wine, and Wild Starfall Benders in the House of Wind?

Lady of the Night or FUTURE Lady of Night? Rhysand's Girlfriend Shocks Royal Family at Nynsar

Un-Rhys-onable: Night's Heir Refuses to Kneel to High Lord

Heir Head! Rhysand Forgets Alphabet During Library Community Service

Rhysand had a reputation.

A big reputation.

Perhaps that was why after selling him the newspaper every day for the better part of a year, Feyre Archeron had long since decided that he was far too full of himself to be ashamed of anything.

As he did every Saturday morning, Rhys appeared on her corner like clockwork, wearing last night's clothes and his trademark smirk. If Feyre wanted to know what lucky male or female had gone home on his arm, she'd only have to check tomorrow's society pages, which were always breathlessly detailing the exploits of the Night Court's handsome, charismatic, hard-partying war-hero of a High Lord's heir.

Not that Feyre cared. There were more important things to worry about than Rhysand's love life, like where her next meal was coming from. She only kept up with it because his scandals sold papers like nothing else.

And she definitely didn't feel a stab of envy every time she read about his latest fling. That would be pointless—a lesser fae shadow-wraith like Feyre would never be Lady of the Night Court. The stir Rhys's Illyrian mother had caused made that obvious enough, even if she was the High Lord's mate.

"Good morning, Feyre darling," Rhysand drawled, the way he always greeted her.

"It's noon, Rhys," Feyre said. The nickname might have been overly familiar, but Feyre had noticed his eyes glittered like stars whenever she used it with him. And besides, after being up since dawn, she wasn't inclined to fall over herself currying favor with someone who'd just rolled out of bed.

"Then let me be the first to tell you that you look delicious this afternoon."

Feyre rolled her eyes, positive she looked the farthest thing from delicious in her threadbare leggings and sweater. If it were anyone but Rhys, she would have been sure they were being cruel. But he had enough of her goodwill that he could pay her teasing compliments and not end up with his teeth bashed in for his trouble.

"Did you give them anything interesting to write about last night?" she said, leaning back against a streetlight and crossing her arms over her chest.

Rhys picked at an invisible piece of lint on his tunic, which almost had Feyre rolling her eyes a second time. Despite being in last night's clothes, he didn't look the least bit disheveled—probably some spell he'd cast to ensure he looked irritatingly perfect as always.

"Mor needed a wingman again," he said.

Feyre relaxed, relieved at his answer. Rhys's equally beautiful cousin was the subject of plenty of headlines of her own, and the two were frequently seen together. The people of Velaris were fascinated by the pretty blonde former Hewn City princess–when the Herald ran a story about her, Feyre just had to shout "Morrigan" to turn heads and make sales. If the lead story was about her, Feyre could probably afford to eat tomorrow.

It had been a while, though, since Rhys had been spotted with someone new on his arm. Or with anyone other than Morrigan, his sister, or the two Illyrians he called his brothers actually. Feyre had rolled her eyes at the rumors of a secret relationship or a hidden love child—if you asked her, the most likely explanation was that there were only so many attractive people in Velaris with a weakness for violet eyes. Rhys was bound to run out of people to fuck eventually.

"Is that the truth?" Feyre said, a teasing smile playing on her lips. "Or did you actually find someone to settle down with?"

She'd meant it as a joke, but Rhys didn't smile. There was something hungry, almost predatory, in the way his gaze slid over her. Feyre found herself flushing, even as she stared right back. "Would you care if I did?" he said.

It felt like a challenge; Feyre lifted her chin. "Of course I'd care if you stopped causing scandals. I'm a newsie, and gossip sells papers."

"Of course," Rhys said, something in his expression seeming to shutter. He reached into a pocket and pulled out a gold coin, handing it to her. The value was far more than a single paper was worth, but he'd always insisted she keep the change.

Feyre pulled a paper from the bag slung over her shoulder and handed it to him, longways so there was no chance their fingers would touch. She'd let that happen once, and his fingertips brushing hers had sent a crackle of electricity along her skin that she'd been thinking about ever since. Her mind replayed it almost daily—and frankly, Feyre found that embarrassing.

She pocketed the coin. "Pleasure doing business with you."

When Rhys spoke again, he dropped his voice to a low, sensual purr that sent shivers skittering down Feyre's spine, heat washing over her despite the autumn chill that cut through her tattered clothes. " Everything is a pleasure when it comes to you, Feyre."

He flashed her one last feline smile, and Feyre tipped her cap as he winnowed away, trying not to blush. With her other hand, she fingered the coin in her pocket. It would go under the floorboard with the rest of the ones she'd stashed away. Only a few more until she could afford the one-way ticket to the Continent that she'd been dreaming of.

Velaris was wonderful— if you could afford a big, strong door to lock out the hustle and bustle. Feyre certainly couldn't, and she was dying to get away.

A flash of auburn hair and a shout of "High Lady!" across the street pulled Feyre from her thoughts. Lucien was striding towards her, a half-empty satchel of newspapers slung over one shoulder and carrying another paper bag in his hand. She raised a hand in greeting—she'd stopped cringing at the nickname a long time ago.

"Is the new spot over by the docks working out for you?" she said when he got closer, even though she knew the answer. Lucien could sell papers anywhere; he didn't even need the eyepatch and the sob story about being an Autumn Court orphan who'd found his way to Night—just his brilliant smile was enough.

Lucien shrugged, the gesture far too elegant for someone who'd spent his morning selling newspapers to sailors and fishmongers. "I can make anything work."

"Then why did you come looking for me?" Feyre said. With unsold papers still in his bag, there had to be a reason. The newsies bought the papers from the distributor each morning, starting each day operating at a loss until they'd sold enough papers to recoup the cost. Lucien still had work to do if he wanted to turn a profit.

He pressed a hand to his chest in mock offense. "Isn't gazing upon your beautiful face reason enough?"

"You sound like Rhysand."

"And you're saying that like it's a bad thing. Trouble in paradise?"

Feyre resisted the urge to roll up one of the papers in her own bag and smack him with it. Lucien had overheard her speaking to Rhysand once and apparently decided the prince was in love with her. Ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous.

"Rhysand isn't—"

" By the Cauldron, he'd follow you around like a lost puppy if you'd let him."

"He's just a flirt," Feyre said, the edge to her voice making it clear she didn't want to talk about this anymore. "What did you need me for?"

"Someone needs to finish my pickles," Lucien said, pulling a sandwich out of the paper bag. He handed Feyre half, along with the entire side of pickles it had come with, then sat down on the curb to eat, stretching his long legs out in front of him.

Feyre nibbled on the pickle, the first thing she'd eaten all day, and thanked the Cauldron for a best friend who hated them and shared them with her. Putting her papers aside, she sat down next to him. "Thanks, Lucien," she said, unwrapping her half of the sandwich. Lunch would be on her next—that had been their unspoken agreement for years, even when meals were sporadic and infrequent.

They lapsed into silence, more intent on eating than talking. It was comfortable, a much needed rest after a morning spent shouting headlines at passersby. Feyre's feet already ached from standing all morning.

After a few minutes, Lucien balled up the now-empty wax paper. "Now that you're fed, I think it's safe to mention that you're needed over by the Rainbow."

"Again?" Feyre said with a sigh.

"Bron and Hart are fighting over the same spot. The High Lady should step in."

Feyre wasn't sure when exactly it had happened, but at some point, she'd found herself the unofficial leader of the newsies of Velaris. She'd always kept an eye out for newcomers and lended them a hand—advice on selling papers and navigating the city was all she had, but Feyre shared freely. When there was a problem, she was usually the one to resolve it.

At some point, "High Lady" had gone from an ironic nickname for a poor girl on the streets to a mark of respect for a young woman who took care of her own.

"I'll talk to them," Feyre said, finishing her food and standing up.

Lucien started to thank her, but Feyre had already called on her magic, her body becoming nothing but shadow. Incorporeal like this, she could slip through walls and travel unseen—and crucially, it was faster than walking. As a lesser fae, it was the only magic she had at her disposal.

Even in the brightest sun, Velaris was full of shadows. And for better or worse, Feyre had made them her home.

***

Rhysand had planned to give himself time to read the news before he was due for a meeting at the House of Wind. Yesterday, he'd told himself he'd be up early enough to look over the agenda ahead of time. He'd wanted to be prepared, and his father would have his head if Rhys was late for official court business again.

But somehow, the High Lord's ire seemed incredibly far away last night, when the Cauldron only knew how many drinks he'd had and Mor was dragging him back to the dance floor at Rita's again, and dawn had nearly broken when he'd finally stumbled home.

Late or not, though, he still had to see Feyre.

The most important part of his day had become buying the paper from her. It wasn't about the news and never had been—every day, Rhys hoped that would be the day she finally took an interest in him that went beyond trading a few teasing remarks and rolling her eyes. He'd never flirted so much, so painfully obviously before, just to have it all go ignored like water off a duck's back.

And that had already been going on for a few months before the mating bond snapped.

Their fingers had brushed as she'd handed him the paper. Perhaps that brief touch skin-to-skin had been all it had taken for the urge to claim and taste and scent his mate to hit him with all the force of a brick to the head. Before he'd done something stupid, Rhys had winnowed away without an explanation or a goodbye.

After that, Rhys had resolved not to tell her, at least not until she showed some sort of interest back. But in the months since, he hadn't gotten her to even blush. And even if by some miracle, she did want him that way and accepted the bond, there was no guarantee she wouldn't resent him after a few decades as future Lady of Night. Her indifference was painful enough—Rhys wasn't sure he could withstand her hating him.

For the short flight to the House of Wind, Rhys let the chill in the air clear his head of thoughts of Feyre. He was supposed to focus today. Some of the city's most powerful merchants had asked for a meeting with his father, and as the High Lord's heir, Rhys was expected to be in attendance too.

The meeting room was already full when Rhys walked in, brushing his windswept hair back into place. From the head of the table, his father glared daggers at him.

Rhys ignored it, dropping into the empty seat that had been left for him. "I hope I didn't miss anything interesting."

He kept the smirk plastered on his face, even as his father pushed past his shields to speak mind-to-mind. We'll discuss this later. For now, get through this meeting without embarrassing me further. That's an order.

Rhys made a mental note to let Mor know he'd likely have to cancel their plans to go to the theater that night.

One of the merchants—Rhys had met him before but had forgotten his name—gave him a cold smile and said, "We were just discussing economic policy."

"Carry on, then," Rhys said.

As the meeting droned on, Rhys forced himself to focus, even if the subject matter was painfully dry. One day, he'd be High Lord, and if he wanted to be the sort of ruler the Night Court deserved, one who made things better, he needed to be knowledgeable and willing to listen.

But even then, he wasn't immune to letting his mind wander. At some point, he'd found himself thinking about how the sunlight had brought out the gold in Feyre's hair, when the sound of his name brought him crashing back down to reality.

"…but you'd know all about that, wouldn't you, Rhysand?" one of the merchants was saying, the sneer in his voice obvious.

Rhys felt his father's eyes boring into him, and it was clear this was some sort of test. He was supposed to be handling something, and Rhys didn't want to think about what sort of punishment might be in store for him if he made it obvious he'd stopped paying attention.

"Would I?" Rhys said, arching a brow in a way that he hoped looked imperious.

"With how many headlines you've been the subject of? I think by now you'd know a thing or two about what sells papers. If it weren't for you, we'd have gone under after the War."

Rhys's hands curled into fists under the table as he recalled exactly who this merchant was—Pulitzer, a newspaper magnate, the one who'd been complaining that circulation was down since the Treaty had been signed. Peace, apparently, was boring.

Peace that Rhys had bled for, had nearly died for when he'd been captured by Amarantha's army. Not that any of that mattered when profits were down.

"Then a bit more gratitude is in order," Rhys said, his voice low and deadly and all command, sounding every inch the future High Lord he was. It was so brief that Rhys nearly missed it, but his father's lips quirked up in approval. "If you have a request, I suggest you word it carefully."

It quickly became clear that Pulitzer and the rest of the owners of Velaris's major newspapers had come to grovel. Even if Rhys couldn't bring himself to care, it was true that the Night Court's newspaper industry was bringing in less money since the end of the war. They'd come to petition his father for assistance.

And to Rhys's relief, the High Lord's answer had been a quick and resounding no.

Of course, Rhys knew his father's answer had been more about safeguarding the Night Court's wealth more than anything else. That much was obvious when so many of their citizens were struggling, even in Velaris. It was something that Rhys vowed to change one day.

But Rhys's relief didn't last much longer. His father had told the newspaper moguls to figure it out themselves, and they'd quickly agreed that to fix their bottom line, they'd raise the price for the newsies who bought the papers to distribute each morning.

Newsies who were barely getting by as it was. Newsies who were already going hungry and sleeping outdoors even as the weather got colder. Newsies who'd been orphaned or disabled after the war and couldn't find decent work.

Newsies like his mate, and Rhysand certainly wouldn't stand for that.

[sdmsims]

FWOOOOOOOOOOSH

because im too big of a world builder to cope with all those silly plants in the way

FLAMETHROWER is a modification of the game's file -- it's not technically a mod! it will effect every single one of your saves until removed - which is done either via pasting a backup or doing a game repair every single non-functional deco item has been obliterated. this is intended to turn the worlds into templates for worldbuilding using the T.O.O.L mod! certain functional world items, like harvestables, still remain.

big props to @simverses for the original idea behind blowtorch!! if you'd like a version less... severe, then please grab blowtorch itself!

NOTES:

like with blowtorch, a lot of the deco in the eco lifestyle world remains -- sim4studio wont let me edit the conditionalworldinfo D: this also applies to the nature preserve island from island living.

college world and batuu are untouched because i don't care about them enough. sorry

hidden worlds and get to work job locations are also untouched

the footprints for all worlds are intact -- if you'd like to edit un-mouse-able areas, please grab @awingedllama 's clickable worlds mod! this should only be used in the building phase though, as it can result in weird routing

while this is a game-level modification independent from saves, you should still back up your saves! i have not been able to do extensive testing for potential effects on long-term gameplay, so use at your own risk.

DOWNLOADS BELOW READMORE (FREE ALWAYS, PAYSITES AND ADFARMS METAPHORICALLY SET ABLAZE)

⚠ BACKUP FILES -- IF YOU DON'T WANT TO DO A GAME REPAIR TO UN-OBLITERATE EVERYTHING

download from simverses patreon!

MEGA DOWNLOAD -- TOO BIG FOR SIMFILESHARE SORRY LOL

BASE GAME || EP FILES || GP FILES

LITERALLY EVERYTHING

[kowabungadoodles]

Here's my suggestions for you @staff

instead of non-functional ad-free subscriptions, how about everyone who pays money gets a vote on what you do/don't work on next. And as we're gonna vote 'no thank you' to 90% of your ideas, great, you can just sit back and take the money and laugh all the way to the bank just for keeping the lights on. I'll pay money for that vote right now and you can stop shoving ads in our faces to make revenue. Get the userbase involved, we love a co-op.

A button that lets you un-readmore if you clicked a read more and realise that shit was so long it'd take 5m to scroll past. That is all.

[emberglowfox]

okay a few people have asked now abt steelheart redux so i will do my best to give an overview the maelstrom of vague thoughts it consists of at the moment

basically, steelheart is the oc story i've been posting a shitton of on and off for the past while. steelheart redux refers specifically to its latest iteration, which is completely (mostly) sci-fi and mech driven as opposed to the standard dragon rider story it was before.

it focuses primarily on these guys!

arthur is a human, while zarian is a DRACO, specifically a v1, which i will elaborate on below the readmore bc this is a little long haha

the setup for the story is essentially this:

the DRACOs (version 1, aka v1s) are big draconic mechs that are basically the equivalent of a super high-tech fighter jet with some other bells and whistles, the most notable being that they're pretty much human powered. but to be efficiently powered long-term, they have to be (or have part of them, really) permanently fused to a human host (or any living creature, technically, but humans are what they're like. made for).

despite all that, stuff surrounding their creation goes pretty well for a while, until the v1s mysteriously 'wake up'-- as in, suddenly attain self-aware consciousness, and start talking to their hosts (known as pilots) who understandably take this pretty badly. it's like if the fighter jet you've been flying around and are also kind of biologically fused to suddenly grew a brain and started asking about your day. things get even worse when the company producing the v1s attempts to like. undo this by forcing out an update patch, which has the unintended effect of corrupting the (previously entirely benevolent, just curious) v1s and turning them into crazed murder machines. stuff is bad for a while.

the ACTUAL story takes place 15 years after this, when stuff still isn't amazing but has mostly evened out. the company responsible for the v1s collapsed in the initial chaos, but from its ashes came a new company, Defenex, which has been producing DRACO v2s. they're the sleeker, badder cousins to the v1, made for the sole purpose of protecting towns from and hunting down remaining v1s. they're also, very critically, Not Mysteriously Self-Aware like the v1s are (or. were?) which is good.

the plot follows arthur steele, a fifteen year old boy living in one of the surviving cities, who through a series of accidents comes to be permanently fused to a (mysteriously un-murderous but distinctly unhappy) v1 calling himself Zarian. at first, his goal is to get Zarian removed from his back so they can go their separate ways and he can go back to his unremarkable, relatively safe life. unfortunately, this does not go according to plan. at all. but in the process, they start learning more about the mysterious origins of the DRACO incident and asking questions some people REALLY don't want answered. along the way, they make a few friends, come to actually like each other, and accidentally develop a reputation as Public Enemy #1, Definitely Evil, Kill On Sight. oops.

and that's the gist! i know... a lot of what happens, within that window, but most stuff isn't like nailed down clearly or in order yet, because i've discovered that while i am good with coming up with originally story ideas, actually plotting one from start to finish, coherently and satisfactorily, does NOT come naturally to me at all.

but, at the very least, it has become a fun brain playground and happiness generator, because i am veeery attached to these guys. moreso than i ever have gotten about my own ocs in my whole life tbh

:)

[majorasnightmare]

Inevitable Gerudo Headcanon Posting

i spend too much time thinking about the gerudo like genuinely theyre one of my favorite recurring tribes in the zelda series, which as we all know is a form of suffering because god forbid nintendo stop relying on racist tropes and caricatures.

keeping in line with this nintendos portrayal of the gerudo tends to either be 1) why theyre bad, and/or 2) how a culture of all women has kids. like thats an oversimplification of ALLL the problems present in the gerudos portrayal but thats a different post for another time. in general i bring this up because it means, for me as well as any others interested and invested un the gerudo, that there is a kind of generalized lack of pre botw characterization or cultural concepts to work with, esp when compared to the other tribes of hyrule. (looks pointedly at how theres no gerudo in the gerudo desert but there is a prison slash execution site where their king was held. LOOKS AT WHO SURVIVED THE PROLOGUE CUTSCENE IN WINDWAKER)

ANYWAYS. botw was really fun because, while it had plenty of its own issues with the gerudo, they were at least non hostile! so with that in mind, the headcanons and worldbuilding i write primarily apply to the wilds era gerudo, which spans the timeframe between ganondorfs reign as king to totk (suspending disbelief because that timeframe is. by all accounts. longer than recorded human history. friendly reminder ganondorf does All That before we even get sheikah wifi towers. christ.)

anyways. second verse same as the first, core assumptions and then a readmore

Some core assumptions:

The BotW branch of the timeline is chronologically set AFTER the previous timeline, ie the events of ToTKs ancient past is set AFTER the last event of the Hyrule Historia timeline. essentially they all come back together to form one line that makes up ToTKs ancient era

The biggest effect on Hyrules topography was the flooding in Wind Waker. after an unknown point, the flooding ocean receded leaving behind the ruins of ancient Hyrule. at some point after that, the zonai settled parts of it and made the buildings wed see as ruins by the time of BotW. slowly the various tribes of hyrule immigrated back

all peoples within the setting of hyrule are loosely grouped into categories called tribes. in this sense, tribe refers a collection of peoples with shared traits, without anything concretely set in stone (for example, hyrule includes the tribe of hylians, the tribe of gorons, the tribe of koroks, etc etc). the main six who show up repeatedly can be considered the sage tribes (gerudo, hylian, sheikah, rito, goron, zora), and the various types of enemies can be considered the monster tribes (the blin tribe of bokoblin, moblin, bulblin, etc)

so. starting at the beginning. near entirely headcanons

in ocarina of time, we see the spirit temple, where Nabooru awakens as a sage. this temple features a MASSIVE statue of a woman adorned with a snake and its primary mechanic centers around mirrors and reflected light. while the mirrors return, we dont really get that same kind of implied spiritual/religious focus again. so instead im going to make a mountain out of a molehill and position her as the primary spiritual figure here. im running low on name ideas tho so suggestions are much appreciated. for right now ill refer to her as the serpent goddess

the gerudo are culturally a people of function over form, practicality over whimsy, but when circumstances allow for it, are drawn like any other to arts and music and decoration. they have a long history of bloody, brutal battle, and while the war has long since ended, its kings buried and its warriors naught but ghosts, the desert remembers. its sands haunted by the bloodstains of conflict past, and echoes of ancient tragedies. the gerudo here in the era of wilds may have lost their records of their ancient history of conflict, but some aspects, preserved by the sands, have managed to survive the onslaught of time

surviving all this time is the ancient creation myth of the gerudo people. as legend tells it, long ago in the time before myth, there existed a goddess whos power was transformation. she was possessed of two forms, one a proud humanoid figure, the other a striking serpentine form twisting through the heavens with ease, her scales glittering with mirror sheen. to shift from serpent to human, she would shed her skin, and grow it back again to embrace her serpentine form anew

seven times she shed her skin, and from these shed skins rose the first gerudo, each embodying a key aspect of their sacred mother. the serpent goddess's scales are each a nascent soul of a gerudo, and when those scales are shed and fall to the land below, a new gerudo is born. likewise, when a gerudo dies, their soul returns to the scales of the serpent goddess, to await until they would descend again and reincarnate once more. the seven daughters of the serpent goddess led these gerudo as their guardians, leaders, and protectors. but, away from the seven heroines and their new people, the goddess shed her skin an eighth time. this daughter was born alone, and while her sisters embodies the strengths of spirit, flight, endurance, knowledge, motion, skill, and gentleness, the eighth was born with insatiable wanderlust. learning of this, the seven sisters cursed her name for leaving them and their people behind, and despite their shared ancestry, the eighth was forbidden to be spoken of. this suited her just fine, and the eighth was free to walk the land and learn all of its hidden paths

in time, war came to the gerudo, as it often does. though they were united, and strong, they were a small collection of people, and thus despite their proficiency were threatened nonetheless. it became clear at last that they could not stand and fight, and that to survive, they could not remain in place for long. but the enemy had pushed them deep into their home, and knew all the paths back. as hope seemed lost, as if summoned by call, the eighth sister at last wandered home. calling her seven sisters to her, she proclaimed that every hidden step was known to her, and while she lacked the power to guide them on her own, together they would escape unseen into the night, their enemy none the wiser. thus, skillfully guiding the skills of her sisters, the eighth heroine led the gerudo into safety, and the seven were humbled from their pettiness. seeking to apologize to the sister they had banished and forgotten, the seven sought to make amends, but the eighth was content merely to have a place of remembrance among them. to wander is not a sin, as long as one remembers where their home lies.

the eight heroines have long since passed and returned to their mothers scales, but the virtues they embody are cherished by the gerudo family they left behind, seeking to hold their memory close even as the years wear on

to the gerudo was bestowed the blessing of the element of Spirit, embodied by their iron wills and manifesting as crackling lightning. this spirit lightning is the gerudo's will made tangible, arcing out towards their target as an extension of their focus and sheer determination. to a gerudo, nothing is impossible until one has devoted themselves entirely to it, giving it their all, and only then may it be conceded

a long history of persecution has resulted in the gerudo being increasingly insular and isolationist. their admiration of the art of combat and how it can bring forth an individuals talents, achieving a perfect harmony between body and will as the weapon became an extension of ones limbs, was often perceived as aggression by outsiders, who would react as if to defend their own interests. the gerudo have suffered much at the hands of hyrule at large, and have pulled further and further away.

as the gerudo pulled away from hyrule, and hyrule from them, they devoted most of their attention to themselves. cooperation amongst themselves is seen as paramount to their survival, and familial affection often extends well past ones blood relations.

the gerudo value family, and loyalty, alongside independence and cooperation. everyone should have the opportunity to pursue their goals, but if someone is struggling, it is the responsibility of everyone to help. children are raised by as many people as are available, and even in the times of monarchy, the palace was less a formal dwelling place belonging to the gerudo ruler and more a public forum that the ruler simply happened to live in

most of the palaces amenities are fully public, a tradition that has carried on to riju's time. meals are communal and the kitchens open to all, and the palace has no strictly dedicated servants, merely a collection of amenities the gerudo people are free to use at will and often do so together. what this means is that there is no servant, for example, dedicated to preparing riju's meals but instead a collection of people willing to cook and willing to eat making meals riju partakes in, and this applies to most other menial tasks as well. the throne room is where the leader of the gerudo engages in their job as public servant, attending to the needs of the gerudo at large and responding to crises as they arise.

as nintendo is keen to point out, the gerudo are a people that are predominantly "all women", and thus spends plenty of time going over dialogue wherein people wonder how they have children and including a plethora of sidequests in the wilds era about acquiring partners. im ignoring all of that and instead going by lizard rules, in part because here theyre descended from a serpent dragon goddess, wherein a population of all female lizards were able to successfully maintain a stable population and have children without major issue. gerudo like ganondorf are the equivalent of a rare genetic mutation that flips some other genes on and has a different result, that really doesnt affect anything besides this one kid and doesnt have any major effects or differences in their life. two gerudo are perfectly capable of having kids together, having relationships as usual, and on the topic of "how do the gerudo have kids", thats all i really feel like exploring that topic

with an insular, isolationist culture that appeared for all intents and purposes to be all women, the gerudo were often a source of major culture shock when interacting with the other tribes of hyrule, most notably hylians

bonus hylian lore: hylians experience an even greater lack of sexual dimorphism than irl humans do, so gender presentation is near exclusively presentation based, with a heavy emphasis on clothing. showing skin is considered an act of emotional intimacy, and most hylians opt to cover as much as they can. the intensity of presentation scales upwards with their role in society, with the royal family having the most extreme form of gender presentation. gender is presented through clothing style and hair length, with ornamentation, jewelry, and piercings serving as a kind of intensifier, and hylian culture at large tends to operate on a sliding scale of masculine to feminine, with the middle androgynous zone being a weird gender spot for them

the gerudo, by contrast, never really developed a concept of masculinity versus femininity. gender pronouns in gerudo are based on personal proximity, occupation in society, and familiarity. these barely translate at all into hyrulean.

as the gerudo, by circumstance or by choice, interacted with hylians and the tribes of hyrule more and more often, some kind of understanding had to be reached with regards to translation. as relations were already terse, making an attempt to fully translate the gerudos understanding of gender to your average hylian was considered a fools errand, and thus translation was done in broad strokes, giving hylians the simplest root form of gender pronouns (and none of the increasingly specific declensions). loosely, the term vai is closer in concept to "us" and voe is closer to "not us" "foreigner" "outsider", and has taken on a connotation of " forbidden" or "taboo" (leading to wilds era gerudo secret clubs often imploying translatable Adult Puns regarding their catering to voe and the overall titillating atmosphere they tend to put on for customers). with regards to hylians, the feminine princesses and queens had more in common with the gerudo and were thus "vai", but the masculine kings and soldiers, who were often the main figures pushing aggressive efforts into conquering or otherwise absorbing the gerudo into hyrule, were "voe". this was then distributed in various guides to understanding the gerudo language as " vai" meaning "woman" and "voe" meaning man

gerudo town, as the capital of their people and general hub, has a law banning the entrance of voe. at the time if its writing, this was a fairly obvious law, because most "people who are forbidden" are forbidden from entering. as time has passed, hostilities cooled, and relations warmed, this law has been the subject of a long struggle of interpretation. it doesnt translate well into nearly any other language, and thus who counts as "voe" and "vai" is subject to endless debate. the differences in gender perception are most clearly on display with the admittance of the gorons. one might assume that the gorons, being a monogendered people who typically use masculine terms of identity and endearment in hyrulean, to thus qualify as voe, but the gorons cooperative nature, near uniform monogendered culture, and emphasis on hard work and independence has enough in common with your average gerudo that considering them as vai is a no brainer

ganondorf thus is also, clearly, considered vai. the specific pronouns he uses in his native gerudo include declensions regarding his position as royalty (one that has since gone out of use and is fairly archaic now, only really being used as a kind of neo-pronoun by current era gerudo as a rebellious self identification thing), his relation as the only child of koume and kotake, and are conjugated based on relation between the speaker and him. in the ancient era, calling ganondorf voe would be so confusing as to not even read as an insult. if one really wanted to refer to ganondorf with a tone of insult, theyd substitute the declension of familiarity with one used for strangers

ganondorf achieved his position as king the old fashioned way: a gift from his moms. ancient era gerudo practiced typical monarchy with a line of succession, and koume and kotake named him as the next royal of the gerudo as their heir. the hyruleans, seeing a masculine gerudo of royal birth, referred to him as "king", and correcting a culture of people he had little respect for was just a waste of ganondorfs time. after ganondorfs sealing, the gerudo changed to the current system of chiefs, wherein the current chief names a successor, or by default passes it onto their living heir. a system is in place to democratically install a new chief if the current one passes without naming a child their heir, or naming a successor in their place, a system drafted and then used in ganondorfs absence. riju thus inherited the mantle from her mother, but could opt instead to force a vote, or have such a vote forced on her due to her age, leading to much of her insecurity seen in BotW. this system has proven to be relatively stable, especially coupled with the continued tradition of keeping the palace an open public forum

the first chief of the gerudo was nabooru, advised by the sage of lightning we see in totk, following ganondorfs sealing

the gerudo are very familiar with the souls of the dead. poes, souls lost and aimless, wander the desert after millennia of bloodshed. thus their funerary customs have persisted, even as the folklore behind them fades in and out of memory.

a person perceives reality through their body. they know the sky is above them both by craning their neck up, and by the sensation of ground beneath them. in death, one is bodiless, and sensation becomes a confusing, directionless onslaught. it is so easy for a spirit to become lost, unable to orient themselves. the gerudos funerary rites seeks to aid these souls in their journey towards returning to the serpent goddess, as without guidance they are liable to become poes. the body after death is merely an empty receptacle, and on a practical level is a potential draw for dangerous desert scavengers seeking an easy meal. the shifting sands and hard soil makes burial difficult to impossible, so instead the gerudo burn their dead. smoke is ephemeral and thus able to be seen by spirits, and even as the wind rushes, smoke will still travel upwards towards the heavens. a spirit will linger by its body for a time, and thus cremation helps provide guidance to the dead. unable to feel the earth beneath them, the dead can follow the trails of smoke to orient themselves upwards, and dispel lingering confusion

as the body is burned both to guide the departed's soul and to ward away scavengers, the gerudo inter their belongings into gravesites instead, usually one or a small collection of items that the deceased valued or were considered emblematic of them. having a proud history of warriors, many gerudo consider their weapons extensions of themselves, and thus many gravesites will consist of a single weapon.

the sage of lightnings temple served as the primary gravesite for many gerudo, and in its heyday was decorated with love and care as befitting its role. torches burned bright in its sconces and the walls painted with care in massive sweeping murals. here in the temple, a foreigners idea of the gerudo as austere and practical would fall away, as the halls shone with warmth and color, taken from their desert home

lost souls that become poes often end up becoming consumed by their regrets and despair at their inability to find their way back to reincarnation through the serpent goddess's scales, and from there turn to rage and aggression. the sunlight glinting off of the goddess's mirror scales will blind and disorient the dead who have lost their way, as they try in vain to rely on their half forgotten senses, and thus poes eschew the day in favor of the cover of night. though incorporeal, poes move as fast as the desert winds, and try all they can to cause mischief and havoc. usually the end result of their shenanigans is light injuries and scratches, but it isn't uncommon for a waylaid traveller or adrenaline seeking youngster to suffer fatal consequences. despite this, poe hunting tends to be the go-to act of rebellion for antsy teenagers with a taste for danger. in general, one of the only things fast enough to strike a poe is a fired arrow

as the sands grew and the desert expanded, it grew more and more difficult for the steeds of the gerudo to gallop across the dunes, and they were driven further and further back until the gerudo phased out their horseback traditions entirely

and as an AU specific trivia tidbit

after ganondorf's sealing, nabooru grieved the loss of her childhood friend by constructing a dedicated tomb to house ganondorf's gravesite. even though he wouldn't die, nabooru would never live to see him again, and in traditional gerudo fashion, his gravesite is marked by his signature trident, further imbued by nabooru's blessing of lighting (in a similar fashion to urbosa's fury, despite urbosa not being a sage).

[noiselessbuck]

All of Mentopolis' Fun Facts From The Fix

...and from other characters, as specified. All facts will try to be verbatim from the transcripts, to get the fun deliveries. Facts are in chronological order and split by episode. Longer facts will have an attempt at summary by me. Facts with a * mean The Fix killed someone with it.

1

* For every snake on earth there is one snake dick, and at first ya might think, well yeah, that makes sense, but actually, only half of snakes have dicks, and that means- That every snake that has a dick has two dicks

(every snake that has a dick has two dicks)

An adverb is a type of adjective

From Ronnie Reptile (implicitly): there are indentations on a snake's lip that lets it detect heat signatures

From Ronnie Reptile: komodo dragons are actually not poisonous, but the bacteria in their mouth is so powerful that it acts like a toxic venom

[snakes have two dicks encore]

2

:readmore:

The tails on a swallowtail butterfly don't serve any aerodynamic purpose. They're there because birds need something to grab onto when they're trying to kill a butterfly, and they are designed to capture the attention of a bird. And that bird will grab onto that tail, and it will break off. And the butterfly will be free.

(swallowtail butterfly tails are meant for predators to bite and the tail breaks off)

Eyes can't be itchy. The membranes around the eyes are innervated with itch receptors and pain neurons, whereas the eyes themselves only have pain neurons because, of course, evolution is strongly incentivized to prevent you from scratching your cornea with your fingernail. So your eyes are never actually itchy. People say, my eyes are itchy! But they're not.

(the membranes around the eyes have itch receptors and pain neurons while the eyes only have pain neurons)

* More than half the bones in your body are in your hands and feet

3

The urethra contains taste receptors/taste bud like structures

Eagles- When they grip onto somethin', they actually have to flex a muscle to un-grip. So an eagle can hold onto something so hard that even after it dies, it never lets go. But you are not an eagle.

Most of the pyramids on Earth are in Sudan

Pelicans have three stomachs and one of them is just for bones

It's really easy to detect an acid. But it's not easy to detect the presence of oxygen or carbon dioxide. But when carbon dioxide meets water, like it does in our blood, it creates carbonic acid. That means that our bodies can detect the presence of carbon dioxide, but not the presence or absence of oxygen. So as we move through our lives, if we are deprived of oxygen, we have no idea that that is happening as long as we are breathing out carbon dioxide. But if we are not breathing in oxygen, we just go to sleep and we die. But if we allow the CO2 to build up, we panic. We flail. We break. Until finally, we die.

(tbh i didn't understand this one or how to sum it up, we can't all be nerds about every subject)

4

People can have constipation so bad that it will back up and impact their vagus nerve? And as they are finally eliminating that impacted stool, it can have a effect on the nervous system so great that they forget who they are, called constipation-related amnesia. A woman in Tokyo forgot who she was for eight hours.

(In Trapp's words: Shit yourself stupid.)

Blood is inside your bones because it's safest from UV radiation

from Pasha N.: There are some species of birds that have a secondary pouch in their esophagus or in their digestive tract where they actually contain, referred to as a craw that has stones or other hard material to help break up food matter before it passes into the rest of their digestive tract.

(birds hold grinding stones in a throat pouch called a craw)

There are also some birds that can produce a kind of nutritious substance that they'll, that instead of regurgitating their own food, they will produce a kind of milk. It's almost like lactation, but it evolved separately. It was a case of convergent evolution. Pigeons do it.

(some birds such as pigeons do something kind of like lactation)

from Pasha N.: Woodpeckers have a tongue bone called a hyoid bone that wraps around their brain because the, the pounding into the tree can, of course, you know it needs to protect their brain from the impact, that powerful feeling of, you know smashing into the wood of the tree to, you know devour their common meal items, which of course are grubs and larval insects.

(woodpeckers have a tongue bone called the hyoid bone which is a helmet for their brain)

[pelicans have three stomachs encore from Hunch]

There are some salamanders that feed their babies their own skin

You can't hum while you're blocking your nose.

From Ronnie Reptile: Did you know that the black mamba has been observed at top speeds of 12 1/2 miles per hour at its fastest slither, and that at that speed, it would almost certainly catch even some of the fastest humans on the planet. Even faster people would probably not have the stamina, because the resting or average speed is 7 1/2 miles per hour which is faster than the human average of 6, and that's for healthy adults.

(the black mamba's fastest observed speed is 12 1/2 miles per hour, its average speed is 7 1/2 mph, human average speed is 6 mph)

From Ronnie Reptile: A reticulated python, which is actually the longest, did you know it's the longest snake in the world? It's not the biggest. The biggest is the anaconda. But the longest is the reticulated python.

(the reticulated python is the longest snake in the world, the anaconda is the largest)

The Fix: Do you know what the longest animal in the world is?

Ronnie: No! What is it?

The Fix: It's the bootlace worm.

Ronnie: Is that a reptile?

The Fix: It's a worm! It's not a reptile.

(The longest animal in the world is the bootlace worm, which is not a reptile)

There are some reptiles that have a light-sensing organ on the top of their head so they can sense shadows that might be coming from something that's coming for them

(some reptiles that have a light-sensing organ on their head to sense predators)

6

There's little creatures in the sea that make little lights. And they're quite pretty little lights. And its a little strange that those critters would make those lights cause why would they? They only make 'em when they get disturbed. And I think that would cause attention from little fishes that wanna eat 'em. But here's what happens, those little fishes when they suck 'em up they glow so bright now that little fish is glowing. Has a little target on its back. Cause that little fish aint the only fish in the sea.

(there are little sea creatures which glow when disturbed and when eaten by a small fish glow a lot thus attracting bigger predators to the small fish)

From Pasha: Diners actually originate from dinning cars on trains and the very first diners were actually dining cars of trains that had been taken out of service and were used stationarily as restaurants cause they were cheap and affordable.

(original diners were train dining cars)

The North Pole is actually the South Pole. Because when you look at a compass it points north. But the north pole of the compass is what's pointing north. And north poles point to south poles. So when you go to the North Pole, it's actually the South Pole.

(north poles of compasses point to south poles thus assuming that the north half of a compass arrow points to the North Pole, it is a south pole magnetically)

[deliciouskeys]

im gonna be real i dont know who you are but i just saw a 10 meter long, un-read more'd callout post about you over seemingly nothing? figured id send some goodwill through an anon to a fellow comic disliking butchlander. dont let the discourse get you down xoxo

Thanks Anon, I wish I didn’t still get asks about this but I guess the readmore has still not been applied and it continues to catch people’s eye as they scroll past it for 5 minutes, especially in the slower moving tags. And I have to assume that’s what they want if they haven’t fixed it by this point. It is what it is. Ultimately, I can’t control what someone else thinks or writes about me. I appreciate you giving me the benefit of the doubt— I assume many people who don’t know me who see a post that length “about me” don’t read it and assume I must have done at least one horrific thing. But nothing’s blocked or deleted for anyone who is morbidly curious enough to go back and read through what was actually said by me and by them on any post, at any point. My takeaway is: Don’t talk to strangers online. Even if they approached you first, offering to ‘help’ field diamond scat anon asks you said you didn’t want to receive anymore. (This admittedly seems more obvious in retrospect).

Anyway, I’d much rather spend my finite fandom time on actual fandom, Kinktober etc. If you’re newish to butchlander, welcome, if we just never crossed paths, nice to tumblr-meet you.

[gretchensinister]

It's...hmm...well you see it's way more common for freaks to have to face evil forces arrayed against them with only the power of their defiant smiles left to them.

Text of poem under readmore.

Catching a Marked Bullet

Oh what a dream to long for, here:

When set before a crowd

And given every cause to fear

One last reserve is found.

For help, the crowd can offer naught—

It knows not of the war.

They eager watch this moment fraught

As useless as far stars.

An adversary teases, toys

For purposes opaque.

Already you feel half-destroyed,

You watch him see you shake.

The bullet you’ve been armed with: wax—

The game’s forever rigged.

What now can pull you from the tracks

Or your cold grave un-dig?

You’re left with one thing in the face

Of such oppressing odds

A flimsy, never-stolen ace

A firmly graspéd straw.

You curl your lips; they don’t expect

That still you own your smile

You won’t be made abject—not yet!

And one thing’s left to try.

A crescent’s on the bullet’s carved:

The sliver of a grin.

It’s all you ever had, this shard

And—ah! This time you win!

I know well what it is to be

Unarmed but for a smile,

To burn within the hopeful dream

Of ending all the trials

Of me and mine with laughter bold

Enough to bring down kings

To end the deadly rule of gold

And give all rainbow wings,

So I can’t deny this moment

The bullet, smile, and shot,

But when I look at precedent

I get tied in a knot.

It’s mostly against men like Charles

I’ve raised my shaky grin

So what’s he doing in this role—

Against who does he win?

[chiropteracupola]

More rat piper or Werewolf Shakespeare?

rat piper now has a playlist! (which matches up to the approximate vibe of the songs from the story, or as close as I can get!)

[rat piper snippet and werewolf explanation under the readmore]

Gannet held up an ivory whistle, as long as he was tall, and Tamsen took it. It was carved all over with animals, long and twisting and tangling tails and legs together in a marvelous woven pattern.

“Now, tall girl, that’s no flute for betrothals and weddings and dances and funerals, even though it can play the right sort of music for a dirge. Play it just right, and you can pipe down a thunderstorm that will rain so long and hard that the mountains themselves will be washed away.”

Tamsen raised the whistle to her lips and blew, a note as sweet as coming inside from the cold, as sharp as an autumn wind all braided with dry leaves.

“Why did you give this to me, just like that? I haven’t got any money, I can’t give you anything in trade for it.”

“The whistle must be played, tall girl! And I cannot do it myself,” said the little man, pointing out his height with a sweeping gesture of one hand. “You’ve got the music to play it properly, so play it you must! Now, a tune, if you would, and we shall see who comes to dance.”

She played again, a song quick and merry as any young person running to visit their lover, and the wind sang along with a voice all its own. The little man shivered within his coat, for the day was cold, and with a rush of wings, a thousand birds slalomed through the trees and spiraled around them. Tamsen gasped, nearly dropping the whistle, and the whirlwind of wings slowed.

“Tall girl, it’s you who’s called them up! Play on, they want their dance!”

Tamsen, you know, had a piper’s soul, and all the cleverness in her little finger that most have in all their body. So up she stepped, and making the same bow and scrape that her father made before he played, whistled up a song for the birds to dance to.

.

as for putting a werewolf in shakespeare, it's one that I've not discussed all that much here because while I do love the idea and (most of the time) love writing it, it does frequently give me great moments of despair over Whether Or Not This Is Allowed. 'allowed' being writing fic for a history play at all, and werewolfy fic at that!

yeah, by all logic it is allowed, but I'm still un-training the part of me that says that the works of shakespeare should be put behind a velvet rope and only touched with two fingers along the spine like we're elementary schoolers petting a lizard from the vivarium. which is not the case!! take that lizard and put a funny hat on it and release it to terrorize the french countryside!

so! it all started because I am very much not immune to guys in funny little medieval hats, and things got out of hand from there, to the tune of 'the 1989 henry v movie with kenneth branagh in it but I ditch history as soon as I possibly can and now there's a werewolf (and another werewolf eventually) and people don't die when they historically did actually die and kissing?? and there's a boat now too just because I can'.

some illustrations of said werewolf can be found here, and in the 'history freespace' tag overall.

[muppidupp]

Tbh I didn’t expect there to be an acótalo answer but now I’m intrigued

Tumblr un-ate my Hollow Knight post! I found it in my drafts! :D THE HISTORY OF HALLOWNEST, AKA WHY THE HOLLOW KNIGHT IS HOLLOW, UNDER THE READMORE spoiler warning obviously

OKAY SO. Basically theres a bug world where everyone is some kinda bug (or mushroom creature, or leaf creature, or jellyfish... there's a few different types)! And theyre all just crawling around and being bugs (mostly). But then, this huge worm guy (who is ancient and magic and powerful) decides that he wants to be the ruler of a bug kingdom. So he gets rid of his BigWorm body and becomes a little bug king guy. He is named the Pale King and he looks like this:

He has this deal where he bestows a higher level of thought to his subjects as long as they stay in his kingdom (which he names Hallownest), so they become capable of more Knowledge and stuff instead of being more... instinct-driven. And he begins to expand Hallownest, recruiting more followers from different areas. Some of them accept, and some of them don’t. And theres this tribe of moths that worship a moth dream god called the radiance, (shes a light, haha moths am i right) but they stop worshipping her and start worshipping the Pale King instead. Because he's the Cool New Thing. And they forget their old moth god! Who looks like this btw:

This makes the moth god really pissed off! After a long time passes, someone ends up remembering her. And using this memory as a gateway, she begins to sneak back into the bug-populations minds by infiltrating their dreams. She takes over their brains, and turns them into weird aggressive zombies who attack anything that moves. The Radiance’s infection turns into a pandemic, the whole kingdom is suffering, and the Pale King is in shambles trying to fix it.

Deep down below the kingdom there's an ancient dark pit called the Abyss. It's full of a black, living substance called void. Basically it's some sort of sentient-darkness-goop. And the Pale King has an idea! If a creature was born filled with this dark goop, maybe they could contain the radiance inside their mind! Since a hollow being means no dreams, no thoughts, and no mind for her to corrupt!

So he makes like a million babies with his Pale Queen (who is a white sentient tree for some reason) and they throw all the babies into the Abyss, hoping that one of them will become a perfect hollow vessel to contain the Radiance. The babies all become half bug-god, half void creatures. The vast majority of them die in the process and become little void-ghosts. But some of them survive! The king then selects one of the surviving babies as the Most Hollow of Them All, (he might have been under the impression that it was the Only surviving baby, I'm not sure) and takes it to their palace for training. The king also seals the abyss closed, leaving all the other baby bodies in there. The Hollow Knight (not to be confused with the player character, they start out very similar-looking) looks like this:

Then after [an unknown amount of time] of living in the palace and training, they end up looking like this!

I have no idea how they got that big, or why. It's never explained. None of the other vessels ever get that big. Anyways! The Hollow Knight seals the radiance inside its empty mind, and is then chained up inside a big chamber, inside of a black egg. A temple is build around the egg, and the door is sealed by three Special Powerful Bugs, who, by sleeping forever, will magically keep the door locked. The dreamers bodies must be destroyed for the door to open. Here's what they look like:

Herra the beast, Lurien the watcher and Monomon the teacher, respectively. The latter two agree to help without much protest, but the king has to convince Herra to help out by having Bug Sex with her, so that she can have a half-god child. Which is Hornet! You may have seen her around, shes a big fandom favorite:

She is also the only one of the Pale Kings children who actually has a gender, since all the other ones are supposedly too hollow to have a sense of self like that.

A bunch of time passes, enough time for the Hollow Knight to become almost entirely forgotten, with only a fountain statue left to commemorate them. But unfortunately, the Hollow Knight was never a perfect vessel like everyone thought, and they could only keep the Radiance at bay for so long. The Radiance's infects the Knight, and the infection begins seeping out of the big egg where the Hollow Knight is kept, and spreading throughout the kingdom. The game never outright explains why the Hollow Knight wasn't a perfectly pure vessel, but it's hinted that it's because they had a some sort of familial bond with their dad, the pale king. And this one little bond was enough for them to become corrupted.

Hallownest slowly becomes a kingdom full of radiance-corrupted zombie bugs, and the Pale King pretty much ditches everybody and hides himself and his palace in a dream realm, to keep the Radiance from finding him. He eventually dies in this dream realm.

But Hallownest remains, the Hollow Knight and the Dreamers magic keeping it in a stasis. There’s still a few bugs here and there who aren’t infected, but no one remembers the Hollow Knight and the Dreamers sacrifice anymore, so there isn't anyone who knows how to undo the seals on the egg where the Hollow Knight is kept. The only way to stop the infection would be to kill the Hollow Knight and either re-sealing the Radiance in a new vessel, or to go into her realm and defeat her altogether.

But then, after another shitlong amount of time, our player character shows up! They look like this:

This is where the game actually begins. None of the lore I just talked about is explained at the beginning. You play as one of the Pale Kings children who survived the abyss and got out of it, somehow. (There are a few other vessels who got out as well, but it seems you’re the only one thats still alive)

What will you do? Well, you'd have to play the game and choose for yourself.

[deathlygristly]

I'm back on my spiral again, dealing with the same issues but going up a bit each time, and I think I just cleared a curve and am starting on an incline.

Readmore because long, but anyone can read if they want. I guess very brief and un-detailed mention of childhood trauma? Mostly just me going on about things I figure out anew every day.

I was worrying about being a bad person a bit earlier today. Not nearly as intensely as years ago before I healed so much of the trauma, but still enough to be somewhat uncomfortable.

I looked back at the social issue that caused it, and I realized it was caused by a difference in interpretation of a post. And that really according to the OP's replies to other people my interpretation was probably closer to what the OP meant than the interpretation of the people who were mean and mad about it, and it really wasn't personal and it really didn't mean that I was a bad person.

It was about discussions of marriage online, which has obviously been the rock I've been rolling up the spiral for a while now.

I was re-reading my posts here and I saw the one about giftedness and the subconscious equation about human worth that people believe even if they get really mad about it, and then I saw my reblog about the marriage age thing and how I mentioned that people seemed to have a binary view between Tradition and Rebelling Against Tradition.

I also wrote another post years ago about the word empathy and how it's interpreted and defined online, and how just like with marriage and the worth equation the loudest voices online seem to really agree with the viewpoint of the Hated Authority while they're being really loud and mean and judge-y about hating the Hated Authority's viewpoint.

Also was thinking about Cake's song Rock' Roll Lifestyle and how "excess ain't rebellion."

So maybe it doesn't take other people 40 years of being alive to figure this out, but with my particular chain of experiences and environments it took me this long, okay?

I think that maybe sometimes people in high control social groups have really really internalized the messages and mores of the social group but they also really do not like those messages and mores and they want to be free of them, but the messages are deeply, and I mean deeply, embedded in their brain.

So they try to reject what they hate, but what they hate has formed the bedrock of their worldview. They can't see any way to escape from it other than to loudly and violently go the complete opposite way in what they say and how they act, but it's still there under their words and actions. A shadow takes its form from what is in between it and the light source.

So I don't understand it because I grew up in....my own special way, lol. Sounds weird to say my childhood was very low control but to also say that I had complex PTSD from my mother's rages, but well, that's true. My mother's rages were unpredictable and had much more to do with whatever she had going on at the moment than anything I did, and in her non-rage state she was very much a let your kids do what they want type of parent. Part of why I didn't rebel like other teens is that I didn't have anything to rebel against.

So I have no language to understand Hated Authorities or the attempt to escape from them by becoming their shadow, and when I try to contribute to the conversation I guess it's obvious to people who grew up with high control that I have no relevant experiences or knowledge or any way to relate. And on my end I am continually surprised and confused because I never even heard the messages that have been deeply inscribed into other people.

My mother doesn't even recognize the word empathy and when I used it in a text once she asked me what it meant. She never equated the giftedness to my value as a human. She never tried to force marriage or lack of marriage on me. I mean, look at her three kids - one is married with five daughters, one has a daughter and grandsons but never married, and one married but never had kids. And she accepts all those life choices equally. Well, okay, so she was kind of adamant that the younger brother NOT marry his baby momma. But I don't think he ever planned to anyway.

So of course there's alienation and weirdness and misinterpretation on both sides, because me and people who grew up with these high control messages and mores and being "taught" things may as well be from different planets. But it doesn't make any of us bad or better than the other or anything like that. It's just random differences in how our environments and experiences shook out.

I'm not a bad person. Just an unusual one. Despite that also making people online mad. Like decide between "you're not special" and "shut up because your experiences are extremely rare and thus irrelevant" please.

Anyway, wooooo party!

[dastodia]

#DASTODIA ── a study in breaking the shackles of ones past, finding solace in found family, && taking pride in protecting others - a story told by pj

private && selective roleplay blog for dan heng && dan feng of honkai star rail

dossier. | headcanons. | credits. | rules listed below the readmore. |

Overview

To start the rules off, this is a SELECTIVE Dan Heng&& Dan Feng RP Blog. Meaning, I only interact with MUTUALS. I will not write with anyone under 18, for my own comfort- any NSFW content will only be written with muns above 21. Before you send in an ask prompt expecting a response, please check if we’re mutuals. Please check that we’re mutuals before liking any starter call I place out. Mutuals have access to my Discord, Nintendo ID/FC, and any other online social or gaming accounts. I have severe social anxiety and I absolutely will not have the capability to approach you or even respond to anything you send to me ( via DM or otherwise )— so it’ll probably be deleted or just sit there un-responded to. Please— PLEASE. Check first..

Do not reblog a thread if you are not involved. I cannot stress this enough. A like is alright and is sometimes appreciated. Thanks for liking my thread pal. Please do not for the love of all things good in the world reblog it though. I am OC friendly, though selectively. If I honestly have no idea how my muse would interact or feel about yours, then there’s a high chance that I will not want to interact. Though, most OCs I’ve seen are quite lovely and I’d be so pleased to give them love.

Threads

I want all the building of muses and relationships as I can. Cover me in threads. Just do it. Don’t even ask, just do it! I reserve the right to drop a thread or multiple if I feel like I can’t continue it or I can’t find a way to respond that would stay within reason of how my muse would respond. Of course, you have this right to use on me as well. I would ask that you at least tell me if you’re dropping it. I seriously won’t bite, but I know that I myself might not say anything because of social anxiety.. So, just do what you can when you can and expect the same from me.

I am the slowest roleplayer in existence. Though not very often, I literally can take up to 7 months to get back to something decently simple. Muses can be very flaky on me, or the general desire to write can be gone for a period. Along with that, I do have work and other things outside of roleplaying that I also have to give my attention. So, if you are wanting to thread, please understand that I can take a very, very long time to get back to you. Despite this, though, if it’s been longer than a week and I have not replied, you are more than welcome to come and ask to make sure that I have it drafted and on the list of things to get to. As well as, if you really want a thread responded to, or bumped up in the order of replies, feel free to ask. Though, don’t do so constantly, if you can help it.

Do not worry about icons- the inclusion or non-inclusion of them. The simplicity of them or the elaborate nature of them. They are not a make or break.

Do not give me one sentence responses(unless crack/that is the entire thread/post), especially if I have given you more than two paragraphs. As long as you make an effort, you do not have to match length for length. I often times will make things longer (mostly by accident) because I enjoy putting my muses’ thoughts into it or setup a thread/the backstory/information leading up to- so I do not expect you to go one-to-one with threads.

Memes && Ask Prompts

Here comes that boi– oh shIT WADDUP— Okay listen—- Ask prompts/Memes are super fun and are sometimes easier to reply to && get out than typical threads. Prompts/Inbox tends to be my priority due to the fact that I am quite forgetful and if I do not have that notification on the inbox stating there is something there I will forget about it- and I don't like leaving the lil notification on it. So if you have a thread you’re waiting on but still want some sort of interactions going on between responses, feel free to send in one of the prompts I reblog. If you send in a prompt and I respond to it, you are more than welcome to respond to it on a separate post and turn it into a thread! Or even just respond to it– Whichever tickles your fancy. Not all prompts need to be, or will be, turned into a thread. It will depend on if there is anywhere the idea can go or be expanded upon, or whether my muse will be able to go farther. I don’t expect a response to prompts, so don’t feel like you have to- but don’t hesitate if you feel a strong urge to do so! I also don’t send in prompts expecting to make them threads 100% of the time, so I do not expect the same of others.

Unless explicitly stated and/or quite obvious sent in asks are for Dan Feng (ie. individuals only around during Dan Feng's time), all asks will be assumed to be for Dan Heng.

While I don't enforce reblog karma, it's still appreciated to send one in, or don't just use me as your prompt source every single time and never send ANY in.

Godmodding/Powerplay

Just—- Don’t. This is a given, but I will still state it. Do not. I write for my muse, not yours ( vise-versa ).

However! If there comes an instance where something that might come along those lines of godmod, just clear it with me first. For instance, such as knocking his spear out of his hand and leaving him no room to go grab it. That is absolutely 100% okay!! Just make sure to ask me first. Communication is important.

Shipping

I am just as much of a shipping garbage can as the next person. However, chemistry is very important. Though, I do have biases on certain ships pertaining to my muse; our muses capability to interact is slightly more important. Also, I have no control over my muse’s romantic feelings. But, I’m also a sucker for one-sided loves, rejected feelings, platonic relationships, sibling-like relationships, rival relationships, etc.

This blog is multi-ship. However, is ship-exclusive (unless discussed between mun’s, and that all mun’s involved are okay with duel-muse-shipping). As an example: I will ship and write Dan Feng with one Xingxing, and Dan Feng with Jing Yuan. However, the Xingxing and Jing Yuan cannot ship with another Dan Feng. I ask that my partners also be ship-exclusive with me. I don’t want to see my partner shipping with another version of my muse. My muse && I will consider it cheating and will drop the ship immediately.

My insecurities prevent me from duel-muse-shipping, and will upset me if my partner does so. It will make me feel as if I’m competing for a ship, or struggle with my partner comparing which dynamic they like more, or who’s portrayal they like more. I just cannot and will not do it- either to myself or to someone else. If you do not intend to be ship-exclusive with me and the specific muse/ship, then do not expect to write a ship with me. I also ask that you are either at least semi-active OR discuss them often through dms. Non-Thread interactions and mun to mun compatibility are also important. I am a slow writer, so I can’t demand someone be at my beck-and-call, that would be unfair to you. I do like to scream about random ideas and toss music videos and random memes that I find applicable to the ship and muses. So at least be ooc ranting available if not super active. I’ve had too many ships start with people then they stop writing and/or stop talking to me, and with being a ship-exclusive, then the ship just falls apart and then the muse is left lonely. I would like to avoid repeating that.

OC's are, obviously, seen as seperate people, so more than one OC I will ship with. I however ask that you do not ship with another Dan Heng if we are writing them together and in a romantic nature.

Caelus and Stelle will be considered as separate muses. I see them as two different personalities/ways you can write them per mun, so they will not apply to this rule. So to clarify, only one Caelus and one Stelle will be shipped with, and both can be shipped with at the same time.

I do not intend to ship Dan Heng with Blade. While possible that my stance can change depending on development, I personally just do not enjoy the ship and see Dan Heng as wanting to distance himself from his past, and that includes Blade/how Blade seems to be solely for vengeance (for now) against Dan Feng, while he is no longer that person. I do, however, enjoy Dan Feng and Xingxing.

Crack threads do not apply to the ship-exclusive rule. Have fun when goofing around.

Ship perferences/biases: DanCae, DanStelle, DanMarch, XingYue/XingFeng

Ships currently active will be listed on the Character Dossier Document.

Plotting

I personally don’t mind if threads go solidly by winging it- makes them all the more enjoyable to do because you don’t know what to expect. But, I also enjoy a plotted out thread. These threads tend to go more smoothly; because then I know who to make sure things go in the direction one of us/both of us want it to go. So if we’re mutuals, feel free to come in to my DM and ask about plotting.

AUs && Crossovers

Holy nuggets I love AUs??? I just melt because so many more beautiful things to let my babies roam free in. I love making AUs and I typically don’t get a chance to actually RP within the AUs I think of– so feel free to hit me up with any of them. I don’t do too well with crossovers, unfortunately. It’s always a ‘oh hey you know *insert mutual character here* yeah? so how do you know them? oh really? well i did this *insert thing* with them’ kind of thread and I’m honestly just.. so over it? I mean if it can be pushed to something not along those lines I’ll probably be up for giving it a try.

Following/FollowBacks

Since this is a SELECTIVE blog, it may take me some time to go through and decide if I want to interact && follow you. That doesn’t mean that if I don’t follow you that I don’t think you write terribly or have a bad portrayal. No not at all. I just don’t want to spread myself so thin that I end up crashing. But, sometimes my writing style clashes with others, or I may simply not like any extra things you post on your blog ( for example: too many prompts/in such a small period of time WITHOUT any ic character posts looks too messy for me and I just personally don’t like seeing so much of it.. ) Also, the notifications tab isn’t the greatest, so I typically go to my follower page and scan through the list about once a week or two just to make sure I see who follows me. If you have a sideblog that you want to interact with me on, please let me know that it’s a sideblog. Say, for instance, that your RP blog is a sideblog to your personal, or to a different RP blog that has no relation to any of the fandoms I have muses for present, then I won’t even give the blog a second glance. Because I might be absolutely wanting to interact with you, but I just won’t know if it’s a sideblog unless told.

— So with all that stated, give me about a week ( minimum ) to follow you back.

NSFW && Triggers

I really don’t mind smut-nsfw things?? As long as it’s not like.. pictures of real life people (pornography excluded)- like an OnlyFans post style/selfies or the porn bots vibe.. you know. Text posts, drawn smut-nsfw, and those types of things doesn't bother me seeing on the dash. I still ask that you tag them but ??? I don’t really care nor mind. As for the OTHER nsfw things ( gore, blood, violence, etc. )– I’m pretty open to them? None of them really bother me, unless it’s like.. pictures. …. Yikes.

I am down for writing NSFW threads/smut, but I will not write such if you are under 21. Such threads will be placed under readmores.

I tag all generic triggers ( eye horror, epilepsy, blood, nsfw ). If you have anything you need me to tag ( mutuals or not ) please let me know if I need to start tagging something that’s more specific ( ex. pastel colours ). Trigger tags example: trigger tw.

The Mun

Name: Prince/Jehr/PJ ( Any of them are fine to use. )

Gender: Male. He/Him/His.

Age: 27

Height: Small AF

Relationship Status: Single

Residency(Currently): California, USA

Roleplay Experience: 10+ Years

Format Preference: Literature, Third Person. Can/Will do script from time to time, but not often.

Hi I am a weenie with many mental health issues and bad body joints and back pain. Hi, how are you?? I meme a lot and curse a good bit as well… I can tone it down if told to do so… . .  I really don’t know what to put here.

I do have clinically diagnosed severe social anxiety and depression, so there may be times where I suddenly vanish or take a break without warning. I am not the best at initiating things, but I am getting better at it.

End note

If you’ve gone through the task of reading through all of this, thank you for your time!!! Hope you enjoy your stay on my silly blog.

[the-sleepy-archivist]

Software of the Week: WingetUI / UniGetUI

Keeping all of the programs on your computer up to date is important for security reasons; just ask LastPass, the disgraced password manager that got hacked because an employee's personal computer was running an old version of Plex Media Server. The particular vulnerability that the hackers exploited had been patched almost 3 years earlier, but because the employee never bothered to update Plex, he never got the fix.

Every month that you leave software on your computer un-patched is time in which hackers may discover the vulnerability and start using it to attack computers. But how on earth can you even figure out which of your programs need updates? Doing that one by one takes forever, and THEN you still have to actually install those updates.

This is where software updaters are essential. On Windows, SUMO used to be among the best programs for the job, but it was discontinued in early 2024. I've been searching for a replacement for a while now, and I finally settled on WinGetUI (soon to be known as UniGetUI). A LOT more detail and some tips are under the readmore!

Details:

Purpose: Provide a unified frontend for multiple package managers on Microsoft Windows to simplify installing and updating software

OS Supported: Windows 10, 11

Installer Size: 76 MB

Country of Origin: Catalonia/Spain

Languages Supported: 16 languages fully, 24 partially

License: Freeware

Download Link: https://www.marticliment.com/wingetui/

A LOT more detail and some tips are under the readmore!

Winget ("WIN-get") is the name of Microsoft Window's new-ish package manager, a program that itself takes care of installing and updating other software for you. Linux and Unix have had built-in package managers for decades, but Windows has been sorely lacking on that front until just recently. Winget provides the ability to install and update software, but it's a command line utility, meaning you have to type text into a command prompt in order to get winget to do anything for you.

WinGetUI is essentially just a nice interface using winget in the background; it shows you which programs you have installed, which ones have updates available, and it will even install the updates for you. That last part was a game changer for me personally as it saves me a lot of time (I have a LOT of programs and libraries installed on my computer).

The best part is the developer has added support for other package managers too. Computer language SDKs often come with their own package managers for downloading the little libraries that you can bundle with code that you write, and WinGetUI now supports most of them: npm, pip, .NET Tool, Chocolatey, scoop, Powershell Gallery, and it can even list software installed from the Steam shop or the Microsoft Store (though it can't update those ones for you). Incidentally, this is why the name is changing from WinGetUI to UniGetUI; it now supports a lot more package managers than just winget.

WinGetUI can even help you migrate software to a new computer. Simply install WinGetUI on your old computer, export a list of all of the software you have installed, then install WinGetUI on your new computer and import that list and then click install. You'll probably have to babysit it for a while because Windows will prompt you to give admin access to the installers that need it, but hey. At least you don't have to write down all the software you have and download and install each one by hand.

I do want to highlight that Microsoft is still working out the kinks in winget. Windows has existed for a long time and provided a lot of freedom in how you could install software. Multiple companies have made their fortunes just by providing custom installer software for Windows (InstallShield and NSIS being prime examples), so Microsoft has their work cut out for them trying to get all the different software manufacturers to list their software in the winget directory AND standardize their installers.

As such, you may run into issues like these:

WinGetUI lists a program you installed manually and tries to update it via winget; the installer succeeds, but because those installation methods are different, you end up with 2 copies of the software installed in different locations

WinGetUI fails to update a program because the hash of the downloaded installer doesn't match the hash that winget says it should have. This is usually a developer error

WinGetUI fails to determine whether some programs have updates available or not

WinGetUI downloads an installer/updater but it fails to run because it detects that the installation methods for that program are different (manual install vs. winget install)

Almost all of these can be resolved by uninstalling the manually installed version and reinstalling it using winget, either from the command line or just from WinGetUI. Once you do that one-time operation, the winget package manager (and by extension WinGetUI) should be able to handle everything from there on out. It will only get better too as winget usage becomes more common among software developers.

[flarekitti]

You coullld turn on the shorten long posts option if it helps? Doesn't really work if ur looking at someone's actual blog but it's a godsend when ppl don't readmore their enormous fanfics.

Sorry if you have to let other filters go though :(

*i already had it on trust me :( i was just hesitant for it to be my only block on them, esp when ppl can post very wordy pictures that dont get shortened u knoe?

*i just preferred the option to open it in like.. another tumblr app window (like the current shortened posts do) instead of a chromium browser window, it was smoother and loaded faster, and ... yknow didnt involve chrome lmao

*but i mean that's why i unblocked the tags, id rather just scroll more than open chrome :( i agree hardcore abt the fanfic thing, those r WAY too often untagged/un-readmore'd and can easily clog up the feed,, and it certainly doesn't help that i in particular am not very into fanfic lol

*i mean it'll make me less likely to click on blocked tags which is good for some of my more serious ones, but like.. for example, i have some fandoms that i am neutral towards blocked so i don't swim in posts im not super interested in. I occasionally open them up when i feel like it, or often enough, multiple in a row, but that isn't rlly as viable now? It's way more annoying to look at them bc of the load times and. Chrome

*and i Especially dont want chrome to know what im looking at on tumblr, Especially Especially bc its only things i have blocked, so it'll essentially be ... thinking i like things i very much don't?

*i mean idk maybe im misunderstanding how chrome tracks stuff but i would prefer it not to know what i dislike while thinking i like them bc i wanted to check a blocked post