#world builder!!!

[tropicalcleric]

wallace: (about scott) i could fix him, but whatever's wrong with him is much cuter kim: you're worse, wallace.

[losieee]

(Update i have made the first post!! HERE) I have been working on my VTM:B recreation project in sims 4 and I finished off 3 builds this week!

I’m currently in the process of taking pictures. But expect new uploads from me VERY soon!!!!

I’m giving a little sneak peak since it’s been waaaaaayyy too long since I posted!! (And all of these builds are already on the gallery)

Gallery ID: Losieee

*waking up from my eternal slumber*

[potatoes-tomatoes]

Instagram ask doodle— someone requested Lola as Barbie!

I think of the deleted exchange she had with lebron in SJ2, where she says “Looney is who [Bugs] is and what he does. I’m not like that.” and I mourn the executive meddling. It was supposed to be satirical, critical and maybe even a lil more cynical and all Looney… but too many mandated rewrites left a sour taste in my mouth, especially when it comes to Lola. She doesn’t really have a place in the world of LT outside of being Bugs’ arm candy and “Basketball”…..Sj2 coulda had that conversation. poor gal

[briarcrawford]

Flora and Fungai to Inspire Your Fantasy Works

Adding plants into your stories might not seem important, but they can be a helpful tool in making your fantasy worlds seem more real. If it is a goal of yours to create your own fantasy plants, I hope this post saves you time.

A while back I did a post about real-life animals that have such extraordinary abilities that they seem like they belong in a fantasy novel, and this time we are going to focus on plants. For writers, taking inspiration from the real-world can be a great time saver. For example; let’s say you want to create a carnivorous plant that attracts scavenger animals with the scent of corpses; well, you could take inspiration from the corpse flower and pitcher plant(both below) and take note of how those plants work. With your new notes, you can create a fantasy plant that seems realistic.

The Lava-Eating Cactus

Lava cacti play a significant role in turning empty lava fields into lush bio-diverse landscapes. As lava cacti establish themselves on barren lava fields, their roots penetrate the volcanic rock, then release a bacteria that breaks down the lava. This breakdown of rock releases nutrients for the cactus, then when the cactus dies, the cactus becomes the soil for other plants to start on.

The Flower that Smells Like death

The corpse flower, is a plant famed for its enormous size, and pungent odor resembling rotting flesh. Producing one of the worlds largest flowers — reaching heights over 3 meters (10 feet) — its blooming event draws crowds to botanical gardens worldwide despite it’s smell. This foul odor serves to attract pollinators, facilitating the plant’s reproduction.

Sheltering Under This Tree could Kill You

The Manchineel tree, is a plant with an attractive appearance which hides it’s danger. Nearly every part of the tree contains toxic compounds; including the milky sap, which is highly caustic and can cause severe skin irritation and blistering upon contact. Ingesting any part of the tree, including its sweet apple-like fruit, can lead to intense burning sensations, vomiting, and even death. Standing near a Manchineel tree during rain can be hazardous due to a phenomenon known as “Manchineel rain.” The rainwater dripping from the tree can cause skin irritation, burns, and blistering upon contact, and inhaling the vapor from the sap can lead to respiratory irritation.

Glow in the dark mushrooms

Bioluminescent (glow-in-the-dark) fungi, possess the ability to emit light. These mushrooms achieve bioluminescence through a chemical reaction, which produces light without generating heat. Typically found on decaying wood or in leaf litter, bioluminescent mushrooms glow with a soft, eerie light, often in shades of green or blue. While the exact purpose of their bioluminescence is not fully understood, it’s believed to attract insects that aid in spore dispersal, or possibly to deter predators. Whatever the reason, humans tend to like it too, so thanks to scientists, you can now even buy flowers that have this ability.

Carnivorous Plants

While most people only think of plants getting energy from photosynthesis (the sun) there are actually many ways a plant might get energy; one of which includes protein. Several species of carnivorous(protein eating) plants have evolved to obtain nutrients from insects and other small animals.

Venus Flytraps. Perhaps the most iconic carnivorous plant, the Venus flytrap captures insects with specialized leaves that snap shut when triggered by tiny hairs. Once closed, the plant secretes enzymes to digest the prey and absorb the nutrients, including proteins, released during digestion.

Pitcher plants have modified leaves that form deep, pitcher-shaped structures filled with digestive fluids. Insects are attracted to the nectar or coloration of the pitcher, fall into the fluid, and are digested by enzymes produced by the plant.

Sundews have glandular hairs on their leaves that secrete a sticky substance resembling dewdrops. Insects become trapped in the sticky secretion, which then covers and digests them, providing the plant with essential nutrients, including proteins.

Bladderworts are aquatic or semi-aquatic plants with small bladder-like structures that suck in tiny aquatic organisms, such as protozoa and small crustaceans, through suction traps. Once captured, the prey is digested, and the plant absorbs the nutrients.

Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the Venus Flytrap is that it is a plant that can count. It takes a lot of energy for a flytrap to move, so to ensure the chances that it will catch pray, it waits and counts the time until another hair is touched. For example, if on hair is touched and another is not, something may have just brushed by it, and is not worth the trap closing. However, if more hairs are touched within several seconds, it will close.

The Plant That Can See

Boquila trifoliolata is a plant that likes to mimic the appearance of other plants. It was once thought that it did so by scent or touch, but after experiments using a fake plant it could not reach, Boquila trifoliolata still managed to mimic the fake plant.

The Plant That Lights Itself On Fire

While Cistus plants are renowned for their beauty and resilience, some species possess a remarkable and somewhat mysterious trait: the ability to spontaneously burst into flames under certain conditions. The combination of the plant’s highly flammable oils and the intense heat can lead to spontaneous combustion, resulting in small fires.

Mind Controlling Fungi

If you watched the TV show or played the game The Last of Us, you may already be familiar with this one. However, just in case, here is a warning that this one does tend to freak people out.

Cordyceps are an eerie fungi that spread by controlling living hosts. When a spore lands on an insect (such as an ant) it will gradually take control of it and encourage it to go to the location the fungai thinks is best. Once it is there, the fungai will grow on the insect then release spores into the forest, infecting more insects.

Plants That Hides and Learns

Mimosa pudica is a plant that will try to protect itself by moving. It’s first defense when something touches it is to fold in leaves against it’s stem. It’s second defense is to “play dead” by having the whole leaf go limp. After a set amount of time, the stem and leaves will return to normal, but perhaps the most interesting thing about them is that it can learn. To keep from wasting energy by moving more than it needs to, it can learn not to close on touches that do not harm it. Where and how it stores information is not yet known.

Both this plant and the venus flytrap can contradict what it means for something to have a brain. That is because if you ask someone what makes something have a brain, they will say something like “the ability to move quickly,” or “the ability to count or learn.”

The Plant that Hunt With Scent

Many plants use the ability to smell in amazing ways, such as how tomato plants that are being attacked by pests will release a scent into the air that warns other plants to create insect repellent. However, instead of using scent to detect or warn of danger, there is a species that uses the ability to smell to hunt down prey. Dodder plants are parasitic plants that steal the energy of other plants, and even in experiments where they hid the victim from view, the dodder was able to find it. It was determined that the dodder finds its prey through scent.

These are just some of the amazing abilities real-life plants can have. I hope this list greatly helps inspire and speed up the crafting of your fantasy plants.

[junespriince]

Winged heart au

Wally:... why this kid without a spleen?

Tim: Mind your own business, sometimes you have to give an old assassin a fidget toy so he leaves you alone.

Wally, a surgeon: Kid, how are you alive?

Tim: pure spite.

Dick: it's the bat way.

Wally, sigh: welp, I need to make a call.

Wally, to Iris over the phone: Mom, I need you to ask Auntie Dinah, I need to know how long it will take to be a therapist... yes it for the bats... Red Robin gave his spleen to an old man to fidget with, and it normalized, I need to fix them.

[serene-cinders]

Interesting detail i noticed in dunmeshi: in the world maps we see, the part the elves hail from (the northern continent) is near the centre. This is because the elven nation are colonialists who likely designed the maps which are considered global standard. As they ‘discovered’ the rest of the world, they added onto/refined the maps that placed themselves at the centre of the world. This reflects what happened irl with European colonialism.

Intentional or not, this definitely fleshes the world out even more for me lol

[redd956]

Worldbuilding Food: More than meets the eye

So, you want to world build food but maybe you don't know where to start, have hit a roadblock, or are just looking for some interesting places to addon to. I've got your back.

Vegetables, Fruits, Grain, Nuts, & Fungi

One of the first things I think of when it comes to food is fruits and vegetables, and the line between them is surprisingly small.

Like tomatoes are vegetables? Pumpkins are fruits but other gourds are not? When does a herb become a vegetable? Although important to classify, don't let it be your main focus.

Start with

How the produce grows

What it looks like throughout different stages of its life

What parts are edible

How most people consume the produce

How the product is harvested

Is it seasonal

What about the produce that makes its growable environment habitable

How it spreads/reproduces

There's many different unique ways fruits and vegetables grow in just our real world, but that doesn't mean you can stop there.

Cranberries grow on vines that actually float on the surface of soggy ground and water in wetlands. Cashews actually grow on the bottom of cashew apple, which is it's own edible product. There's lots of different ways plants can grow, and what they even need to do so.

Some produce even have their own defense mechanisms (which often which becomes a form of flavor to us). Don't think these defense mechanisms stop at protection from predators. Strawberries are an aggressive plant, fighting, killing, and taking over any nearby plant neighbors. Some plants have thistles and thorns, and others are the hard shell or peel we end up effortlessly cutting through.

Try to think of some environmental things in the world your working with that the produce would have adapted to.

I think my favor example of this IRL is sunflowers. They change directions to face the sun, and when they can't find the sun they face each other. Eventually their seeds weigh them down, and which they'll always face east.

Don't forget fungi is edible too, and has it's very own unique properties.

(Don't forget yeast -> bread, you can make up whatever food you want)

Meats & Agricultural Animals

I myself am not a meat-eater, but I understand the importance of animal products to a society. If you world doesn't have it, don't fret. This sector won't just be about meat products, but it will contain a lot of it.

Food and what animals are considered for consumption changes from culture to culture. The same can be said for treatment leading up to their role in society as the food on people's plates. Often times a culture cannot imagining eating an animal they see as part of the family, such as dogs or cats IRL, but other times it's seen part of a religious practice such as cows.

There's a lot of cultural stuff that goes into our agricultural animals, both for work, dairy, textiles, and food.

Here's some ideas to start with

What parts of them are edible and used for food

Do they produce any dairy or egg products

How old do they have to be before becoming a produce animal

Are the animals used for other resources too i.e. bones, fur, skins, skulls, blood, etc.

How much food does one animal make

Typically how are they are killed, if they are

What conditions are these animals kept in and are they viewed humane

What environments allow these animals to thrive alongside the people of your world

What does the animal eat

Now... Let's into some culture and religion

Religion and culture has a major impact on what we eat. Take for instance Kosher, Halal, and more. Historical shortages in food even to this day affect what foods we eat. Culture also affects our tastes. The corn line of the United States is drowning in corn, and yet corn is seen as a sweet treat over seas in many nations.

Harvesting

How the harvesting goes changes a lot about a society, big and small. Think about how terrible a year would go in medieval times if harvest came up incredibly poor, or how wealthy our modern day world would look to those people due to mass production.

Here's some things to think about

What time of year are the biggest and most important harvest(s)

How common are agricultural workers

What would the average person see if they watched people work

What technology/tools are used

What happens if the harvest goes wrong

Do farmers/harvesters get special rights for their role in society

In older societies harvesting and how that went completely shaped how the next year would look. In some cultures the harvesters have been revered, while in other if crossed to far would be expected to tear the country to pieces. Think about the role harvesting plays in your society. What would happen if they striked? Or if a disaster swept the land?

The environment itself will change a lot about what harvesting look likes. Why does this environment work? What are the environmental risk to both the crop and workers?

Are we farming in the water, in the middle of the arctic, underground, high up in the trees?

Exotic Food & Immigration

While establish what the everyday food in the area is, don't forget to pay mine to the opposites. Immigration and trade play a major role in what foods end up on our plate. As cultures combine and mingle so do their food.

Take one look at the United States, infamous for it's large potions, fatty foods, and immigrant culture cuisine. A lot of foods in the United States are the results of cultures meeting to improve and add onto one another's foods, that includes American styles of pizza, tacos, and more.

Even major cities around the world have styles of foods unique to them.

Let's think

What locally seen foods count as exotic

What foods are nearly impossible to get

Is there access to foreign brands/produce

How expensive is most exotic foods

What styles of cooking are being brought in by foreigners

How do people get exotic foods

What foods would the locals not be able to eat due to not being used to it

Try to think about what makes this food exotic in the local area. Maybe it cannot grow in the local environment. Maybe the quality of the food is simply better overseas. Maybe the animal or plant is far too aggressively invasive for locals.

Trade & Transport

Food is both a very important export and import, especially in time of devastation.

Don't forget about exports too, what is your society giving out to the world, and getting back. Not all trade has to be capital based. Perhaps your world simply trades on good or service for another.

Here's some things to think about

What's being exported and imported

Are whole animals imported/exported

How is the trade being done i.e. trains, boats, aircraft, teleportation, etc.

Are there any obstacles to trade

What places are all involved in trading

How is the trade brought to where it needs to be inland

In what ways do these trades improve the lives of locals

Transportation is also super important to where food ends up, and more so in what volumes. How do people get all these produce or animals relocated? What kinds of storage are we seeing to keep things fresh (if health standards are even up to code in your worldbuilding)?

What poses a threat to things in storage? i.e. mold, foxes, animal thieves, disease, etc.

Restrictions

With supply and demand, comes outages, taxes, and restrictions. Unfortunately not everything in the food world goes right. There's natural disasters to come and destroy crops, hostile settlements to block trade, and especially that person who is really bad at cooking but they love doing it so you don't have the heart to say no....

Anyway let's talk restrictions and where they can come from

Wartime

Wartime can cause a lot of original farmers and workers to become soldiers. It also can lead to the large scale destruction of precious farm land, crops, animals, and overall places to cook.

Laws

Perhaps there's a particularly poisonous food, and way too many suspiciously poisoned people. That's when law comes in. There's many reasons for food and drink to become outlawed. Religious reasons, danger, regulations, inebriation, etc.

Siege/Embargo/Thievery

Knock knock! It's the United States here to embargo your random country. Outside factions can always become an obstacle, leading to loss of traveling cargo or straight up missing farmers too. Nothing comes in, and sometimes nothing comes out.

Endangered

Perhaps a common plant or favored animal is running low on populous. Now locals are more so focused on reanimating a dwindling population, more so on eating it.

Sickness

Whether it be hoards of invasive bugs, prion disease caused by cannibalistic animal feed, or sudden inexplicable field of dead corn sickness happens. Maybe something has swept over the land, and no one ever bothered to try to plant said crop again.

Natural Disasters

Natural disasters can not only cause the elimination of entire villages, but accidentally bring in lots of invasive creatures too. Catfish is off the menu for as long as carp is intown.

Straight Up Difficulty

Sometimes a fruit appears once a year, or a tasty creature is a dangerous one to take on in order to eat. It can be difficult getting the right ingredient sometimes. Other times it's new to the market. So much can happen when food is involved.

Preparation & Flavor

Finally all the food in the world is available, but what are we going to do with it.

Make it even better!

I personally find preparation to be the best part of worldbuilding. Now I get to imagine my fictional little people stewing their pots, and kindling their fires. Reflect off of real world recipes, and maybe even write down exact fantasy recipes of your own.

Don't forget about herbs and spices (I see you British people).

You have five basic taste receptors in your mouth: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and savory. They make great descriptors and fun places to explore when looking into what your foods taste like. Smell can play an important role too.

Does it smell awful and taste great, smell sweet and taste bitter, perhaps it doesn't have anything at all going on.

Happy worldbuilding!

[sapphire-rb]

Summer fun

[huni-bii]

The less silly but sweeter remaster :) and some smooches

[zeb-z]

when Bad asks Foolish and Baghera “yknow what you do when you’re upset?” and Foolish quietly goes “go out into a desert?” he shot me dead in my home.

Foolish, who spent all his time in the dsmp out in the desert building on his own, never really appreciated. who’s only community builds were never really used - a massive fuck off mansion for Tubbo and Ranboo in Snowchester they never moved into, Kinoko Kingdom which got more appreciation by Quackity, who hated it, than any of the meant to be residents, and the Among Us bunker that never saw the light of day. who’s only friends ended up executing him at a banquet, and the other blackmailing him into joining his city. but it didn’t truly matter - he had the desert to return to, and another massive project to build, even if it was just him around to appreciate it.

the desert was as beautiful as it was dangerous. it was not friendly, and it was not kind, but it was where he built his life. it was where he retreated to when everything else was shit.

and then, however many years later, he finds companionship in the qsmp. people love his builds, use his builds - but appreciate him for more than that. he sticks close instead of moving thousands of blocks away. he falls in love with Vegetta, then he takes care of his daughter. his beloved Leo. he learns another language so she doesn’t have to struggle with his, and they teach each other as they talk. he gets her everything she asks for even if he rolls his eyes and teases her for being spoiled, because he loves her, because he’d move heaven and earth for her. he tells her that she’s good, and that she’s shown him that there’s more to life than just being alone and building all the time.

and then Leo’s gone. and when the panic has settled and the realization that he can’t do anything hits, he goes and works on the titan. he builds and tries not to cry. for a short time, he goes and takes people exploring since they’re also online, and he tasks himself with distracting them to cheer them up (with the bonus of taking out his aggravation on monsters), and he can’t be upset if he’s with company. but lately they haven’t been around, and he’s mostly alone again - so he goes back to building. returning to hours and hours on his own, making more headway in a few days than he has in a month on his build.

he retreats to the desert. where he’s alone, where there’s nothing but him and the sand and his builds, where there’s nothing else in the world, because the rest of the world is unbearable.

[lafaiette]

The Protector reminds me of Cartier's Love Bracelet:

It's a famous (and super expensive) bracelet characterized by its screws. It can be put on and removed only by using a screwdriver, and it represents eternal love.

"The bracelet was designed in the shape of an oval in order to fit as closely as possible to a loved one's wrist, and it was designed to not be taken off on a daily basis. It's physically screwed on to signify the permanence of true love, since two people are needed to secure the screws. Ever since then, the Love bracelet has become a symbol of love and commitment due to this design."

The Protector:

[primodialchaoswizard]

The Builder: Hey how ya-

Jason: *Rejects his star speed*

The Builder: IIIIIII GET YOUR FUCKING DOG BITCH

The World Phoenix: It don’t bite

The Builder: YES IT DO

[sapphire-draw]

That moment in Moonbrooke where Malroth gets angsty and decides he wants to break the siege.

Turns out, you can kill a lot of unintended enemies with the poison needle! including the siege ones!

So you can pull a Malroth and charge head first to try and kill everyone if you want to- before Malroth even suggests doing so.

They respawn for the cutscene... but don't worry they won't here

[mushroom-through-the-stargate]

maybe I've been spoiled by stargate but I feel like other sci-fi shows should have more archeology as world building. give me city ruins of when the Q were physical beings. give me ferengi El Dorado missions. give me evidence that Earth has been touched by aliens throughout history. give me dig sites on the klingon homeworld (idk how to spell it). JUST GIVE ME ARCHEOLOGY PROVING THAT THE UNIVERSE IS INTERCONNECTED

[markmybirds]

Hello welcome to the ramblings of an Art Historian and Researcher who is hella tired from no sleep. This is a Happy Ending post. I'm starting out strong: I think Sunshine and Moonshine are all over this. Sunshine especially.

He saw the Beast of Prey in the midst of day. Sunshine will appear Tomorrow. Also just.. the dreaming part, if Anawin dreamt up Damon and designed him. Did he dream of Moonshine? We all know Moonshine is unhinged from the Dum Dum M/V. Moonshine will disappear till you close your eyes. Okay. There's also a name-science. I'm noticing it. This could be me in my delulu. But I am a world-builder and conceptual artist by trade. The first thing I do when I am naming something is look into meanings. Damon means: The one who subdues/tames. A historical Damon dazzles Dionysus who is considered untamable with his loyalty for Pythias. It also means Guardian Spirit. His braille on his neck "I am not a demon" (quoted by Studio on Saturn) could be nodding towards maybe Sunshine (who Jeff says is not an angelic form he just has always existed/is an immortal) or the idea that maybe Damon really isn't a demon and is actually given a second chance to watch over either his creator or creation: Anawin. However Damon and Dam/Dum do have a Thai Script in common. both being renditions of the same Thai nickname for men. ISTG if. If. Damon has Dam or Dum for a Chue Len. I'm gonna flip (in a good way). Dum and Dam meaning "Dark, black, topsoil and/or Merciless". Anawin has a few meanings: beautiful, little one, humble person, poor. Okay the amount of fanfic writers who have Little One or Angel monikers for Barcode, I'm like. I'm crazy for that. Keep it up. Because my brain thought about that. (I thought of War really). Also the.. last post of mine with the sneak peek for the pilot coming on the 15th. I considered that the song is describing Anawin. And it's fun to see how the lyrics stack up together with Anawin's name meaning. I think I see you Jeff. Maybe just a little bit. Also. I think if no one is blind/has low vision, someone is definitely colourblind. And for the blindness I think

This looks like someone's vision. I have a blind spot in my right eye in my far peripheral. It gives me that.

[greyias]

It was "take your spouse to plot" day in Sandrock, and it was so disgustingly cute that they'd just start holding hands every few seconds. Sometimes while running down hallways, taking a break long enough for Logan to cackle like a madman as he plows into enemies like a tank, and then when the carnage has cleared is like "where's my wifey? 🥺" before grabbing her hand again.