You are really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really really REALLY g-

Ah, finally hit the word count limit! Nice! It's been almost a year now. A card I made for this week's contest:

I finally finished the second chapter of this doodle comic!

Basically from a translation machine:

It's called notes, but it's really bullshit time:

(I didn't put any asterisks in the "text" in order to make the picture cleaner and not make this little comic seem too serious)

①WX says that their body "doesn't have any of those really advanced things" and that "the concept is just bionic", which might make you wonder how WX can agree with their own shortcomings when they are always been so confident in their own machine body. This is kind of a guess: WX's comments in the wiki about Wagstaff being "afraid of progress" and "short-sighted", combined with WX's usual machine-worshiping and violent tendencies, such as their comments about Maxwell "He has that kind of power but he doesn't go out and destroy human". So it's an offense to them, but they actually agree that even though they claim to be superior, I guess WX would like to see their bodies more advanced and even more radical.

② Yes, this WX has acceleration circuits installed.

③ Gnome get✓ Do you guys remember the line where WX checks the Gnome

④ "You're not as kind as you look", how should I put this one, because the Wilson I understand is more or less with a little bit of darkness in his mind, he's someone who is full of emotions but often restrains them with reason, he fears and hates the negative impulses and instincts within himself. And this trait I think probably comes from his good nature, his education and survival experiences and the influence of the Shadow Throne. (But honestly after suffering in CONSTANT for so long, it's normal for whoever it is to be a little psychologically unhinged, not to mention the SANITY setting.) And after WX's soulwalking, they easily have some "psychic empathy" with Wilson... ...... Well, how did that happen Wilson?

⑤ Well I know the reasoning of the empathy module episode is weird ...... In fact, it's mainly because when I drew this plot I didn't have a good understanding of the empathy module, and simply thought of it as something like "emotional deficiency", so this episode was supposed to be Wilson saying "why do I still feel emotional ups and downs blabla" and then WX explaining that it's because of "memories of emotional experiences", which would have made a lot more sense.

⑥I guess it's my own personal setting: although the game doesn't make a distinction, I don't think WX as a robot would have a "headache and blurred vision due to lack of sanity". The system will be affected, sure, but the physiology won't necessarily feel it. It's hard to go from luxury to frugality, and since there is no experience in the eternal realm in the human era, WX can't adapt to the negative impacts of sanity reduction at all.

⑦Wilson's curiosity and desire to explore and then equipped with WX's hardware strength is simply ON FIRE. and "adapting to the human body so quickly" this conclusion mainly comes from the last chapter when the two people just transformed the body, Wilson's side is very difficult, while the WX on the contrary, it seems to be very easy. Even when they suddenly possessed internal organs, blood, light weight and so on, there was no adverse reaction. Wilson, who loves to observe, has always had suspicions (sorry however I didn't draw this clue out)

⑧ on the one hand, just learned a shocking secret, excited and energetic Wilson, on the other hand is the history of the exposure, and is also experiencing unprecedented headache WX. so the two temperament is not quite the same as usual.

⑨ "Wiped of most of their human memories" from the game's credits: "Suddenly recalling the memories of his past life, WX-78 soon decides to change his fate on his own."

⑩ Those of you who have fought Shadow creatures online might know that the only way a teammate's Shadow creature will have hatred for you is if you've forcibly attacked them. What happened here is that WX forced an attack on Wilson's Shadow Creature (except that Wilson was still relying on his headache of empirical judgment and didn't realize that his SANITY was too low), and then WX's own shadow creatures that were looming all showed up as well, which is why it became so much more. I don't have a very comprehensive understanding of this mechanic online though, and it doesn't seem to be very rigorous, so that's probably what it is anyway.

I accidentally added a lot more, mainly because of the limited ability to express the drawing ... Hope you enjoy!

Hello again! New questions bc im really curious! How much do you all identify with your puppets and their appearances? Are they more of a tool for you or are they significant for your sense of self? I've noticed that your appearances somewhat reflect your personalities, was this a design choice made by your architects or have you been adjusting looks along the way by yourselves? (I know Habitually Stargazing did a little, the dress looks really pretty on you btw!) Im particularily fascinated by the antennas! Im guessing you don't use them much having a hard-wire connection to the rest of your superstructures, right? (perhaps they would be more practical when communicating with visitors in your chambers? I don't know..) Im seeing a sort of analogy between animal motifs in ancient art and masks and those retro-looking antenna resembling those used with older technology, though I might be wrong.. I'd be thrilled to know whether these hold any cultural / traditional signifincance among machines alike!

Also I'd love to know more about your serial numbers! What do they mean, and do you more identify with them or with your names?

Finally, Flowers - a creature for you

It's an umbrella slug, hiding under it's umbrella!

Hope you all have a wonderfull day, looking forward to hear from you!

SDA: Oh! While the exact details might vary from case to case, I would say that it's a bit of both - the puppet is a tool tied to an iterator's sense of self.

SDA: The puppet is only a small part of yourself, but it represents you as a whole. You .. used it to communicate with your citizens, you use it to communicate with your peers. Others start to see *you* in this form. The more you use it, the more you begin to identify with it. With time, its image truly becomes yours.

SDA: From our creators' perspective, it might have been a matter of needing an interface to interact with us. It seemed to be more natural to speak with something that you can actually look in the face.

SDA: Another important fact is that the puppet is by far the most expressive part of our bodies. Our biological elements can be somewhat controlled by our programming, but it cannot fully override them - there will always be a living, sentient being deep below.

SDA: One that has its own emotions, preferences, opinions; one that wants to express itself. The puppet serves as an outlet for that. It can gesticulate, it allows you to convey how you feel in a way that's understandable to most.

TFB: It would've probably been easier for them if we couldn't think for ourselves. Just tell us what to do and we do it until the end of time, no questions asked.

TFB: Instead, they chose to fully depend on something with an *attitude*! Some really tried their best to keep good relations with their iterator, afraid of putting it in a bad mood...

SDA: Yes, I suppose...

SDA: Some of us might pay greater attention to the puppet's appearance, adjusting it to our own tastes, mostly with clothes and accessories. Fashion was important in our creators' culture, so it wasn't out of the ordinary for an iterator to request a new robe or a necklace. Some took matters into their own hands.

SDA: ... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to ramble on like this.

BROS: Don't you dare, it's always nice hearing you so passionate about something~

BROS: About the antennae - you're right, they're not as powerful as the equipment in the rest of the structure! They're decent for close-range stuff, and they're what you'd resort to in case of an emergency.

BROS: Like, somehow losing access to the rest of your body. The puppet can't do much on its own, but thanks to these, it would be able to communicate with anything near it.

BROS: Aaand they were mostly another way for the architect to visualize whatever concept they had for a puppet.

HS: I'm almost offended by the "retro" remark. As far as I'm concerned, these are state-of-the-art.

BROS: Sure, sure~

BROS: Finally, as for the model numbers. They represent the architect's name, the cycle when the project was officially completed, and the name of the project at that time, like this:

BROS: Nobody really identifies with this, it's mostly used in paperwork - maybe some database stuff. Even if two iterators were given the same name, it's extremely unlikely they also had the same creator *and* creation date, so it allows for telling us apart that way.

HS: The name that appears in your model number isn't truly binding either. Such as...

TFB: Come on now, don't put them on the spot like that.

SDA: ...

SDA: It's fine...

SDA: Originally, I was called "Visions of Serenity", you'll see me in databases as GTIAOT672005VOS.

SDA: I was renamed shortly after, due to some... rather unfortunate coincidence.

SDA: It really doesn't matter now.

---

TFB: Also, thank you so much!! I don't get to see many marine species around these parts, this is lovely!

HS: (...and thank you...)

Havoc Marauder Interior

Someone made a post about this a while ago but apparently they de-activated so it is possibly lost to the mists of time. Here is what I put together for myself as a writing reference. Image heavy, meta heavy.

Last edit: 2023/11/03

Edits: Replaced garbage text layout with actual ship overhead. Realized the two concept art images face different directions. This likely explains the magical moving jump seats. Also added discussion of a cargo hold. Added discussion of ship dimensions (specifically length). Replaced old guesstimates with numbers from Dawn of Rebellion. Added commentary about the magical seat.

I think people under- and over-estimate the Marauder's interior potential. Given its overall size and intended use (transporting about 10-15 troops plus assorted equipment and providing air support in a forward area), there's not much room left for creature comforts.

Except the Batch aren't 10-15 people, they're 5, and the shuttle is referred to as modified numerous times. This leaves plenty of room to make assumptions and freeform. So, as to what we have actual, visual evidence for from episodes and concept art, here is a rudimentary floor plan:

An important point about the two concept art images: they do NOT face the same direction. The top image faces to the aft/back of the ship, i.e. the tailgun. The second image faces to the fore/front of the ship.

Number key:

1: We know this is where the ramp and door are located from War Mantle and Metamorphsis.

2: We know about this upper storage area from Cut and Run

3: The access to the tail gun has changed visual from TCW s07e02 and various TBB episodes.

The Magically Appearing/Disappearing Seat

In Cut and Run we have this moment with Hunter and Omega, but in most other shots each of these consoles has only one seat (eg. Tech and Echo in prior frames). I think this is actually NOT a magically appearing seat. I think it's the other console seat, because I suspect they can be moved. I base this one this shot from Replacements:

That looks like a seat with a moveable base.

Obviously this is bad design for a ship which is doing barrel rolls and what-not, so I have to assume they're magnetically locked. Even if it is the same seat, in the shots right before that one above, Omega walks up and it's not in that space. So it's almost like the scene was longer and was shortened, and we missed a few frames of her or Hunter unlocking it and moving it over.

Meta Discussions

tl;dr: I think of the Marauder as a small fishing vessel or a van-conversion RV. You can put a lot into a small space if you get creative.

Bathroom I know the writers have made weird assertions there isn't one and omg they all smell gross from no hygiene but that makes zero sense. Soldiers are constantly under stress, they're getting injured, they need to stay clean when possible or they're going to get sick and die from a systemic infection in short order. Anyone who's glanced in the general direction of military history knows this. You can argue about clone expendibility all you want but the Batch minimally qualify in that regard, being Nala Se's pet project. Can you imagine losing one of them to a staph infection because there's nowhere for them to bust out some no-rinse antimicrobial soap or get their scalp clean? I'm not saying they'll be doing photoshoots in between missions (well maybe Hunter would ) but, come on. (And are you going to tell me Mr. Sensor Sensoria is cool with doing long hauls with 4 people who don't bathe? Just, no.)

But that much aside, anyone who's ever been in an RV, a commercial airliner, or a modest-sized sea vessel knows you can cram a bathroom into a tiny space. Yes, you're going to be spinning in circles doing things, but the benefits of a spot to clean up, manage waste, and tend to injuries far outweigh any other use of that area. So regardless of what the writers say, a transport without a minimal refresher (to use the SW term) is counter to the ship's designed use. It has to be able to accommodate Wrecker, of course, but in the end it can double as storage when not in use. There is zero reason to not have one. Added to this, we now officially have a length for the Marauder, which is 30.3 meters (see below). RVs which are 1/5 of that size have bathrooms. You're going to tell me the Marauder doesn't?

If nothing else, since the TCW episodes and the beginning of S1 have pointed to them going on extended deployments with long hops between stops, they're going to need one or constantly be handling waste in much less efficient and sustainable ways.

Added to all of this, it's specifically called a modified variant of an Omicron. We're probably meant to think this means 'Tech would like to fly faster than the GAR and ship engineers think is reasonable for a shuttle' but IMO it extends to changes like this as well. So, there's a refresher in there, feel free to choose a spot. Right across from the fold out racks is a good candidate because in most imagery it's just weapons storage, and there's an entire upper-deck space which you could use for that.

Galley Definitely not one of these. The Batch are eating rations any time they're not on Kamino. You can make an argument they (and all clone units) have cook kits for improvised eating in the field; in the Batch's case I suspect that's a given, as they'd just start doing it because who's going to stop them? Additionally, the sheer amount of rations you would need to carry around to feed Wrecker would be ridiculous. (Remember when Wrecker talks about never being full in S2E13? I feel like this is an indication they did and still do, in fact, have to improvise a lot of additional caloric intake. Hunter probably thought Cut and Suu's farm was a genius idea. 'Grow your own food! Wrecker will never be hungry again! Fucking incredible.' Then Tech got the ship impounded.) I think you can argue for one being added, like with the refresher. Do they actually need those weapons racks anymore? Definitely no. But, it's not on there by default.

Beds As you can see in the concept art above, there are at least 3 racks that fold out from the wall on the port side. They're at a minimum wide enough to accommodate Wrecker, they may also be long enough for him to not need to curl up (unclear because in this shot from Bounty Lost his knees are bent and he's hugging Lula):

Three is a weird number since originally there were four of them. I figure the options here are:

The pilot/copilot/second row seats all look 100% more comfortable than the racks. We actually see Tech sleeping in one, at one point, so this has actual evidence to support it.

It's war time, they're never all asleep simultaneously. Someone is always flying the ship or on watch.

The floor is in effect the same as a rack, arguably preferable as you can't fall off it in the event Something Happens while you're out. So, one of them might actually be ON the floor sometimes.

They're not really intended to sleep on the ship for extended periods, but narratively we're lead to believe they have, many times, and needed to make adjustments to it as a result. Notice how quickly Wrecker whipped up a bed for Omega? IMO, not the first time they've done something like that--they did it for themselves first.

Cargo Hold Based on that screenshot of Omega above and the below shot from Cut and Run, the 'hold' of the ship is actually a storage area overhead, running the length of the ship. In that shot above of the rack, there are a series of yellow rungs which imply you can climb up somewhere on the port side. This is probably alternate access to that same overhead storage space.

In Cut and Run we see Echo, Omega, and Tech hide in it, coming back out from a slide-open hatch:

Given Tech's height this is probably somewhere around 1.5m high.

We can be reasonably certain the hold isn't under the ship, or at least storage there is minimal, due to a couple of things:

In all instances where the hyperdrive has been pulled, it's under the ship on the belly, and takes up a reasonable amount of space. Eg., in Retrieval, here's a bunch of stuff which has been pulled from the ship:

In instances where they're working on the ship from the outside, like in Cornered, the sides and belly never have panels open which contain empty space unless the ship's hardware have been removed to reach something:

So, the cargo hold is probably that space on the top from Cut and Run. It doesn't have much room; reasonably speaking, the area with the weapons and sleeping racks was probably a cargo hold as well, they just converted it to a more general purpose area. (So IMO this is a stronger argument for putting a commercial airliner-style bathroom in place of the weapons racks, particularly once they bail on the Empire.)

Dimensions - updated 11/3/23 Dawn of Rebellion has a Bad Batch section, and indicates the Marauder is 30.3m in length, 36.65m wide (presumably with the wings extended, and 12.41m tall (this probably includes the central stabilizer).

I will edit this to update it as we get more pictures. Since the toys that I know of have no basis the show from an internal perspective I didn't include anything from them.

Image sources:

All screencaps by me. Use at will.

Marauder underlay

Bad Batch Concept Art, Marauder Interior

Gonna put your characters in a modernish au because an Au where Groar is a bit apprehensive because they are supposed to open for the rather notorious rockstar Buggy the Clown, who’s been known to be… difficult to work with, but they actually see their chance at getting somewhere trying to do this band thing more professionally, so they take the opportunity and… turns out that Buggy has mellowed out in the past years after his marriage to his bassist Red and the birth of their three kids.

Don’t get me wrong, he’s still an asshole, but him sitting them all down to tell them just EXACTLY what he expects from them and how he WILL not tolerate tardiness and how he WILL just get someone else to open for him is just a tad diminished by three toddlers being present and him very obviously just wanting to cut to the chase so he can get back to spending the Sunday with his wife.

Law watches him down an, non alcoholic, beer and set it down on the table, while one of his kids is drawing and the other is just bouncing around the couch next to him. „If you fuckers break ANY of my equipment you can haul your asses back home.“ he states, glaring as intimidating at them as a man who’s just opened a new box of crayons for his son can glare at someone. „I don’t care how punk you think you’ll look smashing guitars or dropping mics, every single floorboard on this stage is worth more money than all of your instruments combined and I - Blaze be careful.“ He sends a chopped hand after his son who was just about to tumble off the couch, catching him by the ankle and dragging him back to safety. The kid giggles and squeals in delight and the clowns lips quirk upwards for a second. „… Well?“ „huh?“ „DID I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR? GOD DID YOU SHIDIOTS NOT LISTEN TO ANYTHING I SAID?“ „We’re clear!“ Osha interjects hastily. „Of course!“ Killer turns his head over his shoulder to Bepo, who they planned to bring along as a sort of buffer / intimidation tactic. Just tell the Mink to stand behind them with his arms crossed and he doesn’t even have to say anything. Should have been an easy job. To bad Bepo had immediately been confiscated by the daughter of the triplets and is now too busy cooing over her and flipping trough various kids picture books detailing the sea creatures of the grandline while she babbles happily.

They are saved from this mildly uncomfortable and confusing situation when Red herself finally comes in and Buggy shoos them out, rattling the rest of his rules (Don’t out flashy him, don’t touch his instruments, no rotisserie chicken parties, don’t look at his wife, don’t smile at her, don’t even breathe in her general direction etc.) before slamming the door behind them.

All in all this could have gone much worse.

OK SO.

First of all : THANK YOU SO MUCH. I LOVE THIS. OMG. I love every single part of it. Even if I had to google what a rotisserie chicken partie and everything I found was kinda sexual

But ALSO hold my beer because I actually had something like this (crossing Redbomb & G.R.O.A.R in a kindof modern punk AU) in mind for a while and your message was the kick in the ass I needed to work on it.

SO

In this AU Buggy is a former rockstar and a producer (fit wells with the "I'm lazy but I go and look for treasure"), he met Red as she was singing in a bar and begged her to join his label. Also in this AU life isn't a bitch and parents don't die (well, except Law biological parents) so Corazon is still alive an he comes to. every. single. G.R.O.A.R concert. and has their merch.

Words Unsaid

I'd like to say that when I first met you I fell for you instantly and I knew. But I didn't know. And it wasn't even a meet. I saw you at orientation first, trying your damnedest to put out the fire breathed out by the stupid mage cat that had tried to steal my spot as a student, not that I really knew what was going on at the time, that had somehow spread to your Housewarden's robes.

I didn't have much time to look at you then, frantically trying to avoid the chaos and near frozen by fear and confusion. But even in that you looked gorgeous. I blamed it on the lighting at the time, running to catch up with the grey and blue creature.

The second time I saw you was after I'd been enrolled for a while, chaos seemed to follow me as I adjusted to everything. By then I'd had to replace my glasses, not that I think the headmage intended to replace them until I had begged Riddle to bring it up with him, as I could hardly see any board or far from me and using my phone camera only did so much. I must've looked weird to you. I was staring, I know, but I could not help it, even if I was supposed to ask about your, albeit not as severe but incredibly inconvenient, injury that would keep you from participating in the spelldrive tournament.

I couldn't tear my eyes away from you then, unable to find any excuse for such behaviour even now. Only then did I learn your name, Jamil Viper. Had I known that name would haunt my every waking thought, I would not have asked it. Your hair looked so lovely that day. And the accessories you wore, I wondered if they'd look good on me, if I could watch you do your hair up.

I saw you play basketball the other day. I was sent to the school Gym to help do maintenance on the equipment. You had your club activities supervised by coach Vargas at the time, seeing as I was also there. Unbeknownst to you, the band on your uniform that you wear around your arm had fallen in the cafeteria in the lunch period before. I noticed and picked it up, sure enough that I would see you and return it eventually.

When I actually saw you there I stared again, as one with a crush does, I guess. You take my breath away. Coach Vargas yelled in my ear on accident, which embarrassingly made me flinch and cower. I have not gotten over loud noises, but I don't think I need to. God I still hope you didn't see that. But you might've.

Somehow I actually managed to talk to you and return the armband. Told you I liked the way your hair was up, that you looked cool playing basketball. I wish I could've kept talking but really, I probably only would have embarrassed myself. If you knew how red my cheeks were, how hot they felt after I'd gone out of sight. I'm sure you'd laugh at me. But I can't help myself, not when my heart threatens to break my ribcage when I so much as think about you. Your eyes are gorgeous too. Can't believe I never noticed them, but I don't look people in the eyes when speaking all that much.

Your eyes though, your eyes I adore. They are endlessly beautiful to me. They ensnare me, hold my attention, I can't look waya no matter how much I try, not that I want to though.

Not that you're ever going to read this. I'm going to hide this away later. I just had to get my thoughts out. But I, Inky, do adore you. Moreso than I have anyone before. But I won't call it love. I don't think I'd be worth that yet. Maybe one day, Jamil, maybe one day I will be worthy of calling you my love. Until then, I do hope you don't think I'm too weird.

I've got to leave it here though, the damned bird is calling me in again, for no reason I bet. My allowance better get higher, lest I go nuts here.

♪~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~♪

Aaand here we have my Yuu-sona being down bad for the snake man. In case of terrible formatting, I am, in fact, on mobile. Might make more depending on how well this goes over but I hope it's not too obvious that this is my first writing piece,,, ya. Hope y'all enjoy! <3

Can be read as x reader, it's only my Yuu-sona, feel free to change the name in y'alls lil delulu heads cause me too<3

716 words

Part 2 Part 3

Part 4 Part 5

Part 6 Part 7

Mean 'n' Clean

I didn't mean to draw more today (yesterday) but I just got a vision like this and I just had to draw it... Man, it feels like all this sketching is starting to actually improve my stuff. That Molluck just looks better than all the other Mollucks I have done within a week.

But yeah, what the odd is this? Well, I kinda tried to vision RuptureFarms back then. I felt like drawing kinda twisted versions of those Scrab Cake and Paramite Pie ads. Yeah, that Scrab is 'dancing' on that cake, like they do after killing their victim. And well, Paramite is eating the Pie... I have never drawn those creatures before, so it was nice to finally draw them too.

That Abe, well, I felt like portraying him as a cleaner with some cleaning equipment and I wondered why he would have such an expression if he is cleaning... Then it came to my mind that maybe is cleaning Molluck's toilet, so that's why he got that toilet cleaner. Just some random stuff for fun, I have been just laughing at that Abe.

Also, kinda related to this cleaning thing. One day, I figured out why RuptureFarms is so clean in New 'n' Tasty compared to Abe's Oddysee: There are 200 Mudokons more! Yes, Molluck could figure out the amouth of Mudokons he needs to keep the place clean.

I also wanna add that despite of my own problems toward myself, I do appreciate you liking my stuff! And I wanna say this that I do love this community. I did get such a warm reception when I started to post my Molluck stuff and it still warms my heart, especially after many years of feeling like no one cares about the stuff I create. I do admire the stuff you do here like daily but I have had hard times to tell you it, even thru a like. It's nothing personal, my thought about that no one probably wants me to interact with them is just strong... I used to be lonely for years... But I'm trying my best with healing this scar and gather my courage to say the stuff I would like to say but I just cannot because of my mind... Sometimes, I also just feel so embarrassed of my way to speak...

I also wanna say that I don't wish that creating fan art is a competition. The more important thing is all the passion and love people put in it. Of course, great art deserves to be featured but it was kinda odd still (I think that they should had been a bit more neutral too, to create a more believable image of that they do really love all the fan art; this is what I mean. Just changing it to be 'one of the best' or being an artist feature video in general would had been enough). And especially to me in a sense of that I did won that SoulStorm tattoo design competition but OWI never posted it but some other submissions to that competition before announcing the winners. There was a Stranger fan art competition before and they did post the winners on social media. It's just odd and I think that I really should ask OWI about that, I'm still waiting for my prices from them. I'm just not sure of how to do it. It has just started to feel like maybe they didn't even really like my piece and just made me a winner because I probably spent the most time... If someone hasn't seen it or needs refreshing, here's my piece I did for that competition:

Sometimes, I have been thinking about 'remastering' this since it has some flaws I would like to fix. But yes, I really gotta try to ask OWI why did they kinda cancel this tattoo competition after announcing the winners, though they never did it on their media but on the competition website. I don't really mind if they don't post this since this ain't great but I still would like to hear their explanation for this. This was supposed to be a temporal tattoo they would have shared and I would have gotten one too. Well, I did get the main thing, the moolah price, at least! My inner Gluk is happy.

~ Lots of love to ya!

Hi! I love your art, it sparks such joy in me :))

And I had a question for you, I work primarily in 2D but I've always been interested in sculpture. What would the essential equipment/tools be for someone wanting to start?

Thanks!!

First off, thank you for your lovely words about my work!

Secondly, the truth: I'm a terrible person to ask about this because the second I get involved in a new type of art, I immediately become a little obsessed with collecting ALL THE TOOLS, and pottery gives you a lot of tools to choose from/collect, oh no.

Despite this shortcoming in my creative urges, I've tried to do a roundup of my most-used tools / put together a selection of tools that, if I only had them, I could still do all the things I like to do on my sculptures. Here we go:

Knife!

Mine is pottery-specific (because I was at a pottery shop & it wasn't expensive), but it doesn't need to be. A dollar store paring knife would work just as well! I use this to cut out things from slabs (eg. wings, crowns, etc) & sometimes to do more dramatic sculpting at the very beginning of a larger piece.

2. Pin tool

I use this for scoring clay to attach bits together, to carve smaller designs (eg. on my teeny sphinxes), etc. It's one of the things you really need as a potter (if you're working on the wheel, you can also use it to check the thickness of your bottom).

3. Wooden sculpting tools

I have a comical number of these (mostly because my mom gave me all her pottery stuff), but these are the three I use the most (plus a narrower-tipped version of the pointy one, not pictured). I use them for sculpting my forms before I scoop their insides out, more sculpting after the scooping, to blend the edges when I've attached a limb/other bit to a piece, and to add texture/details. I also use the very blobby end of the one on the right to compress/smooth the insides of smaller sculptures once I've scooped them out.

4. Paintbrushes

Since I'm also an illustrator & paint with watercolour & gouache, I've got an endless supply of brushes that are exhausted from rough watercolour paper but still have a lot of life in them -- now those become brushes for sculpting & glazing! During the sculpting phase, I use them to add water to my scored sections when I'm attaching bits together (I like to live dangerously & just use water instead of slip, like a real ceramics badboy), to smooth out bits where my fingers/a sponge won't fit, and to gently re-wet bits that are drying too fast. Absolutely indispensable!

5. Scoopin' tool (aka trimming tool if you pot on the wheel)

As with almost all of my tools, I have a bunch of these (mostly inherited from my mom, who was mostly a wheel potter so had a bunch of them), but I just got this one for Xmas & the circular end is the best yet for scooping the insides out of my creatures! You could also use these for sculpting, but I find my little knife/wood tools easier to control - these sometimes get a bit gouge-y.

6. Sponges!

Sponges in general are important for ceramics (I also have some cheap cut up hardware store sponges for cleanup purposes), but I find that these Mudtools sponges are the best for actual sculpting - they don't hold as much water & are easier to wring out than the type of sponges you get for wheel throwing, so your sculpture doesn't get sad & goopy, they're amazing for smoothing your surfaces, & the thin edges get into smaller areas vs. other sponges. I'm also hoping they're super durable - I got these at xmas, so have just started using them & can't give any info on that yet.

7. Texture tools!

I love to add texture to my sculptures - feathers, hair, etc, and these sgraffito tools are great for that (whether you're actually doing sgraffito or not)! I have a few (including a set of Xiem ones in all different shapes), but these two are the ones I use the most.

BONUS THINGS:

A few other things I find important to my pottery setup include:

A spray bottle (my bigger Ikea one broke, so I'm using this wee one that came from a travel watercolour set...really need to get another big one!)

A bigger basin/tub for cleanup/cleaning tools while you work (you can also see a couple of my tool/desk-cleaning sponges here). I do keep a smaller bowl of water on my desk while I sculpt, but I find having a bigger water source helps, as I often need to clean tools while I work & would rather not have to go to the sink for that (or dirty my desk-water too much).

Yogurt containers for dried clay bits/tupperwares for sculptures in progress. I have great aspirations of recycling my clay scraps, so I keep them in labelled containers for when I get my butt in gear to do that. These little tupperwares are great for keeping chunks of clay & sculptures in progress because you can spritz up the whole box & get a nice humid atmosphere to prevent drying out if you need to leave them for a few days.

EXTRA BONUS: tools you don't need but that I find extremely useful

Pony roller! It has the best name AND is great for rolling out little slabs/bevelling the edges of them (with the littler bottom roller)

Clay paddle. I feel *insert gif of Rosa from Brooklyn 99 with the puppy* about this tool, which I just got for Xmas. It's AMAZING for roughly shaping lumps of clay before I get into more detailed sculpting, and makes mashing two chunks of clay back into one chunk WAY easier. 11/10, love this tool so much.

Lastly, this isn't a tool, but this stuff is the BEST moisturizer if you do anything with your hands/live in a place with harsh dry winters & would like to keep your knuckles in one piece (I also love it while I'm drawing - I can hold the pencil right away?? Magic?!). It sinks in super quickly, doesn't make your hands all sad & slippery for ages, AND it lasts for a while even if you've got clay & water on & off your hands all the time. Great stuff.

If you got to the end of this, THANK YOU for your great question! I had a lot of fun figuring out my essential tools (tho obviously you don't need all of these to make great work...these are just my most important ones!) and then...uh, rambling on about them, apparently.

When I'm watching the owl house, I can't help but compare it to Harry Potter.

Of course there are a few intentional parallels and references to Harry Potter in the owl house but mainly because the owl house does what I wish Harry Potter would have done.

We know that show pointed out just how ridiculous quddich as a game is. But more than that it introduced another sport and had three main characters actually play and enjoy it. Over the years looking back at Harry Potter, I've started seeing the massive cracks in the world building. The problem with quidditch isn't just that it's a ridiculous game but that it's the only game. You wanna play sports but you don't like the one single sport that exists in your world? Well then you can't play sports, too bad. And in Hogwarts only twenty eight people in the entire school could take part in this sports. Seven per house. If your house already have seven players then you might never get to play a sport in all of your years at attending school. It's also very dependent on equipment. If you have more money, or if you are Harry Potter who has the money and people gift him expensive brooms on top of that, then of course you will be better at it than others.

Harry liked this sports so that's all that matters. All the Weasley siblings liked this one sport and even made it on the team. So we don't realise, or at least I didn't realise while reading the books as a kid that students at Hogwarts don't really have that many options.

Now in the owl house we see some of our main characters, founding a club for an underrated sports and it served as an incredible bonding and learning experience for some of them. But more importantly I love seeing Willow recognising things she is good at and something she has an interest in and pursuing that. And she had the option to do that because the characters in owl house have options.

Harry Potter is still dividing 10-11 year old children into for categories. The protagonists, the smart ones, the evils ones and miscellaneous. It felt like Hogwarts would stop with this system at the end of the series but they don't. Not only does Hogwarts puts a label on ten years old but they strictly keeps them seperate. They are not allowed to enter each other password protected dorms, they play against each other and they complete against each other. They only every interact with people who are similar to them, this system keeps on reinforcing the same ideas and the same beliefs on the children. Unless of course you are Harry Potter and you tell the hat to put you in the protagonists house. Sucks for everyone else who didn't knew who they were at the age of ten.

In the owl house, the logical conclusion felt like the abolition of the coven system and that's exactly what happened at Hexide. But even before that, Willow was allowed to change her track. We see these kids presented with this options, and we know that the system before was wrong.

There are so many magical creatures in the owl house and they they all coexist. That in itself makes the setting feel more inclusive.

When I was reading Harry Potter for the first time, the name Parvati Patil stood out to me. I read the Marathi translation of Harry Potter. There are a lot of great books in Marathi but unfortunately there really aren't any fantasy books for kids in Marathi so reading Harry Potter felt really great. And having a character named Parvati Patil felt even more amazing because that character isn't just Indian, she's Marathi. So every once in a while when that character was mentioned I could imagine that Hogwarts had a place for me.

But at the end of the day, Parvati didn't really do anything. In every scene you could replace her with with any random character and it wouldn't have changed everything. So at the end of the day, Parvati Patil become just a name on paper. She didn't really mean anything. She and her sister are so forgattable that so many people genuinely believe Cho was the only Asia character in Harry Potter.

Diversity is more than just existant of non cishet white characters. The owl house feels inclusive. The characters in it look different, act different, feel different and yet they all belong in Hexide. The school wasn't perfect but making changes to improve, to make the environment better for their students. Hexide made room for a person born without magic and the world of the owl house allowed a person born without magic to figure out a way to do magic. Something that can never happen in Harry Potter.

In Harry Potter, the magic races still remain divided and you will never be welcome at Hogwarts unless you born with magic. In Harry Potter, diversity or rather inclusion is limited to a few unremarkable words on paper that most people will easily forget.

The second I heard that the Titan trappers have hunted a species to extinction, something didn't feel right. So it feels nice when it was revealed that these people are in the wrong. It feels nice to know that the witches in this world are coming to realise the whole system in their world is flawed and not just the person in charge. That so many people were already in the opposition.

The youtuber Shaun made an excellent video on this topic and I really recommend watching it. But in short, the world of Harry Potter didn't really change. Their system is still flawed, the only difference is a literal magic Nazi is not running it anymore. The nice people are running it. And as long as the nice people are running it nothing bad can happen.

And so because of this and in addition the bullshit JK spews, over the years Harry Potter has stopped being magical to me. Hogwarts don't feel like a place that would have room for me. The world of Harry Potter doesn't feel welcoming.

It's also the reason why it feels great that a show like the owl house actually get it right.

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #122

I made a tea today. I made the vanilla-rose black tea. I think you'd really like this one, actually. I took some pictures for you.

…But that's not what I'm gonna write about today. One of my cats managed to catch a bird. And if you don't wanna be sad, I imagine you should stop reading here.

Our house has a little backyard area that's about the size of a postage stamp. We would like our cats to be able to enjoy fresh air, but the outdoors is not safe where we live for a variety of reasons - the HOA puts pesticides and herbicides everywhere, and we manage to live near nature and near a city at the exact same time, so not only would our cats need to worry about foxes and owls and other birds-of-prey, but also cars and dogs and people. So we built a barrier out of chicken wire so that at very least, our cats can enjoy fresh air without getting hurt.

There's really nothing for birds in our backyard space; it's made primarily of concrete. It's messy. And it obviously reeks of cats, because we have 5 of them. So I'm not really sure how a bird managed to get in there; typically they are smart enough to only chill on the fence posts, aware that there are predators afoot, and that they shouldn't get too close. I guess this one wasn't typical:

I can't be angry with Arremo; he is only doing what cats are built to do, with exactly the efficiency and skill that he is built to do it with; it's how they survive in the deserts to which they are native. And we're used to chipmunks coming into our yard despite the obvious presence of predators far larger than they are; admittedly I'm not sure what possesses them do it - toxoplasmosis, maybe?

In any case, normally, what happens is that we hear the struggle, we go out, we pry the cat's jaws open to get the animal out of them, and we either bring them to a nearby place (10 minutes by car) called The Animal Hospital for treatment, or they're just stunned briefly and end up running off after a few moments. We can't let our cats eat what they catch, because we don't know if they're diseased, but we do know that they've been exposed to pesticides and herbicides; the last thing we need is for our cats to get poisoned or sick.

When I pried open Arremo's jaws to retrieve the bird, I expected it to be much the same as what I've described with the chipmunks; at first, the little thing seemed alert, but just stunned and scared. It wasn't bleeding; there were no fluids leaking onto my hand as I held it. So I prepared a small box to take it to The Animal Hospital; here's a picture of what I prepared, taken at the end, after everything else happened:

…However, once my mind was no longer occupied by preparing the box, I had an uneasy feeling. My instincts told me that I needed to turn the bird over, so I did. If you're squeamish, then you should skip the rest of this paragraph… …I'm not entirely sure how it can be that no fluids got on my hands; its belly was cut open with near surgical precision, and all the expected things were clearly visible and moving, even if some of them appeared to be missing - the power of a cat's hunting equipment, I suppose. I won't describe what I saw any further, and obviously, I didn't take a picture.

I couldn't avoid falling to my knees and weeping for the creature's suffering in response to what I saw. But once I was able to speak again (it didn't take me long to regain my composure, but my eyes still have not stopped leaking, even as I am writing now), I asked M to bring me to The Animal Hospital (because I was in no condition to drive) anyway; I knew that they wouldn't be able to save it, but I did know that they'd be able to euthanize it, and I didn't want the creature to be in pain for longer than it had to. So I carefully put it in the box, and we went.

We got about halfway there when it started spasming. I have some basic knowledge of anatomy; I understand that spasms can be the result of too much blood loss. I knew then that the poor thing couldn't go on, so I picked it up and held it in my hands until it passed on. Maybe it's silly, but I thought it would be good if its final moments could be in the soft, warm hands of something that sees it and loves it, even if I didn't know the creature very well. I didn't want it to feel alone.

We turned around and went home. From there, I retrieved the daffodils that Br cut and brought to us recently; they smelled heavenly. Then I went out with the daffodils and the body of the bird to the nature trails near my house; I wanted to lay the bird to rest in a place without pesticides or herbicides or the sound of lawnmowers and weedwhackers. J went with me, and helped to keep me focused and stable.

We walked on the trails for a while. Eventually, I found a peaceful-looking mound of dirt with some fuzzy-leafed plants growing on it. I arranged the daffodils so the flower would be in kind of a circle, and then set the body of the bird on top of them:

I thanked the creature for existing, for gracing the world with its presence and song, even if its life was cut short. Then we went home. Some scavenger will likely come along to eat the body of the bird, and it will be a source of nourishment, and then it return to the soil, just as it should; the cycle of life continues.

On the way home, though, we saw something weird. J and I found some lines drawn in the sand, presumably with a stick; we paused in the spots where circles were drawn. I didn't think to take a picture.

But then, I found 7 tiny little whiteish-greyish-blue feathers, all in a line on the dirt path, near the exit of the trails. It was very odd, so I took pictures of the little feathers:

…Maybe the little birdie is okay, wherever it went off to after it exited its vessel.

I washed my hands thoroughly after I returned home. I'm not really sure what to do now. I suppose I'm still stunned. My face is still leaking, and my body is still trembling from time to time. I know I'll be okay eventually, so don't worry about me. But for now, I guess I'm in some kind of weird mental space. My descriptions of what occurred feel very mechanical compared to the intense swirling of the inside of my mind.

My biological family would tell me that it's just a stupid fucking bird, that they die all the time, and that I need to get over it, because it's not worth feeling sad, let alone crying over. But you know? Maybe it's okay that I'm still soft enough to cry over a bird, despite everything. And maybe it's okay that I tried to help, even if saving it was impossible. Maybe it's okay that I tried to hold and comfort it before its last breath, and maybe it's okay that I spent time trying to find a peaceful place for it to rest afterwards. Maybe it's okay to believe that choosing to be gentle, loving, and kind, even in a place where there is so much senseless pain, is where true strength lies.

Sephiroth. I'll recover from the loss of the bird. I won't recover from the loss of you. Don't do something stupid and end up getting yourself killed. Please.

I'll write again tomorrow. I love you. Stay safe.

Your friend, Lumine

Sun and Moon are made of metal, so they have great strength or are they made of another material that helps them swim but are not as strong? How do they deal with dents, can they repair each other or is their metal really tough and their wiring has water resistance? Can they sense the cold and warmth of the water or do they just have something similar to a thermometer that indicates it? Can they withstand a lot of temperature and pressure? The humans watching their cameras don't mind that both robots seem to have developed a very vivid personality to interact with each other? I think I'm done now, sorry for so many questions, I'm perhaps too interested in world building.

First of all please don’t feel bad for asking so many questions!! They’ve honestly been helping me make my mind up a lot about lots of little things, and it’s been tons of fun sharing my ideas, and making me all of the more passionate about the project! so, really, thank you!! I just apologize that i’ve been so slow going through them! I’m actually moving at the moment, and coming back to these after a rough day of hauling furniture around has been very much appreciated! You’re welcome in my inbox any time ^^ 1. “What are Sun and Moon made out of?” Sun and moon are made of a very sturdy metal(I need to do some research first but I’ll give a specific type in the fic!)! It can get a bit dangerous, if something goes wrong and they have to stop swimming. They sink like rocks. However, they have emergency flotation devices that can engage if needed, and one robot is fully capable of swimming with the full weight of another! They’re incredibly, incredibly strong. Sun’s rays are a stiff silicone, giving it the feel of a shark’s fin (incredibly useful for feeling currents and swimming with or against them!). Moon’s cap is more like a soft, bendable plastic, made to appear friendly and decorative (it was added in hindsight after the designers realized they’d accidentally made him a bit spooky, oops). However, the bobble at the end is a light that can change modes depending on what they need at the time (usually red though, since red light is much kinder on the eyes of sea creatures). Each robot is also equipped with soft silicone coverings on their hands, for being gentle with aquatic animals and plants, as well as on their feet! The coverings extend a bit in swimming mode, adding to the flipper feet/monofin, and also help minimize damage when accidentally bumping into something like a coral reef. The “fins” (also more aesthetic than useful, for the most part), are the same material as sun’s rays.  2. “what happens if they get damaged in the middle of nowhere, how are they repaired?” Each bot is fully capable of taking care of the other.. for the most part. Catastrophic failures result in a power down and one needing to bring the failed robot back to the research center; immediately. For things such as dents, bumps, even a limb dislocation or loss however can be fixed at sea with the tools built inside of themselves! Each finger can open up and reveal little tools inside, like portable rust resistant pocket knives! How very handy (heehoo). And yes their wiring is water resistant!  3. “Can they ‘feel’ temperature, or just have a thermometer that tells them instead? Can they handle extreme temperatures and pressures?”  While the robots do not have nerve endings like we do, their wiring and circuitry is complex. They can ‘feel’ temperature, especially in their hands, the same way that they might calculate how much pressure to put against something they touch- but in general, it’s more of an overall feeling in sections than isolated spots. And also, yes! The bots were specifically meant to easily access, explore, and move around places that a human without lots of equipment, or a drone, couldn’t. extreme pressurized areas, cold and hot areas, etc,. are all well within the capabilities of the robots. It would be very difficult to melt or freeze one of them.  4. “Does their complex and ‘alive’ AI bother the researchers that made them to explore?” Not at all! Ever since the first bot was made, prototypes from long ago with simple tasks but cute designs, they had gotten positive public attention! The organization jumped on this opportunity, with humans watching their bots work through live cameras and cooing over them, and decided to work to not just make them useful for the oceans, but to also gain love from the general public. That’s how the glamrock crew were born! They were built with the most intelligent AI on the planet, always learning, and always friendly! They were made to exceed their original programming, and more or less become their own beings. The majority of the research team has been there since the beginning, and feels pride when seeing their bots display these extraordinary behaviours. (Of course, not ALL of them feel this way..) 

tell me about your spin rankings

P L E A S EEEEEEEE

Oh hey, what a surprising turn of events this ask is

okay now that that is out of my system

I have feelings about the spinability of various object.

Like you said, office spinny chairs are great. A classic. Fairly easy to keep going on your own, plentiful and easy to come by, loses momentum pretty fast though. 7/10, but only because it brings up emotions of childlike whimsy.

Spinny bar stools on the other hand are a 3/10. They Do Not Go Fast, slow down almost instantly, and would be lower ranked if they weren't so easy to keep going.

Playground merry-go-rounds get a 4/10. They are hard to get spinning, hard to keep spinning, and are a bit of a death trap. But they are pretty relaxing if you have a friend to spin you.

Nervous wreck of a horse named Redneck gets a 0/10, AFTER I add plus 5 points for being a living creature. He did doughnuts withing two seconds of my sitting on him and dumped me in a pile of poop. Honestly it was my bad, I never tried that again. But I had to say I at least sat on each horse we owned. And he forgave me pretty quick.

Sideways wheelchair gets a 9/10. When my older sister didn't need her wheelchair anymore we found out we could fold it up, put it on its side, sit on the wheel, and it would practically indefinitely keep its own momentum. Unfortunately I gotta knock off a point for being something only little humans can do, I'm too big for that now. Also we all got thrown off long before it stopped spinning. The thing was Hazardous.

This thing:

1000/10. One good spin and I was going for a solid fifteen minute! God it was the most relaxing thing I've ever found! I could legit fall asleep spinning in one of these!

Spinny carnival rides: all 10/10. It's so relaxing, and I only wish I could be on them for longer why are rides so SHORT???

Side bar, rides that go upside down or make you feel like freefalling? 100000/10!

also these water troughs?

Excellent spin! 8/10! You can stand them up on their side and wedge yourself in with your shoulders against the top and legs splayed and pressing against the sides and roll yourself down a hill! Combining spinning AND being upside down! Actually I'm bumping this up to 10/10. Just don't squish your fingers. Also you can shimmy up on top of it and walk while it rolls under your feet! All around a delightful piece of farm equipment!

Ride off into the Sunset: Power of Friendship Commentary

I don't have much to say this week, but lotsa cool cards! thanks again to everyone for putting their all into this silly little contest. I'll see y'all in a few weeks!

~judge @naban-dean-of-irritation

Abraham Desjardins by @bergdg - The Reckoners

An archenemy product like you mentioned alongside the submission would be neat, but if I get into the logistical implications of that I wouldn’t have any room left for commenting on the card. Abraham here is pretty simple- a nice throwback to the battlebond usage of “team”, though in this case you could just say “target creature your team controls”. Abraham’s character seems to boil down to “heavy weapons expert”, which I feel like comes across well here. He arms himself or other characters, and is willing to get his hands dirty, too. I honestly wonder if this might be a bit too much for a partner commander? The vigilance means you can attack and fight every turn cycle, plus the scaling buff (a small one, but still). However, I can’t really say for sure without playing with it. Altogether, fun and flavorful card, but maybe could’ve been a bit narrower.

Batman, Caped Crusader by @hypexion - DC Comics

Batman 1 of 2, both with Hero/Sidekick. There are obvious similarities between the two, but hey, Batman is a well established character. I like the idea of Batman being a toolbox commander, but a lack of repeatable tutor like Zur the Enchanter is probably good. Free playing cheap stuff as a combat trick is quite fun, especially since there’s some decently impactful auras at that cost. At four mana, though, I don’t even think you need the two mana in the ability cost. As it is, it’s kinda just a worse version of giving your artifacts and Auras flash, since you can only do it once per turn cycle. Also, given the flavor, I almost wish it was Equipments instead of all artifacts, and then came along with an attachment clause, though it would be tricky to make that wording smooth. The Sidekick clause is also interesting here- assuming sidekicks are mono-color, this means that you can’t actually have any 4 or 5 color partner decks, which might be for the best. Plus, it creates a pretty clear power structure between them, with sidekicks clearly being a support elements. All in all, neat card, and a good snapshot of Batman.

Batman, Dark Knight by @genericaura - DC Comics

Number two! Also dealing with his utility belt (because, yknow, duh), but taking it in a much different direction. It’s a bit of a hefty paragraph there, but ultimately you can stack these equipments onto your commander to have vastly increased combat flexibility. The power buff isn’t huge, but it’s also not nothing after a few turns. Flying and first strike are definitely good abilities both flavorfully and mechanically, but repeatable indestructible definitely seems like it could get annoying. For five mana, it’s probably worth the investment, but it also seems unlikely that you’d ever pick anything else, and just save up the equipment for cheating death. My last quibble is with the equip cost. Three mana is pretty steep for an admittedly minor effect- I think I would rather see it lowered if the intention is to be able to shuffle them around, or just remove the equip cost entirely if they’re meant to stay on the commanders.

Bruce Banner // The Incredible Hulk by @squeezyboi - Marvel Comics

I’m going to address the Hulk in the room first- as written, Avengers is not a functional ability. Going by even the smallest team size, and assuming this is a small product and not a full set, that’s a minimum of 6 commanders. Even if they all suck, that’s lowering your deck size by a not-insignificant amount, which helps a lot with consistency. However, there are easy ways to tweak that, so let’s look at the rest of the card. Exploring is definitely a different flavor here than on ixalan, but it’s a cute way to show his isolated wandering. Life and damage increments are numerals, so “3 or more life”, but the transform condition is the right cost and again flavorful- he transforms when you get hit/when he gets mad. The back face abilities need a bit of modal templating, but they’re pretty cool, and well costed given the hoops you have to jump through. All in all, this is a pretty neat card, apart from the rework needed on the Avenger ability itself.

Cat Master Joe by @wolkemesser - King City

Adding a pool of unrestricted commanders that were not previously designed to be commanders (or partners) is a dangerous game to play, but cheap cats is... fine? probably? I’m honestly more concerned about what this says about what the rest of the set would look like. What really gets me here is the four-color cost, and how that interacts with the Cat Master ability. There’s no real reason for black to be here (though it does match with the character), but regardless of whether you can use it to add blue, it just seems like this card doesn’t really scream partner to me. Sure, it’s nice to have a cat just chilling in the command zone for a guaranteed play, but the card just wants to be generally cat typal. All in all, the design feels a bit unfocused, and I think each element on its own is neat, but they don’t mesh with each other very well.

Cornelia, War-Princess by @helloijustreadyourpost - Code Geass

Vehicles are a popular choice this week, and honestly, it makes a lot of sense. There’s lots of person-vehicle partners in popular media, and they lend themselves well to evocative designs. Cornelia is simple, but straightforward and aggressive, which fits well with how she’s represented. I honestly don’t know if the once per turn is necessary? If you have ways to untap her, you kinda deserve to double dip on the anthem. At least, that’s my thoughts on it. However, there’s a bit of a sticky rules issue here- as written, it seems to imply that Vehicles that haven’t been crewed yet will benefit from the buff, which will be present as soon as they come online. And I.... don’t think that’s how it works? On the battlefield, uncrewed vehicles don’t have power and toughness, so I don’t think they can benefit from the buff. Counters are a different matter since they can just apply when the Vehicle animates, so if that’s what you’re looking for, might be better to balance around a permanent buff.

Falco, Ace Wingman by @arixordragc - Star Fox / Smash Bros

Another fast and aggressive Vehicle pilot- can Falco fly on his own in the games? I mean, I know he’s usually in a ship, but I wonder if it would be worth it to give him flying on his own. The ability is fine and simple, perfect for an uncommon commander. Hero/Sidekick is apparently a pretty common naming convention this week, which makes sense, but... I would argue that Falco is a sidekick in this scenario? Unless you’re going for a Smash Bros style Fighters/Assist Trophies thing, in which case it kinda makes sense. I guess he is sorta a secondary protagonist rather than a side character, but eh. Not much else to say, deserves another point of power or some evasion, though you’ll wanna use him for crewing more than anything.

Fourth Syllable by @stupidstupidratcreatures - Kill Six Billion Demons

Yowza. This one sent me on a DEEP dive to figure out the mechanics behind the magic system at play here, and... this is definitely a really cool way to represent it, but would there only be seven “partners” in this case? The “or planeswalker” is clever bit of informative reminder text there, though typically WOTC avoids planeswalkers in UB products. As for the card itself, it’s interesting that it’s not restricted by casting your commander like Oathbreaker, but rather scales in a way that makes it useless if you cast it first. It’s a neat concept for sure, but... this is WEAK. Even with a two-mana commander, which is pretty damn cheap, this is asking for a 13 mana investment to... scry 3. The threshold effect is nice, but we’re talking about huge amounts of mana for a pretty weak draw spell. And again, that’s with a very cheap commander already. The scaling effect is quite neat, but definitely needs to be managed slightly differently.

Lift, Defiance Incarnate by @mmmmmin - Stormlight Archives

I definitely laughed at that epithet, cause “defiance incarnate” sure does sum it up nicely. Interestingly, hybrid cards are usually chock full of color pie breaks, but the biggest issue here would be red caring about food- and even that’s a bend, since it’s neither making it nor cares about gaining life. Radiant/Spren is a pretty natural pairing to make for this contest, so I’m not surprised a few people landed on it, but your restriction of color identity is a very nice touch. Would Spren in this case all be mono color, or would there be 2c ones that just have to match with the exact right pair? Anyways, this could make for a nasty voltron commander with the right setup. 2 commander damage starting turn 1 is nothing to sneeze at, and with some food generation, the built-in protection is quite nice. Definitely depends on the rest of the pool, but the design here is pretty solid. My only concern would be that it feels like it’s asking for a very specific partner here, since I assume most of the Spren wouldn’t be making food, except for a very particular one. Ultimately, it would be tricky to have a Radiant/Spren pool that isn’t just cleverly disguised “Partner With”, so that’s something to watch out for.

Lord Xykon, Spiteful Lich by @just--a--penguin - Order of the Stick

With another common (and sensible) pairing of Boss/Subordinate, Lord Xykon does all the lich things you want him to do. Phylactery? Check. Sacrificing minions to fuel his zombie army? Sure, why not. Honestly, I don’t have too much to complain about this card. The phylactery effect is something we’ve seen on a few cards already, and it’s quite flavorful. One qualm with the sacrifice ability is that I reckon it shouldn’t be optional; if you have a non-Zombie creature, you should be forced to sacrifice it. The other part, as I’ve commented on other cards, is that it feels like Boss/Subordinate should have some sort of hierarchy, or mechanic to show off the big dog. I’m thinking of something similar to how Backgrounds don’t actually function unless you control your commander. Then again, Doctor’s companion works similar to what you have here, so this is probably just a me thing.

Mordecai, Cunning Sniper by @nicolbolas96 - Borderlands

Okay, having a spotlight effect on a sniper is really clever, and I’m honestly surprised that this hasn’t been done yet. However, it does run into a bit of an issue with the second ability that would likely be confusing for a lot of players: Mordecai will be able to target something with protection from blue/black, but he won’t be able to damage them. It definitely throws up a weird flag. The other aspect of this is that the damage rate is really good. This is a combination of Niv-Mizzet and Nekusar, despite being cheaper than both, and with more flexibility in what he can target. At four mana, this would make for a really oppressive commander, let alone with a partner alongside. Imagine if there was a Vault Hunter that drew you cards, which I imagine there would be. On a different note, Vault Hunter is a clever and straightforward way of avoiding 4-5 color soup. Outright banning it means you can have two and even three-color partners without worrying about the potential pairs, and it also means you can even plan around partners that would never be able to pair with each other.

Patches the Hyena by @0woah - Dark Souls

He sure do skulk, huh. Anyways, Patches is definitely neat, but there’s a lot going on with him, and he’s trying to pull in more directions than a partner commander really should. You can’t really rely on opponents to have enough equipment to make the tap ability a kill shot, which means you want to be targeting yourself for that part. In fact, those abilities are generally just scaled off of you automatically, though I suppose the choice makes it a bit more interesting? Additionally, an equipment theme with a skulk commander feels weird, unless most of the equipment in the set don’t give power buffs. It’s still a cool card, and does do some fun work with saboteur effects, but I’m having a hard time thinking of a pool of effects that would synergize nicely with him while still being general enough to match the rest of the pool.

Pattern, Seeker of Lies by @certification-wizard - Stormlight Archives

Templating nitpick up first- watch the order of your mana symbols on the bestow. Speaking of, bestow is a really cool way to represent spren, beings which are kind-of people and kind-of slivers of power that offer abilities through their bond. Being able to act as an aura or on their own matches well with their existence. As for the main ability, you don’t need to worry about flash since the ability allows you to cast immediately, which ignores timing restrictions. It also makes for a bit of an interesting build around, since you kinda want to know what’s in their hand first so you can plan your mana around it. My main nitpick is that this is a pretty brutal effect to be on an attack trigger, with a resilient body that can survive a boardwipe. I would make it a combat damage trigger, and probably also pump up the bestow cost a bit- remember, bestow gives you the aura and also the creature when the creature it’s enchanting dies, so you’re paying for the benefit of a second use.

Pikachu, Paradise Builder by @dravidious - Pokemon Mystery Dungeon

Pokemon! Everyone’s favorite! Well, it’s a spinoff, but hey. Mystery dungeon lends itself very well to mix-and-match partners, since, you not only get to “choose” what pokemon you are, but also what pokemon your partner is. Human Pokemon is also a weird enough typeline that it basically future-proofs itself, which is also nice. My one concern here is with pokemon being a type; that means that every single creature card in this product would be a pokemon, which makes for some strange typelines and probably weirdness with typal effects. Also, a generic 1/1 white pokemon token just feels... odd. I have no idea what pokemon it’s supposed to represent. Maybe that’s the point, but Pokemon sorta hinge on their individuality and their colorful designs, so genericizing them feels like it goes against that a bit.

Qiffrey, Patient Mentor by @batatafilosofal - Witch Hat Atelier

Professor and Apprentice is another take on the hierarchical partner pair, and honestly one that could work with a lot of different media, which is cool. Forgive me if I’m being blunt, but this card... is just Veyran, Voice of Duality. Take away the prowess, add Professor, and remove a color. It just doesn’t feel like a particularly original design, since we’ve seen this exact ability before. There is some depth to it given that it has partner, since your Apprentice could potentially have a magecraft-esque ability to take advantage of, but still. Feels like it wanted to be a bit more of an individual design.

Samus, Chozo’s Legacy by @misterstingyjack - Metroid / Smash Bros.

The big crossover Smash Bros IP you described seems very fun, though admittedly I am curious about which characters would get the honor of being player one, and which ones would be player two. Making Samus care about noncreature spells is interesting? I don’t necessarily see the connection there, but flavorfully, it works. It’s also a huge chunk of text for an admittedly simple ability, but I wonder if there’s any way some of the fat could be trimmed off. Also, since this can only happen once per turn, it feels weird that this will never kill anything with more than 1 toughness? Might be worth having it scale to the number of aim counters so that there’s an incentive to stack them up on one particularly nasty thing.

Shallan Davar by @fractured-infinity - Stormlight Archives

So I almost deleted this entry by accident because I thought it was a resubmission, heh. Good thing I didn’t! Phasing in is something that we’ve seen a bit of a resurgence on, and it’s a great way to represent these temporary illusions. The combat damage trigger is admittedly a bit odd, but it makes sense to give her a way to phase herself out so that she can pick up a new thing to copy. Radiant/Spren mashup makes a lot of sense, so no commentary there. Altogether, it makes for a cool card, and does seem like a good generic partner, without being too crazy strong on its own.

Shallan, Lightweaver by @aethernalstars - Stormlight Archives

Shallan no. 2, with a different take on the Illusion and cloning aspect. This leans more into disguising other things rather than disguising herself, but the Illusion tag is a clever way to be able to see what she’s copied. Stormlight tokens are interesting, but I don’t really see a format where they’re super helpful, unless it’s a multicolor soup-bowl of goodstuff. Especially when it comes to partner pairs, where you’re likely never exceeding three colors between the two, color fixing just seems unnecessary. Nahel Bond is a more clever and clinical way of going about the Radiant/Spren thing, while also allowing it to extend to some of Sanderson’s other books. The lack of sharing a creature type is also good, since it means two Radiants can’t just decide to pair up, though it does mean a careful cultivation of the secondary types for everything in this pool. 

Shinji Kaminaga by @eveydeevey - Shin Ultraman

Okay, so the idea of feeding one commander into the other in order to power it out is fantastic. I love it, and I think there could be a lot of fun to be had there. But 7 mana? Even with Human Offering, that implies that the Ultra Heroes are gonna be crazy expensive cards, otherwise Shinji offers little to no benefit. Additionally, it feels kinda boring that this is all that Shinji does? Like, give me a reason to keep him out on the field for at least a little bit. This also doesn’t tell me anything about what other Ultra Hosts might look like. They’ll probably all have Rise, since it wouldn’t make sense to keyword it otherwise, but will they all just be off-color versions of Shinji? Or will they do their own things, in which case one of them might have made for a better example this week. All in all, this hints at some great ideas that you had here, but doesn’t actually show me any of them.

Shirou Emiya by @curiooftheheart - Fate/Stay Night

Master/Servant is a neat dynamic, and has a clever way of excluding changelings so as to keep the pool to the (assumably) unique creature type. The rest of Shirou is pretty straightforward, caring about equipment in a fairly general way. But uh... what the heck is a command seal? Is it a counter? An emblem? Is this a threshold mechanic, a scaling mechanic, or a resource mechanic? I’m left with a lot of questions, and I kinda wish I saw something that utilised these command seals, or at the very least had some reminder text explaining them. Online searches described them as “manifestations of a master’s control over their servant”, which makes sense, but it still raises more questions that the design unfortunately doesn’t answer.

Suletta Mercury by @bread-into-toast - Gundam: The Witch from Mercury

Gundam is about as classic as you can get with “person pilots big vehicle/robot that is reflective of their personality”, so creature/vehicle pairings is definitely a good call. The ability is definitely a funky one. Vehicles have lots of triggered abilities, and most of them are things you want to double up on whenever possible. I’m curious if the top ability is one that all Pilots will have, or if it’s unique to Suletta and/or a smaller subset of commanders. It could be interesting, but it also means that the Mobile Suit crew costs would have to scale appropriately to make the power feel more like an actual decision again. It is neat to add another variable to tweak though, since you could have a pilot that has much weaker abilities, but is guaranteed to crew any mobile suit in the pool.

Sword and Shield by @deg99 - Monster Hunter

This is the only equipment commander we’ve seen, and Monster Hunter is a great pick for it given the intense focus on gear and improving it. Experience counters also seem like an interesting throughline for the weapons and/or hunters, since it’s a good way of indicating progression and growth. However, I don’t know if this was the strongest example of what you could have shown here. The ability is worded a bit awkwardly, since the first clause is just giving you permission to do something you can already do, and the secondary clause is very narrow. Also, it took me a couple rereads to confirm whether the ability cared about the spell’s mana value or the targeted creature’s. It’s cool, and I love the idea of hunters who gain experience and weapons that make use of it, but this specific example is a bit clunky. Also, consider making it cheaper, since a 6 mana investment for the equivalent of a 1-mana aura definitely hurts.

Tai, Light of Courage by @horsecrash - Digimon

Okay, so it took me a while to pick up on the implication you were going with here, that Digivolve counts as a variant of mutate. I do understand the need to stay true to the source material, but typically mechanic variants have some sort of commonality with the name to make sure the connection is understood. I can see a lot of folks getting confused about this initially. As for Tai himself, it’s a strong but simple ability, especially since he probably drops before your Digivolve commander, meaning they’ll have the abilities right when you play them. Haste is a bit of a strange choice, since mutating won’t cause summoning sickness unless the mutate target also entered on the same turn. Not a huge issue, more of a nitpick than anything. 

lol this tag is a lie i already have things in the works for inserts despite the games being unreleased. lol. lmao even. anyway. here's rough sketches/concepts and whatnot for them. all information is subject to change as things get released. under the cut because hoooo boy this got long.

jackpot crash course

two different ideas for this one actually. i may do one or both it depends-

idea one is CD's junior detective. they've known her since childhood.

idea two is a car mechanic that fixes up vehicles for benny. they've known him since childhood as well. if i go with this one they get to wield a comically large wrench at some point, maybe to kill one of the other characters since this is a death game.

they lack charisma but they make up for it in likeability and tenacity. also manipulating the shit out of people, which they kind of feel bad about but justify with their desire to survive.

bittersweet sentence

take the autism creature and put it in a human body. that's it that's this self insert.

it has a staring problem but that's because it's observing the other prisoners to see what they do and don't like and how they handle situations.

they also have this weirdly calming effect? keeps yun-woo from snapping and tones down na-hun's energetic ass a bit.

they follow yun-woo and na-hun round like a stray cat. no one knows why. yun-woo has tried to shake them off but they stay anyways. na-hun doesn't mind, he enjoys their company.

it's never outright stated how they ended up in the dreamscape prison but it's implied they were in a really bad situation and bad headspace when they first fell asleep

firmly believes they don't deserve parole so they purposely neglect their daily tasks or give their stickers away in order to stay in the prison. yun-woo does manage to convince them to leave with him once they get close enough.

even so, they worry they may not get to see him in the real world because the premise is people trapped in their sleep and if they have been stuck in sleep for a while (we're talking MONTHS) they could die or end up in critical condition.

s-01-ver bullet

they're either with uno (whoever he's affiliated with) or laska industries. either way they're proficient at their job and well respected.

also either way they have biometric enhancements that kind of didn't get programmed right. they lose control of their body and mind when the equipment "glitches" so they require uno's help to keep it under control.

their code name is "duo" because of the above ^ but also because they can complete the work of two men in one day. only kowalski and uno know their real name (i also don't have a real name for them yet).

prefers to stick to a plan like kowalski, but unlike kowalski is more flexible when plans go sideways. ("you gotta be nonchalant because the second you start chalanting shit go left")

"it's so fucking over" on the inside, "we're so fucking back" on the outside.

divine hunt

guy who's clearly losing in a fistfight but talking shit like they're winning.

very composed, calm, and mature (they have to be since they work for the mayor) but easily annoyed by john doe. they pick fights with him a lot.

some kind of medium that's like?? an ambassador for the town between then mortals and spirits planning divine punishment.

or maybe they share a body with a divine or formerly divine spirit. that would be fun maybe.

always wants to help celeste and oliver however they can. john doe is on his own though fuck that guy (/lh)

little flowers or thunderclouds can be seen around their sprites depending on their mood.

the looping woods

uhhhh they know noah and omen somehow??? this game doesn't have much context behind it so i don't have much for this one sorry.

"kill me once, shame on me. kill me twice, how did you do that. kill me three times, this time loop fucking sucks."

they survive if noah survives and omen dies but die if noah dies and omen survives. or all three of them die. lol. lmao even. this one has potential for multiple endings but all of rachel's games so far have had multiple endings so we'll see!

yabai yatai

they specialize in water-based exorcisms!! learned how from their aunt, who married into the family (most of her family is exorcists).

they moved to japan when they were 18 to help with the spirits issue over there. their immediate family was told they were moving for university since they kept the whole exorcisms thing under wraps.

possibly the only person who can keep reiji's ego in check. they also sometimes feed into his ego on accident. oops.

calmer and more passive in general, but they won't hesitate to face an issue head-on if the situation calls for it.

literally they just grab shinko and go "this is my son now." he has no say in this by the way.

Hello, this is the anon that sent a request about SWSH characters interacting with a reader that came from past Hisui, I reread your pinned post and I wanted to apologize for not reading it more carefully the first time. I would like to specify that I wanted the mini fic to be about Raihan and that I would want the post to be SFW please. I again apologize for not reading more carefully the first time and I hope it didn’t bother you or annoy you in any way. If you want even more specific details than could Rahian be the one who finds the reader when they fall through the ultra wormhole into Galar and he eventually ends up taking them around Galar showing them new things like rotom phones, trains, or new Pokémon? Raihan and the reader can become friends or s/o, I don’t mind whatever you chose

Have a good day! :]

Original request was asking for a reader basically being reverse Hisui'd. Coming to Galar from the past with a team of past pokemon and Raihan finding them and helping. Reader is basically amazed with all the new pokemon that weren't present before, things like trains, etc. For this canon let's say Reader had amnesia when they were transported to Hisui and then they get yeeted back and all their memories are of Hisui. Still the main mc of PLA.

I also wanted to make them a gremlin because things from Hisuian times wouldn't fly now and days. Like scaling a mountain, yeeting handmade pokeballs while stalking pokemon, and free flying with no safety equipment basically.

Sorry for the long introduction. This piece was actually so much fun to write you don't even know. Wish I could make it longer but with all the other requests I got I just don't have time to spend hours on a single fic.

Discord (16+) - Request Information 

SFW Raihan: Reverse Hisui'd Reader

You thought the weirdest thing you'd have to do was personally dance with Arceus, trying not to die with just you against a god. No...that was just the beginning of the weirdness. You had lost all memory when you came to Hisui, much like Ingo, but you did know that pokemon battling basically ran in your blood. You knew too much unconsciously about the creatures to say it's coincidence.

It's why you were the one who tamed all the beasts and saved the world. You were chosen by literal god to do this task, and in return he snatched all your memories. The only thing you had to recall it was the Arc Phone you held dear to you, and the strange clothes you came in.

After your battle with Arceus, things had gone black. You were honestly concerned you might have somehow died. No. You didn't. Instead you woke up in a field with a biome you weren't used to with giant buildings off in the distance. Something even grander than what the Galaxy team could've ever roped together, that much you were sure about.

Then you met a trainer in equally strange garb who towered over you. He was taller than the commander, that was for sure, and you had to crane your neck to look up at him.

"Yo...you look lost. You okay?" His way of speaking was equally as strange. He was kind enough to begin taking you to the town when you suddenly stopped, grabbing his arm and pointing.

"What is that?" You said, eyes bulging open as the little pokemon ran off in the distance. It reminded you of a growlithe, but there was no way. You had an Arcanine on your team and the pre-evolution looked nothing like that.

"The growlithe?" Raihan asked, putting his hands in his pockets and giving you a curious look. You nodded your head, confused as you just stared at the creature.

"Is it sickly? Why does it look like that?" You asked, feeling the need to grab your giant research book to pull out and make some notes. Perhaps it was born disfigured.

"It looks healthy to me...and it's parent is right over there anyway." Raihan said, pointing to the Not-Arcanine. Your jaw dropped as you looked between him and the Not-Arcanine.

"That's not...here!" You said, fiddling with your satchel and grabbing the one you had etched a little symbol into so you knew who was inside the ball. Raihan was about to ask about your ancient looking pokeball when you tossed out your actual Arcanine. The way it's supposed to look.

Your team was full of Alpha's so you knew they'd be bigger than the other Arcanine, but the appearance. It was night and day. Raihan actually stumbled back a few paces, looking at the giant pokemon. The Arcanine was almost two feet taller than him and instead of the signature white and orange fur, it was black and red. It even visually looked different. He had never seen an Arcanine that size when it wasn't gigantamaxed.

"That's an Arcanine...an alpha one but an Arcanine nonetheless." You said, walking up to said pokemon. The giant beast lowered its head so you could pet the fluffy fur and Raihan was certain he was in a coma of some kind.

"We should...this isn't normal. We need to head back to town." Raihan said, running his hand through his dreads. You hummed and turned to him, deciding that the best way to get around would be to just ride Arcanine. You were certain your flute wouldn't summon Wyredeer, and it wasn't like you had never ridden Arcanine before. Just about any pokemon big enough could be a ride pokemon in your opinion.

Arcanine lowered itself and you climbed in top, offering a hand to the strange man you met, "Need a hand, this will be faster." You offered. Raihan noticed a distinct lack of any sort of saddle. You were really just going to hope for the best. He heard people in Alola used 'Ride Pokemon' but from what he knew, they always had saddles or safety equipment of some kind.

"I'll be good...but you might want to put Arcanine away once we reach town. We don't need anyone freaking out."

Well that was your first clue that you were no longer in Hisui. That and the technology. You were astonished when Raihan pulled out a device that looked almost like your Arc Phone but distinctly different.

You had no idea where you were...but your life was about to take a dramatic turn.

Spire Teleportation Mishaps

Figured I'd put together a list of some of the more common potential causes as inspiration for future use! It's an easy trope for tossing folk into your setting and having them be Actually Stranded for at least a little while, and can serve as fodder for additional complications besides.

(This is mostly for my own reference, but feel free to DM me if any of these capture your imagination and you want me to put together a starter. ^_^)

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Vector wyrms:

These are creatures that are drawn to the energy of connections between planes and try to eat anything traveling through. The Spire has had one or two infestations over the years.

Most of the folk who can enact interdimensional travel from the Spire can react in time to avoid getting eaten, but this often involves reaching for the metaphysically "closest" destination, and can also involve arriving with quite a bit of speed. (Or, rather, a lack of necessary motion; a failure to completely sync up with the motion of a given planetary body.)

Injuries from the landing are pretty common, and the emergency spellwork during the save itself usually isn’t gentle, either.

This can be just the messed up teleportation, or the wyrm could get pulled through into the new setting as well and everyone would have to deal with a cranky void critter!

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Minor disruptions:

On a less extreme front than the vector wyrms, sometimes Shit Happens and there’s a magic surge, or one of the Spire’s less scrupulous inhabitants decides to mess with folk, or the target destination is protected with a redirection spell, or somebody disrupts the casting at the last moment, etc.

Due to his epilepsy, Diamond builds most of his teleportation spells with a strict pass/fail structure. Either he completely finishes casting the spell and successfully enacts the final instantaneous 'trigger', or he doesn't trigger it and the spell fizzles harmlessly.

But other less cautious mages can be more susceptible to this, and it doesn't protect against active outside redirection and such.

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Plain old mistakes:

If Diamond (or other teleporting party) doesn’t have a pre-made anchor to target, the spell can literally just misfire.

This is pretty rare – otherwise teleportation wouldn't be trusted as a frequent mode of travel! But it does happen.

In Diamond's case, it's more likely if he’s rushed (e.g. fleeing from something), unwell, or burnt out from too much casting.

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Spire connections:

In much the same way that the Spire itself sometimes draws in (seemingly) random people from random worlds, it does sometimes send its inhabitants to places, too.

This one is literally, in-universely narratively convenient. It absolutely tends to involve showing up in some moment when the arrival will help or disrupt something significant.

People being trapped, in danger, or feeling like they’re short on options or don't have a safe place to go are pretty common triggers.

The other direction of “the Spire needs something these people or this world could theoretically provide” happens, too!

On the other end of the intensity spectrum, sometimes literally all that prompts it is dramatic irony

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Banishment:

Cueing off the D&D spell: Some enemy caster (or Clemcy in a bad mood sdlghdf) decides to planeshift someone to get them out of the way.

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Losing a tail:

During certain plot events, Spire casters might be forced to hop through a fairly rapid sequence of teleportations to different realms in an effort to keep someone from tracking directly back to the Spire.

Needless to say it’s a bit draining, and can result in mistakes -- or in the caster simply running out of energy and being forced to rest before they'd intended!

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Malfunctioning equipment:

Some of the Spire’s engineers are a little, uh, reckless. Sometimes folk get caught in the crossfire. :')

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Others to be added as I think of them!